Three months...

It has been three months now since I arrived in Buenos Aires, so I had to leave the country to renew my entry visa...

Excellent excuse to visit the landlords of my apartment, Rosita and Ovidio, in their farm in Uruguay, near the awkardly Swiss town of Colonia Valdense...Colonia is probably the most visited town by foreigners living in Buenos Aires who need to cross a border for visa-purposes...just hop into the buquebus ferry, and one hour later you´re in Uruguay!

So if you´ve seen the pictures of my apartment, you will no doubt understand that this old farmhouse has been restored with exquisite taste by Rosita, one of the most creative and giving souls I have ever encountered! Good vibes, nice family atmosphere with their 2 little blond angels Ovidito and Beltran and Malingo the little dog, and the real outdoors..so nice to leave the city for a weekend! Even though the wheather was not really playing along, I managed to accompany Ovidio and Beltran to feed the 60 calves - one of which is tenderly called the "crazy calf" and gave rise to some discussion between Ovidio and Rosita as Ovidio has grown a special attachment and does not want to sell his beloved friend; Violeta the sheep who thinks she´s a dog; their two horses; the geese...Driving their truck to the neighbours to pluck kaki (fruits) from the trees with the kids...Long discussions about the act of creation and life over lunch and dinner...Watching a family movie with the kids...Playing football on the beach 20 minutes from their house...Food for the soul with this beautiful family! I surely will be back!
https://picasaweb.google.com/rose.vervenne/ColoniaOvidioYRosita?authkey=Gv1sRgCP_ElayzmbPBhwE#

Saturday Night Live...

A new Saturday night ritual has come to life here in Buenos Aires: cooking nights with my gourmet friends Luis, Angel and Milton! Always a surprise what they will be cooking, as the menu depends on whatever fresh produce they come across in the Chinese neighbourhood! And for some reason, even the most basic dish reaches another, spectacular level with Milton and Angel, like the guacamole, mixed with some South African peppadew "sweet and picante" peppers - brought to me by my colleague Charlotte during her short holidays in Buenos Aires...

The menu this time ensured fully operational saliva glands again:
- Fresh guacamole on heated chicharron bread (fried pork rinds)
- Consome of chicken with milk piglet
- Pate of chicken wings with mushrooms
- Chickpea stew with beef
- Entrecote with duo of potato and leek creme and glazed peppadews with garlic
- Pure hot cocoa foam with cinnamon - imported and prepared the traditional way by my Colombian friends Marcela and Carlos, who demonstrated some salsa steps as well...

And the best part about hosting these dinners at my place, is that I get to keep the leftovers...hehe!
I am thinking now about a Belgian-Colombian specialties nights with Marcela and Carlos, so any suggestions of Belgian dishes are welcome!

Some more pics of our dinner via the link below! Buen provecho!

https://picasaweb.google.com/rose.vervenne/CenaCastillo_7DeMayo?authkey=Gv1sRgCIz38ab5w8nrsgE#

Zeg het in het Afrikaans...

Today in the online Belgian newspaper, the presentation of ANNA, the first dictionary Afrikaans - Dutch! Especially for my friends in South Africa and Belgium, take the test...

"In het Antwerpse provinciehuis is woensdagavond ANNA, het eerste groot woordenboek Afrikaans-Nederlands, aan het publiek voorgesteld. Het Afrikaans is de aan het Nederlands verwante taal die in grote delen van Zuid-Afrika en Namibië wordt gesproken. Het woordenboek telt liefst 2.232 pagina's en 60.000 trefwoorden.

Afrikaans is een relatief jonge taal die zich sinds de 17de eeuw, toen Nederlanders massaal naar Zuid-Afrika trokken, geleidelijk losmaakte van het officiële Nederlands en een eigen karakter kreeg. Het spreekt bij veel Nederlandstaligen tot de verbeelding omdat ze het vrij goed kunnen begrijpen. Maar het zijn vooral de originele beeldende woorden en uitdrukkingen, zoals 'moltrein' (metro) of 'blokkiesvloer' (parket), die ons aanspreken."

Hoe goed is jouw kennis van het Afrikaans? Doe de test...
http://www.standaard.be/extra/afrikaans

...Party!

My friends know how much I love a good party, and even more so to throw a party! So, following my new philosophy, I decided to just set the date for my "Fiesta de inauguracion y cumpleanos", Saturday the 16th, and hope for the best! The big question for me was off course, how many people would show up, and, unlike Kate or now Catherine the Duchess of Cambridge, my biggest nightmare was not to show up naked at my own wedding, but rather to have only three or four people attending in this huge apartment of mine, watching the clock to see at what time it would be polite enough to disappear from a boring non-event... 

It turns out, twenty-five (25!) people showed up at my party - way more than at my farewell party in Johannesburg ;-) No, I didn't have to hand out flyers stating "booze for free" on the streets, but with some weird stroke of luck (or not), I made some new friends the Saturday before, at another birthday party - the first party I was invited to! Santiago, who studied anthropology with my friend Dorothy in London, invited me to his 50th birthday party in his house in Hurlingham, outside of the city. He arranged a ride for me with Luis and Angel, two of his old schoolmates, and our 1-hour drive including me having to read a map to get back on track, turned out to be quite some fun! And somehow that night, I was in an extremely great form, which means that I ended up entertaining Luis, Angel, Marcela and Carlos - a Colombian couple - with my stories about my great country Belgium, and so for hours tears were rolling from laughter, and we ended up closing the party without even noticing...Luis and Angel are gourmets, and so they offered to prepare the food for my party. So the next Saturday, Luis invited me for lunch at his house with this gourmet crew, just 5 blocks from my place, and then my new friends moved to my place for the party! Milton, part of the crew, is the creative chef of one of Buenos Aires' best restaurants (http://www.chilaweb.com.ar/), and he ended up cooking gourmet food all night for my guests, including specials for my three vegetarian friends! A real show in the open plan kitchen and living / party room, as you can judge from the pictures! We had a special chickpea stew, a huge fresh octopus a la plancha, a spectacular peruvian dish called "Tacu Tacu", and, especially for me, a pot of mussels in white wine, as I told them the weekend before that this is one of Belgium's specialties...I closed the door around 4.00 for my last guests after tea and cake, with a big smile on my face...And have since then been invited to the weekly informal gourmet cooking gatherings which turn out to be a lot of fun...

You'll find more pictures of my party and friends on the link below!

https://picasaweb.google.com/rose.vervenne/BirthdayEnBuenosAires?authkey=Gv1sRgCN-Uv_fP5LbRxQE#



Birthday...

If you read this post and haven't wished me a happy birthday yet, it means that, yes - you missed a very important date!!! April 12th was just a regular Tuesday, actually a really busy Tuesday. I started my day with a meeting out of the office, and when I finally arrived at the office, Luciana and the guys from the foundation surprised me with a whole bunch of "facturas" - a term used for croissants and other morning (and afternoon!) pastries! Plus a HUGE box of artesenal chocolates - they must have picked up on my chocolate withdrawal symptoms...And then an even bigger bouquet of flowers and a bottle of champagne from my friend Heloise were delivered at the office...making quite an impression on the girls at reception - damned, I should have sticked to the "mysterious admiror" story!

All these attentions were so sweet...But still, I didn't have any plans for the night, so ended up working until 20.00 (yes, I know), when Alexander - a consultant with Dutch roots working on the same floor - decided that it was a NO GO for me to just sit at home by myself on such a day, and having been an expat himself, he invited me for dinner with his Greek wife in my favourite restaurant Petanque, a French brasserie close to my home, where I had an awesome Steak Tartare with frietjes and mayonaise, followed by a birthday cake with a candle I had to blow out and a glass of champagne! So, even though I had nothing planned, it turned out to be quite an awesome day...And the PARTY on Saturday was even better...as you'll read in my next post!

Fines de Semana

I used to look forward to the weekends, but here in Buenos Aires, the weekends or fines de semana are the most difficult times...Not just because I've ended up working most of the past weekends, actually more the contrary. The thought of spending 48 hours by myself, having to start conversations in shops or buses just to check that my voice is still working, is rather daunting...And this extra-long Easter Weekend is probably even worse...I called, texted, emailed, the few people I know, but they were either away on holiday, invited to family dinners, or just not answering...A last minute flight of the capital to San Antonio de Areco also came to an end due to fully booked hotels - that is, the few which still had some vacancies, did not want to reserve the room for me, as I required the room for only 1 night, and just for 1 person...Yes, as you can imagine, not exactly the best way to cure loneliness. But as always, after two minor days, I woke up today, the sun was shining, and I left the house with one of my two allies in these moments...my camera! My other ally - my piano - is waiting for me now, before I leave to have dinner at Luis' house - a new friend you'll read more about in my next post! All is good again in Buenos Aires...Beso

Milongas

I am officially in love! It turns out the Buenos Ayres Club (http://www.buenosayresclub.com/) is just two blocks away from my house - so I decided to check it out last night. Tango classes at 21.00, and the real milonga (a place or event where tango or milonga is danced) with live orchestra at 23.00.

So much fun! About 30 people showed up for the class, a mix of tourists and Argentines. Laura and the male teacher referred to as "El Gato" (the cat) led us through some stretches, basic postures, walking with the tango attitude, and some basic steps, which we practiced alone or in couples, changing partner with every exercise.

While waiting for the doors to open, I met Lucas, Porteno who speaks a very good French! We were joined by his three colleagues for the milonga, which totally filled up with local tango aficionados. Beautiful thirty- and fourtysomething people, some dressed up, others casually hip, difficult to keep our eyes of the sensual but strictly professional body communication between the pairs, so full of tension and unfulfilled attraction. And then the live music, performed by the 10-headed La Orquesta Tipica El Afronte, wauw! We quickly spotted our favourite figures on the dance floor: Crocodile Dundee without the hat; the girl with the superb red-heeled tango shoes; Woody Allen in Crocs; and then, the main cause of animation, laughter and entertainment at our table: the lambada girl, moving her hips way too much for a classical tango that I decided that she is officially inventing a new dance - the tangada. The author of this piece was also asked a couple of times on the dancefloor, and since according to etiquette you can't really refuse, I managed to stammer a couple of words to indicate that I am really really really a beginner. Being led over the dancefloor is pure magic! The Dj took over at the end, and was acclaimed for the typical Folklore songs from the North which stirred a type of inline dancing from the locals, known as Chacarera. What a beautiful night! I am officially in love with tango!