A hiatus to be reckoned with

It is obvious that writing down what you are experiencing is a true commitment, since there are no obligations to report to the world or to your future self what has happened throughout a journey that may or may not have changed your viewpoint of the world (even to marginally recall that without written records). I indeed have failed myself, not only for being undevoted to writing my mind, but also for having been so self-insistent on the subject that might have just led to a disappointing sentiment.


Buenos Aires, Lima, Paris as I have experienced them have consequentially fallen out of the face of the Earth, from the memory of human civilization that has always confied in the foreverness of pen and paper, and where my secretive cerebral imageries will eventually fly away into the dust of oblivion. I don't expect myself to make amends by excavating my memories for interesting topics but one can do it by repenting. Copenhagen lacks just one thing that will also be its advantage and to my advantage. For the season it presumes a solitary world of unhappy beings in the frozen air and on frozen streets. Much unlike the constant preoccupation to enjoy the sun, the parties and hustlebustle that have succesfully driven me away from my personal goals of traveljournaling in South America, or even the family presence in Paris that keep me filled with contentment,...well there are these two things Copenhagen don't have momentarily. And so I am driven back into my own shell and the usual habit of contemplation of all sorts. I think about the icy roads and the foggy nights. I think about my solitary search and my desperation for something stable while the idea of home is still intimidating.


It is not to say the dullness of the Scandinavian winter inspires my determination, which happens to come off pretty ironic. I think it is a perfect opportunity for a rebirth. For a step back from the voyeurist habit that I have unfortunately acquired. It is probably time for me to be where a year ago I would see myself right now, in the present tense: somewhere bewildering...


Okay, I am not made for academia. I don't really write beautiful poems or make novelistic proses while analyzing a subject with a professional stance, either as an occupation or an inspiration. Neither can I transform my daily routines and usual discoveries into suprisingly magical posts that can show off the highlights of my lucky existence. Though, I wish I could. So this manifesto is not even close to a self-pact of blogging again but let's see how the days take me.


Que vuelva mi tremor... y que renazca mi vigor...
y que las letras sean escritas tal como tu las imaginabas

Hey host mom!

Hola Laura,

Recién tuvimos una discusión más o menos agravada. La resolví bien y ahora todo está tranquilo pero hay muchas cosas que quiero que sepas sobre esta señora. Realmente, no creo que sea bueno el ambiente de esta familia, y que no le manden más estudiantes en el futuro. También, espero que este comentario sea confidencial entre nosotros ya que me voy pronto y no quiero más problemas con ella.

Una noche, me desvelé para escribir y comí unas galletitas (con la intención de decirselo en la mañana).En la mañana, entró re enojada y calentada y me echó toda su frustración con unas amenazas. Le pedí perdón por las galletitas y le dije que ya iba a hacer las compras. Pero no paró ahí. Siguió acusándome de haberle robado el polvo de café, la leche, el jugo, el polvo de sopa, entre muchas muchas otras cosas. Me quedé sin palabra cuando llegó a amenazarme con llamar IFSA para quitarme la beca y denunciarme que soy ladrón. No te cuento los detalles más pequeños cuando mencionó que ya que era vietnamita, le hice tener la generalización que todos le robaríamos igual, hasta algunos comentarios agravados de lo extranjero mío, mi virtud e inteligencia.

Ahora, te cuento mi parte de la historia. NUNCA toqué el café, o la sopa ni nada. La única cosa fue la leche que le agregaba unas gotas al café porque me gustaba con más leche. Al respecto, habitualmente yo compraba cartones de leche para reponer. Entiendo lo de las galletitas porque debería haberle dejado una notita aunque hayan sido solo 2 3 que comí. Pero lo que me frustró y ofendió muchísimo fue su predisposición a atribuir toda su sospecha a mí sin habermelo comprobado. En cambio lo que hizo fue esconder la leche, el café, etc. en la casa de un vecino para que yo no los tocase desde hace mucho tiempo. Así que por un tiempo, estuve viviendo con una persona que estaba convencida de que yo le robaba. Además cuando nos discutimos, dijo que me faltaba avisarselo (esto en realidad sólo es para el caso de las galletitas que había pasado muy tarde en la noche anterior) Pero es ella tambien la que necesitaba afrontarme con su sospecha (muy pero muy falsa) antes de juzgar mi personalidad y inteligencia, y comportarse de una manera muy infantil sin la capacidad de la comunicación civil. Al final, la discusión y la tensión se basan sólo en unas gotas de leche, unas galletitas y un montón de prejuicio y presuposiciones equivocadas. 

Me pregunto qué en este mundo puede hacer que una persona, además de tacaña, sea tan irracional y miserable. Y que no me dé más de su hipocresia de que soy parte de la familia, porque en una familia según mi concepto por lo menos, no nos insultamos tan gravemente por unas galletitas, sino que nos hablamos de lo que pensamos.  La verdad que nunca sentí cómodo estar en la casa porque tengo mi propia zona muy chiquita y un dormitorio del tamaño de su baño,... más el hecho de que todo lo que haga, me juzga y lo atribuye a que soy extranjero, y sobre todo vietnamita (o asiático, ya que dudo que pueda distinguirlos) 

Ella hasta quiso darme un sermón de que soy embajador de mi cultura y tengo que portarme bien etc. sin darse cuenta de que ella ya me dio una impresión muy muy mala de los argentinos: sentenciosos, poco razonables, tacaños, pretenciosos y poco acogedores, (o hasta racistas)... Sé que no es la verdad porque yo no generalizo pero fijate en esto y tené comprensión de mis sentimientos. De hecho, me tuvo desprecio cuando por primera vez me vine a la mesa descalzado (es la costumbre de quitarnos los zapatos al entrar una casa, no lo aceptó hasta cuando me referí a los japoneses, y luego le fascinó como algo muy cultural ....que doble moral pésima!! por mi parte, me acostumbré a su manera igual porque a mí no me importaba para nada). También cuando no sé usar los cubiertos, los platos, las servilletas "a lo inglés" o francés o lo que sea, siento su desprecio que soy mal educado. Vivir con ella es lo peor, porque me juzga todo el tiempo.  

Disculpame, porque entiendo que es un mail larguísimo. Esto no es una denuncia pero tan sólo quiero que IFSA lo sepa y es mi propia opinión que esta señora no puede ser madre afitriona más. Soy una persona que sabe aguantar mucho y hablar tranquilamente para resolver problemas, pero no quiero que otros estudiantes sufran bajo su régimen de organización que carece de una interacción familiar más cariñosa, comprensiva e inclusiva. Quiero enfatizar que esto sea confidencial y que no se lo comparta con ella. No deseo más problemas que ya hay.

Gracias por tu atención

Que tengas un buen fin de semana

Abrazos,

Shaun H. (Huan Hoang)

 

 

BA - Rosarian Recapitulationism (el recapitulacionismo rosarino)

Yes, I have adopted this word to describe my blogging behavior... Never on the day of... but here it goes... From the last post what's new is Fuerza Bruta and trip to Rosario! Oh... and braces :-|

Fuerza Bruta was quite a party actually, not much of a show. I would have liked for performance then interval dance parties (which nonetheless were awesome!) but the night was fun. I wish I was wasted but had fun anyway... :D Overall it was a visual pleasure and the crowd involvement was unexpectedly fun...

Rosario trip was also a deserving vacation where we got to eat at THE trendiest restaurant in my life! It came out about almost AR$200 (or only $50) per person (very expensive for Argentine standard) and did I say it was excellent?! Everything was perfect. From the appetizer of sweetbread with the most delicious tomato ever, to the bife with carrots, and the divine dessert which should not even be named for its unfathomable greatness! The city otherwise was a rather sleepy town, maybe because we came during the weekend. It's a very relaxing environment although I wouldn't live there. I prefer Buenos Aires always... The final stressing point of this trip was the sleeping accomodation, on the bus and in the hotel. EXCELLENT! No other words... If you can stretch your bus seat to a 150 degree bed, THAT'S life. And if your hotel bad can fit about 3 4 people like you. THAT'S life. It was pretty sad when I got back home to Buenos Aires and miserably looking at my tiny bunk bed and squeaks like crazy... Hmmm...

Otherwise, I have a lot a lot a lot on my mind right now including the fact that I can't speak right for shit and very frustrated... I'm just that type of person that gets neurotic about everything, and then when they're all set and done, I would go beserk yet again because of hindsight regrets and stuff like that. It's becoming bad. I'm very uncomfortable in my own body right now it sucks but it will pass hopefully I can't stand another day. Oh and I got a pimple, thanks a lot to all nighter and stress. I know it seems like I make it sound harder than it is, everything. But in fact, I am peversely proud that I take weird initiatives in my life that screw me over, ...and it is harder... really. My Danish permit delay hasn't progressed much and the French one has to wait till the end of October or so... And I don't even want to talk about Uruguayan visa, shake my head for real... What's really getting me going these days is the Iguazu trip at the end of this week! I'm dying to get out of the city once more to somewhere pretty... Hope the braces won't ruin it. And if they bother me, I need the vacation anyway ... :-/ Peace out yo, I'm salivating too much these days it's not even funny T_T

BA - Let him be god!

I am not sure what I'm refering too but I feel very inspired these days...
First of all thanks  to the Yanni's Concert, I feel muscially REJUVENATED!!!

Isn't his hair great!? Don't you want to touch it?

All the love! I have been listening to your music since I was a sevvie and almost a decade later I get to see the concert! No one actually has any idea la emoción con que yo cargaba, witnessing what has been flowing through my head for years to be realized on stage in front of my own eyes! And it's not just Yanni. It's Samvel Yervinyan with his magical fingers turning the existence of the violin from being the product of a purely European hegemony into a soul that weeps and sings from the shore of the melancholic Caspian Sea.


It was almost surreal when I you see your inspiration on stage. Well I have never really been to a concert of an artiste I was passionate about so I have never known the feeling. Now I do! Anyway, I appreciate BsAs for offering a ticket at such a good price, well although not the best seat, so that I could have this special night and stood outside for 2 hours and a half before the show to enter... It was all worth it. My life is partly complete! Don't you love it when your life is (partially) complete?!


Anyway as a side note, I was very inspired by the violin performance and decided that I couldn't stand this anymore and had to go to a violin shop to noodle(!) I found one on Sarmiento between Uruguay and something and, after a while looking clueless at the bunch, was offered to buy a cheapass violin that adds up to be about $80 with everything included. I wanted to say yes! Arrggg but errrr... Anyway I BROKE THE FUCKING E STRING. And was madly embarrased when everyone in the store was looking at me standing like a dumbass. Ok so followed by a lot of perdón but the owner was extremely nice and told me its all right and its very cheap! I didn't buy anything in the end (which added to the embarrassment)... I was bad but not insoportable.




  

BA - Well some people do get off with B&W movie

So I feel I had the priviledge to come watch (free!) this movie La Strada within a week-long homage to Federico Fellini, the famous Italian director. I seriously enjoyed it although I never thought I would be able to stand B&W movie, not to mention in Italian, with 2 layers of subtitles in French and Spanish (the Spanish one was like almost transparent :|) Oh I have to mention I was sitting on the last row with people's heads in the way. Well the place was not actually meant to be a movie theatre anyway. My butt was killing me after sitting on the hand rest for a long while so that I could see the words.


Anyway, it is about a young girl who follows a wandering circus guy around to be his assistant, and all their encounters along the way. She was apparently not very clever but very sentimental in a childish and naive way, while the guy is a typical macho dude who didn't give a damn and acted violently. And I should say it had a sad ending. I was pretty sad at the end but the butt pain was more overwhelming so nothing happened. Also it is a good lesson, if you decide you go see a sad movie without people seeing your butt face, hurt yourself! Yea... 


It is a pretty OK day otherwise, I wrote a 4-page essay (single-spaced!) in 4 hours about PASSION including very metaphysical Aristotelistic views for my internship (in Spanish!) so I was beaming with pride afterwards, except that I think the overall quality was rather shitty. Bleh!! Tomorrow will be rather interesting since I will have an Graffiti Excursion throughout the barrios of Buenos Aires. FOR THREE HOURS! Hope it's nice outside! Because it's been shitty this week, save for today. Photos to come! 


Upcoming Highlights:
- YANNI CONCERT (this Friday) ...aaaaarrrrgggghhhh!!!
- FUERZA BRUTA (next Friday) ...woooooooooo!!!
- DAVID BISBAL (Sat. Oct 16) ...eeeeeeeeeeee!!!


Also 
-Rosario Trip (Oct 2-3), and 
-Mendoza Trip (probable, tentative, not sure,... yea you got the idea)
-Iguazu Trip (ditto...)


I heart Buenos Aires... :)

BA - ¡Es una bomba!

Well it means two things: or it is super good, or it is super bad...

I think it is one of the few words that rival "sick" in English. And it is basically what happens when you order PASTA and SUBMARINO together. For me it is not that strange. But people, woo... do they stare...! It's all good, I switched to a COCA instead... : (

So did I mention the Argentina vs. Spain match I went to... It was my first football match ever, and I'm from a live-football, sleep-football country Vietnam... For shame... Well it was really super-worth it!! I learned chants and for real will start randomly singing it from now on. And GO MESSI!!! (p.s. really hard to find Messi's umber 10 shirt for my brother after the match... Well not when he freaking scored the first goal and got the game all crazayyy...) ^___^ Good day anyway...

Sooooy argentino, es un sentimiento no puedo parar, 

Ole ole ole, ole ole ole OLA, 

Ole ole ole cada dia te quiero mas...

http://www.fanchants.com/football-songs/argentina-chants/lo-argentina/

Apart from this huge event, life goes on, with a little twist everyday. Things are definitely getting pretty much busy, seems like I do not have enough time for anything! Plus my decision to have some orthodontic work done which takes a huge amount of my worrying mind, probably not even until the beginning of October... And money, ooooo dear money, how I want thy love today...

Oh yea, one hightlight this week was also the play "La omision de la familia Coleman" Excellent! I enjoyed every second of it and I was glad I understood pretty well the story line. It was a mixture of dark humor and tragedy. A story of a family who cannot stand each other and throughout the play seems like any minute the imbalance is going to break loose. The end was heart-breakingly cruel which was  It was really intense the way they interact, feels like they could have had a lynch mob at any moment. If you could seek out a ticket for this. GO WATCH IT NOW! One of the best of Argentine threater these years. And Lautaro Perotti (Marito) and Gonzalo Ruiz (Hernan) and is hmmm... quite Argentinely attractive.

Two last things that made the week complete were MEXICAN NIGHT with da peeps, and FERIA DE MATADEROS. After that, I seriously genuinely wish that I have my own place here. I would be the most awesome scenario everrrrr!!!! Party all dayyyyyyy!!!

And please weather!!! Keep yourself together... YOU SUCK THESE DAYS!!!

BA - Self-frustration!

With such a horrible habit of not updating blogs regularly I miss out on interesting stuff that I want myself to remember. And not that anyone else reads this :D


Officially a month since I landed and the city feels right... Still endless in need of exploring but it is just so strange that I can never find the time. More specifically, I want to go back to where I found Pump It Up and do my stuff! I want to eat extravagantly everywhere I go! I want to go to wierd places! I want to meet more people! Truth is I feel sometimes I get so warpped up in "study" and hanging out with IFSA friends (and sleeping, and being neurotic about the future) that I forget to take advantage of the present, the very opportunity that brought me here against all unlikely odds. Yea I had that 15-min talk with host mom the other day when she asked me about the scholarship + the fact that I sleep a lot. I then realized how lucky I am to be here. And all I can think about all day is all the visas, all the homework, and taking advantage of low-cost medical assistance. All that! I need a resolution. And I have 3 more months to repent.


Well, I think the first step is to wake up at 9am everyday! Do stuff that matters (?)