Fairs, Phones, and Houses (Please excuse the funky formating, technical difficulties)

Whew, tell you what, it has been a pleasant couple of Argentine weeks since I wrote on my blog. It’s now possible for people to visit my casita (little house) and to call my cellphone (which is to say I acquired both).
The house is exactly what I envisioned: my own little structure behind an Argentine family’s house. This way we can visit and when I like I disappear into the silly, joyous solitude of LSAT studies and sautéed vegetables.
On brown rice.
A lot of stuff has happened, in addition to finding a place to live: Darby’s birthday, my dad’s
birthday, Brad’s birthday (my friend, Dad, brother(-in-law), respectively), Easter, a lot of hours of yoga and LSAT study. In fact, it might be best to relate the last two weeks in pictures.
Since I came to Argentina, the Pope came out against condoms. I’m happy to say that even though the Pope had it all wrong, the graffiti in Resistencia has it right. Amen.
This is a picture of the outside of my professor’s house in Corrientes.
This is his cat, “La Habladora,” or the talker. She’s very talkative.

On the 15th, a co-worker from my high school drove me to her mother’s house. We visited, and I found a new friend in Jacob from Colorado (he’s here on a Lutheran Church program); he and I drank the famous Argentine tea, yierba mate, and then Irma’s whole family had dinner. Irma is the landlord, the woman on the end, and her daughter Laura (3rd from left) is one of the English teachers with whom I work. I have been at so many dinners like this, with instantly warm and inviting Argentine families. I finally found the continent where folks are ever more immediately sociable than me!

So this picture was taken on the day that the Britos and I first met, but on the 17th, Good Friday, I moved in with them in Resistencia. They invited me to live with them until I moved into my own little house on the… 16th! Then they invited me to live with them until November. Ha! They’re great, and their house (which has within it two guitars and a grand piano) is perfect. When it comes to the topic of where I ought to live, I seem to be stuck between a swimming hole and a Beth Hawkins cheese pizza. That is, two wonderful options.

On Easter, the Britos family and I went to Mass together, and next to a pew was this prayer, appropriate for my LSAT studies: “Test Prayer: Our God, Good Father, lift my heart via San Ignacio who knew that hours of study, of solitude, of uncertainty, working and asking alms for power to keep going toward his dream. In the hands of your Spirit I put my decisions and my responsibilities. Please do not let me be daunted by the difficulties. I ask that your Holy Spirit illumine the Law School Admissions Test. Give me the grace of strength, of intelligence, of clarity and of friendship. I ask this in the name of our savior, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” Amen!

This is was the view from my spot on the pew.

This preceptora (teacher’s aide) and I became buddies on the first day of school when she gracefully invaded my personal space and looked down her nose and asked that I consider wearing blank white tee shirts instead of any other kind of shirt and shoes instead of sandals. I asked my boss professor what he thought, and he said that as an ambassador of U.S. culture it is best if I dress how I would dress in the US. So I did that for the next couple of weeks, but on Thursday I bought some tennis shoes and on Friday I got a white tee shirt. Ha! Her powers worked! (Once I’m out of the high school and into the college maybe I’ll transform anew into a typical(ly-clothed) US youth.) We're friends now, especially following this, our chance meeting at mass.

It’s not too unlike the Danville United Methodist Church.

Mariam Britos, 19, accounting major, and I
took a picture outside the church.

After mass, we hit the farmer’s market.

Then I studied for the LSAT by reading (and maybe this was the day I finished it…) The Bramble Bush. The book is edited by my mentor, Dr. Stephen Sheppard. It was a mostly awesome, entertaining and enlightening read, and it will provide a lot of information for my application essays come September.

That night we hit the Paseo de Artesanos, or Artisan’s Walk. It was filled with people and neat frivolities. Among them was a great bracelet and a mate. A mate is the container from which the afore mentioned yierba mate (a sort of herbal tea that many Argentines drink) is sucked through a bombilla (a straw, and in the case of yierba mate, a metal one).

In addition to a mate, a cell phone, a house, a white tee shirt, and shoes, I also found a relatively authentic Argentine national jersey. The real thing is over US$50, but this one was AR$55, 55 pesos, or (55/3.5-ish) US$15.

So check it out: the inside is glass, right? And the straw says Argentina!

One of the great things about doing yoga at the Britos house is their patio. Here are a few pictures from that patio.

This one is a sneakily-taken photo of their dog whose name always escapes me. They also have a wise, brave turtle (not pictured).

Switching to the patio at my new house, we have another dog whose name I do remember: Homero. You can see him above, and my new abode below. You can kind of get an idea that their patio is equally beautiful. Every time I walk home I smell wonderful flowers, and they always catch me by surprise.

And this is my favorite dish, quiveve. Raquel González de Britos, like the dish, comes from Paraguay and she taught me to make it last week. That is brown rice in front.

That's a wrap for now, family and friends. I hope you will take a moment and sign this petition and if you're interested check out a very well made video at http://www.walmartworkersforchange.org/index.php/pages/articles/our_chance_to_change_walmart . Also, below is a letter I wrote to Senator Lincoln, bless her heart. You might give her a call, too, if you've got the time.

April 15, 2009

Senator Lincoln,
President Obama’s ambitious policy agenda requires a lot of financial support, and some of it needs to come from the estate tax or as Republicans dubbed it some years ago, the "death tax."
I have been a life-long Democrat, active in every election since 2000. Last fall I made calls for President Obama to Hispanic voters in swing states while traveling through Europe. I am an active, passionate (and bilingual) Democrat. That said, I have not been disappointed in you for a few years, but if you continue to push for an even higher threshold for the estate tax, I will not only be disappointed, I’ll be unable to vote for you again.
A new analysis by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center estimated that only 100 farms and small businesses in the entire country would be subject to the estate tax under Mr. Obama’s plan, a number that shrinks to 40 under the proposal you sponsored with Jon Kyl of Arizona, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate. A subsequent analysis by the center raised the prospect that there may be no farms or small businesses in Arkansas vulnerable to the tax.
Your effort to spare the wealthy is particularly ill timed considering the economic situation. If this Republican-backed plan is approved, it could deprive Mr. Obama of about $100 billion for his initiatives on health care, energy and education when alternative sources of revenue are already dwindling. A proposal by President Obama would leave it at current levels, affecting only estates valued at more than $3.5 million for individuals and $7 million for couples. You would actually increase the value of estates exempt from the tax above the level backed by Mr. Obama (to $5 million for individuals and $10 million for couples) and have a cut in the maximum tax rate (to 35 percent from the current 45 percent).
I have told all of my friends about this, including my 1100+ Facebook friends, and I will only continue to spread the word.
President Obama helped us access and realize the participatory power we have in our great country. Now that power needs to be utilized against you.
Because Lord knows we need $100 billion for our uninsured children and their schools. Because Lord knows it is more than a drop in the bucket.

Sincerely,
Stephen Coger
Fulbright Scholar (currently in Northern Argentina working on my Fulbright)

OK, so maybe that was a downer of a letter, but this photo of my tabletop is uplifting; those are mandarin oranges, alongside a crystal from Darby and another (Ganges-dunked) crystal from Kazan and a ssswwweeett picture of Jesus from church.