We’re in the heat of the summer and even though bikini season is in full swing here in Argentina and Uruguay, we’ve got our eyes on the future in 2009.  But that doesn’t mean that 2008 won’t come back to haunt us so that’s why I’m here to remind us of the best and worst of 2008 so we can take from the good things and learn from the past so that we don’t let history repeat itself.

BEST OF BA 2008

Democrats Abroad Debate Parties
It was great to see people of all nationalities come together to cheer on the dems in the debates.  Great feats of organization, hand holding, tears of joy, etc etc.

Hair Flowers
Nothing says, “I’m a passionate woman who may have just come from a Latin country” like a flower in your hair.  These little trendy accessories have been around since the Spanish Inquisition however, they’re gaining in popularity again.  Ole!

That perfect little summer dress - in so many shapes and sizes.
What goes better with your little flower in hair accessory than a lovely lazy summer dress.  2008 saw so many designers reinventing that simple dress - some even went very sassy.  Luckily, the right one is out there for anyone who visits this city in the next few months!

Global Awareness
So it’s catching on…earlier this year I reported on the passing of the law for the province of Buenos Aires to start banning the plastic bag. It’s getting easier to see sustainable design here in BA - although we have a long long way to go here, something is better than nothing. I wholeheartedly give my blessing to the continued success of this trend in BA.

Google Maps Reach Argentina
Just a few months ago if you typed in an address in Google Maps for something in Buenos Aires, you would see a big blank page.  Finally, they got the hint and even put in the directions of the streets.  Above and Beyond the call.  Thanks! Google Maps.

WORST OF BA 2008

Poopypants!
Okay, I have to admit, I’ve been seeing these since I first moved here, but I just don’t know how this trend hasn’t stopped.  Seriously peeps, can we not move on?  Friends don’t let other friends wear poopypants.  It’s just not right.

poop! poop!

Fights with the Campo
Mid-year, President Christina took on farmers as they fought for their rights and taxes. This led to the farmers to blockade major routes and stop products from getting to Buenos Aires city.  Shops were without meat, vegetables, low on flours, sugars and other products that come from outside of the capital. Let’s not do this again.

Spare some change?
In the last few years, Argentina (not only BA) has had some problems with spare change - mainly - there isn’t any.  From small shops to large firms, banks and everyone but the bus companies - everyone’s having trouble finding monedas.  But with this economy’s ups and downs it’s worthy to note that the change isn’t even worth the amount of money that it takes to print.

Fires in Ushuaia
Surprisingly, very little notice was given this year to a tragedy at the southernmost city in the world.  Literally hundreds of hectares of forestland have incinerated in the past month due to raging fires in Patagonia.

Visa Fees Announcement for Yanquis
Even though it’s starting in 2009, looks like the Kirchner camp is trying to make a few bucks by playing the reciprocity card.  As of March, 2009, countries that charge a visa application fee will be reciporically charged upon entering the country.  This means you, United States. lookie.

This week, Tuesdays with Dorie turned one years old!  (Yah!) And participating in this week’s TWD is none other than.. Dorie herself!  (So it really is a special Tuesday with Dorie!).  She chose the French Pear Tart - a tart with an almond base, meaning very little flower (apart from the crust) and lots and lots and lots of good flavor.

It’s one of those recipes that I probably would have passed up just for the fact that apart from the berry fruity tart that I made a few months ago, I really don’t like them much.  Aside from that, there were a few things that I found difficult to reproduce - for example, the recipe for the dough of the pie shell relies heavily on having a food processor.  Sad to say, but I’ve never owned one and highly doubt that I could afford one here in BA since the good ones (ahem Phillips) are rediculously expensive.

To make the filling, instructions said again to use a food processor or a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment but the butter wasn’t softening and getting creamy with the sugar, so I just used the paddle attachment while making the batter.  It worked much much better.

I also really couldn’t figure out what she was talking about with how to decorate the pears on the cake (that’s just my inexperience talking) but I invented something pretty anyway. 

In the end, the tart was a great success.  Javier could hardly wait for me to take it out of the oven, the crust came out perfectly, and in the end, it lasted less than two days.  It was eaten right out of the oven and e’er so slightly cooled off, for breakfast, with cream, and dessert with ice cream that Javier’s mother brought over.  Every way was a good way to eat this tart.

I’ll definitely do it again.

For you my dear readers. Merry Christmas!

So this week’s TWD is coming a little late… Last Saturday I made the sugar cookies for this coming Tuesday’s TWD, but never had a chance to actually make the post on Tuesday. Things really are a bit hectic this month with so much going on…

In any case, I decided to use some shredded coconut in the sugar cookies and top it with a simple lemon icing - and the result? PURE HEAVEN in my mouth! About 50 cookies - didn’t even last two days in my house!

It’s my buddy Diego’s sister’s birthday so I’m making a double batch this afternoon and bringing some to the party tonight.

**UPDATE: The meeting has been cancelled due to the fact that everyone in the Executive Committee has resigned.

One of the juicy drama stories that Anna and I were following this week has been a petty squabble brought about by four people on the executive committee at the Democrats Abroad Argentina.  They want to kick the chairman out.

Their reasons? He showed up late to set up computers for an event and that he’s not a good event organizer.  He apparently pissed someone off because he didn’t publish an essay on the website written by one of these executive members.  This essay included some words in English that sounded too much like the derogatory words used in the fights with the farmers here.  The person in question would not change that one word and the essay was not published. Big surprise.  Now these executive committee members are crying that their freedom of speech was repressed.  But it just sounded like they didn’t care about how they come across to Argentines or Argentine-Americans who may read the article.

In order to stop this, you must go in person to Laura Atkins home at Austria 2660, 6th Floor, Recoleta on December 3rd, at 6pm. Bring your friends to stop this disaster. **Don’t show up.  Nobody will be there.

Mike worked so hard to set up Democrats Abroad Argentina over the last years, and it might all fall apart if we don’t go out and vote for him.  He helped us be a part of getting Obama elected, so now it’s time to help our local community organizer.

ANYWAY,  HERE’S WHERE THINGS GET WIERD ON THEIR END.

Then the funniest thing happened: Meghan Doran complained specifically that Mike would not give members of the Executive Committee the power to send emails out to the mailing list of the Democrats Abroad Argentina.  And now I’m receiving a slew of emails from the EC’s personal gmail accounts since a few weeks.  Somehow they stole my email address from the DAA and are spamming me with the same message over and over again. I’m beginning to think that Meghan Doran was drunk while she was doing this because I received the same email from her last night at 4:13, 4:19, 4:28 and 5:18 AM.  Do you think Mike maybe wanted to be able to send official statements from only one email address so that he could avoid something like this? (Is that drunk-spamming?)

I understand that this is probably her first major project since she graduated college. I understand that they worked hard to plan events for us members, and I understand that it’s a thankless job. But life is like that - once you’re outside of academia, things work differently and you don’t get a trip to South America paid for by mommy and daddy when you complete a major project.

Please let Meghan Doran and Emilia Ramirez know that it’s not nice to spam.  Here are their email addresses:
meghanmd@gmail.com
memiliar@gmail.com

By the way, remember how I won the t-shirt contest for the Dems Abroad? Maria Emilia Ramirez here was the one who mismanaged the printing of the t-shirts.  If it wasn’t for me speaking directly to the designers and having to redesign everything, that Buena Onda, Vote Obama t-shirt wouldn’t have been ready in time.  Plus, after all the work that I did for that - she CHARGED me for an extra t-shirt that I wanted for my assistant who helped create the t-shirt.  Since they marked it up so much, I’m just wondering where all the profits went…

Strategically speaking, they’re going to have a big image problem if they let Mike go, and they’re going to find it very hard to continue with their projects here because they will have lost the face of dems abroad and all the good PR that he does through his writing and his blog.

This past week my best friend from university came to visit me, so I’ve been on holiday.  Sorry for the late replies in email and lack of posting.  But now I’ve got a lot to catch up on.

Let me start off by saying that I played “tourist” in Buenos Aires all week, and even after living here for three years, I learned new things, met new people and above all, fell in love again with the city that I call home.

Even though we had unseasonably warm weather this week (heat index around 42 degrees celcius - 107 farenheit) and then the last two days flash flooding - we still managed to get out to enjoy Buenos Aires and stay in a few hours to cook up some lovely treats.

This is just a preview as I will definitely give more detail on this later - but one of the highlights of the week was invtenting a cupcake from a very very very awesome cake recipe.

Last night, Martin and I headed out to the second meeting of “Start-ups Buenos Aires” event organized by Jonathan Harada and Eric Northam.  It was held at the bar Carnal - which is close to home and gave me some extra added incentive to get the word out about this great project that I’m working on creating a classified real estate website. All in all, it was a nice time - meeting new and interesting people who came together to share their entrepeneurial experiences, network and understand more about growing businesses in Buenos Aires.

There were a lot of expats, and Martin and I basically found ourselves at a cozy table with a norwegian and two women originally from Iran who currently reside in Norway and are here trying to promote their new NGO.

One of these women, Rebecca, got a little hungry and ordered some food. Now she’s been travelling back and forth to Argentina for more than a year now, so everyone at the table pretty much assumed that she knew what she was doing when she ordered the Cesar Salad, but apparently, we were wrong.  See in Buenos Aires, it’s really hard to find a good Cesar Salad.  Probably the best one that I’ve ever tasted here was at the American-themed restaurant, Kansas on Libertador.

This one from Bar Carnal was pretty sad, though, and even though she complained, there was really no getting around the fact that it was lettuce, cheese, processed chicken and bread with a dollop of mayonaise and salt. All that for 30 pesos. Total rip off.  Pretty disgusting - as evidenced by the horrified look on Rebeccas face.