Today was a pretty good day. I had sent so many pairs of pants home and sent one to the cleaners, that I had few left, so I bought a pair that has removable legs. . More importantly, I walked to the Malba Museum. A beautiful museum and a wonderful presentation of South American political artists as well as some impressionists. At first I thought the museum was too small, but it helped me slow my pace. Often I feel I´ve rushed through because I wanted to see everything. Here I knew I´d get it all in.
I also went to the opera to see La Boheme. I was tired and it had been recommended that I could see the opera well from the nose bleed section because the theatre is small. I could see, but the bench was hard and after a long day, I was too tired so I left after the second act. The production was fine. I just wanted to experience the opera in Buenos Aires as I had in Sydney. It´s like Chinese food; I always try Chinese food in every country; I like to see how the native country influences the foreign cuisine.
Out of ignorance or memory malfunction, I´d thought the opera would be in French so that I wouldn´t need subtitles. It was in Italian with Spanish subtitles. It was a struggle reading Spanish so fast and also understand it.
On the bus on the way home, the bus driver´s ignoring my request that he let me know when we got to the corner I needed but knew I wouldn´t recognize, reminded me of something an Argentinian told me about a cultural quagmire (my word). She said that there is a prevalent attitude in Argentina (or she may have said Buenos Aires), that if something is expected even if it´s a law, the temptation is to do the opposite or something else. It´s as if it is expected that one have a chip on one´s shoulder. She expressed the common phrase in Spanish, but I didn´t write it down. The closest I could come to it was in Yiddish, tselochinike. Not a pretty cultural picture if it´s true. I haven´t ascertained that except when the driver ignored my simple request three times. I finally changed the street name and said it in an angrier tone. So I walked an extra two blocks, but still.
Perhaps if Ignacionr, who may be from Argentina, is still reading this poorly written blog, could comment on what I heard about Argentinians, it would help us understand this phenomena better.
An Argentinian pointed
