sábado, 19 de diciembre de 2009

Trip to my hometown

See the new picture? I am sitting at the bar of AeroMexico’s VIP lounge at Mexico City’s airport. Nice building, typical contemporary Mexican architecture, which means lots of gray concrete and small little windows, it reminded me of the Managuan Cathedral.

The organisation I work for suggested me getting a Dinner Club credit card, it has as wide travel insurance coverage and it provides access to many airport lounges. I am drinking now my second gin tonic, have you noticed? Many times I write my blog when having a second glass!)

I just converted my ham and cheese croissant (strange ham and yellow cheese) into a vegetarian variation by replacing the strange content with tomato and normal cheese. I love this VIP lunge: I have free internet access, lots of magazines and now, a third gin and tonic; by the way, when I drink a glass of gin and tonic, it reminds me of Maurizio a.k.a. BRTKLLR.

…pause…

I stopped writing this text for 26 hours, I am now in Chihuahua.

The plane arrived safely yesterday evening (I am afraid of flying). Chihuahua has an aggressive, dessert weather, not to be compared with the constant 30°C from tropical Managua. Here the sun goes down at 5 p.m. and temperature drastically sinks from 18°C to 5°C, meaning we have really chilly nights. In NIcaragua I really miss a cold winter…

I am driving my sister Tita to a Christmas party to Kenneth’s place (many of you know this legendary Chihuahuan guy who conquered many Europan girls who love Latinos). Afterwards I am going back to the airport to pick my brother Tomás, he’s arriving from Los Cabos, remember Jackie Brown?

Want to see some pics? Click here to see Mexico City´s Airport and here to see  Managua´s Cathedral

lunes, 14 de diciembre de 2009

I think I’m back OR I assure you this entry is better than the last two

Today is the first time I have a title for a blog entry before writing it. Meaning I know how to start this text and how to conclude it; in my present situation this is an achievement, believe me, I am everything but happy with my two last blog entries (but I love the new pic). I am sorry guys.

What I personally enjoy in my blogs is the comfortable melancholy and the funny tone of loneliness, I know this may sound kitsch, but we all know I usually write about things that I cannot change, about things that I have to get use to. I think it’s funny to write about the pleasure of eating of rice & beans every day, about the inexplicable love for cream-cheese sandwiches with banana chips and jalapeno peppers…and my weirdest feeling at present: missing sorrow.

Yesterday I felt lonely for the first time in 2 weeks, and it was great. I had a wonderful guest for the last fourteen days and I truly enjoyed every single minute of her visit. In fact, Kathrin was the first woman (not biologically-related) with whom I have spent more that 7 days in a row under the same roof and it was nice! Oh shit, it is sad to realise that I am 31 and I have never had the chance to go on vacations with a girlfriend for longer than 5 days…that may be another story…

Chatting and discussing with Kathrin for the last two weeks was great, and if it wasn’t for her, I would have never visited a single club in Managua. I think that Kathrin’s depart sharpened my feelings: I am currently having the time of my life writing my blog while having my second glass of Chardonnay (2007, Undurraga Estate, Valle Central - Chile) and I am like Han, solo.

That was it...I think I am back, oh yeah!

sábado, 12 de diciembre de 2009

The weekend is only starting

My best Nicaraguan friends visited me today, Katy (who is ten) and her five-year old brother Martin, they came to Managua along with their mother, the SOS village director from Estelí (if you are a regular reader of my blog you will remember Estelí as the city where I mainly subsisted, for a week or so, on cheese sandwiches).

We had a wonderful time: We went to a viewpoint to see the city and the huge Managua lake, then we went to play at the arcades, at noon - it was hot as hell - we visited Managua’s Metropolitan Cathedral (clarification: not because of religious issues, but because of its post-modern, minimalistic and child-friendly architecture), if you got curious, I have a photo album of the cathedral on facebook called “Nicaragua”.

At 1 p.m. we had lunch: Burger King for the children and Chinese food for the adults (big mistake, I only realised the Chinese food was bad until I had the plate in front of me). Those who know me well, know that I love cooking above everything. They also know I only prepare vegan/vegetarian food (although I do eat meat) and that I use less oil, salt and sugar when preparing it. Well, today I sent my “do-yourself-a-favour-eating-good-food philosophy” to hell. I wanted Katy and Martin to have a good time, and for them; having a good time means eating junk-food. As a matter of fact, Katy told me today, I quote: “today is a junk-food day and I love junk-food”. I have no guilty conscience for buying then non-healthy food since I know that they are regular fruit and vegetable eaters.

After describing the eating preferences of Katy and Martin, I have to list some personal culinary data: I did not chopped my first onion for self-consumption until I was 15, Innsbruck was the city where I first tried fresh tomatoes (it was weeks before turning 18) and only I tried papaya this summer.

As I wrote on my first blog entry, I came to Nicaragua to study how children and young people describe the life they value. One of the hypotheses I have, is that we adults no longer know what is important for a child. Many people (including myself) see childhood as a stage in human life in which people increase their body mass and height at unbelievable speed and acquire important knowledge for their future life; however Katy and Martin reminded me today that being a child is also living as such. Children love and hate things that may sound strange to adults, like hating garlic-bread and loving over-sweetened drinks (does the adjective “over-sweetened” exists at all?).

Well, today is Saturday and Kathrin is going back to Cuba in a couple of hours (with a valid tourist visa this time), Katy and Martin are asleep right now and I am writing something new for my blog. Usually, I try to write using a fixed narrative structure, but in my last entry, the one about the iPod and the Antennas, I violated this self-stated-canon and have now the feeling to go back to my rule and write down a conclusion…let’s try to summarise this blog-entry:

- Managua’s cathedral is a nice and friendly building (go to my facebook album)
- Junk-food is bad, but it makes children happy
- Junk-food is bad and it makes many adults unhappy
- Grown-ups cannot understand children because they are no longer children, they are adults
- Kathrin is leaving and I will miss the cool conversations with her and also talking in German

See you, have a nice day,
Oscar

sábado, 5 de diciembre de 2009

A fish soup, a Latin-music gig and the trip planned for tomorrow

I have the feeling that if you have an iPod you are automatically a poser…at least in Austria; down there, many people try to go against the iPod,-mainstream and use explicitly “non-apple” mobiles and mp3 players to hear their music, and music plays a significant role on today’s blog.

I am now hearing “Antennas” wearing headphones in order not to wake Kathrin up. I discovered this band thanks to my brother,Tomás; he sent me once an e-mail telling me about “a cool Swedish band playing in our favorite venue” (that's the P.M.K. in Innsbruck). I went there and enjoyed the concert; and met the band, nice guys by the way!
That night I borrowed money from Helmut, the concert-promoter, and bought two band cd’s at bargain price, one of the CD’s was for my brother, the other one was for me. Right now I am hearing the psychedelic song “sinners repent”.

I came back home about an hour ago; tonight I went out to see my first concert in Nicaragua. The gig was typically Latin: There were huge amounts of testosterone on the stage and only one female singer (7 percussionists, a bass player, two guitarists, a keyboarder and a sexy-heavy-weight-black-beauty as a singer). The best thing of the concert was the repeatedly use of the word “candela”, it really reminded me of my last gig with BRTKLLR - one keyboard, one mic and two drummers, that was a nice concert!

Before going to the concert tonight, we had dinner at a fish-restaurant, I tried one of the best soups ever: it was a huge plate with a whole a lobster in it, also a crab, fish pieces and plenty of garlic and clams, all this on a milky broth.

Tomorrow we leave for playa Madera near San Juan del Sur; I heard there are many surfers there, I hope I see none, I actually don’t like hippies - just as Hannes and Tomás ;-) By the way, I am writing this blog wearing my sunglasses and it is dark outside.

P.S. The album "feeling feline tonight" from Antennas is nice, cool and it helps you write down your ideas late at night - even if you are not sober ;-)

viernes, 27 de noviembre de 2009

I love solitary, I just hate the name

This week has been a heavy one: I interviewed 20 people and still have to transcribe the recorded material. On the nights of Tuesday and Thursday I couldn’t fell asleep and stayed awake playing solitary on my iPod until 3 o’clock in the morning. During those two long and boring nights I started to figure out why that game was called solitary…after finding it out, I was so depressed…shit…

Today is Friday and I am spending the afternoon with two dozens of teenagers; they are all part of the research sample for my study. Apart of that, I have no further plans for tonight, which means going to bed before midnight and waking up before noon (this has turned into a normal weekend procedure for me in Nicaragua). Those who know me well know that I am a lazy bastard; during weekends I love staying in bed until hunger turns into horrific pain or until getting up for the bathroom is a matter of surviving the day or not. I tell you, for me there is not better feeling than opening my eyes at 2 o’clock in the afternoon and knowing I don’t have to go to the office.

Tomorrow, I have to finalise a paper and transcribe some interviews (lovely work by the way); apart from working, I have to pick up from the airport my first visit since I live in Nicaragua: Kathrin Ettel (trivia: her brother played Bruno, a brown bear, in a costume for a German TV-film last year). Kathrin is a good friend of mine I know from Innsbruck (another triva: my brother was her Spanish teacher this summer), she had migratory problems in Cuba, and due to her visa status had to leave the island - this is actually the main reason for her visit - but I am really looking forward to chat with her, but above all, I am happy that I will now have photographs of me with another person!

I just finished writing and realised I haven't written a single line about food...well, to add a culinary item to this blog, let me say that Today I had a breathtaking plate of bean-soup with coriander and instead of bread, I had banana chips.

domingo, 22 de noviembre de 2009

Last week

I turned 31 while writing for my blog and drinking a mojito. Right after that, I posted my story and went to bed; I closed my eyes, felt into a deep sleep asleep and in what I perceived as a couple of seconds, a strange sound woke me up. It lasted a second or two to realise that the weird sound filling my room was “happy birthday” sung by children.

I ran to the door and opened it to see the village director, two SOS mothers and fifteen children singing. I took a look to my watch (a new 6 dollar Casio F 91-W) and realised it was 7:50 a.m. (and it was Saturday). That was the moment the strangest birthday ever began.

Some ten minutes later, Felicia, the village director, smashed a raw egg on my head; she told me it was the Nicaraguan-way of celebrating birthdays; I had no choice but to believe her. I took a shower and went back to the children and stayed with them until noon. I ate something at house 12 (the SOS house where I know the most people) and came back to my house and sat in front of the TV for a while. I actually wanted to celebrate my birthday eating Japanese food, but Erika (this time she did come with me) suggested going for Mexican food. I agreed.

The food was tasty and fresh, the Margaritas were lovely. Actually, the days before my birthday, I experienced a kind of “Mexican food festival”. When I was in Estelí, I ate at a Mexican place two days in a row; actually the new picture in this blog (the one on the left), was taken in that Mexican place.

By the way, I changed my profile picture after a working colleague told me I should not publish a blog saying I worked for a child and family organisation together with a picture of myself only wearing underwear; this was a shock for me! It was so sad to hear that the most beautiful swimming trunks I’ve ever had looked like underwear that I decided to immediately remove the picture from my blog. Now you can see a photo of me with Mario (the Restaurant owner) and the taquero. By the way, Mario is a narcissist, you can tell it by the picture of him hanging from the wall (there were the same number of pictures of him than images of the Virgin Mary on the restaurant walls).

I can summarised my blog’s profile change like this: Last week one could read in my blog that I work for SOS and next to it there was a picture of me taken last September in Lazise, Italia at the Garda lake. Now, you can still read I work for SOS and besides it you see a picture of me embracing a narcissist who wears golden chains and holds a butcher’s knife. I really don’t think I achieved any improvement on my image.

Greetings from Managua,

Oscar

viernes, 13 de noviembre de 2009

Tomorrow is my birthday


Last week, while talking with someone my birthday I realised how difficult my 31st birthday was going to be: When I turned of age, drinking beer was no longer so funny; answering “quarter of a century” was pretty cool when I was asked about my age; and turning 30 last year was not such a big deal as I feared, but tomorrow I will be 31, and it is sad, sad because I am now approaching my forties.

This afternoon I left Estelí heading to Managua with the greatest plan ever: To get a cab to a Japanese restaurant and have a vegetable tempura, makis and sashimi while getting drunk on mango Margaritas; however, I forgot two things: Today is Friday the 13th and I had no plan B…huge mistake.

When I arrived in Managua, I was picked up by the SOS driver from the bus station (let’s call that place a bus station); and on the way home, I decided not to stop at an ATM to withdraw money because there were queues of up to 10 people (today it was pay-day in Nicaragua). I came to my apartment exhausted, with loads of luggage, starving and with no cash for the cab, but I was still convinced of carrying out master plan by inviting someone that would pay for the taxi.

First thing I did when I came home was taking a cold shower (I am in hot Managua now) and invited Erika to have dinner with me. Erika is a youth leader from SOS. But then, my plan began to tumble: she had no time because of work (working in teen-shared-flats is really hard work). After losing this first battle, I stopped to reflect on my situation and realised the inconveniences of having no further choices: It was Friday night, 3 hours to my birthday, no date and no cash for the taxi to get me to the Japanese restaurant.

I have the personal feeling that being 31 won’t be a piece of cake; in a way, I think this may be the reason why I wanted to treat myself nice with sushi and margaritas right before starting the 9-year countdown to my fourth decade.

After admitting the failed plan for the night before my birthday, I decided to spend the rest of the evening writing a short story for my blog. I went to the fridge to get cold water and without expecting it I saw the most beautiful thing a lonely man on the verge of frustration could ever see: A cold bottle of liquor. It was not only the bottle of excellent Nicaraguan rum I saw, but there were also limes in the fridge.

I did what I had to: one part of lime juice, one part of white rum and two teaspoons of sugar on a high ball glass. I filled the glass ice cubes and then with the water I wanted to drink before my discovery. I have to admit that this still-water mojito perfectly fulfilled its job, even without the peppermint.

I am about to finishing this second entry for my blog and realised that need a second drink^. By the way, I just turned 31.

Oscar




domingo, 8 de noviembre de 2009

my first blog-entry

Last week, a very good friend of mine, Kathrin Bielowski (for many her last name may sound like the dude’s), told me I should start a blog, in order for her to read it whenever she was bored. This is my first entry to a blog.

I arrived in Nicaragua exactly 5 weeks ago as a researcher for SOS Children’s Villages. I came here with the goal of understanding what some Nicaraguans value when they think of a prosperous/flourishing life…haven’t got a clue yet, but I still have 4 more months to figure it out.

I live in the guest house of the SOS Village; nice house, cosy bedroom, hot water (the weather here is way colder than in hell-like Managua), everything perfect; however, the guest house has a dark side: even though it has a huge new fridge, there are no cooking facilities. This means I have been eating cold meals since last Tuesday (5 days already). My cooking skills has been reduced to basics:

- Breakfast: Crackers with hand-made mango marmalade and fresh orange juice
- Lunch: Cream cheese sandwiches with tomato, cucumber, coriander and jalapenos
- Dinner: same as lunch

For a change, yesterday I had lunch at a Chinese restaurant; the place’s name reminded me actually of an Italian place “la gran vía”; maybe the owner chose the name because the restaurant is located on one of the town’s main road (and it is paved!).
Afraid of a monosodic glutamate or “MSG” overdose (also known as the Chinese restaurant syndrome), I picked up a Peruvian ceviche from the menu. It had fish, shrimps and boiled potatoes seasoned with loads of lime juice and coriander. It was excellent! and had no soy sauce in it (where the MSG mainly come in cheap Chinese food).

I think this is enough for my first blog entry.

oscar