Marine Corps Prom 2015

Last week marked the 240th birthday of the United States Marine Corps.  As a proud military organization, the marines put on a birthday party for the corps everywhere from the Halls of Montezuma to the Shores of Tripoli.  And that includes a little party at the Palacio Duhau in Buenos Aires.  Anne and Mark cleaned up and headed out for "Prom 2015."

So what makes this event like Prom?  Lots of things.  First, the obvious, everyone puts on their Sunday best.  The marines donned their dress unis, and everyone else did their best James Bond wardrobe impressions.  Second, it was a cash bar (sorry, I actually never went to prom - is this not a similarity?)

The organizers went all out with decor, food, and dancing.  The marines put on a short ceremony recalling the history of the corps.  As part of it, they called out the oldest and youngest marine present.  Mark spoke to both of them and neither was particularly honored by this "honor." The program mistakenly reported the oldest marine's date of birth as having been in 1072 instead of 1972.  Obviously, being 44 years old is bad enough, but being 944?  Ouch.  The youngest marine (born 1992) reported that he was not particularly excited about the attention being brought to him.

Same pose as above, only difference?  Drinks were switched out for flags.

But by the end of the night, the focus was on the dancing and the party.  Hoo-rah!

HBomb Halloween 2015

HBomb had a good time at his third Halloween this year, although the overall concept is still eluding him.  His candy haul was abbreviated because instead of opening his candy bag and saying "trick or treat," he decided to not let anyone else touch his candy bag.  Eventually, though, he figured it out and tricked or treated his way to a little bit of candy.

To be completely honest, we have been working on the concept for a few years now, but it remains out of reach.  In his first go round, known as Pachyderm Henry 2013, he was a little under two months old, so it was still working on more basic concepts like focusing his eyes, holding his head up, and showing respect to his father.

Last year, Superman Henry 2014, was still unaware of the importance of candy, but was excited to run around Mt. Vernon in an oversized costume.

This year, the costume is Spiderman (but not that weak Andrew Garfield version) and it appears that his favorite part of Halloween 2015 was Milk Duds.  He did not actually eat any of them as Mark had deemed them to be a choking hazard (or whatever) and promptly disposed of them personally, but he really enjoyed the sound they made as he shook the box.  

Only in Argentina

View from the first balcony

Living in a foreign country offers expats the opportunity to find things that do not exist in their homeland.  For example, while living in Bulgaria, Mark noticed that the locals there did not hesitate to park their cars on the sidewalk.  So what has Mark found in Argentina that you can't find in the US of A?  Well, for starters, the bookstores are nicer.

Anne and the HBomb check out the selection

These photos are from a recent visit that Anne, Mark and the HBomb took to El Ateneo Grand Splendid.  This is the flagship store in the El Ateneo chain of bookstores and has been voted one of the top ten bookstores in the world by the British newspaper The Guardian.  It is housed in the building that used to house the Teatro Gran Splendid, an opera house that opened in 1919.  After many years as an opera house, it eventually fell on hard times and was remodeled and converted to a bookstore.  Much of the ornate detail of the original opera house remains, including some frescos on the ceiling and the box seating on the sides (next to the self-help section).

According to the plaque that is posted near the entryway, this teatro had some big time shows back in the day, including the biggest name in tango, Carlos Gardel.   .... and speaking of Tango, that's another thing that exists here like no where else.  In fact, just wandering around, you run into tango in one form or another.  Most recently, Mark and Anne saw what appears to be a tango dance studio with an Arthur Miller-style step instructions installed directly into the sidewalk outside.

1, 2, 3.... 1, 2, 3

All of this is pretty cool stuff.  Another thing that is pretty cool is how seriously they take elections around here.  In addition to having a lot of them (several rounds of primaries, as well as elections not being held on the same days in every province creates the impression of lots and lots of elections), they also have a mandatory voting law.  There is an exception to the mandatory voting law if a voter will be more than a certain distance away from his or her polling place on the day of the election.

This year, Argentina will have a presidential election and due to complicated rules and voting outcomes that I will not try to recap here, Argentina will have to have a run off of the top two candidates.  The run off election ("el ballotage") will take place on November 22, which is a Sunday.  However, the next day, November 23 is a federal holiday here.  The government of Argentina was afraid that too many people would be taking a long weekend and would be far away from their polling place, thereby leaving the voting turnout lower.  What was their solution?  Waive the mandatory requirement?  Absentee ballots?  Allow people to vote from their vacation locations?  Re-schedule the election?  Nope.  They moved the holiday.  Seriously.  Instead of being on Monday the 23rd, it is on Friday, the 27th.  That's taking elections pretty seriously.

So that, Mark liked.  If you were Mark, you might even say, "I'm loving it."  On a different topic, that phrase, "I'm loving it," is or was a McDonald's tagline.  Well here in Argentina, if you got a craving for a Big Mac and fries you might initially encounter a little sticker shock when you stopped in to your local "Golden Arches."

Pequenos precios?  I don't think so, Ronaldo

Thirty three bucks for a Big Mac?  And that doesn't even include the fries and Coke?  Well, no.  Actually, here in Argentina they use what Anne and Mark recognize as the dollar sign to signify Argentine pesos (Henry may recognize it as well, but he has been in a stage lately where he just answers every question with "George" until you turn on a video or show him a picture of Curious George - so it's hard to tell what's going on with him....but I digress).  The Argentines recognize it as the sign for the Argentine peso.  They also seem to recognize that we use it for the dollar.  Obviously, the overuse of this symbol can lead to costly mistakes and confusion, maybe not in the Big Mac context, but sometimes when one is looking up flights or hotel prices on the internet for example, what looks like a great discount on a first check can actually turn out to be a total bust.  I think that is why the discount double-check appears to be catching on down here - how else could you explain this guy?

It's a Rodgers jersey, but that guy looks like Mike McCarthy