Last week, our Spanish class was assigned a project. We were to break into groups and deliver a presentation on a Buenos Aires neighborhood. Jack, Jessi, Jonty and I (pretend my first name starts with 'J') formed a group. While I was repeatedly hitting snooze one morning, my partners decided we were doing our project on Chinatown. Later, I heard that this is because Jessi and Jonty love Thai food. When I found this out, I definitely didn't complain.
We decided to each talk about a different aspect of Chinatown. I chose the food. We planned to all meet up at the train station right outside Chinatown.
Can you guess where this is? I'm guessing someone got lost here once wondering if they were in Little Italy, so they tried to make it as obvious as possible that it was Chinatown.
Unfortunately for Jack (who is perhaps the tallest person in Buenos Aires at the moment), Jessi, Jonty and I couldn't find him. So, the three of us walked the perimeter of Chinatown (a whole three blocks!) before Jonty had a migraine and couldn't see out of his left eye. So we took him back to his place (thankfully it was just a few blocks away) so he could have his medicine. Then Jessi and I had dinner together.
We ate at Chinatown Cantina. During our presentation, I claimed that this restaurant was recommended to us by a man named Miguel. Miguel was born in Buenos Aires, but has since moved to Cordoba to work as a banker. But, every time he comes back to Buenos Aires to visit his mother, they go to Chinatown together to share their favorite meal at the Chinatown Cantina.
Personally, I think this is a touching story! However, the story of how Jessi and I arrived at Chinatown Cantina was as impersonal as looking in a guidebook.
Regardless of the source of this recommendation, the food was delicious!
Below are pictures of the research I conducted for this laborsome project. It's a tough job but hell-somebody's gotta do it.
My dinner. A+ kung pao beef.
Jessi had almond chicken.
Jessi used a different grading scale than I did. Judging by the smile, I'd say she approves.
The following three pictures were used in my project. They were taken at different restaurants. In my project, I talked about the traditional Asian decorations in the Chinatown restaurants.
This fountain fed into this murky koi pond at a sushi restaurant in Chinatown. Let's hope the fish they serve are from another source!
This photo rounded out the project. I don't think it's an altogether too impressive photo, but my teacher loved it... Whatever floats your boat.
These six photographs comprise the slideshow I presented to my classmates to represent Chinatown. Of course the presentation wasn't to test our photography skills, but rather our ability to speak Spanish. Based on how much my teacher seemed to love these photographs (the reason why is still unclear to me), I think they did in fact bias her decision.
After each presentation, the teacher corrected the presenters' mistakes and gave them a general idea of their grade. By my understanding, our group did very well and each of us received good grades. She liked my presentation and I only made a few mistakes. Luckily for me, she was looking down most of the time I spoke, so I was able to read off my sheet for most of the presentation (which we weren't supposed to do). I had most of it memorized anyway (which impressed me), but I opted for peace of mind. I confirmed all this with Jonty afterward, and he said my understanding was correct. Looks like I'm getting at least a little better at understanding Spanish... I'm still going to buy Rosetta Stone though.
A final word on the presentation: Jack didn't know the word for "Asian" so he just called them "yellow people". That definitely was the highlight of our presentation... Thankfully, I don't think our teacher noticed.
Here are the photos that didn't make the presentation:
These hats are worn by those who work in rice paddies...
...or losers like this who dress up as Raiden for ComicCon.
If people only read one part of this blog, I really hope they read the previous segment.
These samurai swords only cost 20 pesos! I doubt they were designed by Hattori Hanzo. Those swords are priceless everywhere but El Paso.
They had plenty of little stores like this with Buddhas, incense, statues of dragons and tigers, and pieces of wood with your Chinese name painted on them. I bought practically everything in the store! That's retail therapy at its finest.
That's all for Chinatown. Thanks again for your continued interest in the blog!
I've never had a koiroll, but it sounds delicious.
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