busy

I realize, that it is tough to continue with the blogging due to all the activities in my real life. It is actually a good thing.


This week I made very good progress in my sports routine. Today I went for an 11km run and was able to stay below a 140 pulse for most of the times. Compared to the situation about a month ago when my heart went straight to HFmax after 300 meters I think I am doing pretty good.

On Wednesday we went to see a German movie (hit me!) at the Caraffa. The local Goethe Institut shows a series of 'important' German movies (i.e. Eastern and Western German) of the last 60 years. As Paula is involved in gender studies we just had to watch Helke Sander's 'Der subjektive Faktor'. I would not say, that it is the best movie of all times in cinematic terms. But still it was very interesting for me being a German. But I do not have the slightest clue how the Argentine crowd was able to even sit through the whole 183 minutes of the movie. The sound was horrible. The film itself was very (very!) repetitive. And it was all in German (with Spanish subtitles) with a very particular German background. We are talking about the likes of 1968 student revolution stuff in Germany: Rudi Dutschke, SDS, political discussions about socialism and marxism, upcoming feminism, students in Berlin and Frankfurt...

On Friday we went to the Teatro San Martín for a concert of classical music: Ciclo Músicas del Mundo - "Los Vecinos" México - EE.UU. Especially the Mexican compositions were pretty lively. As matter of fact, they were so lively, that the conductor animated the audience to clap along as part of the encore. Never seen that before (as long as we are not talking Last Night of the Proms, where anarchistic chaos and frenetic clapping and applause are part of a very British humour and tradition; the Argentine and the British might have more in common, than they think...). The orchestra was special. There were like 10 clarinets playing, but essentially no strings. Yes, there were three double basses, but that was it. If it were not for the double basses and the percussion I would have thought it was a wind and brass orchestra. A little peculiar. Anyway, the concert was really nice. After the concert we went to Tommy Gun for some papas bravas and cocktails. Fun evening...

On Saturday we went to the 32nd Feria Internacional de Artesanías Córdoba. It is a trade fair for arts and crafts. If you know the craft market at Belgrano, the Feria is huge compared to that (and Belgrano is huge in European terms). A large number of stands offering lots of different things from colonial style silver-plated mates de calabaza to gaucho hats, silver jewelry, hand-crafted copper pans and pots, hand-weaved ponchos from the Andes, ukuleles from Bolivia. Lots and lots of very unique stuff. Really nice. In Germany (or rather Europe) I hate going to craft markets, because it is always the same stuff, that you get there. But there were lots of beautiful pieces here, that seemed to be worth the money. If you come to Córdoba in April, go see the Feria de Artesanías! It is nice...