What the hell am I doing here?

I’ve been wanting to write/planning to write/putting off writing a blog post explaining the ostensible purpose of the blog: to let whoever cares know about what I’m up to currently.  If I really knew I probably would have done so already.  Rather than continuing not to do it, though, I’m going to lay out some of my thoughts now, and update as updates are required.

You probably know I’m in Buenos Aires, Argentina.  Why did I come here? 

I have this story I wrote in grad school, but was never able to get it to a point where I was happy enough with it even to include it in my thesis manuscript.  The story takes place in La Paz, Bolivia on the day of a general strike, when the cholos marched into the center of the city and basically barricaded many of the roads.  This was happening with relative frequency around the end of 2003 (anyone with any information about this, I’d love to have it, preferably links, by the way).  The story has not left me, which is something that happens relatively often—a story that seems important but you can’t get to it for some reason just starts to feel less urgent until eventually the need to write it is gone.  You either drop it or grit your teeth and go through with it with generally disappointing results.  The stories that stick around, remain urgent, almost take on a greater value, as if they’ve survived some kind of ordeal.  This is one of those.  I decided, perhaps arbitrarily, that I needed to go back to La Paz to finish it.

I wrote a grant proposal to the Elizabeth George Foundation based on that story.  I was going to study Spanish, travel around South America, including Bolivia, and write the story.  I got the grant, but decided that instead of traveling all around, I’d rather stick in one place for a while.  I chose Argentina because Buenos Aires has a great literary culture, basically.  There were probably other reasons as well.  After three months in Argentina, I’d travel to Bolivia, spend about three weeks in La Paz, then head to Santa Cruz for a friend’s wedding I was so generously invited to.

I’ve been here two weeks, and my next transition occurs tomorrow.  My first two weeks have been spent at a homestay organized by the Spanish school I studied at.  The family has been great, there’s another boarder, an American college student studying philosophy and political science at a university here, and he’s been great, but I’m looking forward to really getting to my writing, which will happen after I move.

I move tomorrow.  I hooked up with Martin Fernandez at Residencias del Sur, and he’s organized me an apartment in the San Telmo barrio of BA.  Here’s the apartment (this link only seems to work with Firefox or Internet Explorer): estudio oriental.  If I can figure out how, I’ll attach a photo as well.  It’s small and beautiful and private and I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of work I can get done there.

I’ll be there until November 30.  I’ll update when updates are required, let you know how things are going.  And if you feel like visiting, please do—the apartment is small, but we’ll figure something out.  If you like steak, this is the place to be.

That’s all for now.