Keeping in Touch

This post is dedicated to the various ways that we keep in touch with friends and family as we live 5,270 miles away (according to United's direct flight to Dulles). I consider it extremely good luck that we moved during an age where there are so many ways to keep connected. It wasn't so long ago, when Jon and I first dated in high school that my family was transferred away to Illinois and we had to write letters to keep in touch. I can't even imagine that now. Although we love and appreciate the mail that our friends have sent us (so please, keep it up!), it does take awhile to get here. Since we are past the age of snail-mail, and since my husband is a complete technology guru, we have plenty of items that were not available until recently. So, on to the items that have made our lives easier:

• Voltage Converters - Buenos Aires is not called the "Paris of South America" for nothing, it looks, feels and powers it's electronics just like it's European sister. Not only are the plugs themselves different, but the power is a standard 220v (strong enough to power a clothes dryer at home) compared to 110v in the USA. In come our voltage transformers, we have 4 of them. The two mega-transformers are used for our desktop computer, laptops and to charge misc. items in the office, and the TV, DVD, Wii, PSP3, etc in the living room. We have one stationed in the kitchen so that I can use all of our great wedding gifts, the KitchenAid, blender, food processor, etc and one portable transformer that I use for plugging in the iron, crock-pot and other random low power items. I know it sound like something small, but it has made the transition easier and our apartment feels much more like home since we can use all of our own stuff.

• Vonage - I used to see commercials for Vonage services and regard them with as much attention as those old "Dial 10-10-321 for free long distance!" ads. I take it all back and if they asked me, I would voluntarily give my customer testimonial on any Vonage ad out there. Life as we know it would not be the same without Vonage. This amazing little device allows us to call the US and 40 other countries for a flat rate of $22.99 per month. It also allows people from the US to call us as if we were still in Virginia. You just buy the Vonage box, hook it up to your internet connection and then call to your heart's desire. You can even choose your area code.

• Slingbox - As I mentioned in my South American TV Recap, we are lucky enough to have plenty of English-speaking TV shows to choose from. Unfortunately, we get very little live TV and virtually no college sports. This is simply unacceptable to the biggest sports fan I know, Jon. He has rigged up a Slingbox in his parents basement that we can control from our computer here. The idea is that you buy the Slingbox and then set it up at a TV that has the stations you desire. Through some internet magic, you can then control that TV using an internet log in, and watch through your computer screen. This is especially helpful for watching Virginia Tech games, even if they are just competing for the NIT title :).

• Skype - I remember a time when I dreamed of a futuristic phone that had a video screen so that you could see you friends while you talked. This clearly was a shared dream that has been answered by the inventors of Skype. I was really late to join the Skype bandwagon, more because I didn't understand it than anything else. For those that are still non-believers, it is incredibly easy and best of all, it's FREE. If you want to see the people that you're talking to, you either need a freestanding web-camera or one built into your computer. It's especially great for seeing those things that can't actually talk for themselves, like new babies, new pets, household furniture and households themselves.

So that's what we do to stay current. If you know of other ways to keep connected, we're open to any and all ideas, each new development I hear of amazes me more than the last.

Lost in Translation - Movie Titles

To expand on my TV Show post, one of the first things that we realized when turning on TV was that Argentina loves movies. Whereas only some of the TV shows titles have been translated, nearly all of the movies titles have been. This now makes for hours of hilarity as we turn on the TV and use the guide to piece together the actors, year and what we can understand of the plot - then realize the movie's actual name. I have asked many of our friends here about their thoughts on translated movie titles and it seems as though most of them think it's just as funny as we do. Our friend Juan claims that the guy translating movie titles into Spanish thinks that everyone here must be simple-minded because of all of the obvious information that gets included in the Spanish title. For example, Cloverfield is translated as Cloverfield, The Monster. Anyone who has seen this movie realizes that there is some kind of monster or alien involved, does it really need to be reiterated in the title? Whatever your thoughts on how or why movie titles are translated, here are some that Jon and I find particularly amusing:

• Que Paso Ayer (What Happened Yesterday): The Hangover
• Secreto en la Montaña (Secret in the Mountain): Brokeback Mountain
• Mi Novia Polly (My Girlfriend Polly): Along Came Polly
• Viviendo Con Mi Ex (Living With My Ex): The Breakup
• Expiación, Deseo y Pecado (Atonement, Desire and Sin): Atonement
• Un Lugar Llamado Notting Hill (A Place Called Notting Hill): Notting Hill
• Mi Mascota Es Un Monstruo (My Pet is a Monster): The Waterhorse - Legend of the Deep
• Enamorándome De Mi Ex (I'm in Love With My Ex): It's Complicated
• Amor Sin Escalas (Love Without Layover): Up in the Air
  

We have also gone to a number of movies in the theater, the theater closest to us is really nice, all of the seats are assigned. This is MUCH better than our normal routine at home which is generally to get in line at Tyson's Corner mall among every 14 year old roaming the food court hours before the movie starts, then as soon as the velvet ropes open we run to the theater and pray that someone isn't trying to save a row of seats for their 20 closest friends. The downside to movies in BA - no online ticket sales. You have to wait in a ticket counter line (which is ALWAYS longer than it should be) and then memorize the Spanish title of the movie you want to see. Last weekend we saw An Education (great acting but we wouldn't really recommend) which is called Ensenanza La Vida (Teaching Life). We could not remember these words to save our lives. Not to mention that Jon, the king of online ticket sales, cannot fathom why anyone would prefer the wait-in-line method to pre-purchasing online. The funniest part to me is that we tend to go to the movies "early" here, in the 8:00 - 10:00pm range, so we have been the youngest people in the entire theater by at least 30 years every time we've gone. Last weekend the movie actually started late because the crowd from the movie before ours took so long to leave the theater. The average age of the people we saw was easily 85. God love them for still getting out to the movies, but Jon had me in tears laughing at the pace of everyone leaving the theater, one was slower than the next.

South American TV Recap

When Jon first arrived, we weren't sure what the TV situation would be. We had no idea what to expect, and as self-proclaimed TV-addicts, we were really nervous to see what BA TV had in store. Jon's biggest concern was watching live sporting events, my biggest concern was quitting my job and having only Telemundo to fill up my days. We did as much preparation as possible to be prepared for the worst (For this entire post I will use the word "we" liberally. Clearly Jon did all of the preparations, I have no clue when it comes to this sort of thing) we setup a SlingBox at Jon's parents house, bought a laptop-to-television cord to watch shows online but have them broadcast on the TV, bought a serious transformer that would convert the 220v power to the 110v that we have in the US, and got a DVD player with a USB port so that we could download shows online and watch them through the DVD player. All of our preparations have come in handy, but we have been pleasantly surprised at the amount of familiar shows that broadcast here.

• Sports - We have ESPN and Fox Sports, but soccer is the main attraction. During the regular football season we got most Monday night games and most of the playoffs. The SuperBowl was on here, but we did not get any of the US commercials (much to my dismay).
  
• News/Entertainment News - We have CNNesp, (CNN in espanol) and 4-5 local networks. We get the main award shows like the Grammys, Emmys, and the Golden Globes.
  
• Sitcoms - Argentina loves sitcoms. The funny thing is that we get lots of sitcoms in English, but they are normally years old. Felicity is on everyday, Will & Grace, Fraiser, Mad About You, Simpsons (the early, funny seasons), original 90210 episodes and, of course, Seinfeld. Some of the other shows that I don't normally watch that are on: According to Jim, The Big Bang Theory, The New Adventures of Old Christine and Everybody Loves Raymond.
  
• Dramas - These shows seem to be on a few weeks after they air in the US. Lost (thank goodness!), Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, Rescue Me, Nurse Jackie to name a few.
  
• Reality TV - All of these shows are airing really early seasons compared to the US. Project Runway, Top Model and Real Housewives are a few that I've noticed. I'm definitely missing my Bravo! fix - I love the marathon weekends where you can see the whole season of a show in one day. I'm a sucker for crappy reality TV.

Lucky for us, the shows that originated in the US are aired in English with Spanish subtitles. Here are a few other shows that for some reason the titles have been "translated" into Spanish while the rest of the show stays in English. The hilarious thing is that only some shows are translated and most of them are a reiteration of what you already know:

El Senor Monk (The Man Monk) = Monk
Dr. House = House
La Lay y El Orden (The Law and the Order) = Law and Order
La Lay y El Orden, U.V.E. = Law and Order SVU
E.R. Emergencias = ER
Padre de Familia (Father of Family) = Family Guy
Bob esponja (Bob Sponge) = SpongeBob Squarepants

That's all for now. I'll add to this list if I can think of more. Stay tuned for the hilarity of movie translated titles.