memora-mental moments

I couldn’t possibly begin my 2012 blogs without acknowledging at least some of my memora-mental (mental and or memorable) moments in South America from 2011.

I have seen most of the great (but mostly average) sites of Buenos Aires, Brasil, Chile and Uruguay, but pipe down isn’t a blogspot to bore you with site seeing information. I am sure you have heard someone say that living in a place is always completely different to spending a holiday there. The novelty wears off quickly and very soon you are left with a feeling of long winded culture shock, difficult adjustments to make and in my case hours and hours of utter boredom!

It is much like the partial theme of one of my favourite movies, Jarhead. And not just because of this...

When people think war, they think heroes, action, fighting and any other romanticised notions about war, but that’s only the half of it. Troopers find themselves in the grounds where nothing goes on and they are just there in case something does. Time is spent wasted away entertaining yourself with whatever you can (which usually leads to slight mental - ness)

This post is dedicated to two brave men who not only braved living in Argentina, but fought the battle of boredom alongside me and either made me crazier, or kept me sane (I´m still not sure which one) 

meeting dennis

meeting ricky

the ¨no pants dance¨ at Sugar Bar

A typical week night spent at the local ex-pat bar – Sugar. People were being boring. So I suggested we do something to take things up a notch. ¨should we take our pants off and go dance? ¨. Dennis responded with an enthusiastic ¨yes!¨ and within a nanosecond, there we were…

for lack of a more quirky title, Hang Gliding in Rio

System of a Down concert – is all I really need to say

Buenos Aires Bucket Beat Boy

I don’t really like shopping, so Florida road isn't my favorite , but spotting this dude pretty much made my day.  

boredom = silence and silence = piercing

Ricky and I were out of ideas for something to do after work. A tattoo and piercing parlor close to the office seemed worth checking out. The outcome: a tragus and nose piercing.

mental MAC recordings

Much of our time was spent filming ourselves being mental. I could pretty much create a separate blogspot just for the mental MAC videos, but here is one of them.

Porteños Putos get an ass kicking in Copa America semi finals

A last minute weekend away to Montevideo in Uruguay would have been hella boring if it weren't for the fact that it was the Copa America semi finals that weekend. A massive big screen TV was put up on a building in one of the main squares in the city and literally thousands of people gathered in the square to watch the game. I don't think I knew what tension really was until I stood in amongst the crowd of Uruguayans that night as they watched their team play Argentina. A schizophrenic group to say the least. Cheering like they'd found fire for the first time and then cursing like a high Harry Potter. The second that final goal went in, people - went - mental! The jovial mass made their way to one of the towns main monuments where they climbed up super high statues, waved flags, drank wine from the bottles, belted out songs and chanted ¨Porteños Putos¨ for hours. One of the most amazing things I have had the luck of being a part of. Rubbish recording, but a brief snippet of us walking down the street where it all went down.

hungover, but mostly still drunk mornings at Tribeca II

Some Saturdays we woke up hungover. Most Saturdays, we woke up still drunk. One of my favorite memora-mental moments took place when Dennis started to provide commentary for people on a salad dressing bottle. The ¨if groceries could talk¨ game grew from there.

weed be glad to not to that again
Another boring Sunday. Dennis and I decided to take a walk to Recoletta park. A rusta orientated ambiance comes with a fair few people walking around with baskets of chocolate and almond flavored brownies. For lack of something better to do we decided to buy 5. On empty stomachs and at a rapid pace, we ate 3 between 2 of us and only after that the seller told us to have 1 between 2. Very quickly we lost feeling in our legs, were laughing our asses off and were battling to swallow. It was enjoyable for the first few hours but as minutes went on we hit the total paranoia phase. Dennis was convinced we were being followed and I was sure our friend Bill and Keith were in the room next door sharpening panga´s to come and slaughter us. It was one of the most mental and memorable moments I have had to date. I wish I had filmed it, but I couldn't hold myself up let alone a camera. This is the only photo I have from that day. 

fireworks error

I have to say that this is definitely my most mental moment. It was my first time celebrating the 4th of July, and this is how it went...

There were many more memora-mental moments and I kinda wish I´d started my blog earlier, to share all my blog worth day to day experiences in South America, but let me not dwell on what I could of done and be thankful that I could have done it at all.

Thank you to my fellow mental men who made my year here worth more than I can express in just this one blog. goodtoknow