Adventures with Ideas: Truth, Beauty and the Paradoxes of Life
Juliet Bennett's Blog
  • About
  • My Story
  • Research
  • Photography
  • Modeling
  • 2009
  • 2010
  • 2011
  • 2012
  • 2013
  • 2014
  • 2015
  • About
  • My Story
  • Research
  • Photography
  • Modeling
  • 2009
  • 2010
  • 2011
  • 2012
  • 2013
  • 2014
  • 2015
  • Home
  • Adventure
  • Chapter 2: Live Earth (Buenos Aires)

Chapter 2: Live Earth (Buenos Aires)

20 Nov ’09 Leave a Comment Written by Juliet Bennett

Chapter 1 is short and based in Sydney, so I’m skipping that and introducing you to Chapter 2… Buenos Aires…

…

A little snippet:

Stepping out of the taxi and onto the streets of Buenos Aires I had to pause and double-take. For a second I thought we’d hopped on the wrong flight – was I in South America, or Europe? Images flashed through my mind of my first step onto the streets of Paris, up the metro escalator onto expansive Avenue de Champs-Elysees, looking up to see the Arc de Triomphe and Place de l’Étoile, (the massive round-about where twelve streets meet), and my boyfriend standing there awaiting my arrival. Waiting to tell me that after five years it was over. Paris, the alleged city of love was alas not the city for my love. I trampled down on these thoughts, compressing them back down into the deep pocket of my memory where all hideous experiences and feelings hide, and returning to the present to look around: this was Buenos Aires?

You expect to feel a strong awe when in Paris, but this was South America, the “third world”, and I was not expecting it at all. I felt a sense of grandeur, of rich history and a wealthy past. The street ahead was the widest I’d ever seen, Nueve de Julio Avenue. Literally this means 9th of July, named after Argentina’s Independence Day in 1816. With twelve lanes of traffic and an extra four at each side, it takes five sets of traffic lights to cross the street – and is not something you want to do in a hurry. There are cars everywhere, and the old European-style buildings line the street sport billboard advertisements, graffiti and artworks. It has a raw dirtiness similar to Paris too, everything appears run down and un-maintained, reminding you of the highs and lows that this city has experienced. In its heyday it was as New York, London, Tokyo and Paris are today. I guess every up has a down and even the popular cities of today will one day fall. Maybe this will be sooner than later if the present economy crash and Japanese recession are anything to go by, but I hope not. I wonder which city will be the next New York? Maybe Shanghai or Dubai? Is Sydney still rising or will it crash too?

… please let me know if you have any feedback for me (encouraging or critical), or if you know a good publisher or agent…… thanks!!!

Adventure
My Brazilian, South America
Similar posts
  • New life: reflections on being a new ... — Every year I seem to have less and less time for blogging. This year has the record for the least number of entries, but for a very good reason: motherhood! Oh. My. Gosh. What a new appreciation I have for all the mothers of the world. Maternity leave is not a holiday by any stretch of the imagination. There is no time for reading. I certainly [...]
  • Havana: Aesthetics of an old city in ... — My partner and I recently spent a week in Cuba in June, mostly in the apocalyptic-like old city of Havana. My research supervisor asked if we speak at a “soiree” at his house, and in preparation I gathered some of my thoughts here. While I reveled in the history and politics, my partner is an artist and conversationalist, leading him [...]
  • Retreat from the city: Watts’ m... — My partner, a sculptural artist, and I, with my love of writing, have been thinking about ways we might create some sort of retreat from the city. As I read Alan Watts’ biographies I have been curiously uncovering his two most unusual abodes: a communal mountain retreat with Gary Snyder, Catharine A. MacKinnon, Elsa Gidlow and others at Druid Heights, and an [...]
  • Japan – a poem — An experiment with experiential learning Brought me back Seven years had passed Since I called Tokyo my home Like an ex-lover Familiar but different A flood of memories In the streets, big and small The love and the hate I once felt for the city, for the culture and for a boy Fused, buried A different self, many life times [...]
  • Blessed by His Holiness the Dalai Lam... — On Tuesday 18 June, I shook hands and looked into the eyes of the man who seems to be the happiest man in the world—His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet. More than meeting him, at the end of our event I received a blessing from him. It was very real but also surreal. As one might [...]
St Tropez with Jason Mraz
Sisters and puppies

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

TRUTH

BEAUTY

ADVENTURE

ART

PEACE

  • Popular
  • Recent
  • Comments
  • Is “God” a Fractal?
    15 Feb ’11
  • Is Lindt chocolate slave chocolate?
    11 Sep ’09
  • Creativism – a philosophy for life
    10 Sep ’09
  • Free Documentaries: The Truth Is Free
    17 Apr ’10
  • Coming to grips with the elephant in the room
    28 Jun ’10
  • Optimum Trajectory, swimming against the current, and man who stare at goats.
    4 Aug ’10
  • A short biography
    2 Sep ’09
  • Sex or chess? Peace, the world’s trump card
    13 Apr ’10
  • Alan Watts Fan Club
    3 Dec ’12
  • Big History Blog Series: Chapter 1 – The Big Bang
    25 Mar ’10
  • My policy wishlist for Australia’s response to climate change
    17 Jan ’20
  • Business leadership in climate change
    1 May ’19
  • A story of (mis)fortune: the farmer and his son
    8 Oct ’18
  • What is life really about?
    1 Mar ’17
  • Why the right (brain) is right…
    22 Feb ’17
  • New life: reflections on being a new mum
    29 Dec ’16
  • Orwellian Australia: the “[Un]Fairer Parental Leave Bill 2015”
    1 May ’16
  • Alan Watts’ ‘dramatic model’ and the pursuit of peace
    18 Mar ’16
  • A new lens to view the world: the world as process
    14 Jan ’16
  • 2015 in review
    1 Jan ’16

Adventures with Ideas... on Facebook

Archives

Categories

  • Academic (35)
  • Adventure (119)
  • Beauty (23)
  • Featured Posts (10)
  • Peace (124)
  • Random Life Stuff (102)
  • Truth (164)
Constitutional Recognition

Rights of Indigenous Peoples: A Personal Statement

As a "non-indigenous" Australian living on what was once the land of the Cadigal and Wangal Wangal communities, I wish to acknowledge the inter-generational responsibility that I feel toward the colonial past. As a beneficiary of "White Australia", to the Eora people of Sydney, I request your forgiveness. I stand in solidarity with your rightful demands to self determination and active participation in governmental decisions, and I hope I may learn from your eco-spiritual connection. May we, as Tom Trevorrow of the Ngarrindjeri puts it, learn to 'respect, care and share' the gifts that our planet offers us.

Tags

Alan Watts Atheism Big History Bridge Series Central America Chocolate climate change Conflict Transformation Creativism Ecology Europe God Health India India/Nepal inspiration Life in Oz Life philosophy Meaning of life Modeling My Brazilian My Christian Journey Narrative Narratology Occupy optimal trajectory Panentheism peace philosophy Photography Politics population Potentialism poverty religion slavery social construction South America The Pyramid Travel United States War What is God Wikileaks Yoga

Related posts

  • My Brazilian
    • MY BRAZILIAN (… and a kombi named Betty)
    • Madrigal’s Magic Key to Spanish
    • Chapter 14: Inferma en Amor (Cusco)
    • Sud Americana Landscapes
    • A human life, one million hours
  • South America
    • Returning to mi paradiso
    • Chapter 3: Jesus is Calling (Lima)
    • Chapter 4: The Gringo Trail (Peruvian Coast)
    • Chapter 6: A Secret Garden (Quito)
    • Sneak preview… Rio’s Carnaval

Donation

evolve theme by Theme4Press  •  Powered by WordPress