See (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentine_Spanish) for more information about the particularities of Argentine Spanish.

At least that’s what I thought.

When I got angry or very enthusiastic about something, my melodramatic Argentine accent came out loud and clear and often surprised those used to hearing me speak in my strange Mexican-Castillian Spanish. If I spoke to someone from Argentina or Uruguay, the accent came back as well as did the particular vocabulary for the region.

Two years ago, I went to Guadalajara, Mexico to visit my friend Elvira whom I’d met while working there in April 2003. Elvira told me that I had lost more of my Argentine accent. She remarked that I was using less of the “vos”. I didn’t realize that in 2003, my argentinismos were still appearing in my Spanish. I really thought I’d closed the Argentine chapter of my life.

In August 2007, I returned to Buenos Aires to reconcile myself with the city that had so pained me. I wanted to stop the rancor that was inside of me every time I heard an Argentine accent, even my own. After five days in Buenos Aires, the rancor went away. I rediscovered the beauty of the city.

My accent came back, in a mild form. My sh sounds for the “ll” and y” reappeared.

A month ago, I was revising an essay about my year in Argentina. I was nostalgic for the country. A week or two later, I was listening to Argentine folk music by Los Nocheros (www.losnocheros.net) on You Tube and I could smell Argentine asado (barbeque) in the comfort on my own home. This strong flashback was not unique. I had other gastronomic and geographical flashbacks that overwhelmed me. I felt ungrounded, like I was floating in between countries. I was traveling in my mind. Thousands of miles away from Argentina, the distinctive smell of grilled meat came to me. Mind you, I was a vegetarian for most of my stay in the country, so I was not a huge fan of their bovine-centered diet!

Ever since rewriting the essay in early April, my accent has become stronger. I am using the ‘vos’ more than before. I dream of being on the streets of Buenos Aires — the same streets I was so happy to leave in January 2000. I dream of eating empanadas (Argentine turnovers).

I don’t know what’s going on with me. But, I do know that no matter how closed I think past chapters are in my life, my accents and speaking patterns may still reflect my past international living experiences.

When I lived in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1999, the famous financier, George Soros, mentioned something briefly about the Argentine peso being overvalued as it was pegged to the US dollar.

Soon after his phrase was pronounced, I saw Argentines flock to the banks to withdraw money.

I remember when Russia devalued in 1998 and Russians lost their money. A cousin of mine had been saving money to buy her own apartment and overnight she saw her money disintegrate into fewer rubles.

I never thought I’d feel that fear in the US. But the laws of physics do apply to our world on earth; they are not just formulas learned in high school. What goes up, must go down.

Another lesson from my earlier years was in religious school. Somewhere in the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament, the Pharaoh had a dream where he was standing on the banks of the Nile River and saw seven healthy cows of seven ears of a good corn and then he saw seven weak and skinny cows and seven ears of dry, ugly corn. Unable to understand this dream, the Pharaoh asked Joseph to interpret the dream. Joseph told him that God was sending the Pharaoh a message that there would be a seven year period of development and wealth, but the Pharaoh must save during the seven years of bliss because seven years of scarcity and hardship were soon to come. Some people could not believe that life would not always be so good and did not want to conserve money, water, food and resources during the good years to have something to live on in the bad years. Joseph stored food. When a famine struck the areas around Egypt, the country of Egypt was saved because it had saved food during the good years. Joseph’s wise choice to conserve saved peoples lives.

For all the political talk about being religious and going to Church, it seems like our President and other bible toting politicians did not pay attention during this vital lesson in the Book of Genesis: SAVE and don’t waste.

Though I am not religious and do not know the Old Testament super well, that is one lesson that stuck in my head: save for the rainy days.

Luckily, I grew up in a financially conservative immigrant family that did not believe in shopping sprees and credit card debt. We only spent what we had and saved for the future.

Our country needs to go back to those basic lessons in physics and balance. Whether one believes in the Old Testament or not doesn’t matter. The wisdom of the ages is simple: be prudent and responsible.

I am reminded even more of the need to take a new approach to life this year: balance and calm.