Day 6: The First Farewell

I am posting this a little earlier tonight because I plan on going out... Last night I got some disgruntled fan-mail when my update was later than usual. This morning Betty thought it would not rain, and so I did not bring my raincoat with me to school. Naturally, it rained. Luckily for me it was only light and when I was coming home from classes. The hard rain started essentially just when I got inside and it has continued for the last three hours.

Today was the first day of my time here that we said "goodbye" to one of the group. Laila (left) is meeting up with a friend and touring other provinces in Argentina. She'll stay for the first part of next week for a private lesson in the afternoons, but we will not have her with us in the mornings. I asked her to pose with a "sad" face for her photo, I think that I shall capture all the group members in this manner when they leave. That way it is a little like "The Weakest Link" and they lose while I win. Winning is nice feeling.

Classes were good today. I am loving the first period lesson with Marta (I found out I have been spelling her name incorrectly). She is full of energy, loves to hear what everyone has to say, and is great at encouraging and praising every effort. We laugh so much during those first 2 hours. The second 2 hours are a little less comical, yet still fun. Marcelo, as a couple of us have noticed lately, likes to hear himself talk. Most of the class consists of him rambling on about current local/global events, historical facts, or anything else, and then he squeezes a little bit of grammar and reading into the last 20-25 minutes. Still, I am learning a lot about Argentina and the Argentinean perspective on the world so I do not find his lessons boring or a waste of my time at all. I think it is in the private lessons, however, that I am learning the most new material. In the group classes most of the material is stuff I had forgotten, or expanding on something which I already know, but I am learning a ton of new vocabulary with Germán in the afternoons. I think today I filled about a page and a half with new words with synonyms the same line. It is so interesting that with each word I learn, even if I do not remember/know them all instantly, I immediately start hearing them in everyday speech. I feel like I am understanding conversation even more so at an individual-word basis. And this is after just a week!

Tonight I plan on going to a plaza that is supposed to be literally lined on all sides by bars and clubs. I am meeting up with a group from the school at 23.00 so I will post about how that went in tomorrow's blog.

I hope to have a super busy weekend: I want to go do some of the more touristy activities, going the Cathedral, different plazas, maybe a museum or two, a market, and there are open air free music concerts in a park both Saturday and Sunday nights. I know that I could spread it out over a few weekends, but I want to sample everything now (including mate, a classic drink in Argentina that I have yet to try, much to Marta's dismay), and I can always revisit places at my leisure. Andy from school also wants to go to a fútbol game with me at some point, since some of the tournament games are hosted locally.

I am happy that I am here for February through April because I get to experience two large festivals: Carnival and St. Patrick's Day. It is true that Carnival is bigger in Brazil, but there is supposed to be a great amount of activity on certain streets with music. dancing, and of course drinking. But drinking is supposed to be, naturally, much more prevalent to the holiday of St. Patrick's Day. With a decent amount of Irish immigrants here in Buenos Aires, St. Patrick's Day is supposed to be crazy. Within the 2 blocks around which the partying revolves, there are supposed to be thousands and thousands of people all dressed in green. I am excited.

Off for a little calm reading before tonight.

Chau. (The Argentinean version of the Mexican "Chao" which is a version of the Italian "Ciao")