So, before I talk about today's events I will describe my experiences from last night. I called one of the men from the school, who is called Kai, who said that the plan was to meet at Plaza Serrano at about 12.30pm. Plaza Serrano is a small square within walking distance from where I am staying, and it has quite a few restaurants and bars around its perimeter and on the radiating streets. When I left the house at about 12.00 it was raining quite hard. It had stopped between 10pm and 11.30, but I was wearing a raincoat and using an umbrella when I left. I chose to wear tennis shoes because I thought they might be more water resistant, but I was nevertheless thoroughly soaked from the knee down after the first few blocks. The sidewalks in Buenos Aires are not paved with the large slabs used in the United States. Here they are small, retangular blocks that are much more noticeably uneven when it is raining. I was a little disorientated as I had never been in this section of town before, but I found my way the 25 or so blocks to the square where just before I got to the Plaza itself, I bumped into a couple who I recognized from the school, but not my class. They were standing under a veranda filming the large amount of water flowing down the side of the street. They were from Holland and had never seen any rainfall of that strength before. We walked together into the square where we went to the restaurant/bar at which some people had met on a previous occasion, but we did not recognize any of our friends. After waiting for about 10-15 minutes, scanning the plaza through the rain, we decided to just go sit down in one of the other, less busy, restaurants for a while.
We found a table in a restaurant called Espacio Dada which had a great rough urban ambience. The walls were rugged with curious objects (like a larger-than-life mannequin that had an arm detached but on the wall a few feet away) and a non-functioning (we assumed) toilet basin next to one of the wooden, picnic-esque tables. There were some interesting light fixtures that had a wide collection of everyday metal objects and scrap metal too fused in a half sphere that directed light downwards and also cast dramatic shadow on the walls.
We started talking, in English, and I found out that they were a couple from Amsterdam who had come to Buenos Aires three weeks ago with no prior knowledge of the Spanish language. In the three weeks they had been in the city, they had learned quite a lot, from classes and everyday life, but they found it much more comfortable to talk in English (a language they had learned in high school and at which they were, I though, exceptionally proficient).
After talking for quite a while, we suddenly realized (separately, yet almost instantaneously) that we had not even introduced ourselves. I found out that they were called Anique and Thÿs (l-r above). Now, I believe I have spelled their names correctly, but I will change them if I find out otherwise. After a few more hours of talking about Buenos Aires, Holland, and the United States, we decided to go out once more and look for our group. We had no luck, and after looking at another restaurant we decided to return to our original table. We stayed and talked for a few hours more until the business closed. Anique and Thÿs were going to leave Saturday to start their tour of Argentina and then continue on to quite a few other Latin-American destinations. They are spending an entire year abroad.
On the walk home at about 04.30, I thought about how interesting my night had been. I had just made acquaintances, friends even with two very intelligent and vibrant people, spent just under 5 hours with them, and I very well might not see them again. They did speak, however, about coming to America some time in the more distant future, so I cannot say we will "never" meet again.
Thankfully, the rain had stopped, so my trip home was much more quick, and I did not get any more wet. I started walking much faster when, to my horror, I saw that there were a large number of store owners beginning to open and clean their business for the next morning! "I really need to get to bed" I thought to myself. When I did it was close to 05.00 and I promptly fell asleep and did not wake until 11 hours later. Apparently my first week had been more tiring than I had known.
When I climbed out of bed at about 16.00 I was entirely disoriented. The sun was gently shining and it was a great temperature, it could have been 11.30 in the morning. I was so disappointed that I had been unconscious for the majority of my first weekend day that I quickly grabbed some bread for breakfast and walked down the 12 blocks to the park where I had been told to look for the Harry Potter book.
The park is called "Parque Rivadavia" and it is a lovely green belt about three blocks long and at the end was a small book, magazine, CD and DVD market. Most of the good were second hand, with a large gradient in quality, all sold at little green metal stands that were literally plastered with books and displays (below). There must have been close to 45 stalls, and in the area not used by the market was a large congregation of local teenagers with skateboards and iPods and around three tables were quite a few old men (left) playing groups of men playing poker for what looked like macadamia nuts or white beans.
I was able to purchase "Harry Potter y la Cámara Secrata" for 20 pesos along with a pocket-sized map of Buenos Aires that had been recommended to me by a fellow student for having nearly every street name, a street index, and bus routes. On my way back I bought two pastries from a fancy little bakery, which I ate after my dinner this evening.
Betty was out and about so I had some chicken roast leftovers with rice and orange juice and a very nice conversation with Judith about Buenos Aires, languages in general, different countries and even Waldorf schools and theater. I think I have rambled on long enough for tonight, and I have an exciting day lined up for tomorrow, so I want to sleep well tonight. I'll leave you with this cliffhanger so you feel the need to read tomorrow night's entry:
GGGGGOOOOOOAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Chao.
Unbelievagable!
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