Day 7: The Book Market

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. 

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")

Day 5: The Tango

I think that this blog will be published under the date of the 5th of February, because I am typing this at 01.00 in the morning. I just got back, came back early I might add, after the Tango event that I went to this evening. But first, I must talk a little about the day itself.

Today with breakfast Betty had bought a couple of Churros. They are tubular-shaped pastries with a similar texture to an American donut but with a ridged edge almost like the way Play-doh would look after it was squeezed through those little machines. That's a bit of a confusing description, but it's a little hard to describe simply. Anyway, they are eaten with sugar on top, dipped in dulce de leche or dipped chocolate and eaten quite often with coffee. Very tasty.

I stopped at a French bank on the way to school today to withdraw some money, I later heard of a Chase bank in a different area which I think I can use of a decreased transaction charge. But now I can go out this weekend and finally buy that book; I was given a couple of recommendations about where to go because the Harry Potter books are not as popular here as in the US. The subway ride felt very quick today, it was a little cooler, so it was only a sardine can, not a sweaty sardine can. Much better.

Classes were really fun today. In the first one, with Martha (pictured in the previous post), we had all written 5 sentences about our home country: 3 true and 2 false. We had so much fun discussing them and going off on tangents that we only got through 2 each. It is interesting which facts filter through the countries: Martha new a lot about Presidents Bush and Obama, but had never heard of OJ Simpson. That was an interesting discussion.

Well, the more exciting part of the day was the Tango performance which most of the students at the school (just under 30) when to this evening. It was called Tramatango and was a mix of contemporary dance to Tango beats, and more traditional modern tango. It was very well choreographed, with 4 couples that were young and did both styles of dance, and two older couples who did only the modern Tango. It was enjoyable, but I don't think that Betty would have enjoyed it because a lot of the people from her generation and older don't like the "showy" aspects of the Tango now. To Betty, the Tango shouldn't have any high kicks, or the larger embellishments that are popular in the modern Tango.

After the show a large percent of the school went to a restaurant for some drinks. The restaurant turns in a bar during the night, but apparently not until more like 01.00. Still, there was a singer there with a little dancefloor and loud music to a variety of Latin beats (including a translation of "I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor!). But Judith thought that it would be best to return home, because we do have class tomorrow (or I guess now it would actually be "today").

So: today's pictures are of the theater where the Tango performance was, I apologize about the quality: I took it from across the street and it was in that awkward light/distance where flash does not work, but there is not really enough light. But you at least get the picture (pun fully intended). The second is the entrance to my school, there is a nice restaurant down below on the 0th floor (they use the European floor system) and no single sign or anything to indicate that there is a school there. Alright, Good night, good morning, I'm off to bed.

Chao.

Day 4: The Walk

It rained all day today. Sometimes it was just a light mist and other times it really came down. Nevertheless, after my private lesson today, in which I went over the major body parts and essentially all the physical characteristics, I decided to walk all the way home instead of riding the subway. So I walked all along Av. Corrientes, which was quite a ways: it took me about 3 hours at a reasonably fast pace. Along the way, I looked inside a couple of the many "compro libros," bookstores, which were in all located within four or five blocks of each other. I passed the obelisk, which is a famous Buenos Aires landmark and the theatre to which the school has an extracurricular trip for a Tango performance tomorrow night. I suppose this is partly because I am not used to living in the center of a city, but it is interesting to me how rare it actually is to find a street that has traffic flow in both directions: even the "major" streets are one way. In fact, I don't remember seeing one since the road from the airport.

With a slightly tired and quite wet body and feet, I finally arrived back at Rio de Janeiro where I was soon joined by Betty's relatives for some ice cream and coffee. The perfect way to top off some exercise: deliciously cold and flavorful calories. It was interesting to hear the differences in how each of them spoke Spanish; the man I found quite a lot harder to understand than everyone else with whom I have talked. I think that I am still a bit used to the Mexican Spanish, where the "ll" and "y" are not pronounced as "sh." It throws me off a little when I am trying to keep up with the fast-paced conversation at the table that somehow ended up on the topic of the rumor that the Governor of Buenos Aires had a robot personally designed to swat mosquitos.

I think this blog entry will be a little short, because I only just finished my homework, and it now quite late. I plan on making a trip to the bank tomorrow for money, mainly for food and the subway, but I also am nearly done with "Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal" and I would like to buy the second in series.

The photo above is my group for the morning classes with one of our teachers: (l-r) Martha, the teacher, Laila from Norway, Lauren from the USA, Peter from Switzerland, and Andy from Germany. My apologies to Lauren and to you all for her closed eyes...she was not sleeping during class.


Chao.

Day 3: The Rain

From the moment I woke up this morning the humidity level was noticeably higher. While Judith and I hurried to classes (after spending too much time at another great breakfast), it started sprinkling. Yes, it was nice to get some rain, and Betty was relieved since it had been a while, but for me the humidity level versus the small drop in temperature was not quite a fair trade.

Classes were a little harder for me today. I've forgotten some of the smaller (yet important) aspects of pronoun grammar, but I feel like I am going to be (re)learning everything and since I can use it during everyday life, it will stick better. I have now had 4 different teachers at the school, between my group and private lessons, and I have liked each of them. Except for one, they all are very, very enthusiastic, outspoken, and keep up a great conversation throughout the lesson. They are all keen to pass on information about Buenos Aires, Argentina, or the history of their country, political turmoil.

For lunch, I went to the same deli/bakery where today I had, more appropriately than yesterday, four empanadas: chicken, spicy chicken (2 of them), and a ham and cheese. The spicy chicken was fantastic. On the subject of food, Betty decided to make me a steak dinner of a special cut with some rice and salad. I feel like I am able to write more about the food than the city....I need to change that. Betty was happy to hear that I liked spicy foods, because she's used to cooking only bland foods for us foreigners.

After school today, I took a third road from the school to the subway, stopping by a church that was on the street. It was very nice: smooth white, tall walls with a more ornately decorated wall behind the alter. Only one person was inside, and it was starkly quiet compared to the very noisy street about 20 yards away.

I apologize for not posting a picture of the school, it has a very amusing absence of an outdoor sign, but, I hope to take one tomorrow.

I am now sitting in the living room of the apartment, watching some fútbol. There is a national tournament going on currently, so I am able to get a small taste of the Argentinean fútbol fever. I asked about going to one nearby, but Betty said she would need ask a friend of hers, because going by myself would be dangerous.

Chao.

Day 2: Las Facturas

After falling asleep a little later than expected, I got up this morning at 07.30 and was greeted by a great breakfast of cheese, jam, butter, bread and facturas. Facturas are little pastries that have a similar consistency to a croissant or pan au chocolat and they are quite often filled with dulce de leche. With some orange juice that I squeezed, they tasted pretty fantastic.

We left the house at about 09.00 to take "El Subte," the subway that has a station quite close to the school. It was quite the experience. Starting at about 08.30 every morning the entire system is packed completely full. After purchasing tickets (very cheap), we were unable to take the first train that arrived since the people were packed so tight they almost fell out of the doors once they opened. It was ridiculous. We rode the metro about eight stops before walking the rest of the way to the school. We walked on the street "Florida" which is full of shopping centers and restaurants.

The school is on the third floor of a building the serves many purposes depending on the side and level, and I had two group classes until about 13.00. The classes were no larger than 5 students, of different ages (starting at my age and going to probably early 60s). After I grabbed a quick lunch, a sandwich "de jamón and queso" and a piece of pizza, I had my private lesson for two hours where it was really nice to ask questions as soon as the came to mind, on topic or otherwise. I will later be using these private lessons for learning "medical Spanish," but we did not start that today.

On my way home, I wandered a little bit before getting on the subway. Florida and the street next to it, Reconquista, were now full of people, with musicians and vendors on the street. It reminded me of the streets of Florence, but the streets here are not as wide.

So: the first full day here was great! It feels great to be speaking Spanish and I feel like I am going to learn a ton - and be able to use it immediately - even within this week. I've been told that I have to try the Argentinean ice cream, so I suppose I might just have to drag myself to a little shop tomorrow.

Above is a picture of (l-r) Me, my host mom Betty, and Judith who is from Canada. We are all glowing and shining with the glorious heat that persists well into the night. It only reached 30C/86F today, but with the humidity it can be pretty intense.

Chao.

Day 1: The Arrival

I figure that my approach to this blog will be in a journal format; hopefully, it won't be too long-winded.

Well, I arrived this morning in Buenos Aires, Argentina after my 15 hours total of flight time. First thing I was greeted by Argentinean hospitality by being charged USD$130 as an entrance fee. I felt very appreciated. I was led to my taxi by a woman holding my name (a first for me) that drove me to my Argentinean home.

I am living on Rio de Janeiro on the 5th floor of an apartment complex. I've included this photo of my little room which is approximately 7 by 14 feet. My "mom" is called Betty, and she has been very friendly, we've conversed quite well in Spanglish. After unpacking, I was treated to a homemade lunch of egg and cheese empanadas with a salad. Betty loves to cook, and I am OK with that (especially after the, again, homemade, flan for dessert....). Apparently it's a hereditary, because her son is currently a chef in Barcelona.

A Canadian woman is also living in the apartment for this week. She's going to the same school as me before going off to tour other areas in Argentina. She and I just got back from a little walk through the neighborhood. There is a great circular park that acts as a large roundabout that we strolled around. There were lots of people with animals, playing "fútbol" and there were the beginnings of what looked like a night market (of practical and toy items, not much for us tourists). I noticed a very large population of feral cats around the buildings as well as all throughout the park. We got pleasantly lost on the way back since the roads are only sort of in a grid and the street names change sporadically.

I think that will do for my first South American entry. I have a wireless connection here, so providing my days are narrative-worthy, I can post nightly. So, it's time for a little "Harry Potter y la Piedra Filosofal" and then the bed for an early start tomorrow.

Chao.