I can't believe its been well over a week since I've written a post. How quickly time flies when you're into a well established routine. School is fantastic. I'm learning bucket loads and growing in confidence with my Spanish every day. I got my hair cut today (and quite short - its the last time I'll have access to quality stylists for a while) and was able to understand quite a bit of the women's magazines written in Spanish. Its a welcome change from fumbling whenever you need to interact with people and having to reluctantly ask "Hablas Ingles?" (ie do you speak English).
We haven't done a whole lot to be honest - we're doing an hour's home work nearly every day now - we tend to relax over lunch after class - Bernard walks both to and from class whereas I now only walk the way home - I catch the No 10 colectivo (bus) into school. We've made our necessary reservations into the Patagonia as its terribly busy at this time of year. Trying to purchase bus tickets for our 28 hour journey from El Calafate to Bariloche was quite an effort, but fortunately we have our tickets in hand, and our seats are luxurious cama (bed) - the equivalent size to flying business class. Don't ask about Brazil - its been a nightmare trying to get visas into the country. We're going to have to make our arrangements from the border in Iguasu as getting an appointment in the consulate in BA is weeks away - time we just don't have.
We have had lots and lots of carne. Its so good and its so cheap - besides pasta and milaneza (beef schnizel) steak is a filling and rather affordable option. The wine is fantastic - even great wine served in restaurants are aprox $8US a bottle!!! We're exploring some of the barios of BA - San Telmo to the south - Palermo which is very hip and of course our very own Recoletta which I love. The weather is so reliable - only one day where the rain spoiled our plans - we went and say Los Poquenos Fockers instead making friends to 80 year old nonnas who needed a little assistance up and down the stairs.
All is well and we've been watching news of the world with incredible interest - floods in Qld and Brazil, another shooting in the States and reports (in the Aussie media) of apparently imminent terrorist activity in the UK (which is remarkably absent from UK media). We are both well, hope that our nearest and dearest are safe and well, and will be in touch again soon.
Wednesday 12 January 2011
Monday 3 January 2011
Tango, New Years, Steak and Malbec
The past week has flown by in BA. Spanish classes have been keeping us busy, the 45min walk to and from class keeping us healthy, and the city keeping us entertained. I am surprised at how easy and difficult it is to learn another language - today for example, we spent a pretty intense few hours and I was completely knackered the rest of the afternoon. Some things are sticking (I've got the rolled "r" down rather well) - some things (like the silent h in words like hoy, hay and helado) are not. My vocab is improving day by day, and hopefully we'll be able to engage in more meaningful conversation by the end of the week.
One evening we went to a milonga to learn tango with our fellow students. It was nice to be out with people outside class, but the biggest draw was to dance with Bernard!!! I'd already danced some tango before, so naturally I was eager to practice sequences of moves, so I had to remind myself to take it slowly. I was super impressed with Bernard as this was his first lesson. There were at least 60 people learning with us in beginners on the dance floor which made it difficult for Bernard to lead me anywhere. I'm looking forward to having some tango classes together in a much smaller group. Watching the teachers dance more fancy (but still authentic) tango was very cool - much better than the flashy stuff they put on show in theatres.
New Year's eve was relatively quiet - met up with others in the edgy part of Palermo and tried to find somewhere with some atmosphere to settle down for a few hours. The bar's till broke at 11.40pm so we were without drinks at midnight, but were at least on the street enjoying some samba musicians/dancers and the myriad of fireworks going off from people's apartments/houses/shops. The next day the Dakar rally was in town (the race usually in Africa which has since moved to South America as the location is safer). We made our way to Ave de Julio to see some of the drivers be "presented" to the crowd. We didn't stay the full 5 hours it took for all 500 drivers to be presented!!!!
After a sleep in and some Spanish revision, the next day we made our way to San Telmo. I remember loving the atmosphere there years ago, but we chose the day the market was there, and it was disappointing - full of tourists - no room to breathe and soak up the atmosphere. Instead we went to this fabulous Parrilla (steak house) in the area - full of locals and waited patiently for a table for 2 at 2.30pm!!! I ate the biggest (and rather wonderful) fillet steak, papas bravas (potatoes) and we shared a great bottle of Malbec, and I was feeling so happy we even shared a chocolate desert.
To burn off dinner we walked for nearly an hour to the market in Recoletta - which was fabulous - after browsing the stalls, we sat with people relaxing on the grass drinking mate (a herbal drink - an acquired taste) and listening to the musicians. It was amazing to see locals come in droves with their large themos, mate cup and straw, yerba mate, sugar and other associated items. And I thought the English loved their tea!!! It would have been a delightful way to end our first week in Argentina. If only the plumbing downstairs didn't have an issue - we have had to turn off our water because they have a leak. Not cool - but hopefully only temporary!
One evening we went to a milonga to learn tango with our fellow students. It was nice to be out with people outside class, but the biggest draw was to dance with Bernard!!! I'd already danced some tango before, so naturally I was eager to practice sequences of moves, so I had to remind myself to take it slowly. I was super impressed with Bernard as this was his first lesson. There were at least 60 people learning with us in beginners on the dance floor which made it difficult for Bernard to lead me anywhere. I'm looking forward to having some tango classes together in a much smaller group. Watching the teachers dance more fancy (but still authentic) tango was very cool - much better than the flashy stuff they put on show in theatres.
New Year's eve was relatively quiet - met up with others in the edgy part of Palermo and tried to find somewhere with some atmosphere to settle down for a few hours. The bar's till broke at 11.40pm so we were without drinks at midnight, but were at least on the street enjoying some samba musicians/dancers and the myriad of fireworks going off from people's apartments/houses/shops. The next day the Dakar rally was in town (the race usually in Africa which has since moved to South America as the location is safer). We made our way to Ave de Julio to see some of the drivers be "presented" to the crowd. We didn't stay the full 5 hours it took for all 500 drivers to be presented!!!!
After a sleep in and some Spanish revision, the next day we made our way to San Telmo. I remember loving the atmosphere there years ago, but we chose the day the market was there, and it was disappointing - full of tourists - no room to breathe and soak up the atmosphere. Instead we went to this fabulous Parrilla (steak house) in the area - full of locals and waited patiently for a table for 2 at 2.30pm!!! I ate the biggest (and rather wonderful) fillet steak, papas bravas (potatoes) and we shared a great bottle of Malbec, and I was feeling so happy we even shared a chocolate desert.
To burn off dinner we walked for nearly an hour to the market in Recoletta - which was fabulous - after browsing the stalls, we sat with people relaxing on the grass drinking mate (a herbal drink - an acquired taste) and listening to the musicians. It was amazing to see locals come in droves with their large themos, mate cup and straw, yerba mate, sugar and other associated items. And I thought the English loved their tea!!! It would have been a delightful way to end our first week in Argentina. If only the plumbing downstairs didn't have an issue - we have had to turn off our water because they have a leak. Not cool - but hopefully only temporary!
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