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!
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