A Saturday in Palermo

A lazy day today! Yay! I slept in and then Skyped with Guille over breakfast. Afterwards I took a deep breath and called Apple support to sort out issues with my account and the password reset problems I'd been having. It took over half an hour but we got it sorted and I feel much better. It had been niggling at me and I figured I should take advantage of the time and the wifi to "just do it"!

While skyping with Guille this morning, she asked me if I'd been to Plaza Serrano yet. Nope! As with the library/theatre the other day, I was open to suggestions and has no other plans. Done - decision made.

I hopped on my first 'collectivo' (=city bus, fare=1.20$ or about 30 cents!!!) and had the driver tell me where to get off. My feet are a bit beat-up right now with all the walking I've been doing and every pair of shoes I have has given me a sore spot somewhere. When I realized I had to walk almost a kilometer to get to the plaza from the bus stop, I took a deep breath, and many delicate steps.

I was pleasantly surprised - it was worth it! It's a funky little hood with shops, boutiques, a market, restaurants, cafes and FABULOUS people watching opportunities!!! I knew there had to be more to BA than I had seen so far in the Congreso area.

Plaza Serrano's Saturday market:

I wandered, stopped for lunch, looked in some shops, wandered, stopped in for my afternoon licuado, and wandered some more. What a great way to spend a day in the city!

Cobbled, tree-lined streets:

In front of a kids toy store:

In the evening I decided to go see "The Artist". It's the silent, black-and-white film that generated so much Oscar buzz. I loved it! And it was interesting to check out a movie theatre in another country. Little things like the ridiculous queues and people trying to jump the queues are common everywhere. The 'shushing' when the movie started and when someone got a phone call was impressive - they didn't just let that kind of rudeness go. The theatre itself was immaculate and beautiful. The seats in the theatre were leather and reclined backwards. Nice.

The day was topped off with a walk past a carnavale street band and dancers living it up on Corrientes at 22h30 on my way home. I do love the drums and whistles. I stayed for a bit to watch the dancers and the crowds and then took a few more tender steps home.

Learning how to walk again.

I passed! It's all about the gold stars and recognition for me! I've always been an over-achiever. It's kind of a pain, actually! In any case, I'm clear to move on to Level 2. I'm also quite keen but I don't know when I will get my next week in. Mendoza is looking likely though.

I had lunch 'on stage' today. Literally. So cool! Movies and theatre came up today on the break between classes. Margaret mentioned that there's a famous old theatre that's been converted into a bookstore. I couldn't resist checking it out. And it's FABULOUS! Have a look:

The cafe where I had lunch is the stage:

Some of the old light switches behind the screen:

Fabulous details everywhere:

~~~~~~
I don't know why more men don't dance. The dance floor is the place where the men are completely in charge! It's good for them, but it's killing me!!! I'm not supposed to lead, I'm not supposed to anticipate, I'm not supposed to rush. Bah!!!

The tango isn't a sequence of 8 steps over and over. No dance is really, but tango is the only dance that is SO varied in terms of the timing of the steps. It's a little of this and a little of that. It can take 8 beats to complete one single step. Men have a lot of work to be creative and improvise. I have a lot of work to do to turn my brain off and LISTEN!

I had a serious sense of humour loss in my tango class tonight at 19h. It was major deconstruction work today. We tackled walking foreward, backward and side to side. Simple, but not! It was exactly what I needed after the milonga last night. Sometimes you need to go back to basics to improve.

As soon as I was partnered up though, it was a disaster. It was if I had never danced before! I felt defensive and angry, symptoms of me feeling stupid. I had to have a little pep talk with myself: Quit taking yourself so seriously! Quit trying to control things! It takes years to perfect tango, chill! There's likely a breakthrough just around the corner!

I think slowing down, letting go and accepting imperfections are things I need to work on in tango AND life. I never anticipated the parallel but it seems like a compelling reason to keep at tango. It's likely cheaper than therapy and a much better workout!!! ;o)

After class Margaret and I went to dinner in Palermo. We found a nice restaurant on a funky square at a respectable dinner time in Argentina, 22h30. While I fed mosquitoes, we shared a pizza and a bottle of vino. We have a lot in common and she's really easy to talk to. It was a nice evening and I had to pinch myself saying "so...here I am...in BUENOS AIRES!!!". It's all pretty cool.

We were both beat after a long week though and since she's got an apartment fairly close to me, we shared a cab back. I think I crashed around 2AM! Nice! I didn't even turn into a pumpkin!

Two Argentinian dances

The mating dance of the Argentinians is visible every day as I walk down the street.

The female of the species wears short, tight and brightly coloured clothing and several pieces of over-sized jewelery. As she approaches a male he will express his interest in the female.

This behaviour occurs most frequently when groups of males gather together. In these cases evidence of interest is more apparent as the males compete for attention.

Signals to the female are given in the form of whistles, hisses or exclamations which translate to 'Dear God, I have never seen such a beautiful creature' or 'Hey LADYYYYYYY'.

In most situations, the female will continue to walk past the male feigning deafness. Observations suggest that the males are not discouraged in these cases, rather they make a greater effort in subsequent encounters.

Lone males often behave in a more subtle manner. Such a male will simply stop in his tracks and turn 180 degrees to silently watch the female come and go, appreciating all that he has seen. In these situations, the males will not succeed with the female as she is usually unaware of the interest. The efforts still serve the important role of keeping mating-dance skills tuned.

It's all fascinating to watch!!! And I really do see it ALL the time. Boys here are taught to express approval of what they see. It's actually a nice change as Canadian males do everything they can to AVOID detection when checking out a girl. Given that Dutch males appear to only like leggy blondes, Argentina is finally a place where my ego might get a boost. I figured I could at least enjoy a little harmless attention while I'm down here. Then again, I need to be careful what I wish for....

Case in point: Orlando!

Instead of doing tango lessons at the school today, Margaret (the Aussie girl in my Spanish class) convinced me to go out to try a lesson at the 'La Virula' club which is followed by a social dance. I arrived a bit before the tango class started to watch the milonga class. I ordered food and sat down. Within two minutes my soon-to-be-best-bud-for-the-next-three-hours swooped in to introduce himself and ask me to dance. I didn't even have my shoes on!!!

He was sweet but my God he latched on. He held my hand to and from the dance floor (gentlemanly), he had his arm around me while listening to the instructors (ummm...okay?...) but when he wouldn't change partners even when asked to, it became too much. Perhaps I wouldn't have minded if he looked like Ryan Reynolds and had an amazing personality but he was SO clingy and he was trying too hard. The attention was nice but thank goodness I had a cab booked for 01:30!

What IS the past participle of "to dive"?!?!

Well...my basic Spanish education is complete, I know know how to talk about the weather! Today class got a little more complicated with reflexive verbs that I have not heard of. Of course the whole concept of reflexive verbs isn't new to me - they're the same as what I learned about in french. I am still so grateful that back in 1981 my parents made the decision to put me in french immersion.

I had an interesting discussion with a friend the other day about putting her son in french immersion. As I try to learn spanish and watch others with only english struggle, I know without a doubt that knowing french helps immensely.

I believe native English speakers are the worst in knowing about English grammar! What's a possessive pronoun, a past participle, and a reflexive verb? Indeed! I'm convinced that by knowing french I actually know English better.

A well earned burger!

I took my time over lunch today and ate slowly while I conjugated verbs and double checked on some vocabulary. My vocabulary is growing every day and I'm aware of it. That's cool.

I pretty much have the present tense down. I can construct sentences in the simple future. It's the past tense still eludes me and I'm eager to cover it. It doesn't look like it'll be covered in Level 1. I guess I have to wait until Level 2...or just google it. The thing is that I'm finding I'm absorbing more in a class than learning on my own. For now it's working for me.

I intended to hit the 16h tango class today. I had my shoes on and everything. Turns out the class was a ballet technique class so out I walked wondering what I was going to do with my time. Should I squander it and do more email/Facebook-stalking or find something to do unique to Buenos Aires?

My tango classes are straight across the platform, there are photo galleries in all three wings:

In the theme of "don't wait, do it now" I decided to check out the photo exhibit at the Borges cultural centre that I'd been walking through to get to my tango lessons. I'd been telling myself that I should check it out 'one of these days'. Today was the day.

The exhibit is of the winning photographs from an international photography contest. It was really incredible! The photos were amazing. Some made me break out in a smile. Some nearly made me cry. The photos definitely evoked a reaction and inspired me in my own photography. Even moreso because Canada was poorly represented! Ha! ;o)

At the 17h30 class there were more men than women. What an odd phenomenon! Of course that meant I danced the whole class. The teacher grabbed me to demonstrate some of the moves and I was getting corrected ever other step. It got to the point that I forgot how to walk! My brain was full but I worked on things bit by bit with each dance. By the end I was feeling like I'd made some real improvement. Therefore...I wanted to find a restaurant were I could eat a well earned, super messy cheese burger!

Second day of school

Day 2 of spanish classes. A half hour walk to school for a 9AM class means an alarm clock is required. Four hours of classes a day means that coffee is required. I felt SLEEPY in class today!

I ended up breaking the ice with the people in my class. I even had lunch with Margaret since we were going to the same tango class in the afternoon. After yesterday's tango class, I wanted an earlier start time so I could be home earlier to start a fun filled evening of doing nothing!

The tango class today wasn't as good but I did try to put into practice all I'd learned the day before. Since there weren't enough men I mostly danced with Elena, a lovely German girl who wanted to learn the man's part. The whole 'intimate embrace' was tricky given the extra pair of boobs but one I relaxed, I stopped caring. She did a great job of leading too.

My walk down Corrientes to get home was a blur. I wanted to check out the famous street in daylight. I hate to say it but I wasn't overly blown-away. It's a street with shops and theatres, the Latin Broadway so they say. Maybe I was just too tired to appreciate it. Maybe it's more glittery at night?

I checked for interesting restaurants once I got closer to 'home' (on Peron between Pasteur and Azcuenaga) but didn't find anything. So, when I got back to the apartment I showered off the tango-sweat (20% mine/80% from others...blech), caught up on the last few 'Dale Patagonia' journal entries and had a cheese-and-crackers dinner again...which suited me fine!

The view from my room of Peron at Pasteur:

Back to school

Today was the first day in a while that I've had to set an alarm! Last night was a real school night. I didn't get picked up by a big yellow bus but rather walked the thirty minutes to school through the morning streets of Buenos Aires. The first part of my walk was pretty straightforward: out the door, turn right, straight on Peron for 18 blocks to Florida, turn right.

The interesection of Peron and Florida:

Then it got more tricky. It took a while but eventually I found the AIE school in the IBL office...of course. It's on the third floor of an old shopping plaza, Plaza Guemes.

The gorgeous, old birdcage elevator:

I arrived at 8:30ish and had to take a test. It said on my form that I was likely level 3 so the girl was asking me all sorts of hard questions and my brain shut down. She had me write the test for level 2 and upon reviewing my answers (some were quite creative I might add - I was proud!) she promptly placed me in level 1...part 2. Okay, so I narrowly escaped the baby class. That's all I wanted and it turned out to be just right.

At recess I felt really shy and awkward as I couldn't quite 'break in' to any groups. My introverted self took over. Everyone from all the other classes seemed to know each other. I just sat at the edge of the common area on a bench and assumed the fetal position and rocked back and forth, humming to myself. Ha! Nah! It wasn't so bad but it was an awkward feeling that I hope goes away tomorrow. I just kept telling myself that you don't grow if you don't push yourself.

Classes seem to start at 9h and go through until 13h with a single 20 minute break. It's actually pretty intense. We covered a lot of topics but I finally have a textbook that puts a few lingering questions into place. I can review tonight when I do my homework, which is to write a personal ad in Spanish...dear God! Seriously? Sigh!

Well...why not share, particularly with the universe?!

After class I wandered in the direction of the tango school to get information about classes. I didn't get there until five though! Along the way I made enquiries at a Pilates studio, grabbed lunch, wandered into some shops and got a pedicure - I couldn't resist!

When I DID get to the tango school, I was told I could start right away only I couldn't dance in flip-flops. Fair enough. It was a bit of a walk to the tango shoe store and they didn't have many in my size unless I wanted 3" stilettos. They were pretty but would cripple me.

I went for a cute pair of 1 1/2" shoes which cost 590$! Gulp! Suddenly these $70 lessons just got a lot more expensive. Well...they're for tango lessons...in Buenos Aires. Buck up chickie! This is something people dream of doing!!!

There are classes every 90 minutes from 9:30h to 22h every day at the Escuela Argentina Tango in the Galerias Pacifico - Centro Cultural Borges. You can just pick the time that suits you best and show up. Some classes are only for advanced or intermediate, some are for all levels.

Third floor of the Galerias Pacifico:

I have to say it was one of the best dance classes I've had in a long time. Forget the 1-2-3-4...footwork, which I was rather fussing over when I couldn't remember 'the basic step'. The emphasis was purely on energy and connection. Tango does not have set steps, per se. The man can play around with the steps as or if he feels like it. For me this means that I can't even possibly try to lead, something I tend to do. Instead, I can put my brain on pause, relax, listen to the music and ENJOY!

My new shoes, and pretty blue toenails:

Chau to Horseshoe Willy!

I stared at my backpack then at my clothes. I scratched my head looking at my suitcase then back at my backpack. I hadn't really bought anything new to pack. How on earth did they go in there in the first place?!

That debate, and eventual narrow victory, lasted most of the morning. Packing, a photo exchange with Guille, a nice lunch and the car return took us to 15h. (As predicted the car rental guys told Guille not to worry about the car door's broken lock as a result of the break in!!!)

It was tough to say goodbye to Guille and her mom, Alejandra, at the airport today. They were so good to me and they were such wonderful hosts. I know I will see them again soon so it was more of a 'see you later' (or make that an 'hasta luego') than goodbye!

Hasta luego, chica!

It's only an hour to BA from Bahia Blanca. Less if you have a snooze! ;o) I was back in BA before I knew it and based on the advice from Guille and Ale, I took a private taxi to my new 'home'. It was only 76$ (the price of the coffees and pastries I bought at the Bahia Blanca airport) and given I had all my earthly possessions with me (those not in a container in a Canada Customs storage lot) I went for the 'better safe than sorry' mode of transport.

I chatted with Adrian, my driver, on the way in and explained that I was going to be starting school the next day and that I was going to be staying at a home arranged by the school. Madame Matilde was expecting me around 21h.

Adrian seemed friendly enough but when he dropped me off in front of the door and drove off without confirmation that I was at the right place, he lost some serious points in my book. It was dark, there were no names marked on the door, I had no phone number, no phone. So much for being a gentleman! Fortunately the information I had from the school is reliable and I figured out which buzzer was hers.

Madame Matilde, or Matu, met met downstairs since you don't just 'buzz' people in here. Interesting! She welcomed me into her apartment and introduced me to her dog, Lula.

I think Lula is a breed closely related to the German Shepard. It's a breed apparently known for spinal problems because Lula can't really walk. Her back two legs don't work most of the time. It's so sad to see but she is good company for Matu who lives on her own. She mentioned a son so I wonder if she is a widow. Maybe I'll figure that out as the week goes on.

In any case, it was a school night and I was exhausted! My new 'cama' was calling me! I passed out in a matter of minutes.