Spanish, Tango, and the Movies

This is a strange blog for me to write as it is the longest we´ve stayed in place, a whole 16 days. The reason for this is I got Bill to take two weeks of Spanish lesson at Expanish along with some tango lesson. And so, it felt like a break from our constant moving and packing and a chance to live in one place for a bit.

Though I will back track to our flight from Madrid here on Iberia as it was the first International flight I can remember taking where we didn´t have our own tv but a few in the cabin.  It was the longest flight we´ve had yet as we usually look forward to these flights as a chance to watch some movies, but not really this time.  And it was the first time that Bride Wars was playing on the air flight that I kept missing and had trouble downloading to my IPOD from Itunes.  And so the search for this movie continues. Not to mention that for a 12 hour flight they only feed us a meal when we got on and a light snack a bit before landing.  I think I´ll try to avoid Iberia in the future but is this what airplanes are coming too?

We arrived in Buneos Aires two days before we started classes and Bill picked out a nicer hotel after a long flight and we even got upgraded to a suite.  We decided not to go to our host family´s house right away but spend two days around the city by ourselves exploring downtown.  And that´s exactly what we did walk around the two main pedestrian walkway streets they have and we found a movie theater.  We saw Angles and Demons as they had movies in their original version with subtitles unlike Spain who dubs everything.

The next day we headed over to our home stay and the taxi dropped us off at the right street, but we were given the wrong address as we had 555, and that number didn´t exist.  Then a bum on the street point to the area we were suppose to go and as we were standing out there trying to think of what to do, someone from the building we were going to stay in came out and knew we should be with Alejandra and buzzed her for us. And so, we were going into 551.

And right away, we met Lucio and Alejandra as I tried practicing my poor Spanish and Bill nodded.  Shortly, Amanda came down the stairs, an American doing an internship at a newspaper.  And of course, we were greeted by Morocha who loves to jump all over you.

The family we stayed with was Alejandra and Lucio and their two children Brenda and Nicolas.  They keep a full house of foreigners, so when we first arrived, Amanda, an American, was just getting up from her long night out and taking it easy as it was Sunday.  And the other American, Valeria, was in Colonia for the day and she was at the same school as us, so we would take the bus with her in the morning.  Well, not our first morning as we had to go in an hour early for orientation.

Alejandra and Lucio´s house was set up perfectly for having students in and out and that´s why when we were lost everyone around knew where we were suppose to go.  They have the main part of the house which the bottom floor is a huge living room, a raised dining room, and then a kitchen.  There a three bedrooms upstairs in the main house.  And then the outside part has one room along the stairways and then two rooms further up some stairs.  One room is a bit smaller and across the roof part is the second room where we stayed with a bathroom next to it for both rooms to share. There was another bathroom down at the bottom of all these stairs that she first showed us, and I was afraid that was the one we´d have to use, but luckily, there was one upstairs as well.

The only problem we had with this room was the tiny water heater for the shower that lasted less than 10 minutes but took about an hour to reheat. So usually one of us would try to shower at night so we could move quicker in the morning.  Though one morning we had absolutely no power in our room, so we had assumed it was the whole house.  But it turns out it was only our room and the bathroom as our heater blew out and took the electricity with it.  But we still made it to school and made use of our flashlights, so it all worked out.

The best part of this home stay was dinner as it was a chance to enjoy home cooked meals as well as a chance to practice my Spanish and get to know everyone better.  Though at times I did have to translate for Bill to Alejandra and Lucio even though there English was probably better than my Spanish.  Both Valeria and Amanda spoke Spanish pretty well and understood a lot more.  Amanda was interning at a newspaper and taking some classes as she was staying for the whole summer.  Brenda was taking English at school and would ask for help every once in awhile, but her English was pretty good as well.  Though she made a point to talk Spanish so we could practice.  Our first week in the house, we didn´t see Nicholas very much but got a chance to see him a few times during our second week.  Brenda and Nicholas look so much a like. After dinner, a few times,  Alejandra asked us to show her our tango and then she had Bill dance with her, and she claimed she wasn´t very good but that wasn´t true.

As for the Spanish classes, we signed up for two weeks through Expanish who also arranged the home stay and tango lessons as a package.  At first, Bill and I were in the same beginners class, but the teacher though I looked bored and moved me up one class.  I must say for having so much Spanish, I really can´t speak or understand very much and fit in at the beginner´s level.  Though at times it felt like I was getting better until there would be some sort of announcement in Spanish and I couldn´t even get the gist of it.  But I´ll keep working on it.

The Spanish classes themselves were what I was expecting, but I was hoping for a bit more.  The teachers were great, but they weren´t necessarily supplied with extra supplies.  We were given a photocopy of a photocopy bounded book for our classes which the teachers rarely used if at all because it wasn´t that helpful.  They were usually bringing in their own handouts or making their own.  I thought for being a private small school, the school could have some sort of library or multimedia elements that the teachers could use, but if the teachers wanted a tape for us to listen to, they´d be bringing in their own materials. I guess it´s like that at all schools, but I always thought private might have more supplies especially with the price we pay it could be fairly easy to develop a library, but I guess that´s the teacher in me talking.

In the class I shared with Bill, the teacher, Maria, started speaking Spanish right away and we did various activities and quite a bit of write.  Though I tried not to answer all the questions to try and give others a chance to answer and I think that´s when she thought I was bored.  And so, I moved to Flo´s class who was a week above this class and we would shortly be working with the past.  Learning Spanish depends quite a bit on learning all the forms of the verbs because the same word can sound so different depending on what form it is in. In my class where two girls from Scotland who had never had any Spanish before and were doing just as good as me.  I probably just need to keep working at it.

Though after class, we always had some homework or Spanish studying to do, so I could get Bill to go to Starbucks with me and do our work upstairs on the couches on the days we had tango lessons as it was less time than going back to our home stay.  And so, I got my Starbucks fill for a bit as I know it will be a while until I get one again.  But we got our homework done as well.

Flo also taught my class the finer points of Mata, which is the tea drunk throughout Argentina and other parts of the Southern Part of South America.  Many people drink it instead of coffee to wake them up.  Though it is a drink shared among friends or co-workers or any group. A special cup is used that almost looks like a mug, and the tea is filled to almost the rim of it.  Then you tip the tea to the side and put a tiny bit of cold water, then you place the bombilla inside which is like a straw with a spoon at the bottom but the spoon has the little holes inside of it making it look like a tea sifter.  Then depending on taste, you can add or not add sugar.  And then you fill it up with warm water not boiling as you are really drinking it through a straw.  And when the water runs out, you pass it clockwise to the next person, and they fill it up with water and drain it, and it continues to be passed.  Eventually when the tea starts to float at the top, it´s time to change the leaves.

The school also provided some outside weekly activities, but we had already signed up for tango lessons and wanted to spend our evenings making sure we could make dinner with our host family, so we didn´t really participate in any of them.  The tango lessons were through the school, and at first, we were told that our individual lessons could be done together, but we shortly learned that wouldn´t work.

We first went to two sessions of the group lessons before we could schedule our private lessons that were included, and so we started our slow process of trying to get some of these steps with minimizing the times we stepped on each other´s toes.  Believe it or not, but at first, I was stepping on Bill´s toes more than he was stepping on mine.  Our individual lessons worked out better separate because our instructor could focus on each of us separately so we could improve faster rather than trying to do it together.

At the end of our first group night, we ask if we could switch partners, and we did but my partner had to take it very slowly with me and keep starting over. As we processed through the lessons, we started to learn how to keep going even if we make a mistake as you can´t always get back to the starting position.

During our private lessons, our teacher Giselda, took time to help us work on our weaker points, so that when we danced together again it might be easier.  Though dancing with Giselda was so much easier that the first time Bill and I danced together again we almost started fighting.  But Giselda got us working well together again.

Part of our lessons, was a trip to a Milango, which is a traditional club were people come to dance tango. Though the tango danced at the club we went to was more the traditional form where you dance cheek to cheek. We were learning a more modern version where you have a dancing frame which is probably much better for us because it gives a bit more room not to step on each other´s toes, but we had to keep working on keeping the frame correctly throughout dancing.

Our guide, Max, to the Milango started to explain all the unwritten codes to dancing the tango at one of these places.  It all starts with the cabezazo, which is a simple nod a gentleman will give to a lady across the room, and if she returns it, he will simply get up and bring her to the dance floor.  Most of the time men and women sit in different areas of the room to allow for the easy flow of the cabezazo.  These nods take place during a break in the music.  The break is after a set of four tangos in which you need to keep the same partner and in which you are not finished dancing until they are over.

In the beginning of each tango, there is an introduction where you simply talk to your partner standing on the dance floor until it´s time to dance.  And this continues for the four tangos, once they are over, each returns to their own table.  If you don´t continue dancing for all four songs, it is considered an insult to the partner. So even if you realize your partner has more limited skills than yourself, you just have to wait to get a new one.  Though usually, you only dance one set with the same person and the breaks in between give you a chance to get another partner. Couples that come often times dance once together and then dance with others throughout the night. If you dance with the same person more than once, it usually indicated that you are interested in them.

At the milango we went to, there was a wide range of age and so the couples on the floor reflected this range.   It also played music from the 1930´s and 1940´s which Max said was the golden age of tango. So you pick your milango based on the type of music you want to hear, the type of dance, and the type of crowd you want as they will vary throughout the city.  They also rotate nights that they are open, so on a week night, you can probably find about 5 open each night and 10 or more on the weekends though the locations will vary in the different barrios.

Of course, since this was my break from traveling, we saw tons of movies as many American movies are shown in their original version with Spanish subtitles. And I finally was able to see the DVD version of Bride Wars, which I bought on the street for about $2.  It had become a mission to see it just because when it was in the theaters whatever country we when in, I´d just miss it coming out, or it had just left the theaters.  And then I tried to get it for the IPOD and that failed, and then the plane ride I described earlier.  And so by now, it was just a mission, and now the mission is completed.

I´m also starting to learn about trying to get other types of food in a country such as trying to get Mexican in Argentina.  They really don´t know what the food really is.  They tried to serve enchiladas as to hard small tostado shells with some meat underneath and a scoop of spicy sauce on top.  Quesadillas weren´t much better as they didn´t even melt the cheese, and so, when he asked what I thought of the food, I told him it was nothing like Mexican food.  But we did find a hamburger stand that served fresh fruit cups with an interesting cream and that brought us back quite a few times.  Also, you can find empanadas everywhere and cheap, so we were eating a lot of those as well.  And we had the steak a few times, but the best meat we got from Aljendra´s house.

We did quite a bit of walking in between our classes and dinner time.  There is a downtown area of pedestrian walkways which you can find quite a bit of stuff.  This is where we ate quite a bit, and bought some clothes as well as went to the movies.  But we were out about in a different neighborhood one night and found another movie theater on the internet and found where all the locals go to the movies as it was packed compared to the other theaters.  And here, you pick the seat you want to sit in.  If they did that in America, people wouldn´t have to wait in line for three weeks before the next Star Wars came out.

Though we felt we weren´t venturing out enough throughout the whole city so we took the hop on hop off bus to see what we hadn´t seen.  And boy was it cold on the top of that bus, it usually wasn´t that bad when we were walking around but sitting with the wind was a different story. And listening to the English descriptions was hard to do as well as the voice was really boring to listen to plus it was hard to hear with all the wind.  I probably should have tried the Spanish, but I stuck to the English.  I later learned from my Spanish teacher that this bus is only a couple of months old.

It gave us a great overview of the city though and a very expansive city at that.  It also gave a chance to figure out which burros we didn´t want to miss as it is divided into these areas, but you are never quite sure where the lines that divide these areas are.

When we first arrived to Buneos Aires, we started walking around at bit, but we always seemed to venture down to the same pedestrian street area in Al Centro.  We spent so much time there going to the movies, or trying to find warmer clothes, or getting some food.  And so the long weekend we had since Monday was a holiday, we decided to venture out a bit.  And started with San Telmo which we kept hearing such great things about, but we went on Saturday and everyone kept saying to go on Sunday.  And so, we didn´t find much to do in this area. And ended up going back to the pedestrian walkway for another movie.

Though the next day we found ourselves in the area of Recoleta as we were heading towards the cemetery.  But since it was a holiday weekend, we got side tracked by a market in the park and saw some tango dancing as well, much better than us maybe in 20 years we could be that good.  They also had bands playing here all weekend but it was already Monday and the weekend was almost over.  But we enjoyed a bit of looking at the street market, and I got my occasional souvenir.   It was getting dark so we didn´t make it to the cemetery that day and headed towards the movies once again.  This time we found the theater here where the locals go to as I described earlier.

We did make it to the cemetery the following Saturday which worked out well as we had to go to the bus station first to pick up our tickets for the following day. It was a good time we were not in a hurry to get the tickets as this station is huge, it has over a hundred windows with ticket sellers to different parts of Argentina.  But they do have a great bus system and offer very comfortable rides.  A seat that goes all the way into a bed can be arranged, and they feed you, albeit the food can be worse than airplane but it´s food.

So I kept hearing about this cemetery and wondering what made it different from all the other ones.  My Spanish teacher said that it´s full and no one can be buried there anymore though we did find a recent burial there but who knows when the plot was bought. But this cemetery is like walking into a little city.  And to top it off as you walk in, you´re greeted by all kinds of cats, so I got to pet a bunch, hope my kitty didn´t get jealous.  We saw them everywhere as we found cat food all around the place.  But every plot looks like it´s own little home and tons of statues and decorations throughout.  Even quite a few stain glassed windows.  Though it has that grey feeling to it, so you still feel that it´s a strange place and full of dead people.  After going back out and conferring with the map again, we found Evita´s tomb, but it was quite a bit smaller and hidden more than I thought it would be.  I don´t like cemeteries but this one was definitely different.

I´m not having very good luck with clothes here.  I´ve found a new jacket and a shirt, but I really would have liked some new jeans.  I kept hearing what great jeans rapsodia has as it´s a special type of material and fit really well. And one of the guide books says they have jeans for all shapes and sizes, but left out the part that it goes from size 0-10 and not really all shapes and sizes.  And so I fit into a pair barely, but didn´t like them at all.  So much for that.  I threw this story in here to lead into what happens when we return this night to our house.

We pick up our laundry first, and it was weird because she sees us and tells us to come in.  Normally, they give you your stuff through an open part of the gate.  We go in to find out that my clothes had a dryer incident meaning there wasn´t much left.  I found a piece of my good Northface sweatshirt, and remnants of my jogging pants and a bra.  Also, a new shirt I bought in Greece from H&M had the stitching melted making it impossible to wear.  Needless to say, Bill´s stuff all survived.

We went home and told Alejandra what happened and she ran out the door to yell at them in Spanish as it was hard for us to understand the lady.  We figured nothing was going to come out of it, and so we just didn´t pay and I had to deal with it.  Though Alejandra was on a mission but when she returned it didn´t sound like she got anywhere, as she just kept saying they were arguing, but the lady kept yelling to the other one in ¨chino.¨ At this point, there was nothing to do and it was the third time we had taken our clothes there.

On our last day, we decided to hit the places that we realized we wanted to see before we left.  I picked the MALBA where I could see a Frida Kahlo painting.  Though I wasn´t expecting such a place of modern art that it was, but it was interesting to see.  I did enjoy the self portrait of Khalo´s I got to see, and a chance to see some exploratory art.  Bill looked more confused than me most of the time.

Then we went to his choice which was to check out La Boca.  The barrio got it´s reputation in a sad way as it´s a very colorful area.  The reason it became that way was that it was an area for immigrants to live cheaply. One floor would have about 8 or so rooms, which one kitchen, one bathroom, and one balcony.  A family of 5 or more would live in each room, and so it was a very crowded place to live as well as very unsanitary.  But the owners wanted a cheap way to upkeep the place and so they would take left over paint for the ships using whatever colors were left creating the colorful area of town.

Well, now it´s kept up the color for the tourists and to visit this area as it´s very lively.  We got to see tango dancing and all the houses now have tons of shops to see.  Though my Spanish teacher told me that there are areas of Buenos Aires where people still live that way.

And so it was now time to return to our host family for one last chance to say goodbye.  Though they were worried as we told them our bus was at 5 but I realized that morning that it was 7 so we had more time.  Apparently though, we missed a big feast for lunch they had in honor of Father´s Day.  But I downed some of the leftovers as we said our goodbyes.  And now it´s time for our bed bus ride to the waters falls of Iguazu...

Michelle