So, another blog. I guess I’ve gotta catch ya’ll up on my life! Not a whole ton has happened since Iguazú, but two weekends and nearly 3 weeks did pass, and so I’m gonna talk about that time.
The first week back was a pretty relaxed one, though I was being stressed by an extra class I still had. I dropped it within a few days, so that was resolved. The weekend after Iguazú was homework weekend, minus productivity. I found myself in the corner/bar restaurant more than once doing homework till late (though in reality I go there to hopefully talk to interesting people, usually succeed if I am there really late). This leads me to last week. Last week I had my first instances of my grupos de immersión cultural. Culture immersion groups, obviously. After my one class till 1 on Thursday, I have 2 hours of my music group and, 3 hours later, an hour and a half of my conversation group.
Music group was just at its beginnings, of course, but I really enjoyed myself. We played around on congas, cajónes, and a few other instruments that I cannot name yet. The beats were really simple because we’re building off the Colombian Cumbia right now and the experience with music is very varied. I’ve never played a single percussion instrument, but I can at least read music and have played before. The leader for the music group is an incredibly chill argentine musician who just wants to play and get into it. He’s…just…cool. Gotta appreciate him.
After that I went over to my friend Sarah’s house for a while to kill time before the conversation group that she also had. It rained on us a lot on the trip there…woo. So I had wet feet until I got home really late that night. The “3” hours went really quickly based on travel time, and we ended up a bit late to the conversation group, but we met this guy named Federico. He was incredibly interesting, spoke GREAT (only a few errors, with like have and has, and some pretty accented words) English, and taught us some things about castellano. We talked about dances (he dances Salsa lots), school, language, FOOTBALL (I was thrilled to meet an Argentine that was really into their football), and different countries and peoples. After THIS, a group of 3 of us were hungering and had plans to go eat, but everybody was headed to a boliche to try to find free pizza. Which we did, and we did get pizza. It was good, fairly free, but it took FOREVER to get and there were great waits in between slices. Oh well I suppose. I left earlier, about 12:15 I think, wanting to get home and get some sleep so I could be up at a reasonable time on Friday. I walked with Max to the buses, waited till he got on one, then decided on which bus I wanted to take. I couldn’t find the stop, walked an extra two blocks, and ended up having to ask a random waiter. At the same time as I asked, a black guy was failing at ordering a beer in Spanish, so I offered to help. Afterwards, the guy told me to sit down and have a beer with him. I asked if he was brazilian (which I kind of doubted) and he told me in pretty good English that he was actually South African. I decided he was way too interesting to just walk away from, so I sat down and we talked for a long time. It was a fun conversation, but he was definitely drunk and for the first time I definitely had too much alcohol myself. I have no ideas what my limits are, and didn’t realize that I was finishing the glasses quickly and thus going to be feeling it MUCH more quickly (for those of you who haven’t realized, the legal drinking age is 18 here, and I’ve wanted to experience this part of the culture too, the national beer – Quilmes). I was trying to get on my way, but somehow he kept filling up my glass and by the time I got going it was about 2:10 and I was realllllly feeling the beer. I got home with no issues, at least, and didn’t even have to wait too long for the bus, which was nice. There was a distinct lack of bathrooms on the wait/bus ride though, and it’s been years since I’ve had to go THAT BADLY. I made it home though, went to sleep, and didn’t feel any sort of headache or hangover in the morning, so I probably didn’t go as far as I thought I did. I know I didn’t have much beer, actually, it was just the speed at which I had it and my inexperience….I feel pretty bad about all that, anyway.
Then, last weekend I just lazily sort of did homework. I saw a show one night, at some random hostel, performed by a musician from Philly that I met at the corner bar/restaurant. He did a Jack Johnson cover of Banana Pancakes, Free Fallin’ by Tom Petty, and loads of other stuff, finishing with Sublime. It was great! Getting food was hard. Oh, and I also saw a BAFICI movie (the independent film festival here, it’s supposedly one of the most prestigious ones) which was very confusing and not very good…but it was free. So no complaints. I ran into 2 other Americans (both of which speak great Spanish) that I also met at the corner place and went to a bar with them and two argentines that were with them. We chatted for a good while, then I spent a little longer at the corner place and ate something, finally going to sleep at about 5am. Sunday I spent around 4 and a half hours in a nearby café with a few friends doing homework. I had one of the best banana smoothies of my life there, and discovered that that particular café “El Bar Poesía” is one of the best I’ve been in. I read a TON of poetry for my literature class (as should be!) and generally accomplished a lot for that class.
This week hasn’t been too special so far. I had two tango classes on Monday, as per usual, and both were really enjoyable. There was a time or two when I messed up because I just…kind of lost my train of thought. I was running on 4 and a half hours, and I’ve determined that as the cause. Yesterday, Tuesday, I had my regular classes, which were nothing special. I didn’t feel so good because I heard that my Aunt Patty fell and broke her hip while in Seattle
Today I usually have class until 1, and then head to Casa Del Niño, a place where I volunteer for a few hours each week. That should be explained – it’s for my class “Seminario de Aprendizaje y Servicio/Seminar on Community Service and Volunteerism.” I’ve had it two weeks so far, and both times have been great successes. It’s incredibly fun to play with the kids and try to teach them things (we played baseball last time, but everybody already knew what they were doing). Even just talking to them is great. The challenging part is controlling them, keeping them from fighting and cutting in line, and understanding them. Their castellano is quiet, slurred, and very rapid. So I get about 30% of what they say at best. Oh well, I’m learning. I learned the words for tag, hide and go seek, the monkeybars, the baseball bat, and for pushing a swing. Today my class was unexpectedly canceled, so I’m trying to be productive. I have Casa del Niño in an hour and 45 minutes! :D
Abrazos para todos, desde Buenos Aires (Hugs for all, from Buenos Aires)
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