Hola amigos!
I continue to really love Buenos Aires! I am settling in to the city & exploring a lot! I'm getting to know my way around & feeling more at home. My spanish is still sucking but, luckily I am able to understand nearly everything even if I can only speak at a 4 year old level. I'm still enjoying working for Lisa & am doing stuff like sorting samples, working on a spreadsheet, doing literature searches. The work is nostalgic for my old biology days & I feel like I am actually learning & working on a lot of helpful skills. It is amazing how much technology has changed since I was in school & doing scientific research papers, you can find absolutely everything so fast with the interweb! I remember the days of actually going to the library & photocopying journal articles out of a book! When I started college email had just been invented! Best to not date myself like that :) We are hoping to go out & do some fieldwork but the weather has been too unpredictable & rainy.
Something new is that I'm obsessing about the tango! I went to a milonga (group open dance) on the weekend that takes place in a plaza a few blocks away in the San Telmo neighborhood. I've never done tango before & by watching dancers I couldn't even get a sense for the basic steps, too varied & complex. Sometimes they will do a lesson prior to starting the dance but, not in this instance. Luckily, there was some intense dude there who wanted to teach me. After semi-mastering some clumsy moves I took to the dance floor to stumble about. It turns out that if your partner is a good lead & you can follow a lead you can do a simple tango without it being too terrible.
The milonga is a great scene. As a lady you just stand around until someone either comes up to you & stares at you intensely or catches your eye from across the way and gives you this intense stare & raises their eyebrows. You can either ignore this signal or give a nod. Then, in my case, I tell the man "I don't know how to dance" followed by "I don't speak spanish well". :) They are generally unperturbed, make some joke & you start dancing. Usually you dance 3 songs with the same partner & then have a break. I was mostly dancing with old men; it was awesome. They are experienced dancers & there is less potential for awkwardness. Men in Argi are really forward, it is the type of place where you will be walking down the street & get a lot of stares & perhaps comments. This can be flattering coming from a place like the USA where men do the aloof, ignore move. Like, I think about living back in Seattle where men (or anyone, really) would do their best to look off & away from you as you were the only two people passing on the sidewalk, avoiding any interaction. Here, people will STARE you down, even if they are on a bike! Lisa says that everyone gets this attention, even old ladies. So, it's an ego boost but, can also be awkward when a guy starts asking for your phone # or if you have a boyfriend. No need to really know anything else, right?? Even more awkward when you can't speak spanish so well to extricate yourself from a situation. I have developed some tactics including the imaginary boyfriend I have relied upon in the past. Oh yes, he is amazing! He is either back home in the US or maybe just around the corner depending on the need of the situation. Ha ha.
The point I meant to make was, the Milonga is so much fun! Lisa & I plan to check out some different ones around the city & have made a tango pact to go 2-3 times per week. Unfortunately, I don't really have the proper shoes, which are slidey heels.
My other key spanish phrases that I am using a lot lately are: "I don't understand", "I am confused" and "I'm sorry, I can't communicate". It's so funny. I remember a lot of vocab words but can't seem to get my verbs straight. Argentines use the "vos" form when addressing people formally. I don't remember vos conjugation & use "usted" which makes people chuckle & hopefully appreciate my effort or at least pity me.
It is raining out today & I have to run an errand that I have been working on to get my phone & internet working. There are lots of problems here with spotty internet, power outages, etc. Going on international phone errands is nothing I ever look forward to. Lisa has gone to Asuncion, Paraguay for a couple days so I've got the place to myself. Her coworker, coincidentally also named Annie (spelled "Any") (confusing), will come over to "work", invertebrate sorting during the day.
We've had HUGE rainstorms lately & hotter than avg temps. People are attributing it to possible climate change as everything extreme & weather related has been recently. I believe it.
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| cooling down |
Overall, I've felt safe here in Buenos Aires & have had no problems with sketchy situations despite it being a crowded city with some unsavory zones. The main thing I have to be vigilant about is just walking around. You must be on the lookout for various hazards including: dog poo, uneven surfaces such as holes, loose tiles/rocks, lots of people on narrow sidewalks, water dripping on you from air conditioners above, buses zooming by about a foot away, traffic in general... I find this game exciting but, you do have to maintain awareness. One of my top activities is just walking around observing things & taking photos. It is so interesting here! Lisa keeps telling me that I like "everything" & I guess it's mostly true, I am pretty easy to please. I'm happy to find life so interesting.
Oh, I did see some poor, tourist woman get robbed the other day. Someone pulled the old ride by on a motorbike & pull the purse off the shoulder bit. It's so mean! The lady fell down in the street. It caused a big scene & you couldn't help but feel sad. I latched onto my purse with a viselike grip and became extra aware of dudes on bikes. Don't worry, mom!! I've been told I walk "like a soldier" so no one messes with me. :)
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| that's right Argentina, i'll take photos of your sleeping, naked babies |
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| om namah shivaya! |
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| i could walk around looking at graffiti all day... |
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| these are the busses that barrel down the narrow streets giving me a fright |
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| it's too bad that there are tons of starbucks all over the city. on the bright side, this lady's pants are... bright. |
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| the nice building on the left is teatro Colon, the city's opera house. i'd like to go to one while i'm here. |
I went to an art museum, i adore art museums! Some highlights were an excellent array of french impressionist paintings, a lot of bronze Rodin's, a great special exhibit of an Argentine painter and some nice marbles. My favorites were these 3 Degas ballerinas. Gorgeous.
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| i got a print of this one so i can have it for always. |
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| my old pal Michelangelo, looking good buddy!! |
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| how about that hot marble statue man? |
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| this flower artwork supposedly closes up at night! |
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| this flowering tree, the crista-galli is everywhere. |
a ton of mailboxes on a corrugated tin shack type house |
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| nice! animal rights activists! |
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| here we have what is pretty much an outdoor thrift store. excellent! |
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| congress building |
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this is a big pigeon feeding area, the ground says "free seeds" :)
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| at the foot of the stairs @ home there is this nice mirror where you can check out your look before heading out. or you can do a quick dance or mime routine :) |
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| here @ home we have a bottle opener in the shape of a beer bottle with pope Francis on it. i love it. they do love il papa down here. |
I took a walk down to this neighborhood, "La Boca", that has a good futbol team & is popular for this area of colorfully painted buildings. It is pretty touristy, the most touristy place I've been here, which is a turn off. BUT, it you get off the three block radius tourist zone some great little middle class neighborhoody scenes can be seen.
dang! this was a slightly more run-downy area & there were a lot of junked out old cars just sitting in the street. this was likely the worst i saw, glad that's not my car!
dudes napping it out on benches in the heat of the day.
this was a small camp @ a Monsanto protest going on!
anti-Monsanto, this says... eat this corn... NOOOO! a snow white theme. i signed a petition.
el obilisco!
In closing, I went to the dreaded dentista again today, I've got a new mouth! That was enough dentist for me for several years, which is how I get into my dental problems... I just finished a great book! Run by Ann Patchett (Jasmin, read it!), it was a really thoughtful & sweet story, I also recently enjoyed Bel Canto by her. Now I am set to tackle Great Expectations, I like to challenge myself with a classic now & then. Alright friends, that's all I've got. Thanks for hanging in there through my silly stories, etc. For next time I hope to have captured a photo or two of a hairstyle I've been admiring, the Argentine rat tail mullet.
Oh, probably my best news... I've joined a yoga studio & have been going to some great classes most days. It is run by some expats with classes in English. Reminds me of my yoga teaching in Rome, too bad I couldn't have stuck it out there, I think expat yoga in Rome would have been hugely successful!
Love you all! xx
:)
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