El fin de semana y forro

Sabado el 3 de septiembre – día 48

Today I woke up around 9:30 and had some yogurt and an orange for breakfast.  I did some random stuff online, and then decided to take a walk before my yoga class, which leads me to this, it’s time for another barrage of graffiti photos:

KCB... in Bs As!

Graffiti artists in action!

Ironic considering EVERYONE here smokes

After yoga I went to Fabrica del taco with Julie and Melissa.  I decided to try the quesadilla enchorizados (chorizo quesadillas) this time, which were pretty good.

Yes, that yellow color is actually from the lighting in the room...

A lovely mix of saints...

... and Mexican wrestling paraphernalia

Agua tamarinda

Guac again :)

yummmmm

After lunch Julie and Melissa went home but it was an absolutely GORGEOUS day out, the first really nice day we’ve had, so I went home and changed, then took a really long walk around the neighborhood.  I did some window shopping and found some stores I really like, so I’ll go back at some point and buy stuff (I haven’t bought much yet because I’m scared I won’t be able to fit everything into my suitcase for the trip home…).

Casual tango dancing in Plaza Serrano

Check out the shoes!

 I got some yogur-helado (frozen yogurt) at a store a few blocks from my house, and then went to the park to enjoy it.

Con frutilla y anana :)

Open mic in the park

I had plans to meet up with Ludi, Alicia, and Rory for dinner around 22:00 but their bus was late so we ended up meeting around 23:00.  We ate a really delicious restaurant in Palermo Hollywood called La Payana (I don’t have pictures because I didn’t take my camera since I thought we were going out after).  Alicia and I split a delicious dish called el gran sorteo (I think, I can’t remember exactly) which was a mix of chicken, pork, beef, and vegetables in a delicious sauce.  Then for dessert Rory and I split a manzana asada, which is basically an apple baked with butter, that’s served with ice-cream.  It was really good.  The grand total for my meal including wine and table service (they charge you $10 pesos for bread and use of the napkins etc.) was $70 pesos (~$17.50), I’m definitely going to miss these Argentine food prices when I get back to the US.

When we finished dinner we went to hang out at one of Alicia and Ludi’s Argentine friend’s apartment.  It was a lot of fun meeting and hanging out with Argentines, although a common problem here is nobody understands my name.  In fact, one of the guys thought we were saying “Tyson” before the one of the other guys said, “No, tAY-ler, like tAY-ler Swift.”  So my name became Taylor Tyson Swift for the night.

Ludi and I split a cab and went home around 4:30, and which point I was dead to the world until 12:00 the next day.

Domingo el 4 de septiembre

After waking up so late, I went downstairs around 13:00 to have breakfast.  Clarisa and Lu were also just getting up and having breakfast, everyone here stays out super late and on weekends starts the day late as well.  While I haven’t gotten accustomed to staying out so late, I could definitely get used to sleeping in all the time (not that I don’t do that anyway, it’s just more acceptable here).

After breakfast I finished up a short essay for my castellano class and attempted to read some of Facundo for my literature class.  It has proven very difficult for me to get into this book, it’s interesting but there are so many references to historical people/events that I don’t know, and it’s more like an essay than a book.  I’m really glad my professor explains everything so well and puts it in context for us because otherwise I would be completely lost.

I decided to watch some TV, and got sucked into the movie All About Steve (with Sandra Bullock and Bradley Cooper) which was actually terrible.

At 21:00 I left the house to meet Alicia.  She and Ludi have been going to this bar every Sunday where they have Forro (a Brazilian dance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgqvLd9tFMY&feature=related) lessons and then dancing for $20 pesos ($5).  I took the beginner lesson, which lasted about 30-45 minutes, then a band came and everyone dances with a bunch of random people.  It was a lot of fun, and I’ve officially been dipped and twirled (Kevin, I’m seriously making you take dance lessons with me when I get back).

I got home a little after midnight and went to bed.

Lunes el 5 de septiembre

I woke up around 9:30, had some breakfast and then did some work.  I had lunch then took the bus to the elementary school I’m tutoring at. 

 I was a little annoyed because the woman in charge emailed me last week to say she'd meet me at 13:00 when in reality the rest of the tutors showed up at 13:30 when the program was supposed to start, and she didn't arrive until 13:45, but that's just ArgenTIME for you.  The tutoring is a lot different from what I thought it would be.  The teacher told the kids that we don’t know any Spanish, and that we ONLY speak English.  I’m not really crazy about this since I don’t like that they’re lying to the kids, and for the young kids it’s pretty much impossible to have a normal conversation with them because they don’t know enough English.  We’re not really tutoring them, we’re just talking to them in English, and helping them prepare for an international English test.

Regardless, this was my first week actually working with the kids and I was really excited.  All of the kids I worked with today were in second grade.  I asked them all basic questions (how old are you, do you have any brothers or sisters, what’s your favorite color, what’s your favorite animal) and then used a study book with pictures, and asked them questions about the pictures.  At times they couldn’t understand what I was asking them and it was frustrating that I couldn’t clarify in Spanish, but it was still fun since the kids were so excited.

I rode the bus home with Emily and Julia.  I was walking home and stopped at a kiosko to buy more minutes for my phone when I happened upon this little delight:

I thought it was a chocolate filled with liquor-flavored cream, but no, it was actually a hollow chocolate shaped like a bottle with a sugar lining and pure liquor filling.  Genius.

Anyway, after that discovery I did some work.  I was going to go to yoga, which I thought started at 20:00, then at 19:15 I realized it started at 19:00… so much for that.

I had dinner with Clarisa and Lu, which was seasoned "natural" rice.  The rice had a little bit of a bite to it, but not because it was under-cooked, it was just the type of rice it was, and I thought it was good.  After dinner Clarisa and I had some more dulce de batata (the sweet potato/cherry dulce that I wasn't all that fond of since I don't like cherries) and mozzarella.

I'm off to bed now, I hope everything is just peachy back home!

Un beso,
Taylor

Random photo(s):

In the little courtyard in front of my house...

...the flowers are blooming!

:)