Advertisement
Published: January 21st 2007
Just A Quick Update on Life in Buenos Aires:
Another week down, and a very busy one at that, marked by adventure, a few episodes of loneliness here and there, and, of course, the terrifying yet thrilling unknown. Exploring more of the city and preparing for my internship has occupied the majority of my time. This week I located the agency where I will intern and did a practice run on the bus in getting there easily from my house. Spanish class continues to keep me busy; although, I must admit, I am happy to have a break for few days. I decided earlier in the week that I would take a trip to Mendoza, an Argentine province situated at the foot of The Andes. Departing Buenos Aires this evening at 8 PM, I will travel to Mendoza with a friend I met in Spanish class on an overnight bus, which should have us at our destination by 9 AM tomorrow morning. A hub for outdoor adventure and home to the finest vineyards in Argentina, Mendoza, it is said, "is the land of the good sun and the good wine of Argentina." We´ll see. Nevertheless, I am very excited to be discovering a new part of this country. The trip will last five days, which should be just enough time to tour the vineyards, hike, and maybe pop over to Chile for an excursion or two.
Last Sunday I visited Museo Malba, where I was introduced to the works of Antonio Berni, an Argentine painter, sculptor and printmaker whose works (in this museum at least) largely depict the pain and oppression of working class citizens throughout Argentina. Another interesting venture involved a dabble in foreign film-foreign to Argentina that is-which means that the subtitles were in Spanish, and I was therefore twice removed from the actual dialogue. It was exhausting and not entirely enjoyable to watch, as I had to scrutinize and duly contemplate every written word. In the end, I´d say I probably grasped about 75% of the content. Nevertheless, La Noche de Señor Lazarescu, a Romanian comedy about a lonely old man´s experience seeking proper medical attention, is worth renting if you have an empty rainy day at hand.
I guess the absolute highlight of the week belongs to the events of last night. After a good dinner in a nice but very posh area of the city called Recoleta (and you will remember that Porteños don´t eat until around midnight, which means the night was destined to be a long one), I accompanied some newly made friends to a place called Azucar. Well, Azucar just happens to be a dance club where Proteños dance salsa and Merengue until dawn. I, however, did not realize this until I was pushed out onto the dance floor into the mayhem of about 150 bodies grinding, with Latin motion, the night away. So there I was, the Gringa, standing out like a sore thumb amidst a crowd of people well versed in the motion of salsa rhythm. I hung in there, though, giving my best effort until we headed for home at 4:30 AM. Needless to say, I have my next objective well defined now: I will learn how to properly salsa (and tango) Argentina style. Why not?
So there you have the fun part; I do realize, however, that I am here to do an internship, and so I fully expect the flavor of this trip to change a little once my field work begins on February 5. I realized this morning in fact, that I have two more weeks to perfect my Spanish before the real work begins. In all honesty, I do indeed have a lot of "perfecting" to do linguistically, meaning that once home from Mendoza, my energy will be fully devoted to field work preparation. But as I am excited by the internship and what it has to offer, I am, not surprisingly, ready and anxious to begin. I want to start tomorrow!!
In summary, I feel happy and expectant, but I am also thinking of everyone at home and am wishing that I could spend an evening with you this week. Again, thank you for all of the emails, the snail mail and the unending support that you continue to send my way. I appreciate it more than you know.
Photos to follow soon.
Cheers!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.136s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 5; qc: 51; dbt: 0.1011s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Pam
non-member comment
Tango!
How cool! When you return to Austin, you'll have to teach your lane mates on Team Texas how to tango!