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Published: October 12th 2005
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My three weeks here in Buenos Aires seems to have flown by. It seems like only yesterday that I left Melbourne and the six months I´ll be spending in South America doesn´t seem like the huge amount of time that it first did.
My life in Buenos Aires revolves around Spanish classes at the moment. I´m enrolled in a school in the city, in one of the main streets. After a brief test (which I flunked) they slotted me into the ´Basic´ level. I´m studying with a Korean girl (Heain), an American girl (Maddie) and another Australian girl (Georgia). The classes have been really great and I´ve got a lot out if it. I´ve progressed from saying single words to saying full sentences. As a result, I've decided to stay on in Buenos Aires for another couple of weeks to study the next level of the course.
After my 3 night stay at the dodgy 'Alkimista' hostel, I attempted ringing a family that offers homestay. They didn´t speak any English and, at that stage, I really knew no Spanish, which, I've since discovered, makes trying to communicate on the phone quite hard.
I´ve found a really nice hostel
San Telmo
A Puppeteer on the streets of San Telmo in the next suburb south of the city, San Telmo. The hostel is clean, moderately quiet and I somehow managed to get a double room for the price of a single so it´s huge and has it´s own bathroom. It´s been a bit of a luxury but, seeing as I´ve decided to stay on, I might move somewhere a little cheaper.
San Telmo is a great place, full of artists and really cool people. Every Sunday it hosts an antiques market in Plaza Dorrego. This place is awesome and has such a great atmosphere. It´s really like stepping back in time. The cobble-stone streets are the stage for all of the buskers around town. They obviously take influence from the environment because there´s a whole lotta posing-as-statues going on. The cafés are jam-packed with people sipping coffee, relaxing and watching the passing parade and it´s such a nice way to spend a lazy Sunday.
Last weekend I went along to the football to watch (my newly appointed team) 'River Plate' play 'Velez'. I arranged it with a touring company that picked me up from my hostel and dropped me off. I expected I might meet some cool people,
San Telmo
More buskers on San Telmo's streets in similar circumstances but my attempts at conversation failed, with everyone preferring to keep to
themselves. It was really weird and awkward. I felt like I´d just stepped in dog poo. The experience was quite grounding as there´s so much positive re-inforcement, from onlookers, when you walk around the city, that you feel like you´re almost ready to run for the title of 'Miss World'. I might wait til next year.
Despite the awkwardness of the situation, the football was a great experience. It was a home game for River Plate so 5 minutes before the game started I wondered where all of their supporters were, because the stands were almost empty. Not more than a minute later, they all marched into the stadium, chanting the team song, along with banners, flags and even their own band. The chanting didn´t cease for the whole time so I have no idea how they managed to pay attention to the game. The whole thing was really interesting but, like any good footy match it was bloody freezing. River Plate lost.
Last night Maddie and I went off to see a show called '
De La Guarda'. Apparently it tours all over the world
San Telmo
'The Imperial Orchestra' busking on a street corner in San Telmo. and has been to Australia. It´s hard to explain what exactly it is. I guess it´s a mixture of circus arts and performance art set in a dance party (with lots of water). The show was absolutely amazing and I´d definitely recommend seeing it if you´re ever in a position to be able to (though if you do, wear old shoes and expect to get wet). As is everything here, it was ridiculously cheap. Tickets were only $27 pesos, which is about $12 Australian. However, it´s nowhere near as cheap if you saw the show elsewhere.
It took me a while to get used to the city but now I love it. Though I didn´t want to admit it in my first e-mail, my first week here was really hard. I really didn´t know what to do with myself and the language barrier was hugely difficult to overcome. But now that I´ve gotten into a bit of a routine, and I´ve learned enough Spanish to, at least understand the gist of things, I´m really enjoying myself. I´m enjoying hanging out with the people that I´ve met and it´s already going to be sad to leave them in a couple
of weeks. I think it´s going to take me a while to get used to the idea that I´m going to be a nomad for the next few months.
I still don´t have a firm plan of where I´m going to go but I think my first destination will be Iguazu Falls, in the top North-East of Argentina. I´m thinking of doing a bit of a loop around Argentina and then making my way up through Chile, and then on to Peru and Bolivia. Bolivia is probably going to be a few months away but I´m really keen to do some volunteer work for '
Inti Wara Yassi'.
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