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Published: February 4th 2006
AFTER ONLY ONE LESSON!
The Tango is not nearly as tough as people have made it out to be! With my coordination, and Griff´s passion for dance, we were quite good in only a short amount of time!Last week, Griff and I made a trip to the hospital to check out his lungs and see if there was anything more that we could be doing to speed up his recovery. Now, don’t panic about just reading the word, "hospital", because a trip to a hospital is cheaper and easier than a trip to a private physician. We chose the quicker route of checking in to a private hospital, owned by the Brits. We were wrong in thinking that a British Hospital would have doctors that spoke English, and so I began my new career of Medical Translation. I must have done all right because Griff came out of the hospital with all ten finders and toes, no unnecessary amputations were a result of my translating. He did however, come out with a shiny new X-Ray proving that his lungs were indeed clear and his unending coughing and chest constriction could be remedied by a visit to the pharmacy and the general avoidance of smoke, which is practically impossible here. This visit to the hospital took a total of about an hour and a half, and cost us a total of 28USD(including the X-Rays). That is expensive here, because
WITH A LOT LEFT TO LEARN...
This "professional" duo performed for us on the streets of San Telmo, a very old part of the city. I think we could teach them a thing or two though... had we gone to a public hospital the treatment would have been completely gratis! As you might imagine, being pent up in an itsy bitsy hotel room for 5 days with Griff, I too, came down with his cough and cold. We are the only two people in BA coughing up a lung. The doctor that tended to Griff thought this was quite funny, and thanked us for bringing such a lovely gift with us to Argentina.
As I mentioned in the last entry, Griff and I were looking for a family home stay, which did not work out, they were a bit out of our price range, BUT it ended up working in our favor because we found a wonderful, new, never been-smoked-in flat, that has been a fabulous place for us to cough until our lungs are content and make all sorts of terrible, throaty sounds while bothering no one. We would have felt awful bringing this into a family’s home! The flat was a Craig’s List find, and is not in a touristy or "cool" part of town, which we actually like, because everything is cheaper and there is a huge grocery store about 30 paces down,
LA BOCA
Griff stands next to a typical building in downtown La Boca. Above him are three of Argentina´s most famous people...a postcard goes to the first person who can email me the names of all three! a rare find in the heart of all the touristy action in BA. It is across the street from a subway station and only about a seven minute ride on the Subte (subway) to our language school.
Speaking of language school- I am absolutely DROWNING in verb conjugations! I was placed at an intermediate level class, after taking the admissions exam, and share a teacher with one other student. He is this wonderfully sweet Austrian guy, named Christian, who is a spitting image of Peter Eells in his yester year. Thing is, he speaks five languages and is a brainiac when it comes to dissecting the Spanish Language! It’s impossible to hate him though because he is just so darned nice! I am most certainly holding him back, and I feel quite sorry for the fellow, but even in all his splendor, he doesn’t seem to mind (but he is not the type to let on even if he did). Four hours a day of Spanish classes in this tiny room, sitting around a little table with two other people, and hearing the teacher say over and over and over, "Muy bien Christian! Muy, MUY bien!" and "Christian, PERFECTO!" and
WATCHDOG
There are dogs EVERYWHERE here...a lot of strays, but tons of domesticated pups too. They are all really well behaved and socialized. This adorable little guy was keeping close watch over his shop. then, "Amanda, por que? Por que no recuerdas el tiempo futuro perfecto argumento tratamiento juntolunto mr migato domoadigato?" Translation: “Amanda, why? Why don´t you remember the tense, futuro perfecto argumento tratamiento juntolunto mr migato domoadigato?”(yes, for those of you who didn´t know, there REALLY is a tense called that in this nutty language!) And of course, my brilliant answer always is, "No se." said in the weakest, most pathetic voice ever. My teacher reassures me that to achieve total understanding, one must struggle through a moment of complete confusion. I am definitely in that moment now. Griff however, is coming along fabulously (or at least that´s how I FEAL about how he is doing,) though he too loathes the hours in "the cube". He has been receiving one on one teaching for the first week. He claims he has learned more in this one week than in two years of high school Spanish. Today he told me on the subte that there are two things he hates about the Spanish language, first that he is not good at it -things are not usually this hard for him to understand- and second, that he can’t speak it.
Today was really
OUTSIDE THE CASA ROSADA
Griff and Mandy standing in front of the Casa Rosada (sort of similar to our White House). This is where Evita would address her people as they looked on from the Plaza del Mayo. our first day of hard core sight-seeing. We went to an area of Buenos Aires called Ricoletta. It is more uppity but there is a gigantic hippie- crafts fair on the weekends that we just had to check out. There were soooo many beautiful hand -made items there that I was dying to pick up, but then I imagined myself stuffing it into my pack and carrying it around on my back for a few weeks, all of a sudden the deals did not seem that sweet. I highly reccomend using this philosophy if you are planning on simplifying your clutter. Anything that you want to buy, carry on your person for a week, and if it is still there after seven days, keep it. If you gave up on day three, take it back. That power drill you think you need? Plunk it into your fanny pack for a while and see if you start to enjoy the idea of doing things the old fashioned way, with a screwdriver. The throw rug you think could replace the one that’s in the den? Rope it on to your back for a few days and see if you don’t start to
A WALK IN THE PARK
On a very hot and humid day, Griff and Mandy took a short hike through BA´s ecological reserve...it was not exactly a perfect picture of nature, but it was a few miles away from the smoke of belching busses and honking horns. This shot is after the hike, in a park right outside the reserve. think that the old pea green rug adds a certain "retro" appeal to the place. Those knee-high boots you’ve had your eye on? Pack them in your purse! After chewing gum for a week that resembles the taste of shoe leather, you may end up just taking the old ones in to the shoe-repair man.
JANUARY 31, 2006
Griff and I begin our 29th hour of Spanish classes tomorrow... can you believe how much school that is? I think I am entering that era of understanding that Socrates was talking about (it could have to do with the extra four hours of tutoring that I hired someone to do with me as well...so that makes it my 34th hour tomorrow). As far as the Peter Eells look-alike from Austria, we have become friends (this was inevitable) and actually have become quite interested in visiting Austria as well...especially when he told me that sometimes, they eat dessert as the main dish for dinner, AND that they often eat dessert BEFORE the main dish! This is truly a country to be visited in the very near future!
Griff and I visited another very famous part of the city, called La Boca. Each
WE DID IT!
Griff, Mandy, and some schoolmates with our certificates of completion! building is painted a different brilliant bright color. There are several Tango performances taking place on the street, people drinking wine and Coka Light (aka Diet Coke) in small cafes on the cobblestone sidewalk, and artists selling their trophies to the many tourists visiting this historical town. The only drawback was the enormous tour busses that filled this tiny town to capacity…tourists with cameras around their necks, money practically jumping out of their pockets, and their booming voices drowning the Tango music that throbs in the streets. Griff and I sat down on a park bench and just watched for a while....no joke, I am not exaggerating here, tourists were racing from booth to booth in a desperate panic to spend money. It was REALLY funny to watch people committing acts of wasteful spending that I have been sooo guilty of committing in the past. I felt a little embarrassed in front of myself.
As far as our spending is going, we have actually had to be a lot more careful than we had imagined, to stay within our budget. Things are about double what our Lonely Planet Guide had published, and we are experiencing first hand the financial crunch that an unstable economy can bring to a nation, of course in no way as strongly as the people who have lived with this for years and years. A few days ago Griff and I were walking home from school when we heard the most terrible clanging noise echoing throughout the streets. We eventually approached a bank and saw that the source of the clambering was a group of middle aged women with pots and hammers, banging them on the metal posts that hold up the bank´s exterior. A few days later, my teacher told me that these people (there is a larger group than the one that we witnessed), go to the bank everyday and do this in protest of what happened in 2001, when the economy collapsed. Everyone that had put one DOLLAR in their bank received one PESO in return (the exchange rate is about three pesos to the dollar). Of course there is a lot more involved in this situation than I am writing about, but, nonetheless, I’d call that a, “Major Bummer”. People here long to work, but the situation here makes many capable, educated people jobless.
There is something overwhelming about being a place with so many good people, so many SMART people, and so little place for them to contribute and reap monetary rewards for their work. It definitely makes one feel a lot more positive about the work that awaits them in the United States, and then to top that, I actually enjoy my job!
“The best way to appreciate your job is to imagine yourself without one.”- Oscar Wilde
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Martha Gonzales
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Surprise!