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Published: January 13th 2008
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My bedroom
Not quite that tidy now Hi Everyone
I have decided to keep a record of what I get up to in my three months around South and Central America. This is partly for my own benefit so i can look back and remember everything which happened, and to keep u all informed and up to date (so I stop having to answer the same questions on facebook everytime).
I will strive to try and take photos as I go to illustrate my entries though I have a tendancy to forget to do this and when i do remember this photos are usually pretty shit with one finger over the lense. you will have to bear with me.
The school is made up of all sorts of nationalities. Theres three british guys, all from london, a load of people from America, swiss, swedish, dutch, german, french, brazilian. Almost everyone speaks english but tries to speak the spanish as much as possible which is good for me. I have now finished my first week of lectures at the school. They run in the afternoons from 2:00 til 6:00 so i get a decent lie in. Nice. Theyre really good in tiny clases of only 4
people so theres no hiding from the teacher. Luckily shes really nice and patient with me even when im being as thick as poo poo. I am slowly picking it up. I found one girl who works at the school who seems to understand my pig-spanish so i just need to get the other 11 million residents of buenos aires on my wavelength and im sorted.
Im staying in some proper swanky apartment right next to the school in the bureo (kinda like borough in london) of Recolata. Its a really nice part of the city with loads of restaurents and bars. Kinda like islington-highbury area back home. I live with a couple, Patricia and Peepen. Theyre both lovely and are helping with my spanish. Peepen doesnt say much (just walks around in his boxer shorts) but he loves his football so were gonna go watch the big river-boca game together at the end of january.
So far ive been out everynight experiencing a whole lot of culture (not all argentinian as u will see). On Monday we went to a street fiesta with people banging drums left, right and centre and locals breaking out in spontaneous tangos
The English representative
Gavin, Jamie and yours truely and other dances which invlove a lot of hip movement. Everyone can dance out here and they need very little encouragement to show off their moves. Some of the girls from the school are taking lessons so they can join in next time we go. Theyve asked me to join in but im reluctant right now. Maybe after a couple of Quilmes (local lager) i mite be persuaded. Afterwards i ate steak in this downtown parilla (argentinian steak house). These things are incredible. the food is out of this world and it costs hardly anything. The guys out here eat a lot of meat and they know how to prepare it.
Tuesday was a late one. Me and my mater eric (hes from texas and was in the navy driving? sailing? submarines) went to a bar with some american guys from the school. It was all a bit sarority kappa kappa frat boy. the bar runs a weekly beerpong nite. Its some american drinking game they play at college cos they cant do it legally in bars where u have to throw a ping pong ball into cups from across a table. The cups are filled with beer and
Eric
Hes from Texas if you get the ball in someone elses cups they have to down whatever is in the cup. When all ur cups are empty u lose and have to down all the cups ur opponent has got left. I was very good at it which unfortunatly meant i didnt get to drink many of the beers infront of me which i had bought. Something is not quite right there. It wasnt all bad cos some of the locals we beat bought me and eric beers for the rest of night after. Theyre very nice like that out here.
Wednesday i played (5-aside football) with some of the argentine guiys who work at the school. Kinda like goals on a monday night but with more stepovers and general overplaying (even more than you Mr Crook, agaisnt that crippled team of orphans as i remember). in then end it turned out my style of football is more suited to the cultered skillful stuff you get over here as i scored a goal and was generally a revelation...for the first five minutes and then i realised it was still 35 degrees and my legs gave way. good fun all round.
This
Me and Anna
Shes from Norway but speaks better English than me. Sad but true is all getting a bit long so i will paraphrase the next couple of days.
Thursday - learnt about history of country and went to china town.
Conclusions: this country had had a very sad and turbulent histroy where generally its the poorest who are persecuted for standing up for themselves and demanding the same rights as any human being should be affored.... and chinese food tastes virtually the same anywhere in the world.
Friday - Large steak followed by bar crawl
Conclusion - life is good
Saturday - went kayaking down the river ticre. Its was beautiful despite the fact i am shit at kayaking and tipped over twice when none of the other 30 student tipped over once. Pictures will follow hopefully.
Sunday - Went to San Telmo market which is very famous in Argentina. lots of art and photography and muaic and people doing the tango and randomly my mate Anthony Cox from school who i bumped into in the middle of the market. Random but true. If no-one has heard from anthony its because hes on a coach full of pissed up australians and kiwis but im sure he will back home
Buildings
Look how sunny it is! eventually.
Anyhooo thats pretty much up to date now. Sorry its a bit long winded. From now on the entries will be dailyish and therefore shorter. Speak to you all soon. Lemme know if something on this site is not working properly cos ive never used it before.
See ya
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donie6
eric m donie
Kayak Killing Machines
Damn straight those things are death traps. I swear someone payed those guys to rig ours up to kill us.