So I don't think my steak the other night was as good as they can be here. I will continue my search for "the best steak in the world", which is apparently here somewhere! I did have a great night though. I had lots of wine and beer and danced like a chica loca all night long to some classic dance hits from the 80s and 90s. It was brilliant!
I went shopping with Alex on Saturday. The quest to find an outfit to tango in proved much more difficult than I anticipated. I think Alex and I were in a really weird part of town... the clothes were awful in every single shop! We spent the entire day and I didn't find a single outfit. I was confused why Argentinians look normal, yet these shops were selling clothes that were maybe fashionable 10 years ago, and even back then they would have been classed as hideous I'm sure! We got a bit lost and due to bad communication, I ended up not meeting up with a couchsurfing girl I was due to meet that night. Just as well though; I was hungover and knackered. Early bed!
Sunday was a beautiful day. I wandered around the reknowned Sunday San Telmo market that sold lots of cool things such as antiques, art and bits and bobs. It was huge, bustling and packed full of lots of interesting characters. On my way back I chilled in the sunshine in Plaza de Mayo and ate what felt like my hundredth empanada (like a meat pasty). I just can't seem to find that many appetising things to eat and I can't read the labels yet so it's hard to know what I'm buying! Luckily empanada's are delicious. That evening I met Maria, an argentinian couchsurfer!!! She is awesome! I had a great time. We had a coffee in a trendy part of town called Palermo. Well I didn't drink coffee, I had a Submarino which is a hot milk served with a chocolate bar that you submerge into the hot milk. It melts making a scrummy hot chocolate. We went shopping in really cool places and had a great time chatting. One place we went was a bar that on weekends becomes a clothes market! So I tried clothes on in the loo and people were sitting around drinking, weird! She gave me lots of hints on what food to buy too, so hopefully I'll find something that isn't an empanada now! I'll be seeing her again soon and will hopefully stay with her next week, yay. I have had lots of couchsurfing messages from men asking to meet up. I think a few are treating CS as a dating service, but a couple seem genuinely nice people just wanting to meet up to help me find my way around, learn english or one to talk about physics(!), so I'll consider meeting them either with Alex or Maria in a public place (of course! Can't be too careful).
Today I wandered around looking for a shiny new notebook to write my notes for my spanish course (yay!) in and headed to Recoletta Cemetery, where the rich and famous of Argentina are buried, including Evita. It was a fascinating and sad place. The tomb were huge and so grand. There were big statues on the outside of most. They were like little houses with doors and then inside was stuff like pictureframes and vases then a cage on the floor under which the body is held, some had stairs! One door was open and it had stairs down to the coffin. It was really spooky! I peered down, but I was too scared to look inside properly. I don't think you were supposed to, it must have been a mistake that the door was open. They were doing construction work and maybe they were cleaning the insides of the tombs or something. I certainly didn't want to take my chances, the place was creepy enough!
My spanish class was at 1:30pm, so I headed there straight from the cemetery. Alex, the girl from my hostel, was in my class - the absolute beginners class! There was only another two people, a guy from Denmark and a guy from Oz. My teacher, Alejandro, is really great. He is clear and kinda funny. It was a really good afternoon; I learnt a lot. He told me my pronouncation was perfecto, I was muy contento! :) It's going to be a lot of work, but I have plenty of opportunities to practice so hopefully it won't take too long for me to get a working knowledge. Watch this space. A couple of Slovenians at the hostel gave me some of their yummy food tonight. It is not as cheap here as the guide book says; I was glad for the free meal! The guidebook is 3 years out of date and the prices have gone up a crazy amount, so bare that in mind if you come here. I'm certainly gonna be struggling. So much so that I am thinking of coming home early by a month - I'll keep everyone updated! Hope all is well in sunny Britain, or wherever you are. I feel much safer here now... all the stories of bad stuff happening have been to really stupid people or people that aren't aware of their surroundings at all times. Thankfully I don't fit into either of those categories, so for those of you that are worrying about me, don´t worry too much :) Until next time... love from gorgeous Buenos Aires. Oh, I've decided that instead of a really awesome story, think of my blogs as a really long postcard!
