OK... For those of you who think all we are doing is eating/drinking/sleeping/sightseeing, you a very much mistaken. It just seems that those are the easiest things to write about, and even though I mention other things, I fail to go into large detail on them as I did with the peice of meat I ate at new years, which I describe for 1/2 of a paragraph in "Feliz Año Nuevo". I will now focus on the other things, besides the food, drinks, and sleep of Buenos Aires.
We spent the majority of the day after and, the day after new years(Jan 2nd) studying spanish at an awesome bookstore in Buenos Aires. El Ateneo Liberia, is the grandest bookstore in BA, with a humble doorfront on Santa Fe St. in downtown BA. When you walk in , It seems small, however, the back of the first room opens up into a large room with an open middle on an the sides, there are five floors. All the floors are balcony style so you can see the main floor in the middle, and all the bannister are adorned with gold colored plating. Most of the books are in spanish, and all of the Argentina guides are from argentina, meaning, no lonely planet, no rough guides, no guide books that are a) in english, b) international ones from international companies. Right now, we still don´t have a guide book, but we need one for our trip down to patagonia.
After walking through the bookstore a few times, we headed to the back, to a Stage-like floor, that was the café. We sat on a couch arcross the table from a french proffessor, that lived here in buenos aires. We talked with him for some time, He has taught english to people from BA, and now he is teaching french (there is less compitition) and leading tours around the city in french. We started our 4 hour study session, with flash cards, lessons from laina, where I take notes. During our studying a man from BA sat down and we chatted with him for a few moments, he gave us some helpful advice on where to travel to while we were in patagonia! Very helpful. Traveling sure does help you meet many people from around the world.
After our long study session, we headed towards the Obilisk, and saw that there were many people crowding the main avenue. We headed towards the street, and then we realized, after some time, that the international Car Rally Race, "Dakar Rally" which originally took place from Paris, France and went to Dakar, Senegal, was changed to be in south america now, because of political instability in Africa. So we walked back to stef and Caros house, with a stop to study some more flash cards, my spanish is getting better!
As it turned out, the Rally race was going right down Ave de Mayo the street our hosts live on! We were on the other side of the street, so we went to the grocery store, got materials for dinner( we are cooking for our hosts, tonight: loco moco!), and then found a small space to jump across the road, and head to their house. Up on the 7th floor in their apartment, we started to hear horn of the rally cars that are headed into town, they were so loud! and they continued until almost 12, midnight!
The next day we contacted our new host for the next week, Ceclia! She does not speak much english, so our time with her will also be a language exchange! We are staying at her apartment in Palermo Soho, an eastern neighborhood in Buenos Aires. Once we settled in, and exchanged ideas on knitting(she knits too!) We went out see Palermo. This district is very nice, it has lots of trees, old building, parks and statues.
I am starting to realize that my contacts may not be the type you can keep in your eyes for two weeks straight. For the thrid time, about three days after I put my contacts in, my right contact gets blurry. Hmm.
Later that night we head to the bar that Cecilia works at, Maximo. It is a high end bar with high prices. We spent alot of time there with many other couchsurfers we met during our last week here in BA, A jewler from England, a traveler from Austrailia, three porteño (from BA) girls. We have alot of fun, and I am trying to speak spanish as much as possible. I am able to put together full sentances, with proper conjurgation, like, we, you and I, for simple sentances. I get really excited, when I saw a sentance, and they can actually understand what I am saying a few more weeks of this and maybe I can have a conversation!
We got back to the Apartment at 9 in the morning for a quick nap, and then back outside again for lessons on how to make handicrafts, in a park in Recoletta, another district, in BA. When we got to the Park/plaza, we met up with many couch surfers, and we made bracelets, and chatted about our travels. Meeting these people is better then reading a guidebook! Between the whole crowd, we have 2/3 of the world covered, with some good knowledge on most places! We got lots of advice as to getting our divemaster liscence for teaching SCUBA in Honduras, getting a well paying job in England, Teaching school in austrailia, traveling cheaply in southeast asia, and the list goes on! Our couchsurfing friends are very fun, interesting people to talk to and are always positive, with many ideas!
After a few hours we head back to the apartment for a late dinner, and some much needed sleep.
Our plans: We will study spanish until jan 7th when cory gets here. Then we will spend 3 days touring BA, until we catch a bus to La Grutas, Patagonia. Then somehow we will make our way to Ushuaia, by train, bus, or car.
Y por favor; I am interested in who is reading the blog! I see that like 40 people or so are reading them on a regular basis, so If you could just leave a comment with your name, that would be awesome, and you could write what you are up to if you wish, but not nessesary.
