I should have learned from last week and written my blog daily, but it didn't happen again, and this time for two weeks, but with good reason!
Sharath arrived and stayed for 9 days and boy, was it hectic! We did every tango class we could, slept in the evenings for a couple of hours and went to Milongas almost every night, staying awak till 4am... just like the locals do. Salon Canning (which is by far my favorite), La Viruta, Viejo Correo (which literally means old post office, probably because the building probably was one), La Marshal at Maipu (a gay milonga) and Porteño y Bailarin, to name a few.
Sharath did the bike tours I had done around BA and to Tigre and we did the one to Palermo and Recoleta (the Barrio where we live) together. It wasn't as good as I had hoped it would be - the guide wasn't a good one. Sharath had the same guide for Tigre as I had for my BA tour and like me, he had her to himself - he was the only one there. I believe he had a good time!
We had lunch at Puerto Madero the first day and walked along the boardwalk for a bit before taking the short train ride parallel to the river. The Women's bridge is an interesting one - the suspension bridge is shaped like the heel of a woman's Tango shoe - and here's proof!
We walked through the San Telmo market, my third visit and as enjoyable as the first. There's always something new to see, live music to enjoy and people watching is always fun. Very interesting handicrafts to browse through too, not to mention the antique shops. There are some really interesting curios and artifacts for serious collectors, including old records and posters, china, glass and silver. Of course, you have to be careful and not get cheated, but it's the same as anywhere else. You have to know your stuff when buying 'antiques'. See my photo gallery for some interesting faces and street acts.
The highlight of the last week was a live tango show by Miguel Angel Zotto and his troupe of dancers and live orchestra. Stunning! Absolutely amazing footwork and not a move out of place. You have to see it and experience it to appreciate what I am saying - words just cannot describe how perfectly rendered the performances were. The women were one more stunning then the other to look at and their dancing was faultless. I wonder what it takes to be a dancer like that! Food for thought and something to aspire towards...
Our teachers Yanina and Adrian leave for Japan this week to teach for 6 months. They have been delightful to learn with. Sharath and I both did as many private classes as we could with them before their departure. They performed at Porteño y Bailarin last week and were amazing to watch. Elegance, grace and power. They make an amazing couple on the dance floor and off - they are genuine, warm and friendly and give off the best of themselves as teachers. We both learned a lot from them. They teach at Esquela Carlos Copello at Anchorena 575, (close to Carlos Gardel and opposite Abasto Shopping Center). They will teach here again on their return. I particularly appreciated learning the Milonga from them, a form of dance that is fast-paced and tremendous fun to do.
We were also treated to a performance by Gustavo Naveira and Giselle Anne and a few other couples at Salon Canning a couple of days ago. They are also very big names in the Tango scene - it's incredible that you can do a 2 hour Tango class, attend a milonga and be entertained by the top names in the field for a mere US$5 (15 pesos, represented by the $, is what it costs to enter a Milonga). Wonder how long that will last - apparently the rate of inflation is 3% - per month! I can see it in the prices of Tango shoes - they seem to go up every time I enter a shoe shop! Yes - I have bought some more as has Sharath! I'm not going to tell you how many- all I know is thay are fabulous!
Spanish classes are getting along well - am now able to have simple conversations in the present tense. I went for a foot massage and 'podicura' to a professional podiatrist yesterday - he scraped the dead skin off my feet with a scalpel, filed my nails with a Dremmel... and got my entire life-history out of me in Spanish! He helped me conjugate verbs into the past tense to get the story across. I will have to do this again... foot care and Spanish practice at the same time. I came home totally relaxed. I bought a bottle of wine on my way home because Sharath had flown out and I was alone - wanted to comfort myself and indulge. Shahrukh dropped by to reinstall my Vonage box which had been giving me grief and shared a glass with me. Needless to say, I didn't go to a Milonga and went to bed early for a change.
My Spanish teacher, Emma, has enlightened us on something valuable. A couple of my classmaes, Anna from Germany and Kerry from the US, and I were talking about continuing our Spanish studies. At present we are in Level 0 as none of us knew anything when we started. We were debating buying the workbook for level 1 and doing it on our own, when Emma suggested she would be happy to help us by correcting our work and we would have to pay the UBA only $50 pesos to sit the exam when we were ready to get a certificate of completion - interesting information! With that, we could enroll in Level 2 the next time we wanted to join the UBA. We are starting it next week - hopefully I will have enough time to do this before I leave.
The weather in Buenos Aires has changed - it suddenly became very cold a couple of days ago - had to go out and buy a jacket before our bike trip to Palermo - and though it has warmed up a bit there's still a nip in the air. There's also a blanket of smoke settled over the city for the past 3 days - the farmers traditionally burn their field to increase fertility before planting their next crop at this time of year and because of the lack of rain this year, the vegetation was drier than expected. The fires have been raging out of control and have destroying over 60,000 hectares of land. Due to atmospheric high pressure and no winds, the smoke is trapped over the city and will remain this way for the weekend. It might clear up after Monday, 21 April. It's strange walking around through smoke, breathing it and smelling it 24 hours a day. It has penetrated into Milonga halls and apartments. I am sure it won't be easy to get rid of. Entrepreneurs are making a fortune selling surgical face masks at subway and bus stations - I see several elderly people wearing them - must be effecting their breathing. Some of the culprits have been arrested but the fires still rage out of control... wonder how long it will take to stop them.
It's on to another week and right now it feels like it's going to be uneventful ... but time will tell! Nothing is predictable in this city...
Sharath arrived and stayed for 9 days and boy, was it hectic! We did every tango class we could, slept in the evenings for a couple of hours and went to Milongas almost every night, staying awak till 4am... just like the locals do. Salon Canning (which is by far my favorite), La Viruta, Viejo Correo (which literally means old post office, probably because the building probably was one), La Marshal at Maipu (a gay milonga) and Porteño y Bailarin, to name a few.
Sharath did the bike tours I had done around BA and to Tigre and we did the one to Palermo and Recoleta (the Barrio where we live) together. It wasn't as good as I had hoped it would be - the guide wasn't a good one. Sharath had the same guide for Tigre as I had for my BA tour and like me, he had her to himself - he was the only one there. I believe he had a good time!
We had lunch at Puerto Madero the first day and walked along the boardwalk for a bit before taking the short train ride parallel to the river. The Women's bridge is an interesting one - the suspension bridge is shaped like the heel of a woman's Tango shoe - and here's proof!
We walked through the San Telmo market, my third visit and as enjoyable as the first. There's always something new to see, live music to enjoy and people watching is always fun. Very interesting handicrafts to browse through too, not to mention the antique shops. There are some really interesting curios and artifacts for serious collectors, including old records and posters, china, glass and silver. Of course, you have to be careful and not get cheated, but it's the same as anywhere else. You have to know your stuff when buying 'antiques'. See my photo gallery for some interesting faces and street acts.The highlight of the last week was a live tango show by Miguel Angel Zotto and his troupe of dancers and live orchestra. Stunning! Absolutely amazing footwork and not a move out of place. You have to see it and experience it to appreciate what I am saying - words just cannot describe how perfectly rendered the performances were. The women were one more stunning then the other to look at and their dancing was faultless. I wonder what it takes to be a dancer like that! Food for thought and something to aspire towards...
Our teachers Yanina and Adrian leave for Japan this week to teach for 6 months. They have been delightful to learn with. Sharath and I both did as many private classes as we could with them before their departure. They performed at Porteño y Bailarin last week and were amazing to watch. Elegance, grace and power. They make an amazing couple on the dance floor and off - they are genuine, warm and friendly and give off the best of themselves as teachers. We both learned a lot from them. They teach at Esquela Carlos Copello at Anchorena 575, (close to Carlos Gardel and opposite Abasto Shopping Center). They will teach here again on their return. I particularly appreciated learning the Milonga from them, a form of dance that is fast-paced and tremendous fun to do.
We were also treated to a performance by Gustavo Naveira and Giselle Anne and a few other couples at Salon Canning a couple of days ago. They are also very big names in the Tango scene - it's incredible that you can do a 2 hour Tango class, attend a milonga and be entertained by the top names in the field for a mere US$5 (15 pesos, represented by the $, is what it costs to enter a Milonga). Wonder how long that will last - apparently the rate of inflation is 3% - per month! I can see it in the prices of Tango shoes - they seem to go up every time I enter a shoe shop! Yes - I have bought some more as has Sharath! I'm not going to tell you how many- all I know is thay are fabulous!
Spanish classes are getting along well - am now able to have simple conversations in the present tense. I went for a foot massage and 'podicura' to a professional podiatrist yesterday - he scraped the dead skin off my feet with a scalpel, filed my nails with a Dremmel... and got my entire life-history out of me in Spanish! He helped me conjugate verbs into the past tense to get the story across. I will have to do this again... foot care and Spanish practice at the same time. I came home totally relaxed. I bought a bottle of wine on my way home because Sharath had flown out and I was alone - wanted to comfort myself and indulge. Shahrukh dropped by to reinstall my Vonage box which had been giving me grief and shared a glass with me. Needless to say, I didn't go to a Milonga and went to bed early for a change.
My Spanish teacher, Emma, has enlightened us on something valuable. A couple of my classmaes, Anna from Germany and Kerry from the US, and I were talking about continuing our Spanish studies. At present we are in Level 0 as none of us knew anything when we started. We were debating buying the workbook for level 1 and doing it on our own, when Emma suggested she would be happy to help us by correcting our work and we would have to pay the UBA only $50 pesos to sit the exam when we were ready to get a certificate of completion - interesting information! With that, we could enroll in Level 2 the next time we wanted to join the UBA. We are starting it next week - hopefully I will have enough time to do this before I leave.
The weather in Buenos Aires has changed - it suddenly became very cold a couple of days ago - had to go out and buy a jacket before our bike trip to Palermo - and though it has warmed up a bit there's still a nip in the air. There's also a blanket of smoke settled over the city for the past 3 days - the farmers traditionally burn their field to increase fertility before planting their next crop at this time of year and because of the lack of rain this year, the vegetation was drier than expected. The fires have been raging out of control and have destroying over 60,000 hectares of land. Due to atmospheric high pressure and no winds, the smoke is trapped over the city and will remain this way for the weekend. It might clear up after Monday, 21 April. It's strange walking around through smoke, breathing it and smelling it 24 hours a day. It has penetrated into Milonga halls and apartments. I am sure it won't be easy to get rid of. Entrepreneurs are making a fortune selling surgical face masks at subway and bus stations - I see several elderly people wearing them - must be effecting their breathing. Some of the culprits have been arrested but the fires still rage out of control... wonder how long it will take to stop them.
It's on to another week and right now it feels like it's going to be uneventful ... but time will tell! Nothing is predictable in this city...
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