Tango and Picnics

Even though I've only been in the city for 2 weeks, it feels like much longer. I'm starting to learn my way around my neighborhood and feel more comfortable with my temporary routine. I have one more week of Spanish class left, followed by a week of international student orientation and a week of vacation before actual classes start March 9. The upside of this schedule is that I get a lot of time to adjust, the downside is that its very difficult to meet anyone but the other students in my class right now, as the other international students haven't arrived and most Argentines are on vacation. I've found a little group of people that I really like, though, which is nice.

On Tuesday all of the international students currently taking the UCA summer course went on a bike tour of the southern (and older) part of the city. No bike lanes. No helmets. Crazy drivers (the lane lines on the road are just decoration here). But it was fun!

This week has been an experiment in transportation. I started taking the colectivo, or bus, to school. The colectivo system, to use an Argentine slang word, is a kilombo, or chaotic disaster! But it is cheap (only 30 U.S. cents a ride) and gets me closer both to school and home than the subte. Each bus is painted in a distinctive pattern and color scheme to help the user identify the correct bus, but the attempts at helping the passenger stop there. There are no stop announcements so you have to magically know when to get off, and the drivers are curt if not rude. Hooray traveling adventures!

Random fact: Argentines like crackers more than anyone I have ever met. We eat them with dinner every night, there is a jar of them for anytime eating on the counter, and there is a cracker aisle in the grocery store offering a wide range of flavors from prosciutto to apple. Yes, apple.

For Valentine's Day I went to a milonga and learned/attempted to dance the tango!! The milonga was called La Viruta and there were tons of young people there, a lot of beginners probably because of the holiday. Although I don't think I danced badly for a first timer (ballet certainly helps these things) the social etiquette surrounding the dance is somewhat more difficult. Finding a dance partner basically just involves making prolonged eye contact with someone, which I find rather awkward. Then, once you've got yourself someone to dance with, you dance a set with that person. In between songs, they play some music that is talk-to-your-partner music and some that is the-set-is-over music and I still can't figure out which is which! So, I ended up making a tango faux pas and thanking my partner and leaving in the middle of the set. Whoops. I had a wonderful time learning and chatting with the locals (we were basically the only foreigners there) and will definitely go back to this place.

This afternoon I went to a park with a couple other American students and one of their host sisters. We bought sushi from an Asian grocery store nearby, as we were close to Buenos Aires' Chinatown, and picnicked on the grass. We petted the Shetland ponies that were tethered to some of the trees, played frisbee, rented a paddleboat on the lake, and generally enjoyed the summer weather. Few things make me more content than lying in a park on a Sunday afternoon :)

That's all for now!!