Back to Skool
Trip Start
Sep 06, 2006
1
12
36
Trip End
Sep 01, 2007
Buenos Aries,
Argentina
Saturday, October 21, 2006
big flower
. However, thanks to good old Mum back in blighty, muchos arse was kicked with STA travel and we eventually found out where we were staying. I would be with quite a conventional family, Dad 42 IT specialist, yawn yawn, Mum around the same age Doctor and 2 teenage kids. Nick had been hoping for for a family too, preferably one with a stunning raven haired mother, a dad who liked beer a young boy who he could play footie with and perhaps a nice dog or cat. (I`m sure some of you have noticed from the photos so far that Nick has been attracting the local animals). However, he was really in for treat! Nick would be living with Juan Andino, the incredible, the amazing, the one and only 60 year old single Tango professor!! Brilliant. Now lets dance! Ok so we found our houses. Nick as i predicted was staying in the most wealthy area, Recoleta and was a 2 minute walk from school and I was an hour away from anywhere on the bloody tube with a room that resembled a cell and for breakfast I got a slice of bread and a glass of water. Hmmmm! Dont worry I wasnt in madam mode just yet. Anyway, to school. After completing a short test, which lasted precisely 4 seconds, I think everyone was in agreement that both of us should be in 1A the bottom of the bottom, beginners class. Fine with me. Shame i had to sit next to Miss goody two shoes (not long before you revert to petty childish names is it) who was at her wits end after half an hour, correcting my grammar and pronounciation by lunch, sticking her hand up as far as she could to answer all the questions by second break and by the end she had asked to change to a higher class. Good ridence and we got Swedish girl instead who understood even less than Nick.
Rocio, our teacher was from Peru, nice lady however she spent most of her time stuffing cakes into her mouth while telling us about her sex life with her long distance boyfriend, how learned she was what with her masters and PHD and how terrible we all were, how she was really very worried that we were all going to fail our test at the end of two weeks and then she would be out of a job, so everyday she showed us the test questions
Boca house
. Our little classes were quite entertaining and with Nick taking up to twenty minutes to pronounce some words we with our American and Swedish class mates had a good old laugh. We did all question Rocio`s teaching techniqes as just reading from the book is not quite as I had imagined it, we were all sure that she was a fake and had never taught in her life let alone got herself a PHD, we even found out her real name was Gladys. Anyway, by the end of week one none of us could really speak anymore Spanish than we did on Day 1. Time to put in some practice at home me thinks! Now this would have been possible if my family were actually ever there - the only time i saw them was when they put the bread and water on the table for my breakfast. So just what was the point of staying with a family again and why had a shed out all this money? I felt lonely and yes for the first time alittle down. So instead of just complaining I decided to change things. My Monday I was living with another family, in Recoleta who I could actually practice my Spanish with. Before the ecomomic crash in late 1990`s they had been a very weathly family and both parents had worked as Sociologists for the Government. They had three stunning stylish daughters who everyday would ask if i wanted to borrow any of their clothes, `Um no, I`m not sure a size 6 will fit me but thanks all the same!!!' They invited us out to family parties, get togethers and had two maids who did everything - a strange feeling to be staying in a home which resembled a hotel
Boca Juniors game big flag
. With the wine flowing at meal times my spanish was improving and I could actaully join in the conversation and everything was going so well until i came back one day to find someone had gone through my dirty washing and laid all my knickers out on the bed in a pretty pattern. That night the the father got a little drunk, told me he had a sex addiction and had been going to a shrink for 20 years and so had his wife to get over the guilt for causing his heart attack. Ok, so i was living with a bunch of screwed up intellectual aristocrats, great! (Fact: Buenos Aires has the most pychiatrists than any other city in the world, more than even NY or LA and this is most probably due to the years of uncertainty and economic fear that the population has been under. In 2002 the peso was devalued in relationship to the dollar and this meant that Argentines had lost some 50 percent of the value of their bank savings. Unemployment was at 30%, with millions jobless and those who had jobs, many had not gotten their salaries for months. So I guess you can allow for a few shrinks here and there!) Nick, just a few blocks away was having a fine time of it all. Juan cooked him steak everynight and sat up with him to the wee hours helping with his homework. I went to visit and they were just like lovers as they bickered over the washing up. Juan is a lovely lovely man and I hope a good friend for years to come
Boca Window
. He has travelled all over the world teaching tango and worked as a choreographer on Broadway. He showed us around Buenos Aires, took us to tango (unfortunately no dancing was involved as first thought, just the singing part, oh well), cooked delicious meals for us and we all drunk far too much Malbec with Juan trying to teach us some tango moves, `Like tis, Paaa! Paaa! Paaa! No you are rubbish, get out of my house`. Nick noticed and commented quite a few times on how many stunning women there are in BA, good observation Nick. I would go as far to say that nearly every woman on the street has an incredible natural beauty but in general most that you meet are not that friendly. Why is this? Well Argentinians have basically a very sophisticated European culture and are not as casual as Latins in more tropical countries, in fact Argentinian men like to travel to Brazil to meet women for the same reason and we met a few of those while we were there. If you speak Spanish, dress well, have manners and know people in Argentina and are introduced around you'll have fewer problems, we didn`t. What I guess we are discovering as inexperienced travelers and have not realized before is that Latins in general are far more formal than say North Americans and Europeans, especially in the cities - for instance if you saying Beunos Dias to someone make sure to check the time as if it is past midday you will be sorely picked up upon and they will reply with a Beunos TARDES!!
Buenos Aires really doesnt feel like your in South America and I think most of the population seem proud about the fact. Its a beautiful and cosmopolitan city. We hired orange bikes, looked ridiculous and set off to see the city. Theres tango on the cobbled streets of San Telmo, great cafes, restaurants, a stunning nature reserve, the incredible Recoleta cemetery, great clothes shops (i didnt even buy anything!), antique markets, a huge park where the national team practice polo, yes yes I could live here easily
City of the dead
. Prices are probably lower than they will ever be again as the economy is fast recovering. In fact, the only signs of its past turmoil are the prices. They are unbelievably low on everything from taxi rides a quid to anywhere, delicious food - a huge lunch at a good restaurant will be less than 3 quid including amazing wine which is 50p a glass so of course we tasted alot. It has all the signs of modernity that big cities have, joggers, Internet cafés, a great theatre district, cell phones, women who have clearly resorted to plastic surgery (we saw some terrible sights) and I really liked everthing, apart from the pollution which is foul. I even managed to take me red heels, which i had been lugging around in my rucksack since i left the UK out for a night of Tango, well we thought we were going to dance Tango but we actually went along to a melonge in Palermo (very upmarket area full of boutique hotels and shops and completely over our budget). We ended up in the basement of what appeared to be a renovated eastern european community centre with tables lined around the edges and the dancefloor full of terribly serious couples being taught the basic steps with most of them messing it up much to our amusement. Being the only tourists there we tucked into the beers, managed a few steps, fell about laughing, I talked to a guy with terrible BO and Nick was chatted up by a lady with false teeth. Leaving on a good note we then queued for hours without any luck to get into a club which shut at the early hour, for BA of 8am
Dead Good
. All in all a good night out.So we´d done Tango, sort of, next was a footie game and the only folk to see are Boca Juniors and Riverplate, the two greatest teams in BA apparently but what do i know about football. We did see Boca but they were playing Argentina Juniors, who, and it was all jolly good fun. We had wanted to sit with all the hooligans but were advised that if we did we would be killed so we bought tickets for the other top tier unfortnately with all the other tourists and a fake Maradona so we could watch all the hooligans throw things like chickens, roll out their ridiculously large flags, sing throughout the entire match, very impressive, shout abuse and fight! fight! fight! Boca won 2-1 and I had a really good time, better atmosphere than any game I have been to in England but then I have only been to one game and that was Martin Keown´s testimonial at Arsenal and that isnt really a proper match, is it?
Comments
football
why doesn't anyone comment on this monumental work? I am sure you men out there must have somthing to say about the football!!
Nick's Mum