¡Hola Amigos!

We arrived in Buenos Aires on Sat, Feb 19th. That was a drastic change from snow falling in New York to 90 degree weather in Argentina. Not complaining at all, mind you. Our camera was stolen by some person who checks luggage at the airport who simply needed a camera more than we did, I guess. This was, of course, our third combined digital camera to be stolen in the past few months. That´s okay, you´re in luck, we bought a new one!

Balcony (Don´t cry for me Argentina!)

We´ve been hanging out in our apartment a lot- taking siestas, staying up until 2 in the morning. We love the air conditioning! We have some lovely neighbors in the area. We have our local fruit chica, cheese hombre, laundry guy, and the family from the corner market. Interacting with people is interesting, at first no one seems to care about you, no smiles or anything, but once in dialogue they seem very nice. Food is cheap, beer is cold and Havana Coffee is YUMMY!

Evita´s Tomb part dos

Our Spanish (well, they actually speak Spanitalench here) is not very good. We seem to freak out when we´re trying to understand someone. Our first internet experience was a disaster. We walk up to the guy standing at the desk and tell him we want to use the internet. He says something to us and we just keep telling him we want to use the computer (in our best efforts for speaking the local dialect). Well, then the guy who actually worked there came up, and we decided we should talk to the person who worked there. SO, this guy tells us, ¨Quatorse, quince.¨ This is the point where we freeze and start digging through our pockets looking for money. We´re looking at each other not understanding what amount that was. We pulled out a peso and handed it to him. He then walked us to the computers. After 30 minutes our computers just turned off. We walked out of that place complaining that we shouldn´t have to pay for the computers before we use them and they shouldn´t just turn off like that. It wasn´t until our next internet cafe experience that we realized that they give you the number of the booth you go to. We were supposed to go to computers ¨14 and 15¨. So, no, you don´t have to pay for the computer before you use it, you just have to understand Spanish numbers better.

Living Room

With our disastrous attempts at speaking, we decided to start Spanish school on Monday.

We started taking Spanish courses at a certain school that will remain nameless. The class was to go from 9am (YUCK) until 1pm. We were in a group of four tourists. After two hours with nothing getting into our brains, we realized that this was not the course for us. So, at break we went in and explained that the way the woman was teaching, wasn´t working for either of us. We were going to try a different approach (ie, place to study), and after they tried to get us to stay, we excused ourselves feeling a bit embarassed and exited the fourth story room. Well, four stories down we got to the front door. We forgot that in Argentina, not only do you need a key to get in the building, you also need a key to get out of it. So, we had to wipe our tears of laughter and walk back up those stairs and politely ask for them to let us out of the building. I certainly hope we won´t have to go through that again.

Our kitchen (and dining room too)

Okay, that´s about 3 pesos worth of time on the computer. We´re on a budget here folks!

Chau!

Recoleta Cemetary

Tomb of Evita Peron and family