Blog Post Number 11: Spanish, Art & Evita!

March 4

Wednesday…a big day for both of us.

David:
Fortunately for me, my Spanish tutor Diego (who I had a few lessons with last year) was available and I was able to start lessons again. We reviewed what chapters in my text I needed to study in order to be able to start my second semester of Spanish back in the US. Diego has his own method of teaching so we will just have to see what happens.




Barbara:
I had been thinking about taking art lessons, so after hearing about an instructor from a friend went to see him and the studio. I liked what I saw and signed up for oil painting classes, the first of which was today. Classes are on Wednesdays from 3-7 for the next 5 weeks.

It’s a 30 minute walk to the studio and there are 3 other women taking the class. All are accomplished painters, and all made me feel welcome. Lillian is the only one who speaks fluent English, and she’s a willing translator.

The instructor, Gustavo, speaks very limited English, but his demos give me a good sense of what it is I’m there to learn. His goal – get me out of my comfort zone; i.e. use bold colors, bold subjects, bold strokes, big canvases! For those of you who’ve seen my paintings, you know this will be a stretch!

March 5 – 6
Thursday at the Melody Café for breakfast, there’s an American who’s trying to pay with dollars. Gabriella, the waitress, is having difficulty understanding him and asks David to translate. No question about it…his time studying here and his semester studying Spanish at Cape Cod Community College have begun to pay off.

Friday the weather is fabulous so 4 of us take the bus to Palermo Botanico





for lunch at the Evita Museum’s outdoor café (we plan to do the museum another day). Housed in an architecturally stunning building that once served as a women’s shelter run by Eva Peron’s foundation, the umbrellas, black and white tile and greenery provide a serenity that enhances a delicious meal.

























Buenos Aires is not the right destination for anyone who wants to loose weight. Most socializing revolves around long, leisurely meals (though our saving grace is that we almost always walk to and/or from our destination).

Blog Number 10: Life in Buenos Aires

March 2 – 3

After a busy weekend, we spend most of Monday relaxing. In the evening, we meet our cruise friends Debra and Gene and their friends, who are passing through BA on their way back to the States, for dinner at El Marisol, a parilla; i.e. a steakhouse. David claims that they served him the best "lomo" (Argentinian version of filet mignon) he has had in Argentina to date! We also enjoyed a couple of bottles of a great Malbac and caught up on Gene & Debs trekking travels at El Chaltan and Fitz Roy. Two places we really want to go to next year and try some more glacier trekking!

Next morning, we are still full from last night’s dinner, so at 1:00 we go to the Melody Café with the intention of getting a light breakfast. We think we are ordering the usual…tostadas, which is probably yesterday’s baguette sliced and toasted. But what they hear is tostados, which are crust-less ham and cheese sandwiches. So we each end up with 4 of these sandwiches. Our light breakfast turns into the equivalent of a very full lunch. But more importantly, this reinforces our experience that even a slight nuance in pronunciation can affect an outcome. Attention to detail is a must!

Later in the day, we buy colorful cotton throw rugs (actually, they are horse blankets – new, not used!! – that are typically used under saddles) to cheer up the apartment. We also go to Disco, our local supermarket, because we’re having our first “dinner party”.

As we are shopping, we realize that in the last 2 weeks, prices in general have increased by from 10-20%. You can actually see prices rising weekly. So, while the dollar is getting stronger here the price increases are only partially mitigated by the dollars strength against the peso.

In anticipation of our dinner guest, we break out the good (oh, I mean only) dishes, heat up barbequed chicken, serve it with onion and pumpkin tortes, fresh tomatoes, repollitos de Bruselas (Brussels sprouts), bread and, of course, a bottle of Malbec. Finally, a home-cooked meal!

And, believe it or not, we regret not having brought saran wrap with us from home! That’s because saran wrap here is just awful. It is very thin and there is no serrated edge on the box, so every time you want to use it, you have to find the end and peel it away from the roll. I can’t tell you how frustrating this is. It takes at least two people to wrap things in order to not lose the end of the roll!

We decide to keep it out and balanced on the toaster, slightly unrolled, so we won’t have to deal with finding the edge and peeling it back every time we use it…but the maid, who comes on Tuesdays and Fridays, rolls it back up and puts it in the box. Oh well – it sounded like a good plan at the tiime.

Blog Post Number 9: Palermo Chico & More

February 28 – March 1
On Saturday we make a major decision…we’ll stay in the apartment. The landlord has arranged to clean the carpet and we plan to buy stuff to “accessorize”. Kind of like making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear or, in this case, maybe a polyester purse.

We take a 3+ hour walk down Avenida Figueroa Alcorta, past the Floralis Generica, a giant sculpture that opens and closes with sunrise and sunset. We have yet to see it at night but have been told that it is wonderfully lit.





through Palermo Chico with it’s large lavish homes and very detailed architecture

















around the Tres de Febrero Park and gardens,













past the polo field, the casino, the Hipodromo Argentino and the racetrack,




and end up at Kansas (our second visit to this great restaurant) for a late lunch (5:00pm). And I mean late…we’re just about the only people in this really large restaurant, except for some stragglers from a normal lunch hour!

On Sunday, Jim comes over and we all go for a light lunch at a local parilla. There’s an unexpected downpour so we taxi to Palermo Hollywood








and walk around the local flea market (the Mercado de Pulgas; literally, the market of fleas).









We don’t buy anything, but do spend 30+ minutes chatting, mostly in Spanish, with Susanna, who runs one of the stalls.




People we’ve met are incredibly friendly and those that have some knowledge of English love to practice, while David gets to practice his Spanish.

Then we head over to Sarkis, an Armenian restaurant, for dinner. Halfway there, it begins to pour again. With only one small umbrella between us, we stop often and stand under awnings to stay dry.





We are a bit early for dinner, so thankfully we are able to sit under an awning while it is pouring rain until the restaurant opens.




The days fly by. We plan very little ahead of time…but they fill up spontaneously and before we know it, it’s 8:00p, or 11:30p, or 2:00 a.m.

Post Number 8: Return to Buenos Aires

February 15 – 21

First thing we do is pack away our winter coats…hot times, summer in the city.

Next…we go to check into the apartment that we rented last November from an on-line agency.

Last year, we rented an apartment in the Recoleta and wanted to rent the same one this year but it wasn’t available. So we rented another in the same neighborhood. The location is great – near Vicente Lopez Park and friends,

restaurants, shops, streets with great architecture. Whoever said Buenos Aires is the Paris of South America captured it (or parts of it, anyway) perfectly…

But the apartment is not nearly as nice or comfortable as last years. And, with several not-so-minor issues (inadequate AC, no hot water, no internet connection) we begin the hassles of trying to find another apartment and getting our $$ back from the rental agency – ughhhh!

Lucky for us, our friend Jim offers his apartment while he’s in Brazil, so we stay there for the next few days. At first, we’re pretty cranky, but than decide we’re not going to let the apartment situation get us down. So we get into the city’s rhythm.

We meet friends for lunch at Kansas (an American-style rib place), check out Jumbo supermarket (BA’s equivalent to BJs or Costco), eat pizza at Los Maestros (we were regulars last year and recognize the waitress), and find new “locals”:

the Melody Café for our morning café and toastadas, where we look forward to seeing waitresses Laura and Gabriella. David practices his Spanish with them and they get to ask what the English words are for the food served. It's a great way to start the morning (usually around 11:00 or 12:00) and there are a lot of laughs.

and Pasadena for late night snacks (David orders “migas,” little white bread sandwiches with the crust cut off, like the things my mom made me for lunch when I was in elementary school).

There are “liquidacion” (sale) signs everywhere so we buy a few things, but better than that is window shopping and photographing fabulous gowns that hardly anyone I know would wear.

After 5 days we decide we can’t stay at Jim’s indefinitely so we move into our apartment. Luckily, the hot water is fixed, David has figured out how to get access to the internet, and we buy a floor fan. We spend time outside, either walking the city or sitting in the park, where David studies Spanish, I sketch, read, or listen to my iPod, and we catch up with our friends, who also hang out there.

February 22 – 26

On Sunday we walk down Avenida Posadas, a very upscale street just a couple of blocks from our apartment, to the open market in the Plaza Francia. There are two really nice parks on the way with sculptures and giant trees.

We peruse the many vendor stalls

and head over to the Recoleta Cultural Center to check things out.

I decide I’m going to watch the Oscars that night. We are 6 hours behind WST, so they don’t start here until around midnight. And they are televised in Spanish. David hooks me up via computer, to an English simulcast, but there’s a 45 second delay between the picture and the sound. My brain is on overload by 2:00 so I give up and go to sleep.

On Monday, the AC is fixed – a small step for mankind! This is good, since we have not yet found another apartment. And, in some bizarre way, I’m actually getting used to this one…it’s quiet, the bed is really comfortable, it’s in a great location and the view from our balcony is really nice.

On Wednesday we go to the movies, since Wednesday is 15 peso day (per ticket). Tickets are discounted from their usual 20 pesos ($5.71 currently) per ticket. 44 pesos (about $12) gets you 2 tickets, popcorn and a Pepsi. We decide on Slumdog Millionaire and buy our tickets at a kiosk in the theater; no waiting on line and you choose your seats ahead of time – very civilized.

The movie is in English, with Spanish subtitles, except when they’re speaking in Indian… then there are Spanish subtitles. A little is lost with our limited translation skills, but not so much that we miss the essence of the movie, which we love.

More to come soon...we are almost caught up!