La Catedral - New Argentina

Last night Barbara invited me along to La Catedral - the "New Argentina" interpretation of a tango hall. Matías warned me that the place was feo (gross), but I wanted to check it out anyway.  The reviews I read said that it was an abandoned factory that had been turned into a space for tango dancing and "art".

Arriving at the door, the first thought I had was that I was in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.  The place looked like a warehouse from the outside, and the inside was no better.  "Abandoned factory" to me means an old building with a lot of space... but this, well this really was an abandoned factory.  There were still a lot of the installations in place from the factory days, and absolutely nothing had been done to make the place "habitable" other than throwing some tables and REALLY old couches into it.  The walls were half painted, and the light fixtures were either broken or flickering.

Barbara was totally in her element.  She loved the space, and kept talking about how it had such a good vibe for just chilling.  Matías and I, on the other hand, felt like the people in charge were just really lazy, with low standards of living, who didn't bother to clean up the place.  At one point, we had two guitarist/singers come out and do a few numbers, and although Barbara and her friends seemed to enjoy it, all I could do was notice when they were wildly out of tune, or singing with terrible technique.  Matías kept going off on the "New Argentina" and how it has no standards and how they expect so little from their artists, so little in terms of manners and respect from the people around then, and so little from the city they live in.  In a lot of ways he's right - how can a city improve if the people in it don't expect it to?

The real kicker to the whole experience, however, was when a cat crossed the dance floor with a mouse in his mouth, and no one even turned to notice.  Later, while the cat was feeding on it's prey, one of the waiters went over to pet the animal.  Can I say "eew" any louder?

Nonetheless, the experience was worthwhile.  I got to practice tango for a few songs (Matías said I've improved since Mendoza, but I dunno if he's just being polite... he's big on being polite) and see another side of the city.

Gay Men in Bs As

I've been told that BsAs is a great place for the gay community, and that it's basically the San Francisco for Latin America. I don't anything about whether or not that's true, and would have no idea how to measure it anyway, but Wednesday night I got a little taste of the gay community here, and I must say, it was fabulous.

The night started with Barbara (a dutch student from the same home stay I used to live at) and I having plans to grab dinner some where and meet Pablo out dancing at this club called Museum. Now, I'd heard mixed reviews about Museum, and didn't really know if I was gonna like it or not. Obviously, I should know that no matter what, I'm not really a night club person, but every so often I need to remind myself of that fact. Nevertheless, Barbara and I went for dinner on the Navy boat with Matías and one of his friends, Sebastian. We chilled, ate papas fritas and carne milanese, and basically waited for Pablo to contact us.

Apparently I'm not cool, however, because Pablo never called. Obviously Barbara and I were gonna go out anyway, but suddenly we were free to pick whatever location we wanted. Sebastian suggested we check out this club that was in the microcentro of the city, and relatively close to my hotel and Sebastian's place. We figured, why not?

Since Matías had to work, it was just the three of us. We get to the club around 12:30, which is super early by BsAs standards, so when we arrive, there are probably 15 or 20 people in the space, sitting around and pretty much waiting around. Most of the people were guys, but we thought nothing of it since the people that arrive at clubs early usually are men on the prowl. An hour later, however, the place was full... and still there were no women. Sebastian even said to me, "I wonder what happened to all the women!" Of course, at this point Barbara and I had figured out that this was a gay club.  Schweeeeet.  There were videos of Madonna in concert being broadcast on the walls of the club, and music like Michael Jackson to a techno beat blasting in our ears.

And so, for the first time in BsAs, Barbara and I enjoyed the feeling of NOT being an object of voyeurism.  No one whistled words like linda and hermosa in our ears.  No one attempted to kiss us before asking our names.  No one even bothered to look over at us.  And so we danced it up and partied on.  Sebastian was a little out of his element, but I don't blame him.  Suddenly Madonna has a whole new side.

Azúcar

Before leaving my home stay in San Cristóbal, a girl from Holland moved in.  Barbara had been to BsAs in December, left for a few months to travel around, and decided to come back because she loved the city so much.  Luckily we overlapped just enough for me to find out she's a dancer as well.  Schweeeet.  And we're talking SALSA dancer, here.

So, finally, I had a buddy to come with me to Azúcar... the local go-to place for Salseros.  It turned out to be absolutely awesome. The locale was small enough to be intimate, but not populated to the point of it being gross.  Everyone was a spectacular dancer, and people intermingled a LOT more than they do in places like Copacabana in NYC.  It was impossible to walk across the room without being grabbed by someone and pulled onto the dance floor.

Being from the United States, people were all excited to practice their English on me.  I got a few lines that were especially interesting...  "I want to make love with you" and "When I touch you?"  I corrected them on their grammar and then pointed out that sentences like that are not usually muttered to people within the first 5 minutes of meeting them.  But nevertheless... everyone was nice, and in the end, they were all gentlemen.  Most of them didn't care whether I said I had a novio (boyfriend) or not.... oh boy, the latin culture is something else.  But they did understand if I said "no me podes besar... solo bailar"

Living in a Hotel

I never understood people that chose to live in Hotels until I became one of them.  After living on Avenida Independencia for 5 weeks in Bs As, I wanted to try something else.  I spent much of last week looking at random apartments and trying to get a feel for the different neighborhoods - their prices, the kinds of apartments they offer, and whether or not it would be worth it for me to move into an apartment for only 5 weeks.

Well, there were a bunch of options, but they all reminded me of very sad apartments in NYC - too small, with every millimeter of space being used for something - and old as hell.  Creaky to the point that you wonder if the mice have eaten away the support beams.  So I was pretty disheartened when Matías suggested we look into his discount at the local Hotel for people in the Navy (no matter what country they're from).

Suddenly, I have a fancy schmancy room in a hotel for the price of a hostel in the city here.... I have to pay about $350 for 5 weeks.  That ROCKS.  I was paying $100/week in my homestay, so I'm saving money, AND I get this am-MAZ-ing breakfast every day.  My life is awesome.  I'm living like a princess.  whoo hoooo.

Another Lucky Stumble

Yesterday, after finishing class and discovering that the apartment I was going to look at was no longer available, I found myself with some extra time and nothing to do.  I decided to call up my trusty friend Matías once again... he always knows something that's going on in the city.

Well, it turns out, he had no idea what to do either.  We went to a mall simply because there was AC there, and we needed to escape the heat.  The food courts at the malls here aren't really food courts, they're more like really posh cafés with table service.... so we chilled there for a while waiting for the sun to stop being so strong.  I looked at random leather goods (there are zillions of stores here that sell leather) and walked by a make-up store that was giving away free makeovers (schweeet).  Basically we killed time.

When the day was finally cool enough to endure, we set about wandering around again, looking for something to do.  When we walked by a little restaurant, suddenly Matías was inspired.  Clasica y Moderna is an institution in BsAs.  It's been around for a zillion years... originally built underground the building feels like it's a courtyard in Venice.  The floor is all cobblestone and the walls that aren't covered in books are exposed brick.  The ceiling is quite high, with a mezanine balcony around the perimeter that serves as a library.  In the back of the restaurant there's a little bookstore that sells books on philosophy and politics, or those considered "high" literature.   There was a lot of Borges and Marquéz and the likes.

Luckily the place still had tables available (it usually functions on a reservation basis) so we sat down to what was an absolutely delectable meal.  The best part, however, was the show that went with it... In the middle of the restaurant was an old piano taken from the collection of the Argentine version of Frank Sinatra.  We knew there was going to be some kind of music thing, but we had no idea what we were in for.  It turned out to be a singer who came out onto the floor.  She did a little bit of acting, a lot of talking, and a whole bunch of singing.  It was great because she talked about the 1960s and 1970s when Argentina was in it's heyday, and the movements here in BsAs, the student uprisings in France, and the civil rights movement in the United States.  She compared the politics of the different countries during that time period.  Throughout it all, she would sing songs that were either from the era or particularly fitting to the theme.  Since she'd lived in France during the demonstrations there, she did a lot of songs in French - several made famous by Edith Piaf - and talked about her own experiences at the time.  She threw in a little snippet of MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech (which was interesting to hear in Spanish) and sang "We Shall Overcome" as well (again, the spanish interpretation of this song was to die for).  The show was unbelievable.  Once again, Matías came through.  Mommy and Daddy.... when you guys come here, this is going to be an absolute Must See.

Tango Lessons

Last week being my first week back in BsAs, I finally got in touch with Ariel, a friend of Danny's from when he was here. Ariel is a Spanish teacher by day and teaches Tango on the side, in his spare time. Since Matías suggested I take lessons (he said I have the "gift"... but what does that really mean, right?) and I was kinda planning on taking them anyway, I met up with Ariel with the plans of setting up private lessons with him.

Monday last week I met up with Ariel just to chat over coffee. Phew, was that intense. Every time I meet someone new, it always takes a few minutes to get used to a new accent and cadence and voice, and figure out a way to converse. 2 hours of talking later - I finally had to beg him to let me go home. I was exhausted, but kinda proud of my accomplishment. We'd talked about philosophy, racism, politics.... ok so maybe I didn't sound like a debate speaker, but I managed....

Anyway, we set up tanding tango classes for Tuesday and Thursday, so at this point I´ve now had three lessons, and I´ve got another one tomorrow. I LOVE them!! Ariel is a very very good dancer, and he has a decent understanding of all the different schools of thought regarding the dance. He likes to teach one, but points out the differences in the others so that if I get a leader that is from a different school, I´ll know how to respond to him. He´s even given me technical exercises to do.... right up my alley of how I learn.

Tango is way different than the dances I know from Ballroom, and yet all the problems I´m having are the same ones I had while I was on the team at school. I guess dancing is dancing... and you can´t really get that far from the basics, no matter what dance you choose. We´ll probably go to a Milonga soon to try out my new steps (although I´d say I haven´t learned a single step really - just techniques for how to follow, and certain flares for my footwork). I´ll let you know how that goes.

Tilke... once again, you and Yann should quit trying to learn tango in the States, and just come here for a month or two, take a zillion classes for 1/10th the price (did I mention I´m paying about $13 for 1.5 hours?) and dance with a zillion incredible dancers.

El Tigre

El Tigre is a part of Buenos Aires that takes about an hour to get to on the train. It's at the edge of the city, and has an entirely different feel from the microcenter. On Saturday we went to walk around there a little, and I felt like I was in Cambridge walking along the river Cam. Instead of little punting boats they have something that's a cross between a skull and a canoe. There are zillions on the river. Every country that ever sent emigrants to BsAs has a boat house club in a giant gorgeous house that's designed in the traditional architecture of that country. These houses have bazillions of these little boats, and they're all ridiculously gorgeous because they're made of old wood and they're all shiny and cool. The seats on them are designed like the seats in a skull boat, where you can row and your chair moves back and forth, but only 3 people fit in a boat - like a canoe.

We walked around looking at the river traffic - there are also bazillions of tour boats packed with North Americans with cameras and ridiculous visors, and coast guard boats running around saving people that have collided - and enjoying the sun. We also had what was probably my best Helado in BsAs to date... Marissa and Dana, when you guys get here, we're totally going back for more.

Walking in Buenos Aires

This week has been especially interesting simply because of the ungodly amount of walking I´ve done. I dunno what inspired it, but whenever Matias and I hang out, we don´t really have a purpose in mind, and we end up walking and walking and walking all over the city, just wandering around like lost puppies. It´s been fun because I´ve gotten a new found appreciation for the city now that I´ve seen it at a slower pace. Before, it was always taxi rides of subway trips that would spit me out in a new part of town, but now I´ve seen the city change from neighborhood to neighborhood.

Things that I took particular notice of:
- There is an ungodly amount of really really big buildings that used to be mansions like the ones in Pride and Prejudice, except now they´re all closed down or converted into hotels. I wanna live in one of those houses!
- There´s a part of town called ´Palermo Viejo` where all the rich people live that´s super quiet and very quaint. The cars there are fancy but old, like Mercedes from the 80s or preserved classics. They were really cool to look at.
- Ice cream here really varies from heladeria to heladeria... it´s a science to find the best ones in town
- The Argentine people are obsessed with Plazas. You can´t walk more than 10 blocks in any direction before happening upon one or two or ten.
- There´s a slaughter house right in the middle of the city where all the cows from the coutry come to be killed.
- Tango dancing here is WAY more serious than in Mendoza. Matias and I went to a little outdoor Plazita and I didn´t dare dance. God, the people here are good. Matias pointed out, however, that the only other place in the world where people dance as well as they do here is in New York.... who knew, right?
- If you really want to see what desperate poverty is, walk through the microcenter of BsAs in the middle of the night. At 2am, all the hungry people of the city come out onto the streets and strew garbage everywhere in search of a meal. I saw families of 20 people - half of them kids lost to the system - sitting in the middle of the road, blocking traffic, while they chowed down on someone else´s discarded leftovers. I felt terribly guilty for walking by them in clean clothes and gold jewelry, but Matias kept assuring me that it was their choice to be there. I don´t know enough about the economic situation of Argentina or the governmental policies for the disenfranchised to actually have my own solid opinion on the matter, but it was a sight I probably won´t forget for a long time.

Class in Mendoza

My school, COINED, has several different locations. One of the main reasons that the trip to Mendoza was possible is that COINED has a branch there. I continued with all my classes and got the same classroom experience, but got to enjoy another city. This school, however, is a LOT smaller than the one in Bs As, so we had the advantage of being able to move much faster through the material, and the students were a lot more tight-knit and connected. We all went out together every time we went out. Unlike in Bs As where the languages you can speak greatly affect the friends you make, in Mendoza everyone was friends with everyone else.

The best part about the school, however, was the back yard. The building had a gorgeous courtyard we would take classes in sometimes. This picture is of my class the first week in Mendoza. The second week I just took private lessons so I'd have more freedom to explore the city.

Cafe Soul Once Again

Wednesday night found the entire school back at Cafe Soul for another go at the group tango lesson and a real Milonga experience. This time I was prepared! This was the first time I really danced with anyone besides Matias, though, so I learned a whole lot of new things. Every leader had something else to tell me, but they were infinitely nicer than the dude I came across in the Milonga in Bs As. They were actually helpful, encouraging, and all very positive. Tango rocks!

More Tango Dancing

Monday night was another perfect night of Tango dancing. Matias met me at school and mentioned that he'd discovered a little place that has Tango on Monday nights, and asked me to come along. Who was I to refuse, right?

The joint was an old house (around 150 years old) that had been converted into a little restaurant. The inner courtyard had been tiled with special tango-dancing tiles, and so people sat in the restaurant that surrounded a little open-air tango floor. It was super super cute. We drank a bottle of Argentine Tempranillo - a wine that isn't as common as the Malbec's and Cabernet Sauvignons, but definitely just as worthy of praise. But then again... I'm partial to Tempranillo's anyway.

The combination of the wine and the heat from the day made dancing a little harder than on Friday night, but it was no matter because half way through the night we were pleasantly surprised with a live band that doubled as a circus show. Of course, the band played tango music, but there were members of the troupe that did cirque du soleil style tricks for a good hour. I didn't understand all the acting that happened simultaneously, as it was all in spanish, but I got enough to be entirely entertained.

Tuesday night we went back to the same place. We weren't lucky enough to have another impromtu tango/circus performance, but we did get some torrential rain. If you remember, this is a restaurant with an open-air courtyard. Yes, open-air. After finding ourselves thoroughly drenched within 15 seconds, the crowd moved inside, pushed the tables to the corners, and cleared the restaurant floor for more dancing. Nothing in this country can stop the tangueros from dancing.

I liked this place especially because it was entirely full of locals, and seeing as it was a Monday and Tuesday night that we were there (Monday and Tuesday nights in Argentina are the "days of rest" for the nightlife, so anyone that goes out on one of those nights is serious about whatever he or she is doing), the dancers were especially good. I couldn't decide which couple to stare at since they were all incredible. The people here really take Tango seriously. I think it's great. It's an art that is so special to Argentina.

Caballos en la Noche

During our mountain climbing, Tamara did a little research on her other favorite thing in the world besides water: horses. When we stepped off the boat, Tamara came running over to us saying "let's go, let's go! I found a great price for a mountain tour on some horses!" Who was I to say no? At this point it was nearly dark, but the horse tours run night and day. Horses, like cows, are unbelievably prevalent in Argentina. Since their introduction to South America by the Spaniards, horses have run rampant throughout the countryside - mostly wild. The Native Americans, just like those in the States, adopted the animals and became exceptionally skilled with them. Of course, the horses we rode weren't wild, but it wasn't uncommon to see wild horses running through the mountains and across the roads.

Anyway, we get to the horses, and have some time to play around with them. Seeing as I have hardly any experience with horses (the only other time I've ever been on one was in Lujan - the zoo outside of Bs As) I'm still quite surprised by a lot of things. For example, I was really surprised to discover how tough and rope-like their hair is. It's not soft at all. However... in this particular collection of horses were a few baby horses. My favorite was a black-as-night little thing that was no taller than my shoulders. The baby horses had the softest fur ever, and we really curious. My favorite one keep sniffing me and using his lips to taste my fingers. At one point, I wasn't paying attention, and it bit me. I was left with something that looked curiously like a hickey on my arm, which still hasn't gone away.

After some time (remember, it's Argentina... everything takes time) we finally got on our horses and went off into the wilderness. At this point it was pitch black out except for a sky so full of stars it was practically white. I had always considered astrology to be a particularly boring field of study, especially since the constellations seemed to be so arbitrarily defined and totally pointless since half the time the stars weren't visible. This night, however, changed my mind. The milky way actually appeared as a white swath across the sky, and constellations like Orion suddenly made sense to me because the important stars are so wildly crystal clear, you HAVE to name them. Another interesting little factoid I noticed is that the constellations on this side of the equator are upside-down. I think I lucked out, however, because there was no moon that night - making the stars even more striking.

And so the horses walked through the mountains. We had to learn some techniques for balancing our weight as we went uphill or down, and I had to put an ungodly amount of trust in the animal since I couldn't see a thing that was happening on the ground. The horses were fine though. We traveled in a little line just like the Native Americans do in the movies, and the guides in the front and back of the lineup help up little oil lanterns. It's like I was transformed back to the 1800's. Definitely super cool.

Hiking en la Montañe

Around 6pm we were able to venture out of the house again. The entire country of Argentina is all on the same time, despite the fact that the country is well beyond the standard width of two time zones. On top of that, the entire country is an hour ahead of what it should be anyway because the government figured that with the energy crisis going on here, it would make more sense for the country to be on their own version of "daylight savings". As a result, the western cities of Argentina (Mendoza and San Rafael included) have sunlight until sometime around 10:30 or 11. The also means that when we went out at 6pm, the day was really like it would be at 4pm anywhere else in the world.

Anyway... Marc and I decided we wanted to go on a hike. Tamara, Cecilia and Eduardo wussed out, so it ended up being just the two of us. We talked to one of the guys that worked at the club and asked if knew the mountains at all, and if he's like to take us on a walk. One of the guys, Marcello, decided to do us the honors.

We took a boat across the lake to a little inlet and jumped out at the bottom of a random mountain. When I say random, I mean random. In all my experiences with hikes in the mountain, there was usually some sort of marked trail or path or something to follow in order to not get lost. This was nothing like that. A trail? What's that? It was seriously completely untouched earth. We had to hack our way through the brush and over the rocks. At points we would climb huge boulders, and at other times we had to crawl under the thick bushes on our hands and knees. Daddy, you would have been so proud. Your little dotta was so tough. Marc kept saying he was so glad Tamara didn't come because he was sure she would have thrown a hissy fit.

Anyway... there's more to what made this hike a particularly Argentine experience. About 15 minutes into our hike, Marcello sat down on a big rock, took out a blunt, and lit up. Now Marcello didn't speak a word of English but the language barrier wasn't an issue. After taking a few hits, he extends the joint out to us and says "Bob Marley?" I cracked up. Where in the States would an employee of a club that's acting as a tour guide decide to get high in front of his clients?

Nevertheless... our journey continued. 15 minutes later we came across a herd... yes a HERD of mountain goats. They were amazing. The were bleating away, and there were little kiddos and mommies and daddies. They were grazing away on the side of the mountain, totally chilling. I took a video of them (currently available on facebook), and will try to figure out a way to post it on a public site so you can all see them.

Another 20 minutes later, we came across a crazy-as-can-be llama. It was insane. It keep screaming at something... maybe it was us, but I couldn't tell... in a way I had never heard anything scream before. It sounded almost hyena-like. I dunno... it was weird.

We hiked for a bit longer and came onto a clearing where the mountain leveled out for a while, and there were actual trees growing. Oh yes - the mountains here are almost entirely made of rock. The climate here is so dry and hot that the northeastern mountains covered in trees and pine needles and such simply don't exist. The earth is much more raw. At times, it's as if the tectonic plates created the mountains 20 years ago, because only a few bushes as high as my waist have managed to take root.

Anyway... this clearing was awesome, so we hung out in it for a while. At this point there was also the one and only sign of human life that I saw the entire hike - a fire pit with a parrilla and spit... what else, right?... this is Argentina, the land of the asado.

After a little break, we continued on a little further. We kept climbing up and up, but there was always another mountain blocking access to a great view. Then suddenly the earth just dropped out from under us, and we were standing on a mountain that looked out over hundreds of miles of untouched earth that was thousands of feet below us. I was absolutely speechless. The view was due west, and since the sun was in the process of setting, you can imagine what it looked like. I decided that if someone ever decides to propose to me, he has to do it there... on that cliff, over looking the raw earth, at sunset. Unfortunately the photos I took just don't do the view any justice.

Marc and I sat in complete silence for about half an hour, just looking out over the world, watching the sun set behind the farthest peak.

Day o' Excursions: El Lago

Sunday rocked. The day was broken into three different experiences, and I've decided to make each one it's own entry because they were all absolutely awesome, and deserve the space.

Tamara, Marc, Cecilia (from Brazil), Eduardo (also from Brazil) and I started our Sunday with a nice, huge breakfast. Yummm... it was so good to have a change from the daily boring-ass bread that they serve for breakfast here in Argentina. Phew. We had eggs, and juice, and toast, and yogurt. yum yum yum yum yum.

Then we hiked down to the club house of the cabinas and rented a pedal boat and a canoe and went out on the lake. The water was unbelievable. It was perfectly placid, and as green as can be. We paddled out to a little mini peninsula and set up camp. We laid out in the morning sun, splashed around a little, and giggled like idiots. Tamara was SO happy. Tilke, she reminded me of you because all she could do was keep giggling and screaming "Me gusta la agua!!" It was quite pristine though... definitely worth a visit, if any of you readers end up in Argentina any time soon.

The sun in San Rafael is extremely strong, however. Seeing as it's high summer right now, it's even more so. It's so strong, in fact, that the siesta actually makes sense. By noon, the sun had become so hot that the only thing we could fathom doing was getting inside, under some shade, and passing out. The heat was stifling and entirely sleep-inducing.

And so we slept.

San Rafael

Tamara, in her infinite wisdom, planned an excursion for a bunch of students from school for the weekend. San Rafael is a city about 3 hours away from Mendoza, but when I say "city" I use the word quite liberally. Really, what it is, is a little outpost with a gas station, a super market, and a few shops somewhere between Mendoza and Buenos Aires. The drive out to San Rafael was the first time I saw completely untouched countryside. Now I've been through the prairies of the midwest in Canada and the states, and seen what seemed like untouched land, but this was a totally different experience. The countryside here is really nothing but countryside. I didn't see a single electric line or road sign, or ANYTHING for almost the entire 3 hours of driving. It was just tumbleweed, some wild grasses, and a scraggly little tree here or there. The road itself was the only sign that human beings existed, but even it had a maximum of three cars on it.

We arrived in San Rafael and ran around running some errands (we bought food) before driving to our cabina on a lake about a hour farther away. It turned out the cabina was more like a private house, and between the five of us, the food and the house cost less than living in Mendoza for two nights. Schweeet.

Saturday night we had (of course) an asado once again. Every house on the lake had as very fancy, souped-up parrilla, because the grilling culture here is so advanced it would be a faux pas to offer up a house for rent without one. Tamara proved to be quite the cook, soaking the meat in a fancy marinade before putting it on the grill. Wow, was it yummy.

I, on the other hand, couldn't get over the beauty of the lake we were perched above. The water was a crazy shade of green, and nestled between huge mountains of rock and weeds. I actually thought at first that it was a quarry because of all the rock everywhere, but here, the mountains are just much dryer than in New York. In a lot of ways, they're like the mountains of Arizona - just less dusty. Check out the view.

Dancing under the Stars

AAAAHHHHHHHHHHH. Friday night was SOOOO fun. My professor at school let it slip that her brother is a tango dancer, so after class I approached him with my broken spanish to ask him about it. Matias was entirely humble, and totally downplayed his dancing abilities, but told me he was going out Friday night to an outdoor tango event, and invited me along. At 10:30 we met for dinner and drinks with his first dance professor who, I found out later, he started taking lessons from over 10 years ago. Suddenly I was conscious of the fact that I was going dancing with a very serious tanguero. Over 10 years of dance lessons?! What the hell was I in for?

The dancing started around 11:30 at night. It was in one of the bazillion little Plaza's here in Mendoza. It really wasn't much in terms of music - just a boom box and some CDs - but it was special because it was so impromtu and small-town. Everyone knew each other - I even knew half of them from Wednesday night - and no one was really in charge. People had brought CDs from home, and were just playing whatever they felt like. The weather was perfect - just a warm breeze and a clear-as-crystal sky, and I got a 4 hour private lesson from an absolutely incredible tango dancer. Whoo hooooooooooo! It was SOO fun. I told Matias that I suddenly understood the need to close your eyes, listen to the music, and just follow. I don't think I could actually teach any step to someone at all, but I can say quite surely now, that I can dance a little tango. Granted, I had the advantage of dancing with the father of all leaders, and have no idea if I'd be able to follow anyone else, but whooo hooo anyway. Matias's teacher told me I will win money dancing tango one day. I dunno if that's true, but they were both impressed. That made me happy. I think I'm in love with Tango.

Dancing was followed by an ice cream (at the heladeria Matias swears is the best one in town) and a walk through one of the larger plazas. Mendoza is proving to be quite the romantic city. So many stars, perfect warm night breezes, summer scents, and little park benches with couples snuggling everywhere. It feels like a movie sometimes. And there's always a little bit of tango music somewhere off in the distance, with a couple dancing that sad dance in the moonlight. Mommy and Daddy - I've found the city you should retire to. It's quiet, tranquil, and beautiful without loosing sight of what it is to be a city. I think it's probably got a population 10 times that of Princeton, and even though the square footage of the city is also about that much bigger, the peace and tempo match Princeton. Only there's wine and it's much warmer. What more could you want?

Wine Tour

Thursday Linea and I went on the bodega tour finally. Although it still rained in the morning, the afternoon was pretty nice. Unfortunately, all of us - me, Linea, Tamara, Tais... - were quite sick - who knows why, but puking is no fun - so tasting wines was a little daunting for the two of us. We managed though. Of course.

We went to two different wineries. One was super huge and industrial and I couldn't believe the size of the tanks they aged the wine in. They were totally about the business and seemed to have little reverence for the wine making process at all. The other bodega was wildly different. This bodega produces wine that is sold exclusively at the vineyard and in Kentucky (yeah, go figure). The bottles here went for something between 10 and 30 pesos, while in Kentucky, the cheapest bottle is closer to $60. If I wasn't limited to a backpack I can actually carry, I would have bought 15 bottles. The wine was incredible. They also have this bazillion year old tradition for how they ferment their wine, and use a process that was used to prepare the wine for the founder's daughter's wedding more than 100 years ago.

Following the vineyards, we went to an Olive bodega. Here they grow both table olives and olives for olive oil. Wow. I can't say yum enough times. We got to taste all these different kinds of olives, oils, pastes, and whatever else they had. Gosh, I was in heaven. Again, I would have bought the store had it not been for my weight limitations.

The ride home on the bus was another cultural experience. Since time is not an issue, we drove each and every person on the bus home to their house. It took over an hour and a half, but we got door-to-door service. I was quite impressed. I've never heard of that happening in the States.

Beauty Treatment

Wednesday was supposed to be the day that we went on the wine tour, but the rain here has been unstoppable. All the locals are going crazy. Since Mendoza is usually a super dry place, and experiences only 18 days of rain or something, the fact that there's been almost 6 in a row by this point is making the locals restless. Nevertheless... the wine tour was pushed back to Thursday, and Linea and I decided to go get our nails done instead.

I think as far as beauty salons go, this was one of the high-end ones in Mendoza, but I will say that they were quite a "developing world" experience nonetheless. I don't know what it is about Americans, but time is money to us... especially in New York. As a result, even the beauty salons have their processes streamlined and practiced so that the least amount of time is wasted. This place, however, was not set up for efficiency at all. In order to get my feet done, I sat in a chair with one of those foot soakers on the floor in front of me for 10 minutes or so. Then I had to move to a massage table where they did the buffing of my toes and calluses and stuff. Then I had to move again to another chair that was kind of like a dentist chair while the lady doing my toes walked around the room (about the size of a typical dining room in the States) and grabbed nail polish remover from one corner, cotton from the other, cream from another, and whatnot. The impressive thing is that she didn't just bring them all over to where my feet were, but got up constantly, every time she needed to get something new. The entire process of getting my nails done took over 2 hours. I fell asleep.

It was nice to be pretty again, though.

First Tango Lesson

Although I didn't think I was going to tango in Mendoza at all, Wednesday night the entire school went out the one and only milonga in the city, Cafe Soul, and I finally got my first tango lesson. The teacher only spoke spanish, and was a little difficult to hear (let alone understand) but it was wildly fun nonetheless. Practically all the students from the school were there and we did a lot of walking around the room in a tango hold, and practicing moving our feet the proper way. Tilke, if you need a solution to all your tango dancing problems, the key is to keep your needs together at all times. Every time I screwed up, it was because my knees weren't together.

We spent the night dancing away. I liked it SO much better than the Milonga I went to in Buenos Aires because the pressure was not there at all, and it was totally acceptable to be a beginner dancer. No one got mad at you, and (I'm sure) the level of dancing was probably a lot lower than the Buenos Aires houses are.

I was struck, once again, with the sad beauty of the dance. Sometimes I feel like the dancers are crying. Because it's quite hard to follow if you see anything, many of the women dance with their eyes closed, which only contributes to the feeling of loss and melancholy the dance emotes. Later in the night, the teachers of the dance class would dance around the room and I couldn't peel my eyes away from them. They weren't doing all the flashy show moves that the dancers in the street do for the tourists, but just dancing tango like they were the only ones in the room. It was beautiful and sad, and entirely nostalgic. One day I'll dance like that too.

Return to Bs As

I've finally returned to Bs As and will be posting all my blog entries from the last two weeks.  I've kept each entry separate, as I wrote them.  Thanks for your patience!!

Absenteeism

I appologize for the extended absenteeism. I have no personal internet access here in Mendoza, so uploading my blog entries has been a little difficult. I promise that when I return to Buenos Aires this weekend I will post away like crazy, and you´ll have lots to read. SO much amazing stuff has happened here. I think I´m in love with Argentina.