Being a student of the spanish language is a time-consuming and important role to have. Therefore, I have been slightly relaxed about keeping this blog going. However, now that the house-moving and class-going is at a temporary halt until tomorrow, I can divulge our tales of recent adventures.
Level three, I discovered this week, is a good place to be. In level three spanish at La Universidad de Buenos Aires, we not only talk about what we like to do in our spare time but also about history, politics and current affairs. I was delighted to be handed a photograph by my profesora of Eva Peron - "Que esta haciendo en este foto?" And so I launched into a speech similar to a section of my last blog, sobre Evita y sus descamisados. "Ay, Alejandra! Que vocabulario!" I felt terribly clever. However, we soon moved on to a review of the imperfect tense and I was soon brought back down to earth and the reality of ghastly verb forms that I had yet to grasp. I felt terribly hard done by my first lesson upon discovering that two thirds of my class were Brazilian. They had such an advantage over me, I thought to myself, and yet with time I began to realise we were all in the same boat. The same sturdy boat of level three, each of us just waiting for the moment for spanish to click, register and splurge perfect verb tenses from our mouths.
Believe it or not, we haven't solely been working hard in the classroom. Taking time to stroll through calles away from the hustle and bustle of the main avenidas is something that cannot be over-looked when travelling, or staying in Buenos Aires. The amount of fantastic cafes here is also overwhelming, and (if you are anything like me) far too tempting. "Oh but the coffees are so cheap! And so delicious! Not like Starbucks which rips you off in more ways than one every time you order an extra-skinny-sugar-free-extra-hot-fat-free-latte-no-whip. AND those little complimentary home-made cakes they serve with the coffee are just to die for." These sentiments remain with you until you are seated in the fourth or fifth coffee bar you have visited that day and you begin to realise that these delightful little coffees do actually contain caffeine. Lots of caffeine in fact, and it has all of a sudden turned your hands into [salt] shakers and your eyes into saucers.
On Wednesday we had the pleasure of moving (temporarily I add, and somewhat sadly) to Belgrano, the poshest of the posh barrios in Buenos Aires, to stay with the delightful Bea y Roberto - wonderful friends of my father. Living on the tenth floor of a delectably snazzy high rise apartment building, the view from our bedroom and private terrace was just superb. Arriving from class to a wonderful dinner and great company was a great treat for the both of us, and an added bonus? Well, we were able to practice our spanish of course. And there really is no situation more comfortable to practice a second language than that over delicious food and a good glass of vino. Today, we had the delight of being taken to La Boca - the old port of Buenos Aires, famous for its tango and brightly painted, antiquated apartments, complete with wooden shutters and elaborately manipulated iron balconies, from where you somewhat stereotypically imagine a young Argentine woman, looking down at a Gaucho passing-by, before she decides to partake in a pronto tango with him on the cobbled street down below.
Tomorrow, the third chapter of our accomodation whirlwind continues and we move to a delightful apartment (complete with tango studio - a necessity here in Buenos Aires) in leafy Almagro. Though sad to be leaving Belgrano, upcoming trips to the Argentinian supermarkets (N.B. A chain which is particularly appealing and exciting - "Disco") now that we will have a kitchen of our own, distract somewhat from feelings of melancholy and sadness.
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