Caballeros and Caballos

We went out for the day to Mataderos where we were able to see caballeros playing on their caballos. Muy interesante. Muy muy fascinating indeed. The entertainment was fantastico - lots of dancing and music......and caballeros on caballos which were so exciting. They have to ride their caballo flat tack down the road towards a very tiny ring that is suspended from a bar which they ride under. They have to aim very skilfully with a stick (as small as a pencil) and put it through the ring and ride off with it on their stick thing. If you look carefully I have circled around the ring he is aiming for - its right in the middle of my circle. Very few managed to do it but some did and there was a great cheer for their success. One particularly clever caballero managed to do it twice in a row. Gracias to Francisco for giving me this photo - they were riding so fast that from where I was standing I only managed to get the caballos tail on the side of my photo.

There was another act that was remarkably like poi but the ends were metal and they were banged on the floor as they were swung and along with their feet clicking on the floor, they created a percussive rhythm which was estupendo. I have tried to upload video but cant seem to get it to work properly. I'll show you when I get home.

Have a look at the picture of mois...see what I'm standing next to...the black post is an original post that was used to tie up caballo's back in the 'old days'. Its in pretty good knick as well.

The fair was crowded with people and the atmosphere was buzzing. I was so tempted to buy every woollen wrap I could find but I was very restrained. Today it is freezing cold so I wish I had. It was 6 degrees this morning - a huge change from what we have been having for the past week.

Blabber Mouth

Who would have thought I could talk for so long...this morning I gave a talk at the Universidad de Moron - dont laugh at the Moron name you English speakers...the accent goes on the last syllable...so Mo-RON.
I was asked to go in and talk about NZ. I enjoyed the experience and managed to speak for over an hour...who would ever have thought I could manage that. It was a Tourism and English class combined, so the students seemed to enjoy it as well.
At the end they presented me with a gift (regalo) - a university pen (very nice), a book of short stories in Spanish and a brochure from the university detailing courses that offer for people learning Spanish "espanol para extranjeras" :)

The photo is of some of the estudiantes with me - my moment of fame!

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

Buenos Aires has been covered in smoke the last few days. It wasn't too bad until yesterday when I started getting really sore eyes and dry throat. I took these photos of the sun at about 1pm on Thursday, so that gives you some idea of how dense the smoke has been and how dark the city has been.

Check out these articles from the newspaper:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7355723.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7356919.stm

Today the wind has changed direction, the sky is clear and the sun is shining. Thank goodness for that.

Busking Babes

This is Raymi - one of the best buskers I have ever heard. I was mesmerised by his music. I bought two of his CDs...one is traditional native music the other has some traditional music and some popular tunes like Tears in Heaven etc. My favourite tune is El Condor Pasa which I now have in about cuatro variations on my iPod. All the musicians here play it with their own variation and every time I hear it I say to myself "this is the best one I've heard yet", but of course I've said that at least four times now and that is not including the Simon and Garfunkel version. I'm having trouble uploading the video clip - sorry!
We also watched an entertaining Tango demonstration - see what I mean about Argentinian men not being afraid to dance...they will even dance together. It turns out that Tango may have originally been danced by men and women entered the scene later on.
I came across another busker on the street the other day who was also playing traditional music on his pan flute - very beautiful and quite complex - but the amazing thing was he was accompanying himself on his guitar. That must be really difficult to do.

A Day out with Hilal

Spent a lovely afternoon with Hilal yesterday. We pounded pavement for about 3 hours - Hilal in her heels :(

We had coffee at El Gato Negro (The Black Cat) - established in 1668 or some other date a very very long time ago. The building is now historically protected. Here is a lovely photo of Hilal looking very ladylike. We had coffee coffee from costa rica and two lovely medialunas.

Porteno's pride themselves on their literacy and there are literally hundreds of bookshops (probably thousands) all over Buenos Aires. This photo is taken in one of them. There are old books, new books, any sort of book you could possible want. There are many books about Che Guevara.

We looked at some very old buildings (photo included above). The buildings are very beautiful but I imagine living in them might be a bit drafty. They also have very little light because as the buildings are all joined together on the sides, they can only have windows at the front and back.

The next two photos are taken inside a very old and beautiful building that is now a four level shopping mall. Chicky's you would be very proud of me....there are soooo many scarf, hat, earring and acccessory places here - but I have not yet succumbed to temptation. Actually I tell a lie - I did buy one nice little pair of earrings but the day after I bought them a lost one down the plug hole while I was showering - not impressed!! I have to remember that I am here for a year and I dont need to rush into buying everything I like - because apart from anything else how will I get it all home.

Gobsmacked

Here is the photo of the Gallego bar that I frequent for coffee. I took this photo off someone elses blog. It appears to have been taken by a newspaper along with an article which I have included. Simon sent me the link to this blog and I could not believe my eyes when one of the first photos I looked at was this cafe I have been raving about. I thought the coffee maker was old, but I didnt think he was that old. I have included a link to the other blog at the bottom of this post.

The article appears below:

This is the bar of Emilio Sangil, 78 years old, located in one of the most fancy corner in Palermo Hollywood. He’s been offered seducing amount of money to sale his bar, but up until now he refused all of them. As he said” I’m 78, I have no interest in selling, at this age, I don’t want any more adventures”, and he went on adding “I already feel surrendered here.” I gotta go visit this bar one day, this is the kind of story that I like and that makes me smile :=)

http://www.akworld.net/webblog/

La Familia

Here are some photos of the family I am lucky enough to be staying with. They are such very welcoming and lovely people - I am very grateful :)

Agustin and Juan (18 and 7) cooking the asado (bbq), Inez and I (grandmother of the children), Patricia and Lourdes (the mum and 15 year old daughter) and Jose and Patricia at Palermo Soho in Buenos Aires.

Rugby Sevens - Argentine Style

This is how you distract the other team and keep their mind off their game - see the dancing girls, and it was a freezing cold day:

I had the pleasure of spending Sunday at a Sevens Tournament. It was fun but extremely freezing. Winter has arrived with a vengeance in Argentina. It has gone from singlet weather on Friday to 563 woollie layers weather by Saturday.

In the evening (they call it the afternoon but to me 6pm is definitely getting on to evening time) on Sunday I went to watch Jose's team play. The club is Los Toros (The Bulls) ands they were playing a team that had two ex puma's in it. Of course I had to have my photo taken with one of them - he had even been and toured NZ as a Puma and played in Hamilton.

I was given a present (regalo) by the club, simply because I come from the Land of the All Blacks, but wait for it, I had to perform the haka - haha haha - I couldn't even pretend to know the words and actions because believe me they ALL know it over here. It was really funny, and besides I had had nowhere near enough Quilmes to drink to do a good job of it.

The day concluded with an asado put on by the club - now the argentinians really know how to BBQ - this was something else, and of course dancing - and thats another thing, Argentinian men are not afraid to dance. An excellent day!

Rocks and Hard Places

I feel stuck between a rock and hard place - the olympic flame is in Buenos Aires today and I really want to go and see it. Buenos Aires is the only city in America that is receiving the flame (if I am understanding the news properly - questionable seeing as how I am only on level one Spanish). However my principles tell me not to go because I disagree with the Olympic Games being in China . There is a huge protest from the Chinese community and from the Tibetan community going on and I support their cause. Why should a country that doesn't have equal rights for their citizens have the right to host the Games - surely there is a responsibility that goes with the privelege and honour of hosting such an important world event. What do you think? Anyway I'm not going, but I will watch it on TV.

Gastronomic Delight

I have found the best coffee maker in the world (certainly in Argentina) - a little old man in the El Bar Gallego (actually two little old men) . I have to say to my fellow coffee chicks...I think the coffee might be better than Jacks and that is saying something. The Gallego Bar is in Palermo which is extraordinarily pretty and green...it has wide cobbled avenues with balconies overflowing with flowers. The Gallego bar by contrast is down a side street, is fairly untidy (bordering on dirty) but the coffee and the style of the bar came highly recommended by Jose and I have to say he is right...who cares about a little bit of dirt if the coffee is good right. Has anyone seen "the bucket list" a film with Jack Nicholson? Please dont tell me the coffee has the same origins as the coffee on the film - something to do with dog poo additive!! I shall try and post a photo of the bar - I am having problems uploading photos, but I shall do my best. Because of this brilliant 'find', my daily routine is going to change. Instead of catching the subte (subway) from Palermo to Recoleta, which is about 6 stations away, I am going to walk to work so I can linger every morning and experience the delight of this very fine coffee, and yarn to the 'little old man' who is very happy for me to practice my espanol on him. Oh I forgot, another gastronomic delight here is the medialunas that come with the coffee mmmmmmm, I'll have to be careful not to go back home twice the size that I left.And, empanadas ... finger licking good!

A Global Community

I have had my first two days of Spanish class this week and the global nature of the community(ies) in which we live has certainly been made clear. There are six students in the class, one from France, Kenya, Korea, Turkey and another girl from Christchurch in good old Aotearoa...and our teacher is Brazillian - how is that for international diversity. (That is my class above)

After having a language proficiency test (oral) they decided I should be in level one ... I could have told them that for free - I certainly didnt need a test to discover my shortcomings in speaking Spanish - anyway level one Spanish in a Spanish speaking country is hugely different to level one Spanish in an English speaking country. It is way more difficult. The good news is, I can only get better - right????

Evita

Well today I played tourist and visited el cementerio la recoleta - a truly amazing place. Evita's tomb is here which is what I was really interested in seeing. (The photo with me in it is beside her tomb). This cemetery is in the grounds of a monastery which was set up by Franciscan Monks in 1720. The current cemetery was inaugurated in 1822. The barrio (suburb) is called Recoleta because the area is/was very tranquil which was deemed perfect for meditation or recollection hence 'Recoleta'. The cemetery is a city within a city, with different architectural styles and fashion using marble, granite, bronze, stone. You walk in the gates and are greeted by a huge towering statue of Christ, from which you walk along avenues and calles (all named) lined with giant vaults and tombs resembling churches and houses...some are simple and others bombastic masterpieces! It has a mixture of marble and flowers and little plaza's. Relevant players in Argentine history lie here - presidents, poets, writers. It is a lovely place (strangely) to wander in peace and quiet, exploring narrow calles and wide avenues among the yew and cypress trees.

Handsome Argentinian Hombres

Yes - Argentinian men are certainly well above average in the looks department - however........having 20 of them squashed up against me in the train doesn't do it for me I'm afraid. Two days ago I made the error of catching the train home at 6pm - muy grande mistake! It was ok when I got on at the beginning of the line, but by two stops further on I was in a sardine can - and, I had lost count of the number of stops we had made (because I still have to count the stops to know where to get off cos I dont recognise where I am yet) and I could not longer see the map on the wall cos there were too many people on the train. Honestly they were having to hang out of the doors and windows - not exaggerating - I was worried I was going to end up in Rio before I could get off. As it was I nearly lost my laptop because I was holding on tight to it but unfortunately it wasn't taking the same path off the train as I was - my arm is now 350cm longer because I was not letting it go. There were two casualties during this experience - one of my ear rings broke (tragedy) and my middle finger got dislocated. One of those interesting experiences that one must have, but never ever repeat again!

No Fruit and Veg For Me

The political situation is fairly dire at the moment as the farmers have beeen picketing the roads in about 400 places around the country for the past 15 days. They are blocking fresh produce completely and also delaying all traffic. Bus journeys that normally take 13 hours instead are taking 25 hours - imagaine the frustration for travellers. There is also a shortage of fresh meat in the supermarkets - all the freezers and refrigerators are empty. So, no fibre in my diet this last week and it is not looking to promising for the next week or two either - my bod is objecting strenuously to this state of affairs.

I had the day off school today and tomorrow is a public holiday ... celebrating independence day ... so after going into the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) I played tourist for a while. Whilst wandering the street I walked straight into the middle of a political rally called by the Government to try and turn the people against the supporting the farmers. I think that most people here support the farmers cause. Funny thing was a reporter from the radio tried to interview me - we fumbled through with mixed English and Spanish (Spanglish) and found that I had the wrong end of the stick completely - I thought the rally was the farmers petitioning the Government but instead, it was the other way around...never mind, my Spanish is improving daily.

Chau for now

Man-sized Ants

You would not believe the size of the ants here ... honestly, they are at least 20 times the size of ants from Aotearoa. You cant even squash them when you walk on them - and believe me I have tried...they just look a little stunned, get back up, shake themselves off and carry on with their business.

First Impressions

Argentina is such a vast country....flying over it seemed to take almost as long as actually seeing land after all that ocean. Unfortunately I was having a zzzzz when we flew over the Andes. The south of Argentina was very very brown with some beautiful lakes dotted around, the it quite quickly changed to being green as we approached Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires is massive - 14,000,000 people.

The poverty here is very obvious. The roads are in ¨not such good knick¨ with holes everywhere, not just little ones...these ones you could lose a cow in. The drivers are mad...there are no painted lanes on the road so consequently people drive all over the road and just stop when they feel the urge causing mucho blaring of horns and shouting. The taxi I was in to come to my host family didnt know how to read the speed limit sigh that said minimum 50 maximum 100 because he was hooning along at 135 :( The most interesting site last night was a man riding along on his smallish motorcycle with his family of four children squashed in front and behind him, all the while dodging the potholes and none with helmets on. I didn't have my camera at the ready but here is another photo that I took when I did have my camera - at least one of them is wearing a helmet.

My host family are lovely and the people are very friendly. This morning I visited the school where I will start work tomorrow - Colegio San Miguel - a private Catholic school in the barrio of Ricoletta...miles from where I am staying. School facilities are very different to modern NZ schools. The admin block in this school is one room not even the size of our Student Centre with three desks squeezed in and very dreary - but they are happy.

I am feeling muy muy homesick - missing everyone I love. I think that once I have my mobile sorted (hopefully tomorrow) and skype up and running that this feeling will improve. Its also difficult hearing very little English and having to concentrate so hard on understanding and being understood.