A Cacerolazo and Spanish lessons

Hey folks,

I have finally begun taking Spanish lessons. After six months I threw my many excuses out the window and began contacting potential professors. Finding a free slot for classes in my schedule was difficult but I was able to schedule my first class for last Friday. I am relieved to have the class in my schedule now because I had been putting it off for so long. Now that it's there I finally feel committed.

The first class went really well. I'm taking it with two other English professors who are at the high beginner level. Although my level is mid-high intermediate, I find I enjoy taking a lower level class because it helps me to reinforce material I may have covered a long time ago but since forgotten. I also find the best way to master material is to explain it to someone else. Right now I'm reinforcing and mastering the basics so I can have a strong foundation for the more advanced material to rest on.

In our first class we covered giving and asking directions, a subject I strangely missed in my previous years learning Spanish. I've even had to make use of this at least once since the class. As I was walking home one day some folks asked where they could find the Recoleta Mall, as I was a bit startled by the unexpected communication my Spanish was rather choppy but I managed to point them in the right direction and communicate a few meaningful words on what roads to take. Overall I count it as a success. Hopefully too they found the mall : )

A big event for Argentina was the Cacerolazo known as 18A (18th of April). A cacerolazo, or casserole in English, is a giant public protest in which crowds of people take to the streets marching and banging pots and pans. I believe the first cacerolazo was in 2001 when Argentina's economy collapsed along with the middle class. The pots and pans symbolize hunger and the lack of basic needs, but even more they symbolize a lack of confidence in the government. I went to watch the marching for a brief period but didn't stay long. Overall I would describe it as more of a giant public gathering than a protest. There wasn't much shouting or demonstrating, mostly it was just people milling around and looking at everyone else around them. My favorite memory of the cacerolazo was of a man hitting a plastic spoon on the styrofoam kilo container of ice cream he was eating, so much for lack of food : )

Work occupies most of my time now, which makes it ever more difficult to write. My only free day is Sunday now, which I often use to unwind in the park with a good book. Despite the workload life is good. Setbacks happen as always but the pace continues as usual, and I go with the flow.

Cheers to another week!

Kyle

The Arrival of Friends

Hey folks,

It's been a long time since my last post, and it is not because I have not felt compelled to write. In fact I often find blogging to be one of the best ways to spend what little free time I have. For me, it is both relaxing and productive, a great way to unwind after a long day, or a long week.

Well, these past few weeks have definitely been long, and very busy. For example today I spent four hours sitting in Migraciones waiting to get my expired Visa renewed, and I briefly contemplated the irony of living life as an illegal, a perspective I'm not all too familiar with : ) There has also been some terrible flooding that left many areas in Buenos Aires in a state of emergency. Luckily my area was barely affected, but I send good thoughts to all of those who've had to deal with flooded homes, damaged cars, and very little support.
For more on the flooding click here

A bright note came in the form of a wonderful visit from Rigel and Mikey, two college buds who trekked all the way from Chile just to see me! Well, not entirely just to see me, although I wish that were the case. In fact Rigel just finished a stint working as a trail guide in the Chilean mountains, and Mikey arrived when Rigel finished about a month ago and they've been trekking and exploring ever since (I feel a twinge of envy as I sit here, weighed down by the responsibility of a full time job).

Mikey and Rigel in the apartment

Yet because of Semana Santa I did have some free time, and this free time just happened to coincide with the visit from Mikey and Rigel. Their visit prompted many "firsts" for all of us. It was the first time we all ate a kilo of ice cream in two days, it was the first time I visited La Boca, I saw my first car race (the Super TC 2000) the first time we made Noquis, the first time I visited the Rosedal garden and, during the week they were here, we ate an entire kilo of dulce de leche (I cringe at the thought).

                 Mikey and I in La Boca                   The Super TC2000 in front of the Museum of fine art

For those of you who don't know, dulce de leche is an obsession in Argentina. All the cookies have dulce de leche, all the ice cream shops have at least five flavors of dulce de leche ice cream, even McDonalds has dulce de leche instead of chocolate, and lastly Starbucks has their very own dulce de leche latte, for those of us who can't get enough of the stuff.

Ahhh, the dulce de leche!

So what is dulce de leche? This sweet and delectable spread is made by slowly heating sweetened, condensed milk with sugar until it thickens into a spread that can be put on anything from toast, to pancakes, to ice cream.

While in the states we have an obsession with peanut butter, here dulce de leche is all the rave, and for good reason. The stuff tastes heavenly. For more on dulce de leche wikipedia has everything you would ever need to know about the tasty confection.

To wrap up, Mikey and Rigel left for Uruguay just before the really bad flooding hit. They came back a week later and we met in a Starbucks near the train station for the last time before they boarded a bus out of the city. We drank dulce de leche lattes (of course!) and talked about their surfing exploits in Uruguay and their plans for the rest of their journey. Both of them fly out of Santiago and will spend some time traveling through northern Argentina, primarily Cordoba and Mendoza, before entering Chile again. I wish them all the best and a safe journey.

Mikey and Rigel in the Rosedal Garden in Palermo

Now for me it's back to teaching and business as usual. I'm hoping to start Spanish classes this month so I'm busy looking for a good teacher. I really need to begin classes if I want to make my goal of Spanish fluency by December.

Cheers,

 That's me in Parque Vicente Lopez where Rigel, Mikey and I drank Mate.

~Kyle