Living in the groove

Hey folks,

I'll begin by saying that I know it's been a terribly long time since my last blog post, and I admit to feeling slightly guilty about that. I've had plenty of opportunities to write in the past several weeks but, for various reasons, I always found an excuse to occupy my time with other diversions. I guess I'll call it living in the groove.  I felt compelled to write this morning after a long and slow wake up time, and three cups of tea and a cup of coffee to wash away the grogginess. Now with a clear head I can begin.

I don't think I truly settled in until a week or so ago, because it was about a week ago that a profound change happened. I think I'll call it living in the groove. I can't really explain it other than that I finally felt completely at home. I guess before that change I had sort of been keeping myself in mental limbo. I never fully accepted my surroundings as permanent, or myself as a permanent resident. In the back of my mind I seemed to harbor a thought that somehow I was only living here temporarily, and thus didn't need to "fully" settle in. With my now more peaceful and, dare I say, homely frame of mind has come many changes  in how I act, most of them for the better.

The first change is that I've drastically changed my diet. For months I'd been sustaining myself on bread, potatoes, onions, and cereal, not a very healthy diet in the long-term, but a diet that appeased a slightly unsettled mind, and an appetite constantly on the go. Now I've embraced full-on vegetarian. Well, not fully vegetarian. I do eat meat on occasion, but I don't really trust the meat here. The chicken meat, for example, looks like it came from small dinosaurs. I've been eating tons of greens, apples, pears, oranges, and bananas, and I feel much  more in control of my daily diet than I used to.

I have also finally joined a gym. The weather has been terribly frosty the past couple of days, and the freezing temperatures haven't been conducive to outdoor training. Indeed my apartment itself is quite drafty, and the little space heater has quite a time keeping out the cold. This past Wednesday a repairman was supposed to come with my old heater, which he took to repair in February. Unfortunately he didn't show up so my space heater must continue to do the job on it's own.

As for the gym, it isn't anything spectacular, but it has all the weight training equipment I need as well as bikes and other machines. It's only $180 pesos a month, which is about US $40, which seems like a reasonable price for me, especially if I go 5 times a week (that's the plan). I tried the equipment there for the first time yesterday and was not a little surprised by how scrawny I'd become. I've been working out in the local park for months, doing pushups, pull ups, and sprints, but I think it had been at least 6 months since I'd touched free weights. The weights were all in kilograms so I had to experiment and find the adequate weight for me. When I woke up this morning my body felt like a rock and my arms were quite sore. I guess it'll take some time to get back into the groove.

On some minor news, I chipped a 2nd tooth yesterday. I think it happened when I was eating my homemade guacamole and flat bread. Who new guac could be so deadly to one's teeth :  ) Well, that gives me all the more reason to see the dentist when I return to the States.
I also attended the Buenos Aires Chili Cookoff, which was somewhat disappointing. Most of the chili was bland (except for one outstanding chili that set one's mouth blazing), and it was all served in tiny sample cups so you couldn't just buy a large bowl of the stuff.
The next two days are rather quiet because they are holidays here in Argentina. Today is Flag day, a celebration of the national flag, and the entire country has tomorrow off as well so I'm only teaching several classes which gives me a nice break as well.

I'll leave off with a salad recipe I've been making quite a lot recently. It's super delicious and super simple. In fact it's not much of a recipe because literally anyone with half a brain, spinach, tomato, avocado, onion, and red pepper can make it.

Kyle's favorite salad recipe
 Servings: 1

Half a bunch of spinach, chopped
1/3 red pepper, cut into 1-2 inch strips
1/2 tomato, thinly sliced
1 small avocado, meat cubed
1 egg, hard boiled
1/3 small onion, cut into thin strips
*1 small apple (green or red) thinly sliced is an excellent addition to this salad
*If you want to add some extra density to the salad you can fry 1/3 small potato (thin strips, thinner than French fries but similar shape) in a small pan with a little olive oil and vinegar.

Combine all ingredients together into a large salad bowl.

Dressing
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons apple vinegar, or wine vinegar
1 tablespoon maple syrup

Mix together until well blended and toss with the salad until the salad is evenly coated.

Voila! A deliciously healthy, amazingly tasty salad!!!

Cheers and buen provecho,

Kyle 

Tango lessons

A quick hola to all my Argie and Yankee followers,

Just a brief update. I participated in my very first Tango lesson this past week. It had been a goal of mine to learn a bit of Tango while living here, but I had never pursued any lessons. Yet when a friend invited me to take lessons on Thursdays I jumped at the opportunity. Conveniently, my classes on Thursday evenings had just concluded as my then student at the time had recently left for Greece, thus opening up my schedule and permitting me to take the classes.

I think one reason I hadn't bothered to pursue lessons was a preconceived notion I had created in my mind of groups of tourists paying exorbitant funds for an hour lesson and an expensive and mediocre dinner and Tango show.  While this notion may be true in many instances,* it definitely did not fit my first experience in Tango lessons.

For one, I was the only English speaker there. This made the lessons all the better because it forced me to communicate only in Spanish. Second, the lessons are wonderfully priced, and the professors are more about having a great time and teaching Tango than about making a handsome profit.

The lessons were held in a beautiful Palermo home, in a spacious room with a real art nouveau Porteno feel. The atmosphere of the building, along with the energy of the professor and the participants blended to create a genuine sense of community.  

The lesson lasted an hour and a half and was focused primarily on building proper technique. Sandwiches, empanadas, and an assortment of beverages were served afterwards while two of the lesson participants provided beautiful vocal accompaniment to traditional Tango ballads.

I quickly felt right at home in this chilled out, yet festive atmosphere, and I didn't end up leaving until nearly two in the morning. Despite having to wake up early the next morning for 3.5 hours of Spanish lessons.

Tango on Thursday, Spanish on Friday, and cooking with Brad again today. Despite some student cancellations, I have been very productive this week, and am looking forward to more Tango, Spanish, and the Buenos Aires chili cook off in the weeks to come.

Abrazos from the South!


*While Tango is widely recognized throughout the world, according to my Tango instructor only 2% of Argentines actually know how to dance Tango, which is probably what makes it much more of a tourist oriented custom.