On Thursday I took my first excursion outside Buenos Aires city limits, to a town on Rio de la Plata called Tigre. I was looking forward to it, since I'd heard a lot about how pretty Tigre was, and also since we had been informed that the trip involved kayaking. I have been a fan of any kind of boating since my summer camp days, so I was stoked. One damper on the situation: my intensive class has been from 2 to 6 in the afternoon, and to accomodate the trip to Tigre they had moved class up to 9 in the morning. This meant I had to wake up/ leave my house by 8:30, the earliest I had done anything here in Argentina. Needless to say, class was excruciating. I had not had time to grab my customary "cafe doble solo" which sounds like an oxymoron but isn't (more on the magic of Argentine cafes in another post) and subsequently was unable to form a coherent English sentence, let alone conjugate past perfect subjunctive in Spanish. But I digress. Finally we got to Tigre, which was as beautiful as advertised. In the first half of the 20th century it was where portenos went during the summer to escape the city. It has been eclipsed by Mar del Plata, but beautiful mansions and wide avenues remain. After a scenic ramble to the Tigre Art Museum, my boat buddy, Sailee, and I were anxious to get in the water. We had not been floating for more than a few minutes before I realized our rudder, which they said should be controlled from the back seat where I was, was not in the water. The problem was compounded by the fact that motorboats sped by every couple minutes, shaking the kayak with wake and throwing us pretty far off course. I managed to steer with my crazy canoeing skills left over from Camp Treetops which involve shoving your oar in the water on the opposite side of the direction you want to go in. For example, if we wanted to go left, I'd leave my oar in the water on the right. This slowed us down considerably but at least we didn't hit any motorboats, and we managed not to be the last ones back to the dock. Unfortunately we didn't get to enjoy scenic Tigre from the water, but thank you summer camp.
On Sunday we went to the fair in San Telmo, where I wanted to practice another life skill, one I am not so adept at: haggling. I know that at open air markets prices are jacked up considerably for tourists, and my accent makes me an easy target, but usually I feel too badly to argue with someone who is just trying to make a living. In this case I had made up my mind to find something and bargain, but the San Telmo market is not your average crafts fair. The economic crisis of 2001 caused many families to sell their heirlooms just to survive, and their belongings ended up in San Telmo. The place was full of beautiful chandeliers, tapestries, china sets and jewelry. The thought of bargaining for someone's family heirloom with someone who obviously is not in great economic straits themselves got the better of me, and I decided to leave the haggling to a different fair. I didn't end up buying anything, though seriously considered an antique black beaded evening clutch priced at $40 (about $11 U.S).
The intensive course ended on Friday, and I did well on my final which means I'm in the "Advanced" Spanish grammar class for the regular semester (YAY!). Also on Friday we found our favorite club so far in Buenos Aires, a place called "El Living." They have both a bar area and a dance floor which is good since I am not much of a discoteca person, and played awesome music. Most places here in BA seem to think everyone loves techno but at El Living we heard everything from Jock Jams to The Killers. It was nice to actually be able to talk and meet new people rather than randomly dancing with strangers. It's definitely my new go-to place to have fun. This week is Orientation Week, which involved informational meetings in the morning and fun cultural activities in the afternoon. For example, tomorrow afternoon we are playing "traditional Argentine games," whatever that means, and Thursday I register for classes. I'll let you know how it goes.
Besos
N
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