Great music, awesome food, and relaxing drinks (drinks can be relaxing, right?)

After my breakdown on Sunday, I decided I needed a walk in nature, unfortunately; I live in a city and the only real nature is in gardens. I headed out to the Jardin Botanical. Let’s just say I didn’t quite get the beautiful nature scene I was looking for but, it was tranquil and with all the plants I did feel like I was breathing some fresh air. The gardens were really sad looking to me, I know its fall but it’s just the beginning of fall and still in the high 60’s low 70’s most of the day. I had to search hard to find any color other than brown and green. The walkways were just as bad as the sidewalks in BsAs; with crumbled stairs, closed parts under construction, piles of rock for the footpath everywhere, it just really was quite sad. I think the part that got me the most was the park is a Porterños favorite place to abandon their cats. In an hour I managed to see about 70 cats of all types and ages. It really broke my heart, especially since most of them were so friendly. I don’t understand why people abandon their pets…….

On to a lighter note, that night I met up with a friend of a friend from America, who has also quit her job to move to BsAs and learn Spanish and figure out life. We at dinner at what I think so far is the best restaurant in BsAs, Cumana, it was delicious and incredibly cheep for how great the food was. Monday night I went to a concert at Konex, an indoor/outdoor warehouse type place, to listen to La Bomba de Tiempo. They were awesome. The drummer from Punte Celeste (see prior blog) is the conductor of this drumming band. The music is catching and the best part is he makes up the songs as he’s up there. A great time, minus my sore throat from all the cigarette smoke, I love America because you can’t smoke inside.

Tuesday I got the internet back at my house, only to leave my computer cord at school and have minimal battery on my laptop, it’s my Irish (err Scottish) luck, I swear. I did manage to stay in this night, I think…..Can’t remember, my memory is going with the lack of sleep here. Ha-ha

By Wednesday my mind was numb from all the Spanish. In 3 weeks, I have re-learned the present, past simple, past perfect, past imperfect, future simple, future conditional tenses, the gerund, imperative to give instructions both positively and negatively, connectors, prepositions,  possessive pronouns, object pronouns…….and all the irregular ways to do this, plus many nouns, adjectives, verbs, masculine, feminine…..forms…..ugh, exhausting! My mind is reeling with information. So when Connect 123, the company who found me my internship, was having a drinks and appetizer night, I was all for it. We headed to Congo and had a pretty relaxing night, talking in mostly English, I needed this by the way, but again it was a late night. Because as usual we didn’t order apps until after 9:30pm.

Work has been……well work, and it’s that third week mark (I think), maybe it’s the fourth, I am losing track quickly, but I’m at bit overwhelmed with all the Spanish so work has been taxing, but I do really enjoy marketing and I enjoy working for a small company in an informal setting. The people here at Vos Buenos Aires are truly great people to work with. I am glad I am here to learn and live, even if it’s taxing at times.

Too much nightlife and not enough sleep

I don’t understand how the Porteños function on so little sleep, although the numerous tiny cups of coffee consumed, continuous mate drinking, and eating a sugary pastry at each meal and for snack time, seems to be doing the trick. This last week I have had to partake in this caffeine/sugar consuming lifestyle just to stay awake and function, as unhealthy as it sounds, it seems to be working, but I think I would gain a million pounds if I had to live here for more than a year and would have to take many vitamin supplements because I think my diet would be so overloaded with carbs, caffeine and sugar. Besides working and going to school 40+ hours a week, I am trying to live the lifestyle here while, finding time to complete homework, write this blog, a Spanish blog, practice yoga and keep in touch with friends. Wednesday I attended tango lessons at school and then went out (at 10pm mind you) with my classmates and teacher to a Cameroon restaurant because one of the students is from Cameroon. My plate was a pile of green mush, which if you knew me as a child or even a few years ago would not have been consumed by me, I used to be such a picky eater, I still won’t eat tomatoes but I managed to eat my mashed up veggies, fried plantains and goat, which was tasty despite the fact that it looked like someone threw-up on my plate. 

Thursday I went with my schoolmates to a fusion concert at CAFF, the band, Punte Celestial, was interesting. Everyone in the band could play more than one instrument and the music was…..well interesting or exotic would be good words for it. youtube.com The band was amazing, the wine so-so, the beer bad but plentiful and the empanadas the best I have had so far. Friday was tough because we again didn’t get home till about 2am. Friday I was exhausted but, had plans to go with my cousin’s friend Peter and his girlfriend and daughter to a Spanish Play. We saw the Estrella de Seville by Vega at the Teatro Nacional Cervantes, the whole thing was in Spanish and everyone wore a grey suit, I was so tired and so confused. The funny part was I wasn’t the only one who didn’t understand, most of the Argentines couldn’t understand the play either. You see, the play was written in Spain Spanish from Shakespeare’s era, which is a foreign language to most Argentines! It would be like going to a British version of a Shakespeare play where everyone wore black. I was surprised to know that I did understand a lot of the play after talking about it. After the play I was hoping to go home and get some sleep at a decent hour (10:30pm) but no, it’s Argentina and that’s dinner time, even for people who are 60+.

Saturday I went to La Boca, a neighborhood in Buenos Aires that contains brightly colored houses thanks to the Italian immigrants from long ago. La Boca is known for its asados (bbq), tango and the colorful homes. I went with my Norwegian friends and my English roommate. We had a fantastic steak lunch with sangria in a lovely courtyard while listening to a wonderful tango singer. It was a beautiful afternoon that was followed by hour d' orves at my house and capped off with a wreck the house party with 1,000 beers, Argentines and expats, circus acts, and the loca but extremely fun hostess Sunny who’s apartment was being torn down the next week to build a high rise…..again no sleep until about 5 in the am. Let’s say my internet breakdown Sunday morning also have come from lack of sleep from this past week.

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