Cycle of Friends

I met my first new friend yesterday through my Spanish school. He is a nice young fella from England, travelling around South America and perfecting his Spanish. This is the thing being in a foreign country. All English-speaking extranjeros (foreigners) you meet will instinctly become your friends because we don´t have anyone else except each other, especially for those that are travelling solo, and there are TONS of them.

At the moment, Buenos Aires is still in its low season and it´s very obvious that there aren`t a lot of visitors from far far away. Last year in their summertime, I made 6 new friends in a matter of days and we would go out to drink, to dine, to dance, to hang out, to discuss each others’ countries, and our different lifestyles or similar daily issues (boyfriends/girlfriends is definitely an universal one). It was really a wonderful time and I learned a lot from all these people. They all love life, they are all brave and adventurous, and they made me feel that I´m not all alone.

Whether they´ll become true friends or not, time will tell, but one thing is certain is that they all come and go, as we are all travellers. We may have the best times of our lives together but we may never see each other again either. Such as many things in life. From that, I really learn to grasp onto the present and not worry about what´s next because you have no control over it. I’m lucky to say that I´m still in touch with a few of those people I´ve met last year, we´d say hi once in a while on MSN or Facebook (gotta love technology eh, as opposed to writing snail mail letters when I first moved to Toronto!). While life goes on, I know if one day we were going to visit each others´countries, we´d welcome each other with open arms.

Picture: Meeting new friends while travelling is like adding information antennas to your little world. My new England friend found out from a local that there was this open gallery night on this street, so we went to look at some classic and contemporary arts, and most importantly, we scored free champaigns! And yes it´s legal to drink on the streets too!

Too cold for tango

I have yet to put on my dancing shoes. Surprising eh? Me too but you know what, it’s so darn cold over here at night these days (has been in single digits) that I’m very content with just snuggling next to the heater, having some quiet time to myself.

However, today is the day that I´m going to open the flood gate! There is a Mundial de Tango event going on this week. It´s like a competition/events type of tango festival. There are free dancing classes and I am going to go to one today. It´d be a good start for me to warm up to it because, to be honest, I am quite nervous to go out and dance in THE tangoland.

I started dancing tango in Buenos Aires last year. I threw myself into the fire when I was a total beginner. I had nothing to lose. However, now I have pressure. After many hours of dancing and learning, I want to show that I am at least a decent dancer, and most of all, I know the customs, the etiquette, the ´game´ very well. I know from the first step you got onto the dance floor, people are watching you, and these people are not just any people, they are milongueros. They know their dance. If you want people to ask you to dance, that first dance is key especially if you´re a new face. There are not a lot of asians who dance tango here and if you see any, most likely they are Japanese and tourists. And because of that, me walking into a place will absolutely scream NEW FACE and eyes will start watching and judging and see if this chica knows what she is doing. As self-conscious as I might be, I do need some hot sexy tango dancing to warm me up. It´s like the hot chocolate in Argentina style.

My old love

Went to San Telmo today, reminiscing all of my first encounters in this barrio (neighborhood) which has played a big part in my attachment to this city. You can still see and feel a lot of the old world here, with 100-year-old cafes in their old self still open for business; cobblestone streets which you have to watch where you step or else you may risk springing your ankle by walking into a hole (ladies, absolutely bad idea to wear heels in this area); European-style antique buildings with beautiful architectural design outlined by years and years of dust and dirt… I can go on and on about how much characters this area has. I continued to discover new things every time I walked around.

Including today, I saw new things there; in fact, quite a bunch of them. Other than lots of repaving going on (great news for ankles), new stores, which could only be found in the more ‘proper’ area before, have now opened shops in San Telmo, like Freddo (known for being the BEST ice cream in BA), Havanna (the latin coffee chain, move over Starbucks!) and some trendy clothing stores. It was quite an OMG to see Freddo there (last year, I had to get my ice cream fix some 30mins away). At the same time, however, I got a bit sad that, like many other places on earth, the innocence and the authenticity of this place is slowly being camouflaged by all these businesses because of economical reasons. Looks to me that the status of San Telmo in tourism has jumped even higher in the last year or so. These new shops took over spots that were previously local kioskos where you could grab that gum you need. They became competitors to many one-of-a-kind home-style shops, like there is one very cute ice cream shop that sells home-made ice cream, and Freddo is now located, well, right across from it. Btw, is it totally hypocritical of me for saying all these but then I’d still choose to eat Freddo instead?? If you got to try it, I’m very sure that you’d forgive me completely and would even put your hand up and say ‘I’m totally with you on that Iso.’

Anyway, the point is I’m so going to find a place to live in San Telmo!

Connected once again

Got in yesterday afternoon. A local friend whom I´ve met last year when I was here came to pick me up with a remis (car service). Lots and lots of thanks to him because it'd be much more difficult for me to get from point A to point B with 4 pieces of luggages and broken spanish with a very exhausted mind. I settled down in my rented room at around 9-ish (expected to be able to move in at around 5-ish pm but this is AGAIN Argentine 'time' so ya, 4 hours later), and it finally hit me that I'm here. I started to freak out a bit and it was really the first time I felt worried and scared about all these. Anyway, with no internet or TV at my new home, I decided to close my eyes and sleep it off.

Sleeping always helps! Got up, energized, got some money and I went to get a SIM card (refer to as el Chip here). 15 minutos later, voila! I´m connected and normal again!! The chip costed me 20 pesos and then just needed to add money to it by buying a card with the PIN at any kiosko. They come in different amounts and I got a 15 pesos one that should last me a while. Texting out costs 0.17 pesos and calling out costs 0.55 pesos , and I believe even receiving calls doesn´t cost me a dime except if someone calls me from a payphone. So sorry if you´re calling me from a payphone...

As you can see, my room really is just a room. Nothing stellar. The most colorful places are el baño (bathroom) and la cocina (kitchen). We use gas stove here and need the flicker (how do you call those?) to get the fire going. At least the owner has one of those, last year when I was at my friend´s place, we used matches. Yes matches! Scared the crap out of me at first but slowly the ´excitement´became an addiction. I´d boil water just so I could show that I could do it.

For the price I´m paying right now for this room and being in Congreso (a very central location), it´s really an absolute steal so I´m not complaining for having a roof over my head. (Please don´t let this scare you away from visiting. There are many super nice places you can rent from that will make your jaw drop. I am just going hippie style over here and watching my wallet.) Nonetheless, I am going to look for a new home very soon since the agreement to this is only for 2 months, and I still really really want to live in my favorite barrio (neighborhood), San Telmo. More on that later.

Top picture: Disclaimer - that Jack Daniel bottle you see on the desk was filled with water. I freaked out but not that freaked out.

In transit

There was a tiny delay connecting at Santiago, Chile because the traffic control tower over in BsAs is not working properly (!). Thought it was the beginning of a nightmare since I was told they were trying to reconnect every 30 minutes (!) but fortunately, we were called to board very soon after, and the flight actually arrived on time. I asked my seat neighbor, who was a very nice old man from Argentina, if ‘radar tower malfunction’ happens a lot and he said yes, accompanied with a semi-embarrassed laughter. haha

The interesting thing I saw was that when the flight was announced delayed, no one, and I mean NO ONE, ran over to the counter to find out what was going on. (Well, except for myself since I only caught the main words of the broadcasted announcement to know that it was about my flight to BsAs and it was delayed) People kept chilling, chatting, laying on the chairs napping… Not sure if it was because this does happen a lot and they know it wouldn’t take long or the latinos are just very relaxed people as we all believe they are.

From my previous year’s experience, the concept of ‘on time’ does not really exist in Argentina in general but the majority of them wear a watch. I just love that irony. We’ll see if this holds true. Will report.

Picture: Yes there is Dunkin´Donuts in Chile...actually the first establishment I saw when I got to the terminal was Starbucks. urgh! Totally ruined my latin mood, BUT there´s no Starbucks in BsAs.

At the airport

I’m finally sitting at Gate 177, waiting for my flights to Buenos Aires. 99% of things have gone as smoothly as I could’ve ever imagined, but as life always is, a few curved dodgeballs did come flying my way. (and yes, I got hit in the head.) Nonetheless, if this is any sign of whether or not this is the right thing to do, it’s been pretty much paving the red carpet for me.

Am I excited? That’s the question I got a lot in the past few days. I’ve been quite preoccupied with preparations and bidding farewells that I didn’t really have a chance to feel. I think I should feel excited but I can’t honestly say I am. It’s a mixture of everything. If excitement is the color orange, I am in the mood of color turquoise: calm yet odd, good or not depends on which side you’re looking at it. If this doesn’t make any sense may be because it’s not supposed to be.

So here I come Argentina!

On the eve of flying

Too much partying last night. Lack of sleep. Still 10% packing to go. It's at that point that you just want to zip them up and be done with them but you can't because you still need to use certain things. It is because of that, I just don't want to deal with it and decided partying and going out are much more fun. I'll very likely pay for it tomorrow and stress my mind out to finish up everything and swear to myself, why?!
Oh well, I do believe we all need a certain level of stress in life to help us along and get things done. Bring it on, (self-induced) stress!!!