Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
The photo is taken in Cafe Tortoni, where I went to watch a tango show in Buenos Aires.
1st April 2012 Travelling to Buenos Aires, Argentina
I went out played ball with Avana the golden labrador, which also resulted in being able to get some decent photographs of Avana. I was sad to leave Avana. I was ready for 10:15am and went to sit in the lounge to stroke Avana for the last time. Marcelo was playing his guitar and singing, which was a little awkward, but I don't think he was too worried about it. In the taxi to the airport it was a little difficult to hear what the driver was saying so that made it a bit harder to speak with the driver.
Flying over Buenos Aires is good with first view of lakes, then the river and then the city. I had arranged a pick up from airport with the Spanish School. It had been last minute though and when I arrived I had to go to the remise booth. The e-mail said be careful about which remise company I go over to, as there were two with similar names. I went to sort out the transfer and I was struggling a little speaking Spanish, as I was tired. On their records I was down as Susan Eli but I couldn't be bothered to argue about it. We travelled past some lovely parks from the airport. First the transfer took me to the wrong end of the street, it took me to 703 instead of 1703. I was thinking please don't let me be staying her it looked a bit of a dump and didn't look very safe. The driver was a little confused till I repeated the number to him and he realised that it had been wrote wrong on the record. I was dropped off with my luggage and I felt quite vulnerable on the streets of Buenos Aires with all my luggage. I kept knocking on the door and ringing the doorbell but no-one was answering. I was outside for probably about 10 minutes and one person went by with an unfriendly looking dog. I thought I am not pointing out to him that I don't know what I am doing and stuck in the street. In the end I asked some locals in Spanish- 2 ladies whether I was at the correct place as I had began to wonder whether there might be two roads with the same name after all the confusion at airport and taxi about my name and my address. They confirmed I was in the right place. They suggested that I went to the shopping centre, gave me directions and came back later as it wasn't a good idea being on the streets alone on a Sunday with all my luggage. I began to walk with bags when someone said Suzanne behind me.
The house was a tip-with rubbish bags in communal areas and bottles everywhere. I thought it's going to be like living in Lenton or Hugh Stu again. Room wasn't too bad though and was large with two single beds in it. There was only me living in the bedroom. After time in my room I decided to go to shopping centre. Food court was very expensive- I couldn't believe the prize of McDonalds. It was something like £8 for a burger. I thought I am not paying that much I don't want McDonalds that much.
2nd April 2012 Buenos Aires, Argentina
I walked to the Spanish school along past the subtes and the crowded streets. The staff said I didn't need to take the grammar test so I just got to relax on the sofas. It showed how big Buenos Aires school was compared to the others when all the other students came in and I realised that there were three floors of classrooms. In my conversation class there were 13 people and the lesson ran from 9:00-10:40. There were so many of us as it was a week that was full of Argentinean holidays so they were trying to give us some lessons. We still lost out though as we were charged the same price as a normal week but had too many students in some of the classes and not as many hours of lessons. In one of the lessons, we had a session, which was like a dating session but practicing Spanish. We were talking to someone for so long in Spanish then we had to move to another person. It was so hard to hear as we were paired up and there were just 2 lines of 7 people each. We were all different levels of Spanish too so it was very challenging. Its bad enough trying to have conversations in English in those types of situations.
After lunch I just wanted to get back and lock myself in the apartment, as it was a national holiday in Argentina for the 30th anniversary of the start of the Falklands War. There were some tensions beginning to mount and I had to walk through the start of a protest. It turned out later that I had been right it was about the Falklands War. I was a little worried about it and if anyone asked me where I came from I was going to say I was Irish.
I was surprised to hear the rubbish men. I can't believe the rubbish men came on a holiday. Not like England where they also get the day off.
3rd April 2012 Buenos Aires, Argentina
Just a day of Spanish lessons, welcome lunch and trying to research things to do in Buenos Aires.
4th April 2012 Buenos Aires, Argentina
We played a game in one of our lessons and I found it difficult to construct some sentences but it was made more difficult by having to summarise newspaper articles. Unfortunately most things I had read about news tended to be about tensions between England and Argentina, which I didn't really want to bring up even though our teacher was from Cuba. I had read online about an English women escaping from Argentina after being caught for smuggling drugs into the country. I tried to explain that news article in Spanish but didn't work too well.
I was getting in a bit of a bad mood when walking around for tourist office, as I didn't feel as comfortable in Buenos Aires as I did in other places in S America. I wasn't sure what I should do for the next few days with all the holidays so I was trying to sort that out. I went to tourist kiosk for the tour bus in Recoleta but she didn't understand my accent through the glass windows. There are so many dogs around Buenos Aires. It was also the first chance I had to spend some time in a nice part of the city without all the hustle and bustle of traffic and people. There were some nice areas around the national airport but I had been in the taxi at that time. I was looking for somewhere to eat there but everything was so expensive. In the end I felt I needed to get more money from the bank before going and getting a burger. He must have thought I was very impatient because as soon as I got in there I asked for the menu. I needed to get back for lessons in afternoon though. I then asked for the bill after my burger. He asked how old I was as they had been trying to work out how old I was. Think they were a little surprised by the answer. After lessons the extra-curricular activity was a cooking empanada class. We talked and cooked but there were quite a lot of us in cooking class. After cooking lessons it chucked it down with rain, thunder and lightening. I was bagging all my books up and thinking this is going to be a bad walk. I didn't know what bus I needed to get. Luckily there was someone from the apartment who knew which bus to get so we ran for the bus still getting wet in the process and splashing through puddles.
5th April 2012 Buenos Aires, Argentina
I met up with Sonya and Aimi and Sonya's friend for lunch. I walked to Sonya's but it took a lot longer than I expected. I went past a person who had his own little room on the street with mattress and television plus his two dogs. Sat outside and had a lovely steak. We were laughing watching the clown trying to earn money in the street with his telephone clowning around and following people. He seemed a little mad. Some street sellers came to table but not too many. We then walked around Palermo and then went in a bar for a drink, which was very pleasant.
6th April 2012 Buenos Aires, Argentina
I got up at 8:30am as was planning to do the tourist bus today around Buenos Aires. I left the house about 10am and got the Metro to catedral. I got to catedral and there was a massive queue for the ticket office for bus. I thought while I was there I may as well have a walk around the area rather than get in the queue. I didn't go inside anywhere but I just walked around the Plaza de Mayo. There were other tour buses there as well. Felt a little apprehensive walking around on my own. I then took the metro back to Callao stop and went into the hotel that mum had stayed in. I asked about the tours they offered but as I wasn't in the hotel they just gave me a leaflet with the telephone number on. I decided to walk to the other tourist bus stop near the hotel at Recoletta and as I was waiting in the queue I was surprised to see my Spanish classmates from Vina del Mar. I couldn't believe that the one place in Buenos Aires and all the people in Buenos Aires that I had managed to meet them again. It was lovely as I was beginning to feel rather fed up. When I got to front of the queue they told me that I couldn't get on the bus till 2:45 but as the others were walking round that area, I joined them. I had a pleasant time with them and it was actually the best part of the day. We walked around the cemetery looking for Eva Peron's grave. Also chatting to each other catching up with what each of us had done since we left Vina del Mar. There were some stray cats around the graveyard. Eva Peron's grave was quite plain compared to some of the other graves. It was also under a different name. We weren't the only ones looking round for it as some ladies also asked whether we'd seen it. When we had found the grave, we found where they were to show them where it was. We had already asked directions from someone cleaning one of the graves and he had told us how many blocks away we were from it. This was a little confusing but it was like a little town in itself. The graveyard was like little houses and was quite ornate.
From the graveyard we walked to flower statue, which opens and closes according to the time of day. After lunch tried to get on bus again at 2:45 but they still wouldn't let me on. Had to wait for the next bus but people who complain the loudest and make the most fuss got on the bus before. So 4/5 Brazilians got on bus before. Not that I am saying that Brazilians normally complain but these got on the bus before because they complained. When I finally got on bus I thought great I'm on I will just sit back and listen to the audio. I will come back tomorrow and do the stops in more detail. There was a choice of languages to listen to so I was listening to it in English. After one stop the audio system went down in the bus so we were stuck for ages waiting for an engineer. When the engineer came he couldn't fix it so we had to change buses. This time the commentary was just in Spanish. It took a couple of hours to go round and by the time got back to Recoletta it had gone dark. I missed my stop so I went back round to where the tour starts at Catedral When I got back there was another student outside with all his belongings like I was. Again no one could hear the door.
7th April 2012 Buenos Aires, Argentina
Got up early again. Got metro to Cathedral and waited in line for tourist bus. They let me on as I had a ticket from yesterday. Listened to audio before getting off at San Telmo. San Telmo was interesting to see loads of antique shops, market and old buildings. Felt a bit quiet and dangerous to be alone though. When I got back on bus and listened to audio I seemed to have seen much what it was famous for. I saw old cameras etc. Got to La Boca about 12:00 had a lovely atmosphere with tango dancers etc and street entertainers walked along looking in shops and around the coloured buildings also went in the local artesian place for crafts. Amused me as it said view but it was just to get you in the shops. I bought plastic Argentinean bracelet and another bracelet there. Headless man (only dressed up as headless so not to worry) hugged me and I had empanada and a banana milkshake there. It was quite crowded and there was police presence. I then went round the market stalls-got a birthday present for mum or if not I will have it. At 2:30 I decided I better go and get bus. I waited for an hour and a half (supposed to be every 20 minutes). Turned out it was a football match so jumped when all the buses went by and they were shooting guns into air. I then went with Portuguese family in taxi to Puerto Madero. There I walked across bridge with them and then went and walked in women's park and on road next to nature reserve. I finally managed to get all my bracelets by finding street sellers selling Chile, Argentina and Paraguay bracelets.
8th April 2012 Day trip to Tigre, Argentina
We walked to Retiro stopping off for hot chocolate in a café along the way. Trying to sort out tickets was a little bit of a challenge as neither of us knew our way around the station, even though I had sent information to Dimas before he didn't seem to know what we were doing so I had to explain it in Spanish to him before asking for tickets in Spanish. There we got on the regular train to Maipu. The journey to Maipu was slightly longer than I expected. When we got there the Tren de la costa was opposite the regular station. We crossed the road and walked into the Tren de la costa we missed the train station, went upstairs crossed over through some shops and where the escalators were we found some old wardrobes. It was quite a weird place and we couldn't see many people there. We managed to walk in a complete circle round there and back to other station. We looked at each other like what have we done. Next time we found the train station in the building and waited there for a while for the next train.
When we came out of the Delta station at Tigre, we first saw market stalls and the casino. I fancied really just a quick lunch but ended up going in for a mass asado, which wasn't great. We then began the search for the river and when I saw it I thought it was lovely. Though people had complained on the internet about the water being dirty, the peace and calm was lovely after Buenos Aires. We got on an hours boat ride and it was so peaceful apart from when we went past the theme park. We then walked and saw marina where there were loads more boat trips available. We walked past people playing and picnicking in the grassy areas and walked by the other train station with its clock. I took a few photos of images of tigers around the place as we were walking towards the flags. I never found the English flag (maybe due to Falkland War) but we found the Brazilian and I enjoyed the walk next to all the flags. We then walked back towards the train station stopping to have a nosey at the Puerto de Frutos, which actually turns out to be a craft market. It took longer than expected to walk back to the train station but we didn't spend too long in Puerto de frutos. It was then just a short walk to the train station. I was sad to leave Tigre and the peace and quiet behind. We got on the train and we decided to get off at San Isidro, which was mid-way along the tren de la costa route. We walked up through the market at Plaza Mitre up towards the beautiful San Isidro cathedral and walked around the outside. We then walked in a circle round the streets back to train station. There was a shopping and food area there, which would have been nice to have stopped in for dinner but as we didn't know the train times and it was an Argentinean holiday I didn't think it was wise. I didn't think it was a good idea to stay there in case we missed the trains. We would have ended up being stuck there probably for the night. Lovely as it was I didn't want to do that. I would have an accommodation bill and would miss my Spanish lessons the next morning. I was a little concerned that the train wasn't going to turn up at the station but it did. When we arrived at Maipu station, we had to change over onto the regular Mitre line train. On the way back Dimas and I were quite quiet, as we had got so tired speaking out of our native tongues that it got to the stage that we didn't understand what each other were saying. It was a very enjoyable day!
9th April 2012 Buenos Aires, Argentina
I saw a person walking dogs and they covered most of the street-probably had about 13 dogs-all different breeds. Lessons mainly today. In the private lesson we mainly focused on some vocabulary, alphabet and pronunciation. It was a bit like going back to nursery as we were practicing with the foam letters. A few times felt like the ground was shaking as I think someone was moving furniture upstairs.
10th April 2012 Buenos Aires, Argentina
Well today we had to write a birthday message to a friend in the Spanish class while waiting for the teacher to mark homework.. I had trouble keeping up in lesson which wasn't helped by the fact that I thought the teacher had set us a task to do for homework but it was a task to do in class. I was later starting it than the others, as I hadn't quite understood it. We had a listening exercise to do where we learned about what an imaginary professor would like us to do and not do in class. It was probably similar to the wishes of our own professor. To finish off we had to write our own wishes on board and convert them saying what other people wished for.
After lunch I had my private lesson and I had trouble trying to conjugate what I wanted to say in Spanish. I was trying to ask could the word tarea be used for a class task as well as homework task. For homework I had to write about what I would like my boyfriend to be like and what I wish my friend to be like. I also had a sheet to fill in
11th April 2012 Buenos Aires, Argentina
I counted a person with at least 17 dogs on the walk to the Spanish school. I went for lunch in Chinese restaurant-what a bargain-38 pesos for Chinese empanadas, rice, chicken and pineapple, a coke and a nestle ice cream desert. There was a box though covering a hole in the ceiling. Went out for a meal with Josee, Bertrand and Dimas.
12th April 2012 Buenos Aires, Argentina
Day of lessons
13th April 2012 Buenos Aires, Argentina
Well it was the day of the exam today and I had a list of things that needed to be done today. The teacher spent ages going through the homework so I was split between listening to him and doing more revision. We finally began the exam and the listening exercise was very hard which was about animals being transported. The reading was harder than normal too in the other exams but to be fair I was now in the intermediate class. The grammar was ok but not as easy as other tests and the writing was quite good as it was on a topic I could feel I could write about. We had to write a letter of recommendation about where someone should go on holiday. We had information that we could use but I also knew some of the places they talked about. I chose to recommend a holiday for a couple who wanted a city break/seaside break so I wrote about Viña del Mar. Speaking we had to describe a story in present tense that wasn't too good. Anyway I passed even though it had been a hard week having both private and group lessons.
I took the handkerchief/serviette (that wasn't mine) that I found in my washing back to laundrette. In the evening I went to Café Tortoni to watch a tango show. I always forget that you can't go anywhere in Buenos Aires in a rush. I arrived slightly late but in enough time before the tango started. We were taken into a small intimate cafe theatre and I ordered a steak and coke. We enjoyed watched the tango and singing. It was so hard to take photos of the tango show as they spun so fast. Afterwards I was surprised to learn how little the performers got. After tango show Ipacked and chatted so by the time I got to bed it was very late and I was only getting something like two and a half hours sleep or maybe a bit more.
- comments