my now ex-roommate has traveled the world many times over at the young age of 26 and had a few weeks between ending a job in San Fran and starting one in London. he decided to stay in BsAs for a few weeks, take a DJ course, and just enjoy the Latin culture. he also apparently thought it would be his detox time. ha! he is the reason i have not been able to write anything for the past 4 days. well, him, vino and my classes.
Tuesday night, as i posted below, was spent at a random Milonga (tango club) in San Telmo. i hadn't looked up anything about it, as i was planning on staying in and doing homework when Chris popped in and asked if i wanted to join. basically a Milonga is where tango-lovers old and new, local and foreign, go to dance. we had both never been so did not know what to expect. neither of us planned on dancing, just watching. when i saw 2 men dancing, i thought, how cool! men here are SO comfortable with their sexuality. they would never do that in the States. then i saw some women dancing with each other. cool! they teach each other how to dance before mixing with men. then i saw the men's faces touching. and i looked closer at the women. then at the sign over the stage. Tango Queer. really! the 2nd time in 2 weeks we ended up at a gay night without knowing! it even bettered the experience, as how many people have been able to watch gay tango so openly? we couldn't figure out who decided who got to lead, but at the end of each dance, it was fun to watch everyone laugh about their missteps and talk about what they would do better next time. they rotated partners quite frequently and there were some mixed couples. you could tell everyone really loved their tango. spent an hour or two at the milonga then found an old, antiquey bar that seemed to be the only one open past 2am on a Tuesday. good lighting, lots of melting candles and an all around cool, Hemingway type ambience. posting pictures soon.
wednesday i spent all day out at classes and planned on spending the night in, until of course Chris texted me while i was on the bus home that he wanted to go to La Terraza, this huge club a little way out of the city, on the river, with 4 dance floors, indoors and out. my Brazilian classmate (the 19 year old) had been raving about how great it was, how it was the coolest experience of her life, so of course i couldn't let Chris not go. got home by 10, shared the bottle of wine i had just won at my wine class (100 pesos! at that point, the most expensive bottle we had tried thus far). by 1130 we were in a cab to La Terraza. it was in this weird part of town, near the airport, on a strip of a street lined with huge clubs, spread apart, all along the river. the cab driver had to stop about 10 times to find the exact spot, but once we found it, it was totally worth it. definitely the best looking crowd in Argentina, to date. and wednesday nights are the after work spot, so it was all men in suits. and it was huge. 3 rooms of latin music and one room of awesome pop-dance music. stayed until they kicked us out at 3am. at this point, we were the only people not making out. literally every single couple left in the club was making out. on the way home, had the unique experience of singing Metallica songs at the top of our voices with an Argetine cab driver clearly stick in the early 90s. chris dropped me off at the apartment and went off to another bar to meet a friend. he, unlike me, does not have classes at 9am.
thursday. 4 hours of sleep, more spanish class, then i dutifully meet chris at MALBA, the museo de arte latinoamericano art in BsAs. even though i was quite delerious by this point. we had been planning it all week, since it was the one day neither of us had class in the afternoon. gonzalo, my spanish teacher, escorted me on the bus there since he lives nearby. chris was passed out on the grass, tanning, when we arrived. parted ways with gonzalo, then chris and i went to find a lunch spot. the museum cafe was ridiculously overpriced. we walked a few blocks and found a sandwicheria where we got jamon y queso (y lettuce, tomato and black olives) sandwiches on pretty delicious french bread and giant bottles of water. picnicked on the grass outside the museum and made our way in. the art ranged mostly from the 1910s-1960s and was very cool, definitely with its own style, but also very influenced by european art at the time. the Tarsila do Armaral was my favorite painting. there's now a postcard size of it taped up in my room. the Marta Minujin exhibit was crazy. if you don't know her (i had never heard of her), i suggest wikipedia'ing her. she was very avant garde in the 60s, 70s and 80s and did very out of the box, experiential type art. they call it living art? one example: she made a room entirely out of mattresses, with a jumble of mattresses inside as well. of course we went in and jumped around like we were children. until the nasty smell arose and we got the hell out.
then it was nap time and homework time and shower time. then dinner at Ceviche, a peruvian restaurant in Palermo, where we met up with Romi, Chris's sister's friend's friend. i can't begin to explain Romi. she is about 5 feet tall, 80 pounds, resembles Penelope Cruz, and is crazy. but in a good way. she dances hip hop a million hours a week and has the body to show for it. she dances like she is in a music video, dresses like she is in a gucci ad, and looks like she spends days at the salon at a time. her quote of the night: the only impossible thing is a ghost. she is in her mid 30s and has a 5 year old daughter. and they live with her parents.
oh, the food! we sat outside on the back terrace (a great first date spot -- some tables were up on their own level, very private). ordered a few plates of amazing ceviche, different types of fish marinated in different sauces, as well as a cooked fish/ calamari/ mussel/shrimp plate. made me realize i definitely like peruvian food better than argentine food - more flavors and way healthier. a bottle of Torrontes finished us up. well, at least me. i was home by 12:30 and chris went out with Romi.
friday. class all day again. (i know, life is hard, spanish and wine all day! wah wah). the spanish is getting harder, hating the imperative tense, but i'm nailing my blind smelling exercise (we do it every wine class) which is promising. i can tell i'm developing my eyes and nose for how to really read wine before tasting. but it really is so subjective...
i had found a great leather store near my wine school before class but didnt have time to peruse. Sue and i made our way back during our break between classes and i bought a great pair of green leather and wood platform shoes and a gray and coral leather purse. both were on sale. Sue got the same shoes, but in orange. then we experienced our first alfajores in the nearby Havana. Havana is a chain cafe known to have the best alfajores in BsAs. we split 2, the chocolate and dulce de leche. que rico! then another wine class where we tasted 5 different vinos de crianza - all were over 80 pesos. we typically taste wines in the 20-40 peso range. twas a very good class. then home to shower and relax for a bit. maggie came back from drinks with her school friend, and then chris's french friend he had met when working in Dubai also came over with his Argentine girlfriend (long story i won't get into) and we had some drinks on the balcony as they chain smoked as they do here. finally got our act together by 2am and met up with gonzalo at some irish pub. he was with his fellow teachers and left shortly. hung out outside the pub for a while, taking pictures with these giant fake pirate statues with maggie. she headed home around 330 and then the four of us, (2 french, an argentine and moi) went to asia de cuba, a club near puerto madera, on the river to meet up with Tujina and her friends. was home around 4:30? 5? talked with chris on the balcony til 6 as he was leaving today to go to Uruguay today. i'll miss my housemate, but now maybe i'll get some sleep (and runs) in.
that sums of Week 2, the week of chris. whew.
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