Flying over chile
Yes, I am finally here. This city is amazing. Much more amazing then even my high expectations. My neighborhood is stunningly beautiful. 20 foot wooden doors, marble sculpture, old French architecture, countless fashion and food boutiques (no chains or big department stores). It's very European here. Think Paris, with a touch of Rome having a head on collision with Manhattan, then divide the price of everything by 3 and you have Buenos Aires. I can't spend money quickly enough. Samantha (Samantini, what people call her here) and I go out for dinner each night. We spend time in our neighborhood called "Recolletta" going to really high end Italian or French restaurants. We get a bottle of nice wine, nice lamb, fish or steak meals, a couple of appetizers and desert. Then we pay them the equivalent of about 30 dollars before heading off to the club district to accidentally party at a "transformer" party. Transformers as I soon found out are not the robots we are familiar with from our childhood, but instead surprisingly sexy men dressed as women. They flirt with me, I flirt with them, we all dance, people make jokes and Samantini stares at me with slightly discouraged eyes.
In fact, I realized it is suprisingly okay to flirt with transformers. South America is pretty macho. but when a man dresses like a women and flirts with men, they seem to be very receptive. It's very funny to see macho Argentine men dance with the transformer host as if she was a girl. The wig and the dress make them forget the women is really a man. they hold her very delicately around her waist, let him/ her grab their croch and more. I thought these guys must be crazy to be doing this. They 100% forgot that this was actually a man. then the transformer came over to me, winked and pinched my nose. I giggled. he had a wig on. it was okay. that is what I'm telling myself.
Our apartment
Our aprartment from our second floor
I have leart a lot since I’ve been here. For starters, no one can speak English which means every conversation I have on a daily basis is awkward. Allow me to give you what I think the conversation I had this morning was when I signed up for my gym membership. I will write everything in English but remember, they are speaking Spanish and I am also trying very hard to speak Spanish.
Me: hi
Them: hi
Me: uh.. (long pause). I need ticket for gym
Them: (log pause) what
Me: I’m here 2 months, need (then I show move my arms as If I was lifting weights)
Them: (spoke for about 2 mintutes in fast Spanish maybe about pricing, maybe about features, maybe asking questions… I don’t know. I just looked at them intently, smiled and every now and again let them know I recognized one or two words they said (i.e. yes, I know the word “arm”)
Me: how much
Them: $100
Me: can I buy a lock from you?
Them: no sorry
Me: (thinking they said “you can rent one on a daily basis” said: pefect here 5 pesos for (long pause… not knowing how to say lock. Show them with sign language what I mean)
Them: (confused looks and give me back my money)
Me: (thinking lock must be included in price) thank you
Them: what is your name
Me: Sterling
Them: zerlin?
Me: No, Sterling
Them: zerey?
And this goes on for a long time. It’s kind of a funny experience to know every time I go out it’s going to be awkward, without exeption. The good news is my vocabulary is increasing by leaps and bounds on a daily basis. I also now know how to say “lock”.
But there are many things I still get confused over. I recently approached our waiter and asked him in Spanish if “I can have your wallet?”. Apparently I get the word “wallet” and “bill” mixed up a lot. The result is people thinking I’m robbing them. Kind of akward. I will just say “I no take you, I no take you”, that way they know that I don’t want to rob them. But since I don’t know the word for rob, I just use “take” instead. I no take you.
Countless city parks
No cars allowed streets
our area
Recolletta Cemetary
Samantini preparing dinner
Sam doing work in our apartment
So the language is coming along quite nicely. Sundays are kind of fun here. Everything is closed, which means lower chances of getting into an awkward conversations. We also have cable for the first time in our relationship and we spend it watching amazing Spanish television shows. In fact we even go to Spanish cinema. We went to this film the other day about…. I’m not sure, but it was kind of neat watching a full film in spanish without subtitles. I was kind of like watching a silent film, but with sound. It was the opening night so the directors were there with the crew. They gave their speeches and then sat right behind Samantini and I. Samantini lasted about a half hour before she started doing that funny thing people do when they fall asleep in class. The head jolts down a little too quickly and it wakes you up so you jolt your head up. You regain consciousness for about 30 seconds only for the process to repeat itself. I felt bad for the director who was sitting behind us so I put Tini’s head on my shoulder so she could sleep without being rude. So got her second wind about a half hour later when they turned up the volume in the theatre. We both watched until the end of the film. After the film we discussed it which was the best part of the experience. Here are our conclusions about what we watched.
Samantini Review: the film was about Venezuelan kidnappers who took a CIA informant hostage. There was also a girl who liked to be naked. The man at the begging had really funny shorts on. At the end they let the CIA informant go
Sterling Review: the film was either about Vietnam or Bolivia. There was a girl who liked to be naked.
That is what we got from the film. But we still watch a film everyday to practice our language skills.
Barring communication barriers, everything else here is great. Our apartment is beautiful, we have lots of great Spanish music we listen to all day, we ate like royalty and we take great care of ourselves.
I’ll post more soon, but I just wanted to say “hi” to everyone to let everyone know we’re safe and sound. Here are some more pictures below.
Downtown
our neighborhood
more of our area
the view from our apartment
Labels: Buenos Aires
You crack me up!! Still can't stop laughing about your encounter with the guy at the gym.!! LOL