The experiment is nearing it's conclusion...

Hello reader, much has happened today, let me tell you...

It started off normally, until I got to school. When I sat down to work on my homework, a group of other students sat down a few minutes later, and on of them began talking about how her laptop (the one she was holding) was totally toast. It was a powerbook G4, but even still, I asked what was up,and she said something about it not being able to work, like battery problems or something...

So, I'm no good with Mac's, but I told her I'd take a look at it, and her response surprised me: "oh, i already have a new one, do you want to just take it?"

Long story short, I have a semi used, broken (repairable?), Powerbook G4 accompanying me on the journey home now!!

So, after that, there was class, and during the break, I got lots and lot of food, and ate it...

After class, I had my tango lesson at 7 (class gets out at 4:45) so I wet back home, and took ANOTHER shower (pretty good day), and got out my tango shoes again...

The lesson was amazing. It was another private one, and I learned sooo much, mostly how to lead (which is waaaay more violent than I'm used to/comfortable with).

Then, I walked over to Victor's appartment, where I met up with him, Lindsey, Anita, Ron, and this other girl whose name evades me...

We went to dinner (As it was most of our last night to do so) at the same place that Tom, Victor and myself went about 2 weeks ago, and I got a new thing, which I loved!

THEN, we all went clubbing, first to a place where I had a bit too much to drink, and then danced the night away at another...

I took a taxi home, and here I am, all set to post this as the second latest post of them all...

See you (NorAm) in about 4 days!!

Day T -5, In which our hero puts on some magic shoes

Today begins my countdown until I leave...

I feel that 4 weeks was JUST long enough for this trip to last, as this is the first week I'm wishing I was home almost every day, and I've done quite a lot and made TONS of new friends...

That being said, the city still knows it can try to trip me up from time to time.

Today was pretty dull, until a point.

I was walking to tango class, and I was thinking about everything I had done today. In layman's terms: Not much.

I realized this, and thought to myself: "Wow, I wish something interesting would happen"

Big mistake.

As soon as I'm done thinking that, I hear someone talking at me. It's one of the people who frequent the streets, asking for you to buy whatever small thing they have, when just saying "No comprendo" doesn't work, as they mostly speak English too. I'm a big fan of just saying: "I have no money, sorry" and they usually dont press for more, and let me go on my way.

Not this guy though. He was persistent, to the point where he was actually tugging on my jacket to make me stop. When I didn't, he says something in Spanish, and 3 more guys step out to sell me pens or something.

Now there were four big guys acting pretty intimidating at me. The guy directly in front of me didnt speak any English, and my words of "I don't have any money" went right over his head.

I tried to keep my pace steady, as I walked forward, but I thought to myself after the fact that if he had held his ground, and I had tried to push past him/move around him, he might've pulled a knife on me, and that would've been it.

So he's getting RIGHT up in my face about this, and jostling me, and grabbing at my bag, and I cant just yell for help, as I assumed no-one around me spoke English (a dumb reason I know, but it made sense at the time, adrenaline and all).

So what do I do? I look him square in the face, put on my hardest expression, (not threatening, but steely nonetheless), and say, not shout, or even raise my voice: "Get out of my way, now."

And he does. I powerwalk the hell away from him, and when my adrenaline has cooled off enough for rational thought, the very first thing that goes through my mind isn't "Oh my god, I almost just got robbed!"

No, it is: "OMG, I jedi mind tricked that guy!! I wonder if it works on other people too!", then spent the rest of the walk attempting to tell other people do do my bidding with my mind. Sadly, he is apperantly the weakest mind in all of Recoleta, but you can't blame me for trying.

Only once I get to my tango lesson, it hits me how close I was to getting robbed/mugged.

So that kind of throws me off, but only for a second. As the title says, I then put on my tango shoes, and that's when the magic happens.

I don't know what it was about the shoes, but even thought this was the same class that I had felt overwhelmingly outclassed in just 2 weeks ago, I got it!

I mean, I danced the CRAP out that lesson! I came out of it feeling so amazing! I understand how to do most of the moves, and all I need to work on now is my timing!

So that's going great.

It occurs to me that in a previous blog post I mentioned something about an "episode in color" with no explanation.

You know my forest green jacket/parka? Yeah, that one...

I've had the thing for many years, and until about 2 days ago, I was convinced (per colorblindness) that it was gray. Like, a medium gray, and I had no idea it was even SLIGHTLY green until 2 nights ago...

Fun stuff, to be sure...

Life's full'a change...

I will leave Argentina a changed person.

I never really gave any credit when people said to me that I would, I just figured: "Hey, it's only a month long trip, not training for the Olympics", but I was wrong.

It hit me today, when, after waiting about 25 minutes in the lobby of my tango class, and being told that the school had failed to set up both of my last 2 private lessons, my response was not what I'm used to. Back home, I cant STAND change. It's not the fact of things happening, but I like to know what's gonna happen.

When I had my "adventure" in the airport (almost one month ago, WOW) I felt more calm about not knowing that I think I ever had in my life. I just accepted it that the feces had struck the wind-maker.

And then today, my response was: "It's ok, mistakes happen, that's life." And then I left, and felt pertty good about my day as a whole! I went over what had gone right, and it VASTLY out weighed the negatives that had just happened. Personal first.

So I walked around for a bit, went tie shopping, but my recent episodes in color discouraged me from buying any (mor eon those in a bit), and then went home and had a lovely dinner with Hugo.

So, on to the BEGINNING of my day, for a change. It begins as they usually do, with me getting up, showering, having breakfast, brushing teeth, and walking ~20 minutes to school. I get there, and nothing unusual happens, aside from the ENTIRE class (myself excluded) being like 20 munites later than usual, so I a pretty amazing private lesson from Juliana, until others show up.

I did pretty well in school, but for some reason, I cant read Spanish very quickly. In my head or out loud, it makes no difference, and I can tell the others in my class are... not frustrated with it, but I can tell they wish I could go a bit faster, but I'm not letting it get to me, as it's the speed I go.

After that, I went out to one of the local "Havana" cafe's with Regina (person in my class) and sh got a coffee, and I got some cookies, which are so sweet, I can feel my teeth screaming... In other words, amazing...

When we got back to school, I saw that I had about 2 hours left before my tango class, so i decided to go shoe shopping, as mine had been pretty worn out by all the dancing I've done in then since their purchase in December.

At my last tango lesson, I was given a flyer by my teacher for a place called TANGO 8, so I set out for one of the 3 locations. Now, if you've been following this blog even halfheartedly, you'll know my record for finding things here. Now, this time it was different, as I had NO idea where to look, but I had an address. So I went to one person who I KNEW would know where to find it.

I got a taxi.

When I arrived, I was ushered in by te shopkeeper, and after explaining in my broken Spanish that I only knew broken Spanish, I discovered that he spoke English VERY well, and we hit it off nicely. As it turns out, I have big feet. Crazy, I know, but I'm a 47E (European) and the biggest he had in stock was a 45. but he gives me a better flyer, which has more than one store on it, and wishes me luck in finding the right shoes.

So I get ANOTHER taxi, and go to the next store, wchice is closer than the first one I tried. If I get to do this all over again, Groundhog Day style, I'm going there first...

So I get there, and i'm just barely in luck, as it's the biggest shoe they have, and there's only one pair left. So, after finding out hey only take cash, and then running to the bank to get some, and paying and all that, I walk out with a brand spankin' new pair of Argentinian Tango Dancin' Shoes!

Good day, in my book.

So, knowing where I am, I walk over to the Tango lesson, and even though I took my time to get there, I still got there more or less at 7, when It was supposed to start.

(See the beginning of this post to know how it went)

And here I am!!

I don't wanna work (I want to bang on my drum all day)

Today I was hit with a time bomb. THE time bomb, to be exact, but more on that later.

Today started with me waking up a full hour earlier, just to lay n bed for an extra hour drowsing. I have been getting REALLY sleepy in class lately, so I decided to give myself extra wake up time...

Long story short, it worked, and I'm doing well again.

After class, a group of friends were going to go to one of the best Cafe chains "Havanna", to get some coffee, and I wanted to get some alfahoras, just to try them, but I had to decline, as my cousin Linda was in town, visiting from Florida. Fun coincidence!

So we met up after class, and had an early dinner. SHe speaks little to no Spanish, so it was left to me to order, and ask for directions... Surprisingly, we did quite well.

Afterwards, instead of going to the group tango lesson, we went to Konex (Music venue) to see LA BOMBA DE TIEMPO, a drum group from BA comprised of what I'm told are some of the best musicians in the city.

FREAKING AMAZING.

There were about 15 guys up on stage in a semi circle, each one with a different type of drum, or like percussion instrument. In the center, the "conductor" stood, and made the magic happen.

He would make hand signals at the performers, and they would change beats, cut out, and ater the flow of the best without, well, missing a beat! It was beautiful, it was loud, and it was amazing. Bad news is it was a bit much for Linda, and she went home about halfway, but she said she enjoyed what she saw...

Anyways, I bought a Cd and T-shirt, and took a video of one of their songs, which will go up on Youtube when I get a chance...

After that, my friends who were also there and myself went out for a bit of a snack, then walked back to the apartment, and talked for about an hour, then I lef to go home, and here I am!

Quite a day, and my ears STILL haven't stopped ringing...

Despite my better efforts...

Today nothing went on. I woke up at like 3, and on account of the election, and it being Sunday, nothing was open, so I stayed home and read some books.

This will be the most boring of any of my blog posts, and I'm sorry from the bottom of my heart...

Science, right? What CAN'T it do?

Today was one of the, if not the, best days I've had here.

Starts off on a good note with me getting lots of sleep, but waking up early enough to IM some people bout going to the zoo today. No-one seems to know when, so I bail and decide to explore the city solo.

Might be one of the best choices I've made here. I usually prefer being alone to company, but my friends here have been great to hang out with.

So I leave the house, and set out for my favorite empanada place, to load up for the day...

Sadly enough, they're closed, so I look around for anywhere that might sell them/is open. I find one, and get a few (the ones here are more expensive here than the other place). It's amusing to me that I dont see Argentinians eating while traveling very often. I have a bag of 4 empanadas, and I eat them as I go! Makes sense to me!

So, I head out to the "Centro Cultural Recoleta", to look for a museum that I had heard was great, but when I get to the place, I'm greeted by a HUGE sprawling tourist market! Now, I dont usually play the tourist card, so I figured I might as well do so now...

Nothing really of interest, but I had a nice time walking around.

When I was finished wandering, I went to the main Tourist local of the area, the Recoleta Cemetery, and walked arond there for a while, taking pictures of the mausoleums and such. I got a picture of Eva Peron's tomb, which wasn't as crazy as I expected it to be. It was a plain enough building, not nearly as decked out as some of it's neighbors... The thing that surprised me the most though, was the amounts of stray cats everywhere! I must've seen like 20 at least, just in the cemetery!

Sooo, then I was done with cats and dead people for the day.

I then pulled a Toby and asked like 4 people for directions (He'll be so proud!), and once I got them, went to the museum I had set out to find.

The museum in question is called "Museo Participativo de Ciencias" which loosely translates to: "THE COOLEST FREAKING MUSEUM SLASH ARGENTINIAN SCIENCE MUSEUM FOR KIDS EVER!!" It's motto/slogan type thing even is: "Prohibido NO tocar", which means: "Not touching is Prohibited". How cool is that?

It's one of those science museums like the Tech in San Jose, or the Exploratorium in SF.

Even though I knew most of (read as ALL) the scienc, and was about 6-9 years older then the kids there, I still had a fun time trying to figure out what the signs were saying.

My favorite moment of all though, was then a kid of like 8 or 9 looks at my shirt (Doofenshmirtz Evil Inc.), does a double take, fires off some rapid fire Spanish at me, then gives me a high five..

Made my week.

So after I was done with the museum (an hour) I walk downstairs to the art gallery, and spend about the same amount of time there, looking at works of art.

Not nearly as fun, but still enjoyable.

When I'm done doing that, I walk back to the homestay, stopping in a few shops, and getting a few things.

And here I am! I'd write more, but no more has happened, yet. I've been invited to a party later tonight, and I'll leave relatively soon after posting this.

Gotta get down

Today was fun!

It starts out like any other, aside from the fact that school starts an hour later than usual (2, instead of 1) so I get an extra hour, which I use by hacking away at the jungle that is my beard, and reading.

School is going well still, so I can't argue. After school, I go to my first private Tango class, which was amazing. I know so much more about it, made all the better as my teacher spoke not a word of English! So I can now come home and teach people one or two moves. This trip has been a success.

After that, I caught a cab ride to Cafe Tortoni, to watch a tango show with a large group from school. It wa san amazing show, and afterwards, no-one knew what the story of it was, but we didn't care. It was too cool. I'd go into details, but I couldnt do it justice. Plus, I took loads of pictures, but by some cruel twist of fate, my camera made EVERY SINGLE PICTURE I took blurry, so that isnt gonna work either. Sadfaces all around.

After that, we all went to a bar/restuarant and ordered drinks. You have no idea how mature I felt...

I got a milkshake.

Then we walked people back to their respective houses, and here I am!

Missing home, but I'll be sad to leave here...

That's all for now!