Pasar tiempo con Amigas

Liliana (left), my host, and her dear friend, Naní

Last night Liliana and I were joined at dinner by her friend, Naní. It was she who joined us to celerate my birthday on January 17th. A classy, elegant person, she is a lawyer working in private practice. Previously she was on the faculty of the most prestigious law school of the country, which is located here in Buenos Aires, their federal capitol. She also is an instructor of Tango, though she only does that on a part time, occasional basis. I can see why she and Liliana are such good friends. Both are exceedingly inteligent, with quick minds and keen insights. And funny! I enjoy their senses of humor very much. Add to our evening a delicious, groumet meal prepared by Liliana, and you´ve got a delightful way to pass the evening. What a blessing!

Class today was a lot of fun. My new instructor, Susana, is a gas! She was absent yesterday, sick. But today, she was here in full force. She is as extroverted as I am, and so her grand presence is a delight for me, and I think for the others in the class, too. She is also a gifted teacher. How interesting it is to change instructors every two weeks. You get lots of different teaching styles, and also a variety of perspectives on language and culture, los dos.

Time to go! I must go and do something interesting this afternoon. Liliana always asks me during dinner what I have done in the afternoon. If I don´t have a satisfactory answer, I´m in trouble! It sounds like I am complaining, but I´m not. Truly, it is a gift that she is helping me to experience as many high-lights as possible during my stay in Buenos Aires. I´m lucky to have the chance to live in her home.

Take care, beloved ones. Know that I think of you fondly -- in two langages!!

-- Bill

A Day in the Ándes!

With Marcos, our guide from the school.

With Pablo, a friend of Marcos´ from Mendosa,

with the third highest mountain peak in the world in the background.

At 12,000 feet, with a mighty (and cold!) wind,

the view behind me is of the Argentine side of the border.

This building and the view behind it are in Chilé.

On the way down the mountain, the note the church in the background.

Okay, let me give a bit more explanation to the pictures. These are presented in the order in which they were taken, the first (with Marcos) about halfway up into the mountains at a beautiful photo-op stop. I took a neat video of the panoramic view with my camera here.

The second picture is of Pablo, an employee of the hostle where we stayed. Behind us is the world´s third highest mountain peak, situated on the border between Chilé and Argentina. Note the glacier on the face of the peak.

The third picture is of me at 12,000 feet. It was SO COLD, and if I were a smaller man, I would have worried about being blown off the mountain. Literally! We spent only a few minutes at this altitude, having climbed 1 kilometer in 8 kilometer´s distance on the last part of our journey -- on a narrow dirt road in a small bus, with lots of oncoming traffic. Needless to say, it was both beautiful AND a religeous experience, all at the same time!

The fourth picture is of the Chilean side of the border (here, only a dirt road with no guard, since there is literally NO WAY to go in either direction without returning to Argentina down the one road). The mountains in the background, like the building, are in Chilé.

The final picture is of a public restroom on the way down the mountain. It is across a natural bridge, and at this time of year, a spring is running, depositing sulpher all around the restroom. It emits poisenous gas! So, to say the least, the bathrooms and the natural bridge connecting to them are not open to the public. Note the church in the background. It is only accessible when the spring is not running. Also, in the 1930s, when an avelanch destroyed the village, the church was the only building spared.

The Ándes were beautiful! I am excited for the time I will get to live in close proximity to them in Santiago, Chilé (3 weeks starting this Sunday) and the time I´ll live in them at 9,200 feet the three weeks following, when I´m in Quito, Ecuador.

Let me review briefly our trip to Mendosa. A dozen of us from the school, including our leader-guide, Marcos, left the school on Thursday night, taking a "bus cama" (or sleeper bus) from Buenos Aires to Mendosa, the capitol of Mendosa provence. There are 110,000 people in the city and 800,000 in the provence. The bus ride was remarkable. The trip took 12+ hours each way, and we passed our time watching DVDs in English with Spanish subtitles -- a surprisingly effective way to expand one´s vocabulary. We were also fed a hot meal in the evening and a cold meal for breakfast, all included in the trip (with wine, water, coffee, tea, and or soda, as you wished). The bus is HUGE -- two stories tall, with three wide and comfortable seats per row, each unfolding to make a nice "bed" of the somewhat sitting-up fashion. They also have a bathroom, but one can deposit no "solids," if you catch my drift. "Liquids only!" That was, perhaps, the most uncomfortable part of the non-stop trip.

We stayed in a hostle, and while I like the idea of hostles very much, the reality was not so plesant. On Friday night there was a loud ping-pong game right outside our bedroom window, repleat with loud music and lots of shouting. If I´d wanted, I could have reached out and poked them -- they were that close! The party ended at 4:30 in the morning, and we had to leave the hostle for the Ándes at 7:30. NOBODY in our hostle or the one nextdoor got any sleep. Later, we learned from Pablo that there is actually a policy that loud noises have to stop at 1 or 1:30 a.m. However, the next night, there was no problem.

Friday was a tour of Mendosa province wineries, with all of their old-world charm. Saturday was the above mentioned journey up into the mountains. Sunday was a rafting trip down the Mendosa river, with class 3 1/2 (out of 5 possible) rapids. I was placed as one of the two lead paddlers in the boat because of my boating experience. To my disappointment, and that of my fellow students, we were all placed in English-speaking rafts due to the large number of English speaking rafters. In the end, that probably turned out alright. After all, if you´re heading, head-first, into a rapid nicknamed "Throat of the Devil," it´s good to be able to understand and respond to commands without having to translate! Everybody in my boat did fine, and we had no problems. Ours was boat number 2. Boat number 3, the native Spanish speaker, and one man thrown overboard. I happened to turn just in time to see him fly feet-over-head, the full length of the boat and into the rapids. This rafting company has a rescue kayak acompany each trip, so he was back in the boat in no time, and his paddle, soon rescued as well.

After rafting and a tranquil lunch by the river, we returned by bus to Mendosa and our hostle, and quickly got our belongings and took a taxi to the bus terminal. Within an hour we were on the "Bus Cama" and headed for Buenos Aires, watching "The Guardian" -- as my seat partner from England described it, before falling asleep, "What a bunch of rah, rah American military rubbish that is!" I gotta say, I rather liked it, and expanded one particular part of my Spanish vocabulary (the non-pastoral, shall we say...) rather significantly.

This morning I saw the most remarkable sunrise while on the bus. We arrived in Buenos Aires too late to make it to our classes on time, but I managed to make it up the 56 stairs to the "second floor" in time for the first break of the day. On Friday I complete my studies in Buenos Aires, and on Sunday, move on to Chilé.

Finally, today, I went to the computer place and paid for my computer´s repair. However, when I checked it, the same problem occurred! It has a 3 month guarantee, so they are keeping it and will work on it today and tomorrow. HOPEFULLY, I´ll get it back Wednesday. However, if they can´t fix it, I´ll have to get a refund and take it to a shop in Chilé. Oh, joy!

Enough! I need to head over to the school. Tonight, we´re having a BBQ up on the roof of the school and a party following. I´m not quite sure WHY, on a Monday, but still -- it should be fun. Though part of me is so tired, I feel like going home. So perhaps that is what I will do. We shall see!

Also, I´ve found that when I am extremely tired, I can´t think well in either language. How curious an experience that is!

Much love to all of you. Please continue to hold me in your prayers. They´re both needed and appreciated!

-- Bill

Hoy Dia Escribí El Primer Examen

¡Practicamos!

A political cartoon that I had to describe to the class,

telling them (in Spanish, of course!) ¿que pasa?

Mí profesora, Cecelia, yo, y un otra profosor, Leo

She taught our class. He graded my exam.

Our Classroom and my fellow students

The stairway in the school, lookin down.

There are 28 steps between the floors. High ceilings!

Today I wrote my first exam at the school. After two weeks of study, we are given an exam to see whether or not we can progress to the next level. The proctor of my exam, Leo (pictured above) first gave me instructions and then, I wrote. For one section he asked me questions and I answered them. There were also multiple choice, fill-in the blank, multiple choice, name the opposite (example, for pequeño one has to write grande, its opposite. There were also questions to answer and an paragraph to write.

I took the trip alone, and a day ahead of the rest of the school because I am one of 16 people going on an excursion to Mendosa, a province in the Ándes, for a weekend outing. There were a number of times the professor and I were just talking about things -- life in Texas, his studies of other languages, the noise in the hall, etc. It was fun! If I were taking the test with my class, there would have been none of that! Anyway, after I took the test Leo graded it, discussing with my my mistakes. My score (...drumroll, please!) -- was 92! Leo said several times, "this is very, VERY good!" I was pleased. And as he reviewed the test with me, I was aware that half of my mistakes were due to inattention, so I COULD, have I been more careful (and not talked/flirted with the professor?!) been a 96! Four points were for things I simply didn´t get right.

At any rate, I feel VERY good about the test. Hooray! And now, I advance to the next level. Next week I will be in a new class, though three of us will continue together. We will have a new teacher, as everybody gets a new teacher every two weeks.

Cecelia has been a GREAT teacher. I have appreciated her teaching ability, most especially her ability to teach Spanish in spanish. Remarkable.

I have little time now, but let me briefly fill you in on some other happenings. First, the computer. As far as I know, it will be ready on Monday. I say that because I called yesterday, on Wednesday, to talk with the technician. I called from the same shop in which I´m currently renting a computer, which is about two blocks from the school. The phones are in tiny booths that give you the illusion of privacy with out all the trappings of privacy. In truth, you´re better able to hear the street traffic and the people talking with one another in the store than you are the person you call. Add to that the fact that I don´t have the language for negotiating with a computer technician in person, let alone over the phone, and you can have a clue as to why I say I think he said that they will have it repaired by Monday! Here´s hoping.

Second, I was very excited to have a peculiar problem yesterday. I was in a health food store to purchase dried fruit, speaking with the shop owner. I had spoken with her previously on another shopping trip. I was trying to tell her that I regret that I am leaving Buenos Aires so soon, and that if I had it to do over again, I would chose to stay here longer. But we´ve not covered future or conditional tenses yet, so in the middle of my conversation with her, quite literally, my brain just stopped! I couldn´t say anything, either in Spanish or English. I couldn´t THINK of anything at that moment. I simply ran out of the capacity to speak or think. How cool is that?! I was totally thinking in Spanish. It was exciting! As I stood there for a moment, my brain´s parking brake fully engaged, the woman stared at me with a rather alarmed look on her face. When I was able to kick-start my thinking process, I said, lo siento, pero no tento tense futuro ´(I´m sorry, but I don´t have future tense.). She smiled broadly and laughed, repeating ah, no tienes futuro! (Oh, you don´t have a future!)

Finally, Gary, a member of my class who was born in Oklahoma and has never been liberated from his strong Oklahoma accent, said a very funny thing to me today. He said, "You know, Bill, on the first day of class, I though, ´wow, this guy´s a little weird.´ Then, the other day, you prooved it. Our teacher said, ´today we learn preterito imperfecto,´and y ou said, ´Oh! That´s my favorite tense!"

Ok... maybe you had to be there! But I think it´s pretty funny.

I must go now. I need to return to the apartment (30 minutes away), get my duffle bag, and return to the school for the trip to Mendoza.

THANK YOU, one and all, for holding me in your thoughts and prayers, and also for reading my blog. I appreciate your joining me on this journey. And thanks, too, to those who have written responses, either here in the blog, or to me in person. Mucho gusto.

Hasta luego.

-- Bill

My "Home Stay" In Buenos Aires

Liliana and her mother (seated)

Hello, loved ones. As of yet, I still know nothing about my computer -- it is "Un Negotio" on the other side of the city´s center. But I found a computer that allows me to download photos from my camera to the computer, which makes it possible to post photos to my blog. Hooray! At this shop, it costs $1.50 AR/hora (that is 1 1/2 Argentine pesos for each hour of use -- about $.50 U.S.). That´s cheap, and easy. Often, convenience stores have banks of phones (in cabins, or phone booths) and also computers in banks (like in library carols - carrols? no recuerdo!)

Anyway, pictured above is the host of my "homestay" (the same word is used in English and Spanish) -- the woman with whom I am staying, along side her mother. I am very glad to be priviledged to stay with Liliana here in Buenos Aires. She is very smart, friendly, helpful, funny, insightful and above all else, insistant that I have a memorable and safe stay in Argentina. She is not very tall, and is small ("muy chica"), and we have enjoyed laughing about the differences between my being tall and large and her being short and small.

Example one: on my first day, only minutes after I had arrived, we sat down on her balcony to share coffee and "medialunas", half-moon shaped crescent rolls. As we sat and talked, the chair I was sitting on, one of those white, molded-plastic chairs that are EVERYWHERE, shattered out from under me. Of course, I fell to the floor, bits of plastic chair and pastery and coffee flying everywhere. It was rather shocking! But also hilarious! We laughed and laughed and laughed, until we cried. One week later, as we recounted the story to her mother, Liliana and I laughed to the point of tears again!

Example two: one evening we had been talking about the fact that I´d seen no mosquitoes or other bugs in her apartment, though they have them in Buenos Aires. Liliana´s apartment has no screens on the windows or on the sliding glass door to the balcony, yet there is hardly a bug to be seen. Well, just as I said that, a bug landed on the ceiling over my head. Liliana said, "There´s a bug!¨and with a graceful motion of the hand, squashed it to the ceiling with a dish towel. But when she climbed on a chair to clean the ceiling, she couldn´t reach it. "Because I am tall," said I, "I can do this!" and I reached up and cleaned the ceiling with ease. "Well," Liliana replied, "because I am tiny, I can do this!" -- and she proceded to open the broom closet-cabinet and climb inside! Now, mind you, this cabinet is maye 1 1/2 foot wide by 1 foot deep, and 4 feet tall at most. I´ve got to admit, she did fit nicely into the cabinet, joining there the broom and the mop. Oh, my -- did we ever laugh! We enjoy one another´s company very much.

She is an exellent cook, and is concerned that I have food that is both delicious and traditional in this culture. She prepared evening meals and provides also food for breakast that I prepare for myself. For lunch, I´m on my own. She also washes all the dishes (as per her contract with the school!), and also washes linens weekly, changing the bed and cleaning my room. I said to her, "It is so nice to have everything done for me. I think I´d like to have a ´homestay´in my house." She said, "Me, too!"

Now, I think I will depart from here to see more of the city. Also, I have a good deal of homework ("tarea") to complete this afternoon, so I need time to do that as well.

Much love to all of you. Know that I greatly appreciate your sharing this journey with me, and that your thoughts and prayers (along with your e-mails -- THANKS!) mean the world to me.

With much love and care, from very far away...

-- Bill

The Subway in Buenos Aires

Buenos tardes, amigos mios y familia.

It is Saturday afternoon -- a sunny, beautiful day with a blue sky and not a cloud in sight. I´d guess it is around 72 degrees, but it might be warmer -- maybe 73! Such a lovely summer day. ¡Me gusta mucho! How blessed I am to be here.

I wanted to take a moment to talk about "El Subte" -- the subway in Buenos Aires. I live on La Calle Olleros (Oh-YER-os), near its intersection with Avenada Cabildo, the continuation of the major Buenos Aires street, Aveneda Santa Fe. Right on our corner is a subte station, and each day I take the train from the Olleros station to the Pueyrredon station, walking 9 blocks or so from there to the school. The trip takes 30-40 minutes, door to door, depending on how frequent the trains are running and how crowded the streets are (and the streets are almost always crowded!).

The Subte is clean and efficient, though there are a couple of things that I find quite interesting. One is the crowds. Buenos Aires is an exceedingly dense city, and in the busy times the subte reflects this. I am amazed how many people can continue to squeeze into cars that are already jam-packed with people. It is not unusual in the afternoon, when I return from school, for there to be so many people that I don´t need to hold onto a rail to stand securely. We´re packed like sardines! There is no WAY anybody is going to fall!

The other thing that fascinates me are the people who try to sell wares on the train. Here´s how it goes. Somebody enters the car at a station and immediately walks up the aisle (even when its really crowded!) and places an item on everybody´s knees, or if she or he is lucky, into the hands of some of the passengers. These vendors (usually appearing by their clothes to be very poor) distribute everything, then return to the starting point to pick them up. The items vary from tiny, yellow staplers to bus tour guides, from packets of 8 bobby pins to 8 1/2"x 11" plastic envelopes with cartoon characters on them. I´ve never seen anybody buy anything. In fact, usually, people don´t even acknowlede the vendor, unless to show by simple "stop" hand gesture his or her disinterest. Before we arrive at the next station the vendor has collected the unsold goods and is standing by the exit, prepared to move on to the next car while passengers load and unload from the train.

I´ve also been interested in the tile work on the walls of the stations closer to downtown. They seem to tell the history of the city, but with the trains being so packed and entering and exiting the stations so quickly, I´ve yet to be able to look at most of them.

Several of the stations have old, wooden escalators. I find them to be remarkable. There are vast numbers of passengers daily on the subte, yet the escalators have survived in tact.

Also, it is not unusual to have singers in the passages from the streets to the trains. There´s one fellow every day when I take the afternoon train back to the apartment, playing his guitar, singing, and sometimes playing a harmonica as well. He´s good, and I´ve tipped him a few times (a few centavos only -- probably not even $1 U.S. as of yet). He sings very well, and is an accomplished musician. I wonder about his story. There are also vendors in the passages, most of them consistent day in and day out: a seller of leather wallets, a vendor with men´s socks (not the usual "impulse buy" item, eh?), and an elderly gentleman sitting on the floor, plastic models of antique cars arranged neatly on a pink and white towel.

The subte is usually comfortable, though on the really hot day, it was almost unbearable down there. In the mornings I can usually get a seat. In the afternoons I have always had to stand.

It stops running at 11:30 p.m., which seems strange in a City That Never Sleeps, as they say of BA (como NYC). But the buses run all day and night, so there is always public transportation.

Every day I have done a lot of walking --something I´ve enjoyed very much. Sometimes with friends from the school, but usually on my own, I have walked to many different parts of the city. Sometimes we stop for lunch. Alone, I am more likely to buy a couple of empanadas de pollo (chicken pasteries, two of them a little smaller than a hamburger and costing about $70 cents) and eat them under the shade of a tree in una plaza, or while I walk on my way to a different part of the city.

I´ve got lots of pictures, but this computer (rented in a "internet and telephone" shop) won´t let me up-load pictures from my camera. Good Lord willing, and the computer technicians, too, I hope to have my computer back on Wednesday. It will be easy to up-load pictures then. Also, every time I use a borrowed or rented computer, I´ll see if I can post photos.

Take care, dear ones! I do miss you very much, and at moments can be quite emotional about the distance between us. But I´m having a wonderful time here in Buenoso Aires, and it is passing SO quickly. Only two more weeks in Argentina!! Then I head for Chile next for three weeks there.

More later.

Much love to all of you. Do, please, keep me in your prayers!

-- Bill

P.S. Whenever I use a local computer, it is set for the Spanish language. If I ask it to run a spell-check, it highlights ALL of the words that aren´t in Spanish! So please excuse the misspellings. (Pretty good excuse for poor spelling, don´t you think? Also, all of the punctuation, and a fair number of the letters, are in a different place on Spanish computers. Just so you know!)