La Ultima Día de Clases en Buenos Aires

Junin 1418, our school building.

Week 1&2 my class was on the left, middle floor (piso uno).

Week 3 my class was on the right, top floor (piso dos).

Left to right, yo mismo, Dominic, Frances, Erica, Profesora Susana y Martin

This week I was the only person in my class from EE.UU. (United States)

A fellow student and friend from Alemania.

My class practicing conversation

(solving the mystery ¿Quien Mató la directora de la escuela?)

Sponge Bob (pronounced Bobe) helps us with reflexive verbs.

In Puerto Madero, an historic ship and a modern (pedestrian) bridge.

In La Plaza del Mayo, look close - the boy is grimacing!

Today was the last day of classes in Buenos Aires. I find myself filled with conflicting emotions about the transition. On the one hand, I´m excited for the chance to move on to a new city, different culture and, more to the point, significantly different accent. Yet it will be difficult to leave the comfort of the now familiar city of Buenos Aires, and an accent, once foreign, which now softly falls plesantly on my ears. I´ve learned not only understand Argentine Spanish (or Castilliano as they call it), but, to some extent, have learned to recreat it in my speaking. And then there is my new circle of friends from far-flung places.

Examples of my newfound comfort in Buenos Aires city:







1.) I no longer counting the stops on the Subte, the Buenos Aires subway system. It is seven stops from where I live to the neighborhood of the school, and at first I not only counted the stops, but I also checked at each station to make sure I knew exactly where I was. Now, I get on and when I get where I need to go, I step off without even thinking about it.

2.) While walking, if I come to a red light at an intersection, I simply turn and walk down the side street, crossing later on my way to the school, or a plaza, or a bookstore, or wherever, taking whatever route suites my fancy (or my schedule!) as I wind my way about.







3.) I am comfortable with several barrios of the city (neighborhoods), and am able to find my way there or back by foot, bus, (aptly named Colectivo) or taxi -- and I´m able to carry on conversations with taxistas (the taxi drivers) without difficulty.

4.) I purchased and am now using (usually!) a Spanish dictionary -- not Spanish/English, but a dictionary only in Spanish. I decided it would be a good way to stop switching back and forth between the languages, thus helping me to "stay" in Spanish -- that is, to continue thinking in Spanish without having to switch back to English.

5.) I´ve stopped carrying around ANY dictionary when I´m not in class. At first, I had it with me at all times, "just in case." But I never needed it for conversation, and it occurred to me last weekend that, while it is essential in class and for doing tarea (homework), I really don´t need it otherwise.


Last night was a blessing. A group of about 45 students went to the Borges Cultural Center to watch a Show de Tango. Both the music and the dances were brilliant. (I´ve been haning out with some "Brits" and have picked up a few expressions!) There were four musicians including the "Tango Singer" and 3 pairs of dancers. One couple had a dance move that sticks in my mind. At one point the man placed his hand strongly on the back of the woman´s neck, and she fell into his hand, spinning, until she was suspended mere inches above the floor, supported by her heels and the man´s hand. Then, seemingly effortlessly, she spun back up and, with the stoping of their heels, the were off across the stage performing the next move. Breath-taking. I leaned over to the person beside me and said, "Back in Michigan, we do that kind of thing all the time."

Let me catch you up on a the computer. In short, no hace nada. After 2 1/2 weeks in the shop, they decided they couldn´t repair it after all. I went across town to Aveneida Florida to pick it up and to receive a refund of the money I had paid last week when they thought they had fixed it but hadn´t. I will go to a computer repair shop in Chilé as soon as I can, tell them what I think went wrong (I have a lot more words now than I did 3 weeks ago!) and also what has been done so far. I´m wanting to get it fixed so I can keep my photos on the computer´s hard drive. But I also have had some success downloading them to a friend´s computer and then transferring them to disk, so I have a back-up plan.

Time to go back to the apartment. I need to run my laundry through the centrofuge and hang it out to dry. Then, I´ll change and cross town to meet friends for dinner. Tomorrow, Liliana and I go to the delta of the Tigre to spend the day, and in the evening, I´ll pack my things. And on Sunday, ¡hasta luego, Buenos Aires! (And I hope and pray that it truly is "until later" and NOT "goodbye").

Much love to you all!

-- Bill