My last photos from Pablos house in San Telmo
Well I am now writing this from my brand new house! I love it. Here are a few photos but I suppose they are really boring. The main thing I love is the feel of the place. Its a lot like Holden Street to be honest but with people from all over the world. And we have cable TV! Only significant because it means that all of us often hang out in the living as it is called! Bad thing is that most of it is in English but it has subtitles so I might be learning something! Ha ha!
On Friday I went out with Ardriana and her Venzuelan friend Carlos to a Cuban salsa club. It was surprisingly like Cuba! Its actually a restaurant with a dinner show followed by a salsa band. Lots of rice and black beans which are the absolute staples in Cuba but as they are not on rationed food here I got a chance to taste good Cuban food. I had pork baked in Rum and Calamari as an entree. Carlos had the huge selection plate which had amazing fried chicken and steak mmmmmm. The salsa afterwards was good. Certainly better than my previous experience! At least the salsa there is Cuban and its not everyone trying to show off. Just people enjoying dancing. The crowd was pretty old though so we left pretty early and called it an early night. I just called a dancing school that teaches Lambazouk and samba de pe here in Palermo. I am going for my first class of Samba de pe tomorrow night at 7. I am both excited and nervous. They teach all kinds of dance so I am excited about getting into a dancing routine. It will certainly help with the loneliness anyway!
Adriana and Carlos
I have felt pretty lonely this weekend. I actually think its been worse because I am with a group of girls around my age who are really lovely but they all already have lives set up here and all have lots of plans that things to do. I sort of feel a bit lost because other than Adriana I dont really have any life. I sound like a right sob story!! Oh well I am sure that will change in time!
Today I went cruising my new neighbourhood. It is truly beautiful. Unfortunately I didnt have my camera with me to catch the dog walking in action but I did get this shot of some of the dogs ready to walked hanging out while the walker went to get another dog. It is crazy!! Agentines pay dog walkers to walk their dogs and they walk them in packs of 15 or more!! Ha ha! I actually laughed out loud the first time I saw it! How cute are these dogs though?! All they want to do is go on their walk but they have to wait while all the other dogs are collected. I thought part of the joy of having a dog was walking it! There are so many beautiful parks around here you would think people would enjoy it. Anyway more fun for me coz I get see all these gorgeous dogs all hanging out together!!
Speaking of dogs there are also heaps of cats here. The botanical gardens (one block from my apartment) has hundreds and hundreds of stray cats. So weird. It is both sad and cute. They are not mangy at all. In fact quite the opposite. They have beautiful coats and when I went to lie on the grass there one day one of them came up and rubbed on my leg like a pet! Adorable but I have no idea why there are so many. You see them sleeping all over the gardens.
I heard that the people here are absolutely mad about football but it didnt really hit me until today when I was walking around and realised that the streets had cleared. When I turned the corn it was obvious why. There was a huge crowd of people spilling out of a local bar all screeming at the TV as the soccer was playing. Pretty funny!
Yesterday I went to visit the local Jumbo. That is like a huge supermarket which has cloths and homewares etc. I tried by best to find blu-tack. I even came back to the house to get a sample. I was sent all over the neighbourhood but no one had heard of it. In the end I concluded that they dont have blu-tack in Buenos Aires. How strange! I have been taking my access to blue-tack for granted!! In the end I had to put up my photos with masking tape! I hope it doesnt destroy the photos or the wall!! While I was at the Jumbo though I went in to buy a towel. Seriously it takes so dam long to get through the checkout line in shops in BA they should actually pay you to shop there! At the Jumbo I bought one towel which I paid cash for and the round trip took me 2 hours!! While I was in the line I took this photo for you.
I think it is quite hilarious that everywhere you go here in BA pregnant women embarasadas get priority in everything! Including apparently the check out queue! Do we do that in Adelaide. Its like as soon as you get pregnant you get promoted to VIP status or you get demoted to the status of invalid (depends on which way you look at it). Either way Ive never thought that pregnancy was such a big deal. I guess its just one of those many subtle cultural difference. Or in this case, not so subtle! On the subte it is a law that you give up your seat for embarasadas, people with disabilities and the elderly. It seems that everyone who has a seat is always jumping up to give their seat to someone else. I havent really figure out the criteria as yet. At all seems rather discretionary. I mean when is one old enough that they get a seat on the train? And does a woman get up for an older man? And what constitutes a disability severe enough to warrant a seat? And you cant even work on a philosophy of rather safe than sorry because if you get up for someone not that old or that disables it could be highly offensive. Like you think they are so old or so disabled that they cant stand for the 20 minutes it takes to take the subte. The result of all this is that I dont ever sit down. That way I never have to worry about to whom I should be giving my seat!!
The rest are photos of my new neighbourhood. Beautiful architecture, wide streets and lots of parks! I love it! Well thats all from me folks! Keep the emails coming I love to hear whats happening at home. Muchos besos love you lots xoxox
posted Monday May xxxx