Country of Tango

2012-01-10 We are in the country of the tango.....ARGENTINA, South America.

The language here is Spanish and we can understand some of it since we took Spanish classes from Clara our 'profesora' in Cape Town. We are staying in Buenos Aries the capital of the country for three months. On our arrival, on 28th December 2011 in the late afternoon we took a taxi to our apartment in San Telmo. We had a fight in our best Spanish with our rental company who wanted cash for a month and a lot of surprising extra costs. Quite strange, because we had pre-paid for two weeks and by mail we agreed to pay the outstanding amount after the 1st week. After picking up our suitcases wanting to leave they finally agreed. We were very tired -after leaving Cape Town four a clock in the morning and a flight of 11 hours from Jo burg to Buenos Aires(BA)- and fell asleep immediately. The next day the ladies of the family checked the appartment and found so so (like 4 different plates, some lights not working - dirty kitchen en not enough towels. But the 'contracting manager' said, good price and locations. We decided to stay till the end of the month to get to know San Telmo - this old and special part of Buenos Aires. Next month we want to move to an other area named Recoleta.

The area SanTelmo is a small cosy place in Buenos Aires where Tango and the market are the main attactions beside the many old buildings and small streets.


In the morning we had breakfast in a coffee shop around the corner, what became the "office of my father" because of the good ''cortados'' (small cappuccino). When I went with my dad I ordered a hot chocolate, but I got hot milk in a glass with a chocolate on the side. I asked where my hot chocolate was and he laughed and said in half Spanish half English that you dip the dark chocolate in the hot milk an stir. It was very good!. The next day while interneting in the cafe a skype message came up. "Hi Jaap/Germaine, when are you leaving and which country are you going first, regards from Buenos Aires, Herman" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!What a suprise our friend Herman who is a pilot for KLM was in Buenos Aires, 30 minutes walk from our apartment. We met and had a great lunch with him before he flew back to Amsterdam.

The next day was already 31st of December and there were parties in different areas. We decide to go to Plaza Dorrego - a square around the corner with many restaurants and bars. Everytime a performance started with live music, Tango dancing (see pictures) and singing. At midnight the place was lit by fireworks and every one said Feliz Ano Nueve!

We had a weekend to look around Buenos aires and see the diffent areas by foot in a very hot weather (like always every day it seems).
My parents found the town not improved in over the past 10-15 years when they came here for their work. It is more dirty and many roads and pavements are broken and not well handled. If you compare this with South Africa than our government should get a compliment if you compare with 10-15 years ago.

Nearly nobody speaks English (good for our Spanish) and you do not see or hear a lot of tourists. Maybe because it is expensive here.
 
                                                  


                                    School
Steven and I could not wait for the 11th January and have started homeschooling on the 1st already. We start our school at 8:30 until 13:00. We have a roaster which shows us what subjects we have everyday.

We have our school in our apartment, my moms is our teacher and she wears a hat and glasses and then she looks like a teacher an not a mom.
We are taking the school very seriously and when one of us don't behave we have to .................

                                                                 Sport 
Steven is since last Wednesday official player of the Club Atletico San telmo Soccer and is training twice a week below a bridge of one of the highways which runs through San Telmo. Wednesday he has training and on Saturday an hour which he trains and plays matches.

On Miercoles and Viernes we both go to tennis classes with Sebastian (who speaks a little English) for an hour at the Darling Tennis club a kind of private club with pool and restaurant. We train with 6 other local kids and hope we also learn a little Spanish from them.

The coming week we will be changing our layout!!!

Thank you for reading,keep following us
Writen by Louisa
Pictures taken by Jaap& Steven
Editor,Germaine