Friday, February 20, 2004
Eliza's last day in Argentina was Sunday. We met at a cafe in Belgrano for lunch, then walked around a beautiful crafts fair, then went and sat in a big park. there was a gazebo type thing where couples were dancing tango. after a while we walked around to another side of the park and found a big plaza where they set up speakers and there was salsa dancing! they are there dancing every Sunday night. we walked through Belgrano and they blocked off the street were having a big Carnaval celebration. we watched it and ate choripan and got sprayed with foam by little kids. it was a great send-off, Argentine style.
spanish class was fun today. we listened to a carole king cd and i passed out sheets of the lyrics with words crossed out, and they had to fill in the blanks (I feel the _____ move under my feet)
i have to do that in Spanish class with Mercedes Sosa songs. all the pain and suffering that is inflicted on me in spanish class, i turn around and make my english students do. we also read an article about Argentine Jews that have re-settled in Winnipeg, Canada that Samir sent me (thanks Samir!). i think they enjoyed this article - one of the people in the article was just like one of my students - they were both named Gabriel, had gone through an application process to Canada that lasted for years, and had 3 kids, etc. quite a coincidence.
allie's been staying with me this week - really fun.
My Spanish class isn't getting any better, i don't enjoy it much. i have one more week at this school and then i am going to change. i might take private classes with Martin, the teacher from the other school who i really, really liked. or i'm too shy to do that, i haven't been able to pick up the phone and call him.
tonight i could go to chabad and sit there, alone, and then go to the dinner they have after services. sometimes it's fun and i meet people and sometimes everyone is dorky and the dinner runs so late, and i hate it. or i could go out with edgardo and his friends, to the same parrilla we always go to, with lots of wine, steak and you have to get there early (like before midnight) or they run out of french fries, then we go to a bar on Plaza Serrano to drink fernet with coke and they ogle the waitresses. fernet tastes ass-nasty but it is a digestif, this apparently means it makes you go to the bathroom. and for this reason i choke it down. they are so fun and argentine and they talk about the girls using so much slang i can barely understand them. it may be the devil at work but i'd much rather do that than go to services.
photos of eliza's birthday dinner here, mixed in with pics of the parrilla, which i wrote a review of.
spanish class was fun today. we listened to a carole king cd and i passed out sheets of the lyrics with words crossed out, and they had to fill in the blanks (I feel the _____ move under my feet)
i have to do that in Spanish class with Mercedes Sosa songs. all the pain and suffering that is inflicted on me in spanish class, i turn around and make my english students do. we also read an article about Argentine Jews that have re-settled in Winnipeg, Canada that Samir sent me (thanks Samir!). i think they enjoyed this article - one of the people in the article was just like one of my students - they were both named Gabriel, had gone through an application process to Canada that lasted for years, and had 3 kids, etc. quite a coincidence.
allie's been staying with me this week - really fun.
My Spanish class isn't getting any better, i don't enjoy it much. i have one more week at this school and then i am going to change. i might take private classes with Martin, the teacher from the other school who i really, really liked. or i'm too shy to do that, i haven't been able to pick up the phone and call him.
tonight i could go to chabad and sit there, alone, and then go to the dinner they have after services. sometimes it's fun and i meet people and sometimes everyone is dorky and the dinner runs so late, and i hate it. or i could go out with edgardo and his friends, to the same parrilla we always go to, with lots of wine, steak and you have to get there early (like before midnight) or they run out of french fries, then we go to a bar on Plaza Serrano to drink fernet with coke and they ogle the waitresses. fernet tastes ass-nasty but it is a digestif, this apparently means it makes you go to the bathroom. and for this reason i choke it down. they are so fun and argentine and they talk about the girls using so much slang i can barely understand them. it may be the devil at work but i'd much rather do that than go to services.
photos of eliza's birthday dinner here, mixed in with pics of the parrilla, which i wrote a review of.
Friday, February 13, 2004
i met up a couple times with these 2 groovy americans starting an online magazine about buenos aires. i wrote a restaurant review for them and hope to contribute more soon. their site is at www.whatsupba.com
this is me at their house with ana, this cool argentine girl who is also writing stuff for them. tonight we're all going for korean food and i am very excited.
this week i got my first (under the table) payment for translating. he gave me the money and i got so excited and he said, tu primer sueldo en buenos aires? que emocion! i said, i know right!!! it's not the money that i'm excited about, it's not that much money and let's face it, pesos. but it's the fact that i'm getting paid for how much spanish i know! i have a marketable skill here!
he even referred me to another client. and just by coincidence, they're all jewish.
this is me at their house with ana, this cool argentine girl who is also writing stuff for them. tonight we're all going for korean food and i am very excited.
this week i got my first (under the table) payment for translating. he gave me the money and i got so excited and he said, tu primer sueldo en buenos aires? que emocion! i said, i know right!!! it's not the money that i'm excited about, it's not that much money and let's face it, pesos. but it's the fact that i'm getting paid for how much spanish i know! i have a marketable skill here!
he even referred me to another client. and just by coincidence, they're all jewish.
Sunday, February 08, 2004
spent a fun day today at the pool with edgardo. now i'm sunburnt. (come on, i can rub it in a bit for all of you up in the frozen north, can't i?) we tried to race but he makes me laugh so hard i didn't even reach the finish line. i ended up swallowing a lot of pool water, como me pasa siempre. afterwards we made fresh raviolis that we bought at the grocery store. what is it about being in the water that makes you so incredibly hungry. tomorrow he's going to take me to this park on avenida rivadavia where they set up tables (like in new york) and sell fake cds for 5 pesos. and that's where i will buy eliza's birthday present!
i started a class at a new language school last week. i hate it. mostly i think because i loved my other school so much. but this school is a quarter of the price and i just need to have a better attitude. the teachers are 2 old ladies and the other students aren't as fun.
i did a translating assignment last week, as a try-out for a weekly gig. it was hard and took a long time! but i think it will be easier from now on, if i get the assignment. it was about the leather hide industry. lots of words about slaughter and bulls and heifers and sheep and upholstery and stuff like that. new words. not ones that come up in everyday conversation.
the english class i teach went really well on friday. we did a great exercise to improve their writing skills. i wrote some words on the improvised blackboard, like say, walk, think, etc. then we thought of lots of synonyms for those words. stroll, prance, stride, ponder, contemplate, reflect, etc. then i gave them 15 min. to write a story using 5 of the words or as many of the words as possible. i find that using words in a sentence helps me remember them.
i started a class at a new language school last week. i hate it. mostly i think because i loved my other school so much. but this school is a quarter of the price and i just need to have a better attitude. the teachers are 2 old ladies and the other students aren't as fun.
i did a translating assignment last week, as a try-out for a weekly gig. it was hard and took a long time! but i think it will be easier from now on, if i get the assignment. it was about the leather hide industry. lots of words about slaughter and bulls and heifers and sheep and upholstery and stuff like that. new words. not ones that come up in everyday conversation.
the english class i teach went really well on friday. we did a great exercise to improve their writing skills. i wrote some words on the improvised blackboard, like say, walk, think, etc. then we thought of lots of synonyms for those words. stroll, prance, stride, ponder, contemplate, reflect, etc. then i gave them 15 min. to write a story using 5 of the words or as many of the words as possible. i find that using words in a sentence helps me remember them.
