i have decided that i should go on tours of attractions in buenos aires, now that i can (sort of ) understand what they're saying.
saturday, i took a new argentine friend, mariana, along on a tour of a historic jesuit complex called manzana de las luces. we got to go down and look at underground tunnels which were constructed by the jesuits in case of attack. the original entrances were in wells, but luckily we got to walk down some stairs. i can figure out that the tour guide is talking about the architecture, but i don't know exactly whhat she's saying. mariana helped me fill in the gaps.

yesterday edgardo and i went to see luna de avellaneda. i couldn't understand what they were saying, but i could tell it was really good, and funny. and that made me frustrated, and i was bored. i ate a lot of halls during the movie.

afterwards i wanted to go to this patagonian ice cream place we found one time that has unbelievably good ice cream. it was pretty far, and we were walking for a while. and i said something like, are we almost there? and he said (in spanish), not yet smurfette, keep smurfing along. and in spanish smurfs are pitufos, so it was like, no pitufino, sigue pitufando, and it struck me as so funny, i just giggled the rest of the way, and then i wasn't tired or cold anymore. edgardo never complains, even though he never gets to pick the movie, and he has to shlep all over town for the ice cream i want, and next week he's going to have to see harry potter.

today i went to the gym and then made brownies and put figs in them. then i had a lesson with my favorite student. he's the husband of another student, they had me over for seder this year. he is a quasi-rabbi and he brings me candy bars. he is giving a series of lectures this week at his synagogue about brother-sister relationships in the bible, and the psychology behind it, he is a psychologist too. i'm pretty jazzed about that, the irst one is wednesday. hope i can understand it!

hi! was that annoying to look at photos all on one page? does it take a long time to download? would you rather look at them in yahoo photos? let me know.
today on the news, i saw that in a town in buenos aires province, the electricity went out for 12 hours (it has been raining a lot here.) and apparently the water treatment plant stopped working. so now almost 300 people are hospitalized with a virus, enterocolitis, or whatever that is in english. isn't that horrible?
in other news, i went shopping! i bought gorgeous brown leather shoes and an orange shirt and a brown skirt. for the grand total of about $50.
we made paella in cooking class.
and that's about all my news!

today is the argentina fourth of july. i saw an outdoor exhibit of photos of earth seen from above. it was raining.

sierra and i last weekend. she will be an intern at npr this summer, and is visiting with her mom for a month to learn tango. we have been having fun!

this is the cafe of El Ateneo, the bookstore, where the stage was. the elusive and photo-shy Edgardo is in the middle in a gray shirt. can you see him?

the opera house turned bookstore, also has a cafe where i like to read books, this is one of the former box seats. gorgeous isn't it?

gerardo browsing in a store one sunday afternoon, my coolest friend, acts in movies and goes to film school.

the ice cream came with dry ice, and here he's being a mad scientist! mwah-ha-ha!

mariano at my apt, we ordered ice cream one night - they deliver!

hugo and I on my balcony, note the big cross around his neck, my sexy moreno, me gusta tu sabor!

i learned how to make this in cooking class!

hola! my mom told me about the return of the 17 year cicadas, which i have been waiting for since my freshman year in high school. i will never forget those cicadas in cincinnati. i was so excited that i used cicadas as a topic for my first class as a paid english teacher. had articles, a drawing and an interview. there were two 19 year old chicas who spoke english really well, and one 37 year year old mom who spoke mas o menos. afterwards we went for coffee, and robbie, the irish guy who i'm taking over for, told me about what he has done with the class so far. a lot of role plays. i don't know. i'm not really into role plays. i hated doing them in spanish class.

hey, want to see an example of the report that i translate every week?
last weekend i met up with my contact in the world of brazilian semi-finished butt split wet blue hides. we had a coffee in recoleta outside on a gorgeous day. the coffee came with pieces of chocolate and he let me have his (score!) then he took me to the museum of fine arts. he steered me around by the shoulders and gave me a personalized guided tour in spanish including an overview of the movements, the French academy painters and the Impressionists etc, then we looked at the Argentine paintings and what they took away from each of those schools. it was fascinating! who knew that i liked to look at paintings. he's also an artist, this guy.

well, i guess i get the job, since nobody else interviewed! it's a two hour conversation class once a week, pays $10 pesos an hour.
last weekend i saw an argentine movie with my friend Bibi, who is in my English class. it's called "un abrazo partido" and it is about a Jewish family in buenos aires. i told her she would have to be my simultaneous translator, because movies are hard for me to understand. i would say to her, what's going on here, why did he do that, what does this guy want, and she was just like, well they're not talking about anything, this isn't really that important. i lost the sense of the movie, because it was more a portrait of a way of life.
but besides that, i understand practically everything else. i feel that i am some sort of genius in spanish. i can talk to anyone, man on the street, whoever, and have a conversation. when i went back to DC i got my salsa CDs, and i was listening to them here, and i realized that now i can understand all the lyrics! it's like a code that is no longer a mystery.

this is what my brother wrote on my friendster testimonial: Rachel roams the globe in search of new and intriguing candies. Sort of an international Willie Wonka, but sexier, more Latin, and without the vast financial empire.
ha ha! love it! just when i was thinking that he had forgotten all about me. because i never hear from him.

been teaching a lot of english. i had a class yesterday and another one today. right now i have an interview for a once a week position. gotta run.

beth, spanish classmate John and i went to salsa night on Wednesday. super good time. the next morning, despite a distinct not so fresh feeling, i was previously committed to have coffee with the women who manages rent and bills and sundries dealing with my apartment. Silvia. Silvia has a voice like nails on a chalkboard and a blind, odiferous dog. every bark of the dog was a nail in my skull and to make it shut up i had to feed it raisins all the time. what dog likes raisins? she wanted to give me some coconut bars she made, because one time i must have said i liked coconut. it was sweet but she was blowing smoke around and drinking mate with water boiled with lemon and artificial sweetener. yuck!

anyway the weather here is glorious, cool and sunny, the leaves are just starting to turn.
the other day i went to a beautiful bookstore in an old theater, with a cafe where the stage used to be. i collected some books and read and drank coffee, what fun.

this week in cooking class the entree was hake stuffed with mousse of ham and cheese. edgardo enjoyed that for dinner the next night while i had a meat empanada.

last night i met up with beth, a friend from seattle, who spent the summer in a tiny town in patagonia teaching english. she sent pics and they were so beautiful:


right now there is a chica cleaning my apartment! and she uses the formal you (usted) with me. it's like i'm her master and she's my genie.

DanTheMan: They had "Unbreakable" on TV last night'
rbasofin@hotmail.com: really
DanTheMan: M. Night Shalamanan
DanTheMan: lol
rbasofin@hotmail.com: shmana mana
DanTheMan: You love to say his name funny
rbasofin@hotmail.com: yeah
rbasofin@hotmail.com: i'm laughing right now
DanTheMan: I'm laughing out loud
DanTheMan: yeah me too!
DanTheMan: Its pronounced Shamaln
DanTheMan: oops - shamalan
DanTheMan: he was hosting
rbasofin@hotmail.com: it's pronounced "mana mana"
DanTheMan: apparently hes got a new movie coming out
rbasofin@hotmail.com: whatever, so have you seen eternal sunshine yet?

edgardo and i were both stood up by all of our friends last night so we went to eat at friday's. i had the beef fajitas and he had a bacon cheeseburger. mmmm not so good. rundown of american restaurants in buenos aires: friday's: bad and too expensive. hard rock cafe: really good burgers and big salads. fun atmosphere!
however friday's had a real "american" breakfast advertised, with french toast and pancakes! and maple honey! (i think they meant syrup). i will have to go and check that out. it's my duty as an expat american.
this week i summoned all my courage and called martin, the teacher i had that i loved, and asked him for private lessons. he said no, that he was too busy. so that was quite a blow.
tomorrow i'm meeting with another potential english student, the husband of the family that had me over for passover seder. his wife is in my friday class. he doesn't want to go to that class because he's embarrassed about his english! aw. we have a wednesday american movie day with his wife clara, and another of my students. this week we saw "robando vidas", stealing lives, angelina jolie and ethan hawke, god that was terrible. and it terrified both of them and gave them nightmares. this week we're seeing 50 first dates. i'm not expecting a classic but at least we will be able to go to the bathroom alone.