We´ve just finished our third Spanish lesson and are writing this from an internet cafe by the famous obelisk in the centre of Buenos Aires. When there are football victories, the winning team´s supporters drive round and round it, honking their horns and disrupting traffic for hours.
The lessons are going well and our teacher Vicu is very patient and good at explaining. We´ve met in cafes at strategic points around the city and do some exercises (e.g., reading the papers) and grammar before being unleashed on some unsuspecting shopowners to ask spurious questions: ¿Cuanto cuesta un anti gripal? (How much is a flu remedy?) The answer, for those dying to know, is...there are many different prices. I ask my questions with an apologetic countenance; Frank manages with charm.
Our room in Giorgio´s house is beautiful and only slightly stiflingly hot (it´s 35 degrees here). The owner, Irina, is very friendly and may include us in her mate ceremony at some point (this appears to involve passing around mate tea in the correct order while watching telenovelas).
Last night we ate at La Cabrera which was our treat for Buenos Aires, involving a ridiculous quantity of fantastic steak and red wine. We had to queue for an hour, but they brought us out complimentary champagne which we accepted gracefully. While waiting, we saw the local carteneros (people who collect recyclables to sell on) pulling unfeasibly massive carts through the streets. It was quite awe-inspiring how much they were able to move. This was in the Palermo district: shabbily elegant streets lined with leafy trees.
Now we´re off to see the famous Recoletas cemetery where Evita is buried. Later we´ll meet Vicu for one last time to have a lesson over dinner.
Hasta luego and thanks for your comments! It´s great to be in touch from so far away.
Em and Frank
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I've just written the perfect comment but it seems to have crashed or been ignored. I think you'd better come back to England, children, google needs you.
ReplyDeleteI said that I thought Vico sounded pretty good and skilled in the most modern EFL methods. I may have said that he would do better to teach you to tango. What are you doing there just eating and drinking? 'Dance first. Think later. It is the natural order' - Samuel Beckett
Our first teachers Rodolpho and Miho turned up in Cambridge on Tuesday - surprisingly ... (they've had visa problems) - and taught us some cute things to do with sandwiching feet and told us it was hot in Buenos Aires.
Dom has done very well indeed in Biological Behaviour - something our family's good at - coming second highest in his year. He is awaiting his mark for the lower keyed 'Developmental ...', which sounds more mundane and Darwinian.
I have discovered some striking Developmental Mould in my wardrobe, so will leave you to your exotic revels now and try to blast it.
MLM
Good to know you are well, happy and enjoying yourselves!
ReplyDeleteWell done!
Being stiflingly hot... Forced to ask for flu remedies in far-flung countries in the name of education... Are you sure this isn't viral language learning? (Which, of course, reminds me of http://www.viralanguage.com/, which you may find fleetingly entertaining if you have not yet seen it.) Or perhaps it was just the meat sweats.
ReplyDeleteI am enjoying your entertaining posts, although I am skim-reading them more than I should. This does leave me with curious quasi-truths, such as the football supporters who pass champagne round Evita's grave for hours on end.
I hope your last lesson went well and that you didn't talk with your mouths full.
Onwards and upwards.
Sounds fantastic, Em! Sounds like your language teacher is first rate. I've heard stories about the mates tea--if you do score this you'll be friends with her for life apparently. =)
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Então quando vem o próximo Blog? Já tenho muitas saudades. Fiquem bem, divirtam-se.
ReplyDeleteUm grande xi coração. X X X