New Country ... New Day

I have continued taking tango classes. I took one for free that is offered at the Carlos Gardel museum right by my house. The teacher is adorable. An old man that just glided around the room for the first 10 minutes showing us real 'Tango'. Then we practiced gliding. It's great. There was an interesting mix of people at the museum class ... girls my age that danced extremely well, a middle aged sweaty man, petite grandma folk, a grandpa that wore a hat and sweet Nike shoes ... a good mix. Later after the class when the instructor handed me his card I learn that he was in the movie Evita and was Madonna´s dancing partner ... he has reason. I realize that I lack woman shoes. Sneakers were more comfortable for the class ... but don´t 'glide' well. And either way my feet hurt the next day. I am just not a heel kind of girl.


I went to Colonia, Uruguay today. Got my passport stamped and did another country in a day. Woke up early to take the hour long Buquebus across Rio de la Plata and arrived back in BA for rush hour traffic early evening. It is a really cute old town with a historic district of brick roads and very unique old buildings and ruins. Nicole and I rented vespas so we could ride along the beachside and see a few other parts of the city that were farther for walking distance. We saw the bullring, the lighthouse, the historic district. We didn't visit any museums or anything but it was just a nice day out and so much more of a relaxed environment than BA. We ate lunch at what appeared to be a normal restaurant which ended up being probably the most expensive in the country. I paid about 100 Argentine pesos for lunch ... some grilled vegetables and a glass of wine that arrived 20 minutes through my meal. Normally 100 pesos normally buys 3 meals at normal restaurants or 2 nice ones. Its not like I go to Uruguay every day. Overall, Uruguay didn't seem too different from Argentina ... but maybe I wasn't there long enough to feel the difference. I did notice a few more people carrying around their mate and thermos on the streets ... but only a few more than usual.

Cultural note that I learned that applies to most of Latin America ... when you sneeze once 'salud' (health) ... when you sneeze twice 'dinero' (money) ... when you sneeze thrice 'amor' (love). All are meant to bring some sort of luck.

This Sunday 10-18 is Mother´s day here in Argentina ... who says you can`t have it 2 times out of the year. Happy Mother`s Day Mommy. Also it´s daylight savings time Sunday night ... since it is spring here ... we spring forward. In a few short weeks the US will fall back making it a 4 hour time difference...strange the way the opposite ends of the world function thanks to our tilted global axis.

I am learning a lot about myself in my time here and I still don´t know quite who or what I want to be when I grow up...

There are so many possibilities.

Love.