Springtime in BA

Things are getting better. Spring is here, it´s warming up, the days are growing longer, flowers are blooming, trees are getting greener, the portenos (city people in BA) are out in the parks having picnics and bike-rides. The air feels better. Everything honestly looks brighter - I don´t know if it´s my outlook, my new location, the weather or what, but things are beginning to look up. I'm beginning to grow into my new surroundings and my feelings of panic are fading, quickly.

The evening of Paraguayan harp music and food with Maria and her friends was lovely. It was at an intimate little venue in Palermo Soho (a hip part of town that is growing with new shops, cafes, restaurants, and trendy lofts), filled with locals. We were served a delicious meal of empanadas, some sort of cornbread, stew, and goat's cheese with honey for dessert. And of course, malbec to drink, conservatively.

There were a number of Maria's friends who spoke English fluently, so that's always comforting. One of her friends, a doctor, asked me what it is I'm doing here (naturally a common question where I at times am at a loss for an answer). Am I studying the culture and habits of the Argentine people, like an anthropologist? I said, yes. Then he laughed and asked, what am I really doing here? I said, to travel and learn Spanish. This seems to be the most socially acceptable answer and is true, of course, but really, I want to go beyond being a tourist--I want to absorb everything I can about this place and see what I can make of it, expand my horizons I suppose.

So, Sunday was another lovely day. Maria came to pick me up, gave me another tour of some more parts of the city with historical commentary, and then took me to her home outside of the city to have a nice home-cooked lunch with her and her son before we would go to the town church of San Isidiro for a classical music concert that she was in involved in putting together. I'm always thankful to get out of the city and it was very nice to be in a home with dogs and a garden eating a nice meal and talking to people, my Argentinian adoptive family.

The concert was nice and the church was packed with people, many were sitting on the floor. It was quite a turnout. The town of San Isidiro, where Maria grew up and where she lives now, is beautiful. It's an old town, with two-story Spanish colonial buildings, lots of cafes, lots of trees, narrow cobblestone streets. Very charming. I was thinking I could live there and never need to go back into Buenos Aires. From everyone that I've spoken to that lives outside of the city, they seem to feel the same way - it's like there is BA and then the rest of the country. I suppose it's that way with any huge city, though. Just like there's London and the rest of England - while I love London for it's bustling quirky energy, the rest of England is quite different.

After the concert and the tour of San Isidiro, we went over to Maria's brother and sister-in-law's for afternoon tea, which was just behind Maria's home. We all sat in the garden (which had a little pool in the corner, like Maria's garden) and I met many of Maria's nieces and nephews and their children and grandchildren. There were croissants and scones and tea and coca-cola. They usually meet like this on Sundays. It all seemed so old-fashioned. I love that this sort of tradition still exists in today's world of no time for anything. Through what I've seen of Maria's life at least, it seems that Argentines are extremely social. People make time to see loved ones on a regular basis. And most of the family lives close to each other to make it that much easier to get together.

I guess Maria's sister-in-law was a bit shaken up from the week before when thieves broke into her home, tied her up, put a gun to her head, took any money she had, and attempted to steal her and her husband's cars. They were going to climb over the wall into Maria's yard and rob her as well but the sister-in-law said not to go over there because there are dogs. So they put some meat from the freezer in the microwave to feed the dogs. The police were called by a neighbor before they got any further, and no one was hurt, but it sounded quite scary. Maria said there are a lot of people on drugs here and the neighborhoods are getting dangerous. There is a huge slum in San Isidiro called La Cava and a lot of problems occur like minors murdering people and being set free because they cannot be tried as an adult. Meanwhile their president was elected because they paid people off to vote for them (the wife of the previous president, who did the same) and are not doing anything to help with what seems to be many concerns that are growing worse.

Well, it's almost time for me to take a level test for Spanish class, a test that is quite unnecessary because I can tell them already I know nada. Maria also pointed out a few jazz places to hear Argentine jazz that are just a few blocks away from my place. This is quite nice that there are so many places to go near where I live now. Being in Villa Crespo, which has now become a funny story when I am introduced to people, living there, getting bug bites (I'm still getting bug bites like crazy even now though, I don't know what it is) like I said before, made the city feel so huge and with dimly lit streets that I was walking down to get home at night, made this city feel very scary for me. Rightly so, that was probably a little bit on the dangerous side to be walking everywhere and I've decided that the city is best seen at night from the window of a taxi. Taxis are actually quite cheap, so that helps.

I'm also looking into travel plans within Argentina as this country has so many beautiful places to see and it would be a shame to miss them while here. I was thinking of going to Salta, a NW province filled with beautiful mountains, indigenous people and culture, and old Spanish colonial architecture, for a week or so, to begin. Just as long as I'm far enough from mosquitos carrying yellow fever! I did not get vaccinated for this before I left, unaware that this was a problem.

And I can start posting pictures - yay! Maria's son kindly helped me with my computer problems and I am again connected to the internet - this could be a good and bad thing, but my reliance on internet access has reached a point that without it I feel quite lost.

Hope all is well and thanks for reading!