Que pasa

There's not a lot for me to report on the tango front. The week before last I tried a new milonga for me - the Tuesday afternoon El Arranque at Salón La Argentina. I got there shortly after it opened, at about 3:30pm and stayed for about 4 hours. There weren't many people there when I arrived but by 5pm there were about 100 people, with an excess of men. So rather more people than the Monday afternoon milonga at La Ideal. I was the only extranjero (foreigner) there and easily the youngest man in the room by at least 15 years. Some of the guys looked like they'd have difficulty walking without a zimmer frame, never mind dancing. A couple of the women were possibly in the same decade as me, the rest were at least a decade older. Despite those things, or maybe because of them, I danced all the tandas I wanted to.

The following night at Sueño Porteño I had something of an epiphany (in the feeling sense). It struck me that actually I don't need to tango every day. This came as quite a surprise and I haven't worked out all the ramifications yet. On the practical front it does mean I've only been out to dance 4 times since then including (another new one for me) the Nuevo Chiqué 1st anniversary milonga at Casa de Galicia. 3 of them were rather disappointing outings because my heart wasn't in it, but last night at los Consagrados was good as usual.

There's a photo from El Arranque and a few from Nuevo Chiqué in my Milongas set on Flickr.

I've had a few days out and about sightseeing. One was a wander around Plaza de Mayo and Puerto Madero. Plaza de Mayo houses many government buildings and the architecture is very grandiose and monumental. Puerto Madero is rather like London's Docklands - a rejuvenation of the docks area into a luxury flats and fine dining complex complete with a single pylon suspension/swing bridge, La Puente de la Mujer. According to the designer it represents a couple dancing tango but I can't really see it myself. Have a look at the photos in my Plaza de Mayo and Puerto Madero set and see if you can.

Another was a wander around Palermo and Recoleta, including the world famous Cementerio Recoleta. Having been before I didn't need to track down the tombs of the rich and famous in general, or Eva Peron in particular. But it was a good excuse to take a few photos.

The third was a visit to Palacio Barolo in Avenida de Mayo. When it was built it was the tallest building in Buenos Aires, at 100m, and the views across the city from the lighthouse at the top are quite impressive. At the time of writing this post, their website is broken but you can read a bit more about the building and it's history here and see some photos in my Palacio Barolo set at Flickr.

In a couple of weeks I will either have to go and sit in Migraciones all day and pay $300 (pesos not US dollars) to renew my visa, or take a boat trip across the Rio de la Plata to Uruguay. Spending the money on the boat trip sounds like the better option...

I'm making a bit of progress on the castellano front. Slow and not at all steady, but progress nonetheless.

A good week

On Monday I proclaimed I was on a roll. Things were going well and could only keep getting better. I walked up Av. Scalabrini Ortiz on Monday night to Salón Canning feeling cocky and pretty damn pleased with myself.

Expecting that it might be busy because of the bicentenary holiday weekend I had telephoned and made a reservation. When I arrived the host gave me a front row seat, although it was in a corner so not as good as it could have been. By about 00:30 the place was full, the first time I've seen it that busy since I arrived in April. There were lots of porteños and long term visitors in, very few obvious tourists. For the first 2 hours or so I had a really good time, my cabeceos were accepted and I danced reasonably well. The floor was never less than very crowded. There was the obligatory demonstration dance followed by the singing of the national anthem.

And then it was like someone had dropped Harry Potter's cloak of invisibility over me. After a couple of hours with no dancing I gave up and left.

I didn't go out to dance on Tuesday, Thursday or Friday nights. On Wednesday I went to El Beso. It was a very quiet night, only about 50 people with a slight excess of leaders. It wasn't a good night for me. I danced one tanda and then most of the rest of the night became an exercise in frustration. I danced just 3 tandas in total.

My private lesson on Thursday with Maya went well. Lots more milonga and a little bit of tango.

On Saturday night I went to Los Consagrados again. I arrived just after 7pm and was given a second row seat half way down the leaders side of the floor. The guy in front of me left before 8pm so I effectively had a front row seat for most of the night. In contrast to Wednesday night I danced almost every tanda. In the 4 hours from 7pm until 11pm I think I sat out about 3 tandas, in each case through choice. I even danced a reasonable milonga tanda which included my favourite "la milonga que faltaba". A certain person will be delighted!

In other news, I had a little sight-seeing outing on Wednesday to Calle Lanin. In the Barracas barrio of Buenos Aires, Calle Lanin is a short street where the house fronts have been decorated with tile mosaics. They're quite colourful but not really in the same league as Caminito in Boca. Or maybe they're just in a different league. There are some pictures in my sightseeing and Calle Lanin sets at Flickr.

Most remarkable of all this week, I actually made a little bit of an effort on the castellano front. It's somewhat overdue since I'm nearly 2 months in and only have 4 months left here, but better late than never.

So overall, a good week. 

It's a bank holiday weekend in the UK and the start of half-term. True to form the weather there wasn't brilliant today. The forecasters predict better for Sunday and Monday, so for my friends back in the UK I hope they're right.

On a roll

I had a really good weekend of dancing; Saturday night at Los Consagrados, and Sunday at Sueño Portenõ and El Beso.

The bicentennial celebrations have been playing havoc with the traffic in downtown Buenos Aires. The bus ride to Los Consagrados took about twice as long as usual so I arrived later than normal. The hostess was about to park me in a corner seat at the far end of the dance floor. It wouldn't have been a good place to sit. Fortunately Ruben saw us on the way past and invited me to join him. It's always a pleasure to sit at Ruben y Cherie's table - good company and good dancing. My castellano still hasn't advanced to the point that I can have a conversation with Ruben, and Cherie was feeling a bit unwell and wasn't there on Saturday, but they always have guests at their table and this night was no exception. Those guests are usually extranjeros, often English speakers and always friendly.

My dancing got off to a bit of a slow start but picked up nicely. About an hour before the end, as the numbers started to thin out, I moved to a table with a free seat about half way along the pista for a better cabeceo position. I've seen the guy sat at the table several times and assumed he was a local. It turned out he's another Brit and has been living here for several years. He came for a holiday and "forgot" to go home.

The bus ride home was more twisty and turny than Blackadder's most devious twisty turny thing. Lots of roads were closed and I had the impression the driver was making it up as he went along. It took even longer than the journey to get there and would almost have been quicker to walk.

On Sunday I tried Sueño Porteño at Boedo Tango. I've only been there on a Wednesday before, when it is always very busy. I wasn't sure what the numbers would be like because of the bicentennial celebrations and because of the torrential rain that started at about 6pm. I don't know all the locations in the city where there are special celebration events so decided to use el Subte (subway) instead of los colectivos (buses), figuring the journey time would be unaffected by any road closures. When I arrived a bit before 7:30pm it was only about one quarter to one third full. My friend arrived a little while later and we actually got a front row table. I guess they reached about half capacity by the time we left at midnight. By then I'd danced lots, watched an enthusiastic amateur bicentennial celebration dance by some of the regulars and sampled the Boedo Tango pizza. There are a few photos from the evening in my  milongas set at Flickr (and also a couple from the chacarera tanda at los Consagrados on Saturday).

While waiting for the bus home I got an invite by text to El Beso. The night was still young, there was still 3 hours of dancing to be had at El Beso so I went. When I arrived it was standing room only. Standing at the bar gave me much better cabeceo options than I'd had from a seat on Thursday night and I danced lots.

My first dance was with a French girl, Octavia, who arrived just a couple of days ago and is here for 6 months. I commented recently on Mari's "Proper" tango shoes post that I don't care what shoes a follower is wearing so long as we have a good dance. We danced a good tanda and afterwards I noticed that she was wearing an eye-catching pair of silver and black 4" stilettos. No, I haven't a clue whether they were CIFs or Payless. I really, really don't care. The point is they caught my eye and I watched her dance part of the first tango of the next tanda. When I'm not dancing and not trying to cabeceo someone I spend a lot of time watching the dancers' feet. Dancers will know what I mean. She had the most beautiful feet I have ever seen. Ever. Period. Dancers will know what I mean.

Anyway I stayed until closing time and rode home on the number 12 colectivo, buzzing after 2 really good nights of dancing. It feels like I've turned a bit of a corner after being here nearly 7 weeks. It feels comfortable, the crisis of confidence I had a few weeks ago a distant memory. I'm ready to learn new stuff, to improve (and maybe it will rub off on my castellano efforts too). I'm on a roll.

Faffing around

It's been a very lazy week for me so far. Monday night was Lunes de Tango at Club Gricel, Tuesday evening I did Maya's group class at Caseron Porteno, and last night tried TangoLab at Club Villa Malcolm. So it sounds like I have been busy, but I've been frittering the days away with reading blogs, daydreaming, facebooking and other non-productive stuff.

I can't spend 6 months (well, I could!) doing basically nothing; I need some more specific goals, ones to be done during the days. The 2 main reasons for being here are to dance and improve my tango, and learn Spanish. Group classes, private lessons and lots of milongas will help with the tango. The learning Spanish needs more work!

So here are some publicly stated goals for the Spanish -

1. Attend Spanglish next Thursday.
2. Publish a blog post entirely in Spanish in 1 month, 3 months and 6 months time.
3. Achieve at least an 1800 word vocabulary by October.

Another objective is to get back into a regular exercise regime. Tango is not exercise! I've made a start on this but need to do more. It's going to have to be outdoor exercise, there's not enough money in my budget to go to a gym.

Last week the weather here was great, mid 20s, sunny, blue skies - very nice indeed. The last couple of days have been a different story. Still quite warm but lots of rain - not exactly encouraging for outdoor exercise. We're back to dry today with showers possible and a forecast of 22 degrees and sunny again tomorrow. Well I am a Brit, we can't help but talk about the weather!

I've got a private lesson with Maya this afternoon and tonight I'll probably go to Nino Bien at Centro Region Leonesa.

Now, to all those folks at home (especially the non-facebook ones) who wanted to hear about my "adventures" - what have you been up to, what are your goals for the next 6 months?

1 week in

That's an exaggeration, I've not been here a week yet. But I am one (work) week into my 6 month sabbatical. Here is Buenos Aires and I've come to dance and improve my tango and learn Spanish. I might do a few other things while I'm here but tango and Spanish are the only objectives right now.

This blog will start out as a diary. It will let anyone who cares or is remotely interested in what I'm doing know what I'm doing. And in 6 months, or 6 years, or even just a few days from now, remind me what I've been doing.

So here is the story so far...

Arrived in Buenos Aires on Tuesday morning. Less than 2 hours after landing at Ezezia International airport I was in my hotel on Avenida Cordoba in the microcentro district of Buenos Aires. My reservation here was for just 6 nights. In that time I intended to find somewhere to stay for the next 6 months.

After 3 days of scuttling around I have found a room in a flat on Av. Santa Fe, opposite Jardin Botanico. I hope it's going to be OK, but if not I can always find somewhere else. I looked at about a dozen places and it's amusing to compare the reality with the descriptions. In my book a "beautiful apartment" wouldn't have paint flaking off the walls, or electrical sockets hanging out the wall on the cable, or a white bath that was actually last white a decade or more ago. I could have looked at more places but really couldn't be bothered. It's surprising how much effort there is in arranging appointments to view places with people who don't share the same sense of urgency or purpose. Anyway it's sorted now and I'll move in on Monday morning.

The only glitch so far was being pickpocketed on Thursday afternoon. I'm almost certain it happened on the subway, on linea C between the 9 de Julio and Av. de Mayo stops. The carriage was jam packed full of people. Among those squeezing their way in at 9 de Julio were 2 local girls, probably in their mid-twenties (but I'm rubbish at estimating peoples' ages correctly). As the train lurched out of the station one of them fell against me. She wouldn't have fallen over, there was no room for that, but I caught her hand and she held on to mine until the next stop. Both girls got off at Av. de Mayo. About 2-3 hours later I found I had no wallet. Now I might have dropped it, or it might have been stolen somewhere else, but it was in a zipped pocket and I'm pretty sure the girl on the train pinched it. Next time I see someone falling over I'll leave them to it! I lost a tatty wallet, a debit card and a couple of hundred pesos cash, and (I thought) my UK SIM card. It turned out I didn't actually lose the SIM card but I didn't know that until after I'd spent an hour on the phone to O2 (thank goodness for Skype) trying to sort it out. I'm sure most pond life is more clued up than the "customer services" numpties I spoke to. At least stopping the debit card was a painless experience.I tried reporting the theft to Tourist Police. They said I'd have to report it to the subway police at Boedo station. Since I won't be making an insurance claim I think I'll pass on the aggravation of that one!

My reward for having sorted out some accommodation is to go and tango. I planned to go to La Ideal last night since it's only a 10 minute walk from my hotel, but after eating a ridiculously cheap pizza (pizza and soft drink for $17 (that's Argentinian pesos, not US dollars) - about 3 quid) I decided to leave it until tonight.

So I'm about to set off to Los Consagrados at Centro Region Leonesa. Hopefully I'll meet some friends from my previous visit to Buenos Aires, and dance some tandas and munch a few empanadas. It's an early milonga, finishing at 22:00 so I might go on somewhere else afterwards.