holiday week for Easter in Buenos Aires

05 Apr 2007

It is now Thursday. In England I suppose it is Maundy Thursday, but here a quiet day, shops closed or struggling to keep open in afternoon sunshine with many Argentines preparing to go away for the week. I managed to find a Locutorio Internet in Corrientes, a main thoroughfare leading from my apartment down to Obelisco. Apart from a few students, the cafe is unusually quiet.

I have taken my 7th and penultimate class for the time being with Oscar, my dance master. He leaves for Toronto on Sunday, then to Chicago to teach at a festival. Ultimately he will return, but he has planned for my time alone without his supervision. Tonight I will attend two milongas. One where I will dance with Lucia who acts as a taxi dancer. The second is a family and friends farewell party. Probably dancing until 3 or 4 in the morning. I will be seated with them, and again expected to dance. 

Starting Spanish language classes with Mabel Marcial is my next objective. I have made a start through listening to Tango radio Dos Por Quatro, and just getting about here requires some Spanish enterprise. 

The changes to my life are dramatic - being free from work and the routine life. More importantly are the small, at times imperceptible changes in outlook and values. Here, most people have very little in the way of possessions. Values are different from England. In the UK we don´t need to survive because there is no real poverty. A benefits safety net is not at all apparent here. If you don´t make it, you end up on the streets and beg for a few coins, that make the difference between eating or not. 

The other change is that friendship is taken very seriously by Argentine people, as is conversation between friends, as witnessed in Oscar´s lunch with the milongeros video.

Now off for lunch. Is it late or early at 1415 hours BsAs time?