Maria

Maria is my new flat mate from Brazil (seriously, can I make friends with people who AREN'T from Brazil?!) and naturally, she speaks Portuguese. She also speaks pretty good Spanish, because its close to her language. English, she speaks VERY little. It's very fun trying to have a conversation and I believe I have crossed another thing off my bucket list: lingua franca.
Speaking in Spanish is the only way I can really communicate with Maria (with the exception of those conversations that involve sentences that are one English word long, and a lot of pointing) but I think this counts! She is teaching me a lot more Spanish too which is very helpful.

Yesterday Maria and I made plans to have the cheapest dinner possible and then go to see the free tango show that was in the streets of Plaza Dorrego.

I ordered everything in Spanish (with a little more pointing this time..) but had a bit of a mix up with the beverage order. Water (agua) comes in two forms. Sparkling (con gas) and still (sin gas). For one thing, I wasn't paying attention when the waiter asked which one i would like. And when I heard "sin gas" I thought he was saying "si, glass?", as in "yes, you want a glass?" So I said "no, no!" Thinking of bottled water instead. So I got soda water because I said "no, no" to sin gas. That sucked because not only did it cost an extra 15 pesos, but I KNOW better! I was just concentrating on talking with Maria instead of my order. Anyway, Maria beat me to it when it came to asking for the bill. She didn't realise that I had that one down pat! (But probably didn't have much confidence in me after the "sin gas agua" incident.)

After dinner, we walked to Plaza Dorrego (for my second time that day, as i spent the better half of the day at the markets that dwell there of a Sunday) and found that the entire plaza was one big boozy orgy out in the open. Teenagers and hippies alike swarmed the place that i thought of so fondly until now. There was definitely marijuana and potentially other drugs, a LOT of alcohol and broken glass and a whole lot of baby-making (or otherwise) on the side of the road. Maria was pretty keen for this tango show and was asking a lot of questions and received a lot of "baked" answers. I was not the most comfortable I have ever been, but felt safe with the charismatic Maria. We were eventually told (by a questionable source all the same) that the tango is on every night, except for tonight. And we didn't need an excuse to hang around after that so headed back home.

Today, we ventured to the colourful streets of La Boca. (First time on a South American public bus!) We took photos of every brightly coloured building, went to a local market, managed to throw off the local weirdos trying to perform for money, bartered for cheaper items and even went to the famous futbol stadium, "BOCA". I don't care for sport of any kind, really. But Maria was keen to see what all the fuss is about, as she sees this stadium on TV all the time in Brazil. The museum and field tickets were only $10 so I went along with her anyway. The stadium was really nothing to brag about. It was very small. (I mean, I don't spend a lot of time in stadiums, but it's about a 10th of Stadium Australia's size.) I didn't recognise any "famous" faces in the hall of fame and I certainly didn't want to spend 100+ pesos having my photo taken on the field with some trophy that's supposed to be a big deal.

Anyway, we made our way back into the main part of town (by bus) and managed to have lunch at a fancy restaurant (food was a gag though!) and dessert at an amazing little cafe on Avenida De Mayo. Today I learned how to ask the waitress which flavours of icecream they have.
("¿Cuales sabor de helados tiennes¿" incase you were wondering. )
We each had chocolate and lemon yummmm. There's just something about ice cream in Argentina.

We walked and walked to the other side of town. I thought we were just walking for the sake of it, but apparently we were going to see a tango show! We paid US$30 each for front row seats of a theatre that was attached to this "la-de-dar" shopping center. And the show was SO good! It was 4pairs of dancers in art-deco attire, a guy singing in between costume changes and the music behind it all was this ADORABLE 4 piece band. All old men with so much age and character behind their eyes. Grand piano, double bass, accordion and violin was the highlight. I could take these guys home and just watch them (and listen of course) the whole time. I know we went to see the tango dancing, but these men really were the highlight of the show. And at the end of the performance, the musicians each got a standing ovation. (The guy on accordion was my fav. Aw, maybe a close call with the violin man!)

It was about 9:30pm by the time the show finished (dinner time!) and I was ready to eat then and there. But we made our way back to the hostel and I ended up waiting a further THREE hours for Maria to be ready for dinner. Eventually we head out (and I am quite grumpy and hungry at this stage, being MIDNIGHT and all... Not to mention exhausted from the massive day of adventuring and walking every which way..) and we happen to bump into one of Maria's friends she met at the hostel, who doesn't speak English at all. This was all very nice. But I was HUNGRY. Let's walk and talk, people!

The whole dinner, I am shoved to the side because Maria can finally speak fast Spanish to someone without having to make sure that she's being understood. She even pointed to me, said something under her breath and they both laughed. When I asked what they were speaking about, they both shrugged and said "nada". And this went on Until about 1:30 when I finally finished eating.

Pretty annoyed by this whole situation of exhaustion, hunger, feeling completely isolated and ganged up on.. and patience coming to an end. After my meal, I just got up and left, paid my bill and said "see you back at the hostel."

Pretty amazed that I did that because normally I am such a tolerable person. But when a girl's gotta eat...

Don't make me wait 3 hours, just to be ditched.

On a happier note, please enjoy the (iPhone) photos from today. I always manage to leave my camera at home on the great photo-op days. Hopefully these will do the experience justice.