At home in Buenos Aires

Good for Andy, updating our blog with our adventures from Europe. At the moment, my head is full of this language (I wake up to random Spanish words floating round my mind) and what is going on around here, but I look forward to doing the same! Until then, a couple of thoughts from this city ...

At dawn this morning there was a huge wind in our suburb. We are on the second story of a block of flats (in a hostel) with an open veranda outside our room. It's a bit of a low-rent area, and the structures all have temporary add-ons. The wind ripped part of the roof off our veranda, and as it was flapping and banging, parts of other buildings were shaking and vibrating amongst the rubbish that had been picked up from the streets. As a lot of people live in the streets here, I thought about how many of them would have woken up with their belongings blowing around them. It made me realise how much even small weather incidents like that one have so much more of an effect on people who live in less permanent homes than we do.

However, it seems as if many people here aren't fazed by the erratic weather and its possible effects. It´s almost as if some people are bolstering themselves up as if they are living in endless wealth, when clearly there isn't that much to go around. There are so many people going through rubbish to collect paper to sell to recycling plants, and on Friday nights they put it all in big trucks, and you can see people riding high through the streets on top of great piles in the back. It's like the crowning glory of their week! Also, many people come through the trains trying to sell things (like message cards or bracelets) by putting one on everyone's lap and then coming back and picking them up again, hoping someone will pay instead of giving them back. The other people are nice (or at least tolerant), holding onto the thing until the person comes back, and then usually giving it back with a smile. I've only seen two people buy anything in this way.

As for me and Spanish, I think I am experiencing one of the common hurdles to learning a language. It's very isolating being in a country where you don't speak the language, and branching out of the safety of your own language makes it even harder! Suddenly I am far and away the clumsiest speaker in the room, and sometimes, even when I do try, people still don't understand me.Anyway, I understand confidence is the key, and one way to that is knowledge ... so I guess I'd better get back to my books. Oh for the day that I am fluent!

hasta luego mis amigos,
Em