At 930ish we arrived at this building, where inside there were people tangoing, and having tango class. I was like cool! This looks great: small group instruction, lots of space, great! Was that where we were going? Of course not! We were taken downstairs where there was a large room that also was a restaurant. There were people already dancing and we wondered if we actually were going to have a lesson or if we were supposed to learn by imitation (I am not a visual learner, but an audio learner in most cases, so odds were not looking good). However, shortly after sitting, the music stopped and a circle of people was formed (like at a normal school dance or whatever but much larger).
The "host" welcomed everyone and introduced the "teachers." Then he started pulling people from the audience to come into the center of the circle by themselves and "disco" (pretty much how people dance in the US) with one of the teachers. "Please don't pick me!" As many of you know, I am not a huge fan of dances. Luckily, I was not picked, but those that were got a free drink from the bar. After a little while of this we started our tango class. Most everyone from our group went to the beginners section where we learned the basic step and then practiced a little. At first the guy I was dancing with ran me into a few people (not a great leader in dance at the beginning) but eventually we got the hang of it. Unfortunately, after one song we switched partners and I didn't get asked to dance the rest of the night (per usual there were more women than men) :-( However, I hung out and got to know some of the other girls on my program which was fun, and then Christa and I left early (at midnight) because we were exhausted from everything we did yesterday (see prior post)
Today we had a photo/trivia scavenger hunt around the city. We were told where to go: Plaza de San Martin, Chinatown, Plaza de Mayo, the government building where we needed to pick up our VISAs, and finally to a pizzeria. I was in a pretty fun group of 9 and although some people were not so happy about walking some places and having a long day, I was having a blast. On the first subway ride to San Martin, we met an older man who told us he worked near the monument we were looking for, and would take us there. I spent most of the twenty minute walk (it probably would have been about 5 had we been on our own) talking to this man in Spanish about his daughter who I guess went to Macchu Pichu (spelling?) and about how some roads in Argentina are closed but opened to delivery trucks, and all other random topics. This was probably the highlight of my day because its not every day that you meet someone on the street who tells you all about their life and are so willing to help. This man told me this: "I am not Porteño (from Buenos Aires) but I am nice ('amable')." Close to where the monument we were supposed to be seeing was a beautiful statue and I guess a church:
After this it was time for a siesta because not only could I not keep my eyes open but my body was sore from how much walking we do here. When I woke up I went with my host parents and their granddaughter (my host niece or cousin?) and walked around the park close to here.
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