simon´s shoes

he wanted to see them, so here they come!

Gardel ladies

Yes, Maria confirmed that the custom is to throw all good old papers and not needed documents out in the streets the last day of the year. People even collect things they know they can throw away on that particular day! So the streets are white and the cleaners hope for no rain...

Went to the cementery of Chacarita, where the famous tango singer Carlos Gardel is buried. A wonderful calm awaited me there. I like cementeries! To escape from the chaos in the city. And I had this nice, really nice talk with an older lady that came to "my" bench to have her Sunday chat with a foreigner. That is the best, meeting Argentinians and asking them stuff about life here.

Wishing you all a Happy New Year and myself a couple of comments on this blog! :)

more

my new favourite teachers. they re cool

loads of paper in the street. will ask maria what it is for. heard on the bus: something like "cleaning the old year out" custom. weird?

a house in la boca. the most touristic part o town!

by the way: my new favourt restaurant in the world: artemisia. veggie and fish. situated cabrera/a de figueroa. go there.

Vos, de donde sos?

That is the most usual question you will get her. And you, were are you from? I even got it over the phone, when I answered at Maria´s.... Why did he want to know that? He called from a phone company... What you see here are fotos from San Telmo, a changing room in the middle of the street. And then the fotos from Christmas Nochebuena! First 4 of the 10 girls that came to say hello the first thing when I came in through the door. Hola, and kiss on every cheek. Then a foto of Cecilia, that was the host (well, in the house of her brother Guillermo´s and his wife´s). And of the great grand mother that is 94 years old... Still going strong and as happy as the girls for her Christmas presents! And of te earound 25 people kissing each other a Merry Christmas at midnight, just before opening the presents. And of me in the school tango brujo (bewitched tango?) class. Before it started today.

Oh, home is getting closer. I actually, believe it or not, feel like changing my quite monotonous days of shopping, restaurants, dancing, staying out late, sleeping til late, for something more cosy and personal... But do not want to change the weather to the one that is waiting for me in Malmo!!!!!

Hello everyone. A bit chillier here, around 15 degrees in the night!

Some new pictures. Cinthya came knocking on the door one day. It showed we live close here as well as we did an Malmo. Around the corner!

And then I went to see Maria's frame shop. We also went to the Comme il Faut shoe shop and to her surprise, Maria saw one of her frames around a huge shoe there! She remembers thinking that she was doing the frame to somebody who was as crazy for shoes as she is (she did not know it was for this in the tango world very famous shop). Maria has around 100 pairs of shoes in different colours at home. I have seen them myself...

and a picture of me in from of the museum of bellas artes.

and of me and Anibal, that I met with Sofia in Stockholm i november!

And of my new Delie favourites. :)

and of me and Malin sunbathing on the terrace...

Miss you all

SHOES

I bought shoes for myself!!!!! And for my borhter and his wife!!!! Have to go home and take some pictures, so that you can see the beautiful ones.

left: teacher pablo inza, right: canadian jean-pierre

nice resto

my new infinit glasses... gorgeous, huh?

an old famous cafe. tortoni

sweetcorn mix in sweetcorn

Want to tell you some funny stories again. My fellow dancer Sebastian told me that he can be here for three months and then he can renew his visa. After six months he has to get out of the country and come back again. But he was also told by the office that he could also just get back after six months and then receive an argentinan citizenship! Which means it takes six months to become a citizen in this country. And I also found out that my hosts friends, who most of them are jews, also celebrate the holidays for christmas! My host to be, Luba (where Simon stayed last year) is also Jewish, but she left (and that is why I got another host) to celebrate Christmas in Europe!

And in big crossings there are policemen telling people how to drive. I heard one tell a driver "and do not forget to put the blinkers (?) on when you are turning left!"...

And f you call from a public phone it is always partly a collect calle. Which means that when I called Sebastian and we were just about to decide where and wen to meet, the conversation was over, cause apparently my call finished Sebastian´s card. Not very practical, is it?

Hasta luego. and write more!

AH, so a few days have passed since I came. I am getting used to the Argentinian city bus that sounds like 10 Swedish buses passing at the same time. I am also getting used to the noise and the BENOS aires from the traffic... And to getting lost more or less all the time. The tango map is strange cause it is uspide down compared to the one that shows how the buses go! And then all streets are in quadratic blocks, like in New York, so it should basically be impossible to get lost. But yesterday, when I was looking for the three tango shoe shops that are in the same area, I managed to get lost three times... My feet are not in the best condition, as you may understand, after getting lost and after dancing until 4 in the morning. So today I took my trainers to go to the private class for the second time. But my fellow partner didn't come! He showed up 20 minutes late and he had been just across the street, eating, and had got confused with his and the waiters watch/time... Funny, these Canadians. And their accent in French. Instead of understanding a hundred, 100, "cent", I understand "seins" (breasts).... :) Which can be very funny in a conversation.
Also I got invited to a dinner with my host lady. She came home by taxi, while being in the restaurant (!) and invited me saying: I am having dinner right noow wanna come?... And I had the huuugest FLAN ever. Ate half of it. My flatmate the american brought her half back in a doggy bag!
Danced later yesterday night with a Belgian guy called Bart with a moustache going backwards. Imagine. Some good dances there. Out now to see if there is some Tango fashin shops in the neighbourhood, cause it said so on the tango map.

Hasta later

I am here!

Try the Serbocroatian pronunciation...
door to the bathroom
the kitchen "schrank"
the living room

Meeting with friends at Madrid airport, Biba and Sol

Just had a long morning chat with Maria, the woman who lives in the apartment in Palermo Viejo, the bohemian part of Buenos Aires, that I am renting a room in. What a woman, and what stories she has to tell (and she tells them as well)! And what an apartment (she is an architect and she has done remarkable things to this flat without changing the feeling of its 100 ears of age)! She lives her with two of her three daughters. Now she is upstairs at the terrace, watering all the plants she has grown there for years. Wondering how they manage to stay alive in this sun and heat. Well, it is around 25-30 degrees so it is quite ok both for tango and for shopping. I can inform you I have done bot since I arrived. Dancing outside yesterday evening was nice. Went to a private party with one of my fellow tangueras from the class, which was nice. The first day I slept the whole evening and missed the Friday dance... Taking classes for Swiss, Argentinian and Swedish (!) young teachers has been ok but nothing "halucinante" (tremendusly special). Still I got to know some people and will be the help dancer of a Canadian man who will take three classes with one of the best, and most expensive Argentinians at the moment. And I will accopany him.. for free! :) The plan for today is to check out the area a bit more, maybe to take a class, but most importantly, to go to the milonga of Sunday nights - el beso!