Dia 36, Spanish Breakthrough? 22 de julio

Well…today I woke up much happier. No headache, not too tired, and just feeling good. I went to Spanish class today and it turned out being a great Spanish class. We covered a lot of stuff, and she gave us a lot of time to just ask her about our various Spanish questions over little things that never really have an entire class dedicated to them, like saying certain phrases and what not. It was such a wonderful class and I feel like I learned a lot in it. I know Thomas felt the same way (he asked a lot of questions) and it feels so good to understand more and learn all these things we never really knew before, even though a lot of it seemed basic.

After class, Thomas, Adam and I went to… Burger King! Yes, I know, why on earth would we go to an American fast food restaurant? Well, for starters, when our class gets out, around 4:00, Buenos Aires starts what is called merienda. It’s basically a time in the day when none of the restaurants serve food food. Some of them have medialunas but most just have drinks. And when you are hungry after class (which we almost always are!), even Burger King looks good. Plus, Derek had told me that BK was so much better here than in the states, so we thought, “Why not?” And…Derek was right. It was so delicious. I guess it’s because of beef is more fresh or something…or maybe because I was so hungry, but it was a pretty good meal. Then we just sat there and talked for almost two hours about…well, a lot of stuff. It was a good hangout time for the three of us to just talk about things we’ve learned here, people we’ve met, what we’re really missing about home, etc.

Afterwards, I went home and started writing my politics paper (the idea of writing it just makes me angry so that’s as much as I’ll say about it at the moment). Alex texted me and told me what milonga they were going to tonight and Bridget agreed to go with me. I tried taking a nap, seeing as how most of the time when I go to milongas we stay out all night, but I just wasn’t tired enough, so it was back to the politics writing. Sigh. I wrote two pages though (which I was really proud of myself for, even though they are Terrible, and I mean terrible).

Around eleven I finally met up with Bridget and we took a bus to San Telmo to go to the milonga. It was another really neat little place, not fancy or anything like that. Meghan and Derek were there, along with their friend Greggory who had flown in that morning. There was a live band at this milonga which I loved! It made me want to play the accordion! There was a singer as well, and everything the band did was just so intense and passionate. Every musician was completely in tune with their instrument and with each other. The singer sang with such emotion that, even though I had no idea what he was singing, I felt it. I just got sucked into watching and listening to the band at one point that I forgot there were people dancing…it was that wonderful.

The place closed at two and half the group was going on to La Viruta, which is their milonga of choice because it’s free to get into after two. Alex, Bridget and I decided to go on home. It was so cold outside (I know, those of you in Oklahoma are like “COLD?!” but it was in the low 40s and so I was almost freezing!) and I was so glad to finally be home in my nice warm bed! =)

Well, look at that, a short update! =) Oh, but there will be more to come soon! Chao for now!