The Traveller, part 2 (Day 1 continued, and Day 2 completed)

Another note posted on Facebook last night:

As I sit down to post this continuation of Day 1 and Day 2, it´s the end of Day 5! The voices in my head are speaking partly in English but with an Argentine accent, and partly just in Spanish. I don´t know what those Spanish voices are saying half the time, but at least it´s not Hungarian! More on that below.... And this is a long one, folks!



So, where did I leave off? Oh, yes, with going out for a walk. Well, I forgot to mention that first I watched Stepmom, while lying in bed, with Spanish subtitles (I can justify watching t.v. if it´s a learning experience! ;)) I also cut up my Lonely Planet South America guidebook, so I can travel a little lighter after getting rid of the parts I won´t need. Cried a little, thanks to that sappy movie, and the relief and joy of being here, and then I did some yoga. Oh, and then my first shower. This is significant, because I was anticipating weak water pressure, but to my pleasant surprise, the water pressure was awesome! And this is very important for hair like mine. :)



So then, out for the walk. On my way out, I met another doorman. He talked my ear off, despite the fact that I told him repeatedly that I didn´t understand. It turned out that I actually did understand the gist of everything he was saying (stuff about the keys, and garbage, and what happens of somebody comes to see me), but he sure did have a lot to say about it all! He also didn´t seem to understand even my most basic Spanish, and on Monday I found out that was partially because pronunciation in Argentina has some big differences from proununcation in other Spanish speaking countries. The biggest differences are that the double ¨L¨and the ¨Y¨do not have the ¨y¨sound, but an ¨sh¨sound. Shocking! Even the Brazilians in my class (it´s me and 6 Brazilians) were shocked and keep forgetting! More on my classes and classmates the next time I write...



As mentioned previously, there was a big racing event down the street, and I walked around the perimeter of the zoo. I knew the markets wouldn´t be open on New Year´s Day, but was keeping my eye out for a resaturant. I found one called Nuche. It looked clean and fresh, and relatively full but not crowded. Upon entering, there´s a big display of desserts. It was nice to not even feel tempted; I just wanted some real food, some healthy food, some salad and some sort of protein. I hadn´t brought my phrasebook, so I was racking my brain for how to ask for a table, but I observed that someone else just sat down without being seated, so I did the same. There were many wooden tables with wooden chairs, and there was a bench along the wall with tables as well. I went to the back of the place and sat on the bench, figuring it was the best spot to take in the view of the entire place.



It was nice to just hear Spanish all around me! Sitting in that restaurant, I really felt as though I had arrived. Although I often had to remind myself that I wasn´t in Budapest. Ya see, I was married to a Hungarian, back in the day. ;) Yes, it´s true. And I studied Hungarian 2001 to 2005. I studied Spanish 1995-1997. SO, when I´m in any non-English speaking place, I tend to retrieve Hungarian, rather than Spanish, words when searching for the way to say something in another language. Erted? (That´s Hungarian for ¨Understand?) (Luckily, by now, by Day 5, I´m thinking more and more in Spanish, but still do have an occasional Hungarian word pop up. Like, today I kept saying ¨jo¨for ¨good¨/¨ok¨instead of ¨bueno¨or ¨bien.¨I bet within another week or so that won´t be happening. But back to the restaurant!



When the waiter came to my table, I told him that I only speak a little Spanish and asked if he spoke English. He did just a little. I ordered a salad, and asked him a little about some of the items in it. He either translated wrong, or placed the wrong order! It was a nice surprise though to have a salad with avocado, walnuts, and sesame seeds! At some point I met Javier, another waiter who was nice enough to give me some Spanish lessons after I told him in very poor Spanish and some English that today was my first day and I was starting classes on Monday. He taught me that I can say ¨Mi nombre es Rebecca.¨instead of ¨Me llamo es Rebecca.¨ Of course I´d been saying ¨llamo¨ with a ¨y¨ instead of a ¨sh¨ so maybe this was his way of correcting me without explaining? I don´t know. He asked me some questions and helped me with the answers too. Much more friendly than my original waiter, who never checked up on me after taking my order.



My lesson for that part of my day was to take my tiny phrase book with me when going out, and also to look up some translations online before going out. And to read up on customs, such as tipping. Turns out I had guessed right about not needing to tip the taxi driver (but can), and leaving a 10% tip at restaurants. Lucky guesses.



I also learned how to unlock the apartment door! Little did I know that there´s a technique! When I returned home, I couldn´t figure out why I could not get the door to open, as I was able to lock it without any problems. The doorman came up to help me, and showed me that I must pull the door a little as I´m unlocking it. Phew! Easy.



Got in bed around 8 to read and started falling asleep.Thought about getting up to do some qigong or dance, or maybe just watch another movie or meditate. I don´t remember now what I did, proably a combo, but I did write in my journal ¨ah, LIFE IS GOOD!¨



And although the plan for the next day was to go to the school, just a practice run, I decided against it.

Here´s a slightly edited version of what i wrote that day, Sunday, Day 2, with a few current additions:



DAY 2:

It´s 9:30. I slept almost 12 hours. And the majority of it was restful and deep. And I´ve decided that I´m going to write at least one page every day of this trip, even if just little notes to jog my memory later!

I love Ingrid´s place. And I can´t believe that her dvd collection just happens to include preg massage and myofascial release, both of which I´d been thinking about exploring when I return home! Now I get to take a sneak peak here! Feeling tempted to just retreat here after the first week of classes, but surely I´ll want to go explore after I land a bit more.

I keep reminding myself to take it moment by moment, day by day. There is nothing I have to do, or not do. I have plenty of time to make decisions and plan stuff out. I also feel I need a short break from planning and to just simply BE. Plus, I´ll probably be so busy this week with classes that I´ll mostly just be studying.



What I´m envisioning though, is that after this 1st week of daily commuting, I will stay in Buenos Aires all week. Probably meet Forgiven (a friend of dance community friends) and Diana (a friend of Ingrid). I will find out about private Spanish and Salsa lessons, probably start taking some private lessons with Patricio (Barbara´s friend suggested him, and we emailed a bit already). I will look into this thing that´s like speed dating but to practice Spanish! I will set up a massage for the week after my lessons and for my last week here. I will call the Americans Ingrid mentioned I could call if I ¨want some American contacts,¨ UNLESS I don´t want to! :) I will check out Barbara´s suggestions on where to go dancing too. And surely more ideas will come to me as this first week progresses... Most likely I will retreat a bit more towards the end, before leaving for Ecuador, and after I´ve done all, or most of, the things I want to do here. :)

I also really want to honor doing, or not doing, whatever´s in my best interest. I wish to make my choices not from shoulds or thinking that I or others might think I didn´t make the most of my time here. Right now I´m feeling very called to stay in a lot or go to parks a lot to do yoga, qigong, meditate, read, write. Eat healthy. Self-study salsa and spanish with dvds, online, cds, books, plus some private lessons and going out dancing. Low key. And although that sounds like something that could be done anywhere and could wait til I get home from this trip, perhaps that would be my way of making the most of it! Yes. Perhaps.... That being said, there´s also plenty of places I want to see, explore, things to do, make friends, etc. So I´m envisioning a mix, a balance......Speaking of balance, time for Qigong!

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Just got back from the market! But before that, after Kuan Yin sitting Qigong, I lifted some weights, then did an hour of yoga. Love that Precision Yoga dvd that Adrian gave me! Cried a few times during it, as I pushed myself to twist or bend more, while telling myself, ¨I can, I can, I can.¨ Thought of Penny Allport, my very first Continuum teacher who is also a yoga instructor with amazing flexibility, and this woman had rods in her back! So if she could do it all with rods, I certainly can with my fused vertebrae! :)



After yoga, I was super hungry, but took a bath 1st. Very nice it was. salt and lavender. Drain worked fine, as Ingrid´s most recent note mentioned it had been fixed, but I kept checking periodically as I let the water drain just to be safe. I also tested the stove to make sure I could work it! Glad I checked, because it led me to discover that the heater flame had gone out after my bath! I tried ingrid´s instructions for relighting 3 times, but couldn´t figure it out. Emailed ingrid then went in search of market.



Found it! And one of my fave things in new places is to wander up and down each ailse of a supermarket. Made healthy choices! Did get some honey sweetened granola, but other than that, no sweets. Just veggies, lemon, lime, rice cakes, sardines, and eggs. Qunoa was $10. I gotta do the math on the exchange rate. Will probably buy some next time. Didn´t see any milk alternatives.



Came back to apartmetn and met Nero(?), another doorman. Friendly, no English though, so I went upstairs, found a free translation website, and wrote out how to ask him for help with the heater and also if he could call me a taxi for the morning or if taking the subway would be better.



Turns out the heater was easy to re-light. I had been pushing the wrong button. Actually, it wasn´t a button. That was the whole problem! And luckily I had the chance to try relighting it myself the next day. Piece of cake!



And then I burned some wild rice.And it didn´t even fully cook! I also thought I´d ruined a pot, but it ended up washing right out. And the rice was fine partially cooked, so all was good. :) Oh, that reminds me, I don´t think I mentioned this yet: I brought a whole extra bag of stuff for this time in Buenos Aires, including food (like wild rice) and some supplements and extra toiletries, etc, because I knew it would help me ease into being here, and I knew I´d be super busy this first week. And I am SO glad I brought this extra stuff. And yet I keep wishing I had brought my translator! For the first time since getting it, 8 years ago, I definitely, finally, would have used it.



Ok, that´s it. Looking forward to next time, when I´ll get a chance to write about this week of classes!



Until then....



:)

© 2011 Rebecca Clio Gould. All rights reserved.