After those first two long days, I dived into a week of Spanish and Tango immersion classes through a school called COINED. I´d found it online, and it appealed to me because they offered the combination of Spanish and Tango. I thought it would be a good place to get started, get grounded, learn some Spanish, and get a little intro into Tango before I switch over to Salsa.
So this week started off with waking up on Monday around 6. Still jet-lagged, so I´d been up until midnight. Did a super quick email check and Facebook post, then got ready to leave for my first day of classes. When I went downstairs, I was met by an unfamiliar face. Another doorman, or portero. He had the note I had written about a taxi the previous night, but insisted on waving one down. So I didn´t know if somebody else had called a taxi for me, and it was scheduled to arrive soon, or not. Didn´t really matter though.
When I got into the taxi, I couldn´t find a seat belt and the driver explained that I´d have to walk a few blocks to the school. At first I doubted my understanding, but it turned out I did understand! It was interesting driving out of Palermo and into another part of Buenos Aires. I could see that I´m living in a very nice area, as the street is lined with trees and there are parks nearby. It was also exciting to be going to my first day of classes. Just before arriving, we were almost side-swiped by another car and the fare was more than I´d been told it would be. It still wasn´t much, but since it wasn´t what I thought it´d be, I used this as an opportunity to practice asserting myself if any suspicion of getting ripped off. But after briefly trying to explain in Spanish what I had been told, I just paid him what he asked for. No big deal. And I´d take the subway home.
The main street he stopped at (Diagonal Norte) was big and dirty and full of cars, the sidewalks wide and full of pedestrians and, like most big cities. I didn´t see the street sign for Suipacha, and even though the taxi driver pointed down a street, I wanted to make sure, so I asked a woman on the street who didn´t know ,and then I asked a store clerk, and she pointed, indiciating I was already about to cross the correct street. I got to the other side and saw the sign. I really appreciated how the street signs had numbers with arrows, so you know which way to go for ascending numbers or descending numbers. Suipacha and the other smaller streets had pretty narrow sidewalks, especially compared to the main streets. The school was very easy to find, just a few blocks away from the main road, in Palacio San Miguel, an old building with a an Asian doorman, who always smiles and says hello. Seems these porteros are everywhere here.
There were marble steps leading up to where this portero sits, and then two flights of wooden steps get you to COINED. There´s a waiting area, an office, and then a long corridor with many doors leading into small classrooms, plus one break room with computers and water and coffee and tea and an outdoor patio. There was also a staircase going up to another level of the school.
It was like a zoo and a sauna in there, and continued to be that way throughout the entire day. This morning´s arrival time was 8 a.m. for a placement exam. The exam was harder than I had expected, and I sort of wished I had studied a little, but I also knew it would be fine to be placed in the most elementary beginners´class, so I didn´t sweat it too much. Although, I was sweating plenty from the heat!
After the test, we were told to wait about an hour to find out what our schedule was. I went online to find some Spanish grammar charts, and then found a relatively quiet place to study a little of what I hadn´t understood on the test, since I had been advised to take Level 1, part B, instead of part A, despite totally messing up on some very basic grammar. The examiner and I had talked about the likelihood of some of my old Spanish coming back to me. Plus, she said I could talk to the director about switing to another class if I were to get placed in one that was too challenging.
When I got my schedule, it turned out that I wouldn´t have Spanish class until 2 p.m, and Tango wouldn´t begin until the next day, Tuesday. I found a very helpful employee who explained where I could get the subway back home, since there was nowhere quiet nearby, and the noise was getting to me along with the heat, and she said it would only take about half an hour. And she was right!
So I got to try out the subway for the first time, and it was super easy! 5 minutes walk to the subway, 10 minute ride, and 15-20 minutes walk around the zoo to Ingrid´s apartment! And on the walk home, I finally saw all the dog poop all over the sidewalks, and a couple of different dog-walkers with a dozen or more dogs. I had read about this the other day, so was excited to see it! :)
When I got home, I walked in the door, got out of my sweaty cloths, turned on the air conditioner, and practiced Kuan Yin Standing Qigong. It was only 11:30 a.m. and I was already exhausted with 4 hours of class to attend in the afternoon. Luckily the qigong helped a bit. I ate some lunch, rested on the couch for a little while, and then hit the road again. And on my walk back to the subway a couple of hours later, I took a slightly shorter route and made a game out of hopping around the sidewalk, weaving in and out of other pedestrians and avoiding stepping in dog poop! ;)
I arrived at school with 15 mintues to spare and having learned the importance of looking extra carefully when crossing the street, as sometimes motorcycles come out of nowhere. It was still noisy and hot in the school. Seemed like everybody was speaking Spanish. Soon I discovered that a lot of what I was hearing was Portuguese.
My class consisted of 7 students and one teacher, Veronica. We sat in a small room with 8 blue plastic chairs around a rectuangular wood (or fake wood) table. There was a white board behind Veronica, air conditioner, opposite from the doors there were big windows that opened to a view of another concrete building. I sat with my back to the windows, almost at the other end of the table from the teacher. The other 6 students were all from Brazil! Very nice. Also very talkative!
We started off introducing ourselves. My introduction was very basic. As the other students introduced themselves, I felt so unsure that I was in the right class, since they understood all of Veronica´s questions (many of which I didn´t understand), and they had much more to say than I did. So it seemed to me that I was much more of a beginner than the others. I was trying not to stress or feel bad, as I knew I could switch during break. But then we got our books (which felt like security for me), and the exercises were definitely the right level for me. So I figured that I must be in the right place. I did talk to the teacher about my concerns and she said it´s normal to not understand or speak as well as reading comprehension and writing, and also that it´s easier for the Brazilians because of the similarities.
As the class progressed, I felt better and better about being placed in the right level class. Some Spanish was coming back to me. Plus, I could see that we were pretty much starting with the basics. All of us students were most surprised to learn that in Argentina, ¨ll¨ and ¨y¨ are pronounced ¨sh,¨ instead of ¨y¨ (so llama is pronounced shama, and yo is pronounced sho, and ella is pronounced esha). This became a source of laughter for us as the afternoon went on, as we each would forget and then remember, and remember and then forget. But by the end of the 4 hours, we mostly remembered.
At the end of class, we re-introduced ourselves in Spanish. We had done it at the beginning of class, and it was cool to see that already I was improving with my confidence and grammar and remembering more vocabulary. Hooray for the first day of Spanish!
The subway home was packed! Like nothing I´ve ever experienced. Glad I had zippered pockets and just one plastic bag with some stuff in it. I hung out near the doors and counted stops, but, man, I am so glad I am not clausterphobic. I can see now that this is definitely a shower-at-the-end-of-the-day kind of place, especially if I´m going to be riding the subway at rush hour. All those sweaty, sticky bodies…… I was craving a cold bath, yes, cold, but didn´t want to bathe in other people´s (and the city´s) filth, so I just showered when I got home. Ate some granola. Watched some tv en espanol(, and now here I am writing about today! Still have some homework, so will end my night with that, or wait til the morning.
Tomorrow, I´ll have my first tango lesson from 11-1, and my 2nd Spanish lesson from 2 to 6. After class, I might join a school-organized outing for a Milonga. I´m also considering switching from Tango to Salsa, and just getting a little taste of tango at Milongas rather than at school, but I do want to see how I feel after the first lesson. Surely I´ll focus on salsa starting next week if not this week though, as it´s a more versatile dance. Plus, already know I like it. I also know that Adrian is ¨waiting for me to catch up¨ so we can have more fun dancing together during the rest of the trip.
I´m also considering posting shorter entries. It´s just really time consuming to type up and then edit down my journal ramblings! So we´ll see....
More coming soon!
© 2011 Rebecca Clio Gould. All rights reserved.
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