Friday, January 27

I,m sorry its taken so long to post again.  Ive had very little Internet access this week but am now in a locutorio - a place where you can make phone calls and get on line.

Today was the last day of school.  We have been here a week and it''s hard to believe.  Now that were in a routine we must break it tomorrow and fly off to Santiago and points south.  The newness has warn off somewhat but its still exciting to be here - a really vibrant city.

The school, owned by a Swiss, is a small one and caters mostly to Europeans..  There were about ten other students in all this week and all from Switzerland.  Argentine Spanish or Castellano as they call it has major differences from what you might have learned in school, much a result of the influence of Neapolitan Italian.  (There are as many people here of Italian descent as Spanish.)  For those of you who know Spanish, tu is never used.  Its always vos, although other forms of the familiar singular second person are used.  AND  "y" and "ll" preceding a vowel indicate a "sh" sound and not palatalization.  So a lot of words are pronounced differently here than in Mexico and other Spanish speaking countries.  I am also starting to pick up less striking differences in pronunciation and also in vocabulary.

Now that we've gotten used to this we will have to unlearn it in Chile.  Sergio, my friend here in BA, says Porteños (Buenos Aires natives) have a hard time understanding Chilean Spanish.

It's cooled off somewhat but another heat wave is expected starting Sunday.  People are complaining about the heat which has been about 10 degrees Fahrenheit above normal this summer.

Ciao, for now.  Will write more about BA as I have time and hope to get on line again in a couple of days in Punta Arenas.


Thursday, January 26

After school we had lunch with an Argentinian Antarctic scientist friend of John's.  Then Laura and I walked to La Casa Rosada where every Thursday afternoon  at 3:15 a group of mothers of the "disappeared" gathers.  A small, but moving demonstration.  You may be familiar with this history or know the U2 and Sting songs about the mothers.  A military dictatorship conducted a "dirty war" between 1976 and 1983 in which thousands of civilians died.  Before the trip I rented several Argentinian moves from Netflix including Cautiva which tells the story of a child of a couple who disappeared.  I recommend it.  (Another excellent film is El Secreto de Sus Ojos [The Secret In Their Eyes] which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film a couple of years ago.)

Wednesday, January 25

Today's extracurricular activity was a walking tour including the Museum of Decorative Arts, a stroll along embassy row, and some parks near Recoleta.

In front of the school, waiting for the tour to start.

 Museum of Decorative Arts

Tuesday, January 24

The Spanish school, located on a side street in downtown Buenos Aires, is small.  One other person, a Swiss, is in my group.  Since I will be here for only a week, I will get just a segment of a much longer basic course.  But with only two in the class it is intense.  We sit across the table from the instructor and work through a book of exercises.

Congress building (on our way to school)

Last night we ate our first dinner with our host family.  The husband and wife are both professional musicians.  He plays the cello in three groups including an orchestra.  She plays piano and flute, and plays the instruments, sings, and composes music for children's CDs.  They have two children at home, both boys, 5 and 14 years old.  A daughter is in London doing something like a junior year in high school there.

The house is a sort of town house in an urban residential neighborhood with a mix of private houses, apartment buildings and businesses of many types.  It is an old building that has retained its original features in the front and remodeled and added onto in the back.

Tonight we are going out for dinner with my friend Sergio (introduced by Professor Scott Saunders at SPSCC)