After a couple of weeks here in BA, I made a major breakthrough last weekend. Meeting people without speaking spanish has been hard to say the least. Bu thanks to my cousin Natascha, I was introduced to my new friend Sofi last week. Sofi meet Nataschas in China last fall while she was traveling through Asia. Natascha was gracious enough to introduce me to Sofi here in BA and last Thursday night I found myself having dinner with Sofi. Dinner starts late here in Buenos Aires. Sofi and I didn't meet up until 10pm. A social date like ours is probably more impressive than a romantic date back in the states (guys reading this, you may want to take a hint...). Meals last about 2 to 3 hours and then are followed by ice cream (at least my two social dates have followed this plan). Next thing you know you are going to a bar and getting home at 3pm. And everyone, read EVERYONE, is out at this hour. They never sleep here. Its crazy. You would think they'd have a big coffee culture, but from what I've seen they don't guzzle the black stuff nearly as much as we do in the States.So I spent last Thursday night practicing my Spanish with Sofi and getting the low down on the local customs and how things really get done in BA. Before I knew it I had been invited to spend the weekend with Sofi and her friends at their country house in Pilar ( a town about 45 minutes outside BA).
The weekend was out of this world. Los portenos (the local city residents) really know how to relax. We arrived around 1pm on Saturday afternoon and for the next 18 hours we did nothing but relax, eat and drink. It was quite a change for me to sit around and literally do nothing but talk and relax. I can't remember the last time I've done something like that. And because the culture focuses on social interactions, people came and went all weekend. Everyone just stops by and chats, has a smoke, maybe a drink or two and then moves on. As you can see in my photo album, the weather was beautiful and we were all very relaxed.
As if having the pleasure of some new friends company wasn't enough, I really got luck this weekend when I found out I was going to get to attend an "asado". An "asado" is a traditional Argentinian BBQ and to say the least it is something that is not to be missed. As the 2008 Lonely Planet Argentina guide notes: "Here the art of grilling is perfected. This usually involves cooking with coals and using only salt to prepare the meat. On the grill itself, which is often waist high and made of bricks, slanted runners funnel the excess fat to the sides to avoid flare-ups, and an adjustable height system directs the perfect amount of heat to the meat." I've included some pictures of the meat and grill in my album so you can get an idea of how things are done down here.
Needless to say it was awesome! I have never had such good meat. And it was cooked perfectly. The asador focuses on one thing during the even - cooking the meat. As our asador told me, you can only do one thing well at a time. Did I mention that I got to go to two asado's last weekend? No? Well I did. The first was for a birthday party, that started around 10 pm on Saturday night. Because everything is done from scratch, the coals are created from burnt wood. This takes about 45 minutes and the grilling that follows takes another 30 to 60 minutes. As you can imagine, we didn't eat until well after midnight.
When the meal is finally served, the custom is applaud the asador. His applause was well deserved on this night. Amazing meat - with only salt as a seasoning the flavor of the meat is very strong and the meat down here tastes amazing. After a great meal the party really got going and before I knew it, it was 4pm. Despite the early end to the evening it was a great night. And guess what, later that afternoon, we had another asado! My lord, I hadn't had this much meat in a 24 hour period in I don't know when!
And whereas we might use Sunday as a day to prepare for our coming work day on Monday, los portenos have mastered the art of relaxing. A friend of mine once said, "don't treat your Sunday's like Monday's" and the people down here certainly take that to heart. Sunday followed the same script as Saturday: sitting around, smoking, drinking and generally relaxing. By the time I got home at midnight on Sunday I was exhausted from all the relaxing - go figure!
All in all a great weekend and what I had been hoping for when I planned this trip.
High level updates:
Learning spanish continues slowly - I learned the past tense today which is huge - imagine trying to communicate with people only in the present tense - very hard to do.
Started Karate at a local school on Monday - the school practices the same style I practice back home but with its own variation. I had hoped to use this as a way to practice spanish while doing something I love, but imagine my surprise when I discovered much of the class is taught in Japanese! I'll see how long that lasts....
Making new Argentinian friends now, thanks to a weekly group I've joined that allows me to practice Spanish with a local who is practicing English.
Weather is still very hot. Was 100 last Saturday. For all of you in Boston, you need to come down here and escape all that snow.
I'll close with a link to this video I watched last week. Found it on a blog posting of Tim Ferris, the author of "The Four Hour Work Week". Had just come back from class and was very frustrated with my progress and came across this video. Turned me right around and helped me realized things take time and to be thankful for many many things.
Chau!
AJL
