Calm before the storm...

My classes start Tuesday, and I already have reading to do. Everyone in the program office keeps mentioning/joking (at least I hope they're joking) about how hard we're going to have to work. So this is my last weekend of not having much to do.

This monster is my text for the community health course I'm taking. Yeah, the one I thought was going to be in English... (To be fair, though, most of the pages in it are only one-sided.)

Yesterday, we spent the afternoon wandering around Palermo Viejo. It feels almost like a different city--the buildings are only a few stories high, there are tons of trees, and the streets are cobbled and relatively wide. It's an area that my host mom says has really only become trendy in the past 10 years or so. These days, it's full of small design boutiques and upscale cafes and restaurants. Papelera palermo has tons of gorgeous books, notecards, and notebooks. The leather pencil pouches and leather bound journals in particular were incredibly tempting (although a bit pricey).

As I was walking back to catch the bus to Retiro, I was surprised to notice the bulletin board of a Ukrainian Orthodox church. I guess the Ukrainian diaspora made it all the way to Argentina (ah, according to Wikipedia, Ukrainians started settling in Argentina in the 1890s, even before they started heading to Canada in large numbers). I wonder if there's anywhere I can get perogies in Palermo...

Animals on the streets of Palermo:

Tomorrow we have an outing with Viqui from the program to the centro. I think I've already walked around in some of the areas we're going to visit, but I'm looking forward to seeing San Telmo, which seems to be the main tango district in Buenos Aires.

I tried to go to a free tango lesson yesterday on the terrace at the Centro de Diseño Recoleta, but it wasn't too good--all tourists, and the lesson part was too crowded. The dancing was fun, though, at least as long as my partner wasn't running me into people. There was a bit of a show before the lesson, which was very touristy. My favorite part was watching a few older couples dance before the show got started, when some recorded music was playing. One couple in particular was quite good, and it was nice to see tango being danced socially, minus the skimpy outfits (for the woman) and elaborate leg tricks of the professional dancers.

I went to the Centro Cultural Borges earlier this afternoon to get a schedule of the classes that are going on--all sorts of theater, photography, and dance. It's only about 5 blocks from where I'm staying, so I might try to enroll in something. The CCBorges is located in Galerías Pacífico, a huge mall in Recoleta. There was a tango demonstration on calle Florida outside of the mall.

According to the guidebook, tango was invented in brothels by men waiting to visit prostitutes--the men would dance with each other. There´s no telling if anything in guidebooks is actually true (I guess I´ll find out when my theory and practice of tango course starts), but as I walked up I think the older guy was saying something about how women weren´t allowed to dance tango at first.

Incidentally, this is one of my favorite tango clips. Watch it. The dancers are absolutely amazing (see how quickly her feet move in some parts), and I love their style. Sure, there's a fair bit of her running her leg up and down his thigh, but it's a pretty understated performance for the most part. And that little movement of her foot at 1:50 is surprisingly sexy.