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Cindy's World Trip Blog

August 12, Month 3

Tango, Empanadas, The Zoo, Oh My

I have received several comments from family and friends about Richard's recent post detailing vividly what he considers his lack of dancing abilities. Don't pay any attention to what he says, he really isn't a bad dancer. He just hasn't danced much. Besides look at his dance partner - I am no one to criticize him! Give him time, put him in tight pants and he could be a newer, more handsome version of John Travolta. Haahaha.

After much anticipation of how it would go, we finally took the tango class we had talked about. We arrived on time, but breathless from hurriedly climbing all 4 flights of the stairs only to wait another 15 minutes for anyone else to arrive (we read that it is considered rude to arrive on time for events, but we didn't expect it for a class though). When the lessons began, we did a warm-up doing simple steps individually back and forth across the long, narrow dance floor. Richard struggled a little with this part, but when the couples instruction started, he did great (even being a "redwood tree on stilts stomping cockroaches").

We learned the steps from gestures intermixed with occasional English words thrown into the mix (we were the only ones in the class not fluent in Spanish). I was trying so hard to figure out what the teacher wanted us to do, in addition I was trying to remember the steps already taught, that I ended up with nervous sweats... not the quality I typically think of in a sexy tango dancer. Look at me go!

At the end of class, the female and male teacher danced together to show the class a whole song of tango. It was beautiful and inspiring to watch. I can't imagine that the basic steps we were doing has the potential to become the beautiful dance that they were doing. Impressive. Although it was challenging, we liked the class overall and have talked about going back for more lessons.

To keep the kids entertained while we did the lesson, we took books and things to do, but they enjoyed watching the dancing so much that they didn't do anything else besides watch. Hopefully, we will get to see some more tango dancing at the free preliminary competitions of the world tango festival next week. Entrance is first come first serve though. Wish us luck to get in.

Tango wasn't the only class we took recently, we also took a cooking class to learn to to make some of the yummy local food that we have enjoyed eating so much. It turns out that Richard is an excellent empanada maker. Who knew? He was making me and the other two students look bad (maybe he has a future as a pastry chef?). I am not kidding... each one he folded had perfect ribbon-like edges. One student in the class was so frustrated with trying to make her edges pretty that she stopped trying. She would only do the final step for everyone- brushing egg on top (this makes the crust cook pretty and brown when it bakes). We also learned to make a local stew- locro and alfajores de dulce de leche- a cookie sandwich with a caramel-milk filling. The girls enjoyed helping make the cookies and of course ...eating. YUM!!

On Monday, it was a holiday celebrating San Martin, the man that liberated Argentina. We got to do some great free stuff that was organized in observance of the holiday. (Check out Amber and Sophia's posts about Casa Rosada - the president's home and govt. offices- and the folk dancing we watched). At the event, the organizers were really cute with our kids, making sure that they got to meet with San Martin (an actor). He spoke with them and addressed a letter to them with an old fashioned pen dipped in ink. The organizers also made sure our girls got hot chocolate, a cookie, and that they got to make an art project. They really had a fun time.

While we were touring Casa Rosada it reminded me that kids are kids no matter where you are. After looking at the beautiful building, a child in our tour barfed all over the marble floor and the steps leading outside. I know I should feel sympathy for the child, but instead I couldn't help feeling sympathy for the parent. I would have been horrified that my child barfed there. I know teenagers get embarrassed by little things their parents do, but what they don't realize is that their parents have been embarrassed by them doing things like this for years. It seems like proper payback if you ask me.

Kids everywhere also enjoy a visit to the zoo. Ours did. Not something that is considered a "must see" in Buenos Aries for most travelers, but for kids it is. Our girls loved our outing to the zoo and it was a great break for them from the other site seeing we have been doing. One of the highlights of our visit was seeing an animal seconds after it was born and watching it take it's first steps. We spent hours and hours contentedly wondering around the zoo. We weren't the only ones wandering around the zoo though. They let several of their harmless animals wander around too. The only problem is that I am not sure what any of them were, but they were everywhere. There was one that looked like a large swimming beaver- rat thingy, one that looked like a very small deer (or maybe it looked like a rabbit??), then not as surprising there were peacocks, and millions of ducks.

Not far from the entrance was a snake exhibit, but I didn't want to go in because after seeing all of the other animals wandering around, I was scared that maybe they would let the harmless snakes wander free inside there too. Thank heavens they didn't though (at least that is what my husband and kids said).

Another highlight for the girls was getting to interact with the selected animals by feeding them with the food available for purchase. They were all fun to feed, but most impressive were the elephant that used its huge trunk to picked up the 1 in x 1 in wafer thrown within it's reach and the monkey that caught food thrown straight in his hand.

I was surprised at how close all of the animals were to us at the zoo- bears, a leopard, a bangle tiger etc. all so close you could smell their animal odor. It was still safe for the humans and the animals, but they were CLOSE. I kept saying, "I have never seen a ________ (fill in the blank) up so close before". Zoos are just done differently in the states.

Although I wasn't sure how I would feel about spending so much time in a city, I am still enjoying looking around, exploring, and learning new things.