Mi favorita familia argentina

Sunday was one of the best days of my trip. I know that I keep saying that, but considering it was the first day of my last week here I feel like I can say that with quite a bit of certainty. I woke up and went to mass at the cathedral and it was really nice. For some reason el Obispo, or the Bishop, was saying mass, which made it really special. Although it will probably be more informative to start attending mass in English again, I am going to miss my Sunday mornings among such elaborate surroundings! Afterwards I walked back to the apartment in order to start getting ready to go to Vicky’s, and at 11:30 the whole town was already setting up for the fútbol game that was scheduled to start at 3:30 in the afternoon! Even Zulema and Hugo were preparing the house for Zulema’s family that was coming over by cooking, moving furniture around, and placing an Argentina flag underneath the TV. At 1:00 Vicky and her mom picked me up and then we headed across town to pick up Alba, another international student from Spain who is a classmate of Vicky’s. The four of us then drove out to the suburbs of Córdoba and headed toward the Murphys’ home. The house looked very nice, but when we arrived we went straight to the little building set off from the house that was situated back and to the left. We went inside and it was very interesting: the entire purpose of the building was for entertaining people at asados! It had a big, flat-screen TV on one end, a big dining table in the middle, and the whole other end was the barbecue area. When we walked in Vicky’s dad and older brother, Esteban, were already hard at work on the food. We met these final two members of the family, dropped off our stuff, and then went and sat at a table outside to talk and have appetizers of cheese, bread, and salami. The three of us girls had such a great time talking! Since Vicky’s English is so good I usually cheat and don’t use much Spanish around her; however, with Alba there I got in a lot of Spanish listening and speaking practice. Also, with all three of us being from different parts of the world, it was really fun talking about the differences between the three countries. After a while Carlos arrived, and then Esteban came out and brought choripan and both guys stayed and talked with us. Finally Mr. Murphy called us all inside and we began the feast. The sides were minimal (as usual here in Argentina), but consisted of bread, some potato dish, and a little salad. However the meat was ridiculous (in an absolutely wonderful way)! First, Mr. Murphy served everyone blood sausage. Since I have never been able to get past the name, I had actually never even tried it before; therefore, they told me to just take a little to see if I liked it, and if I didn’t then I didn’t have to eat it. However, I actually ended up liking it A LOT, but still didn’t have the nerve to ask anyone exactly what it was that I was eating. After that, round two was the beef, which of course was wonderful, and then in the end we finished the feast with ribs. An interesting thing to note is that we ate on wooden plates. We each had our own rectangle block of wood that we served ourselves on. I wouldn’t have said anything, but they asked me if we ever used them in the United States and I told them no, not that I knew of. They were all very interested with my reply, and Vicky told me that wooden plates are extremely common for asados here. Anyways, the pre-game show for the Argentina vs. Ghana fútbol game had been playing since we had arrived, and the game finally started just as Mrs. Murphy was bringing out dessert. Dessert was very interesting; we each got a slice of dulce de patata (something like congealed sweet potato) with a slice of cream cheese on top. Vicky had told me about this extremely common Argentine dessert a few weeks ago, and when I told her that I’d never had it she said that she’d make sure that that’s what we had at the asado (her parents have been wanting to cook for me pretty much since the day we met). When she had described it to me I wasn’t really sure what to think, but after tasting it I can confidently say that it’s great! As the game started a few of Vicky’s close friends (some of the ones I had hung out with on Tuesday as well as some new ones) came over to watch, and we ended with a pretty good-sized group of spectators. It was a lot of fun watching the game with some die-hard fans like Mr. Murphy, Carlos, and Esteban. During entretiempo the whole group of girls went outside to sit in the sun and chat. I didn’t do much talking, but it was fun listening to all of the girls discuss different ways to say things in Spain Spanish and Argentine Spanish. After that we went back in and watched the second half of the game and it was very exciting that Argentina won! For not having been a fan whatsoever when I arrived in this country, I have begun to really get into the competitive spirit of the World Cup! Almost immediately after the game we had to say our good-byes, and unfortunately I had to leave my new favorite Argentine family. Mrs. Murphy drove Alba and I back to the city, and the celebrations were absolutely wild. Just when I think that they can’t get any bigger or crazier I have to think again. Cars were honking, every kid on the street was either blowing on a coroneta or banging pots and pans, and when we finally got back to my street in the central area of the city, newspaper confetti littered the road and sidewalks. I went up to my room to put my stuff down and, contrary to Zulema’s warnings, I then decided to brave the craziness and just go observe what was happening near Patio Olmos. When I got there the game had been over for almost two hours but the people were absolutely crazy. The mob located in the city center had to have consisted of thousands of people; the streets were so full it was difficult to move. I am pretty sure that I heard someone say that they broadcast the game on a screen there, so in order to feed the hungry masses choripan vendors had set up their grills all over the place. I saw a crossing light that was broken and hanging by wires; masses of young people were throwing glass bottles, as well as other projectiles, at each other which resulted in a line of police with shields (think S.W.A.T. team-like) advancing on them; additionally, on my way back home I saw a man on his knees with his face shoved into a wall being arrested. When I say that the people were crazy I mean that in every literal sense of the word! Although I could have just people-watched for hours, the police started chasing people out of the Patio Olmos area and I wasn’t about to stick around. I went back home and, after a wonderful weekend, finally sat down to work on my homework and prepare for my final week of classes here in Córdoba.

Un viaje a las sierras

Saturday ended up being great from start to finish! After breakfast I headed to Patio Olmos to meet up with the group at 10:30. We met, walked the few blocks to the little regional bus station, paid our 18 pesos for our tickets, and got on the bus to head to Carlos Paz. Carlos Paz is a smaller city outside of Córdoba in the sierras, so the bus ride was only a little less than an hour long. When we got there we went to the tourist information building, picked up a map, and then headed off in the direction of the sierras. There was apparently a famous, big, white cross thing on top of one of them, and they had aerosillas (basically a ski lift) that could take you up there; however, we had gone on this little trip because we all wanted to hike, so instead we set off down the trail that would take us to the top. It was a lot of fun! The day was overcast and colder than most days have been here, and at first it seemed like it was kind of going to be miserable. But only a few minutes into the hike we realized that the weather was actually perfect. Also, the city is situated right next to a big lake and the views on the way up were awesome! Being outdoors and doing something active was a lot of fun, and the fact that we were hiking up a hill/mountain (I don’t really know how to describe the sierras…they’re kind of in between) in the Sierras de Córdoba just made the day even better. On the way up we kept passing little white monuments with a cross and a roman numeral carved into them. We didn’t know how many there were when we started, but there ended up being fourteen and I am guessing that they stood for the stations of the cross. Once we finally reached the top the huge white cross towered above us. It was built in 1934, but other than that I didn’t really read what its purpose was. We were more excited about just reaching the top! We stayed up there for a little bit taking in the view of the sierras, the city, and the lake around us until we decided to head back down. Once we got to the bottom we turned in the direction of town and headed towards the main street to find a place for lunch. We found a restaurant that looked good to everyone and went in and sat down to order. Luckily we were just in time for the USA world cup game, and we were able to relax, hang out, and watch the first half while we ate our pizza. During entretiempo (half time) we decided to leave so we could go see the other main parts of the city before we had to head back to Córdoba. First we went to an alfajore factory and taste-tested some of their homemade products. Then, on the way to the city center, we stopped by some gift shops and hung around the entrances of some of the restaurants to catch parts of the second half of the game. One of the things Carlos Paz is famous for is their huge Cuckoo Clock, so we made reaching that our goal before we headed back to the bus station. We finally made it and, even though we read the sign next to it, we still aren’t really sure exactly why it’s there. But after that we went back and got on the bus and arrived back in Córdoba around 6:45. The whole time that I’ve been here I’ve been wanting to go to the weekend artisan fair here called Paseo de las Artes, but the first weekend I had no idea where it was and I’ve been gone every weekend since. So when we got back I headed over to that part of town and had a blast! There were so many interesting things for sale; I definitely could have looked around for hours. Also, I’m kind of glad that I hadn’t been able to go until the end. Now that I’ve been here for five weeks I had a really good time talking to all of the people who I bought things from. Everyone I met wanted to know where I was from, how long I was here, what I was studying, how I liked Córdoba, if I had traveled around Argentina at all…the list went on and on. A few weeks ago I know that I would have frozen up if I would’ve been asked questions like this, but last night it was extremely enjoyable just visiting with everyone! I hung around until the vendors started packing up and then I started to make my way back to the apartment. I had had a long, wonderful day and was really glad that my last weekend in this place that I’ve called home for almost six weeks now was turning out to be so awesome!

"Mi madre says NO!"

Friday started out quite normal and ended with a cultural experience I had not been expecting! In 318 we had a big ten-minute oral presentation that counted as our fourth and final test grade and I stayed up really late Thursday night preparing for it. All of my preparation paid off though when, despite having to go first, I still did much better than my last big oral presentation! After class I came home, took a little siesta, and went to get pesos to go back to the stores that I had been at the night before. As promised, I went back to the store owned by my new friend and bought the things that I had fallen in love with. We chatted again for a while about when I was leaving and my trip back home, and she even took the time to specially box up my stuff so it won’t get messed up in the airplane. I said good-bye and started to head back home not sure of what I was going to do that night when I got a text message from Mary, one of the other girls in the group, asking me if I wanted to go to the opera. I replied with sure, why not! So I went home and got ready and at 9:15 I met a group of girls from our program outside of the big (and beautiful) Teatro del Libertador in the middle of town to see the Argentine opera called “Lin Calel.” They had told me not to buy a ticket because they already had one for me, so I just assumed that they had been by earlier and bought them all together. However, when I met up with them I found out that Mary’s host mom had had a ticket for a box seat! So not only did I get to go to my first opera while I was Argentina, I got to watch it from awesome seats! We only encountered a small difficulty at the door when the man taking the tickets told us that the ticket only admitted four people into the theater; however, Mary was quite persistent and replied con mucho fuerte, "Mi madre says NO!" Although this response became the joke of the night among the five of us, she got the point across to the man and everything worked out fine. When we got there the box definitely had a chair for each of the five of us, and it was fun feeling like we were in our own little area. The opera itself was really cool; the story was about an Incan princess, Lin Calel, and her arranged marriage that she didn’t want. In the end she ended up with the man she was in love with and was queen of all the Andes. Some of the stuff that happened in between we weren’t too clear on, but overall we could understand what was going on. I guess even if you know the language operas are sometimes difficult to understand because of the way they’re sung, so the words were projected up above the stage. This definitely helped us follow along even though it was another night of Spanish speed-reading. But it was definitely a good time and something that I’m extremely glad I got to experience! The singing was pretty, the costumes were awesome, and there was a lot of cool stage choreography. Also, if you are reading this and would like to hear it, remember to ask me next time we see each other about our favorite line from the opera; we’ve all been randomly busting it out since we left the theater Friday night. J The opera ended around 11:00 and we all decided to walk to Caseratto to get helado. I got my first cono doble, which are probably the most ridiculous things I’ve ever seen. It’s a little difficult to describe, but I got a picture so if anyone would like to see this Argentine favorite don’t worry! We sat at the ice cream place and just hung out and talked for over an hour and it was so much fun! We talked about our host families, random cultural differences that we have noticed here, and anything else that would randomly come up. As we were about to leave the girls mentioned that they were thinking about going to go to a smaller town a little outside of Córdoba called Carlos Paz Saturday morning and invited me to go with them. I decided to take them up on it and went home to get a little bit of sleep before I had to wake up for our spontaneous adventure.

Lemon Champ and Local Friends

After getting back from Buenos Aires the week flew by! Tuesday night after the game was dedicated to school since we had our 312L “mid-term” (yes, our mid-term was exactly one week before our final…our professor is a little disorganized) on Wednesday morning. But the test went well, and I celebrated after class on Wednesday with a very popular Argentine dessert that is pretty much now my favorite: Lemon Champ (pronounced “shomp”). I was told by my Kiwi friends in Buenos Aires to try it, and when I mentioned it to Vicky she told me that it’s a very common dessert here and she couldn’t believe I hadn’t yet heard of it. Basically it’s just a coke float, but instead of vanilla ice cream it’s lemon sherbet, and instead of using coke you use champagne. After hearing about this on Saturday I decided that I would go experience this piece of Argentine culture after my test, so Wednesday afternoon I went to the popular ice cream place among the American students called Casseratto and ordered my first Lemon Champ. I have to say, it didn’t disappoint! I’m glad it’s rather easy to replicate…I’m definitely bringing this idea back to the states with me! After all of the craziness from Buenos Aires and then immediately jumping back into school mode, it was nice to have a relaxing night on Wednesday. Thursday we didn’t have our normal classes, but we still had to go to Casa Verde for about the same amount of time to take the UT Study Abroad Examination. Before we all came to Argentina we took this same exam at UT sometime in April, and it has sections on reading, listening, grammar, vocabulary, writing, and speaking. Then, after being here for nearly the entire amount of time, they make you take it again. It’s purely for statistics and to see how well your Spanish has progressed. It was extremely daunting when I took it at UT; it was very difficult and I left the testing room feeling like I was going to die here because I didn’t know Spanish. This time, however, wasn’t nearly as bad. I know that I didn’t do anywhere near wonderful on it, but it was overall much easier and a lot less stressful. It was good to know that in just a few short months my Spanish has apparently improved that much! After the test I went home and got ready for tango class, which was supposed to be at 5:30 (like usual), but when I got there they told me that they had cancelled the 5:30 class and were just having the 7:00 one. The tango place is located in the area of town near where they have the Paseo de las Artes (the local artisan fair) on the weekends, and the area has lots of cool shops. So, to pass the time, a guy named Ben and I decided to go shopping at some of the stores nearby. Quite a few of the shops were antique stores, some were stores filled with “typical” Argentine items, and others were stores with handmade items of every kind. We were enjoying just looking at everything (I didn’t have any pesos) when we came across a store that we both fell in love with. All of the items in it were just cool; honestly, I don’t know how else to put it. They weren’t “typical” Argentine items; instead, all of them were colorful and just made in interesting, abstract ways. However, the thing that really sold us on this particular store was the woman working there. She was extremely nice, and she put up with our not-so-wonderful Spanish and talked to us for a long time. We talked about where we were from, what we were doing here, and places that we’ve visited in Argentina. She told us that she and her best friend had made everything in the store, and she pointed out the things that she had made and the ones her friend had. It was a great experience; we all want to practice our Spanish and meet people, and it’s so wonderful when somebody is willing to take the time and have the patience to talk with us. I felt really bad that I didn’t have any money, but I promised the woman that I would return because I had fallen in love with some of her work. Ben and I left the store in an awesome mood, and talked about how cool it was that we now have the capability to hold actual conversations. In the end, this is why we’re working everyday to learn the language. Although it’s usually the main focus, in the end the grades we get are not important. What’s important is being able to use what we’ve learned to talk with and get to know people and learn about their lives, and that’s exactly what we’re starting to discover that we’re becoming capable of doing.

El tercer partido

Our bus arrived in Córdoba a little before 6:30 in the morning, so by the time I caught a cab and got back home I had just enough time for a short nap, to eat breakfast, check my email, and then head to the university. After having the long weekend class wasn’t bad at all, and it was kind of nice getting back into a routine. I had been emailing with Vicky about hanging out for the next World Cup game, and we had decided to meet in Casa Verde after my class to decide what to do. So, when I walked out of 318, Vicky and Carlos were both waiting for me. They took me to lunch at a pizza place in downtown that is apparently one of the most popular in all of Córdoba, and after eating there I definitely know why! You could order pizza by the “fourths,” and so we each chose a different type and then shared. The kind I ordered was the same type that I had had in Buenos Aires and I already knew I loved it! It’s called Napolitana and it has big slices of tomato, oregano, and one whole olive per slice. I also tried some of the type that Vicky ordered which, although it looked strange, I ended up really liking it as well! From what I could tell it had thin pieces of ham covered by cheese and some sort of vegetable that I didn’t recognized and drizzled with a pink sauce. The vegetable-whatever tasted kind of like artichoke, and when I asked her what it was she said they were palomitas and came from palm trees (??). Then I asked her about the sauce and didn’t recognize the name of it either, and she told me it was like a mixture of ketchup and mayonnaise (again, ??). However, even though it wasn’t like anything I’d ever seen back at home, it was really good! This is why I love that she took me out; I never would have considered ordering it, but with her I get the full Argentine experience and am encouraged to try new things that otherwise I wouldn’t. The game started at 3:30, so we left straight from lunch to go to one of Vicky’s friend’s houses to watch it. Her friend lives in a little suburb of Córdoba (apparently near where Vicky’s house is), so it was about a twenty minute or so drive out there. Again, it was fun to be with her because if I didn’t know her I never would’ve seen this part of the city! Once we got to Luicita’s house Carlos dropped us off (he wasn’t too excited about watching the game with a group of girls) and we went inside. The house was extremely nice! Vicky had told me that Luicita’s family was well-off and she wasn’t exaggerating! Vicky is friends with a group of eight girls that she always talks about (they’ve all been best friends since high school), and they hang out together all of the time. She calls them “the nine,” and after hearing so much about them it was really cool to get to meet some of them! Five of “the nine” were there yesterday, and it was fun to just listen to their conversations. Being typical girls, even once the game came on they just had it playing in the background and didn’t pay much attention to it. They talked about everything they could think of, brought out some mate (tea for me), and Luicita actually started fixing one of the girls dred locks (which I discovered in Spanish are called rastas). Towards the end when Argentina started scoring we all started paying more attention, and I got to listen to the girls critique the players’ physiques. I learned many different phrases to describe good-looking men, and it was funny to listen to them talk about how they wanted to marry the two players who made the goals. If you aren’t aware, Argentina ended up beating Greece 2-0 and it was fun being with Argentine fans to celebrate. The game ended a little after 5:00 and Vicky had class at 6:00 (her 4:00 class had been cancelled for the game, of course), so we had to leave quickly and Carlos picked us up. We drove back into the city and they dropped me off a few blocks away from my apartment and it was fun to walk the remainder of the way home through all of the crazy festivities! People of all ages were cheering and honking horns and blowing on coronetas. The city was once again in complete celebration! When I got up to my floor of the apartment building I was met with extreme excitement from Hugo and Zulema, who had been watching it together. I unfortunately had to study for my 312 midterm and wasn’t able to spend more time amidst the celebration, but I definitely heard it from my ninth-floor window well into the night. ¡Vamos, Vamos Argentina!

Día de la Bandera

Monday was the Argentine holiday Día de la Bandera, or flag day, so we didn’t have classes and got to stay in Buenos Aires for a third day. Actually the holiday is June 20 (which was Sunday), but they moved it to Monday so people could have the day off. We thought that was kind of funny, but we weren’t complaining! After our fun-filled night of tango we opted for a relaxed Monday morning and ate breakfast at the hostel, packed, and were ready even a little bit before the check-out time. After that we caught the bus over to La Boca, the cool, colorful neighborhood that is famous in Buenos Aires. I haven’t been able to get an answer yet so I don’t know the correct story behind all of the colors, but it’s so cool! We really enjoyed just walking through the main tourist streets and looking at all of the artisan booths. La boca is known for it’s art and for being the birthplace of tango, and we definitely saw both of those in our short time there! The art displayed and for sale was all beautiful and amazing, and there were tango dancers all over in the street. Most of them wanted you to take a picture with them (for a small fee, of course), but some of them were just dancing and it was really fun to watch. I loved walking around and looking at everything and could’ve stayed there all day, but after a couple of hours we decided to make our way over the Puerto Madero, another neighborhood. It was a little after noon but none of us were hungry, so we decided to walk instead of take a taxi so by the time we got there we would be ready to look for a place to have lunch. I was glad we walked because we walked right by the Boca Juniors fútbol stadium! Boca Juniors is one of the two major soccer teams in Buenos Aires, and is coached by Maradona (the current coach for Argentina’s World Cup team). Since I had had to do my report in 318 on Argentine soccer I knew all about this, so it was really exciting to see it! After half an hour or so we arrived in Puerto Madero and could immediately sense the difference between the two neighborhoods. As La Boca (except for the main two tourist roads) is known for being a very poor neighborhood, Puerto Madero is known for being home to a higher class of residents and has recently been renovated. It was nice to see the architecture and the modern styles mixed with old warehouse looks, but other than that there wasn’t much to do there. We had planned on eating, but it was an expensive area already and all of the restaurants had upped the prices even more for Día de la Bandera, so we decided to go back to San Telmo and find somewhere to eat. Puerto Madero is right next to San Telmo so the walk wasn’t bad at all, and we found a nice little café and ordered the best pizza ever! After lunch we walked back to the hostel to hang out until we needed to leave for the bus station. Pretty much everywhere, excluding some grocery stores, kioscos, and a few restaurants, was closed for the holiday so there wasn’t much else that we could do. After hanging out for a while we got our bags and walked to the subway station. We left early because we had planned on getting coffee and hanging out for a little while at a famous old café in the train station (which is right next to the bus station). From the looks of the place through the windows this would have been a great idea, except for the fact that it, too, was closed for the holiday. We were rather disappointed but there was nothing we could do about it, so we decided to head on to the bus station to see if there was anything there. Although not as classy and definitely not as cool, we found a little coffee place in the bus station and ordered café con leches and some pastries and hung out and talked and worked on homework until it was time to go get on our bus. Despite the horror stories I had heard about navigating the Buenos Aires bus station, we found our bus very easily and departed for Córdoba right at 9:35pm. After our long, exciting weekend I was exhausted and easily passed out for the entire ride back to Córdoba. The trip had been wonderful, but it was unfortunately time to go back to “real life”…aka class.

Un día de turismo, una noche de tango

I got to start my second day in Buenos Aires with a treat: mass at the Catedral Metropolitana! I woke up and walked over to Plaza de Mayo and found a pew. Before mass started I was looking around and something immediately caught my eye; a girl a few pews in front of me was wearing a Texas A&M sweatshirt! I wanted to talk to her after mass but I wasn’t able to catch her before she left. But as usual, mass was gorgeous and I was really glad that I had had the opportunity to go. Afterwards I walked back to the hostel and the other girls were almost ready. We left a little before 1:00 and took the subway to Recoleta and went to MALBA, Museo de Arte Latinamericano de Buenos Aires, which is the really famous modern art museum in Argentina. Although I’m not a huge art person it was still very interesting and had a lot of cool things to look at. Afterwards, even though they weren’t exactly close, we opted to walk through Recoleta in the direction of the famous Cemetario de la Recoleta. We were definitely in a nicer part of town and it was a lot of fun just taking in all of the architecture, the beautiful plazas, and the various monuments on the way. We had heard that the cemetery was really cool but I honestly had no idea what to expect. However when we got there I immediately knew what people had been talking about! The graves aren’t underground; instead, all of the tombs are above ground and elegantly formed out of various types of stone. The place is like a maze, and the family plots are packed side-by-side and rise way about your head. Some of them have glass in the doors and you can actually see the coffins and other random things that have been buried with the people! The cemetery is of course for wealthy and famous people, and although we weren’t familiar with most of the names there were some that I actually recognized. Evita Peron is buried there and we looked for her family’s plot for a while, but we eventually gave up. The whole place is extremely unique and it’s difficult to fully express what it’s like to visit there; therefore, we all agreed that we would tell people that it’s the one thing you absolutely can’t miss if you ever get a chance to visit Buenos Aires! After we left the cemetery we went on another walk to find a famous bookstore. Although it wasn’t marked on any of the tourist maps that we had been given, it was a place in Rachel’s tourist book that we all wanted to go see. It used to be a big theater that has now been converted into a bookstore and, now that I have had the privilege to go there, I can say that it is just as awesome as it looked in the book! It still has all of the original architecture complete with the huge velvet curtain, the painted ceiling, and the gold accents. The traditional theater décor contrasted against the rows of bookshelves was really cool! The theater box seats that encircle the perimeter have been converted into little reading nooks, and if we would’ve had more time I think we could’ve spent much more time in there! After that last stop on the other side of town we got back on the metro and headed back to San Telmo to spend a little time in the famous San Telmo antique and artisan market. Every weekend the streets are shut down to cars and converted into a big market where locals set up booths all over the place. It was a lot of fun to look around and enjoy the atmosphere. After a little over an hour we went back to the hostel in time to make our bus that would take us to our tango-filled night. We had been told that if there is one thing that you have to do in Buenos Aires it’s to experience tango, so we reserved a special package deal through our hostel. The bus came and picked us up and took us across town to a famous tango place called Sabor a Tango. We met some other American students on the bus, one from Minnesota and one actually from Dallas, and had fun getting to know them and comparing our studying experiences. Then, once we got to the place, they first took us downstairs for an hour lesson. Although we’ve been taking tango lessons in Córdoba we still had a lot of fun! In Córdoba, since we are going every week, it is focused more on us doing the steps correctly and fully learning all of the basics. However, in Buenos Aires, it was a class for tourists so we just had fun! Rachel, Lara, and I were some of the only girls who didn’t come as a couple and we all were randomly paired with the few single men in the group. My partner was from South Africa and his name was John and he had to have been at least sixty years old. He was super nice and we had a great time! After the lesson we went back upstairs to the big, elegant theater where they had our dinner tables set up. The three of us girls enjoyed our five-star meal and being treated like royalty! The food was great (I ordered steak since I figured I couldn’t go wrong with that here in Argentina) and we all had a great time. After dinner the show started, and we were entertained for over an hour with awesome traditional tango dancing to live music, singing, and an act by some gauchos. The entire night was wonderful and we were really glad that we had decided to go! After the show the bus dropped us off back at our hostel and, after such an amazing day, we were ready to go to bed.