The Bruntons pitched up in Buenos Aires (Bs As) with the intention of learning a little of the local lingo. After a leisurely weekend (which included going to see Boca Juniors thrash Velez 4-0 at their home stadium) we got down to some semi serious study. A little too much fun was had in the classroom and if we studied as hard as we giggled, we would surely be fluent by now. Highlights included the time that Andyb was asked to read the part of Juan from a passage in the "Spanglish for Dummies" book. This is what happened:
"Buenos dias" said Andyb
"Buenos dias" replied the class, including teacher (playing their part as students)
"Buenos dias" repeated Andyb (somewhat straying from the text)
"Buenos dias" answered the class again, patiently
"Buenos dias" stated Andyb as he corrected his lancashire lilt
"Buenos dias" repeated the class, with a now somewhat questionning tone
"Buenos dias" Andyb was now starting to sound like a stuck record
"You must READ the rest of the passage" spat Ohad, a normally mild natured Israeli student. Poor Andyb had thought that each time Lucy (our teacher) replied with "Buenos dias" that she was correcting his (very lancashire) pronounciation and so repeated the line until he thought she was satisfied - instead she was merely reading from the text. My, how we laughed! By day four, Andyb had admitted defeat and was sporting a "no habla español" t-shirt - this was particularly funny given that if he was to say "I do not speak Spanish" his t-shirt should read "no hablo español" - instead it say's he/she doesn't speak spanish. Still Lisa is usually walking beside him, so it is infact very accurate.
Lisa & Andrew studying hard (and not messing around with the camera's self timer)
Lisa's main guff was to walk into a shop and buy a VERY comfortable skirt and on the way out noticed that it was a shop for pregnant ladies - the pregnant mannequins in the window should have been a dead give away on the way in (Andyb was with her, she might add). "Embarazada" gleemed the sign above (we had to look at a newsagent stand for a magazine that sported a cover picture of a pregnant woman with the title "embarazada" for confirmation of said guff). Lisa wasn't "embarazada" but v.embarrassed - however you will be pleased to know the skirt comes in v.handy after one too many empanadas.
Andrew looking very pleased after Boca win 4-0. He had his Boca shirt on underneath his coat (thank you Jules & Malcolm), but it was brass monkeys at the top of the stand and he was too cold to remove it.
Notice the tunnels that the officials and opposing players have to walk down for fear of being hit by objects from the crowd (and not just a meat pie like in England, or by a King dog in Brazil!) One opposing player was sent off, and the poor man had to walk off the pitch under the protection of two riot police, fully kitted out with shields and helmets.
The pedestrian bridge at Puerto Madero
We thought this was the balcony where Evita gave her speech, only to be told later that it wasn't! (but we haven't got a picture of the correct balcony, so you'll have to make do with this one).
Obelisco - and half of the widest street in the world. It is very scary crossing ANY street in Bs As, let alone this one which has seven lanes (or more) of traffic in each direction.
This is a typical "professional dog walker" in Bs As. He had 18 dogs on leads, and two hangers on! No wonder the streets are paved with dog poo (that Lisa didn't step in ONCE - and if anybody knows how prone she is to detecting and then standing in said muck, will testify that its a miracle! Especially since she wore her flip flops for the whole 2 weeks! Asking for trouble...)
Yet ANOTHER protest that we witnessed in Sud America. They like to take to the streets. We think this one was to complain about the needless waste of paper!
On one of our rare nights off from the masses of homework we had to complete as part of language school, we ventured out to a tango show. This one was at El Complejo, and was enjoyed muchas by both. This is a quick video of one of the many dances of the evening, acompanied by the live band and tango singers.
On our penultimate day in Bs As, we headed off to La Boca, a suburb that houses the famous Caminito street (where the painted houses are). More importantly, we had been told that a Maradona lookalikee accepts payments in pesos for the privillege of posing for a photograph with the gullible tourists. Andyb set off (fully kitted out in his boca shirt, in anticipation) only to find that it was Maradona's lookalikee's first day off in 2 weeks. He was gutted and had to calm himself with a couple of Quillmes (or at least thats what he told the missus).
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