El San Juanino

El Sanjuanino is a little neighborhoody restaurant across the street from Larry's apartment. It's a very down-home, simple kind of place. Their menu features empanadas (according to Larry's doorman, the best in South America), salads, beef, and other specialties like lentils (my favorite), locro (a typical dish made from hominy), and things like antelope. They also serve good wine. It's possible to have a meal of wine, empanadas and salad for next to nothing.

Last night we met there for our good-bye dinner for Anna and Mike. I had an empanada for starters, lentils and a mixed salad (onions, tomatoes and lettuce), and had flan for desert. It was a yummy meal which I enjoyed even though I was under the weather and it felt hot and very loud in the restaurant.

The salads are really good, and a mixed salad in a decent sized bowl runs about 2 dollars. The problem is that their salads, and those at most other places, often come with an extra - dirt. I take this as a sign that the lettuce is grown on farms in dirt, and not in some hydroponic facility with artificial sunlight, artificial dirt, etc. It comes from the earth like it should. So even though the dirt is a little bit annoying to chew, I don't really mind it terribly. But last night when we ordered our salads, Larry, who seems to be gaining confidence in his ability to make demands in Spanish, told our waiter that we wanted our salads without dirt. It got a good laugh out of the waiter and everyone around us. When Larry told the waiter that we had salads there two times with dirt in them, he asked if we told the waiter. To which Larry replied that he had. The waiter was very good-natured about the whole thing. I said I just eat the dirt, and Larry added that I am from the "country". The waiter enjoyed that too and that became the joke for the evening.

It was a fun night. El Sanjuanino has a very neighborhoody feel. There was a family seated across from us who witnessed the whole conversation about dirt in the salad and asked us where we were from. Turns out they had just returned from living in Virgina. They said our Spanish was very good - they were really talking about Larry because he was the one having the conversation about dirt in the salad.

There were two women seated behind Larry who kept looking at us. I don't know why, and I thought I was imagining it, but when we got up to leave they turned in the other direction and were looking at us through the window of the restaurant as we stood out on the street talking. I don't know what fascinated them so much about us, but they had big smiles on their faces, and I'm really glad we made their evening so enjoyable.

I had to rush home because I had my final exam today for level 6. I had to be at school at 8:30 a.m.

I woke up in the middle of the night coughing and wheezing and couldn't fall back to sleep, so I got up and made a cup of tea. Eventually I did fall asleep, but got up around 7 and after getting showered and dressed hopped in a taxi to go to school. I stopped at a restaurant near school first and had a coffee and croissants for breakfast before heading up to our classroom where we thought our exam would take place.

I walked into the classroom and Anna arrived a few minutes later. We sat there and at about 8:40, I thought it was strange that no one had come to give us our exam. Anna thought they were just running late. I went out to find Diego, the guy who seems to be in charge of things, and he wasn't in his little window. A few of the Chinese students arrived looking flustered, and they went up to the 4th floor. I went up to see what was going on and there were a bunch of students sitting there taking the test. Diego was there proctoring and he motioned for me to sit down. I went back and got Anna, and the two of us, now flustered over the confusion about where our exam was to take place, went up to the examination room.

We were given our exams and they made us sit apart from each other so we couldn't copy.

The exam was difficult for me. There was a reading about technology from the newspaper, and some comprehension questions. Then there was some grammar and finally we had to write an essay on one of the themes related to the reading. Finally, we had an oral exam which consisted of discussing some quotes from Borges and choosing a picture and talking about it.

I think I did ok, even though the whole thing was difficult. So it looks like I'm going to go to level 7 next month and it looks like I will have private lessons because there are no other students at my level (I don't know what is happening with Cynthia and Jonathan, but since they both work at CUI, where we're taking classes, and are getting their classes for free, I guess they are not able to go to level 7. The whole thing is kind of confusing, but I'm happy that I'll have 2 hours of private lessons instead of 3 hours of class every day.)

One thing I learned from the exam is that Borges, one of the most famous Argentine writers, was a facist. The three quotes we had to respond to were from him. One was about blacks in the US, saying they have nothing to complain about because they can live wherever they want and whites can live in black neighborhoods and therefore there are no racial problems. The 2nd quote was about how the poor complain that they are discriminated against, but actually life is more difficult for the rich. And the third quote said something about the conquistadors fighting hard to gain control of the desert, while the Indians also fought, they didn't have good enough reasons to want the land, and therefore lost it. It was some crazy shit and I couldn't believe that Borges, whose image seems to be everywhere here and is really a national icon, said those things.

The teacher who was testing us, who I never met before, said that it was because of his opinions on things like the military, violence, equality and justice, etc., that she does not like to read Borges. She said that even though he was an excellent writer, he was a horrible person and she can't separate the two. That's good, because I was feeling like I should buy one of his books and read him, but now I have an excuse not to. From his quotes, I'd say he would be similar to a Pat Buchanon or someone like that. Total nut job.

Rather than wait around for the results of my exam, which I'm sure I passed, I took the subte home, got the fixings for some soup, and am going to have some soup and get back in bed. The tightness in my chest seems to be clearing up, but I bought an expectorant just in case. I think I'll be back to normal by Monday, especially if I spend the weekend taking care of myself. I guess that's one of the drawbacks of coming here in their winter - winter colds and flus, and lots of people on subways, in classrooms, etc.