I sat down and filled out my form, and then sat down again after turning it in. Soon, a young woman came and introduced herself to me and led me into the back.
It has been really interesting being here and doing so many things in Spanish and having this feeling that I'm not really getting the full story. The spa experience was three hours of that. My masseuse directed me to a little changing room and an open locker. She showed me the robe and flip flops and told me there was shampoo. She told me I could hang my coat on a hanger if there wasn't room in the locker. I understood so much of that by her gestures and not by understanding the words she was using. She told me when I was ready to open the door and wait for her to come and get me.
I found a little package in my locker with something resembling a wash cloth, which got me excited because Larry has been looking for one. But when I opened it up, it turned out to be a little pair of blue shorts that seemed like they were disposable. I put them on, put on my robe and flip flops and waited.
My masseuse arrived and led me back to the sauna. She told me to sit there and she would come and knock on the door, at which point I was to take a shower, dry off and sit in the chair and wait for her.
The sauna was nice. It had candles burning and smelled of different aromatherapy smells. I sat there and waited for the knock on the door, took my shower, dried off and sat in the chair as instructed.
My masseuse came and got me and led me to the massage table and gave me an incredible massage. At some point during the massage, she began speaking to me a little more. It was then I realized she had a speech impediment and stuttered. I was having a really hard time understanding her, which is not unusual, because I have a hard time understanding most people here, but her stuttering took some time to get used to. Once I figured out what was going on, I adjusted my hearing - and it made very little difference.
Anyway, I don't know how long the massage continued, but it was followed by a srub, and another shower and another wait in the chair. I returned to the massage table for a moisturizer and then had another shower and another sit in the sauna, after I ate my fruit salad, which I got because I was going to have to wait 20 minutes for my facial.
Again, when it was time, my masseuse came and got me and did my facial. Scrubbing and putting creams and lotions, massaging and pinching, and then she put something on my face and had me lie there with something on my eyes (maybe cucumbers) for 15 minutes. She came back and cleaned me up and had me sit up and look in the mirror at my skin. I looked tired, but my skin was glowing.
That was it. 3 1/2 hours later I was back on the street, feeling like I had a whole new layer of skin.
I went to Santa Fe Avenue which is one block away from the spa (the spa is on the street I live on, about a 15 block walk from my apartment). I had a nice big salad, went to a bookstore to warm up, and ended up going to a music store to buy a DVD. Hernan recommended two DVDs that he thought I should see and I decided I would try to buy them to take home and practice my Spanish. The only one I found was something called "Garage Olimpo" which is a story that takes place during the military dictatorship and revolves around a woman who is being tortured. Seemed like a heavy movie to own and watch more than once, so I called Hernan and asked him if he thought this movie was something I would want to watch again and again. His response was that he thought art should travel and this was an important film that people should see.
So, I bought the film along with a sweater and another scarf, and made my way home. Went to the supermarket and for the first time in two weeks, cooked dinner. I made tortellini with garlic, pancetta, mushrooms and roquefort and had a glass of wine. Then I watched this movie.
It was intense with lots of torture, killing, tension and language I couldn't understand. I did like it, and will watch it again. I think it is important to see how matter-of-fact the whole "process" was of trying to clean up the "communist threat". Plain clothes police military in regular cars would go somewhere and pick someone up. If anyone asked, they said they were the military, but when family members went to the military to find out about their loved ones, the military said they had no record of them. There are estimates that 30,000 people disappeared during the time of the junta. As far as I know, no one has been brought to justice. The government has pardoned many of those involved.
Later in the evening, I met Larry and his cousins at the Borges Cultural Center in a nearby Shopping Center to see a tango show. The show was supposed to begin at 10. We waited until 10:20 for them to open the door. Once the doors opened, we sat down and the show started almost immediately.
It was tango dancing and singing and music played against a screen that showed daily life in Buenos Aires. I didn't understand all of the references or the songs, but did recognize some of the backdrops - one was a soccer game of the Boca Juniors, one of the most popular soccer teams here, and there were scenes from milongas, street scenes, etc.
It was fun, and fortunately, not that long, because I was tired and started nodding off. I think we were the only foreigners in the audience, so that was fun, to be at a show that was for Argentines and not foreigners (and was priced accordingly).
It was a fairly laid back, but interesting day. I like the weekends here, and Monday is a holiday so this weekend we have an extra day.
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