Avenida de Mayo

Yesterday was a good day that ended with a nice dinner with Hernan, but it was a very full day for me.

I started with my tango class at 11. Marcelo was still recovering from the same thing I had - I might have been the one who got him sick, but I think this thing is going around, and just loves these nicely heated interiors with lots of people to thrive on. We did the same routine, walking and then dancing. He was very focused on form, which is so good, but which is also very frustrating for me. I would like to just be able to dance and not have to worry that I am not collecting my feet as I pass one by the other, or keeping my feet low to the floor, or putting my leg straight back - all of these details! But this is the reason I wanted to sign up for private lessons. I am getting one hour of very focused, individualized attention. And then when we start dancing, sometimes we'll just dance an entire song and he won't criticize or comment on anything and it's wonderful.

I realize I am putting myself in a very uncomfortable position with this learning business. With both the tango and the Spanish, I often feel awkward and totally incompetent. It is so good for me to continually experience these feelings as reminders that this is what my students experience. I feel how important these little bits of praise I get are, such as when Marcelo says things like "muy bien" or when Claudia tells me, "look at what an interesting question you asked". It is moments like that that help me keep going. If I just experienced moments like last night in the restaurant as we were leaving and the owner asked us how things were, and I suddenly became mute, I think I'd just pack up my bags and call it a day. Especially when I am with Hernan, I suddenly forget even my most basic Spanish. The owner asked us how the food was, and I understood the question, but didn't answer. Hernan said something. Then he looked at me and said, "de donde sos?" - a very simple question - "Where are you from?" - but I was stunned. I heard the question, but it didn't register what he was saying. I wanted to say, "excuse me?", but I knew I understood the question and my mind raced to figure out how to answer it. Hernan did that for me, and the owner just assumed I couldn't speak Spanish and spoke to me in English. It's moments like that that are so frustrating and it's moments of praise and feeling competent in class which help me to continue with this very difficult process of learning.

So anyway, Marcelo's class is difficult, and frustrating, and sometimes I want to just quit the whole thing, but then we start dancing and he'll give me a simple "muy bien!" and the whole thing seems worthwhile.

Because I missed a whole week of classes, I have classes scheduled every day with him through Tuesday.

We had a good Spanish class, and Cynthia talked a lot about China again. She was talking about different dialects, as the topic was language, and I said I didn't understand the difference between a language and a dialect. She said it was because they use the same writing system, even though when speaking, they are not mutually intelligible. Claudia was good - she asked, "What about Japanese?" to which Cynthia replied - Japanese was a dialect of Chinese, but now it is a language (I know a lot of Japanese that would be really pissed to hear her say that). I then asked about Tibetan, and Cynthia said it was a dialect! That was kind of the last straw for me.

Somehow we got onto a topic which Claudia said to Cynthia that she seemed like an imperialist. I loved that! It is true. Cynthia is so "rah-rah China!" that it can be very irritating, especially when I know that things are not as rosy as she makes them sound. Yes, China is very modern now, but modernization has come with a very high cost, and she doesn't talk about the pollution, the impending health crisis, the huge divisions of wealth that are forming, the political repression, etc.

Unfortunately, I was able to express some of my opinions on Taiwan and Tibet, and said that I didn't think that all Chinese were in agreement with some of the things Cynthia was saying. It felt a little confrontational to me, but I felt it was important for her to be challenged on her ideas that neither Taiwan nor Tibet were distinct cultures and should be considered part of China. I told her that I didn't think the Taiwanese or Tibetans agreed with that. She told me that Taiwan had robbed China. I didn't bother to say that if the nationalists who fled the communists hadn't taken the national treasures with them (which now form the most amazing collection of Chinese art in the world in the National Museum of Taiwan) everything would have been destroyed in the Cultural Revolution. I guess I can't blame Cynthia because she has been educated (and well educated) in a system which is based on indoctrination and has no access to alternative viewpoints, but sometimes I feel like I'm in a Chinese re-education camp when she gets on her soapbox.

It was a fun class! Claudia allowed a lot of interaction among the three of us but still kept us focused on the lesson and when we strayed from the topic, she brought us back. She also let us talk more and simply observed a lot (and smiled).

After class we had an outing, or a "salida" as they call them. I love these outings. We had four at the beginning of June, but then they stopped. I thought we were going to have them every week, but they said that usually by the third week, people lose interest, so that's why we had 2 per week in the first two weeks of the month.

I learn so much on these outings, and yesterday we were going to the Avenida de Mayo.

I have been walking up Avenida de Mayo every day, and I thought I wouldn't learn a whole lot that was new, but I was wrong.

They divide the students up into three groups - levels 1 and 2, levels 3 and 4, and levels 5-7. Our group was very big and we had a lot of Brazilians in our group for some reason. Most of them are very young and are a lot like the American kids. Some of them seemed bored, and even though we only walked a few blocks, they were complaining that they were tired of walking!

We walked down the Avenida de Mayo from the congress to the Plaza de Mayo at the other end, about a 10 block walk.

Avenida de Mayo is the oldest avenue in Buenos Aires and was created at a time when Buenos Aires was very prosperous and was yearning to be like Paris. Many of the architects who created the beautiful old buildings on Avenida de Mayo were French. Our guide, Nora, said many of the buildings were hotels, and that the Avenida was lined mostly with hotels, and "confiterias" - cafes. The styles of the buildings range from French Neoclassical to Art Nouveau and a mix of those and other styles. Many of the buildings are in bad shape, but Nora told us that there is a group called friends of the Avenida de Mayo which is working to restore many of the old buildings. I imagine that in 10 or 15 years, as long as there isn't another economic crisis, that the Avenida de Mayo will be restored to its former glory and will be one of the more beautiful streets in the world.

It was great being able to stop and look at all of these beautiful buildings and hear a little about them. We stood in front of one building and when I looked up, the form of the building resembled clouds.
It was the most unusual building. Nora told us that the architect based the design of the building on Dante's Divine Comedy. There were three floors of hell - the basement, the center of the building was purgatory, and the top of the building, the part with the clouds, was heaven. There are all of these details, like the number of floors, rooms, etc., that are based on the Divine Comedy - the number of stanzas and other things that I can't remember, but it is a very interesting building that I've passed every day and because I wasn't looking up, I didn't see it. There is a building in Montevideo, Uruguay that is exactly the same, built by the same architect. They both have lighthouses on top and Hernan said that the architect's idea was they would be able to communicate with one another. Nora told us that when Argentina beats Uruguay in a soccer match or something like that, they light the light on top of the building because it can be seen in Uruguay, as a way to rub their faces in their loss!

I plan to go back and try to get in on a tour one of these days.

The other interesting thing I learned was that 9 de Julio, which is the widest street in the world, was created by razing entire neighborhoods. After the yellow fever epidemic and the rich fled San Telmo and other neighborhoods in the south to move to Recoleta, former slaves and other poor or working class people moved into their former residences. These were called "conventillos" 'little convents'. Nora said that there were often many rooms in these houses, up to 15, and each room would have one family living in them, up to 10 people in a family. Imagine a house with one kitchen and bathroom with 10 families! So, the government, recognizing this as a problem (she didn't say this and I am editorializing here with a sly bit of sarcasm), solved the problem by sending the former slaves to fight a war against Paraguay, where they were slaughtered, and razing the buildings to create 9 de Julio. It was amazing standing there on this huge avenue that spans 22 lanes at rush hour and hearing this story - well, she didn't tell us that story, but combined with everything I already knew, this was the story that formed in my mind.

The outing was great because Nora spoke Spanish the whole time and she is very loud and speaks very clearly, and it was very concrete because she was pointing to things she was talking about, so my frames of reference were very clear. It's one of the things I like the most about the school and I wish we had more outings. I was thinking that I'd like to take my classes on some outings in San Francisco, but I don't know enough about the city to be able to explain anything to them. But maybe I can find some organized tours and go on them with my class. After this tour, I'm going to look forward even more to walking up the Avenida de Mayo every day and looking up at the buildings.

At the Plaza de Mayo, we saw the Cathedral, which looks more like a Greek Temple than a church (picture above), and this old Spanish colonial building which Nora told us is the only remaining Spanish style building in Buenos Aires. I had seen it before and noticed it, but never thought much about it being different from the other buildings. She said it was because they wanted to erase their colonial past and look more like Paris, so when the Avenida de Mayo was constructed, all of the other old Spanish buildings were torn down.

From there I walked home and after taking a shower, ended up heading straight out to meet Hernan for dinner. It was a very busy day for me.