I had a hard time sleeping last night, not sure why, perhaps the coffee I had with Javier at 4:30, but it looks like I am going to have to drink coffee or mate at that time,so I am hoping if I continue, it won't have as much of an effect on me.
Still, without much sleep, I got up at 7 a.m., left here about 8:10 and took a taxi to school. My legs have been sore from too much tango and walking. I think I need to stretch more. Especially my hamstrings were killing me yesterday, and when I got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, the soles of my feet were sore! I decided to give myself a break. Good thing too. I got to school about 20 minutes early, barely enough time to enjoy a coffee and tostado (pita bread sandwich with ham and cheese) before I went up to class.
I guess students arrive early on the first day of class but after that, they come when they come. Today a lot of people were late. There is one guy in particular who came very late last week, was really late after the break, even though I saw him in the bar (cafeteria) just sitting there when we all came up. Today he was really late and he was late after the break. It's kind of funny.
The class is fun, but people seem a little more cliquish (not sure how to spell that) than in my Arabic class. Maybe because the class is bigger and Blas has us work in groups but doesn't change the groups? I'm not sure why. Some students seem to know each other from other classes.
What really amazes me is how many students want to know what everything on the page means. It takes up so much time. Stuff that is not really important. They are also words that if they say them out loud, or just think about what it might mean in Spanish, they could figure them out. The worst one seems to be one of the women who is a French teacher at the same school. You'd think if she speaks French and Spanish, she might have better guessing skills with Italian.
Blas, the teacher, is very funny and cute. I like him. He was not as creative today as I thought he could be in terms of getting us to practice, but at least the entire class is not teacher fronted and he puts us in groups to work.
After class I hung out in the bar at school and had a sandwich and fries. Not a very healthy lunch, but I had a tango lesson at 1:30, finished class at noon and felt more comfortable hanging ou in the school bar than in a restaurant.
I saw Marcella, my Spanish teacher from last year. She was cute as always.
From there I went over to Corrientes and Callao to meet Marcello for my tango lesson.
I'm stil nervous when I lead, but I was definitely better today. I led Marcello through several songs and he only corrected me minimally. I tried to put into practice a lot of what I learned on Monday, and was especially mindful of using my chest to lead and using my right hand to direct (I'm not sure how to translate it, but they call it "la marca"). I felt like I had really improved, but Marcello didn't say anything. He did however say my Spanish seemed better.
Weird weather we're having. Yesterday it was hot and supposed to up to 28 degrees C. Today it is downright chilly.
The sun is shining into my bedroom and my bed is calling me to take a siest before I go out again to meet Raul for conversation exchange.
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