Dia Once

"99% of writers never publish because they don't have the right tools"

"no inborn talent is necessary to be a writer, ability to write successful stories is an acquired skill"

"creating isn't normal reality and you will make a mess"

"you must write badly first, mistakes lead to discovery"

"the less you care, the better you write"

"keep writing no matter how awful it feels"

!a professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit!

Today, I started writing... in English. We will see what happens.

~

10:00-14:00  Spanish Class -soo sleepy

17:00-18:00 Pilates

20:30 Coffee and Practica with Daniel

Dia Nueve

Just got back from my second night as a bartender... It is now 5am. We closed today at 4am. Not many customers but surprisingly better tip than on Wednesday. I wish I wasn't sharing it with anyone...(greedy!!) I was very confident tonight, I basically ruled the place.;) A lot of Americans and beer and caipirinhas and daiquiris...And I found out that we make the best empanadas! Surprisingly I am not that tired. Still I will go to bed in the next ten minutes. (After I eat something along with my diet coke- is this breakfast or dinner?)

~  

Celebrating a Week!

It has been officially a week since I came to Buenos Aires... So far, it has been a calming experience. Time seems to be a different dimension than it used to be. Ability to chose how to spend each moment with no required responsibilities brings me peace. I can sit on my couch and read all day long or walk until I want to stop. The purpose of this visit ceased to be only Tango or a journey to inner-self but became more of a grasp of time. Maybe it is all the same. 

I have gone to check out a spanish school in the morning. I ended up signing myself up for 20hours of classes next week. (10-2 every day) In the class, there will be me and a girl from England -who is traveling through South America with her boyfriend.

Later on, I checked out the Pilates place I have been meaning to go since tuesday, right by my house. I enjoyed the free class and a brief conversation with the instructor who also pointed me to some ballet classes downtown. I also signed up for 2hours of Pilates per week for a month. I wondered around in the humid&hot weather until I gave up. I looked for an ATM around but banks close at 3pm around here, so no luck. Then I came home and cooked pasta for my self. Pasta&tuna&corn... (I am gaining so much weight!) I read for an hour or two.

In a bit, I will take a shower and get ready for a milonga. I think tomorrow, my cleaning lady is suppose to come over. She will be the first person coming into the house -other than myself of course- since I moved in. I hope I will be awake before she arrives.  

~ Milonga: 12:30-4am. I met a lady in her early 40s at the entrance. She had very short wavy hair and was in a short, sexy dress. They sat us together right by the dance floor. We ended up talking most of the night -when we were not dancing. She introduced me to a friend of hers, Daniel (but they call him Chino)  and I was able to follow a conversation for 15minutes while sitting outside. I danced all night with the exception of couple tantas. 

Dia Siete

~I woke up this morning

to a new self

from a sensible dream 

where I was myself~

today was filled with practicing spanish(online), reading (Wind up bird chronicles) and dancing..(and getting lost, in between)I am still not very sure about the bus system here.. I seem to always take it towards the wrong direction! So much for the tips I made last night!...

I went to a practica which was canceled. So I tried a milonga... danced straight for 2.5hours and met new people. Don't ask me their names. I got invited to a restaurant by the chef while standing outside of the milonga. When I run out of money, that's where I will eat. =) 

its 3am, and I am off to bed.. Need to wake up early tomorrow to take a spanish placement exam...

Dia Seiz

Wow! Today I learned that Bar tending is no easy job!... Standing up from 7pm to 2:30am; trying to understand spanish, making drinks I never heard of before, explaining where I am from and smiling at everyone. But I got hired.  The pay is very shitty but it's an experience, right? It is 50pesos+tips /shift of 7 hours or less. I was working with an other bartender tonight so we split the tips. So I ended up making 42pesos in tips. I spoke two 2 customers in French and most others in English though...=) My feet are killing me and I am extremely tired.(it is 3:17am) I have to talk to Sebastian (the manager) to work out my schedule but I am thinking two nights a week.

New Drinks

Caipirinha - Cashasa& 6 pieces of Lime&Sugar

Caipiroska  -Vodka & 6 pieces of Lime& Sugar

Caipirisima - Rum & 6 pieces of Lime&Sugar

Fernet Coke - 1oz Fernet & 2oz Coca Cola

Dia Cinco

Lets get this straight... It is 11:55 in Bs As, 8:55 in Chicago and 16:55 in Istanbul. Phew...

I woke up with rain hitting my tinted windows... It is my first rain in Buenos Aires. I have a free pilates class at 3pm 2blocks away and my first spanish class with Gabriela at 6:30pm. I am hoping she will teach me some bar spanish for my try-out tomorrow...

~decided to skip pilates.. will have it tomorrow, when it is not thunder storming outside. Something else that I learned yesterday from Dani is that Argentina is out of coins! Coins are extremely valuable nowadays (and the only payment method for ground public transportation)... So I will try to get as much as I can at small purchases.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/ny-world175886786oct17,0,4370318.story

I had my first spanish lesson with Gabriela at 6:30 at a cosy coffeehouse right by my house. (On the side I have not walked towards before) We sat outside and talked about all sorts of things -in spanish- She told me I was no beginner and my spanish was clear and easy to understand. What a boost of confidence =)

I walked around the plaza afterwards. I came home and read more from the "Wind-up Bird Chronicle" I love his style. He mentioned in one interview that he never dreams and he wakes up every morning at 4am, without an alarm clock and writes until 11... every day, without look  backward. That discipline, I admire. 

I might go to bed early today. It was a very laid back day and no dancing tonight. I feel some nostalgia tonight which I will not analyze much.

Dia Cuatro

Woke up at 11:07..  Had more dreams that I cannot recall. I was thinking about coincidences vs. probability when I woke up. I finished "Kafka on the Shore" by 12:30 in my bed. New book will be an other Murakami: "The wind up bird Chronicle" (Thank you Ben!) 

At 3:30 I left the house... I am all for subway stations. In fact, I believe there should be a not-so-touristy tourist guide in which each chapter is separated by subway stations and their surroundings. I took Linea D towards the wrong way today but I was too cool to acknowledge it to the people around me... So I rode it the wrong way(there are no rights and wrongs when you have nothing to do buy discover), to Palermo stop. Nonetheless, I have discovered where my peeps would be hanging out. (Image below- The islamic cultural center)

I discovered that it is impossible to be one's self in a country where one is not proficient of the native language. I look very cool until someone approaches me and starts speaking really fast in Spanish... at which point all I can do is put an extremely silly smile on my face and nod. Que lastima! "Nothing so consumes a person as meaningless exertion"

Just got back from a practica at Villa Malcolm (6blocks away)... I met with Dani and Kara(2people I know from Chicago! Yay) 

A performance in Villa Malcolm

Deniz y Dani

I do love my neigborhood and it makes me sad to know that if I wanted to stay couple more weeks in Buenos Aires, I will not have my current apartment which I instantly began to adore...=(

Oh and a huge discovery as well as shock!... Apparently I am not 2hours ahead of Chicago! I am 3hours ahead!!! How is it possible to not know the time correctly for 3 whole days! I feel betrayed by the digital clock on my computer!!!...

~just came back from the milonga at Salon Canning... I know for sure that it is 3:23 right now (What an accomplishment) I am trying to improve my memory (or cheat) to remember people's names... Tonight I met Clara(K?C?) and Nestor. They were kind enough to invite me to their table. Met an other Turkish girl, Pelin. Danced with Luis (from last night,whom I remembered due to the repetitions in my head), Alejandro, Daniel (a new one), Carlos, Oscar, Nestor...as far as I remember. Smiled a lot to spanish words... 

Now minor reading and off to bed... 

Oh and today was Monther's day in Argentina! =)

Dia Tres

"I know no one in this city, not even myself"

I woke up earlier than yesterday... 11am. I dreamed of a conversation with two friends in Turkey about going back there. They convinced me not to move back. I was ready to be convinced I suppose. I read for an hour in bed, listened to the sounds in my apartment complex... a cat meowing, my fridge making more ice, ticking from the air conditioner...Finally got up and went downstairs. I fixed my self some coffee and an "alfajor" (below) It has dulce de leche in it. Yum. I skyped with my one and only love online; surfed a bit and left the house...

Walked around aimlessly for a while on Avenida de Santa Fe, discovered a mall: Alto Palermo. I didn't have my camera with me but I am definitely going back to Araoz y Santa Fe for pictures. It is a beautiful cobblestone street covered with leaves and branches. 

There are pasteries  at every corner in my neighborhood! I got two empanadas on my way back home from one right by my house. I met one of my neighbors, unit 11, on my way in. We chatted for five minutes, in spanish!. She is a very nice lady, around her 60s. She promised that she would stop by my place sometime soon. =)

Soon, I will get ready to go to my first Milonga in town: La viruta. It is apparently only 2-3 blocks away from my house. I will meet there with Dani, a tango friend I have met briefly in Chicago. 

(...)
~I was reading this evening (still Kafka on the shore) did you know where the idea of a labyrinth first came from? Ancient Mesopotamians... They pulled out animal, and sometimes human intestines and looked at the shape to figure out the future. They admired the complex shape. The principle for a labyrinth is inside you, and it correlates to the labyrinth outside... "Things outside you are projections of what's inside you"... interesting.

it is now 3:26am... I just got back from my first Milonga...A mild success I must say. A table relatively close to the dance floor and a chivas regal neat. First tantas with Luis, second with Christien (a very nice milonga dancer), third with Daniel, forth with Gustavo (we mutually enjoyed each other's dancing) and last one with Alan. (Who apparently knows some of my tango friends from Chicago and kindly complimented on my spanish!) Very refreshing to see dancers much closer to my age as majority in a milonga... Also, it was only a 2min walk from my apartment. Que Buena!

Now, some reading and off to bed...

Dia Dos

 I woke up at 1:00pm (jet lag)... I don't remember much of my dreams but i got a feeling that it was not all that pleasant. The house was finally warm... I have been freezing all day yesterday. After a nice shower in my closet-like bathroom, i was off to more discoveries.  I walked along Scalabrini Ortiz and the Palermo neighborhood... There are  news stands and little markets at places where would be  Starbucks' if it was US.(every corner) I sat at a cafe and read/observed for a bit... On the way back, I stopped at a little Carrefour(supermarket) and did more grocery shopping... Still no Nutella but I have a new discovery almost as good as Nutella: Dulce de Leche! Oh yeah!!

Later in the evening, I went to La Recoleta for an interview. Yes an interview for a part time position at a bar (picture above) =) The owner, Patrick, is originally from New Jersey. He lived in Maui for a while and then moved to Buenos Aires. I am going there for a try-out on Wednesday night for the barista position. Until then, I need to learn some bar spanish... Any suggestions?? 

Dia Uno (Octubre 17)

I left my home...

emotions didn't sink in yet

and

my mind and heart are full of dots...

~

The trip

13E from ORD to IAD (Business, middle seat, next to an Indian lady who didn't speak any English... However, we conversed in sign language and she was very thankful) 

Then a 5 hr lay-over in IAD filled with reading (Kafka on the Shore), good-bye phone conversations, tears etc. 

37E from IAD to EZE (Economy, back of the airplane, middle seat, i slept the whole way through)  

All my luggages made it here. I took a 30min cab ride to my apartment. The cab driver surprisingly thought that my Spanish was Muy bien! He asked me why I was here..I told him that I came  to write a book. He asked how long I was going to stay and I told him until the book was finished.  So now, I guess I must.

I waited in front of the apartment for an hour until the the landlord showed up. Read some more meanwhile... There is a little market right in front of my building... no Nutella though..(yet)

I am finally here... a place in between two lives -where I might become something more and/or different.

1337 Malabia, Unit 7. Palermo, Buenos Aires....(I ll be waiting for you letters!) outside view of my building...

I have no idea why I packed so much and heavy...84 pounds/ bag. I waited for the landlord in front of the building for 1hour... I guess Argentineans are as punctual as I have heard them to be. (lesson 1)

The hallway to my apartment at the very end... Unit 7.

This is it, on the right side of the stairway, the entrance to my humble Unit 7.

Finally, inside the apartment... This is the view from the front door. On the left side, there is the tiny kitchen and the living room is straight ahead. The stairs on the right take me to my room...

A closer look at the living room.. This is, I presume, where I will be spending most of my time... The low table in front of the couch(which is a pull-out couch for all the visitors I cant wait to have!)  will serve as my "desk"...

A side view of the entrance and the tiny kitchen... 

Upstairs, my bedroom...

The view from my room ...The bookshelf is my favorite part.