Coming soon: The Wedding
Hola Muchachos,
Just thought I'd give you all a little update about what gonna be happening this weekend: I'm going to Omar and Consuelo's wedding- and I can tell it's gonna be GOING OFF!!!!!
So, yeah it's tonight (Friday) starting at 9 with the service, afterwards there's some eats, drinks etc, then dancing until dawn: which I have prepared for impeccably with the dance classes I've taken (I've only had three, but one was really hard out so I didn't learn much, the other two were basic)- watch out Chicas, el maestro de bailar esta aqui, preperan para una experiencia muy distinto y muy soprendente! te estoy tomando el pelo- enserio!
anyway, it should be fun. I'll keep you posted on what happens, and i'll take some photos tambien.
One bad thing about this weekend is that I won't be able to watch the rugby! I was able to watch both games Vs. France but for some reason, the good people at ESPN+ don't have it on.
Taking about rugby, Touch has been fun this season, even though we haven't won yet. We've drawn twice against two top 4 teams, and we've been unlucky. And I've been scoring some ripper tries... but it's real hard for me to get the ball at pace/with depth so that hasn't helped my scoring chances. But it's a good crowd there, i've got heaps of mates on the other teams, which makes it a good laugh.
Oh, I better go, I've got to help with a swimming lesson like now,
Chao Chao,
Nathan
Mendoza, part 2
*see the previous post for the first part of the Mendoza story*
So, James and myself fancied a night out Argy style, so we wandered around town for a while, but the only thing we could find were pubs (There were a a few English and Irish pubs, believe it or not- I guess it's like us going to a Mexican place in NZ). So, after our fruitless search we asked someone where everything was happening. 'omero is the place' he said/ so we took a taxi out of the town and subsequently arrived at omero and it was completely empty/not even open. But we thought we had hit the jackpot because there was this huge as party or something down the road-but unfourtunatly you had to be 21 to enter... so we just chilled in the central city, to get a feel for the place (from then on the saturday night was the target, so we keep asking people where to go etc.)
The next day we walked all over the town, I bought a big as Argentina flag as a momento and we ate too much good food. Alos we caught the All Blacks game at the Hotel we were staying at (go the AB's).
So, after another steak for the upteenth time, we followed a road on which there was supposed to be some happening places (we were told of one place but it was like 18km out of the city...
So, after a mammoth walk, we encountered a place, and walked in to find hardly any people and dining furniture all over the room. And it was already 12:30 at this stage. So we just chilled and waited for the place to liven up. While we were waiting a live band started playing, and the lead singer was trying to sing some songs in English - he wasn't that bad, but his adaption/interpretation of Bob Sinclar's (no relation, actually it's a stage name of sorts) ''Love Generation" which was hilarious.
Eventually, at around 1:30ish, the staff started to clear up the tables, and then people started pouring in. So in the spirit of the occasion we got dancing.
From what we had heard, girls in Argentina don't act in the same way as those in Chile. In Chile myself and James would be approched by girls, kinda flipping the natural order of things. I guess girls in Argentina have a bit of a sense of decency.
That is what we were supposing but then, out of the blue, we met some girls kinda the chilean way- a pleasant suprise to say the least. So James was with this girl and I was with two (That makes me sound real bad doesn't it, they were friends and it didn't seem to phase them, you could say they had shifts-I can't think of a wholesome sounding desciption for something that was, despite the words "with two" hahaha, why am I putting this in my blog...it was all above board I tell you) and I got to show off some of my salsa moves and some reggaeton as well. But probably the best thing was asking if they wanted to met up the next day for an icecream and have a walk around the city (I was well pleased with myself when I pulled that off)
WE first thought that Argies didn't dance well, because they were rubbish with the first few songs. But then the DJ put on some songs with latin flavour then the place went of- they all were really skillful and that's what they're all about (only a few were practicing the dark arts of 'bailando suico' ) so, yeah I fit (sic) in well.
Sunday morning was a mission and a half! We needed to leave our room at the hotel by 10 in the morning, but we only got back by 6.30, with nothing packed. But we somehow made it on time, had something to eat, walked around town (extremely quite, I guess everyone was asleep) and chilled in the park 'till our rendevous with the girls.
At 4 on the dot they arrived (punctual, I was impressed) and took us to this park up the hill. This park was immense; full of people relaxing, eating, playing futbol etc. And after that we went to an ice-cream joint to chill out (it was yet another hot day). It was real cool being able to understand pretty much all that was being said, and I find that once I get into character (starting to sound like an actor, aren't I- stupid comment) my spanish flows relativley well... so after we said chao to them it was as simple as chill around town, have another fabulous steak, grab our stuff, then get on the bus at 11.
We were extremely tired by this stage, and -excluding the stop at customs- slept all the way home. 'luckly' for us we had work a few hours after we arrived... I was stoked with that, to say the least.
So, here's a few photo's of Menodza:
James, Gimena and Mariena at the park up the hill
Chilling at a streetside restaraunt, in the process of eating a mammoth steak
A cool light which, I suppose, is the shield/logo/thingee of the city
A sampling of the delicious cuisine (it is huge in real life, I wish i had a pic for scale) this was a small one however
MENDOZA!!!!! bring it on!!!!
People walking around the central square
In the Andes (Chile side)
In the Andes (Argentina side)
Look after yourselves,
Nathan
Mendoza, part one
Well, Mendoza surely lived up to it's reputation- A few of our friends upped the place (and the Country, Argentina) real big... It was a pretty full on, action packed weekend so I won't even be able to scratch the surface (and because I'm too lazy to spend all that time)
We nearly didn't even make it to the Bus station to even start the trip, as James needed to get some paperwork that wasn't given to him to even leave the country (and we only found out about it being a problem about 3 hours before our bus left) so to make a long story short, he rushed of and got that, I finished his packing, and we met at the bus station- after an epic treck across town by me with all our gear, and his mad dash to the Policia International.
But we made it with time to spare, thank goodness. The bus trip was epic- 8 hours over the Andes, even though Mendoza is only 380 Kms away. But what a view, and a varied view as well. For some reason the terrain changes markedly when you cross the border. On the Chile side there's like all these cactuses and dry as. But on the Argy side it changes to more of a tussocky, grassy stuff I think was 'la pampa' where Gauchos rome with cows about to be made into brilliant cheap steaks (ahhh).
So, we eventually arrived at Mendoza, at around 10ish in the night- perfect for Argentina- so we quickly found a hotel, then went off to buy some legendary Arg. Steak. Even by this time the streets were still extremly busy with Old people, families with little kids, and young people wandering around, eating out... it was such a great vibe around the city. The tempreture was warm, the occupants of the city were as beautiful as we had been told (There's good looking people all over the world, but there the ratio was ridiculous) so we were two happy guys chilling at a restaraunt eating a divine steak that could feed a whole family (no joke, like plate size, folded so they could fit some chips). But all this 'good' food doesn't seem to affect the locals, one of the security guys at work says it because of all the local tea (mate- pronounced mar-te or something like that) that people imbibe.
After that great meal we set off for a night out in the town...
to be cont.
tune in for the rest of the trip details, and some photo's in the next edition (coming soon...)
¿Bailando Sucio?
Hola Chicos,
This last week I've opened myself up to a more cultured side of life that, despite my comments before I left home, has taken me far to long to start up in my time here: I'm taking some dance classes!
Before I came here I told some people that ''I'll have to take some dance classes- get into the culture etc...'' and Ashlee asked me last week if I wanted to go to Salsa class with her. Stereotypes of salsa as 'dirty dancing' rushed around my head but I thought 'why not give it a try'
So, on Thursday last week I went... And had a brilliant time. Despite my fears I haven't received the 'bad dancing gene' from my Dad (but I'm probably a carrier) and I'm not the next MC Hammer, Fred Astaire, or shakier ( I've got a lot of work to (sic) do on my hips.)
The thing I found the hardest to pick up was changing were my body weight was resting so I could do the steps.
Salsa is based around a 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 count, with every count being a complete change of feet or a pause... I have no idea how to describe how to dance in writing, so, I'll just tell you about the more interesting stuff instead.
Anyway, it was good times. It took me a good 10 minutes to get the right rhythm with the steps, and after learning one move and getting it down (with the lady I was dancing with, she was maybe in her 50's or something) then the teacher would come up with something else for us to learn.
So, all in all, a good night. Hopefully I've learnt enough (and what I'll learn in subsequent lessons) so when opportunities arise I can make the most of them.
So yeah, I have had another lesson this week, and for a bit cheaper and a smaller class size- Ashlee, Alison, Martin (a flatmate of Alison's), me and another flatmate as the teacher (they live at the dancing school pretty much)
That's it for me today. Tomorrow I'm off to Mendoza with James from work (another Gappy) as he needs to renew his visa- Should be good times, I've heard so many good things about Argentina... I'll give you all the low down, and some photos of some stuff next episode.
Life at the Grange and other stuff
Hola locos,
OK, I've been working at this school here (The Grange) for just over a month now, and I haven't really been able to tell you all about it (despite saying I would a few posts ago).
Work here for me consists of... Hey why don't I talk you through a
fictional typical day!
So, I get up (far too early for my liking- like 7 in the morning-after a late night) have some breakfast, then head off, onto the Metro to School; a trip of about 25 minutes mas o menos. I walk into the rather posh school grounds, look at my time table, and lo and behold I see that I have a class with some grade 5's (about 10-11 I suppose) helping them with maths. So I head off to the class, sit beside one of the slower kids, and help them focus and figure out what the heck they are supposed to do.
So after 40 minutes of that I take three girls from grade 6 (about 11,12)to the library to work on their maths. The first classes with this lot was a bit of a mission/giggle fest, but they've learnt that Yes, you can't laugh the whole time and get nothing done, but I'm not a kill joy either. The libarians seem to be happy with how we're going today, they're all fairly quiet- until one of them asks me 'what is an isoceles triangle' which is something I know I learnt back in the day, so, in a flash of brilliance I asked 'what do you do when you don't know something?', 'you look it up in a book!' . Anyway, I think she clicked that I had completely fogotten- but who cares! It was a great learning experience!
Then I went to the Upper Prep staff room (it's got a way better vibe than the lower prep- I guess it's the 'kindergarten teacher' vibe that many of the teachers have) to grab a coffee and check my email.
So, next up I had a class in first prep (the little ones) and the teacher had a little bit of reading for me to do with them, then a load of cutting out and laminating (sometimes when I'm sitting in the staff room cutting out cards, glueing things together, making cards from stuff the kids have wrote- so much so that I feel as if I am, with lack for a better phrase, 'emasculating myself' for the sake of the school.
So, after that ordeal, it's off to lunch- and I mean lunch. A full on canteen lunch,
Sometimes it's pretty shoddy, but in general it's fine canteen cuisine. Today, some mean kebabs, rice stuff and more...
After this it's off to help with P.E. Because it's book week (and near Halloween) the kids (and teachers) have all dressed up as characters from books (I didn't know that Darth Vader, Indiana Jones and Ronaldinio featured in books, learn something new every day I guess).
So with the first class (about 6 years old) we played some kinda octopus game... Captain Jack Sparrow has some great skills of evasion, as does Indiana Jones.
The next classes played 'protect the cones from being smashed over with squishy balls' (for short) which was a riot. I played on one team and James played on the other... and, of course my team won both times... brrooohahahaha.
After the class I made the mistake of doing some fake Kung Fu to a kid who was dressed as a Ninja. Unfortunately the kid just said 'not funny' but another kid thought it was hilarious, so he unleashed a furious super combo of punches, mainly below the belt- Memo to self: Don't do fake Kung Fu fighting around 6 years ever again
The next slot was cruisy, I arrived and the teacher said 'I have nothing for you to do...' so, off to the staff room to surf the net.... then off to another class, More Maths- at least it wasn't geometry.
So, that was my fictional day... Actually all that stuff happened at different occasions- so you could call it 'historical fiction' (if you get confused in what I've wrote it's probably because I had no idea what tense to right it in...)
So, that's how a normalish day here goes, luckly for me I'm going on some more field trips next week (i've been to a park and a museum already)- twice to a vineyard (how cool is that for a trip) and back to the museum again... should be good times- It was such a misson keeping the kids behaved on the Metro, some had never been on it before (or had only been on the subways in London, NY and Madrid!! Hahahaha, it's crazy teaching the uppercrust, and as you'd expect (sic) I fit in very well, due to my good breeding and social circles back home.
I'll put up some photos soon, look after yourselves.
Nathan
