SLO Tango -- diario mio( my diary)

Wed Aug 15 14:23:58 EDT 2007

hola todo,  I am going to relate what has happened so far.  I just finished a most wonderful lunch of italian pasta, salad, wine, dessert and after this will go for a walk being such a nice day and at 6p.m a yoga class, and at 9 p.m. a tango class.  
  I have been here 2 weeks now.  I actually had a dream in Spanish, but, of course, I did not understand a lot of what they said! Kind of like during the waking hours!  But I am improving slowly and hope to have made a good progress by the time I have to leave.
  1) The weather here is usually not so severe, but this year has been the coldest winter in 2 generations and a large cycle of regular weather followed by a polar fronts has been the norm.  As I said before, I had to buy various items to stay warm, but it seems the Mendocinos were doing the same.  However, a cashmire sweater is $15 USD!  In normal years, the weather is a lot like Northern California, or Southern Oregon where I lived. Dry air, cool winters with snow in the mountains and hot dry summers like Paso.  They also get the hot winds, Sondras, like the Santa Ana, which blows warm wind and then up goes the temperature.  There are 2 major ski areas - Penitentes and Las Leñas.  The first is about 3 hours drive and the second is about 6 hours drive.  I am thinking of doing a weekend of spring skiing.  Mendoza is the major gateway to Chile.  The highway from here goes to Santiago, although it takes 4-6 hours and at this time chains are required.  
   2)  The food is great.  Typically, breakfast is light with coffee, juice and media lunas(croissants).  Lunch is  a good sized meal often with wine, between 12 30 -2 p.m.  Dinner commences about 9 p.m. which is a pretty hearty meal too, and of course, includes wine. The gelato is fabulous as well!  Last night I tasted home made ice cream with exotic fruits with a friend who is making it and selling it to the gourmet restaurants. YUM!
  The prices at the supermercado have jumped and now vegetables are as expensive as meat, due to the bad weather and the inflation which is occuring here.  There is an election soon, and people are waiting to see what is going to happen.  
  3) The people are very friendly here and I have met quite a few tangueros.  There are classes here 4 nights a week, from 9-11 p.m.  I went to a class I enjoyed a lot last night.  The teacher will spend a lot of time with a student to straighten out a problem.  Everybody here likes to greet and say goodbye with a kiss on the cheek.  One of the chicas I met at the Milonga turns out to be a speech therapist like myself!  A small world it is! 
  4) The tango is big here, but the catch is unfortunately it is like Santa Barbara. 2 groups who are in competition with one another in a town which would be better off with one group.  Gee whiz, no wonder the world is in such a mess, when tangueros cannot even live without conflict.  They have competing milongas and classes, but the tangueros just do what they want regardless.  Que lastima por todo!
  5) They still observe the siesta here.  Stores open about 9a.m. to 10 a.m. Then they close about 1 p.m. and reopen between 4-5 p.m. until about 9.p.m.  People take their rest and meals seriously and they are out on the streets in the evening!
  6)  There are buses and taxis for transport.  The train that went to Chile is no longer operative, but they would like it to be.  There are getting to be too many cars as everywhere, so at times, there is a lot of traffic. The pedestrians are jaywalkers and the drivers do not like to stop.  It is a real game to cross the street at times.  So far, I do not see anyone getting hurt though.  The city itself is fairly clean and they clean every day, but people are litterbugs and there are no trash recepticles around.  I also do not know of any recycling program here.  They pick up garbage every day.  You place your bag in an elevated basket and it is picked up every evening. 
  7)  The telephones here are a problem.  There are 2 companies in Argentina that are from Spain and have a monopoly.  It is expensive for phones and cell phones.  The town is filled with locutorios with public phones and often computers, because most people do not have a computer in their home.
  8) Traveling here has become problematic.  In order to fly anywhere, you have to go to Buenos Aires first and then return there to go to another destination.  That makes it very expensive.  The buses are better but are very long rides, and the tours are very programmed.  I was thinking of a trip to Cordoba, Iguazu, and then Salta, but I am going to have to choose only one now.  That will be more in Spring when the weather is better.
  9) Mendoza is the 2nd largest city in Argentina and way smaller than B. A.  However, it has all the things you need here and is very walkable, so after my main meal of the day, I am walking a lot. My apartment is about 12 blocks from the center, so I only take the bus in the morning when I am going to class or when it is cold at night. They have a big park here where I hope to go on Saturday or Sunday to walk around the lake if the weather is good.  There are 2 shopping malls outside of town which I have not visited, but hope to check them out some weekend. There is also a peotonal, where shops are on both sides of a promenade and are for walking only.  There are cafes as well.  The town is built around plazas. A main plaza and 4 smaller plazas built around them.  It is fairly easy to find your way around town.

  Now, for a suggestion for the tangueros.....
  In the prior discussions about adavanced classes....I believe our advanced dancers are interesed in learning moves that involve changing axis from carpa to leaning, as done in nuevo tango moves.  This is to be respected in that you need to have experience, control and ease with traditional moves before embarking on this journey.  Therefore, I propose a way of explaining those classes to include prerequitsites as I have described above.  It is most understandabel why people do not want to change partners while learning this.  As far as using this on the social floor during a milonga is limited, because it takes up lots of space, but the milongas here allow for a tanda before and after the official start and end of the milonga so those dancers can dance in this manner.  Everyone seems to be happy enough with this arrangement.  They also have a separate practica once a week to practice.
  However, these same tangueros do participate in the regular milongas and some help out in classes on a regular basis.  They really want to have a lot of good dancers to choose from and thus some of them make themselves available.  I would also suggest to keep a intermediate -advanced milonguero style class, because there are lots of combinations and ideas for the dance floor that are available as well.  Milongas are generally well attended, so moving around the floor with more compact moves is a must.  There are a lot of people on this planet and a growing amount interested in learning and dancing tango.
  I hope this was fun for people to read.  As soon as the weather permits I will be getting out the camera to start taking spring photos.  I hope all is well with each and everyone of you.
  Hasta luego, chau,  Beth

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