seriously, that´s spanish?

first, a quick apology to everyone for being way out of commission the last few weeks. the internet has been less than reliable at my new apartment (but everything else about it is damn cool!) and i´ve been pretty busy, anyway. but i´m back! at least for the time being. so let´s dive right in, shall we?

i´ve been in buenos aires for almost a month now and have had a totally different experience with the spanish than i did in peru, for a variety of reasons. reason #1 - the cadence or rhythm of the spanish here in argentina is totally different from peru and mexico. it´s very italian, which has taken some getting used to. reason #2 - the ¨y¨ sounds are not pronounced as such. they are pronounced with either a ¨shh¨ sound or a ¨sjh¨ sound (as in ´asia´), or a combination of the two. reason #3- people here talk ridiculously fast. needless to say, my general response here tends to be not a comprehensive verbal reply but rather a blank stare followed by ¨¿cómo?¨ after peru where i felt like i was improving every second, it has been extremely embarassing, frustrating and humbling to learn to communicate with people here more by error than anything else. (though i can laugh about the interactions afterward, thank god.)

so today i was out taking a walk, on my way to the japanese gardens, when a group of four older folks stopped me to ask me a question. i immediately braced myself for the usual. the woman says one word to me. one word. it sounded like ´ici´, which means ´here´in french. i can´t figure out what she´s saying to me, why she would be speaking in french, racking my brain for anything in spanish that sounds remotely like that. nothing comes, so i break out my standard response - blank stare. she can tell i have no idea what she´s talking about and i mutter an apology in spanish and something about how my spanish is terrible. i walk away a little bit deflated. it´s one fucking word and i´m still useless. and they seemed nice, but were kind of chuckling like, ´well, shows us for asking the tourist in the first place. ´ then a flash of brilliance hits! the word isn´t in spanish or french - it´s in english! EASY! there is a huge home improvement store (like a home depot) nearby called easy. so i turn around, all excited, and say to them in my crappy spanish - ´the superstore?´ ´yes!´ they are just as excited as i am. ´yes, i know it! ´and i happily tell them how to get there. totally made my day!

in other news, spring has sprung here. the sun is out every day and it´s so hot that i learned today not to wear both long pants and tennis shoes, even with a tank top. the parks are gorgeous and the jacaranda´s are just itching to burst into bloom. it´s so nice and i´m so happy to be here! i´m sending sunny vibes to all of you with less than nice weather...