kellita the señorita the ibby dibby dow: Empanadas and other stuff

Maybe you´re wondering why I haven´t been blogging. Maybe you don´t care. Let me tell you all about it.

Spanish. In my last few weeks in BsAs I´ve made a big effort to up my Spanish game. I got a new amazing teacher, Lisbeth, who works with me 2 hours every afternoon. I found an intercambio partner named Paula who was born and raised here. We are meeting one night every week to help each other in our respective languages. I´m reading everything I can get my hands on. Watching only Spanish movies, trying to listen only to Spanish songs. Every time someone tries to talk to me in English I just keep going on in Spanish. I´ve been speaking with my friends here, locals and foreigners alike. Because the only way I´m going to get better is to practice, make mistakes, and learn some more.
Cooking. My friend Vera has become my cooking partner. Last week we made empanadas. This week she made a vegetable torta. The empanadas, while good, were kind of a disaster. I´ve never claimed to be a good cook, or to always have common sense. When you put empanadas directly on the baking rack in the oven, chances are they are going to break and drip all the insides to the bottom of the oven. We managed to salvage them, but learned an important lesson for the future.

Dancing. Still going out dancing every Friday and Saturday (and sometimes Thursday too) until 6am. My body does not like this new schedule. In fact, it hates me. We´re trying to work it out.

Live Music. I have seen some incredible bands in the last weeks. Two shows at Marquee, which is a legendary underground music venue in Palermo, and one at the coolest most chill bar I´ve ever been to. Think Welcome to the Johnsons but twice the size, 100 times nicer, and way cooler. So not really like that at all, but it was awesome.

Going Away Parties. Sadly, the thing about traveling (even when you don´t feel like you´re traveling because you´re staying in one place so lng) is that people come and go. In the last 2 weeks we´ve bid adieu to Alex and Loes, a big part of our posse. Loes made us pancakes on her last night (or crepes with dulce de leche), and Alex had a big group over for some great curry. I miss these girls already!