More on schools in Argentina

 

Sorry not to have written. I've been a little busy. Today I had my 47th school performance of the tour (three weeks so far), with 17 more next week. I've also been sick. I got a head cold, which I thought I was over last week, but I had a relapse. The pharmacist suggested this cough medicine. It sounds funny in English, but it was effective!

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The schools have been mostly wonderful. The kids have been great listeners and many have asked good questions. Sometimes they get shy and don't want to ask the question in front of everybody, so they come up to me afterwards.

At schools like Las Nieves and Glasgow College, the students have showed up at the performances well prepared, having listened to stories on my website or on my youtube channel. This preparation makes a big difference.

Here are a few pictures of the listeners. You'll notice that the children wear uniforms at all of these schools. They have had excellent questions at the end of many of the sessions.

Boys helping me tell "Mr. Wiggle and Mr. Waggle."

Just a stretch between stories, to make it easier to listen.

The teachers listen as well.

In the pictures, these are primary (elementary in the US) school kids. I've also had fun telling to high school students. Yesterday I was at Highest College, performing for the older kids. The coordinator told me that they were all (both students and teachers) nervous about what I might do, worried that it might be only for young children. As I do in the US when I have middle school and high school, I started with a gory story, one I don't tell to the younger students. I could see the audience relax bit by bit and then they all had a good time. So did I.

Time to stop writing so I can get ready to go to a tango show.

Street music

Two posts in one day? It must be a weekend on tour! I promise, I'll get back to writing about storytelling in the schools soon.

But first, did somebody say "tango"? This is Buenos Aires, after all!

I had a lovely day wandering first around San Telmo, then on down to Calle Florida, a pedestrian shopping street. I wasn't terribly interested in shopping, but then I heard music. On the street. A mix of tango, jazz, swing and who knows what else. I stopped to put some money in the hat, then stayed to listen longer. I ended up buying a CD of El Metodo. Here are a few clips:

There were no tiny children in the crowd today, but I could well imagine this scene!

 

 

Maybe it's time to get my concertina out when I get home. The bandoneon player was great! (My apologies to Spanish-speakers--I can't figure out how to put the accent over the o in bandoneon.)

Buenos Aires views

I've got a heavy school schedule here, so lots of my views of Buenos Aires are from the cab on the way to or from schools. On the weekends, I've had time to see a little bit. Here are a few pictures.

On Sunday, walking through San Telmo, the neighborhood where I'm living, Alberto and I saw people dancing in the street. The woman with her back to the camera is leading the dancing. Notice the drum on the far left.

 

Wait, is this Buenos Aires or Moscow? On the way from San Telmo to La Boca, the neighborhood to the south, we stopped at the Russian Orthodox Church.It's fully functioning--there was a service going on when we went in.

Caminito is a street museum, a touristy area of La Boca, with artisan shops, tango demonstrations and plenty of kitsch. The story is that the buildings are painted with the leftover paint from the shipyard nearby. Some of them have sheet metal siding, also from the ships.

Here are some life-sized statues of Diego Maradona, Eva Peron and Carlos Gardel.

 

This is the fileteado style of sign painting seen all over Buenos Aires:

And here we are, back in Moscow, with the restaurant El Samovar de Rasputin. Not sure I'd like to eat there!

Greetings from Argentina!

I'm here! I arrived in Buenos Aires on Saturday. It's a loooong way down here. The flight from Dallas was 11 hours, after a couple of hours from Kansas City.

I'm sitting in my studio apartment in San Telmo, a lovely historic neighborhood. Here are some views from my third floor window:

Looking left into San Telmo, my neighborhood

Looking right toward Av. 9 de Julio. Can you see the Basque restaurant? I haven't tried it yet.

Looking straight--there's a real mix of architectural styles in Buenos Aires

I've explored the neighborhood and the next neighborhood over, La Boca, a little, mostly with Alberto, my tour manager and friend. Of course the first night we had steak, as this is beef country. Lots of Italians settled here, too, so on Sunday we had wonderful pizza. 

Pizza caprese, with olives, fresh basil, slices of tomato and mozzarella. Yum!

I'm off to a school now. Yesterday was a great start to the school performances, at San Javier and Villa Devoto School.

I'll write more about the schools soon.