the price of heaven & guilt

last night i went salsa dancing with an argentine girl i met this weekend. it made me realize that i just may be a salsa snob. (i'm embarrassed to write this). there were many beginners (everyone has to start somewhere), but i just wanted to be spun around back and forth without effort. i wanted my salsa dancers from home back. there were lessons, then some dancing, then back to lessons, then dancing, nobody showed potential in the upper level class. then a guy came over and asked me to dance. at first he was just testing me out to see what level i was and what style i dance. after a couple min. i was being swung around back and forth. i felt like i was in heaven. i was on such a high i can't even describe it...just an absolutly amazing feeling.

a temporary pass to heaven cost.....
9 pesos for a cab ride there
15 pesos entry fee
8 pesos for a beer
9 pesos for a cab ride home
--------------------------------
41 pesos ($12 and so so so worth it)

money also spent yesterday
1.25 bus
.90 subte (i thought the price also went up, but it didn't (i use a subte card rather than cash))
20 pesos for a cell phone card
1.25 bus
.90 subte
*breakfast coffee my boss paid for
*had another coffee and small sandwich that my student paid for. he wanted to hold our class at a cafe
---------------
24 pesos ($7)

(photo below: instead of a monthly cellular bill i have the pre-pay plan (pre-pago) i just have to purchase calling cards specific for a cell phone and specific to the service provider (moviestar). once you purchase the card at a kiosko you have to call *444 and listen to the prompts. if you don't know spanish, you'd be dead in the water. i know very little and it took me 4-6 tries to understand what the recorded message was saying. i was frustrated, but i felt really proud of myself once i got it. there were 2 sets of prompts each with about 4 options, then once i got the combination right i pressed in the string of numbers on the back of the card. now i have 20 pesos worth of texts / calls. if someone calls me or texts me, they pay for it. i only pay for the calls / text i make. so for instance. i called a friend yesterday and my previous 30 pesos ran out so my phone cut off, but she was able to call me back and i talked to her. then i received a text, but i couldn't text back until i bought this 20 peso card and programmed it in)


so, this morning (tuesday) i met with my conversation exchange friend. i learned that the equivalent of "friday the 13th" in argentina is "tuesday the 13th". i continued our superstition conversation by telling her that it freaks me out that i've viewed two apartments that were on the 13th floor. think about it...we don't call it the 13th floor in u.s.. even though it freaks me out, i tell myself that i wouldn't mind living on the 13th floor because technically its the 14th floor. (in argentina my current apartment is on the "2nd" floor, but by u.s. floor counting methods i'm on the "3rd" floor. our "u.s" first floor is their "ground floor, or planta baja, or PB"

after conversaton exchange i had an interview, came home then headed out with a friend for a free spanish conversation at a language school nearby. the conversation lasted 1.5 hours. the teacher was cute; very latino in so many ways. most of the people there were beginners but it was good practice.

(photos below: some more graffiti art)




afterward i came home, ate, then headed out to teach an hour long class.

money spent today
.90 subway
10 pesos coffee & 3 medialunas
270 pesos shoes
.90 subway
6.50 for 3empanadas
.90 subway
.90 subway
---------------
290 pesos ($83)

*the 270 pesos for shoes is steep. i've ogled at them for 3 weeks now, but i'm having my doubts now. i may return them. they're super cute, but they're tight. they're pumas. my last pair of pumas (that i had to throw away because i wore them so much they had holes) were also tight when i bought them but they eventually stretched out. i hope these stretch out, but i'm not sure i want to take a 270 peso chance on that.