shoehomesickness

I realized that I haven't written about teaching lately...
My weekly 8:15am Monday student rescheduled, so I started my Monday at 10:30am.

As I was waiting for my student to buzz me into the office, the elevator door opened and my cute student got off. I love greeting all Argentines with a cheek kiss, especially cute ones. He let me into the office to wait for my scheduled student.

I always plan a conversation topic for this student, but we always talk about something else. She can really talk, which makes my job easier, but she also needs to practice listening, so I try to interject with some stories to see if she can follow.

My other cute student walked past the conference room I was sitting in and waved. I hope the student I was with didn't catch me blushing and notice my smile was bigger than normal.

My 11:30am student has a nervous twitch in his leg which made me nervous. My topic of conversation with him was 'education'. We talked about the University system in Buenos Aires and the U.S.. I found out that University here is 5 years instead of 4. Since University is free, the first year students take classes and then exams to see if they can continue to study. Interesting. There are private Universities, but you're paying for smaller class sizes and better resources. He mentioned chairs as a resource.

My 12:30 student canceled so I went to a nearby cafe for coffee, to read the newspaper and to study some spanish. On my way to the cafe a passed a band playing on the sidewalk. They were really good. The band included an accordion player and a violinist who followed me with his eyes. I know because I kept peeking. Something I know not to do, but still enjoy looking up intermittently. Then I passed a waiter walking on the sidewalk with his tray, two covered sandwiches and two cups of coffee...he was no where near his restaurant, but rather on his way to deliver the food to a nearby office. So Buenos Aires, I love it.

2pm I returned to the same office for my next student. Luckily his co-worker let me into the office because my student was not there. He was 1/2 hour late. We spoke for the remainder of the class.

3:30pm. I went on an interview to teach English because I want to pick up more students. The interview was with a language school. They offered 20 pesos an hour for the first 3 months then a 5 peso raise. I told them I'd like to teach just one of my free days. I'm going to hold out for another language school that pays a little better.

After the interview I took the subte half way home. I got off early to walk along Santa Fe in Recoleta to look for shoes. I'm looking for some fall shoes for work and casual wear, but I just left Recoleta frustrated and missing my favorite stores in the U.S. (this type of behavior for me is out of the norm). I got so frustrated today because every store I went in, they had the SAME shoes!!! Tell me, how would you feel walking into different stores with the same options. I'm not talking similar either...I'm talking the SAME shoes! Is there one shoe manufacture in all of Argentine who sells to all stores? Is there a shoe monopoly in Argentina?! The shoes that I did like were poorly made. The U.S.'s 'poorly made shoes' (ex.Payless) would be considered high quality here. (not kidding either) I used to think that Old Navy and H&M in the states were poor quality clothes....until I saw clothing in Argentina. The clothes are pilling up and they're still on the hanger!!! ......breath...

ok, I'm finished with my hissy fit and my shoehomesickness. I will cope without shoes for a bit.

Tonight I made some crab empanadas. I'm getting better at making the empanadas. I made sure to fork these so they didn't end up to be air empanadas.

Money spent today
----------------------
1.10 subte
12 pesos coffee, tiny oj & timy water and 3 medialunas
2 pesos tip
1.10 subte
1.10 bus back to my apartment
0 pesos on shoes
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17.30 pesos ($4.94)
(with a 3.5 u.s. dollar converstion although i thinks it's up to 3.6 now?)