Tova and some guy dressed up for Halloween
Tova, Alice and Oscar

Tova, Alice and Mariela

Alice and Tova as twins for Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone!

Yes, today is the 31st of October. We have officially survived two months in South America! Unfortunately, there isn't much of a Halloween here in Argentina. We have seen the odd pumpkin with a carved face or child dressed in a costume... but nothing more. Fortunately, we had a couple of friends (fellow travelers), who dressed up with us for the occasion. Rhys, a friend from England, and Andrea, from Italy, dressed up with us on the weekend. Rhys was Diego Maradona (THE Argentinian soccer idol whom everyone here is obsessed with!) and Andrea was "a guy from he 70s". Tova and I dressed up as........TWINS!! We wore all the same clothes and jewelery and did our hair and makeup exactly the same. We went out to a costume party last night in our outfits, only to find that "costume pary" is a term taken lightly here: we were the only people in costume! We were just glad that we hadn't gone with one of Alice's ideas like "hula girls in bikini tops and leys" or "mummies" wrapped up in tons of toilet paper!! How embarassing THAT would have been!!!

We are experiencing a British invasion here in Agentina, having made friends with three Britsh guys in the last few days. They are a lot of fun and so easy to talk to, considering we either struggle to speak to our friends in Spanish or speak very diluted, slow English. In fact, one of the British guys actually goes to the same gym as us and had noticed us before. He even knew a lot of creepy facts about our workout routines, like what machines we use and for how long and that I listen to a discman etc...

On Friday, this man in our Spanish course at the University actually came to class drunk, like totally smashed!!!! And this is a ten person class, so it was totally noticeable. He was slurring all his words, answering everything in English (he's from England), was ranting and raving on topics that had nothing to do with the class and was really rude to everyone, including the teacher. Unfortuantly, she just put up with it instead of giving him the good ass-kicking he deserved. It was funny at times, but mostly just annoying.

On Thursday night Tova and I went to another one of our friend Lucia's Bossa Nova shows. It was at a bar, "Ironica", just a few streets from our Hostel. We decided to bring two friends, Benjamin and Filipe, who we had met the week before. (In fact, the story of our meeting is rather funny: our friend, Mavi, who is entirely unreliable, arranged to take us out to a bar with some of her friends. However, when her boyfriend got "sick", she asked us if we would mind entertaining her friends (one of whom speaks no English) for the night instead. We actual got along amazingly and kept in touch!) We had a really good time, except for the fact that they were almost an hour late picking us up!!! But that sort of thing is somewhat acceptable here.

On Saturday we went to our friend, Pablo's birthday party at a bar/club. They have a really weird system here at many bars and clubs where you don't actually pay to get in, but get a ticket with the word "entrance" on it when you enter. The point is you must buy a drink in order to give the bartender your "entrance" ticket and receive an "exit " ticket in return, which allows you to leave when you wish to. And if you loose either of the tickets, you have to pay a fine. Its a little strange, but it ensures drink sales I guess.

Another funny thing we have noticed here is that people have no change. If you go into a shop and you don't have almost exact change for something they just won't sell it to you, or a cab won't drive you if you don't have the right change etc.... If you want to buy a 1 peso chocolate bar and you only have a 10 peso bill, the shop will refuse your business!!! It is crazy. We have asked many people why this is, and the best answer we have been given (and one we certainly had figured out ourselves already) is that people here are lazy, and you actually have to get off your ass and think ahead to get change.

Well, that is enough of our ranting and raving for now. Enjoy your trick-or-treating, handing out candy or attending your halloween parties tonight, we shall be thinking of you all with just a hint of jealousy.

love,

Alice and Tova

Rhys and Alice during Halloween weekend
Andrea and Tova (Andrea is dressed as a 70's man)
Mariela and Tova (Tova has Rhys' wig on)

At the restaurant LOLA with Feroza, Jane Alice and Tova
Jane, Feroza and I

Alice and Feroza

A Street Preformer
In Loi Suites Hotel
The streets of Buenos Aires!!!!

Alice and Tova with Mavi's new puppy
In San Telmo (an area of Buenos Aires)

October 26

Hi,

So.... For a short while last week, Tova and I were the proud parents of a one month old puppy! Mavi, a girl who lives a few doors down from us in the hostel found this tiny puppy abandoned a few streets from where we live (stray animals are really common here) and brought her back home. The owners of our hostel were not too pleased, especially when Mavi dropped the dog off and went out for the entire night with her boyfriend. The puppy pissed and shat all over the place!! It had nowhere to sleep, we were asked to keep it in our room for the night. Needless to say, Alice was down on her hands and knees cleaning up shit at 4 in the morning (while her highness - who will remain nameless - lay in bed!) (Tova speaking: May I remind someone that your highness did not want the puppy in our room for the night in first place, someone else wanted it there and therefore, I warned that certain someone that if the puppy shat or pissed, it would not be me who would clean it up!!!!!). The puppy ended up staying for one more night, but then went to live with Mavi's mother.

Well, there really is not much other news here, our weekend was busy with meeting friends for dinner etc... We tried to go to the museum of Modern art, ony to realize that is was closed for renovations once we got there! So we walked to San Telmo, a tourist market with antiques and art, which was very pleasant. The roads in this part of town were in terrible condition and full of people, but cars still tried to drive through! (We have a picture of one of the holes in the road).

We are taking a lot of aerobics classes at the gym, and there is one instructor, who is like the gayest man, who does these weird dance warmups to latino music and makes all the women in the class shake their breasts and ass and then touch themselves... its funny i guess.... but also really strange.

Hmmm... what else... Tova wants to kill one of our Spanish Teachers at UBA... but thats another story...

There was a provincial election here on Sunday, but no one we have spoken to is really sure who won. Everyone here has to vote by law and the lineups at the polling statons went on for miles, around blocks etc...

On Monday we went out for dinner with Feroza, a friend of Tova's mother who was visiting Buenos Aires for a few days. We went out to a very nice restaurant, had lots of wine and experienced a posher side of Buenos Aires that we are unfamilliar with. The hotel where she stayed at was exquitiste. It is sad to say, but what we were most impressed with was the presence of toilet paper in the washrooms. That is a luxury that we have learned to live without, between the poor facilities at the University and our hostel, where getting a hot shower can sometimes be a challenge!)

love to you all. Thank you for staying posted.

Alice and Tova

After watching the movie "The 40 Year Old Virgin"
Happy Birthday Rachel!!!!

Tova lying on the terrace in the hostel
In the hostel

In Luz's sister's boyfriend's house out side of Buenos Aires
Luz and Tova
Preparing for lunch outside

our week

hey,

So Tova and I began our Spanish course at the University of Buenos Aires last Thursday, which was interesting, to say the least. First of all, the building is, in every sense, falling apart. The wallpaper is peeling - or in some places nonexistent, everything is broken, dingy, there is no toilet paper in the washrooms (weird for a University building), and the hande to the door of our classroom breaks off whenever anybody uses it to enter the room! We have a few funny and extremely annoying characters in our class including a kid from China who has no idea what an indoor speaking voice is (Tova feels bad for him because she thinks he is mentally retarded, but I just think he's socially retarded and a nerd to the extreme) and a guy from Brasil who interrupts everybody else and spends half the class asking his own personal questions, that only pertain to portugese speakers. AAAHHHH I am going to kill someone soon. And the teachers are two very passive, even timid, young women in their mid twenties, and are no match for these guys! Its crazy. Also, once the Chinese guy took a call on his cell during the class, and this other guy said that his ring was like chinese music and then immitated chinese music by singing "ching chong ching chong" and the teacher actually laughed. We were astonished that that could happen in the University... It certainly couldn't in Canada.

So Tova and I have signed up for a gym about five minites walk from our hostel. Its really cheap gym, but it has lots of plilates, yoga and aerobics classes, so we are going to get in shape for the bikini weather. Watch out for those upcoming pics!!

On Sunday we went out with our friend Luz, her sister and her boyfriend to their family's house in the country, about an hour from Buenos Aires. It was in a perfect gated comminity, something we didn't realize they even had here. There was a golf course right behind the house and every house had a pool!! It was gorgeous. We cooked a really nice lunch and ate outside in the sun. Then we watched loads of movies because they actually get the movie channel at their house. It was sweet.

So now it is time for those funny things we have noticed here. People are very fond of Public Display's of Affection (PDAs), and we have definately seen more of some people than we would have liked. Also, the bus drivers play the radio on the bus, pretty loud so everyone can hear, which is kind of strange. So pop and reggaeton etc.. are blasting in the bus while everyone is riding. We like it better this way for sure.

Yesterday, Tova and I went to see the movie "the 40 Year Old Virgin" with some friends. It was pretty funny, but it was the first comedy we had seen in theatres here, and we didn't realize just how funny we would look because we laughed at the wrong time and when no one else laughed, because of the delayed and often inadequate subtitles.

Well, thats all for now!

Alice and Tova

Alice and Tova at Luz's work/boss's pary
Luz, Alice and Tova
At some weird party where the whole house was decorated in a sort of Haloween theme

Tova in front of the Hostel
Tova and Florencia drinking Mate

the weekend

This weekend, Tova and I went out on Saturday shopping in "Once" (pronounced ON-SAY), an area with a lot of really cheap clothing stores. In the evening, we went out with our friend Luz to her boss' birthday party, which turned out to be quite an intimate gathering of only ten or so people. It was a really nice bar and we ended up having a good time with her coworkers - and the food and drinks were free, so we could hardly complain. There is a picture of Tova and I with Luz from that night. After, we went to two house parties. The first had some weird, we think halloween, theme, where the house was literally falling apart, or maybe that was just their house, we weren't really sure..... and the second was at some abandoned warehouse????, which was a really amazing set up, but unfortunately had a mix of retro music and electronica that is so popular here, and is honestly starting to get on our nerves!!! On Sunday, we went with Luz and Mavi to Mavi's mother's house in Martinez, a suburb of Buenos Aires.On Monday we spent the entire day tanning on the terrace of our hostel. The weather is getting gorgeuous here now. Every day is sunny and about 25 degrees. Absolutely perfect. Yesterday we had our test to get into the University of Buenos Aires' Spanish course, and we start classes on Thursday. We're pretty excited for that, and we'll have classes four days a week, which will definately help fill our schedule. So, we've been noticing some weird things here. First of all, the "rat's tail" hairstyle is totally in here. I know some of you may not have seen a rat's tail since 1995, and it was probably on a little boy, but here the rat's tail is extremely popular among young women, who usually have a short haircut (but not a buzz cut or anything), with this messy braid down the back, usually off to the side. Weird... I'm not sure either of us will be following that trend too soon.... Also, some customs here are totally foreign to us. For example, when we go to a restuarant with friends, they often think its totally okay just to sit and not order anything at all, just watch you eat and drink. And they can't understand how this would make us uncomfortale. Also, people here think nothing of backing out of set plans at the last minute, and always use the "I have no money" excuse for EVERYTHING, even when you know they do!!! Nobody picks up their dog shit, and I (Alice) have stepped in it on more than one occasion. Oh, and they have no concept on the escalator of walk-left-stand-right. It can be really frustrating, but we are getting used to it. Well, that is all for now. We'll let you know how the Spanish course goes.

love you all,


Alice and Tova

Evita's Grave

OH MY GOD!!!! The Tombs are open!!!!!
In the Recolecta Cemetery. It looks like a little neighbourhood with little houses and street signs.
The front entrance of the Recolecta Cemetery

Alice with Tommy the Beagle
This is the Museum of Decorative Art

Hey,

Sorry, its been a while. Okay. So Tova and I got a call on Thursday night from this guy from Hillel, the international Jewish organization that we contacted in Buenos Aires. We had gone to the Hillel headquarters (which had crazy security) a few days before to ask if we could spend Rosha Shana dinner with a family here. So this guy, Mati, called us and said his family had been asked to have us for Rosha Shana dinner and would we like to come and meet him and his friends the next night for drinks. We ended up going to this bar in a really nice area of the city, Recoletta. We had a really good time and ended up going out with him on Sunday to Plaza Francia, this huge marketplace with live bands, restuarnats, clowns, martial arts demonstrations etc... On Monday night we went for Rosha Shana dinner at Mati's apartment with his parents, brothers, grandmother (and her boyfriend), aunt, uncle and cousins. It was pretty crowded around the table! The food was really good, and they were really interesting, funny people. Their English was really, really limited, and sometimes we got really lost, especially during the conversations about the grandmother's boyfriend's Viagra.... but it was funny all the same. The father has this thing about Chineese people: he thinks he knows everything about them and every story he tells involves Chinese people... like how he had to sell his house because Chinese poeple were running a sweatshop under it and all these other crazy stories. You would think Buenos Aires was full of Chinese people the way this guy talks, but we have seen very few. It is definately strange to hear Asian people speaking Spanish (especially decked out in Adidas and Kappa....) but we are getting used to it. So anyways, back to the dinner... It was really informal, which we appreciated. Also, they have the cutest dog, a Beagle named Tomi. He was always jumping up at the table and barking for food and the grandmother nearly had a heart attack several times and was getting really angry about this dog and was yelling at him, while the father was egging the dog on, giving it treats to jump on her lap! Oh and that night we nearly got into a car accident while Mati's brother was driving us home. Since there are no stop signs here at intersections without traffic lights, people just wing it and at night that can be pretty dangerous. We were centimetres away from crashing into a taxi at about 60km an hour. But we are ok! On Tuesday we went to the museum of Decorative Art, which was really a massive mansion filled with art. Today we went to the Recoletta Cemetary, which is massive and filled with the bodies of Argentina's national figures. We had never seen anything like it: it was like a miniature city of houses on streets, but the houses were actually vaults that held dead bodies. We took a guided tour, and there are many amazing stories about the bodies that are buried there, including a yound girl who was accidentaly burried alive! Tonight we're going to the concert of our friend who sings in a Brazilian band, so we'll let you know how that goes.

Until next time,

Alice and Tova