NEW ENTRY

OKAY!!! Finally, here we go.... We know it feels like forever since we last wrote a blog entry, but so much has been happening with us lately that we have been way to busy to spend more than 5 minutes at the computer. The last three weeks have mostly been occupied with school and work. We have class at the University for three hours every afternoon, Monday to Friday, and then we go straight to work and stay there until 9 p.m.. We are working for a call centre, making calls to the United States to ask people questions about their anti-virus computer program. Sounds really fun, right??? Well, the pay is not bad for Argentina and we are going to be able to work there until at least the end of this coming week.

Alice's parents and brother arrived on the 17th of February and only left yesterday. Before they arrived we were spending most of our free time with friends and at the pool, as we had a crazy heat wave here the last few weeks which made staying in our hot sticky apartment during the day almost impossible!!

Once the family arrived, we were really busy showing them around, taking them to traditional restaurants, sights and museums, and showing them the different areas and markets within city. We took a day trip to Uruguay and we went to an amazing Tango show with an incredible singer who was nominated for a Latin Grammy.

Lst night we went to a Ska show at a club that a friend was in, which was really good, and then we went to Opera Bay to welcome our friend, Sha back to Buenos Aires (he went back to the States for a few weeks of vacation). It got a lil crazy to say the least....

We are leaving Buenos Aires in about two weeks, so we are busy planning and getting everything ready. We are planning a really long trip up through South America, which will take about 7 weeks and take us to at least 8 countries!! We are really excited!!

love

Alice and Tova

"Lean Back"
Opera Bay
SHA!!

Sak and his girlfriend
Dancing with Chiquito
Partying with the boys! WELCOME BACK SHA!!!

Happy Birthday Luz
Alice's parents and brother came to visit
"When the rain fell down......."

Today

ok... So we felt the need to make an entry today as we have a lot of news to tell everyone and we couldn't wait until the weekend!!!

So the first item of news is that we got a job!! We both work for a software company called "Panda", which is based out of Spain and is trying to expand to North America. Our job is to call people in the US and Canada and get them to fill out a survey. We get a whopping 5 pesos per survey (6 if we complete 10 surveys in a shift, which is four hours). And, believe us, this is harder to do than it seems and some people are sooo rude. We have worked for the last 2 days, and are enjoying it. We are making almost nothing by North American standards, but this is decent pay for Argentina and we will take work where we can get it. So we are working there 20 hours a week!!

Today classes started for our final level of Spanish at the University of Buenos Aires. However, as we approached the University this afternoon, we realized that a large section of the street was blocked off with huge barracades manned by about 20 policeman with riot gear. This is actually rather common here, people protest something everyday and the police come, but it is usually not a huge problem, so we didn't think to much of it. But then it became incredibly noisy with the sound of drum beats and shouting all around us and we could see a lot of banners and signs in the distance coming toward us. We ducked into a cafe across the street for something to drink as it was really hot and we suspected that there wouldn't be any classes anyway, as no one could get near the building. But just as we went into the cafe, the protesters (who were some sort of communist rebels with masks and shirts tied around their faces... very scary looking!!!) somehow came around the police barrier and surrounded the cafe. All the people in the street freaked out and ran into the cafe, so the cafe was jam packed. Then the owners of the cafe got scared that the rebels were going to smash the windows of the building (which is pretty common), so they lowered the sheet metal security coverings over the windows and doors. This meant that no one could come in or get out of the cafe, and they kept everyone in there for about 10 minutes until they felt it was safe. (It was really funny because the news was on in the cafe and everyone was watching it to find out what was going on, but they were covering another protest in another part of the country!!) Then the waiters started letting people out through this small gap in the door, and Tova and I managed to duck out and escape through the demonstration. Then we meet up with some friends from our class who were hanging around a few blocks away. We went for coffe and now we are just waiting for our shift to start at the call centre, which is about five minutes from here.

So it has been an exciting day so far, who knows how much more exciting it will get!!

Tova and Alice

Situation: You just heard someone say Toronto sucks!...Go!
Situation: (inside joke) Do the Tennesse...Go!
Situation: You got in a fight...Go!

Situation: You just lost your dog!...Go!
Situation: You are going to the washroom in McDees an someone walks in on you...Go!
Situation: You are both fighting over Bernard...Go!

Kissy Kissy
Maria Fernanda and her boyfriend Bernard
Guess who again!!!!??????? AAAHH weird!

Bernard (Brazilian guy in our Spanish class) and Tova
Marcos and Alice
Guess Who!!!???

Hi everyone!

Okay, here is the weekly update.

Last Saturday was Tova's 21st birthday. We had a really nice dinner at this sushi restuarant near our house and stuffed ourselves with the all-you-can-eat sushi. Then we met up with Marcos and went to a club in San Telmo. It turned out to be a pretty shady place, with a lot of shady characters... On top of that, last weekend was extremely hot... like in the 40s... and this place had no ventilation, no air conditioning, nothing at all. And everyone was smoking and dancing and we could barely breathe. We stayed long enough to whip Marcos' butt in a game of pool before the power cut out (no music, no lights.... fun!!) and we had to leave.

On Sunday night we went out to see a Tango show for Tova's birthday (a gift from her mom). It was a lot of fun, with famous tango singers and lots of dancers doing different tango numbers. And the costumes were amazing!

On Tuesday we went to see the movie "El Juego de Miedo 2" (a.k.a "Saw 2") in theatres... it was sooo scary Tova was freaking out for a few nights!! On Thursday we had a movie night with the girls at Lucia's house, rented a movie and ate lots of chips and ice cream!!

On Thursday and Friday we had our exams for our Spanish course at the University. They went really well. We're gonna start with our final level next week. On Friday night we went out to celebrate with some friends from the course. We went to to this really chill bar called "supersoul" with Bernard, Maria Fernanda and Tiago (all from Brazil), Marcos (from England) and Jordan ( who is not only from Toronto, but also the spitting image of someone we know...!!!) It was a really fun evening, and we got a lil crazy at the end doing "situations". For those of you who aren't familiar with this old Toronto tradition, one person holds the camera and chooses a few peopoe from the group and gives them a situation (e.g. "you just won the lottery!!") then they say "go" and snap the picture as the people are giving the emotion of the situation. It was a lot of fun!!!

We both have job interviews this Monday to work at a call centre that contacts people in North America to ask them to buy something... or fill out a survey or something. Basically they need people who sound American, and they pay in cash!! So we'll see how that goes.....

love to you all

Alice and Tova