I am in the BsAs Herald!

YAY! I am in the Buenos Aires Herald! Awesome! My friend is a writer for this newspaper and he did an article on the destruction of old buildings in Buenos Aires. I am currently living in a house in La Boca that is over 120 years old with a group of artists and he wrote a little about what I am doing here in Buenos Aires and the house I live in. You can find it in the life and leisure section. There is not a photo in the online version but in the print copy. I will be FAMOUS (not really…) OK, but still pretty cool for my growing list of things I experienced in BsAs. 

So this is the LAST Class – not really there is one more – but the last official class in the sound booth. I have to admit, I was really hoping David and Jimena would hook up, I guess it is the whole TV series style approach to the learning that goes on. She does end up leaving her boyfriend though, and it seems that her and David just have a really fun playful friendship. 

This program has been excellent and I would recommend it to anyone. This is definitely the best computer program for leaning to speak spanish that I have ever encountered and hope that they have a series 2. I will write one more entry as there is one more class left (I believe it is a phone call class) and then give an overall review of the program. 

Another interesting things about class 29 is they went over all of the beautiful places in Argentina. It was a good reminder that I need to do some traveling before I leave. The waterfalls in Iguazu look absolutely amazing, and the glaciers in Patagonia. This truly is an incredibly beautiful country! 

Bueno, entonces…is better than Rosetta Stone

I have included this comparison chart to give you the data straightforward regarding what you get when you purchase the Bueno, entonces…program. I have years of experience teaching and there are straightforward ways to convey information if you really want someone to engage and learn the material. For me this is: entertainment value of what you are saying, making the material relevant to the students life (accessing prior knowledge), and if working with older students – anytime you can relate the material to sex, drugs, or taboo’s you will have rapt attention from everyone. This program accomplishes all of these learning strategies and it really is a cheap excellent way to learn spanish. Granted you are not going to come out speaking perfect spanish, you have to practice using the language in the real world and hear other peoples accents. But is you follow along repeating everything they say and look at the words spelled on the “magic whiteboard” you learn so much. You don’t even realize how much you are learning because the humor carries the information straight into your brain. It is like a catchy jingle that you find yourself humming. Sometimes I am conversing in spanish with people and don’t even know where I got the words I am using…then a foolish David pops into my head doing a strip dance or something else from the program. I give this the highest recommendations and think that this would be an excellent supplemental program for any college spanish course or prep before studying abroad. They even include an entire slang dictionary (which is genius, I have some friends down here that only speak in slang) and support material for each lesson. For me, I think 

Bueno, entonces… is far superior to Rosetta Stone.

no me gustan los strippers

This image is pretty hilarious to me because I was walking with a friend today to find an art store in La Boca and we spotted a really cool hooded jacket in a store window. He is learning to speak spanish and went into the store to ask if he could try on the jacket in the window but totally called it a dress! The man looked at him and pulled a dress out behind the counter and then we all laughed so hard. 

This same friend lives with me in the art collective in La Boca and he walked into my room the other night when I was taking my spanish lesson  with Bueno, entonces…He set down to watch it with me and was laughing so hard saying “this program is incredible! I can’t believe it, its like a funny show!” It was another reality check how different it is. I have seen so many lessons now I have become used to being highly entertained while learning, but it was a great reminder as to how well done this language learning tool is. In lesson 27 they talk about the ritual of the bachelor party and David even gives an absurd strip dance in the sound booth. Something I learned from this lesson that I have been saying wrong for months now is “Mi encantaria!” When someone asks you if you can do something and you reply with this you are actually saying “I would love to but unfortunately cannot.” I have said this so many times and wondered why there was confusion following my reply…now I see. 

Take a look at the below slide. I had to insert it just to challenge you to find me a better spanish program then this. Granted, not everything is about sex and having a good time in life – but shouldn’t it be?

: )

brujulas y concha

This episode is great! Look, I even find myself calling Bueno, entonces… an episode when it actually a learning program. That shows you how different it is to all the spanish learning tools out there. It is really the best spanish program I have ever found.  I included the picture with the brujula because I think it is an excellent word in Spanish and one that I have used many times as I have a tattoo of a very old symbol from Haiti that symbolically stands for a compass. People ask me all the time what my tattoo means because it is a very intriguing symbol so I learned that word in my first week. In the lesson though good ‘ol David is using it to refers to his “man hood” compass that always points north in the love corner of the house. He goes on and on about his Kamasutra course (injured pride from the girl before saying he was bad in bed) and explains how to determine the Feng Shui love corner in your house using an oyster. You apparently through a live oyster against the ground to break its shell and then the animal climbs out and crawls toward a direction in the room…this is the subsequent corner of love : ) even if it is all tall tales it is superbly entertaining! The name for shell in spanish is “concha” which also stands for one of my favorite parts of the female body…go ahead and look that one up! Its a spicy word! They go through a lesson of the house and furniture within it by revealing sexual experiences had on/against each said item. The writing of this program is genius!

Voy a bailar como un mono

I had my first new spanish class in a school in Palermo today. The teacher was significantly impressed with my level of spanish (thank you Bueno, entonces…) and it seems like a good fit there for me. I came home and began painting an idea that is so genius I had trouble falling asleep, I was am excited about it! I keep alluding to said new discovery due to the fact that I can’t share it yet because I don’t want anyone to jump the gun on me. Suffice to say, when it have finished a set I shall post pictures of my art. Another great complement to my spanish speaking skills…I was chatting up the kiosko guy and he thought I was from Italy – AWESOME! gringo accent is not reigning supreme! I have been working really hard on the rolling of my rr’s and a nice speaking cadence. Class 25 covers some future tenses and reminds me how happy I am to be learning spanish in a country that basically uses the very IR + INFINITIVE. For example…Voy a caminar por la playa. Or, voy a hablar con mi hermano. You can changing anything in the future by saying ”I am going to…”  I do not need another set of verb conjugations to worry about memorizing. I really wish Jimena could be my spanish teacher. She is my teacher in one form because I get to interact with her through her relationship with David in the program, but so much of learning Spanish is conversing and correcting your manner of speaking with another person.

Vamos a Mendoza!

This episode has inspired me! David is apparently following his mother in Mendoza to keep an eye on her and the tanguero (gigolo). He is talking about the beautiful lake, trees, vineyards, and clean air. I can not remember clean air. I have been in the city for so long I need to get out. I think my monday is free from work so I could have a long weekend riding a bicycle and trying tinto (red wine) to my hearts content. I have been looking at bus tickets! I took a 23hour bus ride to Bariloche a few months back and it blew my mind! The long distance busses here are INCREDIBLE! They give you piles of food, wine, desert, and whiskey! Additionally there are multiple movies and the seats recline into beds. If you are ever in Argentina the busses are a must! Central America is a whole other situation though. I was afraid to sleep on the busses for fear of waking up at gun point and needing to have a plan of action formulated. The busses get stopped by street gangs and robbed, often with many people being killed.  They cannot drive past a certain hour due to the danger of driving on the streets (these little facts are the things I try to leave out when telling my parents I am heading south solo with a backpack). 

Anyways, David is tracking his mother in Mendoza all the while on the phone with Jimena who is tailing her boyfriend because she fears he might be cheating on her. Hate to stereotype Argentina, but the men down here are PRETTY scandalous. Most of the guys I meet who are hitting on me have girlfriends, and most of the women I have talked to are aware their boyfriend has cheated on them or had a boyfriend who cheated in the past. Malisimo! Why have boyfriends?

His mom has a gigolo!

Well, this little dicho is too good to pass up. I will bring the bikini you bring the kisses. It reminds me of better times when the sun is shining and you can crack open a cold beer in the shade of your beach unbrella. QUE PASO BUENOS AIRES??? It is freezing. Moments like this and I am questioning the whole art co-op drafty 120 year old house in the middle of winter next to the most polluted body of water in the world. Ah La Boca you are a difficult love. Sometimes I am all about it, and other times she is just a dirty cold friend. Well, I should never complain. My life is to make art, music, and learn to speak spanish in Buenos Aires. In fact after writing that I feel better. Tomorrow I have to get up at 11am for a whopping 2 hours of work and then return to my art space to hang out and spread paint on a canvas while trying to make the strenuous decision of going to meet up with the circus in Peru this coming January. Rough life. My friends are in a great circus out of San Francisco called Dreamtime Family Circus, they are AMAZING!

I need to keep pushing the spanish for these upcoming possible South American adventures. Lesson 23 was pretty amazing where I learned quite a bit of vocabulary through David’s tales that his mother is running off to Mendoza for a weekend with a strong muscled young porteno tanguero who speaks no English, and she no spanish…hmmmm. And she is paying for the whole trip. Well David, more power to her I say! I have respect for the cougars, they help to tip the traditional sexist scale around. Why not, if everyone is having fun. I wonder what the spanish word for gigolo is?

push my buttons

Class 22! I am cruising along and actually learning with this program Bueno, entonces…David is such a chamuyero but he does make the lessons interesting. I don’t know if I will ever be able to approach an ATM (cajero automatico) without thinking about David’s little tall tale of the transvestite behind him in line with the “baskteballs”  and the policeman waving his hands, the cell phone going on speaker phone with the woman yelling that David is bad in bed. The humor really locks the lessons into your brain with memories you don’t actually have but access as if they are your own personal tales. I think I will see if I can steal his little story to retell in spanish as a person test for myself. I love that he raps it all up with a reference to Jimena about being able to work her like a cash machine, but she tells him he has no idea what buttons to press (the above clip refers to that). You just can’t get a better language learning program with humor than this. 

I am currently working on a painting right now with architecture from my balcony window. The houses in this area of La Boca are so incredible, the one I live in is over 120 years old! I sit in my balcony and sketch the surrounding buildings and iron work patterns for inclusion into my painting. Life is pretty sweet! And the guy who sells my produce downstairs is hot so I get to buy my  veggies while practicing all of Davids ridiculous lines : )

beware the telo

Some spanish programs teach you about the “room” and the “bed” and go through descriptions to be able to speak about the boring room. Not Bueno, entonces…in class 21 David describes the “Telo” he went to with the girl he likes. Now this is pretty hilarious because a telo is basically a sex hotel where you pay by the hour. Now, honest – I haven’t been so lucky to see one of these establishments yet, and I hear in BsAs they are quite the trip. Super sketchy, dirty, benches with belts and straps, bad lighting, pornographic pictures on the wall. I love that they go through room descriptions in spanish so David is able to describe the awful experience he had in this place and now feels that he has a dirty soul. 

Ya never know when you might end up in one of these spots, so pay close attention to lesson 21 

: )

I have been painting like a possessed person, making art and playing guitar all the time. The newest piece I am working on is inspired by the incredible architecture in the barrio of La Boca. The old architecture and wrought iron work supply a never ending flood of ideas. I sit out in the streets and on my balcony to sketch and take ideas back to the art space. My mind feels like an open conduit and the ideas rush in faster than I can create them. I kind of just want to sit up and drink mate and paint to my hearts content!

mi palabra nuevo

Well, great news! I met an excellent man at a bar that my friends are interested in buying and opening in San Telmo. He is a writer and works for the Buenos Aires Herald, AND he wants to do a story on me and my experiences in Buenos Aires. It is linked to the bigger story of the very old buildings here in Argentina and that I live in a home over 120 years old in La Boca. Interesting enough he is including one other person in the article who happens to be the man who started  Bueno, entonces…What a synchronicity! Out of a city of 13million I seem to get involved in all the right groups and keep running into the same people. The writers name is Matt, and he came and took photos of me and my art work.  After finishing this blog I need to write back responses to the questions he is asking me. When it is published, I will post the link!

I am already in lesson 20, I can’t believe it, and yet the sex jokes keep rolling. I am also wondering how I have made it this long without learning the word for orgasm in spanish…ACABO

Acabo de llegar de mi clase de espanol – In this context it means I just arrived from my spanish class. But in another form –  siempre acabo con Diego – Means I always orgasm with Diego. I can see that is one palabra to be careful with. Watching the lessons feels like an addictive TV series where you are waiting to see what will happen next. David is ridiculous and asks to borrow Jimena’s apartment to have sex with another woman in her house because his mom is staying in his place…oh David…