Tango
Yesterday evening, Stacey and I wanted to see a tango show so we headed to a popular place on Avenida de Mayo called Cafe Tortoni around 9 p.m. Upon being told that tickets cost 110 pesos (~$27 USD) each, we lost hope on this plan. We proceeded to walk down Avenida de Mayo, a pretty popular street, to see what else we could find. Oddly enough because we are in Argentina, there was ANOTHER tango espectáculo (performance) right next door at the Academia Nacional Del Tango for only 50 pesos! While being a much smaller show for viejos (old people), it was a cultural experience for us. The show of consisted of not only tango dances, but also a man playing the piano and the main tango dancer (a middle-aged woman) singing. In addition to all of this, since it was in the Tango Museum, we got to see all the artifacts after!
A new phrase we devised to describe our evening was "That's so Argentina." It carries so much meaning to our roommates, because it encompasses everything we've learned about the attitude of porteños. It has signified anything from arrogant to awkward to direct, and implies how everything spontaneously carries out to our evening's success. One of the tango dancers even asked Stacey and I out after the show, but we politely declined. So Argentina!
Stacey and I outside of where we saw our 1st tango show
Tango
La noche (the evening)
Jordin, Elizabeth, Stacey and I headed to Palermo for our Friday night adventure. We started at a cool place called Congo Bar with great music and a heated patio, but as the oddly observant person I am, I saw an advertisement in the bathroom stall about Friday nights at Necito Club in Palermo. Determined that it would be fun, I convinced everyone to try it out after getting directions from the bartender. There was a stack of what looked like business cards on the way out, so naturally for my scrapbook I grabbed a few. Turns out after reading it outside that it was a FREE ADMISSION COUPON for Necito Club! So we went back in, took as much of the stack as we can and headed to Necito. I don't know if this story is so Katie or so Argentina, I'll let you decide. We saved 30 pesos on cover and enjoyed Necito Club's Latin American atmosphere and Spanish music. For those who didn't know, blonde hair makes you look American, so a group of college students from Michigan and Penn State introduced themselves to us. It was a nice night!
Elizabeth and I before our night at Congo/Necito Club
Buenos Aires Zoo
This afternoon, we spent 2 1/2 hours in the Buenos Aires Zoo! Located near Plaza Italia where the beautiful botanic garden is, it was bound to be a nice area. Our ticket included entrances to the aquarium, rainforest area and reptile room, so we got a pretty good deal. The zoo had a variety of animals- everything from lions, tigers, bears...oh my, as well as the more unusual things like deer, hippopotamus' and cows (yes, at a zoo). The most amusing aspect of the Buenos Aires Zoo was that you are encouraged to feed the animals. Kiosks to buy animal food were just as frequent as soda stands in the US. Some animals even walk freely around the zoo. This screams lawsuit in America, but is just so Argentina. More pictures will be on Facebook, but here are some quick highlights:
Roommates at the zoo!
There's an aquarium there too!
Look at his face!
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