Superclásico
Today would have been the first Superclásico I had a chance to watch since arriving in BA. Technically I could have watched Boca and River face off in the their fabled fútbol rivalry back on October 8th, but that was only the second day of my stay in Buenos Aires and therefore doesn’t count. Vanesa and I had planned to meet her sister Romina, husband Martín, and a friend to watch the game at a restaurant or bar. However, they weren’t in the mood for traveling and therefore bailed on us. So, Vanesa and I walked the streets of Almagro looking for a place to watch the game. (You need a special antenna or it’s some sort of pay-per-view event. I’m not sure which). We checked some crowded restaurants and even passed up on an empty Chinese restaurant because we thought it would be boring to watch the game without many other people. After walking down to 10 blocks to check out Loco for Fútbol and seeing it was full, we returned to the Chinese restaurant as a last option. But when we showed up, it was full! Vanesa was frustrated, tired, and hungry. We missed the game and grabbed a couple burgers and hung out at her apartment. Next time we’ll have to make reservations somewhere like everyone else seemed to do. Better yet, we’ll be at the next game!
That night as we were talking, Vanesa broke down crying out of frustration. She was looking through the classifieds and many of the jobs required computer abilities or an English speaker. She told me how she really didn’t want to take her job to begin with, but did so just to make sure she had work when she began her classes. Her work at a print shop doesn’t challenge her, is very repetitive, and doesn’t pay well. Her tears were the accumulation of frustration from years of having to scrape by and work in mediocre jobs. She had been trying to be positive about the situation for so long, but it was getting to be too much. A few of the skills she really wanted learn were Microsoft Office, typing correctly, and of course English. I told her I would be more than happy to help teach her all three things. Obviously English is the most difficult of the three and requires the most time. She already has the books and a grammatical base from high school. I reminded her that learning a language is rewarding, but it’s a job at times. She said she’d be willing to work on it 4 or 5 days a week rather than just occasionally like we had been doing. We did exercised that day and Monday. I really love teaching (especially her) and I hope it goes well.
