Monday October 5th, 2009

¡Hola amigos de Íbero!

Hi Íbero blog followers,

How was your weekend? Hopefully you enjoyed the great weather and got to know the city a little better. We hope you are having a great time in Buenos Aires, meeting new people, visitng new places and of course practicing Spanish! We wanted to let you know what we were up to last weekend and tell you about some of the things we did, places we went, etc. If you are looking for information on the activities planned for this week remember to check the previous post. Also, you are welcome to invite your friends to any of our activities. No need to rsvp, just show up & have a good time.

¡Los esperamos en las actividades de esta semana!

Monday we had our first conversation practice of the week. We went to a café called Estilo San Telmo, on the street Perú at 259. We met around 6pm and practiced speaking in Spanish till around 8. We also tried mate, while Juan Ignacio explained the history behind this traditional Argentine beverage. Sharing mate and having a conversation in Spanish was a nice relaxed way to use our Spanish outside of Íbero. If you haven't joined us yet for our "talleres de conversación" you should definitely check it out!

Wednesday afternoon we went to the Museum of Popular Art José Hernández. Students joined Juan Ignacio to visit this unique museum. We saw an exhibition of silver and china, as well as religious art from the North of the country, and even saw mask used in African rituals. This was a really interesting museum. In the patio we saw two gauchos peforming a "payada" they were filming for a television program on folkcloric traditions. If you haven't been, you should definitely check out the museum.


Thursday we had our weekly film screening at the school. We watched a movie called "Nos sos vos, soy yo", a comedy about a couple that breaks up and life after love. Watching movies with or without subtitles is a great way to practice hearing and understanding Spanish.

Friday we went with Juan Ignacio to Café del Ateneo Grand Splendid for another taller de conversación or Conversation Practice. We met at 6pm on the corner of Riobamba and la Avenida Santa Fe to go to the bookstore-café. While we enjoyed soda and café we practiced some of the things we are learning in class. We practiced speaking for about 2 and a half hours, asking Juan Ignacio when we did not know how to say something in Spanish. We had a great time and suggest everyone visit this café, which once a theater and is the largest bookstore in the city.

Saturday afternoon we went to the neighborhood of Boca and walked around what is called the Caminito. We met at 3pm to take the collectivo to Avenida Corrientes. Juan Ignacio told us about the history of barrio, how it came to be, who lived there, etc. We were able to visit a conventillo (click on the word for a description) and see how immigrants to Buenos Aires lived, with many people occupying very small living spaces. This is a unique barrio with a lot of history (like all of the barrios in Buenos Aires) and absolutely worth a visit.

Hopefully you've enjoyed the activites as much as we did!
See you this week!

-Thanks from the Staff at Íbero