Settling In!

Hey everyone!

So Shane and I have finally moved into our apartment! It's really nice. We've got a big living room, a little kitchen, our OWN bedroom (finally) and a medium sized bathroom. Another neat feature is we have a laundry room that turns into a patio. There is a little stick that you can turn and it takes the glass roof off. The weather isn't very good right now so we haven't used it yet, but when it gets nice out we will definitely be using it. Maybe I can finally catch some sun... since we don't have any beaches in Buenos Aires!

It took us a while to actually decide if we wanted to move into this place. During this past week we had some difficulties including money and finding a gym for Shane to train. We discovered this little gym just outside Palermo which was interesting. Shane and I walked over to it (about 20 minutes walk) and watched one of the classes. I could tell from the look on Shane's face that it wasn't really what he was looking for. It was just a little space that the people rented out inside a gym. We decided to keep searching and after a couple days Shane FINALLY found the name of a Master outside of the city. His name is Master Pini.

On Thursday we took a journey on the train to find this hidden gem. The place is called Tropezon. It took us about 15 minutes on the bus and 30 minutes on the train to actually find the place. Our first step of the train, and our first view of the little community made us question what we were doing. It didn't look like a very safe place and we were a little timid to walk the streets in search of the gym. It didn't take us long and when we got there the gym was awesome! The only problem was the Master only spoke Spanish. Thank God his son was there to translate for us. I could tell Shane was more comfortable there than at the other gym. Master Pini was more than accomadating. He took us in his car and showed us around his community and the other two gyms (besides his own) that he teaches and trains his students. The facilities were amazing. The gyms were huge. There was a separate gym that was designated for just boxing which was really neat. There was a swimming pool to train in, a huge gym upstairs for just TKD, and a hotel for the sports people who were visiting and training at the facility. The best part about all of this... is that it is free to use! Master Pini told Shane that he would also train him for free and let him train at his gym. As well, he is allowed to use the other two facilities for free and him and I are able to stay in the hotel whenever we want for free! It was really nice.
Now for the funny part... haha :)

Shane didn't explain to me the importance of being proper in front of this Master so I embarrassed him a little bit. It was getting really cold outside and I was only wearing capris. So when we were in Master Pini's car I decided I should put my wind pants on. Shane stared at me blankly while I started to put them and and he was shaking his head. I just looked at him and told him it was alright I could do it! I thought that he just thought I wasn't flexible enough to put them on in the car. Later, he tells me that it was so improper for me to do that because usually students under the Master don't usually get to even talk to them! Oops...

Another embarassing moment for Shane was when we were saying our goodbyes. It is tradition in Argentina for you to lightly kiss someones cheek and pat their back when saying hello and goodbye. I'm just beginning to learn this as I always pull away. This time I thought I'm going to be brave and just go for the kiss! So when Master Pini was saying goodbye to me I gave him a big kiss on the cheek and a really big hug. Again, later in the evening, Shane explained and demonstrated to me how the goodbye was really done. I was VERY aggressive he said but we just laughed at it. Shane saw Master Pini yesterday and said that everything went smoothly that time.

Now we're all settled into our apartment and ready to begin more adventures. Today, we went to the Japanese Gardens. They were nice... but I think they will be better in the summer time. A lot of the trees here have no leaves on them because it's winter time. There was a restaurant in the middle of the gardens that served sushi and we decided we were going to try it. We went into the restaurant and sat down and the guy gave us menus. About 15 minutes later, after trying to translate everything, it was just a drink menu. The guy informed us that they stopped serving lunch at four and they don't serve supper until 8.

That is the way down here in Argentina! People eat so late. You can't go to a good restaurant until after 8:00pm. It's actually really frustrating because we get hungry around 5!
When we got back home we decided to go get groceries. Now we can eat whenever we want. :)
Tonight we are relaxing and watching English movies on T.V. Lately we've been really tired and have been enjoying the peace and quiet of our little apartment.

This week we plan on starting Spanish Lessons, Shane is going to get back into training everyday (he's already complaining about being sore!), and we might possibly take a tango lesson!
I will try to keep posting as much as I can.

Much Love from both of us!
xoxo