Buenos Aires, Argentina

I felt better with my Spanish today, took a little test and did better than I thought, I also found I can name quite a few fruit and vegetables just from shopping and ice cream flavours! Tonight there is a traditional asado organised by the school at a residential house, technically it is not a BBQ, and the suggestion can cause offence….but it is essentially a pile of meat cooked over coals. It looks like the meat is prepared with a salt type preparation before cooking, and the rack over the coals is slanted (like a house roof). The address is in Belgrano, looks like a affluent neighbourhood and I catch the Subte out there. I do manage to trap my arm in the Subte door, which is a tad embarrassing but I recovered it well! We meet at 8.30pm and I am deliberately starving. The house is at the base of a block of flats, and I am surprised how open it is, leading onto a wide terrace that can house a table for 20 and has a asado at one end. I am not sure if he is hired or part of the family, but the guy is busy filling the rack with all sorts of meat – morcilla (blood sausage), lamb ribs, steak chunks, aubergine, chorizo sausage. Faye and the Kiwis are already here, and they have thought to bring alcohol. Two Dutch guys, Thomas and Wilfred are heading out to buy beer so I put in some cash for a couple of bottles of wine….decent Malbec is available for around £5. It is a lovely evening, I obviously drink too much wine before dinner is served at 11pm but manage to put a decent effort in eating a bit of each meat. After dinner there is a movement towards heading to a Salsa club, it is the last time I will see the 2 Kiwis so feel it would be fun to have a dance. Faye for some reason has brought a bike, so we were slightly concerned as she wobbled off in the wrong direction (she did get home safe). There are about 10 of us that head to the club by taxi, its free for women and we head up to the Columbian themed party. It is a good laugh and aside from the terrifying part when a stranger asked me to dance (he was very kind and didn’t complain when I went the wrong way) I really enjoyed the atmosphere. I was surprised that it was 3am before I knew it, some of the group were heading off and the music changed so I decided to head home. I started off walking, before deciding that taxi was probably safer and would be quicker. I realised Dad had just made a scrabble move so was awake early morning, quite funny wishing him Buenos noches as he started his day.