Hasta Luego Vamos Spanish Academy

Today has been both a happy and sad day, happy in the sense that we’ll no longer receive any homework though sad that our five-week Spanish language course has come to a close. it’s been an awesome five weeks which has seen me go from total beginner to beginner who can now conjugate several verbs in the present and past tense – I can order several beers and complain about my hangover the following day with regards to the beers drunk the night before!

I really rate Vamos Spanish Academy and our Porfessora, Solome has been excellent all the way through and has a cracking sense of humour – we’re taking her out next Wednesday evening to say thank you. Thomas also graduated today though sadly we leave behind both Alena and Joe as they didn’t make the grade and will need extra lessons, probably many months more…(!)

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Horses for Course(s) and Birthday nights out!

Yesterday saw the gang go horse racing at the Palermo Hipodromo, celebrating Bob’s birthday.

A thoroughly great evening ensued with everyone having a great time and the odd win or five! The race track is superb as are the stands – it’s also free to get in, I really recommend it as a night out though be warned, you cannot purchase alcohol there and I’m not sure if you can take your own supplies though I guess if you’re discreet you’ll be fine.

There were races every 30 minutes and placing a bet was straight forward – I literally picked a number and put $20 peso down – at one stage I was $250 peso’s up, though this was eclipsed by Thomas, who walked away with $460 pesos, every horse he picked won!

Simon’s (aka Tug’s,) are still running…

After a good couple of hours we left en-masse to a restaurant called ‘Kansas’ which overlooks the racetrack. It’s nice enough, all American fare, steaks, ribs, burgers etc. Unfortunately being such a large group saw us sat on two separate tables though following our meal we ended up at the bar drinking fernet cola before being ‘turfed’ out a little after 2am.

Skool, today, was very tough…

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Exams in the present…

Yesterday saw us completing our fourth week at Vamos Spanish Academy which means we’ve now completed 80 hours of intense lessons. Its been a fun-filled four weeks and we’ve all thoroughly enjoyed it – some more than others. Our group is quite tight, ourselves along with the Norwegian Thomas are the stalwarts of our group having started at the same time.

We also have Joe from Chicago, he joined three weeks back and Alena being the ‘newbie’ with only two weeks under her belt, though she’s also one of the stronger class mates! We’re a great bunch and all have a very good sense of humour which is important given we’re stuck with each other for four hours each morning. Our Professora Solme has also been superb, she’s really lovely and is a real credit to Vamos.

Over the last four weeks, we’ve been studying the present tense, of which I’m only just starting to get my head around. Being the end of our fourth week meant we would also be tested on what we’ve learned so far, all being well Monday might see us moving on to the past tense, or in my case, i’ll be kicked out of Argentina as I’m really not sure how I’ve done, guess I’ll find out on Monday…

Following classes we met up with Tug and headed back to Palermo Hollywood, capturing the following pieces along the way.

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Whilst making plans for a Friday night out, the doorbell rang and it was the rest of our class (plus others) seeing whether we were in – not having mobile phones it was quite amusing to have someone knock and ask whether you’re in/coming out – it was like being 12 again and I was in the mind to say that Shelley nor Tug were allowed out as they hadn’t yet had their tea!

We started off in late afternoon on our balcony and I awoke this morning – there’s at least two dozen empty beer and wine bottles in our flat so I guess a good night was had!!