Tuesday July 22, 2008
Today at 9:00 am local time 4 people began Pranayama breathing in a “Jimmy” rigged, boot leg class room in our temporary rental loft in Palermo Soho. I have been in Buenos Aires for exactly 16 days. I had room for maximum 6 and there were 4! 4!
Jimmy helped me get set up and helped people find their way upstairs. Before they left 3 of them had booked in for their next classes, today and tomorrow.
The room wasn’t hot enough and the yoga mats were cheesy foam rubber camping mats and there were no showers but it was the best class ever! It was the first Bikram yoga class in Argentina and I taught it. I charged A$R25 which is about $8.50. It will go up when I have a real studio but I was so excited to be making money! The people here are very open to yoga and the expats here are hungry for the things they had at home in their own language. Eventually I’ll teach classes in English and Spanish but for now I am only teaching in English. Everyone we meet tells Jimmy and I how admirable it is that we have found our footing here so quickly.
One of my yoga students is also going to be a coaching client. That is exciting also. I know that we are both going find huge success here. I am hungry for the next few months of learning and discovery.
This afternoon we went to an exchange bank where we had to be told how many pieces of really expensive and difficult to come by papers we would need to obtain to prove we aren’t drug dealers or, yes, this is a direct quote, “bad people”. Before you can bring money into Argentina (unless you are Mafioso from other latin american countries and you come on the president’s private jet) you have to “prove” you earned the money legally. Of course, none of the stuff they ask for actually proves any thing. It only causes lots of stress, expended (read: wasted) money, time and energy and makes people look as if they are doing something useful. I mean for the love of God, if I were a drug dealer why would I buy a $130,000 house?!?!?! I am buying a $130,000 house because I can’t afford anything more! What kind of sorry drug dealer would I be if I couldn’t afford anything more than a $130,000 house?
Afterward, we had a nice cafe con leche served by a lovely flirtatious older fellow who convinced me to try the cheese cake. It wasn’t like cheese cake from home. It was like this gorgeous, rich parfait with some kind of sliver of cake around it and sprinkled with powdered sugar. On the way back to the Subte I found a cool purse that has an over the shoulder strap so the motorcycle bandidos can’t snatch it and an inside zipper pocket behind a click lock snap in front so the subte bandidos can’t open it.
Ah Buenos Aires, you lovely, cruel, completely indifferent lover.
Give me a hit of that cigarette and then let me get some sleep.
I’ve had enough of you today.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment