Last night I played one of my favorite games ever: Taboo. The rules are simple. Get your team to guess a "secret word" that's written on the game's deck of cards, without using any of the other five "taboo" words that are printed on the card. I'm a bit of a Taboo fanatic, and have played (and...ahem...won) many a game, including the epic game of Jews vs. Gentiles cerca January 1, 2010.
But this time, I played Taboo in Spanish. At a Buenos Aires bar that serves up juegos de mesa - board games - alongside the Buenos Aires standard, liters of cold beer to share with friends. I'm proud, and somewhat amazed, to say that I was able to play and actually score some points for my team! And to top it all off, they spell it Tabú here, which just makes me smile.
Today I had my first Spanish class. Three hours a day, Monday through Friday, for one month, at La Universidad de Buenos Aires. Sounds official, no? I'm looking forward to being able to communicate more fluidly, and to curing my severe case of subjunctivitis, along with my related grammatical ailments.
Since I've been here, I have: witnessed a devastating loss the morning after having a devastatingly delicious asado at Nati's sister's place in Pilar; danced, as one does in Buenos Aires, until dawn; and I am ongoingly drinking mate, eating empanadas, and hoarding the much-coveted monedas needed to take local buses. Yes, I'm back in Buenos Aires.
