First Post.

Funny what happens when you listen to your heart. My heart took me here, to Italy where I’m currently living. And now that I’ve established myself here, my heart turned right around and decided it should take me to Buenos Aires for a while instead. That’s fine. I’ve been dancing tango for four years now and I always felt guilty when people would ask me “Have you been to Buenos Aires yet?” and I said, head down, “no…”

So yesterday while visiting a friend up in Firenze, being the language-obsessed individual that I am, I bought three books: an Italian-to-Spanish dictionary, a Spanish grammar book (for Italians), and a book that I’m already in love with, “Buenos Aires, Tango a Parte” which is an Italian “guide” to Buenos Aires. It’s not a tourist book at all. It’s a beautifully written book with stories and secrets and history and, sure, a few hot tips. You could call it a travel book dedicated to what would bring pleasure to an Italian traveler.

Why all the Italian stuff? Well, apart from it being my second language, living in Italy I don’t have much else to choose from. Also, I’ve tried studying Spanish from an English-speakers point of view and it bored the heck out of me because I’m already well-versed in Latin-rooted languages. So I find that I have a much better time approaching it from an Italian point of view. One book I really want to get, is another one in Italian, about how to avoid the common mistakes and false friends that Italians tend to encounter when learning Spanish. My Spanish tutor will be mi amor, who is already down there visiting his family and waiting for me to get there. He’s making it his mission to condition my Spanish to be Argentine, so I’m already finding myself using “vos” instead of “tu” when trying to conjugate verbs.  (Did I mention that conjugating verbs is one of my favorite pasttimes?  Really.  It is.)

I really need to learn some Spanish since his family speaks no English, and I want to communicate with them, naturally. I’ve already spoken with his mother on the phone, and to be honest it was a lot of fun and it went really well. It was very short, but I mustered up what Spanish I knew, peppered it with Italian, and she went with it, and came across as a very sweet person. I’m excited to meet her. I’m slightly nervous as apparently several his relatives are very curious about who I am.

I’m excited and ready to get down to Buenos Aires. I find the tango scene here in Perugia is just not enough for me, as it is very small and there aren’t very many milongueros. That doesn’t mean I don’t love dancing here - I do very much, and these people have all become my friends. (And can I just say that on Wednesday night my footwork just totally rocked? Meow!) But, it’s just not the same as when I lived in Seattle. Seattle has a larger tango community for one thing, more milongueros, and an Argentine restaurant at which I have been known to perform at times (filling in for another girl). Anyway, I’m ready for my dancing to improve. I’m ready to have a summer. I’m ready to be with the man I love. I’m ready to eat very well at his mother’s house. I’m ready. Buenos Aires, here I come!