El Abrazo y Maipu 444 - 11.23

Went to Conf. La Ideal this afternoon. On the way, picked up another pair of Non "gringo" looking shoes at Flabella. The place looks like a small warehouse, where boxes of shoes are stacking up six feet tall and takes up half of the tiny store space.

The owner is a funny guy, but good sales man. He saw me holding a tango magazine looking at the showcase, greeted me at the door and half dragged me into the store. He speaks English and helped me find a pair in no time. He hold me face with his hands and kissed me on the forehead. Gee, only my friends do that. The price of the shoes is very reasonable. Mine costs only $169 pesos. And I wanted to pick up another pair. He couldn't find my size but told me to come back on Tuesday. I left the store happy and walked to the Conf. la Ideal,which is only a block down.

I was wearing blue jeans and green t-shirt with a black sweater on top, pretty stand out in the crowd. Most of the people are senior milongueros y milongueras, with four or five turistas but dressed in skirts and pants. I felt a bit under dressed.

Put on my new shoes and tried them on the floor. Wow, the floor is way too slippery, those marble tiles. TG, I was prepared and had my old suede bottom shoes in my bag. I looked around and didn't find any one in particular that I would practice my newly obtained cabeceo skill on. So I sat and observed the floor.

Saw my fellow New Yorkers. Tried to cabeceo her for a dance to warm up, didn't get much response. She was sitting too far, or maybe didn't want to dance with me. Anyway, I focused my attention to the floor.



You know what, the level of dances were mixed at this afternoon milonga. There are not so good and bad Argentine dancers. Some of the old men were leading with their hands. Let's get this idea out of the way: not every old milongueros is a good dancer.

My first and successful cabeceo went to a tall blonde woman. When I walked on the floor, I felt a few eyes were on back. " Look at this guy, wears jeans and his green t-shirt untucked under his sweater. " But soon as I started dancing, I caught the surprised looks on the faces of the milongueros who were sitting aside.

The woman was good dancer and turned out she was from Norway! We had a nice tanda and I walked her back to her seat. ( Yes, I am learning.) Then I was about leave for my 7:00pm class.
I put back my sneakers and went to my NY tangueras' table to say goodbye. She wanted me to stay for another five minutes. The vals was playing and I asked her for a tanda. Again, I felt that people were watching as we danced around... I felt a bit out of place in the jeans and sweater with t-shirt untucked under, and dancing in sneakers. I guess my dance skill and posture had saved some grace for my fellow turista tangueros.

I went to Jorge Firpo's milonga con transpie class after. He is a fun guy and referred me as "chico from Nuevo York." Reason: I didn't dance to the tiempo. But he helped me to get the feel of transpie. And guessed whom I ran into in the class, the guy who maintains the www.newyorktango.com. What's up with all these New Yorkers? They are all here!

The class was a little unbalanced: a couple of hot and good fellowers but a bunch of not so good leaders (myself included). I didn't have a chance to dance with any of those gorgeous women, but I left with better understanding of milonga traspie. And the cost of the class: 15 pesos, totally worth it.

Went down the block to Maipu 444, which is a small milonga. Got there around 9:30pm and only twenty dancers were there at the time. Most of them are seniors. I cabeceoed and danced with a new acquaintance from last night at Nino Bien and left half hour later to have my dinner downstairs.

I missed the last subway back to the apartment so I had to catch a cab again. I did a little math. It is true that cab is inexpensive here, average 10-15 peso a ride. But taking multiple rides a day can quickly add the cost up to 60 pesos. I should take advantage of the public transportation more.

Got back to the apartment just before mid night and didn't want to go out again to the milongas. Instead, I went to check out the bars and clubs in the neighborhood. I went to Niceto, which is similar to the east village area in NY. Clubs and bars are right next to each other. I didn't get in to the club. A bit unease amidst the 18-20 year old crowd, though the girls are hot, hot, hot...

Went to a bar instead and ordered a mojito. Cabeceo in the dark to a few women, no one took the bait. So I left soon after, and caught a cab home. Then I realized how close it is from my apartment and the guy whom drove me over had taken me for a ride. He circled around a bit and turned the 5 peso ride into a 7 peso one. Damn... hated to be taken advantage of. Necesito hable mejor espanol a la proxima.