Recoleta Royal

So I have officially entered a whole new realm of Buenos. I am currently a part of the elite class, who resides in the Barrio Recoleta. I moved in to my new casa today (after enjoying a yoga class at ValleTierra, and an egg-white, yes egg-white omelet at this beautiful bookstore café that I discovered five blocks from my old residencia). Morgan helped me move in all my stuff, I am now a decent 40-minute walk from her; luckily the weather is quickly improving. So now I live with a senora in a fabulously nice apartment, on Parana (perfectly located between the IES school center and La Salle where I take classes). My new Mama’s name is Nelita Grimaldi, and she has four kids, one 28-year-old daughter who also lives in the apartment. The daughter is very cool, her name is Isabella and she works for Lancome in marketing. Nelita’s husband died two years ago, and now she just plays bridge with her friends (and even teaches bridge on Tuesday’s). There is also another girl from the program living here, she is from Claremont College, her name is Kelsey and she is very nice (and more importantly very normal!) I honestly didn’t know that this level of perfection exists. I must divulge in a few more details about my life to explain this level of perfection…
My “friend” (drum roll please, his name is Andy or Andres if you want his more Latin name) actually lives a short four blocks from my new McMansion. Tuesday Andy took me to the Recoleta (my new barrio!!!) cinema, where we watched the Simpsons in Spanish, and then we went out to an Italian dinner. There couldn’t be a better way to learn Spanish than to have a local “amigo.”
Speaking of amigos I must digress for a moment to explain my new painting class. So I had the first class on Monday, from 6-10pm. I trekked into the building lugging tons of painting stuff and feeling a little out my element. The university (UMSA) where I am taking the art class is only the art location, so arty students litter the sidewalk, smoking and discussing their various art classes etc. Upon entering the class two very friendly girls gave me the traditional peck on the cheek and proceeded to ask me tons of questions. They helped me set up my easel, so when the Professora came over and reprimanded me for missing the first three classes I didn’t feel as bad (as I was prepared and ready to paint! and I had new friends...) The teacher is an older mujer, who speaks only Spanish and was very understanding (but also very unexcited) about the fact that I had never taken an art class before. So I was given a simple model of a few cups and a vase to paint (one other guy from the program, Russell, is in the class too so we were together painting the “easy” display). It was frustrating to not be able to get the paint to work exactly how I wanted it to, and to not really understand what I was doing. But all these frustrations were quelled at our break, when the two friendly girls invited Russell and I along with them to purchase some Quillmes (cheap Argentine beer) and nuts and sit on the sidewalk outside the school discussing ‘arty’ things. One of the girls is actually from the states and has lived in Buenos Aires for 6 months already and another moved here to Buenos when she was in high school. The other art students were all Argentines, but apparently they would have been a lot colder, and less inviting had the expats not invited us in. I came close to finishing my first painting, and Russell, one of the girls from the art class and I all took the subte back to Palermo.
I am currently in my new room, lying on my new bed, typing on my computer…staring at the cute lavender walls and yellow trimming, and the eclectic art selection…I didn’t know it was possible to be this content.