Borges and other delights

Because we missed a day of classes on Tuesday, we are in school for five hours a day this week instead of four. The last hour each day has been devoted to reading the literature of Borges who must be one of the most difficult of Latin American writers-you can´t escape into his stories but have to read them for their profound philosophical and cultural references. Very interesting but more to my taste than Mike´s and difficult for all after four intense hours of Spanish! However, this is what we are here for. Besides, we are hoping to take in a football match on Saturday between Argentina and Venezuela-Maradona´s first competitive game as trainer so there is something for everyone and for all moods!

We continue to enjoy BA and are amazed at the number of cultural spaces here and at their enthusiastic promotion. You probably don´t know how difficult it is to buy a ticket for the theatre in Chiclana-the box office only opens two or three eveings a week and before a performance and there is no online booking-or even to find out what is going on-we were still waiting for the printed spring programme to appear. when we left. By contrast, last night we were passing a cultural centre in downtown BA and just happened to stop to look at what they were offering, whereupon a young security guard rushed out and handed us a programme each, assuring us that entrance was free! So far we have only booked for the Tango group, but hope to do more once our heads have stopped reeling from our Spanish classes. More soon.