Miracle in Uriburu Street..

Uriburu is the street we are living on for the month. The miracle is this: we walked to at least two places and back without getting lost! We took our map out only once and I think we are actually getting the hang of where the hell we are at any given moment within 4 blocks of our place. There are no landmarks, such as mountain (as in ABQ), to get our bearings and the streets wind around in little mazes. Between the two of us, we manage to have one brain to negotiate the directions. I am a map person and "see" directions by visualizing a map in my head. I am very challenged to memorize this map for some reason.

The biggest miracle is I found a nail place that did nails and waxing for $18 total. Also I am getting a massage today for $18! H reminded me I could have gotten 12 treatments for what I paid for ONE on the ship! I had to remind him that on the sea, the massages are "special" because of all that rocking you know? Ha! The woman who did my nails spoke not a word of English but she spent the hour trying to "teach me " something, or some beauty phrases. Sorry my friend, beauty Spanish phrases are not high on my list! She was very sweet though. Her named was "Esther". I tried to explain I had a close "Amiga" in the states named "Esther". I think she understood! (hi E!) I will get the discount massage today and post how that goes. I hope the cheaper price does not mean cheaper massage!

We found me a pair of shoes that are beautiful and more conducive for walking the miles and miles we will be walking. We then headed to the gym, where we bought a month membership at the "Megathlon". The gym is very nice. It has new equipment, treadmills, weights, but no pool. Guess my swimming training will have to wait until my return to snow country..They even had a "virtual sinning class" You sit on a spin bike, tune into a channel on the radio station, then follow the guys in front of you on the TV screen. It was all in Spanish but I figured looking at the gorgeous guy teachers, I should get more of a workout with my heart race a bit higher..:). As I went through the weight machines, I slowly noticed I was the only woman in the place amoung lots of young guys. Somehow this made me feel weird and old. Probably they were looking thinking "what the hell is this "abuela" (grandma) doing in here?" Finally another 2 women showed up. 

We found a Tango Show to go to on Christmas Day. They will pick us up and drop us off. Dinner, show and ride all in one. Apparently on Christmas Eve., the whole city shuts down, even many restaurants. We plan to get something to cook and eat at home, then go out and watch the many Firework Displays they have at midnight. I wanted to find a beautiful old church to go to on Christmas Eve., but we are having difficulty finding such a place here, so we will wing it. 

Speaking of restaurants, we went to one last night that got high ratings on Trip Advisor. It was close and claimed to have "great steak", the "best I have ever had!" by one patron. Ok, the place was cute, I will give it that. The waitress spoke English. My new favorite phrase now is "Hablan English?". She did..I ordered an appetizer of "grilled cheeses" I thought I would get little slices of cheese grilled with tomato. Instead I got a round slab of "grilled cheese" without the bread. It was inedible to me. We also ordered "glazed sweet potatoes"; what we got was fried yam French Fries, the greasiest we had ever seen. The steaks we ordered had a funny taste and were like leather. The cows here are grass fed and leaner. Please give me back my corn fed cows! So much for trusting Trip Advisor....All the comments must have been the family of the restaurant owners! We have decided we are eternally jaded by our cruise food and service! 

                                                                                         Hartley before we knew the food sucked!

                        It was a cute place..

Our night was redeemed by scarfing down the pudding cake we had purchased back at the ranch and watching the finale of "X-Factor" on the local delayed English station. A little taste of home. 

We once again read about snow, snow, snow in New Mexico! Apparently the freeway was closed for the 2nd time in a week. Very unusual for ABQ. I have been wanting it to snow like this for years and now it does while we are enjoying summer! I cannot complain..the weather here is sunny and in the 80's. The only downside is the extreme humidity but I will shut up now!

We just woke up again at 9:30 and dragged ourselves out of bed. We are obviously on the night track now. We plan on sleeping in totally on Christmas Day and see how long we can really "sleep in". We are taking another field trip to the American Express office again today. It looks like that will be the afternoon today!

Correction: the Tango school was not in the basement of the Armenian Embassy, H corrected me...they used the word "embassy" but it was an Armenian dinner club. I stand corrected. Still seems weird to me..