Que casualidad.

As noted earlier, Nathan and I take our Spanish classes at the Laboratorio de Idiomas, in the dilapidated remains of a once lovely building. In class today, my teacher filled us in on some of the details of the building’s glorious history. Nearly one hundred years old, it was once the best hotel in Buenos Aires, where every couple spent their wedding night. The grand exterior and the lobby of the building hint at these better days. Sometime later, after one Argentine crisis or another, hard times came to the owners of the hotel, who were soon putting all those en suite rooms to use as a brothel. Eventually, the prostitutes and johns were cleared out, and the building was converted again into a bank. Many years and several more crises later, the building was further degraded as the ruin that now houses our language classes.

While my teacher was sharing this history with the class, the building superintendent knocked on the door, asking permission to briefly interrupt the class to show some engineers the building. When he heard the topic of our discussion, however, he insisted on delivering a brief lecture. “Nearly 100 years old! A magnificent hotel! Everyone stayed here, even, once, Isabel, the gordita, the daughter of the king of Spain. You should remember, when you walk up these stairs to class, that you are walking where Isabel walked.”

Our teacher sighed and rolled her eyes. The superintendent began to digress, asking, “Are there any Swedish students in the class? Ah, yes? Well, I had always thought that I would marry a pretty little brunette from Argentina. And yet, I have found myself married to a blonde from Sweden!” He then announced, slowly, in English, to be sure that we all understood, “MY VIKING WIFE.”

When the superintendent finally cleared out, our teacher said he told her that story about Isabel every time she complained about the always broken elevators. “Think of how Isabel, the gordita, once walked up these same stairs, he says. But I can only think of the four more flights I have to walk up.” -EMW