It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.

Well, it's another rainy Sunday here in Buenos Aires, it's kind of nice though that it only has rained on Sundays so far because I woke up at 3 p.m. from being out the night before and I wouldn't want to waste a pretty day in the city. Last night, we ventured out onto Niceto street, a street about 15 blocks away lined up with bars and boliches. After surveying the crowds lined up at the different ones, seeing only old men at some, the boliche we chose was Wet. There was a giant disco ball outside the door so of course, I was sold. We walked inside only to hear none other than good old U.S. music....from the 80s. The place wasn't crowded when we got there at 2 a.m. but by 3 the place was full of mostly portenos (locals) and they crossed over to the popular reggaeton. The highlight of the night for me is when they started playing Y.M.C.A. and watching everyone attempt to do the hand motions, I was cracking up and it was great. 

It's been another great week here in Buenos Aires. The rainy weather from last weekend finally cleared up on Monday and the rest of the week has been sunny and high 50s. Perfect weather to explore the neighborhood and see the zoo, botanical gardens, and go to La Boca. I finally figured out how to use the colectivos (buses) here! They are great to use and with close to 200 routes, they really do go everywhere. I finished up my week at Expanish now my three week class is over and it is time to start orientation at UCA, tomorrow!! I cannot wait to start meeting other internationals and students at UCA. My PAL, which is my buddy that will help me with anything I need with UCA, Buenos Aires, Argentina in general, emailed me this week. His name is Matias, he sent me his email in English but I responded in Spanish so now that's how we are conversing...mucho mejor! He is from Patagonia but will be back in B.A. on August 5 and then we can meet up, I'm looking forward to that! 

So Tuesday was Dia del Amigo, Friend's Day. Doesn't it sound like a nice little hallmark holiday for friends to say thank you for being a friend? That's what we thought too, until we went to Siga La Vaca for dinner. A famous parilla libre in Puerto Madero, right next to UCA. After waiting two hours for a table, the five of us walked through the restaurant which felt like we were walking down the red carpet, tables and tables of guys whistling, saying things to us, and even clapping as we sat. We were all a little delusional from being so hungry, it was midnight at this point, and we just sat down and got up to get our meat. We had guys coming up to us talking to us, giving us their business cards. Dia del Amigo is clearly a day for single guys to go out and find women. Kind of like most of the nights here in B.A. but I digress. 

However, I ate a little too much because the next day I was in bed all day with a stomach bug. My apartment mates made sure I was well hydrated and I was as good as new on Wednesday. 

The six of us from Richmond were separated into two classes for our three weeks at Expanish. Last week, we had a highly competitive game of Pictionary en espanol. Unfortunately, I was on the losing  team so May, the other teacher told us to bring in facturas for the last day of class. What are facturas you ask? I was having horrible flashbacks of my math days thinking she wanted factorial numbers or fractions, but actually a factura is a cake or some type of sweet. Even though May is from Spain, she still has that Argentina sweet tooth. The last morning of class on our walk from the subte stop, we picked up some medialunas, Argentine croissants with honey flavor that are usually an afternoon snack with a cafe con leche. 

Friday, Helen and I ventured to the zoo and botanical gardens three blocks away from us. The botanical gardens was filled with palm trees and pretty plants and there were cats...everywhere! I have never seen so many cats, I guess that is where they all hang out in the city. The zoo was so much fun, it's a huge zoo right in the middle of the city. There are a ton of animals, my favorite were the llamas and the giraffe. Dinner that night we went to this great restaurant in Retiro for Sarah's birthday. It was another guys' birthday from Expanish so a bunch of us celebrated. Afterwards, we went to an Irish pub where the crowd was a bit older than us. They had a good band though and I got to talk to some internationals who had been here for a few months and gave some good advice about B.A. We ended up at a bariloche closer to our apartment in Palermo. I didn't stay out too late, 4 a.m. haha because I was still recovering from being sick that week. 

Saturday, we took a bus and finally got where we wanted to go! The buses are great, there are so many of them all around the city and they come every couple of minutes. Plaza Italia, which is our subte stop and one block away has almost all of the bus lines stop there which is great for when I want to get somewhere. We took it to La Boca which is on the other side of the city. It is where the famous Boca Juniors play at La Bombonero. I definitely want to get a jersey and get to a game while I'm here! We walked around El Caminito the famous section of La Boca that is filled with bright, multicolored apartment buildings. 

Street  performers line the street and there are tons of local artists selling their art. It was really unique and made an average photographer, such as myself, appear to be artsy and talented. On our way back to our apartment, we had an early dinner at a small cafe. I had pumpkin ravioli, they love pumpkin here! That night we went out to Niceto Vega which is a street lined with boliches. Today has been a relaxing day, doing some laundry, going to the grocery store, and watching a movie. Tonight, Dillon, who is one of the two boys from Richmond is coming over for dinner. He just got here two days ago because he broke his foot and was healing at home so he is finally here in B.A. right in time for orientation. I'll keep everyone updated on orientation and UCA! I can't wait :) Besos a todos!

Don't show up until 2 a.m.

I'm looking out my balcony window right now curled up on the couch with a cup of te verde and listening to the rain fall outside. It has been raining all morning and is supposed to keep raining until tomorrow night. We had plans to go to La Boca today, the oldest neighborhood of BA but because of the weather we went to MALBA (Museo de arte latinoamerica de Buenos Aires.) As I have been titled Dora, as in the explorer on the kid's tv show, I looked up the best route to get there which unfortunately included a 14 block walk in the rain and wind. Soaked, we finally got to MALBA. This is a smaller museum with a permanent gallery and then a seasonal exhibition. The exhibition that was there now included many photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe, a New York City native. It was the first time his work, or that of a retrospective photographer has been displayed in Latin America. My personal favorite of the museum's collection was Frida Kahlo's self-portrait with a parrot and a monkey. It was really neat to see it in person after studying Kahlo so much in high school. 

Before the first night out in BA to a Boliche!

My Expanish class went well this week, this upcoming week is the last and then orientation! My teacher, Juan, is really nice and time goes by quickly in class because we are having a good time. I've learned new ways to say certain things and I finally can comprehend the accent and I'm starting to have it myself! I've gotten used to taking the crowded subway in the morning and during the lunch hour rush hour. As long as you just think of something else, or what you need to do later that day you don't even notice the heat as you are wrapped up in your winter coat and jammed in between people. 

This week was rebajas week which meant that all the stores were having their sales because of the changing of seasons. We walked on Santa Fe which is the main avenida one block up from our apartment and walked into all of the small boutiques along the way. The style here is very sleek and women like to dress up and look nice. Even at the gym, where most women's 'workouts' include wearing the newest and trendiest workout outfits and walking on the treadmills. There is a gym three blocks away that we joined this week but as a prerequisite you need to get a physical exam by the gym's doctor. Ok, sounds fine but they also give you an EKG which isn't routine in the states but only takes a few minutes here. The doctor asked for my family health history and everything was in Spanish until I needed to take the EKG and he just points to the exam table and says 'lie down, take off.' It was really amusing. The gym is really basic but nice considering all this delicious food we eat! 

The view from the restaurant of Plaza Serrano at night!

Friday night was the first night we went out in BA and we went to a boliche (disco/club) called Crobar. We didn't go until 2 a.m. and that still was on the early side. The place was huge, it probably held about 1.000 people and I left with my friend Perry around 5 a.m. but it doesn't close until 8 a.m....insane! It was a lot of fun though, they played mostly American music with  little bit of techno thrown in there. I slept until 3 the next day and then we ordered empanadas for takeout. It's a strange schedule here, so different from the states. We walked down to Plaza Serrano, which is a great little plaza ten blocks away from us filled with bars, restaurants, street vendors, and a fair during the weekends. It has a lot of character and the walk down to it was nice, too. So many stores and restaurants and pretty apartment buildings with plants on the balconies. Everyday here is a new adventure, the city has so many different smells, neighborhoods, things to see and places to explore. I'm really enjoying city life and each day finding out new great things about Buenos Aires! 

First trip- MENDOZA!

First off let me just say VIVA ESPANA!!! Anyways, so we just got back from our first excursion to Mendoza! It was great! We took a 13 hour bus ride straight across the country to Mendoza! A cute little city that reminds me of Boulder, CO. It was right in the foothills of the Andes mountains. Our group included thirteen of us, 12 students from Expanish or who used to take Expanish earlier in the month who were still in Buenos Aires and Leticia (Leti) or guide from a travel agency that works with Expanish. The bus ride was actually really relaxing. We got on the double decker bus and were in seats that are similar to business class on an airplane. They almost reclined 180 degrees. Emanuel, our 'bus attendant' handed out bingo cards and we all played a bingo type game on the bus. None of us won, but the prize? A bottle of wine from Mendoza of course! We watched the movie Taken on the bus ride there which, if any of you know is about two girls traveling alone to Paris and getting kidnapped, not the best movie to play. We then had dinner which consisted of rice, ham & cheese, crackers, pudding-like substance and chicken breast stuffed with a hard boiled egg and ham. The stars on the ride there were beautiful and crystal clear! There are no lights on the roads at night and some parts of the road are pretty bumpy. I slept through until the morning. Breakfast was some crackers and jam and two alfajores. An alfajore is somewhat similar to a mallomar cookie, except instead of marshmallow in the middle it is dulce de leche. It's circular shaped and dipped in either dark, white, or milk chocolate. They have different flavors, too such as coffee and hazelnut. They are delicious!! 

We got to the hostel, settled in then went on a wine tour of two vineyards, one was older and now is organic and the other was just built four years ago and uses all modern machinery. They were both smaller vineyards and only had four different kinds of wine, but of course with the famous malbec grapes. We also toured an old olive oil factory and a small factory that made their own chocolates and liquors. They had over 20 varieties of liquors from after dinner drinks to absinthe! We got to sample the wines, olives, chocolate and liquor! It was obviously a great day for us! That night at the hostel, they had a 'choriloco' for us which meant sausage sandwiches, they were great! We then had Fernet's and coke which is a popular drink here. Fernet's is sold in the U.S. and is apparently very popular in San Francisco. It reminds me of the Czech Becherovka in the sense that it's made from flowers and cinnamon. That night our group went out to a bar, but in true Argentine fashion didn't leave until about 1 a.m. to get there. 

The next morning we woke up at 7 a.m. to take a bus to the Andes! We spent about twelve hours driving to the border of Chile. We stopped along the way at Incan ruins, a national park, a lake, lunch at a cute skiing resort, and other good views of mountains to take pictures. We had an excellent dinner that night, we went out with some of our new friends that were on the trip with us. We went to a parrilla which is a restaurant that gives you a few types of beef, chicken, sausages, and (yuck) gizzards on a mini grill that they bring out for you. It's absolutely delicious! That night, the hostel had free drinks for us! Would you EVER find that in the states? We had some drinks and hung out, then I took a nap because no one was going out until 2:30 a.m....but I never woke up until the morning. I needed my sleep though! 

Sunday, we walked around the city of Mendoza all day. We went to the Parque San Martin, which is a park about the size of Central Park. There was a really pretty fountain, an open air market, a small lake, and palm trees! The weather was gorgeous, hot almost! It was nice compared to the frigid Andes the day before. We had a really nice lunch as we watched the world cup. I asked our waiter and he was supporting the Netherlands. I asked why and he said because of tensions that South America has had with Spain in the past, and he just didn't really like their team that much...makes sense. We watched the rest of the game, got our luggage, and headed to the Mendoza bus station. 

We arrived back in B.A. midmorning and headed back to our apartment. Today is Helen's birthday, one of my apartment mates. We didn't go to class today because we got back late because of traffic on the highway around B.A. We are having a yummy dinner, baking a cake, and then going out to ice cream because that's what she wants for her birthday! Sounds good to me! Our cleaning lady came today and literally was here for four hours. She cleaned every single nook and cranny of this apartment. Her name is Gladys and she is really sweet. I also figured out how to use our bite-sized washer so we can do some laundry here! Otherwise, we can bring our sheets and things down the street and the laundromat does it for us. We made some friends this weekend on our trip and we are looking forward to hanging out with them this next coming weekend! Besos a todos!

The first week

Hola a todos! Well, it's been a busy first week here in B.A. but a really great one, too! We left the hotel Monday morning and went to Expanish. This is where we are taking classes until the last weekend in July and then we start our actual classes for the semester at UCA. The six of us from Richmond were separated into two groups and we each have a teacher and a class for 4 hours a day, 9-1. My teacher, Juan, is about 25 and recently graduated from UBA, Universidad de Buenos Aires. Class is a lot of fun with him and I'm learning a lot. I'm used to Spain spanish and they have a completely different accent here and another form for tu, which is vos. They basically just put a stronger accent on the end of verbs when in the tu  form. Also, when saying words like yo or calle, the 'y' and 'll' sounds like 'sh' which has been interetsing trying to pick up on. 

We moved into our apartment Monday afternoon and finally got settle in! Our landlord is a really nice woman from Sweden who has been living here for some time now and this is her friend's apartment who moved back to Sweden. The apartments decor is very IKEA like, which is nice and simplistic. There is a decent sized kitchen, a living/dining room, three bedrooms, two full bathrooms, a small utility/laundry room, and a long balcony. Our neighborhood is really cute. There are lots of families in the area. The main grocery store, Disco, is four blocks away but there is a smaller one right around the corner in case we need to pick anything up, such as chocolate :)! I bought a nice towel and a pillow the other day. I put up my picture collage on my closet door and now it really does feel like a new home in a new place. The picture above is me with the vino and our first dinner in the apartment. There are several cafes and authentic restaurants on our street, too where many of the locals go. The subte stop is two blocks away on a busy avenida (avenues are the large streets in BA) with banks and the police station is a block away, just in case! Yesterday for lunch, we decided to stop on our way home from school at a cafe on the corner, we had delicious salads and empanadas, they are filled with either beef, chicken, corn & potatoes, spinach, or cheese & ham and they have sort of a phyllo dough outside and then they are baked. Not a bad lunch! 

The grocery stores here are pretty nice. They don't do a whole ton of refrigeration here, the eggs aren't kept refrigerated, but we do in the apartment. If you need to go to the bigger grocery stores, make sure you don't need to rush anywhere. Usually the lines are halfway down the aisles. They have a line designated for pregnant women and the elderly. Even though this is the capital of the country and it is very big and well-developed, life is still slower paced here. At restaurants, you only tip 10% which is really nice and you don't tip anyone else for anything. 

On Tuesday, Expanish reserved tables a restaurant called 'La club de la milanesa' which is a small and delicious chain in BA. Milanesa is the meal with breaded chicken or veal and then typically ham and cheese on top. At the restaurant there were other toppings as well, other types of cheese, meats, and vegetables. We've been able to find lots of good veggies and fruit at local markets and at smaller cafes. After dinner we went with some others from Expanish to 'Shamrock' a local bar which we were imagining to have an Irish vibe to it, but actually it was rather dark and not that great, so we probably won't be back anytime soon. 

Well, tomorrow is their Independence Day and their bicentennial. Most portenos, what people in BA call themselves, leave the city so in true form, we are headed to Mendoza with a few others from Expanish tonight until Monday morning. We are taking one of Argentina's famous bus lines that has seats similar to business class on an airplane, we leave tonight at 9 p.m. and get in around 10:30 in Mendoza. I'll blog about that early next week! Love!!

first post in argentina!

Hola everyone! well, it´s been a great first 24 hours of being in buenos aires!! i am at a hotel for the first 2 nights, so i move into the apartment with the 4 other girls tomorrow afternoon. the 5 of us are the hotel right now and we are right in the center of downtown. we watched the soccer game yesterday morning on this huge screen that they set up right in the middle of avenida 9 de julio, the widest road in the world (16 lanes wide!!) and everyone was out. no one was working, everyone was watching. and at the end of the game i have never seen so many men cry! it was really sad, this country loves their soccer!
I am using the computer at the hotel because the wireless internet isn´t really working on my laptop but the keyboards are different here. this city is great, i haven´t even seen half of it yet, but what i have so far i absolutely love. the subte, their subway system, is really easy to use and convenient for getting from our apartment to school. they eat a smaller lunch here, just a sandwhich or something light and then a snack around 5 or so and that at 10 or even later is dinner. we were starving so ate at 9 last night, we´ll get use to it soon enough. it´s really important to always be aware of your surroundings here, they do have an issue with pickpocketing so it´s important to always keep an eye on your bag and have it directly in front of you. our guide yesterday from expanish, which is the company we are taking our pre-semester spanish course with, gave us tips about putting money in gum containers or somewhere else other than a wallet just in case we ever are in a situation where someone asks to see our wallet, we have other money other places. you don´t feel unsafe walking around, but it´s still good as a precaution.
everyone kept yelling at us yesterday thinking we are germans, but i think that´s because of the soccer game. in a way it is kind of nice to know that not everyone thinks we are stupid americans, haha. our guide, lorena, said that i could pass for an argentine, so that´s good. i´ve been able to use my spanish a lot so far and understand way more than i thought i did. i guess studying abroad last summer really helped, plus nannying this summer and speaking spanish to the little boy.
even though it is winter here, its unusually warm right now. jeans and a light shirt is all you need outside. the sun sets pretty early, by 6 but i guess that is because it is winter and i´m used to the summer right now.
the food! the food is similar to spain but also italian but at the same time has it´s uniqueness to buenos aires. i haven´t tried the steak yet. we had dinner last night and i had a milanesa con pollo, which was chicken fingers with ham and cheese on top and papas fritas on the side. papas fritas, french friends cut a little thicker, are served with everything here. and dad, if you´re reading this, they DO have bagels here! they drink mate, which is a tea with hot milk drink that they usually serve out of a gourd, but i haven´t tried that yet either. they eat lots of bread, sweet bread is a popular breakfast. the beer, Quilmes is pretty good. I had some malbec, their red wine at dinner and it is strong but also quite good. they eat lots of fruit, apples, bananas, peaches, oranges, kiwi but vegetables not so much. we ordered a side of broccoli last night and it was covered in cheese. their favorite sweet is dulce de leche, it is a milk and caramel thick gooey spread that is put inside of a pastry or a cookie. things are much cheaper here, our dinner last night for 5 plus alcohol and they gave us complimentary champagne, too cost in american dollars 90 bucks. and it was a nice place, too.
well, we are about to go to the san telmo fair which is open on the weekends and sells a lot of antiques and unique things. i´ll write again soon. i am loving it here so far and i can´t believe i get to be here until december!! lots of love!