Well last weekend Brie was here! It was so nice to have a friend from home in Buenos Aires! I could finally show off some of BA and what I love so much about it to someone else! I got to hear all about her South American adventures and she got to see a little bit about my life here. Last Saturday, she and I went to La Cabrera for dinner. This is one of the best, if not the best, restaurant in Buenos Aires. The steak was absolutely delicious as well as all of the other food and wine we enjoyed. Now, after dinner we walked back to my apartment and had a few friends over before some of us decided to go to a friend who goes to UCA's friend's apartment (follow that?) for a previa. So, we hopped in a cab and headed over to his apartment. First of all, we only knew the one guy, none of his friends. We walk into the apartment and there are three guys, and the 5 of us look around. Perry asks Jen, "Which one is Greg?" and Jen replied, "none of them." Cool, great. Not only that, they really didn't speak any English. That's fine though, it was good for us to get our practice in and what better way to do it than explain Kings to them? Let's just say this card game doesn't really translate well. Trying to explain the concept of waterfall in Spanish was somewhat lost in translation. No worries, we still had fun and eventually our friend and some other people showed up. Brie had to catch an early flight to Bariloche in the morning so this is where we said goodbye. I was so glad we got to spend time together, even though it was short. Afterwards, we went to a boliche out by the river and next to the smaller airport within the city. It was gorgeous, the place was huge and had so many different parts to it all playing different types of music.
Brie in BA!
This week I started my Spanish language class with Expanish. It was nice to be back and see some familiar faces, the only bad part is that now I have to be at class at 9 a.m. Tues, Wed, Thurs so I have a mini-week of classes, really I can't complain. Gabriela, my teacher, is really sweet and helpful. We mostly just do a lot of conversational stuff which is good practice and she corrects my grammar.
After my morning photography class on Friday, Jen and I went shopping around Palermo and we found a Middle Eastern specialty food store! Needless to say, I stocked up on hummus! After deciding on making a fruit & nut salad with a yogurt dressing with hummus and veggies as a side for dinner. We headed over to the Disco, our beloved, neighborhood grocery store. I heard drums playing and Perry assured me that it was just band rehearsal at the school across the street from the Disco. As we crossed the street and looked inside the grocery store we see the doors locked and about five guys standing in the middle of it banging on drums. Seriously, what a crazy and wild strike guys! One of the guys wasn't even wearing an employee shirt, I think he was just bored and got the mass text from his friends about playing drums in the Disco that night. The sign outside the store said Hoy cerrado (today closed)...yeah, thanks I got that. Needless to say, we hit up the small bodegas around us and managed to get what we needed to still have dinner.
Now, here comes the part about the broken toilet. So, that night we had a bunch of people over for a previa and we figured we'd make it out to a boliche eventually. So some of our friends brought friends and needless to say there were a lot of people here, but thanks to cement walls you honestly cannot hear a peep. Nervous Nelly aka me didn't want to get a noise violation (yeah right like that even exists here??) So as people are getting ready to leave to go out to the boliche down the street, Helen informs me that one of our toilet seats is in the shower. Seriously, it was in the shower and the flusher wouldn't flush. What the heck?? Perry, being brave and probably a little drunk, stuck her hand down into the toilet tank while I lifted the cover only to discover that the chain that connects the flusher to the thingamabob that refills the tank with water was broken (very technical terms, I know.) What the heck? Who decided it was ok to yank off the lid of our toilet? At this point in life everyone should know that is NOT how you flush a toilet. Either way, the plumber should be here this week at some point. Well, I never made it out of the apartment, it was already about 4 a.m. and I was really tired.
I woke up reasonably early the next day 1, so I met up with some friends and we went to Recoleta to walk around the open air market that is there every weekend by the cemetery and Plaza San Martin. I got a hot dog from a street vendor for lunch and it was delish! After walking around the market, listening to the different guitar players and small musical groups performing for people hanging out in the plaza, we went to the Museo de Bellas Artes. It is recently reopened and free! It was huge so we only walked around the first floor but there was lots of Neo-Classical art from France and Spain. There were even some of Goya's sketchings and paintings, too. We had enough museum time and decided to go to Buller Pub. The only microbrewery in BA that is known for their honey beer. We each got the sampler and I loved all of the beers! They have six of their own and they were all delicious and unique, full of flavor. We decided to have a low key night so we went to the movies and saw Chloe. I'm not sure if this is out in the US or what but it has Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore and the girl from Mean Girls who knows when it is already raining. It was the worst movie I have ever seen in my life, thank goodness movie tickets are cheap here, and it was a short movie. My advice...DON'T SEE IT!
Buller Pub! Home of the honey beer
Yesterday, we went to a Boca Juniors game. For those (most) of you who don't know the Boca Juniors are one of the local teams here in BA and it is who the great Maradona played for in his youth. They have a lot of history and even more pride in their team and the sport of soccer. They play at the famous, Bombonera where 50,000 soccer fans gather to watch their team. Unfortunately, the Boca Juniors haven't been doing so hot this season, but this was supposed to be a great game. They were plying Velez who is the top team right now. We stopped at a place in La Boca to have beer and pizza before the game and then headed over to the stadium. After going through about 4 police checkpoints, you finally make it into the stadium. We headed up the stairs and into the cheap seats which were just cement bleachers, no actual seats. Now, here comes the part about the broken forehead. So, Jen and I had to go to the bathroom, not an easy task. We had to carefully climb over and in between people to make it to the top. Let me preface, during the game when Boca scores it is customary for everyone to push the people in front of them, probably the reason they serve NO alcohol at the games, the fans are already rowdy enough without any help from Quilmes. Well, what happens when people get pushed? They fall on the people in front of them and it's a chain reaction. So they have chest-height metal railings set up for people not to fall too far when they get knocked over. Well, for this they serve a great purpose. But when you are just trying to go to the bathroom and you are climbing up through tons of people and you aren't looking up you smack your head on one. Yep, I don't think I have ever hit my head so hard. I can still feel the bump and small cut on my forehead. I turned around to let Jen know to watch out but it was too late. She did the exact same thing as me. We have been comparing bumps since. After recovering, slightly, from our incident we got to see the game and watch Boca dominate!! They won 2-1 and had possession nearly the entire game. Everyone gets so into it and is constantly watching the game, no side conversations. Just cheering for their team, "Dale Dale Bo! Dale Dale Bo! Dale Dale Boca! Dale Dale Bo!" I have never heard "puta madre" so much. Madre means mom and puta is a bad word, so put two and two together and they incorporate this into all of their cheers against the opponent and the refs. While everyone sways to the cheers, the entire stadium sways too, like the physical stadium. A little scary, but it's like you are on a bridge, it is supposed to sway. The game was so exciting and I definitely will be going to more, without any head injuries ;)
Boca Juniors vs. Velez @ La Bombonera
Today is my day off, so I am just doing some reading for class tomorrow and waiting for our cleaning lady, Gladys to come at 3. I am meeting up with my PAL for tea & dinner tonight. He made fun of me for getting excited about finding really good green tea and says his mom drinks it. So tonight, Steph, Matias, and I will try tea at TeaConnection! I'm going to Chile on Thursday to visit Purdy! I'll blog about that next week! Love to everyone! Missing you!
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