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I'm currently in DC, house-sitting for a week. Got here on Sunday, after my original flight was canceled and they re-booked me via NY on American Airlines.

The last couple days of Buenos Aires were a blur and I have returned with a huge appreciation for chocolate, language fluency, and about 5 million other things.

Last Thursday, Emily - who lived in my dorm freshmen year, and is studying abroad in Buenos Aires for the semester, and I met up with Elliot at Cumoná, a well-known restaurant in this area. I got an empanada de Lomo and this stew called Locro. The empanada was amazing and filled with legit steak, but the locro stew was kind of weird. It was like beans with huge chunks of kind of pink meat. I didn’t eat very much of that, but apparently it’s a popular thing here.

Then, Lauren, Emily and I went to Puerto Madero. This is the up and coming wealthy neighborhood right on the water. There’s tons of construction going on, but there is also an ecological reserve there. It’s huge and is the home of many different kinds of birds, and also a lot of sausage stands. We passed one called the “Churimovil.” Haha. On the map, there were a lot of lakes, but there were dried out when we got there, although there was a great view of the water. There was also a child calling for his/her mother and we could not figure out where on earth the kid was. Until we were heading and realized that he was stuck in a tree.

That night, we went to Bar Milión, a gorgeous 3-story bar built in an old mansion. My pina colada wasn’t very good, but the ambiance was. Agustin and Lucas came to say goodbye! My favorite bar so far was Casa Bar. Delicious Daquiri de anana with Malibu.

Friday, James, Laura, Emily and I had lunch at Parilla 22 for James' last meal in BA. I also finally tried churros con chocolate, which turned out to be one of those things that I craved until I ate it. Then I met up with Darren, went home, and packed to leave on Saturday! Saturday I had one last lunch at Cumaná, with noquis, and then went to the airport with Marieke.

Wowee, what a summer.

The Rodeo, Jardins, Evita

I forgot to document a couple of cool things that I did last week.

Monday was JFlo's last day so met up and dined in Chinatown, and the noodles here are rather odd, thick and kind of crunchy. Then, I walked around Belgrano, which used to be the capital.

The Rodeo:
Every year, there is a two week exhibition at La Rural in Palermo. They ship in tons of cows, sheep and horses to be auctioned off or for competitions. Being a horse-lover, I went and it was the strangest combination of things. There were huge gasoline-eating tractors on show outside and tons of animals inside. I went on the last day and it stank something horrible. I had to run in, take a picture and then run out! There was also a huge mall with cars for sale and some food stands.

Jardin Japones:
In the middle of the city, there are a couple of huge parks and gardens with clay paths and lots of trees. The Japonese Gardens are a fenced off little area filled with pretty ponds, and a small museum of Japanese Culture. There's huge goldfish and a sushi bar too. It cost $5 pesos to get in, but I noticed that one of the exit doors is always open and unguarded so people could probably just enter through there. It is a very aesthetically pleasing, though small area that the Japanese community in BA created for the city some years ago.

Evita Museum:
Even though the majority of wealthy Porteños, including my host family, do not like Peron, I went to the museum to check out how she is presented by people who do like her. It was a cool house-museum filled with movies and historical antedotes. There's a 50% student discount off the $12 peso entrance fee, fyi.

A Walking Tour: Architectural Bombness

I woke up, grabbed the guidebook and started walking. Not far along, I ran into these awesome recycling things in the street. They were the first I've seen in Buenos Aires. Most of the recycling is done through an inefficient system with Cartoneros.

Then, I went to this cool-looking Victorian House, and normally people can go in for free to look at 18th century bathrooms and stuff, but it’s been closed down due to Gripe A (Swine Flu). So, I took some pictures of the lovely architecture and continued on my way down Avenida Cordoba toTeatro Colon, another old building where opera shows are held. At least, I think its opera shows.
Next up on my tour of architectural wonders, I stopped in at McDonalds. I had heard that Mickey D’s tasted better in Argentina because of the high quality meat that the country’s known for, and somehow I hadn’t tried it yet, so I got a McFiesta from the $4.5 peso menu (equivalent of the dollar menu). It seemed like a regular burger to me...

McDonald’s also made me realize a huge cultural difference: in the US, the two main flavors of frozen yogurt in McDonalds are vanilla and chocolate. In BA, the flavors are dulce de leche and vainilla! Dulce de leche is the chocolate of Buenos Aires! I was wondering my chocolate was so expensive and why I didn’t see it that often because I thought everyone loved it, and now I know! The ad for fro-yo was Hace tu vide mas DULCE – make your life more sweet. : )

Then I walked down 9 de Julio, the widest street in the world with 16 lanes!! Crossing the street was kind of like a game because the cars don’t really stop for people or pay attention to the stop lights so when you get an opening, you have to run as fast as you can to the other side. And when there are 16 lanes, it’s def a challenge. When I safely reached the other side, I snapped a close-up picture of the obelisk, which was raised to celebrate Ar’s Independence day (Though I’m never a hundred percent sure here).

I had been hearing a lot about Calle Florida, a street in downtown Buenos Aires that is filled with shops so I followed my map there, and entered a street bulging with theaters and tons of clothing stores. The air was filled with yucky smoke smells and pollution. There was one section with a bunch of people selling jewelry and goods on top of blankets. One guy tried to sell me a head-scratcher via demonstration, and even though he ruined my hair, I’ll admit that it felt pretty good! That guy could prob use a lesson in marketing. When I finally emerged from that New Yorkish street, I sat down on a fountain and low and behold, I saw a Starbucks! That made me miss home a little.

Grrr, and awesomeness

Hanging out at a bar in Palermo

I had my first notable negative experience in Buenos Aires. On Friday night, I switched hostels from Sohostel, which was a nice cute place, to Palermo Soho Hostel, which turned out to be a nightmare. They put me in a tiny room that was converted from an old closet and I originally decided to bite the bullet and stay there for the rest of my days in Buenos Aires. But after the first night, I had to get out. I paid for eight days (big mistake! i recommend never paying for for than a few days at a time), and the owner said he would refund me the next morning. But then he disappeared and left a girl who was really unhelpful. Only today, after 4 days!!, was I able to retrieve part of my payment (minus 20 percent and some other stuff). They were shady and I did not like that hostel one bit.

But now all is well. That Saturday, I moved to a new host family in Recoleta. It's a really nice part of downtown Buenos Aires and also close to a lot of attractions and fun things. Thank goodness for my program director, Carina, because I don't know what I would have done without her help! On appreciation, I also really appreciate overdraft protection because I accidentally withdrew too much from my bank, but didn't have to pay any extra fee because my bank rocks.

Puma Urban Art Show:
On Saturday, Lauren (another girl who's staying here), and I went to watch my hiphop teachers performed in a HUGE show at la auditorio Buenos Aires. It was an event like nothing I've ever seen before. There were BMX bikers, life art being created with leaves and natural materials, and exhibits of skateboard art, graffiti, and more! Best of all, my teachers did great, and they said hi to me afterwards! That made me feel special. : ) Then we found a chinese restaurant and I got wonton soup!

Recoleta Fair:
On Sunday, I went to the huge street fair in Recoleta where they sold everything from leather to shoes to food to beer-bottles converted in clocks. I had a great time walking around and got a few souvenirs to boot! Then, I walked by the famous Recoleta Cemetary again. AND THEN!!!!! I finally saw Harry Potter!!! I thought the movie was pretty terrible, but I enjoyed it anyway because I love Harry Potter. They assign seats in the movie theater here, so you don't have to worry about getting there early to snag the seat you want.

PDA:
Afterwards, I met up with JFlo, and some other cool people from Harvard at a bar. I had a delicious pinapple daiquiri with Malibu and was just really happy to hang out and speak english for a bit. The world was so small because a couple of people and I had so many mutual friends, it was crazy! We also witnessed a couple hour-long displays of public affection - something quite common in BA. I think it's because kids live with their parents until they are very old so they can't show too much pda at home. Thus, the public areas suffice.

Bars, Planetariums, and Salsa!

We danced at the bar until 5:30am that night. It was awesome. My clothes carried the smell of smoke and alcohol long after we left. The next day we woke up around noon, and Agustin very kindly took us to Persicol, one of the best ice-cream shops in Buenos Aires. I had blueberry and irish cream, in a mini-cone.

Tango:
That night, I went to a giant tango lesson at Soho Tango. It was a giant class that wasn't really worth the 18 pesos in my opinion. I took the beginning level, and it was just walking around so I was like, why not try the advanced? haha, that was fun, all the guys were like come on and i learned hecka by struggling and prob looking pretty silly. Then we celebrated Monica's last night in our hostel room.

Galileo Galili Planetarium:
There's a giant concrete dome-shaped thing in the middle of the pretty botanical gardens of buenos aires. Inside is kind of like a half-science museum, half imax theater. Monica and I caught a show for kids where this guy dressed up in a space suite with a helmet lined with christmas lights. The seats tilt a lot so you can look up at the screen like it's the sky. We saw cool constellations and learned about planet earth - woot!

Then we walked past the zoo and saw a giraffe really close up. Then we walked past the botanical gardens and split a choripan - a hotdog with sausage inside! Then we walked all around Palermo, window-shopping until Monica had to leave. : (

Salsa:
To cheer myself up (after my friends returned to the states), I went to salsa night at La viruta, which was one of the funnest things I've done so far. I took the advanced class and got to dance with a lot of people who really knew what they were doing. After the lesson, these two guys put on a break-dancing show and i was like yes!! afterwards, I went up and introduced myself to them and they invited me to a practice! Then, there was a tango lesson, but I was tired so I left half way through to meet up with some Harvard people at a bar.

We chilled for a bit at jackie O's in Las Canitas, an area filled with bars. Then, we went to Chic again - a boliche and danced until 5am! that was good exercise. I really like tonic water with lemon. it's really delicious.

Hostel, San Telmo and Palermo

I just did like 5 million things!!

After celebrating the end of the program, and bidding farewell to my host family, Marcos drove Monica and I to a hostel in Palermo called SoHostel. We stayed there with Kirsten for 4 nights. It was a cute little place, even though the toilette didn't work very well and the kitchen area was always occupied by resident visitors who appeared to live there. they were nice people though, and we had a blast. Our first night there, Monica found this amazing Indian restaurant and we dined amidst a blanket of pillows for 4 hours. That's one cool thing here - you can hang out for as long as you want at almost any eatery. They tend to have small cubiertos, cover charges, but they never bring the check unless you as for it.

It's also very rare to find cafés that have coffee to go. People are expected to sit and sip their drinks, and it comes with water and usual a small treat - like crackers or cookies. Imagine how that would go over in a New York starbucks!!

San Telmo:
Home to several tango hotspots, San Telmo is a touristy part of town. We spent a day walking and shopping around the away and found some pretty cool vintage stores. I saw the skinniest house in the world! Best of all, we found this amazing restaurant called Burmana with gorgeous decor and an amazing gyro-like lunch special for 10 pesos. Yum!

Palermo Soho:
Trendy neighborhood nicknamed for its similarity to New York's Soho (not sure exactly how close it is though. I bought an amazing pair of crazy shoes from this shop called Puro. That night, Agustin and his friend, Lucas, picked us up and brought us out to a bar called Madagascar, but first we made a pit stop in Puerto Madero. It's where the boats dock in BA and was absolutely beautiful at night. I got a great pictures of the the Puente de la Mujer - the "woman bridge," - so named because it resembles a vagina. Nearby is the obelisk of plaza de mayo, which resembles a... : ) The bar turned into a raving dance party, which was pretty awesome.

Okay, I'm off to play, more later!