Contraband and Canoes

This is where I live! The window on the corner is my room!

Cenashow:
One of our activities last week was a cenashow, where people go to eat dinner and watch a Tango Show. It was a very classy event and I felt like a princess. I ate salmon, and saw the coolest (quite sexual) tango show. One lady danced a whole number with a blindfold on! I was like whoa!!!

Iguazu:
The Iguazu Waterfalls are beautiful. We walked along a trail to view them and at every corner there were more waterfalls. There was a huge storm the night before we arrived so the Falls were bursting! The parks are well-crafted because they give you opportunities to see the falls from above, below and the sides. So awesome. Unfortunately, I had hastily packed for the trip and forgot to bring pants. So, I wore the same sweatpants for the whole weekend, even though it was gorgeous 70 degree weather. But no worries, that didn't stop me from having tons of fun with Niha and Mateo and Aditya!

Contraband:
On our way to the waterfalls, I saw two mud-covered bread vans that popped up out of nowhere. I asked the taxi driver about them, thinking maybe it was a jungle-trekking adventure that we could go on, but he nonchalantly informed me that they were filled with onions and potatoes to be sold illegally in Argentina.

Canoeing:
Last Wednesday, the temperature was about 6 degrees Celsius. It was the coldest day we've had so far, and it also happened to be the day that the program decided to take us canoeing. Half the students opted out of the activity because of the chilly weather, but I joined the adventurous half who trekked out to Tigre to row along the Delta river (it's either called the Delta river or we rowed in the delta of the river, hehe.). It turned out to be really fun! There were some intense waves and it was def freezing, but luckily my friend Jordan had kindly lent me some warm clothes (because she lives right next to school), and I did have my REI down mittens with me! It also didn't hurt that the tour guides were extremely good looking and friendly locals of the Tigre area. : ) We went around some islands and saw the houses there too. When the tide is too high, the houses flood, and when it's too low, nobody can leave because the boats get stuck in the mud. We were also able to the see the roots of some huge trees because the tide was low and that was really cool because it's like a huge labyrinth of giant roots. We also stopped for tea and cake which was delicious, so delicious that the cats wanted some, but then the guides kicked them away.

End of the program:
I have finished my Spanish program at UDESA! There were a lot of presentations and exam-stuff to do, but now I am so happy to have free time for 2 weeks! We celebrated Thursday night by going to a Bar and then this guy got us into a boliche called Kika for free! I didn't stay long because the music was super loud, but a few friends and I chilled at a bar nearby.

The next night, I went out to Jack Flash, a bar in San Isidro. Allie's host siblings and I enjoyed some good drinks (one had chai tea and orange juice!) and dancing! We were out til 5am both nights, which is the norm here - when do people sleep??

Puerto de Frutos:
Tigre is also home to a huge market called Puerto de Frutos. They have everything from chairs to clothes to food. I got a shirt and some dance pants. I also met a man named Fer who wanted to sell me a very expensive boatride, and I didn't want to take the boatride but then he talked to me in Castellano (Spanish, here) for a long time anyway.

JFlo and LeRenzo
And I went out to Chinese food today! The food wasn't that great, but the conversation was! I also went out to Chinese food with my Argentine granny, but that food wasn't great either. I did make scallion pancakes for the fam though with harina integral - whole wheat flour!

Potlucks and Cowboys

Feliz 9 de Julio!
To celebrate, my host family and I hosted a potluck at the house, and all but one person from my program came to hang out for a bit. It was so cool to see everyone in a non-classroom setting and to hang out with some of the host siblings for a while. I made a orange cake with chocolate ganashe and a cream cheese frosting. It came out a little hard, so you have to eat it with milk or coffee...lol, but next time, I'm going to poke holes in it to pour in the frosting in, to create moisture, hehe. Can't wait. There was also chinese food, empanadas, apple crispt, delicious drinks, corn bread, milanesas, flan and so much more.

La Estancia:
Today, we went to an estancia, a ranch! We went to a blacksmith shop where this guy named Draghi used to make ornate belt buckles and tack out of silver and gold. Depending on someone's status, there's more metal and money attached to the gear. Then, we went to another museum, just opened in April, which showcased the work of Molina Campos. Lots of cartoon-like paintings with titles in BA slang.

Asado:
We ate asado - a very popular barbeque-like meal inside the ranch's dining hall. They served all types of meat, including a coagulated blood sausage...it was a black egg-shaped wonder, I couldn't quite get myself to have more than an itty bitty bite. The meal was followed by a performance of traditional BA dance with tango, milonga, and a cowboy dance competition. This tiny, young cowboy went on stage and did some pretty slick moves!

Gauchos:
Afterwards, the same cowboys that served us our meal competed in a game with horses. Each cowboy gallops really fast towards two small rings (size of a one inch binder ring), and tries to hook the ring with a foot-long point stick. It seems really hard, but the gauchos slipped the stick through the rings while galloping crazy fast. Afterwords, the cowboys gave away the rings they won and it's customary to kiss the cowboy who gives you a ring, and I got one!

Riding:
Next, I got to ride a beautiful, and extremely well-trained chestnut horse. He was ready to run, which I love, so we galloped across the open plain, while the gauchos yelled "despacio! slow!" Haha, but I wanted to go fast, and you know, it's hard to stop a horse who wants to run....right? Amazing.

Bars and Boliches:
After the estancia, I took a little nap and then went out with my friends to a bar and a boliche to celebrate Lisa's birthday (fellow student at UDESA). I had a delicious mellon ball with wine, and enjoyed the live band. One guy could get us into a boliche (dance club!) for free so we went, along with 2 new friends (whom we met at the bar) from Germany! We were out until 4:30am ish, and Allie's host brother very kindly took us all home.

I woke at 2pm today.

Museums

3 days, 3 museums. After the Carlos Gardel house, I went to the Museo de Bellas Artes (Museum of Fine Arts), and today I went to Malba - which was my favorite by far, even though I am not much of a museum person. I saw one of Frieda Kahlo's self-portraits, which was way awesome.

Tomorrow we don't have class because it is Argentina's day of independence! I am hosting some people at my host parent's house and am going to bake a delicious cake! I'm thinking chocolate orange ganosh! Yum!

I also discovered this delicious bread treat called "Cremonas" and today I went to a huge supermarket called "Carrefour." It was like Costco. Yup, that big.

The Dancing Begins

This is my host family. : )

Hiphop:
Last Monday, I went to hiphop dance class and met two awesome dancers named Cesar and Tini. They taught the class and had a freestyle session at the end, where EVERYONE was involved and it was just so cool. Then, Cesar and his sister waited with me outside while my ride came. During our conversation, I learned that Cesar is studying dance therapy as a psychologist and I was like, "WHAT?!?!?! That's awesome!!!" because I study psych and love dance too!! I hope we become best friends. lol.

The next day, Tini texted me and invited me to her more advanced hiphop class and I had a blast again! I met a whole bunch of high schoolers from one of the Carolinas. Now, there are no dance classes because la gripe is scaring people away.

La Gripe:
The swine flu has hit Buenos Aires. Apparently, the government took all the tamiflu from the local hospitals so that they could keep track of everyone with the disease, but they only gave it to people in certain risks groups (old people, diabetics, etc), so a bunch of sick people were sent away without medicine. They then spread the disease, etc. Now that the elections are over, the government is more honest and saying that they're hecka cases, and now all the universities are closed, which is bomb because students get more time to study, but now us foreigners are the only people in session and we are in a huge classroom where we sit far apart. Needless to say, safety precautions are definitely being taken. (Don't worry, Mom!)

Tango:
I am in love. With my tango instructor. Our whole group got a private lesson at a milonga (where peeps dance) called "El Niño Bien." It was super funny because the instructor shipped in a bunch of male dancers because our group is mostly girls. I was a little scared to learn at first because I heard that tango was very different and hard to learn, but holy smokes, I had the best teacher out of the bunch (for a while, we switched it up too), and he taught me so much! He did this bomb move where he flicked my foot, and twisted my body so I ended up like a beautiful pretzel. AND THEN!!!! As we were all leaving, my teacher stopped me (only me!!), and said "you have potential." I just about melted. I, of course, was wearing the hottest outfit of tennis shoes and a granny sweater because I had thought that we were walking a lot to WATCH tango. He then said that I should buy tango shoes this week, and then he gave me his contact info. I felt so special and happy and I love tango.

Yogur:
I don't know why I did not know this but one serving of yogurt with live bacteria can turn 3 litres of milk into yogurt!! Maddie, did you know that?!?! It's like magic, and delicious too.

Submarino:
Chocolate submersed in hot milk. uh-oh......

4th of July in Colonia, Uruguay:
Some friends and I made a weekend trip to Uruguay for the 4th and 5th. It was a one hour ferry ride, and Colonia is the cutest, chillest town ever. Apparently, nothing ever happens there, but we were so lucky and ran into Colonia Jazz Weekend, and got to listen to a delightful concert for $3 US! The weather was like 80 degrees both days. This is winter? I like. We also went horse-back riding along the beach and I galloped as fast as a lightening bolt!~ We also went to a delicious creperie. Basically, I ate delicious French food in Uruguay to celebrate the independence of the United States of America. : )

My host dad:
My host mom was describing an animal to me, "It's like a small monkey with teeth." Just then, my host dad's face light up as he thought of the perfect way to explain it to me in english. With the biggest smile ever, he said, "A. Big. Rat" : ) Love it.

Carlos Gardel:
Famous guy who sang tango. Went to his house in Abestos with a huge mall today.

Me vs. The Chicken

JFlo and I went on an adventure to Olivos yesterday. There wasn't much open because of elections - most of the stores were closed, and they aren't allowed to sell alcohol, and everyone is required by law to vote. Most people are pretty active in politics, and I believe a new president has been elected! But, we did find an enormous Coto - a target-like supermarket. I got the last bunch of brocoli, and some delicious carrots. Then, I used it to cook my host family a delicious dinner of pad thai! Yum! I took some for lunch today. I asked Adriana, my host mom, if she had any chicken and she gave me a whole one. like, a whole one. with bones and everything. I did the obvious, which was to look up on you tube how to debone a chicken and then I did it! But golly, the chicken sure put up a fight and I now have a lot of respect for those who do this well. We had 8 hours of class because we had to make up for one last week when the professor was sick.

Bam! That's how fast time goes by here...

In comparison to other cities I've seen, Buenos Aires is huge. Like wow. On Wednesday and Thursday, my program went on two extremely long tours with a short and plump man named Alejandro. He was a seasoned tour guide who spoke with great energy. A mini-bus picked us all up after classes, and we went to La Boca, San Telmo, Recoleta, Palermo, the Microcenter and probably some other places. I had a slight problem staying awake during the first hour of each tour because we had just finished lunch and I was sleepy. : )

Attractions:
La Boca is where all the tourists go; It's like a street fair everyday with tango shows, and lots of delicious alfahores (yummy cookies with dulche de leche). All of the buildings are brightly colored and some have 3D figures coming off the side of them. *We also went to the oldest cafe in Buenos Aires, where I had the best hot chocolate ever. Hot Chocolate is just heavenly when made correctly. *There was also this famous cemetary where there's rows and rows of huge altars and mausoleums for families (mostly very wealthy ones). The coffins are right there, above ground, like nothing I've ever seen before. *A 6 million dollar flower sculpture that's a shiny gold color was donated to the city a while back. It open during the day and closes during the night, just like real flowers! *The art museum of a famous guy who did a lot of astrology and invented a universal language was also cool.

Chinatown:
I woke up Friday and my host sister was going to work near Chinatown, so I went too! Chinatown is 2 blocks here, and kind of expensive. I got all the ingredients necesary for pad thai, and then I dined at this neoThai restaurant, which was really wasn't very good. There's a $6 for eating in the restaurant and the pad thai had way too much tamarind and not enough sugar and salt = sour!!

Una fiesta:
My host sister invited me and some friends from the program to her friends birthday party last night and it was so much fun! I practiced my spanish, listened to music and danced! The schedule here is a bit different - parties start at 2 in the morning and go until about 6. So I took a nap before going and I'm really glad I did. It was packed and awesome.

Dish Covers:
In the US, are there saran wrap covers for plates, shaped like shower caps? Because they have them here and they are so useful!! It makes it way easier to get something that needs to stay covered, and then just cover it right back up, instead of having to push all the edges down again!

Adventure:
Today I rode a bike to the train station, and then took the train to Martinez, where I went to the equivalent of Newbury Street in Boston - lots of expensive and nice things. Fun adventure. I really like riding bikes. (My mom will probably tell me not to, don't worry, it's safe!)

Slow Cars:
So as I was riding my bike, I approached a car that was moving extrememly slowly. I was cautious...why was this car going so slowly near me? But as it passed me, it was actually two old ladies chatting in the front seat, both looking at each other and not at where the car was going. hahahahaha. That was funny.

Politics:
Tomorrow is election day in Buenos Aires. Right now, the president is a woman (the second one in BA!) I wonder who will be next!

Boating Clubs

Boating Clubs in Buenos Aires are similar to Country Clubs in the US. Fenced in and guarded from the surrounding community, most clubs tend to hug the "Rio de la Plata" river. There, boats await to be used by those who inhabit the lovely houses, hence the name Boating Clubs. Like in many parts of the world, these luxurious homes are rather close to less pleasant neighborhoods. This propinquity ensures that residents must know about the different lifestyles that exist. Does this knowledge spur people to take action? I would think so, but where does one find the progress that is being made?

There are little houses with guards inside around the neighborhood, to ensure safety. I think that's pretty nifty.

Went to my first grocery store today, just for kicks. I loved it, even though there was no peanut butter to be found amidst an entire row of jelly/jam!

Also went to downtown Buenos Aires on a bus tour with my program! That was awesome! More on that big adventure soon!