And the adventure continues...

Ok, so it's been almost a month since I've been in Argentina! I can't believe how fast time flies by! El tiempo vuele!! I just finished (yesterday) my intensive month class of spanish. It's funny because they don't have letter grades here. They use numbers (ie: from 1 to 10). A 4 is passing, so they don't exactly correlate numerically with our percentages either. However, needless to say I passed my course with flying colors (I got a 9!). It's a shame my grades don't transfer though, but at least I can say I learned a ton of grammar! Grammar that I haven't learned since my junior year of high school, so it was nice to review everything before jumping into the semester.


I realized that I mentioned having a bus tour of the city the first weekend I got here without really explaining how much we saw. One of the cool spots in Recoleta (a barrio of the city-- if I keep mentioning different names it's because they are all part of BsAs) is El Cemetario. This is a huge cemetery with many famous people. It's really interesting because a) all of the graves are above ground, b) each grave has generations of families in it and not just one person, and c) the families of whom are buried there have to pay a fee each month (which can get REALLY expensive for the larger tombs) otherwise they stop taking care of it. It was almost like walking through a maze. They actually say people can get lost in there. We also visited many other places that had ferias. A feria is pretty much the equivalent of a flea market in the US except that almost everything is hand made by the people selling things, versus old hand-me-downs that people try to sell and get rid of. Not to mention it is WAY cheap, and at times it goes on for blocks and blocks. We also went into the region of La Boca. La Boca is considered the "rough" part of the city, but during the day tango dancers thrive, and it is also the home of La Boca Juniors- one of the professional soccer teams (probably the most loved) in the city. Side note- there is a huge rivalry between Boca and River (which is also in BsAs) and I have every intention of trying to get tickets to one of those games because I hear it is crazy!! Anyway, La Boca has this famous "Caminito" where you can walk around and everything is painted in vibrant colors. It was pretty cool, and we were also entertained by a group of tango dancers performing in the middle of the street! Th tour also included a trip down Avenida de 9 de julio (the widest avenue in the world! 14 lanes wide!!), and at the helm of this road is El Obelisco (aka Argentine version of the Washington Monument). We were also introduced to many of the Congress buildings and such.

One of the unique things about the argetines is that I feel like they don't eat and they don't sleep (2 of my favorite things!) But in all seriousness, breakfast (my favorite meal of the day) here almost non-existent. My breakfast every morning consists of a 2 miniature pieces of toast and juice. I spice it up by caking on dulce de leche on my toast. For those of you who don't know what dulce de leche is, or have never tried it, YOU ARE MISSING OUT. It is perhaps my new favorite treat, and you can literally find it with everything here. It is the argentine version of caramel, except that it tastes wayyyy better and it is a lot healthier because it is made out of milk. Although I eat breakfast every morning, the norm here is a cup of coffee and maybe a medialuna. Medialunas are my other favorite treat. It is basically a croisant (sp?), but it is glazed with some type of sugary substance. SO GOOD! Lunch usually consists of some type of empanada (I actually had them deep fried yesterday and they were the most delicious things I've ever tasted!). But yes, dinner is the big meal here, but I usually don't eat dinner until 9:30 or 10 o'clock. It's funny because at home I would usually be heading to bed by then! The ice cream and snacks are so delicious here. There are so many bakeries that I walk by every day, and needless to say it is so tempting because everything is made with either dulce de leche or chocolate. Christina (my roommate) and I have developed a costly habit of going out for ice cream many times a week!

I actually joined a gym a couple of weeks ago. It's great because it is only a block from my apartment and it was pretty cheap and there was no contract involved, so I went for it! The offer a lot of classes, so the other night I went to a reggaeton dance class. It was a ton of fun! Plus I learned some new dance moves!! Speaking of dancing, I went to this really cool urban flamenco show last weekend with Christina. It was sort of a mix between flamenco, tap and stomp (the broadway show). The finale consisted of them banging their feet and tapping on chairs and stuff. I really liked it!! I've also bought some argentine clothes, and the other day I made my first leather purchase! AHH! I bought brown leather boots at one of stores on the main avenue by my apartment, so now I can actually blend in (well, sort of). I think I'm doing a good job at blending in because I've had a few people come up to me and ask me where things are! Too bad I had to tell each of them that I had no idea and that I wasn't from here. I've also gone to a few of the malls around here, and although they are extremely expensive, they are all very cool looking and clean on the inside. There's also a part of town that has a closed off street consisting of only stores and shopping for 10 straight blocks!! I have yet to spend an entire day there, but I plan to soon!

The night life here is so intense, and I am so NOT champ status yet! Haha, no but seriously, people don't leave their houses to go out until around 1 am. Crazy right? Because when you go out, you stay out the entire night. When I say the entire night, I don't mean until 5 am, I mean until at least 7 am. It's actually a lot safer to stay out until morning, and that's why many people do it. I've only gone out a few times since I've been here (only on the weekends) because a) I can't handle 2 nights in a row of not sleeping and b) there's no way I'd be able to sit in class for 5 hours if I had stayed out all night! It's nice that I have a roommate though because I always have someone to come home with! But nonetheless, I've met some argentines, and it's funny how they always try and speak english to us. I guess it doesn't help that the majority of music played in clubs is american. I'm actually in a cafe now, and the last 3 songs played were by Stevie Wonder, Alanis Morrisette, and Kelly Clarkson. Go figure.

As I mentioned before I ended my intensive month class yesterday, so now we have what is referred to as their spring break. So next monday (26th) I will officially begin my semester!!! I'm actually thinking about joining the soccer and/or volleyball team here at UB. It's a little weird to me that they only have 2 womens sports teams, but hey, it's better than nothing!

This week I'm heading to Chile!!!!! I actually leave in a few hours to go to Mendoza (a really beautiful city in western Argentina). And then we are headed to Chile! It should be a great time, and I'm hoping we get the chance to really see a lot of cool things!

That's all for now! Besos!