A Quasi-successful Week

Today is that last day of winter vacations here. My "week of solitude" ended up being not so lonely after all. One of the first friends I made on the trip (in the airport before leaving the states, in fact) ended up staying through Tuesday with his sister, and after that I found other ISA stragglers to hang out with. As for all of the goals I set for myself, I'd say I was semi-successful. Of the things on my to-do list, I:

- did NOT start reading a book in spanish (but I did carry it around with me for a whole day once with the intention of starting it... counts for something, right?)

- ALMOST tried a new place for lunch every day, I repeated the same place once

- SORTA started to run regularly... I went twice, but on a different day I went rock climbing

- did NOT find a pair of boots, but man did I look

- DID go to 1 museum (but not 2)

- did NOT make a side trip, too expensive

- DID check out Chinatown, and ate a delicious Chinese meal

- DID make one new friend who is Argentine (thanks to another girl in the group) but nonetheless, he only speaks spanish, so its one way to practice

Other things I did:

- Friday (night): went to a new club called Crobar to send-off the one-month travelers.

- Saturday: found a legit Yankee-style breakfast place, named Randalls. It was so nice to have something besides toast for breakfast. Then I explored the Plaza Serrano feria (outdoor market) near my house. Purchased a feather earring (a single long earring paired with a random stud on the other side is the cool thing to do here).

- Sunday: went to the stadium to try and snag some Copa America final match tickets (FAIL), but we managed to make it past two security checks without one and experienced some crazy fútbol fan action, and I snagged a picture of Forlán (Uruguay's star player) from the team's bus. We then watched the game in a bar, where none of the Argentine's gave two shits about the outcome (still sad they got eliminated).

- Monday: Chinatown! It was literally only four blocks, but the grocery shops were pretty cool and had interesting foods. I got some lychee juice to drink, and then we ate at a Chinese restaurant, which was sadly my favorite meal out since I've gotten here. Then we went to El Museo Laretta, which was an old house turned museum. Nothing too spectacular, but it was interesting to see traditional garb and admire the artwork and architecture of the house. Also noteworthy of this day, was that I tried a Milka McFlurry... don't judge, it was awesome. Milka is a popular chocolate brand here, and it involves dulce de leche. Enough said.

- Tuesday: Original plans fell through as a result of all the rain on Monday night (yes, it was that bad), so I ended up mindlessly wandering around with some other people while they shopped and I watched. Fun times. But as my motto goes: "Its better than sitting around at home," so wandering around wasn't all that bad I guess. I also think that this was the night we went to some reggae bar, got bored, so our Argentine friend (Pablo) got us into a neat club named Kika for free (because he had a friend of a friend working). We then got free drinks, and my friend and I managed to get ourselves into VIP (honestly, it was more like she got us both into VIP, but whatevs). An all-around successful night out.

- Wednesday: This was the day I went rock climbing. We were also going to go to a museum (MALBA to be specific) because it's free for students on Wednesdays, but it ended up getting too late, so that is for next Weds I suppose.

- Thursday: Set out with the intent of going to the zoo, but since there was an army of 5,000 children taking the place over, we opted for something else. Grabbed lunch at Pablo's restaurant of work and then went to the Recoleta Cemetery, where I got a little carried away with the picture taking. The cemetery is beautiful with mazes of raised tombs and monuments for blocks. It was practically its own city. We saw Evita's tomb as well, which was adorned with dozens of flower arrangements and surrounded by people waiting to take a picture with it. The love that Argentina has for Evita is very inspiring and admirable, I look forward to learning more about her impact on the country and it's people. After the cemetery, we walked around the Recoleta feria and then went to La Flor, which is this huge metal statue of a flower that has been constructed to open and close with the rising and setting of the sun... pretty neat! Then that night was the free Buenos Aires Pub Crawl (for which I have a perfect record of attendance, thank you very much). It was a fun night to say the least.

- Friday: We finally made it to Tecnopolis (a technology fair, that is way cooler than it sounds). We had been trying to go since Tuesday, but rain and schedule conflicts kept messing with our plans. So we were super excited to finally go... BUT we get there and there are literally (at least I think literally) thousands of people there with hour+ long waits to see some of the exhibits. So we saw a couple, but then made the smart decision of returning next week when not everyone is on vacation. So more to come on the awesome that is Tecnopolis.

- Saturday: Pretty uneventful. But I did go have lunch with some of my friends who had just gotten back from the Salta trip. It was nice to see everyone again, and my darling friend, Kaylen, even brought me back a souvenir :) Lunch was followed by some meandering, and then when I got home I finally tried traditional yerba mate. It is definitely an acquired taste. I thought it would be no big deal since I drink mate in tea bags back home all the time... well its way different. I still like it in a weird way, I just have to take very little sips haha. As a result from the mate, I was super hyper the rest of the day with nothing to do but download movies from the internet...

- Today: Dragged some friends on a pointless adventure to go see a park... we (I) never found it. We ended up walking all the way to our school's campus and eating at a café. On the bright side, I now know where the actual park is, and I definitely plan on checking out sometime soon.

Tonight at midnight I register for classes, and tomorrow I start going to said classes. More to come on this later, I've blabbed enough for one post.

Chau!

A Week of Solitude

Today marked the end of my month of intensive language classes. It also marks the beginning of a 9 day break we have in before starting the fall semester. As excited as I am, I also have my trepidations. Practically everyone in my program, and literally all of my closer amigos are going out of town for the break. I unfortunately don't have 1000 pesos to put towards the 22 hour bus ride to Salta (sorta reminiscent of the U.S.'s Colorado Plateau), so I'm going to be chilling in Buenos Aires all by MYSELF.

I hate to make it sound like a bad thing to be stuck in Buenos Aires, Argentina for 10 days, because this place is amazing and there's tons of stuff to do... I'm just not looking forward to figuring out and doing everything alone. I consider myself a pretty independent person, and I do enjoy the peacefulness of being alone, but for 9 days?!? I'm actually kinda exaggerating, I at least know of 2 other girls staying in BsAs, I'm just going to have to make an effort to meet up with them since we've never really hung out before. Also there's a huge group of 50 newbies coming to BsAs this week to start their fall semester program, so time to make new friends! And on another positive note, this will give me an opportunity to plan out the things I want to do, seek them out, and explore. On my to-do list for the next week:

- start reading a book in spanish

- try a new place for lunch every day

- start running regularly

- find a pair of boots

- go to at least 2 museums

- find someplace to make a 1-2 day side trip to (Colonia del Sacremento, Uruguay and Los Esteros del Iberá are the current forerunners)

- check out Chinatown

- try to make Argentine friends

Stay tuned to see how successful (or sad and lonely) I am. Now I must go take a siesta to recover from my late (6am) night, and prepare to go out for one last hurrah with the people who were only here for a month and leaving tomorrow.

Chau!

¿Buenos Aires sin Carne?

Most people who know me also know that I'm a pescatarian (I eat a vegetarian diet, but seafood as well). I've been this way for about 15 years of my life, so its not like I have to actively try to eat a certain way, its just the way it is. Its easy for me, and I (usually) have no complaints...

Most people also know that Argentina is the beef capital of the world. Any vegetarian's perfect match! Here, all gastronomy revolves around meat. Lunch consists of empanadas (its possible to find veg friendly types), panchos (hot dogs), milanesa (thin breaded meat?), hamburgers, choripan (chorizo sausage on bread), not to mention actual asado (Argentine BBQ), locro (a traditional meat stew), steak, etc... Absolutely no traditional/famous Argentine dish is vegetarian (or pescatarian) friendly... with the exception of alfajores (dulce de leche cookie sandwich) -- carne is probably the only thing that people would draw the line at for pairing with dulce.

The thing is, I don't have any problem whatsoever turning down meat, but what I do have a problem with is missing out on the rich culture of a unique place. The food is such a huge part of life here (along with tango, mate, and vino) and I'm not really getting the chance to experience the full porteño lifestyle. I know I could simply decide to just try a bite of something one day, and for this, a lot of people would probably think this is an empty issue, but the internal conflict of it all has me stumped. Vegetarianism has been a part of my life for so long, its difficult to just choose to eat a freaking cow. I guess I'll be finding out in the sometime near future if I'm willing to take a leap and try one of Argentina's legacies, until then I'll stick to vegetable empanadas and alfajores...

Chau!

P.S. got my nose pierced!

Beautiful People

They are everywhere here, men and women alike, and they know it. When you go anywhere in public, everyone is just checking each other out. The men here call out to practically anything with two legs and a rack, and the women all know to ignore the advances. With a combination of guys that come on too strong, and girls who are in a way hardened by the (sometimes not so) sweet nothings, I have no idea how anyone forms relationships down here. Oh, but they sure do! It is a normal sight to see a girl atop her boy making out in the middle of a crowded plaza or beside national monument, or to be squished up against a kissing couple in the Subte (subway). If there is a couple anywhere near you, you'll have already heard the smacking of lips.

So on the note of oblivious, affectionate couples: here's a little anecdote from last night at a bar called Sugar, (and no, its not really called Azúcar - I'm not that gringa). Anywho, I was with some friends in this lofted area and across from us was this couple getting pretty... "comfortable." After a few minutes the waiter brought them this awesome looking platter of cheeses, olives, guacamole, toasts, and meats. My entire group was envious of their spread. After a while, we noticed that they weren't eating any of their food! They were too busy staring into each other's eyes, and taking turns straddling one another. As they became more and more involved with one another, the idea was thrown around that one guy in our group should just snatch a little something off of the plate. Success. The lovers didn't notice a thing. As the two started to get a little too hot and heavy, we decided to go downstairs and maybe try mingling with some locals (far and few between in this Yankee bar). We were only downstairs for a few seconds when one of us realized that the love birds were getting up from their seats... we all glanced at one another and quickly decided what must be done. WE COULDN'T LET THEM WASTE ALL THAT FOOD!! So we dashed back up the stairs, waited eagerly to make sure the couple was out the door, and proceeded to devour the platter... after all, it was the right thing to do. We probably looked like dumb Yankees the whole time, but the free food was well worth it.

A la Noche

My nightlife experience in BsAs is slowly (yet surely) expanding. Here, the real weekend starts on Thursday nights, which is perfect since that how it usually goes down in Gainesville (Indie Night, I miss you so). This Thursday I went on this Pub Crawl that was free for international students! Free, however, only got you so much. Free beer and wine was advertised during the 10-11 sign up, but I didn't really benefit from that seeing as they ran out quickly. Then we went to 3 bars and received a free "shot" at each place. More like a sip of soda. Nevertheless, we had a ton of fun, it just wasn't all that free. We ended at this club called Lost. It's one, if not the, place to go on Thursdays. This was the largest club I've ever been to and the environment was pretty amazing, two floors packed with dancing Argentines, a break-dance circle, and the scent of recreational substances in the background. We stayed there for a super long time dancing, and finally left when 6am came rolling around! The most surprising thing to me, was that the fact we left at 6am seemed to be a normal night out... I guess I'm starting to adapt. I was even able to wake up for class and appear to be alive the rest of the day (until my pre-dinner siesta, that is).

I napped for about 3 hours, woke up for some dinner, then went back out with some friends to a bar. We didn't do anything too crazy on Friday night, but we got to play land mines in the bar... a little taste of home haha.

Today I walked all around the Botanical Garden close to my apartment with some friends and then we explored one of the many parks in the Palermo (my) area. Then we went to an outdoor market in the Recoleta area, where I purchased my first mate gourd! I told my house mom about it, so now she's helping me begin the process of making mate:

- First you put used mate leaves from another person's mate gourd into your own

- Let sit for 24 hours

- Remove the paste of mixed tea leaves and water from the gourd

- Scrape the inside of the gourd rigorously to clean out any extra... gourd?

- Then you may finally put in fresh mate leaves, add hot water (at the perfect temperature) and enjoy yourself some mate!

I look forward to trying it out like an authentic Argentinian tomorrow!

As for tonight, we're having to improvise. Tomorrow is the local election for jefe de gobierno (mayor equivalent) of Buenos Aires. This means that the solicitation of all alcohol is prohibited in the city tonight after 8pm... the purpose of which is to allow the locals to have a clear head for voting. Another thing here is that voting is considered to be 100% mandatory. In a way, its nice that they have such a high showing for voting, but on the other hand, I don't think its such a great idea to force voting. This just means that people who don't even care, or aren't informed will just go and vote for whoever in order to avoid the fine given to those who decide to abstain. So what did we do? Bought our alc. before 8 of course. Now we just need to find a nice park to enjoy our drinks and have a laid back night. Still a work in process, but I'm hopeful.

Chau!

On Track to Becoming Legal

Today I went to La Oficina de Migraciones for step 2 of 3 for obtaining a student visa for Argentina. Let me just say, that if we didn't have the help of the ISA staff to hold our hands through this process, I think I'd just have to deal with being an illegal immigrant. The terrible thing is that the US's process for distributing visas is even more convoluted and also unfair. In order for an Argentine (or anyone else) to enter our country for some extended period, they must purchase a visa before they make the trek to the US. Additionally, we make them pay waaaaay more for these visas than what is expected from us when visiting their country. Then to top it all off, the traveler could legally obtain a visa, pay for their flight to the US, and go through customs and still possibly be turned away due to suspicions of security (which could be any range of things since we're so paranoid). I'm not trying to say this happens all the time or anything, BUT the US is the only country (according to my knowledgable professor, Mage) that has the jurisdiction to force potential travelers to purchase a visa BEFORE entering the the country and then STILL have the power to turn them away. Thats just really shitty.

Now that my political rant of the day is over... my B... I'll tell you how I got lost!! AGAIN! I guess there really isn't much to tell, same story, different day. My main frustration is that I can't seem to read a map haha. I was over 30 minutes late for our visa appointment, but thank goodness it didn't really matter. The visa process takes for.ev.er. I got there around 8am and wasn't out of the building until after 10. The waiting process was entertaining at least, we are all so clueless about what is going on (myself definitely included). Our ISA staff likes to call us Spanish babies, because we are learning everything as we fumble along. Even after spending the morning in immigrations, we have to return, yet again, to finally get our official student visas (a 2 month waiting process). I am so looking forward to have my documentation in hand (and of course, stowed away from muggers).

Chau!

El Tigre and 4th of July

The one notable thing I did this past weekend was take a trip to El Tigre, an area an hour or so outside of Buenos Aires. It was a very refreshing break from the fast-paced city life. It is located at the river delta of Rio Paraná and many people live here and use boats as their main source of transportation (there was even a grocery store boat and a school boat for transporting children to and from school). We also saw Puerta de las Frutas which has a rich history with the import/export of, you guessed it, fruit! Now its primarily just a market with tons of souvenirs and handcrafted goods and foods. On the return trip home, we enjoyed a delicious merienda, which is an Argentine tea-time, consisting of submarinos (do-it-yourself hot chocolate) and alfajores (the most popular cookie of Argentina). We then fell into a sugar coma upon the return home.

Today is/yesterday was the 4th of July! And absolutely no one couldn't have cared less! (Except for some of my fellow students). Argentines don't really celebrate their own independence day (9th de Julio/July) so why on earth would they care about ours? Anywho, a huge group of us Yankees decided we were going to go to this expat, USA-style bar, suitably named The Alamo (and also known as Barefoot Joe's). I was very excited because its known for being super cheap, and upon checking it out online, I found out it was only 2 pesos per beer for ladies! So I decided that I'm for sure going, asked my host mom how to use the bus, and off I went.

Now the buses (colectivos) here are WAY different from the ones back home. You can wave them down like taxis, they don't have a set schedule (sometimes three of the same bus arrive at the same time), you can stop it wherever you want (but must signal it) and when looking up routes there is no map, just a long list of streets that I'm supposed to somehow know.

So I take on my first bus ride, and besides going way too far before I got off, it went pretty well! So then I have to walk back in the direction I came from to get to The Alamo. I finally find my street and start getting ready as I see a good crowd formed outside. I get to the door and the guard tells me its 30 pesos to get in... Now, 30 pesos is not a lot. Its a little less than $8 US, plus the cover charge went towards your bar tab. Nonetheless I had been expected free entry and beers for 2 pesos (.50 cents) each! So I got stuck outside hoping that one of my friends would come by and spot me 10 pesos... I waited for a while haha. Plan B eventually became too tiring and I was getting too cold, so I decided to return home. No problem, just use the same bus I already tested out earlier! Well, I did worse on the ride home than I did on the way out. I got off waaaaaaay too early because I saw what looked like a familiar subway exit... I was wrong. I then proceeded to walk home in the freezing cold, by myself, trying to look as Argentine (and tough) as possible.

I officially have a higher failure than success rate when it comes to night life in Buenos Aires. Oh well!!! I have plenty of time to turn that around, and I'm learning along the way! Even more good news is I gain some extra sleep. So as they say here in BsAs,

Chao!

Week 1

So, I have officially been abroad for one week and haven't blogged once... oops. So far things have been one adventure after another (small and large). There are a lot of different aspects to being abroad so I'ma break it down for you:

• The People: the people here are completely different from the personalities I'm used to in the states. Smiling is not common, unless you're looking at me, which is then a dead give-away that I'm a Yankee. (US citizens are referred to as Yankees --or Yanquis-- since the people here are also known as "Americans"). Outside of friends chatting, conversation is very practical and direct, Argentines know what the want and will not beat around the bush.
• Safety: for the first time in my life I'm truly having to be aware of my surroundings and use/develop "street smarts." Rules include: 1) don't speak English, 2) try not to be loud (common stereotype/accurate label of Yankees), 3) when using public transportation have a hand on your bag, if its a backpack you wear it on your stomach, don't keep anything in your pockets, don't stand by the doors, and be aware of people staring at you (which seems to be everyone anyways), 4) the danger time is between 3-5 am, during which you NEVER walk home alone, 5) be wary of taxi drivers trying to give you counterfeit money, 6) always have at least 20 pesos on hand in case you are approached by a mugger, to try to get them to move on quickly. I could honestly go on, but these are the main ones. I'm so used to just automatically trusting everyone, but here there are just people trying to get by and willing to take advantage of those who are susceptible targets. So far while we've been here, 4-5 people have been pick-pocketed and 1 guy's backpack got stollen that had a $900 camera in it...
• Going Out: this process starts around 1, and thats still early. Most places don't start getting hot until 2-3 am and then its completely normal to be there past 5am... Also, making the transition from Grog to Buenos Aires nightlife is going to be tough. No shorts and flip flops, no $5 all you can drink, no 25 cent pitchers... Alcohol here is waaaay cheaper if you buy it in the store (wine and beer can be found for cheaper than water), but at the clubs it gets pricey fast. On the topic of alcohol, its considered to be a vice of the lower classes. Of course people drink when they go out, or have a glass of wine with dinner, but getting drunk... that is associated with the poor, or with the Yankee tourists. Don't get shit faced (add that to the rules).
• Food: soooo good! Most of my meals are eaten at home, but every time I've been out, I've liked it. The Italian influence is impossible to ignore, and thats a good thing. The coffee here is also delicious, not like in the states where sometimes you get hot brown water in your cup. Prices here are pretty good as well, most sit-down, nice meals fall at about $10 US, but its also possible to get a $2 lunch of empanadas!
• Getting Around: bottom line, I get lost... A LOT. Like pretty much everyday I get lost at least once. The first couple of days was hard, and it was really frustrating and difficult to keep my cool. Now I've just accepted it. Quite a number of the streets here are not labelled... like QUITE a number, so half the time I'm basing my directions off of instinctual "feelings"... and I am no navigator. The subway system here is called Subte, and thats probably the only thing I'm kinda good at. Then there are the buses, or Colectivos, which don't have set schedules, and no maps for the routes, so I haven't tried them yet. Car traffic is to be treated with caution, I would never want to drive here. People go down the wrong sides of the streets, stop signs do not exist, and the pedestrian generally doesn't have the right of way.

There are a lot of other aspects of adjusting to a B.A. life, and I'm sure I'll get to them later. For right now, I just keep having to remind myself that I'm going to be here for 5 months! Its been one week, and it seems like 3. However, I dread mid November, when I'm packing my stuff up and wondering where did all my time go?!?