Halleluja

Sunday morning Lizzie, Abby and I met up to go to Tierra Santo (Holly land: name of the Jesus theme park) to see what was up with this place. I was wayyy stoked when Lizzie invited me because I'd heard about the place before and wanted to check it out. We got there a little before it opened so chilled by the river which was right across the street from it. We get in and they take us through this (artificial) cave like tunnel where there are different scenes from the Bible acted out by mannequin statue things. We had a tour guide who didn't seem to pleased to be there, all dressed in his sandles and brown dress. They herded us into a place where we were going to watch the nativity. It was pretttty interesting and the rest of the time we ditched the tour guide and just wandered around checking everything out. I had fully expected it to just be all Catholicism all the time but there was actually a mosque, temple, a wailing wall, shout out to Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther, etc. Oh and the best part...every hour on the hour Jesus would be resurrected to the sounds of "HALLELUJA! HALLELUJA!" It was insane. We were there for 5 HOURS and still didn't see everthing there was to see. I'm still not 100% sure how the Argentine's feel about it but I think they take it pretty seriously. There were families running around and I imagine this is a place where they can show them and teach them about different religions. I REALLY liked that they had something representing nearly all the major world religions (minus eastern ones).

Afterwards I had wanted to check out the Jazz festival that was supposed to be going on in the subtes. Since it was almost 6 I figured by the time I got home and checked it out online it would be too late and I knew that Sunday was the last day. But I'm getting out of the train and trying to get around this big group of people to get out onto the street when I notice the guys they're around have mustical instruments!!! There was the Jazz right there! They played beautiful music and I hung out there for about half an hour listening to it. I thought, man, this is such a wonderful thing. Music is so nice and to bring it into such a common, everyday place as the subte was a really nice gesture. People, like myself, would come up from downstairs, puzzled at first and then stop to listen to a song or two. It made the normally hectic busy people getting on and off the trains slow down.

Monday was a bit hectic...I went to class, came home and did some hw before the running club, ran and then had ten minutes to get ready before meeting up with Greg to go to a film festival! The festival was called Cinemigrantes and all the movies they had to offer were about human migration. I'm fairly certain that their message was that it is a human right to migrate. And that got me thinking. Mostly because every time I hear about migration I feel that it's in a negative light. People migrating to refugee camps to flee rebel armies or people migrating to different countries because they are being oppressed by their home governments.

But the first film we were presented with was about an Iranian woman, Molky, who had been a widower since she was 14. She wanted to travel to visit some family members and did so, even though she was about 70, she set off to see them because it had been twenty years. Ok keep in mind that this is my understanding with having to read Spanish subtitles haha. Anyway, so it made me think about voluntary migration, and what exactly migration entailed. Had I migrated? Even though I'm not here permanently? Wikipedia would consider my journey a migration because I'm "pursuing education." But "The Molky Way", as the movie was called, had followed Molky only to the destination where she had stayed for a few days and then returned home. Her example would make me believe we are always migrating. Just thinking about the number of trips I take by road or by plane, I am always moving, always staying in a different place for different reasons.

The second movie was quite strange. It starts with a woman and her young daughter, clutching a doll, at place of prayer in a Middle Eastern country. The girl puts her doll down and when she turns to show her mother and turns back to the doll, the dolls been taken apart. She turns back to her mother and her mother has disappeared. The woman then wakes up and from the fact that she was speaking French, I assumed she was in France. She goes about her day and from the story you get that she's fighting going back to wherever she's from. She does finally go back and it's all very odd for her and she sticks out for her clothes and manner of behavior. In this case there was migration, she obviously left her home villiage for Europe for whatevre reason, and then felt like an outsider when she came home. I could relate to that in a small part, it's only 5 months, and only two and a half have passed, but I can already feel the things that I'm going to be resistant to in American culture when I come home. But either way, this can definitely be one of the draw backs to migration. On the one hand, if you move to a place, assimilating is often the easiest option, but if you do then you alienate yourself from wherever you came from. If you don't assimilate, then it's more difficult to fit into wherever you've taken yourself.

The third, and the one I had wanted to see the most, El Regreso: The Return. This one was about a group of Palestinian children living in Madrid, returning to Palestine to visit their families and their place of birth. Well, that one was insane I knew a bit about the Palestine/Isreal conflict before seeing the movie but I had never seen it like we did in the film. Now, that was the type of migration I was familiar with. Things are so oppressive in the Palestinian territories that the children were sent to Spain to go to school and live so that they can have better lives.

Overall, the issue of migration is something I hadn't thought to deeply about before but now that I've seen these films and given it more thought I think it's a facinating topic. As well as their claim that it's a human right to migrate. I would agree with that; no one should be told they cannot go wherever they like for however long for whatever reason. But I also believe it should always be on a voluntary basis.

Yesterday I migrated over to Catedral for some Tango :) Met up with Gigi (the Argentine girl we met this weekend). Jessica, Arriana, and a different Nikko (this one a student at Universidad de Buenos Aires and from Germany), and Danielle (a girl from school I've been meaning to hang out with) were all there. It was PACKED. Too packed unfortunately. It's impossible to dance when there're that many people so I just lounged on a makeshift couch and watched everyone else dance. If I had brought enough money I would have enjoyed a glass of wine too but it was still a blast to watch everyone and I love the atmosphere of the place.

Besos!

check it!

Saturday was the wine festival! Jessica, Kelsey, and I met up with Sarah, Synnove, Asgar, and our new Argentine friend Gigi. The place was huge inside and when you get in they give you your very own wine glass for sampling. We wandered about tasting wine although I know nothing of wine. When I go to a store I pick the pretty label and make sure it's from Argentina. Honestly I don't really even like it that much, though it's kind of growing on me. So Asger and I found this free tour that would take you around the place, have you try a few wines, and then the (really cute) guy told us about them. So I've learned a bit about bubbly white wine. Oh and we also tried nectar? Not sure what exactly it all meant but my goodness it was yummy :) This guy walking around taking pictures for 2night.com came around and took a picture or Asger and I! Now we're on the internetssssss check it!

http://2night.com/buenosaires/photos/events/164495/vinos-bodegas#020

What's cookin' good lookin'?

Cemetaries, wine festivals, Jesus Theme parks, Jazz in the subway...

...these are a few of my favorite things.

After realizing I haven't been to an important/famous cemetary I decided to hit it up on Thursday after class. Got on the subte and with a bit of walking, arrived at Cemetario de Recoleta. I had never seen anything like this. Because Bs. As. is so flat, they decided to bury these people (mostly the rich and famous of Argentina) above ground so as not to soil their water. It was HUGE and there were so many, many mausoleums I gave myself 15 minutes before they closed to locate an exit. Sort of creepy...looking in, seeing a coffin, and knowing that a body was in there. But the mausoleums were beautiful as you can see from my pictures. Some were huge and elaborate with plaques and statues that had me admiring for a bit, while others I couldn't even find the name of the person resting inside. Bummer that I didn't find Evita. I did however find a ton of cats, I've gotten several theories on their pressence but I really don't know for sure. There was food and water out for them so that's what kind of struck me as odd...anyway, there were a lot of cats but not too many humans. It was nice though, I could wander about by myself and not be bothered by too many other tourists.

Got home from the cemetary and that night Nikko (Matias's brother) picked Kelsey, Jessica, and I up to have dinner at their house. The girls had bought food while I was out and this time we cooked for them :) We cooked squash, potatoes, and SALMON. I believe most of you know how I feel about seafood: I dislike. But, not wanting to be difficult and mildly convinced it was all in my head, I gave it a go and actually enjoyed it! yay. The food was superb, the boys thoroughly enjoyed it, and it was a fantastic night.

Friday I wanted to go to Avenida Corrientes because there're supposed to be tons upon tons upon tons of cool intellectual, artsy bookstores (and there were). Kelsey wanted me to come with her to check out an apartment for her mom when she comes to visit so we did that first. We got to Av. Corrientes and I was specifically looking for a cafe and bookstore I found in my touristy Arg. book (thanks Aunt Debbie and Kellie again for that) that were right next to each other and were supposed to be especially cool. We think we found the bookstore but the cafe was no where to be seen. Not to worry though, we'd brought some of our readings for our classes and just went into the first cafe we thought looked cool and drank cafe con leche while doing some hw. It was WONDERFUL :) We're both in the LA and US relations class and so Kelsey and I had some good discussions on some of our readings and what not. On our way home we stopped into some of the bookstores and that is where I found my treasures! The first book I found was a used, ancient poetry book from Bs. As. and as I was flipping through it I found a pressed flower!! I don't know about you, but that made me fall in love with it. The next one I got was, La idea de paz y el pacifismo (the idea of the peace and pacifism) and the third, El Delfin (the dolphin) which I'm having a hard time thinking how to explain the synopsis on the back but take my word for it, it looks rad. That night Kelsey, Jessica and I watched Moulin Rouge on Kelsey's laptop!!!

ok so I didn't get to the wine fest., theme park, or jazz but I am le tired ;)

Film festival tomorrow, tango Tuesday, Wednesday big dinner at our house, and I am going to cook up something for Thursday after I'm done here...

chau chau!

Cemetario de Recoleta

These days are just packed...

...the time is flyyyyyyying. I can't believe it's already the weekend again. To give you a quick recap of last weekend...

Thursday night Flavio, Jessica, and I went to a bar near the river to watch Matias's band play some alternative rock. They were fantastic :) After there was a DJ who played fun club music and man can these Argentine boys dance! We made friends with two Argentine guys earlier and so danced with them. I love being twirlled around and acting like I know how to do these dance and they're quite sexy which makes 'em even more fun ;) As we were leaving to find Matias, because he'd offered to drive us home, another guy we'd met earlier grabbed me and we started dancing as well. When I went to go though he was like, do you have a boyfriend? I said yes, and he was like "but I love you, I want to kiss you." Ahaha boys will be boys.

Friday I had to go to schooool. Because here, if a class is cancelled, you make it up on Friday. Lame, I know and you better believe that only two of us showed up haha. Afterwards I found Greg waiting outside for me and we went to a park read, picked up some peanut butter for Barrio Chino, and other food stuffs to make dinner. We also rented the movie Amelie since I haven't seen it. Nice relaxed night of good food and the movie.

In the morning we made french toast and then we went to the MALBA (a museum but I've forgotten what all the letters stand for) to see an Argentine indie flick, Plan B. Very interesting movie that touched on homosexuality.

Sunday was all homework all the time!

And now I feel more caught up :) Yesterday I went out to the cemetary in Recoleta where Evita Peron is supposed to be burried, never found it though...and then today Kelsey and I did hw in a cafe and checked out some kick as book stores :)))))))))) I love books! I want to bring them all home with me!

Besos! Chau!

So about them kids...

Two saturday's ago was the Juegoteca. Basically you go and play/hang out with kids in crapy parts of the outer cities around Bs. As. Greg and I met up at my apartment, took a bus to one destination and awaited Bestsabe and Jenna to take another bus. This second one was an hour long and we chatted the whole way there, well, more Greg, Jenna, and Bestsabe...I don't know why I don't sometimes jump on these opportunities to practice speaking. I mean I'm always improving my comprehension skills and what not but ya... anyway. We get there and I notice this big billboard type thing that basically said "here too we are growing" and it was a message from the government and I'm still not super sure how the people feel about politics and what not but after seeing the neighborhoods we worked in I wondered if the people think these messages are jokes. We walked for about ten minutes to a building where that Un Techo Para Mi Pais uses and began to paint on some boxes. That day we were going to go through the streets with painted boxes like we were a train and each a part of the train! Super cute right?! After hanging out there for about an hour the kids came. One girl was super talkitive, others were kind of shy but they were all real cool kids. There were about twenty in all I'd say. We went out to this patio in the back and then rounded up the boxes to put them on with string and walk about!!! I have never seen poverty like this. Some of these houses were just big planks of wood set up as walls with a blanket over the doorway and no glass in the squares cut out for windows. I don't really know how to describe it all but it was crazy. And the kids could talk so casually about attrocious things. One girl said she had to change schools because little girls were getting their eyes stabbed? Another girl said that sometimes vans would come around at night and kidnap children. Ugh, just made me super bummed to hear all of that. I'll never understand why people hurt others, but especially children. It was nice to offer these kids something fun to do, kind of take their minds off of those things and just be kids. I'm glad UTPMP does this.

That night I went to my friend Sarah's birthday party on her rooftop terrace. It was super fun but I was so exhausted from the day that I called it an early night and hit the sack.

A dinner that Greg and I made; Greg making french toast another morning; Flavio, Jessica, and I at Matias's concert...which now that I think about it I don't think I've shared that story just yet. Just stay tuned folks :) Oh and David, drinking out of his nasty cow hoof mate.

Fast Forward

I still haven't told you about Saturday morning with the kids or Sarah's birthday party that night but I already started writing what's been happening this week on Word since the internet hadn't been working and I was worried about my forgetful memory...

What a wonderful day this Tuesday was :) Woke up nice and early, 8:30AM, ate breakfast while gazing out into the great sea of buildings and took my time gettin’ into my homework. Wasn’t at it for long before Kelsey told Jessica and I about an asado aka bbq at an Italian guys apartment. We threw some clothes on, went to an internet café because our internet has not been working, ordered tickets to a show and picked them up on our way to their apartment. It was kind of a bring your own food to bbq type of thing so we stopped at the store and grabbed steak, bell pepper, mushrooms, corn, onion, bread and some beers. Showed up and it was the apartment of Andrea (a boy and you pronounced the r all rrrrrr-y), Mark (guy from Holland in my span class) and Flavio. Synovve and Ariana showed up next, Debora from france, and there were two other Italian guys but I can’t remember their names. We trekked up to the rooftop where the boys were trying to make fire and once they did we threw the foods on ‘em! Greg came right as we were finishing our meals, I had been tardy in texting him the address and what-not. The food was simple and therefore super yummy :) I felt like I could have been in the middle of Italy though. It was like a scene from those movies where everyone is gathered around a long table, laughing and eating outside on a beautiful day. And since everyone was European it didn’t feel very Latin America. Afterwards Greg and I walked home, since our apartments are in the same direction, and promised to meet back up at the J. Hernandez subte station at 9 to go to the tango class at the melonga (I have no idea it I spelt that right) Catedral. In the mean time I did a bit of studying and more eating. We met up, not really know exactly how we should get there, usually I just follow along with Kelsey, not really know where we are hehe. We knew the cross streets and through his map we figured we’d get off at Bulnes and then walk it. Walking took a bit but it was a blast palling around as usual. When we got there at 10:10 we thought we were only ten minutes late but the guy selling the little tickets for the class said it started at 9:30. Well there was no way we’d gone to all the trouble of getting there and then not hop in anyway so we did. Andddd as we suspected it was on Argentine time so although we may have been 40 minutes late, they were running 30 minutes late. There were a ton of people and while there’re usually a fairly even number of girls and guys, this time the ladies outnumbered the chicos. So I shared Greg haha and danced with some fellow chicas. One girl was nice enough but not too talkative but the other woman I danced with was visiting her daughter, who lives here, from Brazil. Back to Greg and he and I danced the night away :) he’s a super swell dancer which is great since the guys lead so I can just kinda fumble along and still look like I know what I'm doing. We decided though, next week we’re just going to get there around 11, have a glass or two of wine and dance around 11:30 because that’s when they let you loose and play music continuously. The class can be a bit confusing so he promised to teach me what he learns in his class each week and then we’ll just do our thing from there. We grew hot and tired so called it an evening. Hopped on the bus and as I was walking to my apartment I saw the kiosco guy I always say hi to and who used to make fun of my accent when I asked for a card for my phone. Nowww I’m thinking you might not be getting all of these references. Let’s see…Kiosco = 7-11 but on the street and much smaller. “card for my phone” = to be able to use the cell phones here you buy “credit” and so you buy these cards for 10, 20, 30 however many pesos and then you scratch off the back to reveal a code number, call a number and dial in the number on the back of the card to recharge your phone with credit. Entienden? Anyway, I’ve wanted to ask his name for a while, but haven’t needed credit in a while, so that I can say “hola (insert name)” instead of just hola every time I walk past to go to my apartment. So I see him waiting at the bus stop in front of my apartment and we chat. I tell him about school etc, and he asks if I want to go out some time, drinks, whatever. He’s super nice and I want to practice Spanish so I was like YAAA let’s do it. Yay for another Argentine pal! Speaking of, I saw Juan for the first time today in a long time! It was so nice :) I feaking love him! And that my friends was my Tuesday :)))))) Oh by the way it was a holiday here and that's why I wasn't at class, forgot that detail haha swearrrrr I'm not ditching.

On the bus ride home I began thinking about how in Argentina the whole, white lines/yellow lines/ red lines, etc on the curbs on the roads don’t exists. People park wherever, whenever and however. It seems to work though. I’m constantly drawing comparisons to the US. I was wondering, in comparison to Argentina I feel like we do things more rigidly with many more rules, etc does that work better, the same, or worse than when things are more relaxed/ there aren’t as many rules. Another example: stop signs. They barely exist but I have only witnessed one accident here (not for that reason either) and all of the drivers seem to know exactly what they are doing and act responsibly. But then again I feel the question is much more complicated. We’re talking different continents here entirely let alone all the other details that proceed from there so maybe it’s not fair to say "well it works in Argentina", let’s get rid of all stop signs and no more yellow curbs, etc. Just a thought.

Wednesday was a get up and go, go, go day. Went to class in the morning, came home for an hour or so, ran 6 miles, got home with Jessica and Kelsey from the running club, the three of us took turns taking showers and grabbing some food in about 25 minutes and then we went to FUERZA BRUTA! It’s this show that’s going on in Bs. As. right now and we’ve been hearing so many good things about it. We get there and it’s this big room but it’s super dark and foggy and lotsss of people. There’s a DJ playing some music and we got there just a few minutes before it started. It goes even darker and this man appears on the side closest to us, he’s got a rope connected to his back and he’s walking in place but on a giant treadmill type thing. They move us around so that it goes in the center of the room and we got super lucky so that we were right up front and didn’t have to be peering over anyone’s shoulder. The guy’s walking at first but then picks up the pace, all the while to some really cool music, and there’s a LOUD bang, like a gun and some fake blood appears and he fumbles but keeps running. There were a whole series of things with this…at one point others get up there and it’s like he’s walking down a busy street with people passing him in the opposite directions, bumping into each other…it looked a lot like how it feels to be walking down Cabildo. Anyway, then this giant sheet of silver stuff covers one wall and two women in flowery dresses hanging sideways dance around as if the side of the wall were the ground and they’re dragged back and forth while they’re doing this. I think that part was my favorite. Cuz the music was super cool that they danced to. Then back to the first guy and his treadmill. Then we were moved once again as they moved the treadmill and he went up onto a stage type thing, set up kind of like you were looking into a house without its outer wall. There were others in there and they started dancing really fiercely to the music and came out into the audience and started bashing these things over peoples heads that exploded into a ton of little white papers and dancing all about. One of the last parts was above our heads. It looked like we were looking into the bottom of a pool but the water didn’t fill the whole thing. There was a woman dancing and moving in the water, back and forth or however the water took her. Then more women joined and eek, it’s super hard to explain all of this but it was incredibly cool. It was even lowered down so that at some points we were touching the glass and they were right above our heads. It ended with the guy and his treadmill again. After they bowed and after that they sprayed water and played cool music and Jessica and I jumped around in it for a bit with others. SUPER fun :)

Miss me?

The internet hasn't been cooperating for a while so I'm going to take advantage of the fact that it is now...

Last Friday night, after the night at the Un Techo Para mi Pais meeting and wine drinking at David and Kelsey's we celebrated Ines’s birthday at “La Matuffia” a restaurant that was closed for her birthday because she promised a certain number of people to eat dinner. But first, Greg came over to hang out and as the weather was steadily getting uglier I decided to go to the bank to get some cash sooner rather than later. Well, we get about 2 blocks away from my house and it just DUMPS rain on us. We ran across the street to a café and by the time we got in my hair was soaking wet, I couldn’t see out of my glasses and my sweatshirt and jeans were super wet. We sit down and order two cafes con leche and receive some cookies with that. Greg and I spent the next three hours talking, eating, and drinking while we waited out the storm. Needless to say, but I guess I’m going to anyway, SUPER fun :) When the rain let up a bit and we decided if we didn’t leave soon we’d be late for Ines’s dinner thing, we took off back for my apartment. Get there, freshen up, and get on a bus to our destination. Turns out we were super late and they had been waiting nearly an hour for us to get there. Whoops!!! We do finally get there and there are long tables set up in a U shape and lots o’ people from school and what not. They start serving the beer and pizza, which was all really tasty, and had a real good time. Greg and I wanted to leave early because of the Un Techo Para Mi Pais thing Saturday morning and so didn’t want to be too exhausted to function.

I'll tell you more aobut that later....

Beso.

Hip Hip

HOORAY

So guess who went to the Argentine vs Spain friendly football match?! MEEE. These were the teams from the world freaking cup. It was so exciting and wonderful :) Lizzie, Raquel, and Emily met up at my apartment because the stadium was a twenty minute walk down one of the streets I live near by. We was all hungry so we stopped by the first place that offered empenadas and beer. YUM. Then we proceeded to walk down the street where at first we were the only gringos in Artentine colors but as we got closer there were more and more and more people heading toward the stadium with us. We got our faces painted along the way!!! It was a bit chaotic trying to figure out where we were sitting at first but once we got it figured out and in it was just gettin' started. The energy in the place was incredible. Our seats were not nearly as far away as I had thought they would be and we were right behind the goal that Argentina scored three times in, in the first thirty minutes!!! All I asked for was that they won and they certainly delivered :)

That was Tuesday... Wednesday Kelsey, Greg, and I got together to work on an art project.

Yesterday I went to a meeting for Un Techo Para mi Pais and got info on helping out with little kids on the weekends for a few hours! Might be participating this Saturday! Then Greg and I went to the apartment Kelsey is renting for her friend David who is here visiting from Chile because he's studying abroad there. The apartment was super sweeeet and it was a good group of folks last night. SO MUCH wine. Not that I drank but just in general, I think we had at least 8 bottles and there were 12 of us more or less. Wine's not really my choice to party with, not that this was a party but it definitely wasn't a glass or two over dinner, so I laid low. Either way, good night and tonight we are going to an all you can eat pizza and beer place for ines's birthday :)

Chau chau chicos

ohhhh but I totally forgot! I went to THE coolest book store I have ever encountered. I didn't have my camera but I'm going back for sure and can take pictures then. But its like being inside a theater, a BIG, fancy, painting on the big dome ceiling, kinda theater. And there were soooo many facinating books! I got Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland in spanish! Or should I say Alicia en el pais de las maravillas!

One pretty city...

Me and Kels, some of the architecture of Bs. As., Greg, Miles, me and one of the Argentine dudes from Sugar (the American bar), and then the gang sitting at a table in the bar too.

The good life...

...last weekend began Thursday when I had Sebastian, Hannah, Lizzie, and Tim over for dinner. I made lasagna! Little did I know though that Inez also had plans to have Juan, Juan's pals from Brazil, Maria, Monse, Greg, etc over for burgers as well. FULL HOUSE needless to say! After dinner it was time to club it up...Kika I believe was the boliche we went to and there was an Argentine band playing when we first got there. It was rad listening to everyone sing along because I guess they're a band that used to be popular a while ago. We only got to hear the last few songs because it was already 3 AM when we got there. The dj played 80's rock the rest of the night and we were there pretty much until it closedddd! When we got outside Greg and I took off skipping down the road and had a jolly time on our way to a bus stop. By the time we were on the bus we'd lost quite a few people...we were now Sebastian, Maria, Inez, me, Greg, and Juan. Went back to my apt as the sun was rising. Greg and I went in search of food and got some yummy pastries at a bakery near by.

Got to bed that night (or I guess I should say morning) around 8:30 AM. Kelsey woke me up around 1:30PM to go on a run. We met up with two other boys from the team at the school. Yikes I was hurtin but it was kind of nice to be out at the park in the fresh air. We got home, showered up, and picked up some things for the international night at school. Earlier in the week we'd asked if it would be alright to have a California stand because there're so many kids from the US. They were totally down for it so we had Lizzie make guac. and bring these corona type beers. Raquel brought a bottle of wine to represent Napa, Kelsey and I made posters, and I think that about did it. Haha a little scant I know but we're poor college kids ya dig? The kids from Denmark went ALL OUT. It was too cool. So basically there was a ton of food to sample and BOOZE. People were taking vodka shots at the Swedish table, Spain made sangria, Germany had beers, and the list goes on. It was the craziest thing to be drinking at a school function. There was a sweet tango performance by some of the kids in the class and then the dj kept playing club-esk music so it pretty much turned into a club after that. I did some dancing but mostly sat at our stand because I was SOOO tired. But that worked out alright because people would come up and be like "oh my gosh California!" and start telling me how they'd been there before or ask me questions about it. I made lots of friends that way haha...oh but one not so cool thing...it seemed like all the Argentine's who came were just looking to get hammered off of all the foreigners booze. They'd come up, ask if we had any alcohol, and once we told them we'd run out they'd leave. I had a guy ask if we had anymore of the beer I was drinking and when I said no he asked if he could have mine and then proceeded to take it. It was just kind of weird/lame. Afterwards a bunch of people were going out but I was like, hey it's 11 PM I've already drank my fill, danced to some cool tunes, and met nifty people....I'm going to BED.
Laid low Saturday because I was so freaking beat.

Sunday night Jessica invited me and Kelsey to go to dinner at this Argentine guys house. Hit name was Matis and he picked us up at our apartment along with a guy from New York. We drove to his town which was a little past Escobar and Pilar and so about 30 minutes from the city. His house was GORGEOUS. He lives with his folks, just remember that's wayyy normal here, with his twin brother and I believe they're both mid-twenties. Their mom was super nice and we didn't get to meet dad because he was out of town. Mom and Matis are both in a catering type business so Matis walks us to the back of the house and there is a huge restaurant style kitchen! There was a guy from Spain, and two other Argentine guys as well. We started cooking and it was seriously one of the best nights I've had here. We were laughing, listening to music, drinking wine, talking spanglish, and slicing vegetables :) This dinner was absolutely amazing...steak, squash, and bread. After, we played a word game and around midnight had Matis take us back home.

This last week was a good one at school. Had a presentation in History on the Mexican revolution! It went swimmingly, I had Greg and Lizzie for partners so I expected nothing less. Our prof is so encouraging and I think he was thoroughly impressed with us :)

Thursday Lizzie wanted me to come out to an "American" bar with her to watch college football! It was raining as I walked there from the subte stop but it was still a lovely walk...when I got there Hannah was there as well and Lizzie was at the bar ordering drinks. It was "all you can drink" for the ladies until midnight for a 20 peso cover! Miles met up with us but we were pretty bummed because they didn't have the channel for the game and Lizzie had even called to check that they were but they liedddd. Either way we drank it up, ran into some kids from Belgrano, one guy named Yiper from Denmark hung out at our table with us. Then Kelsey came and finally Greg. I went out to wait with him but the line was so long we just decided to kill time until the others were ready to go to a club. We went walking down the street, keep in mind it was still raining pretty good, but it was grand. I guess we were gone about an hour because Lizzie called asking where we were. I went back in while Greg waited outside because while the line had gone down we decided him paying the cover to get in wasn't worth it because we'd be leaving soon. Anyway, when I got in there were these two older Argentine men sitting at our table flirting with the girls. They were nice enough and when we were ready to rock I went outside with them because they were going to club with us. It took a while but we finally wrangled everyone up and started heading towards the club. Hannah comes out of the bar though and she's drunk. Kelsey, Miles, and Lizzie hop in a cab so Yiper, Greg and I are left with Hannah whose stumbling and rattling on and on in Spanish. We decide we're going to walk to the club but by the time we get there I'm so cold and tired I just want to be home. We end up stuffing her into a cab, Yiper had taken off a while ago, and so Greg and I catch a bus because our apartments are both off Cabildo.

Friday I decide I'm staying innnn. Greg texts me to ask what I'm up to and I tell him he's welcome to join me. He brings his laptop over and we watch MOULIN ROUGE :))) I can't get it to work on my laptop so I was absolutely thrilled! It was his first time watching it and he dug it (how could anyone not?!). I then made us some veggie burgers and we chatted while eating those until about 2AM until I decide I'm tired and kick him out. Oh and by the way our elevator broke that day so we've been having to walk up and down 12 flights of stair this past weekend. And people can't leave the apartments here without keys to the door downstairs that lets you out... I did some hw for a bit and then hopped on facebook for a bit and he and I start talking on the chat thing and decide to meet back up! Haha it's about 4:30AM and we start walking towards eachother. We find eachother and then start walking in random directions singing and dancing the tango in the middle of the streets. It was so fun wandering around the streets, I'm a little weary of going off on my own for obvious reasons so I don't do it as often as I'd like. We would have liked to have gotten lost but we recognized most of the streets that we'd pass just because they're so long and whatnot. At around 6 or 7AM we find this HUGE tree in the middle of the streets and lay under it while it sprinkled on us and the sun attempted to light up the overcast day. After a bit we make it back to my apartment, drink hot chocolate, and at around 8:30 we crash. Get back up and David, Kelsey, and Greg were chillin in the living room. Greg and I eat some spanish frosted flakes, by the way, down here it's Tigre Tono (imagine a squigley over the n) haha. David and Kels take off but we've decided to meet up with them later at Plaza de Mayo to take some pictures of buildings we need to write about for Art class. We got down there around 5 so it was getting dark but David and Kels were so hungry they'd ordered food at the restaurant we met up with them at. So Greg and I took off to get the pics before the sun set. I love the area because it's so busy and it's where the obelisco is. We watched the gaurd outside of Casa Rosada take the flag down which was super cool. Met back up with Kels and David, and while they went to the apartment Kels rented for David, Greg and I stopped at a supermarket to pick up some food for dinner and a bottle of wine. It was a superb dinner of veggies over rice and he's into jazz and old music so that played in the backround, which made me feel like I was in a black and white movie haha. This morning we went to a cafe and I had one of the best breakfasts I've had here so far. We ordered cafe con leche and some medialunas. Guy comes out with our coffees, orange juice, water and three medialunes each! Yummmmmmmm. Since I got home around noon I've been doing hw and now we're all caught up!

ohhh and I believe that I have been spelling the Argentine "ciao" the wrong way, that's the Italian spelling obviously but here it's "chau" lol so from now on I'll be doin' that the correct way! Startingggg now! Chau :)

PS. Hope all and everything is well with all of you! I owe a happy birthday to Grandpa :) congrats on the new job Aunt Deb, Kellie I think of you often, hoping that school is going spectacularly. Nana, Papa, mom and dad I continue to be greatful of your support in making this all come true for me. I love you alllllllllll

Picture timeee

The kitchen scenes are from one of the best nights I've had here so far...I'll explain later. The other two are from our tango night :)

Happy belated Birthday to Aunt Jess, I knew it was the second but thought it was thissss month not last! I hope the job hunt is going well?! However it is indeed someone's birthday today...so Happy Birthday Uncle Nate! xoxo