My last day in Buenos Aires

Places I traveled while in South America

Today I woke up with plans to meet Kaia, the girl from Norway that I met at my hostel in Mendoza because she was spending some time in BA. I took the subte to Callao street, and then walked to my favorite bakery by my school to grab some lunch before I met her. It was sad to buy my last empanada and pastry, and to pass by my school for the last time. I met Kaia on the corner of Callao and Lavalle, and then we walked around for a while through BA. It was interesting to learn about our cultures from each other as we walked around, got some Banana Split and Maracuya ice cream at Freddo, and talked about traveling and our lives back home. I said goodbye to her quickly as I got off at my stop on the subte, and then I caught the red line back home. The Chinese supermarket by my house was closed, so I walked to Jumbo to pick up a last minute bottle of Malbec and two can of Quilmes to bring home to the US. My taxi left at 6pm and after hours through security and bag check, my plane departed from Buenos Aires at 925pm. It felt completely unreal to be leaving this country, and I know I’m going to miss it and all of the new friends I made so much. I had such an amazing trip in South America these past 40 days; it was definitely an experience of a lifetime. Tomorrow I’ll wake up in Texas, just in time for 4th of July! Buenos Aires to Dallas: 11 hours

Rollerblading in the park, back in Buenos Aires

Skate rentals in the park

Mendoza to Buenos Aires: 15 hours

We arrived in Buenos Aires at 9am, and then Mat and I said goodbye as we went our separate ways on the subte. I went back to my host family’s house and rang the doorbell, my host mom gave me some tea, and then I re-organized my suitcases so I can be ready for my flight home tomorrow. I met Carolyn at Plaza Italia where we walked to a park called 3 de febrero to find some roller blades. Along the way, I ran into my host brother and a host sister, who were working near the park, which was really weird! It’s strange how many people you end up running into who you know, even in a city as huge as Buenos Aires. Carolyn and I rented some roller blades for about an hour and skated around the park, which had been a goal of ours since the first day we were in BA. After rollerblading and walking around a rose garden, we started to walk back to Plaza Italia to grab some coffee. On the way back, we were talking around something when a guy in front of us turned around and said “I heard English.” The two guys from the US started talking to us, and we all walked back to the plaza together while talking about our travels. Carolyn and I grabbed coffee, and then said goodbye. Luckily we’ll still get to hang out back at A&M!

 Tonight was my last night in Buenos Aires, so I went out with my host brother and his friends. We took a bus and met his friends at one of their houses, ate homemade pizza, and then took another bus to San Telmo to a boliche called Mod. There was a live band, and they played all old American songs, like songs from the Beatles and from The Killers. There were only Argentinians at this boliche, but every time a new song came on they all went crazy. Every single one of the guys I was with knew the words to every song that came on, even though they were all old American songs that I didn’t even know the lyrics to! I was amazed! We stayed at the boliche until about 615am, and then I sadly said goodbye to all of them and went home.

Scootering through the Andes

Today Mat and I woke up really tired from the day before. We really didn’t have the energy to do anything so we packed up, checked out of the hostel, and found a pizza place for lunch. We finally decided that since it was our last day in Mendoza we should probably do something productive, so we found a scooter rental place. They lady who owned it told us we could take the scooter to this town about an hour and a half away into the Andes mountains, but it would be freezing cold and probably not worth it since we only had 3 hours until we had to be back to catch our bus. However, we decided to do it anyway since it would only cost us less than $10 each. We drove the scooter out of town and towards the mountains in the distance. It was an absolutely gorgeous ride towards the snow covered Andes, and we stopped several times to take pictures. Although it was freezing cold, it was so worth it. The hour journey to the town was both beautiful and terrifying at the same time, as we zoomed around the curvy mountain roads while surrounded by the huge mountains. We made it back to Mendoza by 430, dropped off the scooters, grabbed our stuff from the hostel, and then boarded our bus to Buenos Aires.

Our bus left at 6pm, and I immediately fell asleep and only woke up for the 3 meals we got during our 15 hour overnight drive to Buenos Aires.

Wine tours on bikes

We woke up this morning, ate breakfast at the hostel, and then caught a bus to Maipu at 945. It took us 45 minutes to get there, and we got off at Mr. Hugo’s bike shop. We’d heard from so many people at our hostel that Mr. Hugo was the nicest guy ever, and I found that out immediately. When I go to his shop, I realized that there weren’t any ATMs around and that I didn’t have much cash on me, so Mr. Hugo himself took Mat and I in his pickup truck to a ATM a few miles away.

Back at Mr. Hugos, we got on our bicycles and peddled on to our first stop. We arrived at our first tour, which was a place that made homemade olive products, chocolates, and liquors. We got a small tour, and then the tasting began. The lady set out a ton of jars of dulce de leche flavors, oils, peppers, olive spreads, liquors, and chocolates. She asked us which ones we wanted to try, and I tried two different flavors of dulce (chocolate and hazlenut), a black olive spread, balsamic vinegar, spicy picante spread, some liquors, and some of the chocolates. Everything was delicious, and it was all homemade including the olives, which were grown right outside. We each bought some jars of our favorite olive and picante products and then peddled back to Mr. Hugos eo drop off our stuff.

After we put our new purchases in a locker, we headed for the beer garden. It was a really chill place in the middle of nowhere, where a small family and their dogs lived and ran a small restaurant that served empenadas and pizza. We sat on a cushion on the dirt outside, and the warm sun felt really good as we ate some empenadas, porkskins and drank a glass of homemade beer. Next we went to an actual winery called Trapiche, which is the most modern one in Maipu. The dogs from the beer garden had followed Mat and I the whole way on our bik s. Trapiche gave us a tour and then a tasting, and this is where we met two guys from Australia, Johnny and Ben, and then two guys and a girl from England. After Trapiche, we peddled for a few miles to another winery called Familia de Tomasso. We ate some lunch there, and then got a tour of the winery followed by a tasting. Here, we met Eoghan (Owen) from Ireland. Eoghan followed us to the next winery called Vina Al Cerno, where we ran into the Australians again. The place only had 15 minutes until closing time, so they gave us a quick tour and then the five of us split 8 glasses of different types of wines.


The city was shutting down by the time we finished our wines, and to make sure we were safe there was a policeman waiting to escort us back to Mr. Hugos. He followed behind us with his lights on the whole way, with a line of cars backed up behind him. It was exhilarating flying down the road on our bikes in front of him, as the sun was setting behind the mountains to the left of us all the way back. We finally made it back to Mr. Hugos, where the English couple, the other English guy, and a French guy were  all sitting around a table talking to Mr. Hugo. Mr. Hugo pulled chairs up around the table for us, handed us some glasses, and filled them with red wine. There we all sat for about two hours – Americans, French, English, Australian, Irish, and Argentinians – talking and laughing like we were all good friends as Mr. Hugo made sure our glasses stayed full. We caught a bus back to Mendoza, and then Mat, Oeghan, and I met at a nice steak restaurant for dinner.

Chilean Seafood

This morning we went to some shops in Vina that were along the beach. I got some cotton candy because there were stands everywhere in both Chile and Argentina, and I’d always wanted to try it. However, cotton candy along the beach is not exactly the best idea. The mist from the ocean wet my cotton candy, which then melted onto the side of my hand. It was worth a try at least! Right after shopping, we decided to grab some lunch and headed to the seafood area of town.
I’d heard from people that Chilean seafood is supposed to be the best. When we got to the seafood area, we look at some menus and then some random local guy pointed us in the direction of a “really good restaurant.” The place was packed with locals, so we sat down and looked at the menu. We asked several people what the best thing to order is, asked the table next to us what they were eating, and then made our decisions. As an appetizer, we all split what was called the “jardin de mariscos” (garden of seafood). The picture looked good, and a lot of locals were eating it, so it seemed like a good choice. The jardin came with about 5 different types of seafood that I couldn’t even tell you the name of, even in English. Most looked like clam-type things…or the inside parts of fish…but I figured that it couldn’t be worse than what’s mixed in with Paella, which I actually really like. I took my first bite and couldn’t swallow it. It was a cold, raw, chewy, squishy thing with a very fishy taste. It tasted like they had just caught it out back, rinsed it with water, and then plopped it onto our plate; I could even feel the sand crunch between my teeth as I tried to chew it. I tried everything else in the jardin platter of mystery fish, but couldn’t really eat any of it. The three guys I was with practically finished the whole thing, while I kept eating bits of bread as I waited for my marisco empenada. My “random mix of seafood” empenada wasn’t the best empenada I’d ever tasted, but I was happy to have something that was actually cooked. My main dish came, which was the same thing the table next to us had been eating, called “chupe de mariscos.” It was pretty much just a thick soup with random types of seafood, topped with a lot of parmigiana cheese. The first couple of bites were good, but after that I couldn’t eat much of it. I honestly couldn’t  identify one item in my soup, and it tasted a little fishy. I kept asking for bread, and decided to make that my meal. My experience with Chilean seafood wasn’t the best, but it was definitely interesting and I’m glad I got to try it. The restaurnt was still packed with locals when we left.
After lunch we tried to find a place called “Cerro Alegre” which it supposed to have a good view of the city up on a really tall hill. I don’t think we ended up finding the actual Cerro Alegre, but we walked up a million stairs on one hill and then walked up another hill afterward to overlook the beautiful Valparaiso. When it was getting dark we walked down from the hill (the higher up on a hill you are, the more dangerous the area is) and went to Jumbo to buy Clay’s mom some wine and chocolate as a thank you for letting us stay there.
Tonight we just hung out with Clay’s family, ate “once,” and sat around and talked. His family is so nice! I talked with the youngest son, Diego, for most of the time. He’s incredibly cute, and we played a game where I had to guess what he was drawing. The whole night was very relaxing and incredibly fun. I loved just sitting around and talking with his family, who made us feel incredibly welcome and like we were a part of their family. Little Diego dressed up in a dog costume, and we all took group pictures and talked until late. At the end of the night, Diego handed me a wrapped present containing a stuffed little purple dragon, “un regalo” for me.

Wine Country

Vina del Mar to Mendoza: 12 hours

Clay’s mom woke Mat and I up this morning at 430am. We had tried to convince her the night before that we could just take a taxi or a bus to the bus station to head to Mendoza this morning, but she insisted that there would be “no taxis, no buses, and that it would be too cold,” so she convinced us to let her drive us there. Even though it was 430am, she sat us down for breakfast (bread, cheese, coffee), and talked to me about how much she loves having kids stay with her. She said she already has 4 kids of her own, so having a few more to feed is nothing. I could tell that she just really loves to welcome study abroad students into her home as if they were her own, and she told me that if we even need a place to stay in Chile again that we were welcome. She took us to the bus station, and we thanked her a million times and said good bye.

It was 2 hours from Vina to Santiago, and then another 10 from Santiago to Mendoza. A truck had turned over on the one road through the Andes, so we were backed up in traffic for a while before going through customs. We arrived in Mendoza finally around 7pm, exchanged our Chilean pesos for Argentinian pesos, then took a bus to our hostel called Empedrado Hostel and Wine. After we got a tour of the hostel, we settled in and then headed for the main street, Las Heras, for dinner. We ate at a place called El Jardin, then went strait back to the hostel completely exhausted. We met
a girl from Norway who was staying in our room,
and then went to sleep.

Boat tour in Valparaiso, Chile

This morning we woke up kind of late, but Mat and I were tired from our long bus ride and staying out late the night before. For breakfast we ate some bread with cheese again, and then met up with Clay’s friend Roland (who also goes to Texas A&M) in Plaza Sotomayor. A parade was going through the middle of the palza, and people were everywhere. We walked down to the port area and hopped on a little boat, which they packed as tight as they could. We boated out where we could see the pretty shoreline of Valparaiso and there were tons of other boats surrounding us who were celebrating a Chilean holiday, so they were covered in Chilean flags, ribbons, and other decorations. It was like we were in a big parade on the water, so it was really fun. The boat tour lasted around 2 hours (1 hour too long!) and we were all starving by the time we got off.
We walked to a restaurant that Roland’s friend said was really good, which looked just like an American hamburger place. I ordered the “Churasco Especial,” which was an amazing sandwich with beef and mayonaisse on a bun, and we all split a huge order of another typical Chilean dish called Choriana. Choriana is french fries topped with mayonnaise, eggs, onions, sausage, hotdogs, beef and chicken. It sounds gross but it was actually pretty good.
After we ate we went back to Clay’s and then walked along the shore in Vina del Mar, which is a lot more touristy/resorty compared to Valpo. It was really clean and a really nice change of scenery, but both cities are very unique and I couldn’t pick one that I like better over the other. We went to a bar called Hollywood and sat and talked for a while and then went home.

Waking up in the Andes Mountains

Buenos Aires to Vina del Mar, Chile: 22 hours
It took 22 hours total to get from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Santigo, Chile, but the buses are so nice though that you can’t complain. They feed you three meals, serve you wine, play movies, and the seats are so comfortable that you’d almost think you were in your own bed. Overnight buses are the best too; last night I went to sleep, and this morning this first thing I saw when I woke up were the Andes Mountains. The bus served us a light breakfast, and a little while later we went through customs, which was a little building right smack in the middle of the Andes on the border of Argentina and Chile. We got off the bus and touched the Chilean snow for the first time. The air was so crisp and clean, and the mountains were huge and beautiful. We grabbed our carry-on luggage from the bus and waited in line to have our passports stamped – first by Argentina’s customs window and then by Chile’s right next to it. A dog sniffed our bags to detect fruits, vegetables, and drugs; he was so good that he was even able to smell the scent of the apples that I’d had in my backpack earlier! We got back on the bus and continued our journey to Santiago on extremely windy roads; we were glad to have made it through the pass, which tends to be closed fairly often due to snow.
We made it to Santiago, which is a huge city surrounded by mountains. It seemed to be pretty smoggy there compared to Buenos Aires, but were only there long enough to buy our ticket to Vina del Mar and have a snack. Our bus to Vina del Mar took only 2 hours, and we grabbed a taxi to go to Clay’s host-family’s house. We noticed immediately how hilly Vina is, and it was a little hard for the taxi driver to find the house. When he stopped and asked several people for directions, their advice was to “go up the hill more,” which was a strange because usually people give directions in “blocks” instead of how high to drive up a hill. We finally made it to Clay’s, and it was really weird to be meeting up with someone – who I’d sat by in my international studies class with everyday this past semester at A&M – in a different country.
Clay’s host-family was super nice. He introduced me to his four host-brothers and the other guy who was studying abroad there, and we all sat around a table and ate what the Chileans call “once” for dinner, which consisted of a cheese sandwich. I got dressed and then we all headed out; it was one of his brother’s girlfriend’s birthdays so we were fortunate enough to be able to hang out with some Chileans. We took a bus to Valparaiso, which is only about 30 minutes away from Vina. We went to a bar, ate tacos (“once” wasn’t filling enough), and talked for a couple hours. Then we all headed over to a club, where we danced on a floor of pure sand until about 3am (luckily night life in Chile is only until about 4am, not 7am like Argentina). We grabbed a “completo” on the way home, which was typical of Chile. Although the Chileans think that completos are the greatest things in the whole world, to us Americans they’re pretty much just a very long hot dog completely covered in tomato puree and mayonnaise. We caught a bus back towards Clay’s house, where his mom was waiting in her car for us on the corner. About 9 people piled into her car, and she drove us up the curvy hill back to the house.

Chi Chi CHi, Le Le Le!

Well I just had my last day of class, took my oral proficiency exam, went shopping on Cabildo a little, and got some lunch at a panaderia. And…in a couple hours…I’m heading to CHILE! I’m so excited and can’t wait! I’ll be taking a bus all the way there – all the way through western Argentina, through the Andes mountains, and across Chile for about 20 + hours! I’ll be traveling with my friend Mat, who was in the same program and I was here. We’re both the only ones staying an extra week to travel, so it worked out perfectly! I probably won’t be blogging for the next week (or not much at least) since I’ll be constantly on the move, but hopefully I can keep y’all updated a little. I’ll be in a few different parts of Chile for several days and then I’ll be going to Mendoza, which is the wine region in Argentina. Then it’s back to BA next weekend before I leave to go home. It’s going to be a super intense week, but I’m so ready!

Right before I left to meet Mat at the bus station, I messaged my friend Clay who goes to Texas A&M, who I sat by during my international studies class all last semester, and who is studying in Vina del Mar, Chile right now. Mat and I still didn’t have a hostel lined up for tomorrow night, so I asked him (jokingly) if he knew anyone who would want some couch surfers for the next few days. Immediately, he told me he asked his mom and we could stay with him and with his host family there. I was shocked! It was the perfect plan, and it was so cool that I’d be staying with another Aggie in another country!

Final exam, farewell dinner

Today I had my final exam for class. Hopefully it went well! We got to leave right after we were finished, so Danielle, Katie, Noelle, Audrey, Austin, Kylie, and I went to eat lunch at a chain restaurant called La Madeleine. I split a mozzarella pizza with Danielle of course. After lunch we went shopping, in an attempt to find black leather boots. We went into what seemed like every shoe shop on Santa Fe, but were unsuccessful. Audrey and I took the subte home, I slept for about an hour, and then I went to pick up my laundry. I packed a little bit while talking to Audrey and Sammi before I had to start getting ready for dinner, then Sammi, Audrey, and I took the bus to our CEA farewell dinner. The food definitely wasn’t the best I’ve had all trip, but dinner and goodbyes lasted for about 3 hours. I’m seriously ridiculously sad to say goodbye to all these friends I’ve made and to leave this amazing city, and I can’t believe it’s one of my last nights in BA. Tonight I’m just staying in with Audrey and Sammi; I need to research hostels for Chile and finish packing. Tomorrow is my last day of class and we have a speaking assessment, and then I’m heading strait home to grab my stuff and go to the bus station to leave for Santiago!

Little boy juggler

After class I went to a kiosko and bought $20 worth of Argentinean candy so I can take it back to the US with me. Frequently there’s some sort of entertainment on the subte by someone performing for money, selling something, etc., and today on my way home there was a little boy who was juggling. I’d seen him once before; he juggles three bean bag balls and hits the ceiling of the subte with them to draw more attention to him. He’s not the best juggler, and usually drops one of the balls every time he tries, but he’s the cutest little boy. He was wearing sweatpants and a sweatshirt that were covered in dirt, his hair was long and ratty, there was dirt smudged on his face, and his shoes were all worn out. It’s sad that he has to live that way, and it was almost heartbreaking to watch him.

It’s getting down to the last couple of days here, and I’m really sad about it!! I was super behind on blogging and uploading pictures, so all I’ve been doing all afternoon is catching up. I can’t believe I only have two more days left in BA (only 1 full day!), and then I’m leaving for Chile! Our exam is tomorrow, so I’ll definitely be studying and packing the rest of the night.

Zoo Lujan

Today I woke up only two hours after I’d gotten home from the previous night (Argentina hours are crazy!!) to go to the zoo. I figured out which bus to take to get to Plaza Italia (the 108) where I could meet my friends at the McDonalds there, because that’s the area where the bus to the zoo leaves from. We had heard that it costs 11 pesos in only coins to go to the zoo (it’s about 2 hours away from Buenos Aires), so we were a little worried about where we’d get so many coins from since everyone is hesitant to even give you even a dollar in change because there is a shortage in coins in this country. The banks will give you a max of 10 pesos, but since it was Sunday and all the banks were closed, we were going to have to figure out something else. I met Danielle at McDonalds and while we were waiting for Kylie, I decided to grab a media luna croissant (yes, even the McDonalds here sell pastries!). The only bills I had on me were 2 fifty peso bills, so I used one to pay for my 4 peso media luna. I handed the cashier the huge bill, and apologized, while she in turn opened up the register and apologized for not having any bills to give me…all she had were rolls and roll of coins!! Needless to say, I was ecstatic that our 11 peso in coins problem was more than solved…it was the weirdest thing! We decided to wait for Kylie for 30 minutes, but after about 25 minutes we decided that she must not be coming and went to find the bus. When we got to the bus stop, we ran into Kylie who explained that she couldn’t find the McDonalds and decided to just wait for us at the bus instead. She said she was jsut about to go look for the McDonalds again, and if we’d come 5 minutes later then she would have been gone! With two streaks of good luck in a row, we payed for bus 57 and discovered that they’d made a whole new bus that goes to Luhan that doesn’t require only coins anymore. So, with my 46 pesos in change and a ticket the Luhan, we boarded the bus and made the 2 hour bus ride there. Along the way, we passed more residential areas of Argentina, some of the country side, as well as the poorest neighborhoods I’ve ever seen in my life. We arrived in Lujan after only about an hour and a half, got off in the middle of no where, and walked about 5 minutes to the zoo.
The entrance fee was 50 pesos (about 13 dollars) which I payed for with most of my coins. Immediately to the left when we first walked in, we saw the first pin of baby lions. There was almost no line to go in, so we made our first stop. We were all in shock that you could just go in (with someone helping us of course) and pet these wild animals! We looked at the map and diecided to make stops at the older lions, camels, elephants, older tigers, and bear, and over the span of about 2 hours we were able to pet all of these except the bear. We pet the baby lions, full grown lions and tigers, I rode a camel, and fed/pet an elephant. The whole time we just kept looking around at the zoo, thinking about how weird this whole experience was. It wasn’t quite a zoo, but more of a petting zoo with dangerous animals. We didn’t really quite know what to think…this would never, ever happen in the US. My experience at this zoo was a paradox; it was one of the coolest things I’ve done, while it was one of the saddest things I’d seen. We had read that the Zoo Lujan was the “most controversial zoo in the world,” and after going there we could definitely see why. It was such a cool thing to do, but I wouldn’t go back.
After we rode about 2 hours back, Danielle and I grabbed some Kentucky Pizza and then I went home, ate a little more dinner with my family, and slept really well.

Tigre

Today I slept in until about 11…or at least tried. There have been construction workers hammering and sawing outside our house the past week, and they start working at 7am, even on a Saturday apparently.  I took the bus from my house to meet up with my program for out excursion to Tigre. I’m getting a lot better at this whole public transportation thing I think; its getting easier to find where to get on and off the busses. We took the train to Tigre, which is made up of a bunch of Delta rivers. People who live there take boats everywhere – to the grocery store, to school, and to work. We took a boat-bus through a delta, and one of our program leaders, Nahuel, told us all about Tigre for about 2 hours while we took pictures of the cute houses along the river. After the boat ride we went to an artisan fair, where there were tons of cool things to buy like mate cups and leather products. Tigre was really pretty and really interesting to see. Oh, and it was really cold out tonight. I don’t think I’ve really complained about being cold yet, but tonight on the way back home Audrey and I were freezing!
Tonight we ate warm vegetable, noodle, and sausage soup, which was amazing since we had been pretty cold all day. My host brother invited me to come out with him so at around 12am, we left the house. We took a colectivo (bus) to palermo and waited on a corner for his friends to meet up with us. We hung out at two different places around palermo soho and Plaza Cerrano, ordered some pinguinos, and spoke Spanish. All of his friends were extremely nice and it was really cool to be out with locals because they all knew where to go and what to order and we spoke spanish the whole time. After a while of sitting, most of his friends had left except one other guy, so they decided they wanted to go tango dancing because I’d told them that I learned it the night before and surprisingly, they had never done it before. They knew exactly where to go, so we went into a random building, down the stairs, and into a tango club where there were tons of people tango-ing (mostly middle-aged couples). We tango-ed for a couple hours, and then at about 6am we decided we’d had enough and left (although the place was still pretty packed). Colectivos don’t run at that time of the night very often, and for some reason we decided that we’d just walk home from Palermo, which is about 40ish blocks from our house. We walked for what seemed like forever but was about an hour and a half in the cold, and got home at about 730am.

Tango!

After class Kylie and I went to the mall to grab a bite to eat. I still can’t get over how good the food is here! I had empenadas – 2 ham and cheese and 1 chicken. I got home around 5, researched a little about our upcoming Uruguay trip next weekend I’m trying to plan, and then got ready to meet Phil for tango dancing. His host mom, who is a tango instructor, gave us a ride to where the lessons were. A bunch of people in our program were going to meet us there, but when we go there we realized that there was no way they’d be able to find it. We pulled up to the Vilasclub, which is a tennis club named after the great Argentinian tennis player, Guillermo Vila. I had no idea that the lessons were going to be here, so I was really excited that I was getting to see it! The club was really fancy; never have I ever seen Mercedes symbols on a tennis net before! There were only a few people at the tango class – me, Phil, Phil’s host mom, a guy tango instructor, a girl tango instructor, two old men, and another woman. We learned the tango for about and hour, and it was a little complicated but really fun! I definitely like it batter than the salsa. After the lesson we went to Palermo Hollywood and ate really cheap but delicious pizza, and then went and hung out in Palermo Soho until about 4am. 

Subte malfunction

Today I left for class at 9 instead of 915 so that I could get there early and do my homework. I got on the subte and after about the second stop, our car stopped in the middle of the tunnel. I thought that was kind of weird so I subtly looked around to see if any of the portenyos (people from Bueno Aires) thought the same, but no one looked confused as to what was happened. I started to smell something weird, like a smoggy, greasy smell, and after about 10 minutes we started to move again. When we got to the next stop, the announcer came on and told us to get out because something happened with the motor. In a hurry to work, everyone was mumbling under their breath in annoyance as they made their way off. The car sped off, empty, and we all waited a while for a while for the next one to come. The next car was full from picking people up at the previous stop as usual, which meant the everyone who had gotten off of my  broken car had to pile into this one, making it double full. I wish I would have taken a picture of everyone trying to pile in…it was so full that it took two tried for the doors to be able to shut. People were plastered to the side windows with barely enough room to breath. Hannah happened to find me in the mess of people and she decided to take a taxi, and I decided to wait for the next car to come. The next car came, and I piled in. I was smooshed up against five different people when I got in, and we still had about seven more stops to go before I could get off, which meant that people pushed their way into our crammed car seven more times along the way. It was really amazing how many people we got in that car…I think we could have hit a record for how many people can fit in one subte tram. When I finally got off the car, I walked to class, had no time to do my homework, and was twenty minutes late. Kylie and Hannah hadn’t even gotten to class yet, and I explained to the teacher about the subte malfunction. Luckily I had left early for class because it took me about an hour and 20 minutes over all to get there!

During our class breaks we went back to the bakery and I had one of the most amazing sandwiches ever and some type of amazing pastry. Having this bakery so close is going to be dangerous!! After class I called my mom and then took the subte back home. This time, a guy was beautifully playing his electric guitar on my specific car, which was really different compared to the experience I had this morning. I decided to go into the Jumbo (grocery store) right by my house, which I found out it a lot like a Walmart. They had everything there, from furniture to clothes to groceries, and I bought a straitener that I can use with the plugs here (great investment) and mate (maw-tay). Tonight I’m planning on going to a bar called Alamo to watch the Mavs game with some friends. Should be fun!

Puerto Madero

Today in class we had a different teacher who will be coming every Wednesday and Friday. He’s from Argentina but he goes to graduate school at NYU. which is pretty cool. He’s a lot easier to understand than our girl teacher, and he makes the class go by a lot faster. During our first break, Carolyn, Kylie, and I went and grabbed a coffee and then during our second “lunch” break we discovered a bakery about two doors down from our school. It’s literally the best bakery ever, with all types of cakes, sweet breads, candies, and fancy sweet things covered in dulce de leche (like a caramel-type of thing, but Argentinians are obsessed with it and put it on everything). I had a croissant type of thing with a stick sweet coating on the top of it. It was more bread-like than croissant, and it’s called a media luna. It was amazing. We played taboo in Spanish the last thirty minutes of class, which reminds of of playing catch phrase my senior year of high school in Spanish; it was so much fun!!

After class Kylie, Carolyn, Alex, and I went to grab a bite to eat ( I had a torta, which is like a keesh filled with ham and cheese), and then Carolyn and I walked around. We didn’t really have a plan of where to go, but we ended up going to Puerto Madero, which is by a river and where the Argentina navy is. We got there when the sun was slowly going down, and found a really open field with cool buildings in the background to do cartwheels, handstands, and take pictures in. We walked across a bridge designed by the famous architect Santiago Calatrava. When I saw it, I realized that it was the exact same bridge that I passed by every night when I studied abroad in Sevilla, Spain about 3 years ago (designed by the same architect), which is extremely cool!!
After walking around, we found a taxi and took it to the residencia where we were having a cinema and movie night with the program. We learned how to make and drink mate (accent on the E and is pronounced maw-tay), which is a type of herb with a type of caffeine that is as important to Argentinians as coffee is to Costa Ricans. We ate endless beef and ham and cheese empenadas and had a traditional dulce de leche dessert. We started to watch a really good Argentinian movie about two guys who went around robbing people in Buenos Aires, but then we were invited out with some of the residencia people. We went to Palermo Soho, which is a big place for young people to go out and went to a bar called Sugar, and it was really fun!

First day of classes

Today was my first day of my 5 hour long Spanish class. It was from 10am to 3pm with a fifteen minute break to go buy our book and then a 30 minute break for lunch. I ate lunch with Carolyn, Kylie, and another girl in our class at a restaurant down the street, which took longer than the 30 minutes we had. We won’t be doing that again! Class was long, but bearable. After class I got coffee with Alex, and then I went shopping until about 6. There were a lot of stores right by my school, and it was just shop after shop of the cutest clothes, shoes, and purses ever!! After shopping, I found my way back to the subte perfectly and made my way home before dark. It was really hot out today (not literally hot, but a lot warmer than usual); I had to take off my jacket and was practically sweating by the time I made it back to my house. I’m absolutely loving Buenos Aires!

Placement tests and tour of Belgrano

Today we went to the Universidad Belgrano main campus to take our placement tests. It was a full page back and front of fill in the blanks; it was basically an interview of an actress with random words left out that we had to put back in with the correct tenses. I’ve had things like that on tests before, but never a dialog that was this long. It was really hard, but I got placed into the right class that I need to take in order to get credit for. There are two other girls from my program in my class – Carolyn from A&M and Kylie who I know from Costa Rica – which is really exciting!! Class starts tomorrow from 10-3.

After the placement tests everyone in my program ate lunch together at a mall. I had a calzone with ham and cheese, which was super good, and “granizada” ice cream (I assumed that mean chocolate chip, or that’s what it looked like). We went on a tour of the area of Belgrano after lunch, which is a really nice part of town. After that Carolyn, Phil, Kylie, and I walked around for a while, and then when it was starting to get dark Phil and I tried to figure out how to get back to our houses and then parted ways. I asked a security guard where my bus stop was, and he told me the complete opposite direction. I ended up on some busy street, got on the wrong bus, then had to ask someone working in a book store for directions to the correct bus. I finally got on the right bus, but then I had to figure out where to get off. It was pitch dark, the bus was absolutely packed, and I had no idea which stop to get off at. The only landmark near my house I knew of was the railroad tracks, so once I saw those I got off as quickly as I could. I figured that if I couldn’t find my way back, then I’d just hail a taxi. However, I somehow managed to get off at the absolutely perfect stop!! I was so incredibly surprised, and power-walked my way back home.

For dinner we had some kind of chicken, beef, and extremely good sausage with three types of whole baked “papas,” sweet potatoes,  regular potatoes, and a squash-type thing. The meat was okay, but the potatoes were amazing. Tonight I watched a movie with my host family that was in French, with Spanish subtitles. It was very…interesting, haha. Tomorrow is my first day of class!

Feria Recoleta, Cementerio Recoleta, San Telmo

Today Audrey and I went to Recoleta to visit the graveyard where the famous Evita is buried. The graveyard is absolutely gigantic and gorgeous; I’ve never seen anything like it. The tombs were huge, and some of the caskets were so close you could almost touch them. We walked around and took a lot of pictures, saw Evita’s grave, and then went back to the Feria Recoleta to buy some souvenirs. After we had seen enough of Recoleta, we took a taxi to another feria in San Telmo. Some lady told us it was small, but when we got there we found out that she was very wrong. This artisan fair was huge!! It was all down one street, with artists selling their work (and souveneires) on both sides, and it went on forever. I grabbed a “pan relleno” (bread filled with ham, and cheese) and we walked for another couple of hours. This feria seemed to be more local, and really cool. By about 630 we were extremely tired of walking and caught the subte back home.

Last night at dinner, a girl who used to stay with our family came over with her mom and brother who were visiting. Our mom served a big meal, with empenadas, flan, a lot of wine, and some kind of tuna rapped in sweet bread. Dinner was so good, and we sat around and talked for hours. Once Audrey and I were able to get away from the table, we got ready and met up with one of her guy friends at an apartment close by. He’s been here for a few months so he’s gotten to know a lot of people, but most of thee people at the apartment were from all around the world. There was one girl from Germany, a few guys from Mexico, a lot of guys from France, and one guy other than her friend from the US. I talked to a guy from Mexico a lot since it was pretty easy to start a conversation because of the whole being from Texas thing, and we talked about the problems in Mexico and what’s happening there. It was so much easier to understand him now that I’ve been trying to understand Argentinians! A little while later, I started to talk to a guy from Paris. We communicated completely in Spanish because I don’t think he knew English, and it was really weird because I never thought I’d have a whole conversation with someone from France, completely in Spanish! It was so cool to see how Spanish completely enabled us to carry on a conversation and there wasn’t really a language barrier. I mentioned to him that I’d been to Paris and that I’d been to the French Open and that I have a friend visiting there right now, and then I found out that he’s played tennis since he was 5 and even played at Bollettieri Tennis Academy for 3 months!! I couldn’t believe it!!

We got back to the house pretty early for Argentina (around 120ish), and my host brother invited me to go out with him and his friends to a local bar. So around 145 we left for the bar, which was absolutely packed. It’s crazy that people were just starting to go out that late! We got a table, ordered some white wine sangria which came with a bowl of really good popcorn. We all just sat there talking and laughing for hours; it was so much fun. They would try to speak English, which was hilarious, and I got to ask them all sorts of questions about my Spanish. It was such a fun and chill night, and we got back to the house around 5am, which is still even early for Argentina (nightlife goes until 7am).