Monografías & humidity

I think the 2 reasons that I haven't been writing recently are definitely schoolwork and the heat. They seem totally unrelated, but they have made me tired, unable to be in my house and lazy. I have been working on a 15 page (1.5 spaced) paper for my Anthro. class here. I think I finished it!! I just turned it in to my tutor to read and then I will make her changes and turn it in to my professor before I leave. I am so happy to be done with that!!! It has been hotter than the surface of the sun- especially in my room, in the back of the house, with no real window to the outside world. I have a ceiling fan, but moving around steaming hot air doesn't really do anything. Finally, it rained yesterday and they day before. And I mean it rained like I have never seen - in just 10 minutes there were huge floods, etc. It was a good excuse to stay in the house and write. Now it has finally cooled off a bit. I slept with my covers for the first time last night. It was great. I am packing up and preparing to go to Brazil on Thursday for a week. I am so excited. 4 friends and I rented a small beach chalet about 1 hour outside of a city called Florianopolis, in the south of Brazil. I wanted to travel more throughout the country, but it just came down to money and time that I didn't have enough of. I also decided I wanted to spend more time in Buenos Aires than I originally thought. There is still so much to do here. So I am packing nothing more than a few bathingsuits and a few books. I'll come home with my Christmas tan... : ) I promise to write after Brazil! xoxo

Beaches & Streets: URUGUAY

This past weekend I went to PUNTA DEL ESTE and then to COLONIA in Uruguay. We left on Thursday morning for the infamous beach destination, Punta del Este. It was amazing - we spent all of Thursday and Friday soaking up the sun, playing soccer on the beach, listening to music, reading, etc. It was so nice to relax and not feel any pressure to do anything touristy. The water was freezing cold and the town was slow because it is not high season, but it was lovely. Our hostel, 1949, was the dirtiest and most disgusting hostel I have ever encountered, but that didn't stop us. We just avoided it (and the shower) at all costs. We went to great dinners and saw amazing sunsets.

On Sunday we went to Colonia to see the town and our program director's bed & breakfast, La Casa de los Limoneros. The town was adorable, small, all cobblestone. The house was incredible!!! It is so perfectly designed, they didn't miss one detail, its sunny and warm, has 7 rooms to rent, and we had the best lunch in the world. Its a wedding destination for sure.

**The beach pictures are from Punta del Este. The 'town' pictures are of Colonia. Mom, there was a Beverly Beach!!

Eve's visit: 10/31 - 11/4

Eve visited for Halloween/Election weekend- it is easy to say that is was one of the best weekend in Buenos Aires and in my life so far. We had so much fun - we did everything. She made me appreciate this city in a whole new way. I found myself getting so comfortable living here, that I forgot to appreciate that I am still a bit of a tourist. I need to take advantage of the short time I have left here, and Eve showed me how to do that. She is a great traveler and I was a good tourist (she told me so!). Friday when Eve arrived we stuck to walking around my neighborhood, Recoleta. We toured and shopped and walked and caught up. We also napped. We went to dinner at Cumuná, a restaurant here Eve could get some local food and great meat. After, we got ready at my house for Halloween! We were the Spice Girls. We had a fun photoshoot and then went to a party. It was kind of a bust - we ended up coming home early, which was a good thing since we had a big weekend in store for us!

The next day we woke up and went to La Boca, which was my first time there- its a barrio in the Southern part of the city and is home to the touristy "El Caminito" and other buildings. The buildings are painted all different colors. After a FULL day of chatting and sitting in the sun, we headed back to my house for a nap and then to get ready for Emily's 20th birthday dinner. After that, we met up with my host brother Juan and his friends to go to MINT in Costanera. We had an incredible night or dancing and singing and general amazingness. We called it a night after a 7 am McDonald's run, of course.

The next day we went back to Boca for an all-day asado and fútbol fun at Gonzalo's, my host mom's oldest son's house. It was so much fun - except Eve and I lost badly to Juan and Pedro in our two on two soccer match. We stayed in that night and ate dinner at home.

The next day we went shopping in Palermo Soho, met Molly & Liam and Mark's Deli for iced coffe, etc etc. We bought out Maria Cher and loved every minute of it. This was Eve's last day and Election Day, so we were packing up, running around, etc.

Warm Summer Nights & Happiness

ITS OFFICIALLY SUMMER!!! I think/hope! Yesterday was the most beautiful day I have spent in Buenos Aires and last night it was so so so warm. I spent most of the day outside. First, I got an amazing hair cut at this salon called Cerini. I was really nervous at first because I was scared that I wouldn't be able to communicate what I wanted done, and I was also even more scared that I would end up with the ever-popular girl-mullet that is oh so popular here, especially among girls my age. I was nervous, but I looked like a straggly Mark Kate Olsen and needed to cut my hair. So i went and I told him that I wanted a FEW layers and a few centimeters off (inches wasn't an option..). I was glad that I exaggerated that I didn't want a lot of layers, because I have a TON of layers. I freaked out when he took the razor blade/thinner to my hair, thinking that he was going to thin my hair and shape it into a mullet, but it was fine! Then Becca and I took the burning, steaming, smoking hot subway to Palermo Soho for a café and a little shopping! It was such a gorgeous day out, all we wanted to do was be outside and walking around. It was so amazing not to have to wear a jacket. Plus, everyone knows that everything looks better when its sunny out.

We met Emily, Molly and Liam in Palermo and walked around for a bit. Emily, Molly and I did a little shopping afterwards, but mostly just looking! I did buy an excellent white-t shirt from Maria Cher (I couldn't help it, Mom!!). Afterwards we were hungry for lunch so we went to this adorable café called Boutique del Libro, which is a nice little book store with a café inside. It was so cute. We ate delicious sandwiches (and the tons of Halloween candy that Emily's mom sent!!) and talked. Molly and Emily are so great- I have class with both of them and we have just started hanging out more. I didn't think that I would make new friends in October, so late in the semester, but I have and it has been so much fun.

I arrived home around 9 pm, just as it was getting dark. We just did daylight savings and it stays light so much later now!! I told Amanda, my host mom, that I wasn't hungry because I had such a late lunch. She said she wasn't either, and hadn't even prepared dinner yet. We decided to take a walk - it was so nice out still and she'd been inside playing bridge all day. We walked to and through the park and ended up at McDonald's, one of Amanda's guilty pleasures for sure. I have also recently discovered the most delicious "Momento Dulce" at McDonald's, which is vanilla and dulce de leche soft serve ice cream in a cone. It costs 2 pesos aka 30 cents. I decided to try something new. While Amanda ordered a Big Mac - which is so funny because she is so so tiny, I ordered the Intenso Placer (Which literally translates to "Intense Pleasure."). It is awkward to order -- "Hello, yes, can I have an Intense Pleasure please?" Nonetheless it was delicious and Amanda had one too. We stayed outside for a while and talked about everything - family, my sisters, education (public and private), the chicos (her sons), her husband who passed away, the weather, my experience in BA...everything. It was so so much fun. I love her, she is so sweet, has great and interesting points of view. She is smart and funny and honest and I have so much fun spending time with her.

After recovery from my McBrick, I met up with Molly and Emily in Palermo. We started at Congo in their outside garden bar area and then ended up at Kika after. It was my second time at Kika but it was so much fun this time- it was hip hop night, they played great tunes and we danced all night. Thursday we went to Lost as always - so now we have a routine of weekend dance places that all play hip hop.. Its very necessary.

I just got home from dinner at Sudestada, an Asian Fusion place in Palermo Hollywood...it was sooooo good. I had a great chicken wok thing, so many flavors I haven't tasted in so long! I decided to stay in for the night and catch up on sleep (and Gossip Girl, House, Lipstick Jungle...you understand...haha).

Eve comes to visit next weekend!!!!!!!!! I am so so excited. I'm sure I will have lots of fun stories to write about while she is here!!!!

That's about it for now, hope you are all doing well. Lots of love!! Liv

Bariloche

This past weekend I went to Bariloche, which is a zone in Patagonia, in the Southern region of Argentina. I went with my program, COPA - every semester COPA organizes a trip, so this year our destination was Bariloche. I really had no idea what to expect because I didn't have to plan anything, so I didn't really do any research. We usually read the guidebooks before we go on a trip so we know what to do or why we should go there in the first place. I really left this one all up to COPA and it was great. It was for sure the best trip i have taken so far. Bariloche is so incredibly beautiful - it looks a lot like Lake Tahoe actually, but a lot bigger. There are so many different types of climates and land in such a small area. What I mean by land is that there is dessert, jungle, forest, snow/mountain, etc. There is a huge lake that the town, San Carlos de Bariloche, is kind of centered around. The town is really cute- its a total ski town. The place is packed with tourists and skiers during the winter, and all year round really. When we first arrived we got a few hours of free time in the town before our first mini-excursion, so my friends and I went to the chocolate factories, of course. The town is known for its amazing chocolate. We spent a large amount of time in this one place called Mamuschka. We bought and ate so much chocolate. It was also Mother's Day weekend, so there were lots of deals and promotions and we could not help ourselves. After town, the tour guides brought us up and around the mountains. We took a chair lift up to an amazing view. After a bit more exploring it was dinner time and we went to a very traditional cerveceria (brewery) where we ate way too much meat!!

We went to bed so early that night - about 10 pm, after surfing the 3 channels we had in our hotel room for about an hour. The next day, Saturday, we basically took the bus on a tour of the entire mountain and dessert areas. We stopped many places along the way to take pictures and enjoy the view. We took a small hike to a beautiful waterfall and ate lunch next to a river. It was so relaxing and different from what I had been doing during my other weekend trips - we usually travel to other cities which are similar but smaller than Buenos Aires. Here, we were really in nature and able to enjoy being outside. We had dinner that night, after a few more hours at the chocolate factories, at a great placed called La Familia Weiss. There is a lot of swiss/german influence in the city.

The next day was the INTENSE hike up Cerro López. It was really hard. We started out in a forest and ended up, as you can see by the mountains, in a snowstorm/Narnia-like open space. It was so cool. I did complain, I'm glad my Dad wasn't there to listen to it, but I made it! Barely.

Overall the trip was amazing. It was so well-organized and I had a great group of people with me. I actually met some new people and got to know other people a lot better. It was so great to be outside, eat so much chocolate, stay in a hotel instead of a hostel, and have a trip totally planned for you. We saw some of the most amazing parts of the country on this trip and some o the most beautiful sights I have ever seen in my life. It was such a fun trip! If you ever come to Argentina or want a great vacation spot to ski, go to Bariloche.

Photos for the Non-Facebookers

The pic on the left is Molly, Lissy, Emily and I at Lansky. The one below is from La Plata- in the background is the big government building and the monument on the right is for Eva Perón. The waterfall picture is from Iguazú :)
The 2 churches are from Córdoba.
The picture outside is from Juan's game- Juan is on the right, then Joanna, me and Becca.

Springtime in Buenos Aires

Hey! How is everyone? Things are great here. I just finished dinner and I am about to start doing some homework, but I was feeling inspired to write and uninspired to read, so here I am. Its been a while, but there is nothing too too exciting to write about. I went to CORDOBA 2 weekends ago- it is a cute city about 9 hours Northeast of Buenos Aires. I went with Alba, we stayed at a hostel called Le Grand Hostel in Nueva Córdoba and had a relaxing weekend of strolling around the city. We went for a day to Villa Carlos Paz, which is apparently a tourist destination in the summer, but its really not. We went on a foggy Monday and it was totally empty and yucky. Kind of a disappointment. There are a lot of beautiful churches and theaters in Cordoba and a lot of Jesuit influence. There are tons of universities in the city so it is really young and the nightlife is great. We went out one night to this club called Malibu (which we nicknamed The Bu) and danced to Beyonce and Rhianna and 50 cent, it was so much fun. We also saw Mucho Ruido Pocos Nueces one night at the theater -that is spanish for Much Ado About Nothing, which we found out only minutes before the show started. It was really nice and the theater was so pretty. The show was a more modern take on the play so it was more entertaining and easier to understand. We really walked around the city a lot and took tons of pics.

This week I had another big paper due for my fútbol class, but it went really well. I wrote about a movie I saw called Offside about Iranian girls who dress up as boys so they can watch soccer games at the stadium- they are banned in Iran. It was really interesting and I wrote about the movie and compared it a little bit to some of what I know and have seen about women soccer players and games in Argentina. I went to my host brother Juan's soccer game in Pilar last Saturday with Becca & Joanna. His team is called La Brigada Z . We acted as cheerleaders. They lost - it was an awkward and smelly ride home!! There were some women's teams playing at the tournament, which is what inspired me to write about women and soccer.

This weekend I went out a lot with some new girlfriends I have - Molly, Emily, and Lissy. They are so nice and funny and the 4 of us plus Liam hung out practically all weekend. Molly's mom was in town so she rented a nice apartment and we baked Funfetti cake (which she brought for us all the way from the states!!!) and watched movies. On Saturday I went to La Plata with Libby & Alba, which is about 1 hour away and it is the Capital of the province of Buenos Aires. BA is the capital of the republic of Argentina but not the capital of the province that is also called BA. It was nice - we had great weather and the highlight of the trip was definitely the amazing cathedral in the heart of the city.

Some of the places I went to this weekend (more for my own purposes, sorry, so that I can remember them!! haha..or if you plan on coming to BA!) - Ate Indian food at Tandoor with Joanna and her 2 roomates Kate & Emily. Tried to go to the exclusive Shampoo Buenos Aires nightclub but got massively dissed- they told us that if we wanted to go to a big boliche that we should probably go to Asia de Cuba. Went to Club Lansky 2 times this weekend to dance to reggaeton - amazing. Went to Donata with Molly's parents, went to TGI Friday's after that for a 3 x 2 dessert special!!! Amazing. Went to Congo for about 5 minutes - they do have an amazing outdoor terrace with lots of seating. Finally ended up at Madeline last night, the 24 hour pizza place I have been dying to go to.

I am off to read more. I am going south to Bariloche next weekend with my program; I am really excited for a planned and paid for weekend trip!! I think it will be really fun and we have lots of plans to do cool outdoor adventures, hikes, etc.

Love & miss all of you and American food so much!! : ) xoxo

Muy buena onda

Hey people. Sorry i am so bad at blogging. I just want to apologize again. But it gets kind of boring writing about the same old stuff. Before my class at 4 I spent the whole morning with my host mom and her oldest son's german girlfriend, Anna. We had breakfast (my favorite granola ever, that I found out this morning has hydrogenated oil as its first ingredient, sucks). anyway, first, i have to say- ITS SPRING. and it ROCKS. its gorgeous and finally warm. so we walked about 8-9 blocks to the MALBA, the modern art museum. it was so amazing, i was so inspired and i loved almost all of the art I saw. I've been to the Museo de Bellas Artes, which is more classic, famous Latin American art, which I liked, but not nearly as much. We walked around the MALBA for a while, although its not very big, so we didn't need a ton of time. We had coffee afterwards and continued walking around. We walked around Palermo Chico (my host mom called it that..) and saw the most amazing houses and apartments I have ever seen in the city. We passed by a ton of embassies, all of which were beautiful. i was so happy all day- it was so nice out, i was speaking spanish, it was just adorable. i really loved it and i hope to spend more time with my host mom!!

what else...I didn't go out this week, although on Monday I went to this thing called La Bomba del Tiempo, which is a drum show every Monday night in Palermo- it was really cool. I went with orly and we just kinda swayed and danced to the music. next time i will know to bring a 40 of quilmes (argentin beer) to chug in the line, like everyone else. haha. today is thursday again, finallyyy!! I think i am going to cordoba this weekend, but I'm not sure. I love traveling, but at the same time I don't want to miss out on any time in BA, and its so hard to be away all weekend. Besides the 20 hour bus rides are getting to be a little much. Luckily our destination, Córdoba, is only 9 or 10 hours away. I think I'm just going with my girl friend Alba. She also goes to penn and we get along really well.

Ah i didnt write about the amazing night in Olivos!!! Olivos is in la provincia, a little bit outside of the city. basically we went to this middle eastern food place (which i didnt love) called Bereber with a big group of people and then went to Belgrano to Charley's friend Enzo's apartment. Enzo & his friends go to UCA and they are really good dancers. we listened to great american music like Michael Jackson (hence the Thriller pictures on facebook). we got super crazy, drank some smirnoff, JUST LIKE COLLEGE, ONLY BETTER - IN ARGENTINA (shout out to Bring it On for that one). we danced and then headed off to a club called Sunset in Olivos like 18912739 miles away. Actually like 15 mins, whatever. we had a sweet night there- great music, great dancing. private concert? not really sure.

tonight we are having a little going away party for Anna - mexican food again!!! and I am in charge of making the guacamole. super pumped. I have to go get ready for that and read a dictionary so I can prepare some phrases to say at dinner. hahaa. nootttt kidding.

download the song "Perdonáme" by La Factoria immediately. Its super popular here and I love it. Also, anyone watch lipstick jungle? kirby may or may not be the hottest person ever.

love & miss everyone! if you need to escape winter in the states, come visit me!!! xx

Becoming part of BA

yo people. sorry its been a million years since I've blogged. In my extremely busy and exciting life here in BA, blogging has become less of a priority. That's not entirely true-- i just spend more time on skype and facebook and sleeping and spendig time with friends!! (and doing homework?). I apologize!

So i'll start with the week after my birthday, the first week in september. it was a crazy week in terms of going out. since UBA was having a strike and we didn;t have classes, we went out every night. tuesday night was really a night to remember. we (alba, orly, amanda and I) started at this kinda gross bar called Bar Unico, but it was actually amazingly fun. great music, tons of people, free champagne! lots of creepy guys though. we met up with some other people and were ready to head out. we bought a bottle of wine and we walked to club in plaza serrano called macondo and danced all night long. it was amazing. we met some cool french guys, had a great time.

Thursday night - what a hilarious story. We were planning on going to club Lost for the first time- its hip hop on thursday nights. (i went last night for the actual first time and it was THE BOMB.COM. im going back every week.how i have missed hip hop. listening to the same techno beat for 5 hours straight is exhausting). I bought some wine for Orly and I to drink before going to club lost. we started slow and somehow it was 3 am and we had finished 2 bottles of wine. SO clearly we decided to watch the new gossip girl! it was amazing. Orly, who was so enthusiastic about a scene in gossip girl, hit her head on my chair and used a stick of butter as an ice pack, that we later found all in her hair and on my floor. so as we are about to leave, i say i want to lay down for a minute- It was like 3 am and I wanted to rest for a second! so i laid down and then orly laid down next to me and we got cozy and didn't set an alarm then we woke up the next morning at 11 am with alll our clothes on, shoes on, room a buttery mess. Goes to show that I need to get more sleep and that i need to train more to keep up with the porteña lifestyle!!

friday morning was not pretty, but becca and i were scheduled to leave for our 20 hour bus ride to Iguazú (in a province very very far north, borders brazil and paraguay, to see the waterfalls). the bus was a bitch but the trip was great. we stayed in a really fun hostel (Hostel Inn) and met a really fun argentine girl named Belen. we spent most of our time with her and went to an asado at the hostel, got massages at the hostel, and went to the park for the 2 days we were there. although there were warning signs ALL over the place for jaguars and food-stealing aggressive monkeys, the waterfalls were breathtaking. it was unreal. there are something like over 275 waterfalls, the park is huge and so so green, we took a boat to a little island, it was so pretty. i have tons of pictures on my facebook. there isnt really much to do in the town, we didn't go out or anything, but like I said the waterfalls were amazing.

We came back on tuesday morning and had some homework to do before tuesday. tuesday night i stayed in and watched the new gossip girl. enough said. wednesday night i met becca at 878, an old 'speakeasy' turned chic bar/restaurant. it was nice, not too much going on there, but becca and i had some drinks and some good convos :)

AH last night. thursday night. club lost. hip hop. my life. it was so amazing to finnaalllllyyy listen to and dance to hip hop. i finally felt like home. becca and i met joanna and veronica there, we danced the night away until 6 am.

So last thing I wanted to write about was my amazing colectivo experience where, for the first time, I really felt like I was becoming part of BA. I am getting to know my way around so much, I am so comfortable here, i love my house and my friends, I am so shocked at house smooth and incredible the transition has been. I was on the colectivo and there were tons of people, and all of a sudden Bleeding Love came on the radio, and I was just so happy and grateful to be here and to see another part of the world that is so full of life and exciting times. I am having so much fun here. Time is really flying, especially with school starting, but moments like that silly one on the bus just make me so happy.

Sorry its been forever and that this is short! I hope everyone is doing well and I miss & love you guys. VISIT ME!

Un besito :)

My 20th Birthday!

I have been very tranquil and low-key recently, haven't really been in the mood to crazy party. Not really sure why. So my 20th was a low-key and tranquil multi-day celebration. On Saturday I went shopping in Palermo Soho and bought a really cute dress from Jazmin Chebar (amazing store PS). I had dinner plans with 10 friends at Cielito Lindo, a small Mexican restaurant. I crave Mexican food, but I may have to accept that it is just not the same here. The food was alright, the margaritas were amazing. Joanna (recent Emory grad, moved back to BA after 2 years since she studied here on the same program as me!) and I felt the affects of the margaritas after about 4 sips. Dinner was fun, I blew out a candle and we headed to Sugar, a bar near by. It was full of international people, but whatever. I got a free bottle of champagne for my birthday! We went to another party, but it was kind of a bust and by 4 30 am I was so tired, I just wanted to sleep.
Sunday, my actual birthday, I woke up and headed straight to meet Becca and Orly and 3 of Becca's host mom's nephews. We were going to a FÚTBOL GAME!!! River vs. San Lorenzo. We at tickets in the popular section-- like wear the mafia sit, where we were the only girls, where there are human avalanches when someone scores, where they sing songs the entire time and jump and wave and fall and drink...Imagine how us 3 poor American girls fit in there!! I was nervous at first but it was fine and we ended up having so much fun. The boys are so so so nice and they were really protective and helped us a lot. The fans are soo rowdy and loud. On the subway home, the fans were still singing and they nearly broke the subway train with their jumping and climbing on the walls and stuff. I am kind of glad that the teams tied so that I didn't have to witness the celebration or the sadness- I think both would have been pretty intense.
I cam home and we had a birthday celebration for me here at the house- with the family, friends, girlfriends of the brothers, etc. We had delicious dinner and an amazing home-made dulce de leche cake!
I am off to have lunch with Joanna, but I will try to write more often!!!
LOVE & MISS ALL OF YOU!!
xoxo
GossipGirl (STARTS TODAY WOOOO!!!!)

Mendoza!!!

Hey all- SORRY its been so long since I have posted! When I used to have no friends I used to have lots of time to blog. When I used to go out all the time I had lots of crazy stories. Now I have some friends and I don't go out every night...so what have I been up to? I finally joined Megatlon, a gym. People don't really work out very hard at this said 'gym,' but its really nice and it is a haven for hot, young men who want to check out their 'muscles' in the mirrors, which is fine by me. I have been settling in more in the city, going to class and doing lots of reading in Spanish, exploring, shopping, eating, etc.
This past weekend I went to Mendoza! It was so nice to get out of the city. The trip stared on a Thursday night on the lovely Andesmar bus. The seats were actually more comfortable and more spacious than coach seats on an airplane. We bought Cerealitas (wheat thin like crackers that would become the staple of our diets while away) and started on our way. Our adorable 'host' on the bus started off with a nice friendly game of Bingo. It was great, we laughed the whole way through and everyone else laughed, too -- you can imagine 4 American girls "... WAIT WHAT WHAT 67 OR 77 OR 57????....REPEAT!!!" We got really into it, but in the end we lost. The "dinner" on the bus was THE most fowl thing I have ever tasted in my entire life. I went to sleep...
Woke up in the more glorious way anyone could ever wake up- to bLaStInG 80s MUSIC VIDEOS of course!!!! It was amazing - "Wake me up.before you go-go I don't wanna blah blah blah..." ..."Amadeus Amadeus.." lots of Whitney (Houston), Madonna, Bon Jovi, etc. Amazing. I knew it was going to be a great trip from then on.
We arrived in Mendoza and took a cab to our hostel, the Damajuana. It was really nice, my first time in a hostel!! People in the living room were watching the Olympics so we watched with them for a bit and then decided to explore a bit with Becca's friend Jessica's friend Adrian. Ohhh Adrian. Much more about him later.
We started out with a walk around a lovely park & lake, it was such a nice day and it was great to move around after the bus ride. Then we went to 2 bodegas (wineries)- the first one we went to was a lot bigger and newer, it was called Wienert. We tried some good Malbec and took a tour I didn't really understand, lol. We went to the next winery, which was a smaller boutique winery that Adrian's friend Francisco works at. Francisco will reappear in this blog later. I bought a bottle of Malbec that I drank last night with my host family (Birthday Post is next). After the last winery it was about 7 pm and we hadn't eaten all day. Needless to say we were absolutely starving and what better to cure hunger than pounds and pounds and pounds on empanadas. We ordered them by the dozen at this small bar and ate and ate and ate and tried to clean up our mess with wax paper napkins, which are very popular here in Argentina. I have no idea why anyone would ever elect to by wax paper napkins because in the end each person must use at least 50 to wipe one hand, so they must have to buy them so often. After Empanadas we went to rent ski and snowboard gear for our snowboarding trip 2 days later.
The gear we rented was fine, although the edges of my snowboard could have been sharper...But the snowsuits we rented..wow. Straight from the 80s- nylon shiny bright colored body suits that were so huge and wayyy to warm. The girls at the store told us that they were "de moda" aka in style, but I quickly learned as soon as I got onto the slopes that that people in Argentina do NO wear these ski suits. Everyone was decked out in North Face and Colombia while my friends and I were putting on a Tellytubby show for them. When we got back from renting we watched the Olympic soccer game Argentina vs. Nigeria (Argentina wins the gold!!!) in the bar connected to our hostel. It was fun, but we were soo tired and had to get up early for our Adventure Driving up the Andes.
We woke up at 9 am to go rent cars from Adrian's friend...at his house. This guy starts pulling out car after car after car from his garage! Of course they were all stick and no one knew hoe to drive them. On top of that and the fact that Adrian "didn't have a driver's license" and we had to put the cars under 2 of my friend's names, we decided NOT to rent the cars from the sketchy man's house. We instead got 2 taxis and paid them a flat rate for the day. We thought we were picking the good cab (Orly, Libby and I) but we actually got the one that broke down on the side of cliffs in the Andes every 15 minutes. It was an adventure. After a while we also got a flat tire, so we took a walk in the desert and used the natural bathroom and ran around. It was funny. We stopped at some really gorgeous places along the way, like El Balcón, which is a huuuuge ravine/canyon on the side of the mountain. We also stopped at an old hotel and church that is closed now, but open for weddings. We also saw the place where we get our bottled water. We drank it from the hose it comes out of...safe! We were planning on going to hot springs in the mountain, but since our car was perpetually over-heating, we couldn't do much. We headed home, until the car broke down for good and Francisco had to come pick us up. We fit 8 people in a two door tiny tiny Fiat- one person in the trunk.
Of course we just had to return to the empanada place, so we did. We had had such a long day and we had to prepare for skiing tomorrow bright and early, so we went home and went to bed.
Francisco picked me, Becca, Orly, and Seanna up at the hostel at 7 am and we were off to Los Penitentes, a small but really cute ski place about 1 hour west of Mendoza. We suffered through the embarrassment that was our ski outfits, and started off. I was on a snowboard and a lot of the "lifts" are those pully things, so that was not pretty. I mostly stuck to the 2 chair lifts. We had a great day, a fun lunch, good laughs, some face-plants, etc. It was really nice.
We headed home late and went back to the hostel. Our faces were soooo sun and wind burnt that for the next 5 days all of us were bright red with goggle tans. We were raccoons and then peeling crocodiles. It was awesome. Monday we had a relaxing day, we went to a great park and sat out in the sun with ice cream cones. Becca got massively shit on by a huge bird, but that was really the only low point of the trip. We had lots of homework to do, so we did that and then got back on the bus for home. We played Bingo Andesmar again, lost again, and watched Wild Hogs on the tv. We were again woken up by blasting 80s music. :)

Caught in an on-going techno moshpit

Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't written a lot recently- with school starting and actually having to do more than just eat, sleep, and drink, I have had less exciting things to write about here! Haha. Last week was pretty uneventful, lots of long lunches at Tea Connection and some late nights at bars. We went to this great bar called Jack the Ripper on Thursday or Friday night, I can't remember. Its really big and its a cool environment. That was Gretchen's last night :( I miss her...we had some really fun times together. Saturday night I went to Becca's hood, Almagro, and we went out for sushi. They really didn't have a variety of sushi, just salmon and crab, but it was good. Had amazing Green Tea ice cream for dessert. Sunday we woke up early and went to this place called Tigre-- Its a little town north of Buenos Aires that is famous for its "water roads" (kind of like Venice I would imagine). We took a train there and then hopped on an old, crowded wooden boat headed for the Gato Blanco, a cute restaurant on the water. It was a great and leisurely lunch- we had Tortilla Española and I had a an incredible vanilla ice cream and dulce de leche dessert. The dulce de leche here is out of this world. After we returned on the boat, we walked around Tigre a bit. I was really eager to get out of the city and away from the noise and constant crowd, but unfortunately Tigre was so touristy and crowded that I didn't feel like I had gotten away from the city at all. I really took advantage of how peaceful and relaxing Marin is- Don't get me wrong, I love being in a city, but when you have no where to retreat from the dirt, pollution, smoke, sirens, buses, and crowds it can be a bit overwhelming. I would love to go to the countryside one weekend, stay in an old hotel, ride horses in the fields, etc (the reason I say this is because a group of kids on my program did that this weekend and they said it was amazing!). Tigre is also home to an "amusement park" and a Casino. We didn't go to the park, but we went into the Casino to play some slots. (Alicia- it was worse that South Lake Tahoe if you can imagine!) I won 20 pesos! Woohoo. It paid for my cab home later that night. We visited the famous Puerto de Frutas, a big fair in Tigre, but it was so crowded and we weren't in the market to buy the things they were selling, so we got back on the train and headed to Buenos Aires.
Last night Orly and I met up with some friends at Acabar, an amazing bar in Palermo where you can get amazing drinks and play board games at the tables. They have tons of board games to choose from. We started with Monopoly, but that was too hard after the strong blue drinks we had consumed. We switched to Jenga and had a really great time. Orly and I had to leave early because we were meeting Becca and Liam and some friends and CroBar, a big dance club in Palermo where they were hosting a private party for the private universities (which we atted here). We got in for free, checked our coats, and started dancing the night away to Spice Girls, Shania Twain, Aerosmith, Madonna, Rhianna and more. It was great until it became more crowded than the most crowded subway in the world- at one point I was not even standing on my own two feet- I was just swaying with the crowd. We were being pushed and pulled everywhere, techno moshpits would suddenly take over and we would have to run for cover, and a fight broke out so all the music stopped. At around 5 am I simply had to call it a night. I was so tired and so sick of being pushed and shoved.
I slept well and here I am at 3:41 pm, still lounging around. Its alright- today is a holiday and nothing is open. I have some reading to do and we are planning our trip next weekend to Mendoza, the wine country. :) I'll try to write again soon!

Thoughts on BA

Sunday & Monday were lazy days, as always. I love my Sundays and Mondays. I slept in late, walked around, shopped, ate at great cafés, and "prepared" for the week. I started class on Tuesday at 9:30 am, which is never easy. I had 2 classes which I liked- Education and then Film. I took the Subway home with a friend after class on Tuesday.
1) Subways: The D line subway, which I ride frequently, is the most crowded place I have ever been in my entire life. People get running starts on the side of the train and literally thrown themselves onto a packed train. No one can move, you can't breathe, you're sweating more than you would be if you had just run 14 miles in the desert. People get stuck in the sliding doors. When trains come, people clap. If you ride one line long enough, it will clear out enough for a seat. It is like this at almost all hours of every day, except weekends.
Wednesday, today, I had class a 9 am pretty far away- takes a good hour to get there on public transportation, which for me means bus, subway, bus. Luckily I found a bus on the way home that takes me exactly where I need to go! I am home after a great, great lunch at a place called Cluny in Palermo.
Here are some more thoughts on BA before I get ready for a big night out:
2) Bathrooms: A good, clean bathroom with a toilet paper, soap, towels, a hook to hang a bag or jacket, and a smell that doesn't make you want to run for the hills does not exist in Buenos Aires, except for a few nice cafés that I have been so lucky to have frequented. The public bathrooms here are so incredibly small, sometimes I cannot even fit inside. They are so dirty and there is usually a shortage of toilet paper. It is the worst at the public university. This is not a joke. I don't understand why the bathrooms have to be so small and disgusting! My bathroom at home is fine, although extremely small.
3) Skinny jeans, converse, and a mullet: If you would like to pass for Argentine, a girl must never be without her converse sneakers of any color, skinny jeans, and long, choppy, mullet-y hair with clips and bobbypins everywhere. Some girls make it work. Other girls do not (at all). I really need to invest in some converse.
4) Dog shit and dog walkers: You cannot walk one block without coming close or stepping on dog shit. It is everywhere on almost all blocks because the stupid dog walkers who walk at LEAST 10-20 dogs at one time all on the same leash-pod do not clean up after the dogs! People say that it is lucky or a "rite of passage" to step on dog shit, but I don't want my $625 peso boots anywhere near it. (Already happened :( )
5) PDA 2.0 The PDA here is completely out of control. There needs to be laws against it. I'm sure its great if you're in love and desire to make out on the crowded bus for 19 blocks straight, but no one else wants to see that. Restaurants at night may as well be hotel rooms, where couples straddle and snuggle one another as if no one else in the place can see them! And don't even get me started on parks!!! People are rolling around (probably on dog shit), but they don't care, they are in love! People in relationships here cannot be in any place without touching- walking in a store, a bookstore, running to the subway, always holding hands, linking pinkies, rubbing, kissing, laughing...its the worst!!!! People say its great when its you, but again, I don't care to see it.
I'm sure I will have more observations soon, but for now just imagine walking down the streets with all these images in mind.
PS- I love it all. I'm finally starting to feel like I live here ( a little ) and know my way around (a little!).
PPS- An Australian boy is coming to live at the house for 3 months...fingers crossed! haha.
LOVE YOU!!!

Goodmorning Buenos Aires

Sorry it's been a while!! Things have been busy busy. School started last week, and my 4 day weekends seem to last forever! This weekend has been amazing. Thursday night was kind of a bust, but Friday and Saturday nights made up for it. Let's begin:
FRIDAY: Wake up late (obviously), Gretchen and I head to Palermo Soho to, what else??? SHOP. We had a great day, it was warm out, we had delicious carrot and ginger soup at a great place called Mark's Deli and Coffee House, and met some models. We went into a shoe store called Lara Bernasconi. Greta (Gretchen's Argentine alter ego) needed some boots and I'm always in the market for shoes. We walked into the amazing store only and were treated so nicely by the owner, designer, and model Lara Bernasconi. We didn't realize she was the Gisele Bunchen of Argentina until we 1) saw her modeling photos and photos with Sophia Loren, etc. all over the store and 2) Googled her. So after Greta dropped over $600 pesos on boots, Lara invited us to her friend's birthday party & afterparty at Mute in Las Cañitas. I was nervous to go, but Greta understandably peer pressured me to go. I still thank her for making me go. I mean, if I'm not intimidated enough speaking Spanish all the time, but speaking Spanish with models?? No thank you. Anyway we got dressed up and went to the party. Roma greeted us at the door and told us to go upstairs, Lara would let us in to VIP. Well we caught her attention and she kindly told the huge bouncer that we were with her...Score. Champagne flowed like water and after a few hours I think I had finished at least 7 glasses. Lara and I made a pact that she would speak English to me and I would speak Spanish to her so that we could help each other learn. She is so nice, a really incredible person. After a while, my host brother Juan texted me asking if he could come to our model party-- Lara said of course. Juan showed up with a small crew of friends and we hung out at Mute for a while. Then it was time to dance. We headed to ROXY, a great club nearby that plays 80s and 90s American music exclusively. Every new song they played made Greta and I scream, we were so happy. I put some pictures on Facebook of Juan and friends and of Roxy as well. We stayed out until 7:00 AM, and came home to the house with Juan for an enormous breakfast feast of cream cheese (ish) stuff and jelly on home-made bread. mmmm. Went to bed and woke up at 2 the next morning (first one up).
SATURDAY: Saturday during the day Greta and I accompanied Pedro (my other host brother) to the park near our house. He was meeting up with some hippie friends to hang out, do acrobatics, the usual. The park was full of crazy hippies drinking, smoking, playing with crystal balls, whatever. It was crazy! The boys set up a slack line in between two trees and were playing on it and stuff, it was fun. We had dinner reservations at 9, and when you don't leave the house until 4, the day goes by pretty quickly. On our way back home Greta and I stopped at Patio Bullrich, after walking down Avenida Alvear, one of the most amazing streets in the city. We just had to go shopping for things we couldn't afford!! When we got home we got ready and headed to Bangalore in Palermo, an amazing Indian food place where we ate and drank way too much. After that, the 5 of us went to meet up with my friend Clay, a good friend of my friend Hailey (!!! :) ) at Skidmore. We met up in Plaza Serrano and decided to go to Niceto, which we liked to call "Nice-T" (as in Ice-T). The music was super fun..Salsa music, very Latin, but cool. Greta, Clay, Becca, Liam, Amanda and I danced the night away. Then, to our surprise, a group started playing music on the stage- we found ourselves rocking out to an amazing free concert of Brazilian/reggae/hip-hop music..it was incredible. We danced until 4 and returned home.
Now it's Sunday, my favorite day of the week to just relax - everything is closed anyway, so there is no reason to feel bad about staying in the house all day :). The 4 kids - Me, Juan, Pedro, and Greta, are going to an asado later, which is an Argentine bbq, at Amanda (my host mom's) oldest son, Gonzalo's, house. He lives in La Boca (famous neighborhood where all the houses are painted different colors, home of Boca Juniors soccer team...). I'm really excited!!
I am going to try to watch more of the Olympics online, but most of the American sites won't let me because I am out of the country :(
I'll update you on the asado later tonight!! Hope everyone is doing well! xoxo love & miss all of you

Sipan!

Yesterday I skipped my first and only class ever in BA, thus deciding that I am not going to have Monday or Friday classes. I ran errands and went shopping instead. Don't worry, I went to two classes today at the Catholic university and I liked them a lot. I feel like a huge idiot and I am really nervous and lost all the time, but it was fine. I want to take this cool Latin American film class. We watched a movie today called Estación Central (Central Station) from Brasil and it was amazing. Very sad.
After my relaxing Monday of shopping and purchasing the most adorable winter coat, I came back and got ready to go out with the girls. Gretchen has a friend José who owns an amazing Peruvian/Japanese restaurant called SIPAN that was re-opening last night and therefore having a big party with free drinks and food. All night I carried around bottles of champagne (individual bottles, think Carrie Bradshaw in "The Real Me" backstage). It was great. And now that I eat sushi, I was able to enjoy that as well. We meet some creepy people and some nice people, some Americans and some Argentines and some others in-between. Some were cute, some were ugly, some were hella old, some were married, but for the most part the crowd was fun. The party really changed when all the guests left and it was just me and 4 girlfriends and all the waiters, celebrating the opening with bottles of champagne, drenching the entire place and my sleek ponytail and Becca's silk shirt (that belonged to me). Whatever. Then the music started and the waiters started to dance with us. They are SUCH amazing dancers here- not in tha creepy grinding Branson-dance kind of way, but in a wedding kind of way. I learned a really cool dance and felt really cool doing it with my waiter. We did that for a while, and then headed home. Becca came with. We played a short game of Indicios with Juan and Pedro, Pedro and Gretchen gave us a little acrobat show, and then we went to bed. I woke up at 7 30 thinking it was the middle of the night (I don't have windows in my room and the house isn't very bright). It was a huge disappointment when I realized I had to be on the bus in less than an hour for my 9 AM class. I got on the bus, scared and nervous I would end up in Chile or something, asked for help, ran to class, got lost, got lost more, went to the wrong class, found the right class, thank god it was at 9 30 and not 9, and had a fun time being the token American girl with blonde hair. My class was all girls, but they were really nice and helpful. I'm not sure if I want to stay in the class but whatever. The classes here seem SO much less formal that at Emory-- its like in 8th grade when you had a substitute teacher and would behave worse than normal, talk more, use the bathroom more frequently, etc.. that's how school is here. Girls left 45 mins early, or stepped out for 15-20 minutes at a time for a smoke and a croissant. There is also a 30 minute break, which is more like 45 minutes, in the middle of the class, and everyone is always late. Quite different! I like it.
Have class at the huge public university tomorrow- I am already nervous & excited.
I have to go organize my laundry...I came home with single socks and extra unknown socks and I need to take care of it!
Shoutout to the chiax, PMT, and Leash & Em in 'NAM!!

A Perfect Sunday

Woke up on Sunday at around 1:30 (early for Argentine standards). I planned to meet the girls at the San Telmo Fair- one of the city's greatest attractions, and for good reason. The fair was packed with locals and tourists alike, but it was so great. Most of the vendors/store things were selling antiques- AMAZING jewelry, old photos, keys, door knobs, brooches, fur coats, Argentine souvenirs...everything you could imagine. It was so beautiful and if I didn't have to travel back to the US I would have bought everything. There was a big tango show going on, it was so cool. We walked and browsed for a while, until about 5:30 and then we went to have lunch at a great restaurant called Origens. It was packed, but we got a table and a 3 hour lunch. As soon as I got home, we had pizza & empanadas, a very common combination for a Sunday night I have learned. It was also delicious. Juan and Pedro had a friend, Francisco, over, who is really nice. He's covered in tattoos and if I saw him walking down the street I would be scared, but he's great. We had a fun dinner, Juan providing most of the entertainment, and then Pedro left to go on a date :) Juan, Gretchen, Francisco and I decided to play some board games- we started out with Indicios. Juan and Olivia vs. Gretchen and Fran. We dominated...I felt really bad since I needed a lot of help translating, but it was fun and I contributed pretty well. Then we moved on to Trivial Pursuit (in Spanish)...kill me? It was SO hard. Luckily we had Juan's girl-of-the-moment Greta on our team and she was really smart. She's nice, way to skinny, but fun. I approve. I know its a short post, but I wanted to make sure to write about it because it was such a fun Sunday.
I posted a new album on Facebook of my first few weeks here..Enjoy!
School starts today :( I am registered for 10 classes, so my schedule is packed Tues, Wed and Thurs (no Friday or Monday class for me!!).
Miss you all xoxo

A Costume Party

I woke up well-rested on Saturday morning (8/2) and started to plan my day. I had to e-mail professors at Emory to approve courses, but then I decided to explore Recoleta. My friend Becca and I want to explore new neighborhoods every few days; we want to see all the highlights of each neighborhood and go to store and museums that are in our guidebooks and that have been recommended to us. We strolled around Recoleta with two guys we met, Liam and Edson. They are so funny, really good guys. We went to the cemetery and to a few famous stores and things like that. We didn't get as far as we would like, but it was nice. I really want to start going to some museums. Saturday at our late afternoon café, we decided we would go to this small Indian place for dinner and then go out dancing. The Indian place had such a long line that we went next door to Carnal, a bar/restaurant that was cheap but took soo long to serve us. They ended up giving us our dessert and second bottle of wine for free. We were with a pretty big group and Grethchen, the American girl here until Aug 21, who has been here for a year, came with us. After dinner we went to a bar called Filo to meet some of her friends from Spain. They were nice, but I wanted to meet back up with the group so. It so hard to meet people and try to get to know them in Spanish-- its so exhausting. But we talked to them for a while and then went back to Palermo to pick then up and head somewhere else. As wel pulled up in our cab to get them, Orly came running out saying "come in that cab over there, Pablo and his friends are taking us to a party!" Pablo is an extremely nice Argentine guy who I think is in love with Orly and they text a lot and we often meet up with him at night. Literally 6 people piled into the back seat of an extremely small Ford Focus-like car...I was on the bottom. I was dying, but it was really funny. Pablo to my right and Martín to my left were really funny. I noticed that Martín was wearing a dress and latex dishwashing gloves, but I didn't say anything.
After both my arms and legs fell asleep, we arrived at a nice apartment-like building in Belgrano. We entered the elevator, paid 5 peso, and entered into a costume party. It was like Halloween Buenos Aires style, which you can imagine is absolutely crazy. There were a fair amount of Elvis Presley's, pirates, nurses & doctors, Jokers from Batman, and "Arab people" as one guy told me. It was odd. There was a 40 year old mean serving Quilmes from a keg and there were a lot of underage girls drinking it. We met some random guys, most of whom, now that I think about it, were huge assholes. Becca and I were talking to some guy and he was like "Your Spanish is terrible, both of you." No one has ever said that to us before to our faces! Then there was a mime with this friend the "translator" who kept telling us all these sexual things the mime wanted to do and it was gross. I met this hella annoying Australian/Argentine guy, you can imagine the trouble I had understanding him in English or Spanish). He asked me to marry him and tried to get me to run across the street to the church. I asked a nice Argentine girl for help.. I said "Save me please?!" She was cool about it. We were there for a while, mingling and dancing, having a good time. Pablo's friend Martín was so hot, despite the dress, but he was in his own world.
We headed home about 5 30 AM- I was so happy to get in bed and sleep (until 1 30 pm today...oops). We were surprised to find a party happening at our house- Juan's party. I stayed and hung out for a second but I was so tired and grumpy that I had to head to bed. Juan begged to have me stay out, but we had a heart to heart and I told him I just wasn't comfortable speaking spanish at such an early hour of the morning. Haha.
Now its 2 here and I am about to go to San Telmo with Becca- they have a big fair there every Sunday :) Can't wait! Chau!

Here are a few pictures - I don't bring my camera everywhere yet because I don't want to lose it, but here are some that I like. Most of the places are really near my house, about 2 blocks :) I love the mix of architecture here and how busy the streets are at all hours.

Becca's Argentine "herbs" and Juan's Argentine body (JK Mom)

Hola! Sorry its been 3 days since I've written here...its been a busy 3 days. Its mostly busy because we have now visited all of the universities that we can attend and the "shopping" period for classes begins on Monday. I am signed up to take 10 classes but I will drop 6 of them. Two of the universities are very similar to the US- they actually look more like public high schools, but for the most part they have lots of experience with exchange students and they are very helpful, organized and private. The Universidad de Buenos Aires is the total opposite - its a public university with different campuses all over the city. It receives very little funding and their facilities are...less that normal? The bathrooms basically are a hole in the ground, no toilet paper, no trash cans, no room to even bend over in the stall. I can't bend over in my shower but that's a different story. Graffiti and pictures cover ALL of the walls of this university - mostly pictures of Che Guevara and phrases like "Viva la revolución!!" and "Izquierda Socialista!" Its pretty intense and I really don't feel like I fit in there, but everyone has told me that the classes there are the most interesting and most rewarding and it is where we can meet and spend time with Argentine people.
During the day I have pretty much been doing stuff with the program, choosing my classes and things like that. We have gone out a bunch this past week. I went out last night to an intimate bar called OMM Bar in Palermo with my friend Becca. It was like a date, very quiet and small place. We shared a bottle of Malbec, which was amazing. We were having a great time, she is so amazing. We have a lot in common and we laugh a lot together. She goes to Penn and has a bunch of people here that she knows from Penn, but she is still really outgoing and so nice. After our wine, two Irish men came up to us as asked us if we wanted to have a berr with them. We said okay against our will - we want to hang out with Argentine men, not Irish men who speak an extremely weird form of English! So we sat with them for a while until we learned their names were Seamus and Deklund and that they are 31 years old. At that time we said we must leave, but they insisted on buying us more drinks. After those drinks we got in a cab to go to a club called Amerika, but the line was literally around 2 blocks and the people in line were mostly underage kids trying to dance, so we went back to a bar. We were so tired by then (3:30 am maybe) that we went to the bathroom and decided on an exit strategy. We decided on "We have school tomorrow. Bye." We went home and had to wake up at 8 am today for a meeting at the Catholic University. The university is in a place called Puerto Madero, an up-and-coming place right on the Río de la Plata, which is the big river (but looks like a sea) here - its golden brown, not blue. We saw the famous Puente de la Mujer and walked around. We ate lunch at a great place called ifresh Market. Then Becca took Amanda and I on an adventure to some randomass place where she heard from a friend of a friend that sold Argentine "herbs." Don't worry - Becca's not sketchy, but this adventure was. So we take the colectivo (bus) for blocks and blocks and blocks and finally get off - we walked around for a bit for number 550. We found it - it looked like a door had been there once, but it was completely blocked by a self-made brick wall. We thought about trying a three-knock, two-tap, one cough code to enter into this alleged "herb" store, but we decided against it. I was becoming paranoid - we were in the same neighborhood, Villa Crespo, that we had been robbed in only a few days prior. We had to be back at another university anyway, so we left.
I got home around 7 and had plans with my host mom, Amanda, to go to her son, Pedro's acrobat show. It started at 8, so we took a cab and took a seat in the small audience at a small school/cultural center. There were many groups who performed and it was so much fun. I felt very Argentine and it was fun to see Pedro do his acrobatics in a real setting and not just the living room. He is so cute and sweet, he waved to us from the stage and was so glad we came. I talked to Amanda a lot about a lot of different things - music, movies, family, religion, clothes, money, everything. It was great- she is really a great person and has a very good outlook on the world, in my opinion. She is so caring and sweet. We came home after to a great dinner of pork, red beets, green beans, eggs, and papas. She always says I don't eat enough and shoves more food on my plate, so right now I am so full I can barely sit. I don't know how to say no and not have her think that I don't like her food. I think she's a great cook, but I made the mistake of saying that the food and especially breakfast is very different here and now she thinks I am going to leave and leave her with no income for this semester. I told her I would never :)
An American girl named Gretchen, who is a friend of my friend Lizzy who lived in BA last year, is coming to stay in the extra room here for about 15 days. I am excited to meet her and for her to hopefully give me some good advice on BA and nightlife and stuff. I walked in the house today to see Juan clad only in tight, spandex-like black boxers....yeah. It was..amazing? Haha I was so awkward but he was just standing there like "Yeah, I know I'm gorgeous." I know think Juan is extremely sexy by the way. He has the most beautiful skin and accent and is so nice, when I can understand him. Anyway, apparently he and Gretchen have some drama, so I don't know what it going to go down here tomorrow.
I am in for now but I might go out later, I'm not sure. I miss all of you!!
XOXO
GossipGirl

Honeymoon period has begun- I hope it never ends.

I am in a great state of happiness right now! I have had some amazing days this past week and despite feeling really overwhelmed, anxious, and scared, I feel like I may have made it past my initial fear. I have officially been here one week. It feels much longer than that, I don’t know why. I LOVE the area that I live in – I have been to a few other neighborhoods now, not all, but most, and I definitely feel like mine is the nicest and safest. It may not be the best place to go out at night, but there are great cafés and shops, and amazing places to walk. I love just walking out the door and being able to walk around and do anything just a few blocks away. Yesterday Orly, Becca and I (yes, I have friends!! Finally!! More about them later) went to Palermo Soho, which is literally an area of like 5 square blocks, maybe more, of boutiques. Al the boutiques are named after the designer and the stores only carry that designer’s collection. It is so cool. Most of the stores are seriously cheap, its amazing. I didn’t get anything yesterday, but I am not worried – we pretty much shop 24-7 when we are not in orientation, so I have plenty of opportunities. Some of the clothes are really funky, but most are so cute. There is a Polo store (not Ralph Lauren, but clothing and boots and bridles and everything for the sport).. it reminds me of the barn! There are so many amazing leather stores and most everyone in the stores are really nice. They help us a lot and we ask them stupid questions like how to say “hangar” and “too tight on my boobs” and “I need 4 sizes bigger or smaller” and “Can you speak a LOT more slowly please?” and “please only speak to me in Spanish, not in English, cause even though you assume I am American, I am actually from Poland and speak not a word of English.” Haha. We try to practice Spanish, cause its kind of pointless to practice with each other, so we try to speak everywhere else. Its fun when we try together; alone it is just sad.
So anyway, the shopping rocks and I can’t wait to collect more items for my wardrobe. People don’t dress up as much here to go out, mostly just wear jeans and a top, so I need to get more of that kind of stuff. Last night we went to a place called Sucre. It was a restaurant and reminded me so much of something in America.. it was really boring haha. Woke up early and went to orientation again, except Becca and I got so caught up shopping that we missed one of the lessos. Oh well. :/
Now I am here in the casa, listening to Pedro take his piano lesson and looking out the window to the Alvear Palace Hotel. Its so beautiful. I can’t wait for tomorrow to start so I can explore more. I don’t think I have it in me to go out tonight, I have to register for classes and stuff like that, plus my throat hurts. I was so tired today in my class that I was practically falling asleep and I had to white-lie to my teacher that I was sick .. which I might be, but still. Need to sleep more.
I think that’s all for now…I am having a great time and love the girls that I have hung out with so far. The city is incredible. It never sleeps, except on Mondays.
I hope it never ends…

Reality Check

Friday: After a nap from 730 - 1030 and dinner at 11, I went out with some friends to a close bar called Milión. It is an old mansion so its has 3 floors and all the bedrooms have been turned into private rooms in sofas and seats and things like that. It is really beautiful and in the summer they have a huge outdoor patio. There weren't too many people there, but we met 2 Argentine boys who we talked to for a while. They were nice, but not that cute..One of them looked totally Irish and the other one had a flavor savor beard and a lisp. Whatever. So we called it an early night and went back around 3. Slept until 12:30. When I woke up, my host mom apologized profusely for being loud and for waking me up so early...I said, early?? It's the middle of the day! I had a fine day, I walked around Recoleta again and saw the cemetery, gardens, and park a block away from my house. It was a really nice and it was a surprisingly warm and sunny day.
I took another nap Friday night and had dinner plans with 6 girls from the program at an amazing Argentine restaurant called La Cabrera. It's in a cool area called Palermo Viejo, a neighborhood where a lot people go out and eat and dance. We had reservations for 11 but were not seated until 12:30. We had AMAZING chorizo and filet...the rarest steak I have ever had..it was practically alive..but the lights were so dim I couldn't see it and it was one of the best things I have ever tasted. Don't tell anyone...:) So after a few bottles of red wine and lots od food later it was 2:45 AM and we were ready to party! We were going to a party nearby the restaurant hosted by a friend of a friend on the program. It was only about 5 blocks away, so we asked people if we could walk and they said that for sure we could walk. So we are 6 American girls, ready to go out, all of a sudden we find ourselves mostly out of sight from the bustling restaurant area. The street was dark and fairly empty. There were a few sketchy people around, but we held on tight to our purses and to each other because we knew we were almost close to the party. I was walking a few paces ahead of the group with another girl and I heard Amanda scream. Then I heard a man scream and saw him bolt away from us, laughing and screaming. At first I thought he molested her or something, but then I realized, as she did too, that he had stolen her Marc Jacobs clutch...which held her camera, credit cards, cell phone, drivers lisence, ATM/credit card, insurance card, and just 100 pesos. The worst part about it was that he probably would just throw the clutch away and sell the camera and cell phone..and what? 100 pesos? That is like $30. It was SO scary we were all SO shaken up..luckily just moments after he robbed her a Radio Taxi pulled up and we piled in, promising a big tip. We all came back to my apartment because my host mom is never here to discuss what happened. We realized not soon after the incident that we were being total idiots walking down a dark, empty street alone in a city we barely know, speaking loudly in English. We were such obvious targets and we are SO lucky that this asshole didn't pull out a knife or a gun and take everything from all of us. In the end we all learned from it -- never, ever walk anywhere alone at night, even in a group, and never carry all of your important things on you at one time. Always have your purse wrapped around a wrist or across the body...it was so easy for this guy to just rip her purse out of her hand. We talked in my room for about an hour about how different it is here and how much we realized that we're not in America and all those boring lectures in orientation about safety and everything are worth it and helpful. We were so stupid and extremely lucky that no one got hurt and that nothing violent happened.
As if I wasn't paranoid, now I am terrified. It was so easy for that man to come up to Amanda and we could not do anything about it. We were totally helpless. I'm even nervous walking alone during the day now. My host mom said that I don't have anything to worry about and that it was no surprise we got robbed on that street at 4 am. There is a difference between walking alone at 7 pm and 4 30 am. I will just have to take taxis whenever it is dark out now, which is fine since they are so cheap.
So we were all shaken up after that, but I think we learned a lot. We had a reality check - we thought we were in New York City and could do whatever we wanted. We're not, and we can't. It sucks to go about the day nervous and scared that I am going to get robbed or someone is going to cut my purse open with a knife (happened to my host mom) and take everything, but its reality here, especially for tourists. When poor thieves see American people all they see is dollars, which are very valuable to them. Amanda will be checking for her Marc Jacobs clutch on E-bay tomorrow.
I am home safe now and trying to figure out classes. Then I might meet up with some friends for tea or a movie, but I am so tired I just want to sleep and be safe in my bed!
Ready for another long week...
Oh a few more things -- Amanda' (host mom)'s friend has a cabin in the south of the country and said that me and 5 friends could rent it for like $1000-- split 6 ways is really cheap. It would be fun, but I don't know if we want to travel alone yet. Also, my friend Amanda's host mom invited us to her daughter's wedding this coming weekend so i think we are going to go :)
That's about it for now, I'll write again soon! oxo

The days here seem to last forever, which is great. I have to be at orientation at 9 most mornings and I am out and about until 7 or so. This morning I was supposed to leave around 8 30 to walk 6 blocks to my orientation, but Amanda knocked on my door at about 8:25! I guess the alarm on my cell phone doesn't work here.. or maybe it does and I will have an alarm go off at 7:30 am. So I had a quick breakfast of creamcheese (kind of) and jelly on toast, a bowl of granola, and some grapefruit juice. It was great. Then I went to orientation all day and learned about the different grammar things that are exclusive to BA. It was really helpful since it was even difficult to understand really easy phrases. Now I can recognize the use of "vos" which they use instead of "tu" (for you). We also learned some slang, most of which I knew from the brothers, but in less 'dirty' ways. I walked around after orientation... I live in an amazing area called Recoleta which is probably the wealthiest part of the city and a lot of people compare it to Paris. I live across the street from the Alvear Palace Hotel, which is one of the nicest hotels in the world. I also live around the corner from Valentino, Christian Dior and Louis Vuitton. I bought an incredible pair of leather boots today from a great shop right up the street from me. I have trouble in most stores and restaurants, but my Spanish is no problem when it comes to shopping. When I walk into a store I feel home lol. After that I went to the gardens and cemetery and cultural center really close to my house. Everything is SO beautiful. My camera died but I'm going to go back tomorrow. Eva Perón is buried at the cemetery and there are all these little vendors selling everything from leather to fur to Cuban cigars, jewelry, paintings, photographs and hot dogs. Its my favorite place I have been so far. Juan just returned home as I am writing this and now he will probably skip dinner and wake up around midnight to eat and then go out. Crazy. I hope to go out tonight if I can get in contact with my friends-- its hard living in different houses and neighborhoods..no one really wants to take the bus alone. I still take cabs at night, and I will until I look like I know my way around so people don't mess with me. For the most part, every time I pull out my map someone asks me if I know where I am or if I need help. It's great and I am very thankful for them!

I hope to have some fun stories to post here tomorrow! Have a good weekend!
xo

Ahh finally!!!

ahhh oh my god...where do I start???? I am in BA finally after a over 24 hours of travel, broken airplanes and no one to pick me up in Buenos Aires. I guess the adventure started when I got off the plane in BA and couldn't find anyone from COPA (my program) to pick me up...so I called them and they told me to take a taxi but make sure it was a Radio Taxi or else I could get kidnapped. I was really excited. So then this really nice guy from Canada/Uruguay (weird I know) took me under his wing and helped me get on a bus to where I needed to go. The south part of the city is extremely poor and I thought that I would be living in one of the tall high rises with no walls no windows, etc. That was the first time I felt like crying. But we kept going and going and finally got to what I would imagine a European city looks like. I got to COPA at 10 am with all my shit and didn't leave there until 7 pm to go to my host family's home.
My host mom is Amanda and she has 3 sons, 2 who live at home lucky for me! Her sons are Juan and Pedro...Juan is 23, has a mullet but is totally cute (like every single man in this entire city except the really young and really old ones of course). Pedro is 22, he studies medicine at UBA (Universidad de Buenos Aires) and is a member of an acrobats club (more om this in a second). Juan sleeps mostly during the day when he is not working. He says that he doesn't feel well so that Amanda will bring him all his meals in bed. Then at around 11 or 12 at night he feels better and goes out until 4 or 5 am. No wonder he needs to sleep all the time.
Yesterday was my first full day here-- we had a tour scheduled with COPA at 9 am at the Plaza de Mayo, where the Casa Rosada (like our white house) and most other government-related buildings are located. It is called "El Centro" of the city. Its so amazing, that is where all the protests occur and where Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo unite every Thursday to protest the loss of their children in the 70s during La Guerra Sucia. We had a tour of the surrounding barrios (neighborhoods sort of) called San Telmo and Monsteraat. All the streets there are cobblestone and its really cute and old. On one street alone there is over hundreds of years of different architectural styles of buildings.. its really cool. Our tour guide spoke really fast and the accent here is really different, so I didn't get all the information but I got some of it haha. After the tours we went back to COPA for more orientation about classes and things like that. The day was really long but we have tiempo libre (free time) for about 4 hours every day in small spurts so that's when we can walk around and buy all the stuff we need to, like cell phones, adapters, food, anything we need.
I got home around 7 and we had dinner here about 930 I think. Juan had a friend over and the three of them gave me a lesson is Argentine slang and all the swear words that I need to know, apparently. It was pretty interesting haha. Amanda was laughing the whole time, yelling "Basta!" (Enough!) but they boys don't care... they are sooo spoiled. They get whatever they want. Pedro speaks some English, he's actually pretty good, but neither Amanda nor Juan speak any English. Its best that way - I am learning so much from them. So last night after dinner we decided we would go out that night - there was another American girl here who was volunteering, but she left today :( She ha been here only a month but wanted to do it up big for her last night. So of course I wanted to go with them (Eve I took your advice...never say no!!) We went to Rachel's friend's apartment in Belgrano I think it was, it was really cute. We had some red wine from Mendoza that turned out teeth and mouths purple and then we took the colectivo (bus) to a boliche (club) called Museo. It was $a30 (30 pesos) to get in but that got us a slip for a free drink... are you ready...Speed and Vodka was the drink. I freaked out of course when I heard the name but I realized soon that Speed is just RedBull. It was good, and I needed it since it was midnight and we wouldn't come home again until like 4 am, which is an early night here by the way.
Inside the place is TOTALLY packed and its bigger than any club I've ever been to. It had 3 stories. We our drinks, went to the bathroom, inhaled wayyy to much second hand smoke and started to dance. The music: they play ABBA, Madonna, Cher, J.Lo (old school style), "My Humps," "Could this be love?" umm what else, Bon Jovi...Lots of old stuff that of course we know all the words to. The funny thing is is that they locals know ALL the words too and they have no idea what they mean. Its great. So when people tell you that Argentine men are aggressive and passionate, they are RIGHT....If you give ONE guy a smile or just look at him wrong he will not leave you alone. That's what happened to me with some old guy with an afro but my friends took care of it. I think they said I was married- they don't care if you say you have a boyfriend. They just want to MSN messenger with you and take you to a telo, which is...get ready..a TWO HOUR hotel where you can go to you-know-what. So trashy! But apparently its not at all..most of the guys our age live with their families and they can't exactly bring girls to the house at 4 am to hookup. A lot of the guys would come up to me and whisper in my here "te amo" or "rubia rubia!!!" (blonde hair...). It was weird but funny..its hard not to be flattered by the marriage proposals but you have to be really careful. Its really amazing though and I can't wait to make some friends. So when the place started to wind down around 3ish and the people were ready to move on to bigger and better things, me and Rachel and Juan and Pedro and a girl for Pedro came back to our house and hung out for a while. Amanda always sleeps in the apartment below us with her novio Julio so we have the place to ourselves at night. Pedro started doing some crazy handstands and acrobatic stuff on the floor and Juan and Rachel were making out on the couch. I figured since it was only my second night I didn't need to be with anyone. I hung out with them for a while and then went to bed.
I woke up with a bit of a headache and ate breakfast with Amanda - some granola, a piece a fruit, and that's it. They don't to breakfast here like we do, at least from what I have seen. They really just have something light... i miss half day!!! for dinner we have had chicken because on my housing form I said I didn't like red meat very much, but we had some last night with pasta and it was really good.
I just had dinner with my host mom (so sorry if I repeat things...dinner was like an hour..) but she asked me who I was going to vote for and we talked about the current politics in Argentina.. there have been a ton of protests/manifestaciones against the grain tax and lots more about money and taking it from the rich to the poor, I don't really know. I try to read La Nación, a newspaper here, but I don't get a lot of it. I don't know anyone's names or anything like that.
Its kind of lonely between the hours of like 6 and 10 or whenever we go out...Juan always sleeps and Pedro is really busy, Amanda goes to Julios around 9 every night and I don't have a lot to do (yet!). I have to register for my classes tomorrow... classes start around 11 de agosto. I have to take 4 classes to satisfy Emory and I have to take 15 credits to satisfy COPA. Each university's classes count for different credit hours at Emory... so I will probably take one class at UBA and 3 at the private catholic university, in literature or human rights or women's studies, things like that.
I have a big day tomorrow with lots of stuff, getting my student visa tomorrow... but saturday and sunday are free days.. finally!! so i am going to buy some leather boots (they have sooo much amazing leather and fur here!) and shop and look around and maybe get to know the other parts of the city a bit.
The directors of the program gave us maps of the most dangerous places and such, places we should never go.. parks are really dangerous at night, but that is just like in any city. Except here supposedly they kidnap people, I don't know, I think they were just trying to scare us but I wont take any chances. I walk around a lot alone during the day but at night I usually take cabs. There are a lot of stray and strange animals, and some people who walk around with like 15 dogs on leashes, its so strange. But as a result there is a lot of dog poo and I stepped in my first one today, yay! Luckily i was wearing bad shoes...last night when we were out I wore flats and they are now destroyed..between cobblestone streets and the dirtiest floor filled with glass and food and cigarettes, they are so gross. (Emory kids: way worse than maggie's hair/smell the morning after!).
Well I think that is all for now....I miss all of you and I love you!!!!
ciao