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
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