Buenos Aires Fall 2010: Una Semana

So I'm one week in! I'm still in the middle of orientation but I had the past three days free and I managed to get some touristy things in!

I blatantly lied to my parents (SORRY GUYS I DIDNT WANT YOU TO WORRY) but my host parents have been gone since Thursday morning. They own a marble/stone factory like half an hour outside the city and so they have been delivering marble throughout the countryside to clients. They took Kaia the dog and their granddaughter, Julianne, with them. They are coming back tomorrow at noon. It wasnt too lonely though because I went out and did stuff and also because friends came over and we ordered delivery dinner two nights in a row and Annie and Jacob both slept over Friday. They also left me a huge tarta and lots of empanadas so I haven't really had a problem feeding myself at all. I am excited for them to get back though. Also them being gone has led me to discover a channel on the TV which shows live footage from the security camera that is pointed at the main door to the street, which is really creepy to watch but actually quite useful!

So I've registered for one class in the Filosofia y Letras department of UBA and tomorrow I will register for a lot more in the Ciencias Sociales. We are gonna have a two week shopping period where we get to sit in as many classes as we want (only ones that we are registered in though) and then drop the ones we dont like. That means after this week of orientation, my next two weeks after that are gonna be way crazier than any other time on the program. But I'm really anxious to have my schedule normalized. I am just going to have to figure out a place to do homework because my broom closet is really not ideal and my host parents always watch TV in the main room so that would be distracting. Annnyyywaysss

What to update you guys on next? Tourist things! Sorry the First Wive's Club on TV is pretty distracting. On Saturday I went to the Cemetery in Recoleta with Tessa, Casey, and Molly. I didn't get to spend that much time in the cemetery because it closed once it started to get dark but it was beautiful. I got to see Eva Peron's tomb (see below) and its kind of like a mini city of tombs. Lots of stray cats too! There were lots of old tombs made of crumbling brick and with vines and plants starting to grow in random spots. There were also musicians outside of the cemetery, since its such a tourist spot, and it reminded me how great live music is! There was one group with a banjo, guitar, and clarinet and they were totally rocking and further down the street there was an amazing classical ensemble. There was also a fair with lots of hippies selling "crafts" and wool things and randomly lots of baby clothes.

Then Saturday night I went over to Mando's apartment and it was tan bueno! Sat around talking with his fairy gay-parents (his host brother and his boyfriend who looks JUST LIKE JEFF OTIS!) and his other host brother who is a professional chef and kind of a condescending asshole (he just keep making fun of our accents so that wasnt so encouraging) and drank beer and ate lots of snacks and ended up playing beer pong when at least 5 more argentine friends showed up. I guess it is a universal sport? It was really fun regardless of two glasses breaking because they were using bottle caps instead of ping pong balls. Mando seriously has a great host family though!

Today I met up with Annie, Casey, and Tessa at the fair in San Telmo! It's a weekly fair in one of the older neighborhoods and basically has tons of useless kitschy shit but it was great to see a bit of that part of the city. There were also two processionals that went around the fair - one was religious (catholic i think?) that started after fireworks blasted from a nearby church steeple (v. dramatic) and the other was a huge group of drummers that clogged up the streets but could be heard for miles. Then we went to a cafe to warm up and just sat and charlar-ed for a while. We split two yummy deserts, one of which came with a shot of Fernet which is this really popular argentine liquor that is supposedly to be minty buts it smells like licorice and I really don't like that stuff.

This Thursday to Friday we are leaving the city for the first time which should be refreshing! I am excited to see more of Argentina than just Buenos Aires. I was kind of feeling earlier this past week that if this place feels so much like NYC and other places I've experienced before, what's the point of being so far away.... so that's why I'm excited to see more legitimate argentine places and start classes, because I know that classes here especially at UBA will be WAY different than Grinnell.

Anyways I guess that is all for now! It's nice to hear that people are reading this. I'll try to make this a weekly thing and keep up with pictures. Missin' everybody constantly!

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