Recap of my first month

Hello, everyone!

Sorry I haven’t blogged at all yet – I’ve been way busy what with exploring the city, taking trips to various places in the countryside, attending classes and making friends in my program as well as meeting locals.

So far, I have been to tons of museums, cultural centres, craft fairs, restaurants and bars as well as a few major events. Let me make a list (as many of them as I currently recall) so I don’t forget them:

- Plaza San Martin (a great park for lunching and people-watching - I go here a lot to relax and study between classes)

- La Bomba del Tiempo (“The Time Bomb” – a percussion band that has been performing outdoors every Monday for years and years. Wonderful music and a fun, youthful atmosphere – lots of open-air pot smokers and hippies jamming to the drums, as they are wont to do)

- El 24 de Marzo (an annual political rally that is one of the two biggest cultural events in Buenos Aires, the other being the independence day celebration on the 9^th of July. Although it was originally a day of remembrancehosted by the mothers of the disappeared – people, often political dissenters, taken without warning and held by the government, sometimes recovered but often never heard from again - thousands of people turn up in the streets to advocate one thing or another. Many large flatbed trucks with people shouting things into microphones and others surrounding the trucks and yelling back at them, lots of people marching and chanting or singing, banners galore, people playing the drums and drinking mate in the streets, people blatantly tagging the walls of the surrounding buildings with political graffiti . . . definitely an event worth attending. I learned a lot about current political concerns by talking to some of the locals at the rally, and was also warned by a porteno to “RUN THE OTHER DIRECTION” if I saw a group of more than two or three men with their entire heads wrapped in bandannas – apparently this is the group that tends to violently target foreigners and destroy lots of public property at will. Marched behind the Rebel Youth along with Parker and Gabby.)

- Alto Palermo mall (the largest mall in the city, I believe – lots of shops with all sorts of clothing and objects for purchase. Houses Argentina’s first Starbucks, which serves shockingly inferior java to that found in any other café in the city. Portenos definitely know how to do coffee.)

- Tigre (a town on the river delta with a huge craft fair where I purchased tons of owl figurines to bring home for my lovely Chi Omega sisters as well as a couple of mate gourds and some inexpensive locally-made jewelry. We then took a two-hour ferry trip to a gorgeous hotel out in the jungle with a pool and all-inclusive drinks and food, where we stayed in beautiful, spacious, everything-you-could-ask-for cabanas with expansive porches looking out onto the river and went kayaking and fishing. I definitely flipped my kayak over, fell out, and had to swim through the disgusting swampy water back to the dock, where I discovered upon dragging my water-filled boat onto the shore that THERE WAS A NASTY FISH WITH BIG WHISKERS SWIMMING AROUND INSIDE IT. I have since been told by my Argentine friends that this type of fish is common to the area and, though ugly, probably had a great personality, so maybe I should quit hating on it, but IT WAS IN MY KAYAK! On the ferry ride back, it was nighttime, so I got to lean against the boat railing and watch the sunset, stars, and other boats passing by. Quite the relaxing, thought-provoking evening.)

- MALBA (a museum with tons of contemporary and more recent art, lots of pieces by Frieda Kahlo and assorted other Latin American artists, with a cool wood sculpture made specifically for the museum that wraps around and through many of the rooms and culminates in a sweet-looking bench. Very cool art.)

- Puerto Madeiro (the main port, with tons of ships, insanely expensive housing, and possibly the coolest-looking bridge ever)

- La Boca (one of the most famous areas in Buenos Aires, distinct because of its bright, multi-colored houses and a street fair that features many tango dancers, soccer player impersonators, and local artisans’ goods. La Boca boasts the Boca Juniors stadium, La Bombanera (aka the chocolate box). We watched a video history of the fanatically-followed soccer team before taking a tour of the stadium, stepping on the field and even exploring the locker rooms! Very touristy, but definitely worth the visit!)

- San Telmo (has a great street fair on weekends and tons of fun clubs and restaurants for the evening hours. Took a lengthy bicycle tour of the area, navigating precariously along the streets alongside speeding cars and even venturing down to the beach on our bright orange bikes. Let me just say this: cobblestone streets are not conducive to a comfortable bike ride, but I thoroughly enjoyed this experience!)

- Mar del Plata (a lengthy bus ride from the city proper out to a BEAUTIFUL beach town with about a million inhabitants. Stayed in a wonderful hostel with some food provided and comparatively nice facilities except for the strange smell in our room, a longboard you could borrow, and a HAMMOCK OUTSIDE. Win. Met lots of fun new people, including a Californian and a Slovenian who went out with us at night. Tandem-longboarded up and down the treacherously narrow streets with my new Slovenian friend and nearly died at least 600 times. Spent all day on the beach, sunning in the sand and on the rocks, went bodysurfing in the ocean, and hit the well-developed bar/club area at night. Developed an even greater hatred for mosquitoes.)

- Recoleta Cemetery (Evita is buried here, along with other ridiculously rich/powerful people. Probably the most touchingly beautiful thing I have seen in Buenos Aires. It is truly a city of the dead – you can look into the tombs through windows built into almost all of the huge buildings built to house the dead, and each structure is uniquely magnificent. Sobering and inspiring at the same time.)

- San Isidro (a suburb of Buenos Aires – we toured a neighborhood of beautiful, ancient homes and a museum that was once the home of Victoria Ocampo, a famous writer. We had tea at a restaurant on the bank of the river, where we could sit on the rocky shore and see sailboats galore)

- Outlets on Cordoba (a large strip of outlet shops with slashed prices)

- THE FLOWER (This is located pretty near to my apartment, so I get the pleasure of driving past it on my daily bus ride. It is a gargantuan, absolutely breathtaking golden flower that is solar-powered and closes its petals at night when there is no sun. The most amazing artistic/engineering endeavor I have ever personally witnessed. I am in love with this city’s sense of style.)

- El Ateneo (once a successful opera house, this velvet-covered, gilded building has been converted into a bookstore. Aka it is the most glorious bookstore in the world. Oh, you want to read for a few hours? No problem. Just chill on the furniture of this gorgeous OPERA HOUSE for as long as you like, and maybe grab a coffee from the café inside while you’re at it.)