Dia de los amigos.

It seems so appropriate that I am celebrating "El dia de los amigos" with some of my favorite people, in Buenoes Aires, Argentina. Arianna and Brittany arrived a few days ago and we have been keeping ourselves quite busy. Between tasting what Argentina has to offer and seeing the different barrios it contains, we have been quite the little tourists. Together we've seen Boca, San Thelmo, La Plaza del Mayo, Recoleta, Palermo, y el centro de la cuidad (Downtown). Between balancing school, homework, playing tour guide, and keeping my apartment clean, to say the least i've been busy. This weekend we are planning a trip to go to Iguazu Falls, I'll let you know how that turns out. I'll post pictures of the last few days tomorrow, or the day after... or the day after that. We have a pretty busy schedule. Sorry this is boring, I promise i'll post something interesting soon. Promise.......

14/07/09

I don't have much to say today so I'm going to let you do the talking this time.

 Earlier this afternoon I had an interesting conversation with one of the best friends Stephen. Our topic of discussion revolved around the idea that when it comes time for the planet Earth to quit submitting to our every desire, we will accept our fate and fade out as a race, or will we group together and find a way, a planet, or a miracle to survive? Do you think that all of the inhabitants of Earth can bind together and work towards a common goal, putting aside differences in religion, economics, and government in order to work towards a common goal of survival? Do you think there is another planet out there that can sustain human life? 

Comment and let me know what you think, I am very interested in hearing your responses.

Oh yeah, and by my fathers request, here is what it looks like when you look off my balcony towards a street called Mansilla. Not the most amazing view, but it's an amazing city and it's great to look out and see part of it every day.

I am going to warn you, it's a long one today.

09-11/07/09

There are 2 points I would like to make at this time:

 1. The streets and sidewalks of Argentina can be very uneven and full of cracks and holes.

 2. Fights are never funny.

             That is unless both parties involved in the confrontation are wearing rollerblades and suck at rollerblading. This afternoon I was fortunate enough to witness an altercation between what I assumed to be boyfriend and girlfriend. As I eagerly waited for the fight to reach it's pinnacle, I couldn't help but stare. I immediately noticed the giant crack in the sidewalk directly behind the man involved in this argument. As I witnessed the man scream his last few words, which were full of  anger and frustration, he turned to "roll" away from the woman only to find himself face down and moaning. I don't know what I found more entertaining, the immediate change of tone in the mans voice, or the pure lack of concern being displayed by his girlfriend. 

In other news. I once again am horrible at keeping up on the days events and I apologize. 

With that said, 

Lets recap.

 On July 9th - I spent all day with my family at the quinta.

 On July 10th - I had school until 1:30, walked home, hung out for about 15 minutes, then walked around Palermo with Cande and Nachi. It looked like this:

A also bought a canvas and some paints in order to keep myself entertained this week. We'll see how that turns out.

After walking around Palermo for about 2 hours I returned to my apartment and got ready for the night. The night consisted of going out to dinner with my classmates and my cousins Sebastian and Fransisco. After dinner we went to a club called The Roxy where a friend of Fransisco was playing a show. It was a great experience to see what a local band in Argentina sounds like. To be honest, they sound very similar to local bands in San Diego, except, there's much more spanish involved. The restaurant we ate as was called Madagascar and I believe it was in Palermo.

From L to R: Me, Sebastian, Maria (our spanish teacher), Colja

July 11th - I woke up somewhat late in the day (because the nights down here in Buenos Aires can last until anywhere between 5 and 8 am.) So upon waking up somewhere around 1 in the afternoon I received messages from my cousin Candelaria and from my cousin Lucas asking if i wanted to explore. So I decided to walk around my own barrio for once. We walked to the cemetery in Recoleta. Then explored a museum, and saw some other neat things in this beautiful neighborhood I live in. Have a look.

Evita's grave

Street market

puppet show?

After walking around with them for a few hours I went out for some Argentine sushi. And like promised, it wasn't half bad. I went with Colja, Sebastian, Emily, and Greta. After sushi we went back to my apartment and hung out until about 4 in the morning. Another late night and another late morning to follow. Did I mention I love Sundays?

09/07/09

A lot has happened since my last post. Since I have last taken time to write in this blog I have been to a new barrio called El Tigre, eaten new foods (Milanesas), watched and Argentine movie called Nueve Rienas, and just got back from a quinta in Castelar. It was beautiful today in Castelar, although the weather is starting to take a turn for the freezer. If you were wondering what Milanesas are:

 Today was the 9th of July, which is the day Argentina celebrates it's independence every year. This year however is quite different. There is a definite scare of the "Swine Flu" in Buenos Aires right now. So today there are a lot of places that were closed. Instead of trying to find a place somewhere in the city to go today, we all decided to go to the quinta in Castelar. The house is named "El Olvidas" meaning the place to forget your worries. It was exactly this. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

06/07/09

How uneventful.

 It rained again today. This cancelled my trip to El Tigre with my family. This also made the walk home from school more of a swim. I took a nap, watched a Southpark episode in Castillano, and then ate a pizza that only cost me $1.45. It turned out to be a pretty good pizza. I finished homework, cleaned the apartment, and am now going to sleep. Sorry this is kind of a waste of space but I figured I would at least keep up on this weeks events while I can.

   Buenos Noches,  pero no besos porque de la gripe.

Translation: Goodnight, but no kisses because of the swine flu.

05/07/09

Sunday, the day of rest.

I have never been more relieved that out of all days to follow the 4th of July, it was followed by a Sunday. Last night was great, 4 of my friends from school and I went on a Buenos Aires adventure. It's amazing how fast time flies when you are dancing and seeing different parts of a new city. Since I took the liberty to not wear a watch while I am here, I was a bit surprised to see the time when I returned home. 7:00 am is supposed to be an early morning, not a late night. 

Nevertheless, it was a great night and I had a ton of fun with my new friends. I am going to get a few pictures so you can see what the Buenos Aires nightlife looks like. Check back in a few days.

For now, I'm going to enjoy my Sunday.

Oh the wind chimes.

04/07/09

It's the 4th of July. 

I am in a place that doesn't care and I don't blame them because I didn't even have the slightest idea that their independence day is 5 days later. I woke up in Lujan this morning to an Argentina rendition of an American omelette. After breakfast Sebastian took me to the city of Lujan to see this beast.

This is a cathedral of some sort and I am totally spacing on the name of it......oh its called   The Basilica Nuestra Señora de Lujan | Thanks Cande | and since this picture really doesn't do it any justice, here are a few more to give you an idea.

Imagine the street littered with people and no visible pavement for a mile.

Once a year people from Buenos Aires walk to this place to gather around and celebrate God. It is a 43 mile walk so it takes nearly an entire day to get there. A pretty amazing thing if you ask me. 

      The merchants that lined the outside of the building all had wind-chimes that played in unison as the breeze tickled the glass. As we walked through this wind channel of sound, the resonance of a normal wind-chime resembled something similar to a symphony of harps all playing the same chord. If this isn't a spiritual place then God stop the wind.

Lujan.

03/07/09..... After Boca

Today after school I decided to go with my cousin Sebastian to his families country home in a town called Lujan.

Es mi Tio Mariano.

...

 Tonight it seems that I have been introduced to an entirely different side of Argentina. I am in a very nice house in a place called Lujan. I am in a bed with a sailboat comforter. I am in a country club weekend quinta. Although it took an hour's drive to get here, I still feel at home. I think I finally have realized the true meaning of the saying: "Home is where the heart is." It's not the hotel room or apartment. It's not where you go to sleep or where you wake up. It's not whether everything is completely different or exactly the same. Home is simply, where you want to be. And right now I don't want to be anywhere but here. I have felt this way for almost the entire time i've been in Buenos Aires. A great contribution to this is my family and their eagerness to not only entertain and feed me, but to also keep me warm in both a physical and mental sense. I don't know that i've ever felt so welcome in my life. It really has opened my eyes to the fact that family, whether you can understand them or not, is family. It's hard to swallow, but it took for me to come all the way here in order for me to realize that I have the most amazing family not only here but waiting for me to return home safely. 

      On a side note:

I feel sorry for the ceiling fan because in winter he's forgotten.

I wanna rock right now.

03/07/09

One of my favorite things about being here so far is listening to my cousins and other Argentines sing songs from artists such as; Coldplay, Iron Maiden, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Keane, Pink Floyd, etc. Not only is this entertaining for me because I like most of the music, but mostly because I'm pretty sure they don't understand the majority of the words they are singing. I must admit if i was playing a game of "You now how I know you're gay?" and the answer was "Because you listen to Coldplay" I would be guilty... of liking Coldplay. It was amazing to be driving through the Barrio of La Boca, seeing things i've never seen before while listening to Coldplay's song titled Scientists. Currently I am listening to a song named "Chromakey Dreamcoat" by a group called Boards of Canada. If you've never heard of them then you not only suck at life, but also need to buy one of their albums. Today I saw the barrio of Boca. Boca is famous for their futbol team and for being a huge part of the immigration into Argentina. I learned that the colors blue and yellow that are used for the teams jerseys were chosen because they couldn't decide on colors so they said "We will use the colors of the next ship that comes into port". The next ship that sailed into port happened to be from Sweden. To this day, the Futbol team remains blue and yellow. The city, although it looked a bit more run down than the rest of Buenos Aires, was very beautiful in it's own ways. So far my favorite thing about Buenos Aires is that each Barrio has so much to offer. Around each corner is a new experience waiting to take me in.  If you are curious as to what Boca looks like, this might give you an idea:

    This is the Boca futbol team's stadium

 In 20 minutes I leave to go to my cousin Sebastian's families country club. So I should have pictures from that tomorrow. 

But for now, chau

01/07/09

Last night I went out with about 20 students and a few teachers from my school. We went to a little restaurant in Palermo called "El 22". The idea of the evening was that our teachers were going to order different cuts of beef and let us try the different parts of the cow without telling us what part it was. I'll admit I felt a little left out at first for not partaking in this experience, however I wanted to make my first Argentine steak experience extra special. So Colja(A friend of mine who is from Germany) and I ordered the Lomo or what is the equivalent of Filet Mignon here. Hands down, no questions asked, the best steak i've ever had. But the best part of my dinner had to be the salad I ordered. Apparently not all countries do things the same way. I was wrong to assume that a salad automatically comes with lettuce. So when I asked for a salad with only tomatoes, to my surprise, minutes later, I had an oversized bowl full of chopped tomatoes in front of me. I couldn't tell whether or not the grimace on the waiters face was because he hated tomatoes or because I liked them so much. 

Nevertheless, last night was eventful.

 I was unaware that today was "Take advantage of an American" day in Buenos Aires. What an interesting day. Today I learned the majority of bad words used in Argentina (Thanks to my teacher and her persistence for us to know them all). After school I went to lunch with Veronica, I had an amazing Torta with cheese and ham. Afterwards I went to San Thelmo with my cousins. San Thelmo is the oldest Barrio or neighborhood of Buenos Aires. This is where a good deal of Tango dancing occurs on the weekends here in Argentina. after that I came home, took a 4 hour nap, had a salad, soup, and soda that cost me 100 pesos(hence the Take advantage of an American Day comment), and now I'm going to bed.

Oh ya,  

here are some photos: