After a 14 hour 2-flight extravaganza (including being hit on for the full 3 hour first flight), all ten of us finally arrived in the wonderful city of Buenos Aires on Monday morning. Why am I not posting until Saturday evening? Well, this is just the first problem we ran into. No internet. FINALLY, after waiting for 4 hours for a technician yesterday (who has yet to show up....in true laid-back Argentine fashion), Ann (my super nice roommate) and I were blessed this morning with Marcelo, who unplugged a few things and got us back in touch with reality.
My apartment is fashionably decorated, and by fashionable I mean I feel like I am coming straight out of the jungle. Our place is fully equipped with a Zebra skin rug with matching pillows (How did they know that I love zebra!?), a bamboo couch, and artwork of various exotic animals. However, it doesn't stop there. Accommodations include a flaming heater (our landlord Aida, or Nancy as we like to call her, told us whatever we do DO NOT touch the flame), a Bidet in the bathroom, a washer that fits about 3 garments, and Mr. and Mrs. pillows in the bedroom. Sounds worse than it really is, and I do have to admit that the view over one of the largest streets in our ritzy town of Recoleta is quite a treat.
There are three other girls, Bridget, Amelia, and Jordan, that live about 2 blocks away, the closest apartment to ours, so I pretty much camp out there a lot when Ann is at class.
What have I done so far? The list goes on and on...
Day 1: We were pretty much unleashed and forced to find our way around on our own, which led to a little frustration and a lot of fun. First lesson learned the hard way--passports are essential in this town. We had trouble exchanging money at the mall down the street (again, how did they know?!) and even trying to get our super swanky (kidding.) go-phones working. We headed over to get a bite to eat at around 10pm (normal dinner time here), where we found ourselves indulging in empenadas and vases upon vases of vino. mmmmmm. All for less than 10 American dollars. Did I mention I love this city?
Day 2: Finally, we met up with Juliana (an up and coming comedian in this part of town) for our city tour. Might I mention that we were picked up about an hour late (I'm starting to get used to this, but I don't know if I will ever be truly happy about it). I snapped tons of photos like a true tourist until my camera ran out of battery. We hit up all four major parts of BA, and each part had a different twist on the city. It almost felt like I was in four completely different cities. Our tour stopped at famous monuments, parks, and sites such as La Boca's "caminito" and La Casa Rosada (Their version of the White House, except it is most definitely pink), Plaza de Mayo, and 9 de Julio, a street so large it seems that you may never make it across, especially since Argentina streets seem to have no rules, speed limits, or lanes and red lights don't really seem to matter.
Day 3: We started the day with our first Spanish class. My group decided to take a cab there and we were quickly reminded why we needed to leave a whole hour early for class. We passed three massive demonstrations that literally took up multiple lanes of major streets. We yet again learned the hard way and have been taking the "Subte" (Subway) to class ever since. Class isn't as hard as I thought, although Mariana, our fashionable teacher loves to assign a hefty amount of homework. Aftewards, we headed to the Subte, which was an adventure in itself. A women was screaming "Policia!" before we even got on and we ran in and out of a train for a reason I am still unsure about. A young girl came by during our ride and handed us three trading cards (which I still don't know what they said) and then proceeded to take them back. This was by far the craziest subte ride we have had so far, as we are slowly getting the hang of things.
Day 4: So now that we have the Subte down, we decided to adventure out onto the buses after class. We busted out our Guia "T" (the mini-map to the countless buses here in B.A.) and finally got the courage up to feel confident in our bus choice (number 152, which was sure to go back to Recoleta, right?!). We hopped on only to find ourselves the last ones on the bus 5 blocks later as the bus was strategically parked in a bus garage. Funny, right? We thought so, too, until we realized we were in La Boca, equivalent to Chicago's Capbrini Green. Uh-Oh. After clutching our purses, walking a mile or two, realizing we had no "moneda" for the bus, and being chased by a midget we made it into a Radio Taxi (the only trusted taxi in the city). The only problem is that this very same radio taxi was one that we saw broken down a few blocks earlier. Double Uh-Oh. All is well and we made it back in one piece, but we will NEVER make that mistake again.
The rest of the trip only gets better. We encounter at least one American a day (making me feel a little more at home), which always lead to helpful friends or a nice point in the right direction. The phrase of the trip seems to be "where are you from?" every time we hear an American accent. Last night, we naturally went out at 2am, common for "porteños" and danced the night away (with a few Argentine snickers) at a local 4-floor club in Recoleta. The night was filled with learning how to salsa, thanks to two Argentines and danced among the 14 year olds that flooded the club. What a different world it is here.
Today was complete with a trip to Plaza Francia, which is basically in our backyard. It is filled with arts and crafts on the weekends, so naturally we got to see some pretty cool stuff. We got some Dulce de Leche after lunch, which is a must in this town, and we were off to explore some more. Monday and Tuesday mark a national holiday due to the country's bicentennial, so this town basically shuts down for a few days. It is basically a 4-day long party to celebrate the beginning of their independence, which was declared 6 years later.
This post could go on forever, but I will spare my readers. I am certainly out of my element, but in the best way. People here are extremely friendly and I could not ask for much more out of my experience so far. Starting our internships will be both exciting and scary, but I am ready to get started nonetheless. I will post pictures and updates soon of all the great places I have seen so far.
I can tell, after only being here for one week, that this is the beginning of a great thing. A very great thing.
Ciao!
No comments:
Post a Comment