Buenos Aires: Semana Dos

Another week of school, but this time I got 2 more girls in my class....and one of them is from San Jose! Small small world. This week class was a little more grammer related so not as fun as the first week, but the breaks are more fun now since I know everybody that has afternoon classes. Monday I went to La Bomba again since that is what most everyone was doing. They sell a full liter of beer for 10 pesos/ $3! They also love fernet and coke here which is probably the worst drink I have ever tasted in my whole life. Too bad i can´t handle it because it is really cheap here! I walked home with a guy from Holland who lives in my building named Dirk and on the way home he had had a couple beers and told me that had to stop for a minute so he could ¨make a pee. ¨Its so funny to hear people speaking in not their own language...I bet i am saying stupid stuff like that in spanish too! Oh well. Wednesday I went out withmy american friend that is here visiting and his friends. We had dinner in Puerto Madero which is where a bunch of boats are docked. It was a really good steak dinner but they serve it a la carte. So we all ordered a steak and he brings all four steaks out on one plate and then puts it on your plate with nothing else but a huge slab of meat. That steak was amazing though, my best yet. Then we went to Museum again with the school. Thursday night I went out to dinner again with Mark (from santa clara) and his other friend had just arrived who went to santa clara that i maybe have met once and we met up with this other girl who was in BA for a couple of days who went to santa clara. It is amazing how small of a school i went to yet still can find santa claran alums every where i go! And we didn´t even all know each other or hang out, but just because we are all in this far away place at the same time, it is appropriate and comforatable to get together. That dinner was not nearly as good as the night before though. By Friday, my mind was so overloaded with spanish that i could not think of the right words at all during class and feel like i am getting worse! But not really, it is just tiring learning so much so fast. I shopped on my walk home from school (like i do almost every other day) and bought a new top to go out in. We went to Tony´s apartment (Marks friend that lives here), pre partied then went to the usual spot bar. After, i went to a club called mint. It cost like 50 pesos to enter and i tried to haggle with the guy which usually always works for me. I did it all in spanish too explaining that if he let us girls in for 10 pesos we would many men would spend lots more money buying us drinks. It didn´t work. The club played all electronic music which was good but it gets old after a while. I left at like 530. Saturday i had my best empanadas yet at Pizza Yerman in recoleta and then we really went to La boca this time. There is not that much to do but it is just something that you have to see while you are in BA. After, I went to Nicole´s (another santa claran that was in my sorority) apartment which was absolutely gorgeous and hung out with them for a while. We went to dinner at a parilla (a grill) but no one was that hungry so we jsut got appetizers. The waitress recommended something for us and little did we know until we all almost barfed while eating it that is was cow intestines. I was so grossed out and will never ever eat that again. uggg i just cringe thinking about how gross it was. We then did some bar hopping and went to her friends despedida (goodbye party) on the roof of this what used to be hostel. I talked to this german guy but he didn´t speak that good of english and was learnign spanish so i had a whole convo in spanish. I was pretty proud of myself after that. Then we left cuz it was cold, and on our way out Tony knocked down one of the beer bottles on the stairs which had a domino effect and probably broke 20 liter bottles. Then this girl came and started screaming at us in spanish and we ran! I didn´t know what else to do! I then went to bed again at 6 in the morning and got up today at 2. I went shopping with some girls from school since it was raining (my main friends are Ariane from germany, Linda from switzerland, Karen from wales, susan from holland, and my roommates Antima and Myra from Holland). I was a little hungover though and just ended up at the food court. My absolute highlight of today was finding the one and only STARBUCKS in Argentina! I was so happy since there are not places like it here. Barely any coffee shops can you take your cup togo. A million coffee shops, but only to sit down. So I had my chai latte with leche entera (full fat! trying to get rid of my no-fat no-flavor american ways) with Susan who had never had a starbucks in her life. Or a brownie. So we had both and I took a picture of her in front of it. It was probably my most eventful trip to Starbucks yet. Done with week two with no complaints (other than my cravings for a burrito and a normal sandwich).

Buenos Aires Week 1

Hola!

I arrived on Thursday with a little confusion trying to get my keys to the apartment with the lady that only spoke spanish, but luckily figured it out and moved in to a 3 bedroom apartment in Microcentro which is considered downtown...where most people work. It is a little noisy but I like that it is busy and there is constantly people around. I met my two dutch roommates when they got back from class and we immediately went site seeing since they had just gotten there a couple of days before. We wanted to go to la boca but after 2 hours of searching for the bus stop, someone told us that it was too late to go since it is dangerous when it is dark. So, a little unsuccessful, but at least it was an adventure. I then had my first steak dinner...not great but definitely cheap. I started off the weekend going to an event called Vinos y Bodegas where i paid 35 pesos (10 bucks about) to try all the wine I wanted. It was great wine from all over Argentina and Chile. We then went to the bar that all of the students meet at called the Spot Bar and I was tired at 4am and was made fun of since that was the time that others were just heading to the club. So, i had to readjust my schedule!! The rest of the weekend I spent exploring Palermo (a nearby part of town with lots of shops/ bars/ restauraunts) with other students and of course buying things that will never fit in my suitcase.

I went to school on Monday, took a placement test, and found out I have class from 2-6 everyday. My teacher is named Ariel (its a mans name here tho!) and I had one other german girl in my class named Claudia. The first week was great since I got to do a lot of talking in spanish, learning different slang, and watched an argentine movie. It is four hours but there are breaks and it goes by fast. The school provides a lot of social activities for us too which is really nice so everyone can easily meet everyone else. The first night we went to a percussion concert called La Bomba which was interesting to say the least. I like the drumming but it was very hippie crowd and they all smoked a lot and while they were dancing it looked almost as though they were in a trance or something. I definitely felt like I was in a foreign country at this point! Wednesday night our school goes to this club called the museum where it is an after wokr club. Everyone warned me that the guys here are very touchy since it is considered their ¨cheating day¨. So i managed, but i defintely slapped some hands away. This was the first night that I noticed that argentines barely drink. And the other students dont drink that much...I am used to americans who drink to get drunk, take shots, etc. This is more like have a drink for an hour and then maybe one more. This might be a good thing for my health. I had my first Tango class on thursday and a private one on friday. My teacher is pretty cute but as soon as I put my heels on I am about 6 inches taller. lol. I really like the tango so far, but there are not very many boys in the classes so the group classes you just have to wait for the teacher to go around to all of the girls. Friday night we went out to Mexican dinner for a girls birthday, and then the Spot bar again, and then a club called Crobar. It would have been fun but my roommate, Myra, lost her phone, and my feet hurt so we went home early (at 430!). We went to Tigre on Saturday which was like an hour away on train, and took a boat ride around the river. It was a little cold though so we didnt last long. My friend from college flew in Sunday so I met him and his friends at a bar to watch football. They are american drinkers so it was a long but fun night...Definitely a successful first week!