Monday, August 20, 2007
Wow, I’m finally caught up to today! I slept till 9:45, had breakfast, and headed off to class. I still can’t believe that I only have class 2 days a week and they don’t start till 11:30! Anyway, in my first class Doctrina Social of the Church, the professors asked all the Extranjeros (Foreigners) to stay after class. After class the profé (Chilean for Professor) told us he is worried that we will think the class is a waste of time since it is geared towards Chileans. He wants to make sure we enjoy the class and learn as much as we can (great!) but than said that what we talked about in this class wouldn’t necessarily apply in the States (bad!). I tried to explain to him that there is still a huge disparity of wealth and that this was a Universal concept. I think he understood, but still, the professor had a propuesto (proposition) for us: instead of writing the required essay and taking the in class final, we can write a group paper, in English, about a book (written in English) titled The Priority of Labor, by Gregory Baum (a masterpiece according to the professor). So now I have to decide: take the easier, potentially highly fulfilling way in English or take the much hard, potentially highly fulfilling but in a different way in Spanish. We’ll see, but I’m definitely leading towards the English! I figure I learn Spanish better outside the classroom anyway!
After mass, I went to my Education class, where the teacher surprised us with a pop quiz! I of course didn’t do the reading. This is the first time in my entire life that I honestly had no idea what to write. I couldn’t even BS it. So I wrote something along the lines of, “I didn’t understand the Calendar and didn’t know the reading was for today. Sorry!” After class I asked the TA and she told me that the teacher drops on quiz at the end of the semester and that they aren’t worth much anyway. So I guess I learned my lesson!
Christian and I met up for lunch before I went to my Bible class on the other campus. During lunch it hit me how tired I was and I could barely carry on a conversation. Bible class was again very difficult to follow, especially since my brain was fried. I hate not completely understanding because the 20ish% that I do get, I absolutely love. He is great about class participation and everyone asks questions and gives their opinions. I think I would have a lot to ask about and say if I could only catch up! At the end of class we got back our informes that we had written the week before. This was the two page summary of one of the lectures. I was really nervous about my grade, but I ended up getting a 5 out of 7, which is actually quite decent for my first Chilean assignment. The TA wrote (in Spanish), “Your paper is very interesting. But I think you could develop your arguments more. Don’t worry about the tangles with the language.” So for my next paper, I’m just going to ramble on. Yeah for chill TA’s!!
After class we had another “Chélaton”, or “go have a drink with the professor”. I learned that the name Chelaton actually is a play on words on Tele-a-thon (you know, to raise money for organizations) except that Chela is a Chilean word for beer. Anyway, we all shared a pitcher and Fanta while chatting. I walked the 25 minutes home from campus since it was beautiful outside and needed some exercise. Its really starting to warm up and I’m loving the spring time feel!
I had dinner with Olga and she filled me in on the end of Alquien te mira. It sounds like it was a horrible ending and I’m not too upset that I missed it. I guess that is what you get with telenovelas! Now I’m finally caught up on my journal/blog and I can finally start doing my actual work! Yeah for school!
Monday, August 20, 2007
Sunday, August 19, 2007: I'm not a complete failure!
Sunday, August 19, 2007
I woke up around 10:30, went to mass at the Jesuit church nearby at 12:00, then took the metro to meet up with Christian, my Chilean language partner. He had emailed me while I was in Argentina and we talked on the phone Saturday and he invited me to eat lunch with his family on Sunday. I was really nervous about meeting a new Chilean family and worried that I wouldn’t be able to understand them. Christian picked me up from the metro in his dad’s truck and while we drove back to his house he explained to me that he has been studying history for 3 years now and is involved with Pastoral, La Católica’s youth ministry organization. It is through Pastoral that he got involved with the Exchange student language partner program and he has had tons of language partners over the years. This made me feel a lot more comfortable and I knew he would be patient while I struggled to communicate.
We got to his house and he introduced me to his parents and his brother, who I later found out is his twin. His brother’s name is Manuel and is also studying history. The even have a few classes together. While their parents finished cooking lunch, the three of us talked about classes, Chile, America, religion, history, public health, etc. I was pleasantly surprised that I could understand and speak quite easily and for probably the first time in Chile I felt like I could relax and be myself with Chileans. Also knowing they were both Christians really helped. They are both very interested in the role of the Church in Chile and the era of Independencia in America (remember: America is actually both North AND South America, not just the USA). Christain is doing a huge research paper on the role of the Franciscans during Independence and another one about Saint Alberto Huertado, the Chilean Jesuit who during the 1940s started Hogar de Cristo a huge charity organization to help women and children in Chile.
We realized that both Christain and Manuel took a class I am taking Iniciacion a la lectura de la Biblia (Introduction to Reading the Bible). They both absolutely loved the professor and we had a great time talking about it. Christian even emailed me his copy of the paper that I thought was due the next day.
We ate lunch with the whole family and his dad had a great time asking me questions about the States and telling me interesting things about Chile. Every once in a while he would be telling a story and one of the boys would correct his historical facts. Lunch and conversation lasted till about 5. Then we continued talking about music, movies, everything until 8ish when we had once. Finally around 9:30 I realized that I still hadn’t written my paper for my Bible class and mentioned that I should probably get home. After saying goodbye and thanking his family profusely, Christian drove me home, which ended up being only about 10 minutes away, without traffic. I invited him to come meet Olga since I had just spent over 8 hours with his family, but I warned him that he would want to offer his coffee and dessert. He told me he had finished all his homework, so Olga, Christian and I drank coffee and talked until almost 11:30. Of course, Olga fell in love with him and we had a great conversation about faith, Catholicism, miracles, etc… After a while, I was so exhausted I simply could not pay attention and just let the two of them ramble. I did my best, but my brain was fried and I still had to write my paper! After Christian’s mom and brother called to find out where he was, he decided to head home, but told me I could email him my paper and he’d edit it for me.
It was after midnight when I finally started to work and that sinking, heavy chest stress feeling was starting to creep up on me. I had a week of vacation and waited till the very last minute to start working. When I got online to review the assignment, I saw that it wasn’t due till Wednesday, Thank God! I was so relieved! Instead I stayed up till 3 am catching up on my journal and talking to Trevor. Yeah for procrastination!
I realized today that:
1. My Spanish is actually really improving (I communicated intensely and only in Spanish for over 12 hours.)
2. I think this is just the confidence boost I needed
3. Christian is going to be a great friend to help me learn Spanish and help me in my walk with Christ.
4. By brain hurts when I use it too much and don’t have enough sleep.
5. I really miss home.
I woke up around 10:30, went to mass at the Jesuit church nearby at 12:00, then took the metro to meet up with Christian, my Chilean language partner. He had emailed me while I was in Argentina and we talked on the phone Saturday and he invited me to eat lunch with his family on Sunday. I was really nervous about meeting a new Chilean family and worried that I wouldn’t be able to understand them. Christian picked me up from the metro in his dad’s truck and while we drove back to his house he explained to me that he has been studying history for 3 years now and is involved with Pastoral, La Católica’s youth ministry organization. It is through Pastoral that he got involved with the Exchange student language partner program and he has had tons of language partners over the years. This made me feel a lot more comfortable and I knew he would be patient while I struggled to communicate.
We got to his house and he introduced me to his parents and his brother, who I later found out is his twin. His brother’s name is Manuel and is also studying history. The even have a few classes together. While their parents finished cooking lunch, the three of us talked about classes, Chile, America, religion, history, public health, etc. I was pleasantly surprised that I could understand and speak quite easily and for probably the first time in Chile I felt like I could relax and be myself with Chileans. Also knowing they were both Christians really helped. They are both very interested in the role of the Church in Chile and the era of Independencia in America (remember: America is actually both North AND South America, not just the USA). Christain is doing a huge research paper on the role of the Franciscans during Independence and another one about Saint Alberto Huertado, the Chilean Jesuit who during the 1940s started Hogar de Cristo a huge charity organization to help women and children in Chile.
We realized that both Christain and Manuel took a class I am taking Iniciacion a la lectura de la Biblia (Introduction to Reading the Bible). They both absolutely loved the professor and we had a great time talking about it. Christian even emailed me his copy of the paper that I thought was due the next day.
We ate lunch with the whole family and his dad had a great time asking me questions about the States and telling me interesting things about Chile. Every once in a while he would be telling a story and one of the boys would correct his historical facts. Lunch and conversation lasted till about 5. Then we continued talking about music, movies, everything until 8ish when we had once. Finally around 9:30 I realized that I still hadn’t written my paper for my Bible class and mentioned that I should probably get home. After saying goodbye and thanking his family profusely, Christian drove me home, which ended up being only about 10 minutes away, without traffic. I invited him to come meet Olga since I had just spent over 8 hours with his family, but I warned him that he would want to offer his coffee and dessert. He told me he had finished all his homework, so Olga, Christian and I drank coffee and talked until almost 11:30. Of course, Olga fell in love with him and we had a great conversation about faith, Catholicism, miracles, etc… After a while, I was so exhausted I simply could not pay attention and just let the two of them ramble. I did my best, but my brain was fried and I still had to write my paper! After Christian’s mom and brother called to find out where he was, he decided to head home, but told me I could email him my paper and he’d edit it for me.
It was after midnight when I finally started to work and that sinking, heavy chest stress feeling was starting to creep up on me. I had a week of vacation and waited till the very last minute to start working. When I got online to review the assignment, I saw that it wasn’t due till Wednesday, Thank God! I was so relieved! Instead I stayed up till 3 am catching up on my journal and talking to Trevor. Yeah for procrastination!
I realized today that:
1. My Spanish is actually really improving (I communicated intensely and only in Spanish for over 12 hours.)
2. I think this is just the confidence boost I needed
3. Christian is going to be a great friend to help me learn Spanish and help me in my walk with Christ.
4. By brain hurts when I use it too much and don’t have enough sleep.
5. I really miss home.
Saturday, August 18, 2007 Back to my home away from home
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Amazingly, Calli and I had enough sense to set our alarm clocks before we went out Friday night, so we drug ourselves out of bed around 11:30 to make sure we made it to the airport on time. At 1:30 we shared a cab to the airport with two Brazilians who were also staying at the airport. They were a doctor and nurse couple and came to Argentina to learn Spanish and volunteer. The doctor was a more handsome version of Brendan Frasier and the nurse looked like she came straight out of a European modeling show.
After 2 hours of lines after lines after lines at the BA airport, we finally got on the plane. The flight back over the Andes was incredible. I’ve never seen anything so vastly enormous. The mountains seemed to go on forever in ever single direction, including up. I also enjoyed flying over Santiago and being able to point out streets and buildings I knew. Unfortunately we could also see the incredible amount of smog, which made my lungs hurt just looking at it.
When we landed I had a similar sensation as to that when I land in KC. That I’d finally made it home. It was strange, but I guess that is a good sign. I’ve never even had that going to New Orleans. When I got back to the apartment Olga wasn’t home, so I exercised, showered, and unpacked. When she got back she of course tried to feed me and I had to convince her that I’d eaten enough in the past 5 days to last me two weeks, but she insisted I have some salad and lentil soup.
Saturday night I spent catching up on emails and talking to my parents, Anamarie and Trevor. I was so exhausted I didn’t even want to think about getting out of my bed.
Amazingly, Calli and I had enough sense to set our alarm clocks before we went out Friday night, so we drug ourselves out of bed around 11:30 to make sure we made it to the airport on time. At 1:30 we shared a cab to the airport with two Brazilians who were also staying at the airport. They were a doctor and nurse couple and came to Argentina to learn Spanish and volunteer. The doctor was a more handsome version of Brendan Frasier and the nurse looked like she came straight out of a European modeling show.
After 2 hours of lines after lines after lines at the BA airport, we finally got on the plane. The flight back over the Andes was incredible. I’ve never seen anything so vastly enormous. The mountains seemed to go on forever in ever single direction, including up. I also enjoyed flying over Santiago and being able to point out streets and buildings I knew. Unfortunately we could also see the incredible amount of smog, which made my lungs hurt just looking at it.
When we landed I had a similar sensation as to that when I land in KC. That I’d finally made it home. It was strange, but I guess that is a good sign. I’ve never even had that going to New Orleans. When I got back to the apartment Olga wasn’t home, so I exercised, showered, and unpacked. When she got back she of course tried to feed me and I had to convince her that I’d eaten enough in the past 5 days to last me two weeks, but she insisted I have some salad and lentil soup.
Saturday night I spent catching up on emails and talking to my parents, Anamarie and Trevor. I was so exhausted I didn’t even want to think about getting out of my bed.
Friday, August 17, 2007: Last day in Argentina: Go big, then Go home!
Friday, August 17, 2007
Once again, we rolled out of bed around 12:30 pm, got ready, and took a cab to the (in)famous neighborhood La Boca (The Mouth). La Boca is known for being dangerous at night, but a must see during the day for all visitors to BA. After the night before which was one potential-disaster-narrowly-turned-amazing-experience after another, we were a little on edge and exhausted, yet hopeful that today would run smoother. We got to La Boca and I immediately fell in love. It reminds me so much of the French Quarter with its quirky buildings and interesting characters shadowed by tourist traps and overpriced shopping. But as we walked around, I learned to appreciate these tourist traps and knew that once in a while its ok to fall for them. La Boca is famous for its Tango, which was something we all wanted to see before we left. We found a restaurant that had Tango two dancers inside and we decided to fall for the trap. We ate lunch, watched the dancers and even got to dance with them for about 45 seconds, which was just enough to realize how hard it was but fall in love! It ended up being a great experience and I totally didn’t mind the gimics!
After lunch we continued walking around and admiring the leather shops that La Boca is also known for. Calli wanted to buy a leather belt and randomly ducked into a store that looked less touristy. While she was looking for a belt, Samantha found a bright green leather jacket that was her favorite color and happened to fit her perfectly. Than Calli found an amazing dark brown, funky leather jacket that fit her perfectly. We left the store and continued walking around, I bought a $10 red leather purse, and they deliberated. After much internal (and external) struggling, they both decided to buy them! Sam’s was only about $100 US$ and Calli’s was about $150, but for the quality and amount they loved them, I think it was worth it. The owner of the store had designed all the jackets and was a really nice lady. They both got amazing deals and I think they are super happy. If I didn’t have 2 leather coats already, I probably would have had my own internal struggle. They were that beautiful and that good a deal!
After our their big splurges, I bought a dozen alfajores a famous Argentine sweet consisting of dulce de leche between two cookie type pastries with various accessories (imagine doughnut varieties) for us to share. We decided to be adventurous since so far the day was going amazingly and jumped on a bus that a taxi driver told us would take us to the Botanical Gardens. It ended up being a one hour trip, but it was amazing because we got to see other parts of the city from a different perspective.
We walked around the botanical gardens admiring the beautiful statues and plants. We got kicked out at 6, before we could eat our alfajores, so we headed to Niki’s friends B&B which was actually close this time! We hung out for a while before heading back to the hostel to get ready to go to dinner. We took another bus back and again enjoyed the adventure. For dinner, we met up with another friend of Niki and Sam’s from high school named Kat. We went to a really popular restaurant called Siga la vaca (Follow the Cow) that everyone we talked to told us we HAD to go. We got there at 10:30 pm and had a 45 minute wait. But it was totally worth it: All you can eat AMAZING salad bar, All you can eat meat (and I’m talking Argentine meat: steak, ribs, steak, sausage, pork, steak, kabobs, chicken, steak…), dessert, bottled water, and a liter of either soda, beer, or wine. All for about $15 US$. No joke. It was amazing. We didn’t leave until after 2 am. The 5 of us finished 4.5 bottles of wine and I don’t know how many plates of food. It’s a good thing I didn’t study in BA.
After our monumental dining extravaganza, we jumped in some cabs and went to a popular disco tech and danced Dane Cook style: girls dancing in a tight circle and if boys tried to dance with us, we gave them death stares and shooshed them away. Around 5 am, the wine wore off and the exhaustion set in, so we headed back to our new home away from home away from home.
Once again, we rolled out of bed around 12:30 pm, got ready, and took a cab to the (in)famous neighborhood La Boca (The Mouth). La Boca is known for being dangerous at night, but a must see during the day for all visitors to BA. After the night before which was one potential-disaster-narrowly-turned-amazing-experience after another, we were a little on edge and exhausted, yet hopeful that today would run smoother. We got to La Boca and I immediately fell in love. It reminds me so much of the French Quarter with its quirky buildings and interesting characters shadowed by tourist traps and overpriced shopping. But as we walked around, I learned to appreciate these tourist traps and knew that once in a while its ok to fall for them. La Boca is famous for its Tango, which was something we all wanted to see before we left. We found a restaurant that had Tango two dancers inside and we decided to fall for the trap. We ate lunch, watched the dancers and even got to dance with them for about 45 seconds, which was just enough to realize how hard it was but fall in love! It ended up being a great experience and I totally didn’t mind the gimics!
After lunch we continued walking around and admiring the leather shops that La Boca is also known for. Calli wanted to buy a leather belt and randomly ducked into a store that looked less touristy. While she was looking for a belt, Samantha found a bright green leather jacket that was her favorite color and happened to fit her perfectly. Than Calli found an amazing dark brown, funky leather jacket that fit her perfectly. We left the store and continued walking around, I bought a $10 red leather purse, and they deliberated. After much internal (and external) struggling, they both decided to buy them! Sam’s was only about $100 US$ and Calli’s was about $150, but for the quality and amount they loved them, I think it was worth it. The owner of the store had designed all the jackets and was a really nice lady. They both got amazing deals and I think they are super happy. If I didn’t have 2 leather coats already, I probably would have had my own internal struggle. They were that beautiful and that good a deal!
After our their big splurges, I bought a dozen alfajores a famous Argentine sweet consisting of dulce de leche between two cookie type pastries with various accessories (imagine doughnut varieties) for us to share. We decided to be adventurous since so far the day was going amazingly and jumped on a bus that a taxi driver told us would take us to the Botanical Gardens. It ended up being a one hour trip, but it was amazing because we got to see other parts of the city from a different perspective.
We walked around the botanical gardens admiring the beautiful statues and plants. We got kicked out at 6, before we could eat our alfajores, so we headed to Niki’s friends B&B which was actually close this time! We hung out for a while before heading back to the hostel to get ready to go to dinner. We took another bus back and again enjoyed the adventure. For dinner, we met up with another friend of Niki and Sam’s from high school named Kat. We went to a really popular restaurant called Siga la vaca (Follow the Cow) that everyone we talked to told us we HAD to go. We got there at 10:30 pm and had a 45 minute wait. But it was totally worth it: All you can eat AMAZING salad bar, All you can eat meat (and I’m talking Argentine meat: steak, ribs, steak, sausage, pork, steak, kabobs, chicken, steak…), dessert, bottled water, and a liter of either soda, beer, or wine. All for about $15 US$. No joke. It was amazing. We didn’t leave until after 2 am. The 5 of us finished 4.5 bottles of wine and I don’t know how many plates of food. It’s a good thing I didn’t study in BA.
After our monumental dining extravaganza, we jumped in some cabs and went to a popular disco tech and danced Dane Cook style: girls dancing in a tight circle and if boys tried to dance with us, we gave them death stares and shooshed them away. Around 5 am, the wine wore off and the exhaustion set in, so we headed back to our new home away from home away from home.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Instead of waking up early like we had hoped, we again slept till noon. Asi es… (It happens…) Two of Niki’s friends from Georgetown met us at the hotel and we to lunch at 1234, the 24 hour restaurant we went to Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. But this time it was packed with business men and women and we ate a proper meal! Afterwards we walked about 1.5 miles through the city to Plaza de Mayo, the center of the Government and basically the entire city. It has the Casa Rosada (The Pink House) a.k.a. the Argentine White House. Remember Madonna and “Don’t cry for me Argentina…” from the balcony? That was the Casa Rosada. We went to the Museo Histórico inside but unfortunately the tours were cancelled for some unknown reason. Also in Plaza de Mayo is Banco Nacional de Argentina, Centro de Economia, Centro de Educación, Cabildo, and the Catedral Metropolitana. We went in the Catedral Metropoliana and saw the tomb of Jose San Martin, the liberator of all of Southern South America (Argentina, parts of Chile, Bolivia, Uruguay, and Paraguay).
One of the most memorable things we saw in all of Argentina was the Madres de los Desaparecidos (Mothers of the Disappeared) marching around the Plaza de Mayo. Anywhere from 9,000 to 20,000 young people were kidnapped, tortured, and probably killed between the years 1976-1983 during the Anti-Communist movement in Argentina. Most of the bodies were never recovered and for many of the Desaparecidos, the government at the time completely erased their identity. To preserve the memory and make a stance against violations against human rights, many of the mothers of these young people continue to march around the plaza every Thursday afternoon. We just had really good timing and it was incredible to watch something with my very own eyes that I had learned about in the classroom. I bought a poster called Declaración Universal de los Derechos Humanos (Universal Declaration of Human Rights) from the Mothers and now it is hanging up on my wall.
After exploring some of the most important places of the government and official history of Argentina, we strolled through the ancient, well known neighborhood San Telmo. The streets are cobble stone and it is full of fancy antique shops.
We went to Plaza Dorrego, where I bought a mate, which is a small hollowed out decorated gourd and a metal straw with a filter at the end. It kind of looks like drug paraphernalia, but it is used to drink the ever popular Argentine drink mate, which is an herbal tea. The tea leaves are crushed and placed in the gourd the hot water poured in. The filtered straw is to keep the floating leaves out. After playing tourists for so long, we were pretty pooped so we had coffee around 5:30 in a cute restaurant called Café Dorrego on the plaza. We took a cab back to the hostal and starting getting ready for dinner.
And so starts our night of adventures: We planned on meeting Niki’s friend at her Bed and Breakfast in Palermo Viejo (another neighborhood in BA) at 8:00. We took a cab to approximately where the friend had given Niki directions. We started follow the directions but when we should have been there, the address we had was about 8 blocks off from where we were. So we kept walking; all the way to the address we had. Unfortunately when we got to the address, there was no B&B to be found. We asked tons of people and no one had any idea. We knocked on the door of the address, hoping it was the right building but thinking it was actually an apartment building. Unfortunately, a husband and wife answered the door while we interrupted their dinner! Luckily they were very nice and tried to help us out. Anyway, this is turning into a unnecessarily long story, quite like our unnecessarily long adventure! We ended up going to a hotel where the receptionist was nice enough to look up the B&B on the internet and give us the right address! We took a cab and got there an hour and a half late! Niki’s friend felt really bad, but it worked out fine. Palermo is a great neighborhood and I enjoyed walking around, despite the fact that we were all hungry!
For dinner, Calli found a restaurant called Te Mataré Ramirez (I’m going to Kill You Ramirez) which was described in the guide book as something like an Argentine/French erotic dining experience you won’t forget with entertaining puppet shows and great food. I wanted to go to a restaurant that our guide book says was one of the best, most trendy restaurants in all of BA, but my vote lost. Anyway, about our little experience, lets just say, the guide book was right. We got there and the door was locked; the hostest had to open it for you. The entire restaurant was dark with only red lamps and candles for light. All around the walls were paintings of womens dresses and figures. The ceiling was a blue sky with playful clouds full of cherubs and naked bodies doing things I won’t describe. The menus were covered in erotic quotes comparing food to sex and every entrée was titled something inappropriate. All of us girls were second guessing our choice as we sat quietly in the overly sexually tense restaurant. We ordered our dinners, having no idea what they actually were and hoping they would be good. We continued awkwardly waiting as the clock slowly inched towards 11:00 pm. Finally, a group of waiters emerged from the kitchen to loud music and a spot light. They did a provocative little dance before jumping on stage and grabbing their puppets. Then, CENSURED CENSURED CENSURED. They took a break right when we finally got our food. We were all balancing between dieing laughing and shamefully covering our eyes while we ate our incredible, gourmet meals. I had baked rabbit with risottos in a fried cheese salad bowl. It might go down as one of the best meals I’ve ever had. The second have of the show started while we finished eating and CENSURED CENSURED CENSURED. Think Team America (the American puppet movie, don’t worry if you haven’t seen it, its not worth in) in the overly sexual Latin American context. Anyway, when we finally finished our dinner, we paid about 15 bucks a piece, which is about the most expensive you will ever pay in BA for only an entrée, and left. We skipped out on the usual coffee and dessert before things got too hot and heavy.
After our unforgettable dining experience, we went to an incredible bar called Milión. It is a three story old mansion renovated into a trendy night club. While we were hanging out, we ironically ran into the Brazilains from the hostal. In 3 story bar, in a city of 10 million people with more bars than you could imagine, what are the odds? Than my friend from Tulane, Christian Legett walked in! He came to meet up with the CIEE Buenos Aires group that was hanging out, one of which was Niki’s friend. Not completely as random, but still pretty awesome! So Christian and I got to catch up while the one of the Brazilians, Fernando, hit on Calli. Around 2, we were ready to head somewhere else and Calli needed to ditch the now drunk and desperate Fernando. When he headed to the bathroom, we ran out, hoping to ditch him. In the rush of it all, I unfortnately forgot to say goodbye to Christain! Anyway, as we were standing outside the bar trying to figure out which way to go to get back to the hostel, none other than Fernando walked out! So he followed us back to the hostal. Once there, all of us girls decided that we didn’t feel like dealing with drunk Brazilians, nor did we want to go to another bar/night club. Instead, we settled on dessert at our now favorite 24 hour 1234. Fernando was waiting for us in the lobby and we made Calli awkwardly tell him that we were going to get dessert and it was going to be pura chicas (only girls!). He was quite upset and jumped in a taxi as we walked the other way! Anyway, we enjoyed our desserts and went to bed early (around 4!) so that we could wake up early and explore more of the city on our last day.
Instead of waking up early like we had hoped, we again slept till noon. Asi es… (It happens…) Two of Niki’s friends from Georgetown met us at the hotel and we to lunch at 1234, the 24 hour restaurant we went to Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. But this time it was packed with business men and women and we ate a proper meal! Afterwards we walked about 1.5 miles through the city to Plaza de Mayo, the center of the Government and basically the entire city. It has the Casa Rosada (The Pink House) a.k.a. the Argentine White House. Remember Madonna and “Don’t cry for me Argentina…” from the balcony? That was the Casa Rosada. We went to the Museo Histórico inside but unfortunately the tours were cancelled for some unknown reason. Also in Plaza de Mayo is Banco Nacional de Argentina, Centro de Economia, Centro de Educación, Cabildo, and the Catedral Metropolitana. We went in the Catedral Metropoliana and saw the tomb of Jose San Martin, the liberator of all of Southern South America (Argentina, parts of Chile, Bolivia, Uruguay, and Paraguay).
One of the most memorable things we saw in all of Argentina was the Madres de los Desaparecidos (Mothers of the Disappeared) marching around the Plaza de Mayo. Anywhere from 9,000 to 20,000 young people were kidnapped, tortured, and probably killed between the years 1976-1983 during the Anti-Communist movement in Argentina. Most of the bodies were never recovered and for many of the Desaparecidos, the government at the time completely erased their identity. To preserve the memory and make a stance against violations against human rights, many of the mothers of these young people continue to march around the plaza every Thursday afternoon. We just had really good timing and it was incredible to watch something with my very own eyes that I had learned about in the classroom. I bought a poster called Declaración Universal de los Derechos Humanos (Universal Declaration of Human Rights) from the Mothers and now it is hanging up on my wall.
After exploring some of the most important places of the government and official history of Argentina, we strolled through the ancient, well known neighborhood San Telmo. The streets are cobble stone and it is full of fancy antique shops.
We went to Plaza Dorrego, where I bought a mate, which is a small hollowed out decorated gourd and a metal straw with a filter at the end. It kind of looks like drug paraphernalia, but it is used to drink the ever popular Argentine drink mate, which is an herbal tea. The tea leaves are crushed and placed in the gourd the hot water poured in. The filtered straw is to keep the floating leaves out. After playing tourists for so long, we were pretty pooped so we had coffee around 5:30 in a cute restaurant called Café Dorrego on the plaza. We took a cab back to the hostal and starting getting ready for dinner.
And so starts our night of adventures: We planned on meeting Niki’s friend at her Bed and Breakfast in Palermo Viejo (another neighborhood in BA) at 8:00. We took a cab to approximately where the friend had given Niki directions. We started follow the directions but when we should have been there, the address we had was about 8 blocks off from where we were. So we kept walking; all the way to the address we had. Unfortunately when we got to the address, there was no B&B to be found. We asked tons of people and no one had any idea. We knocked on the door of the address, hoping it was the right building but thinking it was actually an apartment building. Unfortunately, a husband and wife answered the door while we interrupted their dinner! Luckily they were very nice and tried to help us out. Anyway, this is turning into a unnecessarily long story, quite like our unnecessarily long adventure! We ended up going to a hotel where the receptionist was nice enough to look up the B&B on the internet and give us the right address! We took a cab and got there an hour and a half late! Niki’s friend felt really bad, but it worked out fine. Palermo is a great neighborhood and I enjoyed walking around, despite the fact that we were all hungry!
For dinner, Calli found a restaurant called Te Mataré Ramirez (I’m going to Kill You Ramirez) which was described in the guide book as something like an Argentine/French erotic dining experience you won’t forget with entertaining puppet shows and great food. I wanted to go to a restaurant that our guide book says was one of the best, most trendy restaurants in all of BA, but my vote lost. Anyway, about our little experience, lets just say, the guide book was right. We got there and the door was locked; the hostest had to open it for you. The entire restaurant was dark with only red lamps and candles for light. All around the walls were paintings of womens dresses and figures. The ceiling was a blue sky with playful clouds full of cherubs and naked bodies doing things I won’t describe. The menus were covered in erotic quotes comparing food to sex and every entrée was titled something inappropriate. All of us girls were second guessing our choice as we sat quietly in the overly sexually tense restaurant. We ordered our dinners, having no idea what they actually were and hoping they would be good. We continued awkwardly waiting as the clock slowly inched towards 11:00 pm. Finally, a group of waiters emerged from the kitchen to loud music and a spot light. They did a provocative little dance before jumping on stage and grabbing their puppets. Then, CENSURED CENSURED CENSURED. They took a break right when we finally got our food. We were all balancing between dieing laughing and shamefully covering our eyes while we ate our incredible, gourmet meals. I had baked rabbit with risottos in a fried cheese salad bowl. It might go down as one of the best meals I’ve ever had. The second have of the show started while we finished eating and CENSURED CENSURED CENSURED. Think Team America (the American puppet movie, don’t worry if you haven’t seen it, its not worth in) in the overly sexual Latin American context. Anyway, when we finally finished our dinner, we paid about 15 bucks a piece, which is about the most expensive you will ever pay in BA for only an entrée, and left. We skipped out on the usual coffee and dessert before things got too hot and heavy.
After our unforgettable dining experience, we went to an incredible bar called Milión. It is a three story old mansion renovated into a trendy night club. While we were hanging out, we ironically ran into the Brazilains from the hostal. In 3 story bar, in a city of 10 million people with more bars than you could imagine, what are the odds? Than my friend from Tulane, Christian Legett walked in! He came to meet up with the CIEE Buenos Aires group that was hanging out, one of which was Niki’s friend. Not completely as random, but still pretty awesome! So Christian and I got to catch up while the one of the Brazilians, Fernando, hit on Calli. Around 2, we were ready to head somewhere else and Calli needed to ditch the now drunk and desperate Fernando. When he headed to the bathroom, we ran out, hoping to ditch him. In the rush of it all, I unfortnately forgot to say goodbye to Christain! Anyway, as we were standing outside the bar trying to figure out which way to go to get back to the hostel, none other than Fernando walked out! So he followed us back to the hostal. Once there, all of us girls decided that we didn’t feel like dealing with drunk Brazilians, nor did we want to go to another bar/night club. Instead, we settled on dessert at our now favorite 24 hour 1234. Fernando was waiting for us in the lobby and we made Calli awkwardly tell him that we were going to get dessert and it was going to be pura chicas (only girls!). He was quite upset and jumped in a taxi as we walked the other way! Anyway, we enjoyed our desserts and went to bed early (around 4!) so that we could wake up early and explore more of the city on our last day.
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