Hola. Long time no post. Sorry about that, after my last post Svetlana was here for a week keeping me busy, classes started last Monday, moving into the new apartment has been time-consuming, Ive been sick, etc. So here's a quick recap of the last week and a half.
The whole week Svetlana was here, we went out a bunch to some friends' apartments, a bar or 2, and a few of the dance clubs Ive been to before- all in between going to classes and showing her some cool sites around the city. We went to Caminito, the Casa Rosada, Calle Florida (the big outdoor mall), the Plaza Intendente Torcuato de Alvear (the actual name of "that cool park"), the Recoleta cemetary, and some other cool places. On Friday we left for a magical place called Gualeguaychu, but I'll talk about that later.
Classes have been going well so far. Im taking 3 classes at Universidad Di Tella and 1 at Universidad San Andreas. At UTDT Im taking Business Organizational Theory, Contemporary Argentine Literature, and Art History. Only BOT and Art History have met so far, except I was sick the day Art History met so I have no idea how it is. BOT is great so far, my teacher is young and super smart and has a very impressive resume. Seems fairly interesting so far, although Ive covered a lot of the material a BC already. Literature is a class for exchange students and begins on Tuesday. My class at San Andreas is only for BC students, and its focused on a mix of Argentine history and culture with a few field trips here and there.
I mentioned that I got sick earlier. Gualeguaychu is a small city/town about 3 hours from BsAs. Tap water here is hit or miss depending on the building youre in because of the pipes, but in BsAs its safe 99% of the time. In Gualeguaychu, because its small and poorer, its not recommended to drink the water. I found that out a few hours in. Im not saying it was the water that got me sick, because I had a stomach virus and not a bacterial problem, but Im sure it didnt help. I was in bed all of Tuesday and half of Wednesday, but Im perfectly fine now, I even joined a new gym and went for a bit today.
Our apartment is great, although not as perfect as we thought. Its super big and comfortable, but its pretty old and a lot of stuff is on the fritz. At first the kitchen sink caused the whole kitchen to flood, the oven didnt work, the back door didnt lock, the toilet was broken, and we couldnt figure out the internet. But now we've solved all those problems and are loving it here.
I have a bunch more to write about and a bunch of pictures to post, but Im super tired and its going to take a bit to write it all. Ill try to write again tomorrow. Goodnight
Friday, March 12, 2010
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Random thoughts and observations
This is that post that Ive been promising forever. Its just going to be a bunch of random thoughts and observations that Ive made over the past month. Holy crap, Ive been here for a month.
-People walk really really slow everywhere.
-People are very into piercings and tattoos here. Its pretty trashy.
-Motorcyclists dont like to wear helmets. At least 20 times a day I see somebody ride by on a motorcycle with a full-face helmet...on their arm. Like arm hooked through the helmet as they weave through traffic at 40mph. Can somebody attempt to explain this to me?
-If you go to a fruit stand, you cant touch the fruit or else the guy will scream at you. You need to wait in line for him to get whatever you want for you.
-Public buses travel in packs. You might wait 20 minutes for a bus (a long time here) and then 5 of the same bus will come by at once.
-People dont pick up after their dogs, and it turns sidewalks into obstacle courses.
-The only vegetables Argentines believe in are lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes, and occasionally carrots and onions. Ive resorted to Centrum for nutrition.
-Peanut butter? Whats that?
-If you want a nice big cup of coffee to start your day, order 6 coffees. The average mug is about 3 shots of coffee.
-The music is 15% popular salsa, 5% classic Argentine music, 60% old American classics (like Sugar Ray, Nelly Furtado, Build Me Up Buttercup, etc), and 20% old cheesy American rap songs (DMX, Ja Rule, etc). Unless you take a cab, then its 100% 80s pop (See here).
-TV shows are local news channels and dubbed and/or subtitled American shows and movies.
-I havent yet seen a car with an automatic transmission. Including buses and coach buses.
-The banking system is an insult to organization everywhere. Yesterday Dave and I spent 2 hours trying to find a bank/atm to get pesos. We went to about 10 banks, none of which would even let us use their atms because "Its 3pm, you cant use it now", even though we had been searching since 2pm and none of the atms were working then because of "a technical issue". Eventually we waited outside a Citibank until it decided to reopen (about 330-345pm). We then had to search for an exchange house that was still open at 4pm because banks wont change pesos for dollars. We were so tired after the ordeal (by the way, this was the third time this exact process has happened) that we skipped the gym and napped for 3 hours.
-If you dont like soccer, you dont have a soul.
-There is a coin shortage. Let me repeat. There is a coin shortage. I remember how in every country Ive ever been to, its a pain because I always have so much change. Here, you have to go to a kiosk and search for something oddly priced so you can overpay for it and receive coins as change- just so you can take the public bus.
-Theres an unwritten social law that prohibits any Argentine from enunciating anything.
-If you go out before midnight or come home before 6am, youre doing it wrong.
-There is a LOT of child exploitation. The economy is really struggling and unemployment is real high, so parents walk around with their adorable children dressed in crappy clothes and the kids ask you for change. Also, there are a lot of "cartoneros", whole families that spend the night searching through garbage to find recyclable goods or things for their own use.
-People are constantly scamming or trying to make a quick easy buck. At traffic lights, street performers do a quick 30 second show and then walk around asking for money from the stopped cars. And dont be surprised if the guy walking past you asks for a bite of your sandwich.
-Check your money, its probably fake. You stupid American.
-If you dont take 2 hours to eat lunch, youre doing it wrong.
-Napkins are made of a material very similar to wrapping paper. As a friend pointed out, they make you dirtier because they dont absorb anything and just smear whatever it is all over your face.
-Water is expensive. If you ask for a glass of water at a restaurant, theyre probably going to get mad at you and make you buy a bottle. And make sure you know the difference between "sin gas" and "con gas" is.
-Even if you speak in perfect Spanish, your accent makes you impossible to understand and people will either speak English with you or give up listening.
I had a bunch of other things to say, but I cant remember them now. This was a fun post, Ill do it again later with more thoughts.
-People walk really really slow everywhere.
-People are very into piercings and tattoos here. Its pretty trashy.
-Motorcyclists dont like to wear helmets. At least 20 times a day I see somebody ride by on a motorcycle with a full-face helmet...on their arm. Like arm hooked through the helmet as they weave through traffic at 40mph. Can somebody attempt to explain this to me?
-If you go to a fruit stand, you cant touch the fruit or else the guy will scream at you. You need to wait in line for him to get whatever you want for you.
-Public buses travel in packs. You might wait 20 minutes for a bus (a long time here) and then 5 of the same bus will come by at once.
-People dont pick up after their dogs, and it turns sidewalks into obstacle courses.
-The only vegetables Argentines believe in are lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes, and occasionally carrots and onions. Ive resorted to Centrum for nutrition.
-Peanut butter? Whats that?
-If you want a nice big cup of coffee to start your day, order 6 coffees. The average mug is about 3 shots of coffee.
-The music is 15% popular salsa, 5% classic Argentine music, 60% old American classics (like Sugar Ray, Nelly Furtado, Build Me Up Buttercup, etc), and 20% old cheesy American rap songs (DMX, Ja Rule, etc). Unless you take a cab, then its 100% 80s pop (See here).
-TV shows are local news channels and dubbed and/or subtitled American shows and movies.
-I havent yet seen a car with an automatic transmission. Including buses and coach buses.
-The banking system is an insult to organization everywhere. Yesterday Dave and I spent 2 hours trying to find a bank/atm to get pesos. We went to about 10 banks, none of which would even let us use their atms because "Its 3pm, you cant use it now", even though we had been searching since 2pm and none of the atms were working then because of "a technical issue". Eventually we waited outside a Citibank until it decided to reopen (about 330-345pm). We then had to search for an exchange house that was still open at 4pm because banks wont change pesos for dollars. We were so tired after the ordeal (by the way, this was the third time this exact process has happened) that we skipped the gym and napped for 3 hours.
-If you dont like soccer, you dont have a soul.
-There is a coin shortage. Let me repeat. There is a coin shortage. I remember how in every country Ive ever been to, its a pain because I always have so much change. Here, you have to go to a kiosk and search for something oddly priced so you can overpay for it and receive coins as change- just so you can take the public bus.
-Theres an unwritten social law that prohibits any Argentine from enunciating anything.
-If you go out before midnight or come home before 6am, youre doing it wrong.
-There is a LOT of child exploitation. The economy is really struggling and unemployment is real high, so parents walk around with their adorable children dressed in crappy clothes and the kids ask you for change. Also, there are a lot of "cartoneros", whole families that spend the night searching through garbage to find recyclable goods or things for their own use.
-People are constantly scamming or trying to make a quick easy buck. At traffic lights, street performers do a quick 30 second show and then walk around asking for money from the stopped cars. And dont be surprised if the guy walking past you asks for a bite of your sandwich.
-Check your money, its probably fake. You stupid American.
-If you dont take 2 hours to eat lunch, youre doing it wrong.
-Napkins are made of a material very similar to wrapping paper. As a friend pointed out, they make you dirtier because they dont absorb anything and just smear whatever it is all over your face.
-Water is expensive. If you ask for a glass of water at a restaurant, theyre probably going to get mad at you and make you buy a bottle. And make sure you know the difference between "sin gas" and "con gas" is.
-Even if you speak in perfect Spanish, your accent makes you impossible to understand and people will either speak English with you or give up listening.
I had a bunch of other things to say, but I cant remember them now. This was a fun post, Ill do it again later with more thoughts.
The Earth was quakin'
Hola todos. As I'm sure you know, there was a massive earthquake in Chile super early this morning. It hit a huge part of Argentina, but luckily not BA. I read that its tied for the 5th largest quake in Chile since 1900. Everything here is fine, although Svetlana's layover in Santiago, Chile turned into a 15 hour emergency stop in Iquique, Chile- a town on the coast of Chile just a bit north of the Atacama Desert, the driest desert in the world. She told me all she could see outside the airport was gigantic sand dunes. Luckily she's on a flight directly to BA now, she'll be landing around 1am. I'm sticking around waiting at the house for her.
So I figured I would post while my friends are out partying. Tito, my homestay dad, is 70 years old and very conservative, so when I asked him if it would be ok if Svetlana stays in the extra bedroom downstairs, he got super angry and told me to find a hostel. Awesome. Thanks for sticking to the Argentine stereotype of being super hospitable, Tito. We move into our apartment tomorrow, I really cant wait. Me and Dave are pretty fed up with Tito's stubbornness, the inability to eat what we want when we want, the inability to have some friends over, and the other restrictions you have when youre a 20 year old staying as a guest in an older conservative couple's home. These things plus our new apartment is incredible :)
Anyway, Wednesday we went to that huge after-office party that we went to a couple weeks ago. It was super fun. Thursday we had to go to migrations for visa stuff, then we went back to that super cool park I posted a picture of earlier. Then at night we went to another dance club with a ton of friends.
Yesterday we had orientation for exchange students. A solid half the class is from the States, and about 90% of the Americans are from Boston. Pretty funny. There's a group at the school called Accion Social, a club that does some after school tutoring and mentoring programs for poor communities near Tigre, as well as some work like helping small businesses get off the ground and doing economic analysis around the city. Since I cant play rugby here Im going to do that, I think.
Last night and today have been an invasion of BC in BA. Some girls from my BC group met about 10 guys that had graduated from BC in May and moved down here about a month ago. In about a week or 2 theyre all taking off in different directions to travel South America for some time, ranging between 2 months and 7 months (and one guy not planning on leaving). One guy is actually from Huntington, about 3 minutes down the road from me. Again, "small world" is not just a phrase. The guys invited us to their apartment last night, where we hung out and talked BC and traveling all night. They were real cool.
Today we went to the zoo. It seemed like a good idea but the truth is, zoos are sooooo depressing. The zoo was very poorly kept and the areas all of the animals had were super small. We saw one penguin swimming back and forth with his beak against the glass for about 5 minutes. Malcolm looked at me and asked "Can you imagine spending everyday of your life going back and forth against a piece of glass just looking for a crack to get out of?" It was real sad.
On a happier note, after the zoo, Malcolm, Hannah, and I went to a cafe where I found real turkey!!! I looked at the menu and found "pavita" on a sandwich, the three of us were pumped because its impossible to find turkey here. After the cafe we went to a yoga class. This yoga class is taught by a girl who also graduated from BC in May. We got there and it was 5 of us from my BC group, all of the BC guys from last night, a guy from UMASS, and a few girls from Union College in NY. Out of about 20 people in the class, one wasnt from the US and only 3 or 4 werent from Boston. Even funnier than that, I did yoga. It was sooo hard. I was sweating and shaking after about 10 minutes, and when we laid in the dark at the end, I fell asleep.
When I got home, we were having asado for dinner. Asado is seriously the most delicious thing ever.
Another post soon to come!
So I figured I would post while my friends are out partying. Tito, my homestay dad, is 70 years old and very conservative, so when I asked him if it would be ok if Svetlana stays in the extra bedroom downstairs, he got super angry and told me to find a hostel. Awesome. Thanks for sticking to the Argentine stereotype of being super hospitable, Tito. We move into our apartment tomorrow, I really cant wait. Me and Dave are pretty fed up with Tito's stubbornness, the inability to eat what we want when we want, the inability to have some friends over, and the other restrictions you have when youre a 20 year old staying as a guest in an older conservative couple's home. These things plus our new apartment is incredible :)
Anyway, Wednesday we went to that huge after-office party that we went to a couple weeks ago. It was super fun. Thursday we had to go to migrations for visa stuff, then we went back to that super cool park I posted a picture of earlier. Then at night we went to another dance club with a ton of friends.
Yesterday we had orientation for exchange students. A solid half the class is from the States, and about 90% of the Americans are from Boston. Pretty funny. There's a group at the school called Accion Social, a club that does some after school tutoring and mentoring programs for poor communities near Tigre, as well as some work like helping small businesses get off the ground and doing economic analysis around the city. Since I cant play rugby here Im going to do that, I think.
Last night and today have been an invasion of BC in BA. Some girls from my BC group met about 10 guys that had graduated from BC in May and moved down here about a month ago. In about a week or 2 theyre all taking off in different directions to travel South America for some time, ranging between 2 months and 7 months (and one guy not planning on leaving). One guy is actually from Huntington, about 3 minutes down the road from me. Again, "small world" is not just a phrase. The guys invited us to their apartment last night, where we hung out and talked BC and traveling all night. They were real cool.
Today we went to the zoo. It seemed like a good idea but the truth is, zoos are sooooo depressing. The zoo was very poorly kept and the areas all of the animals had were super small. We saw one penguin swimming back and forth with his beak against the glass for about 5 minutes. Malcolm looked at me and asked "Can you imagine spending everyday of your life going back and forth against a piece of glass just looking for a crack to get out of?" It was real sad.
On a happier note, after the zoo, Malcolm, Hannah, and I went to a cafe where I found real turkey!!! I looked at the menu and found "pavita" on a sandwich, the three of us were pumped because its impossible to find turkey here. After the cafe we went to a yoga class. This yoga class is taught by a girl who also graduated from BC in May. We got there and it was 5 of us from my BC group, all of the BC guys from last night, a guy from UMASS, and a few girls from Union College in NY. Out of about 20 people in the class, one wasnt from the US and only 3 or 4 werent from Boston. Even funnier than that, I did yoga. It was sooo hard. I was sweating and shaking after about 10 minutes, and when we laid in the dark at the end, I fell asleep.
When I got home, we were having asado for dinner. Asado is seriously the most delicious thing ever.
Another post soon to come!
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Photooooosssssss
Flat Evan visits the famous Recoleta cemetary!
Cool shot of a tiny part of the cemetary
Some BC folk enjoying a perfect day in the park
Flat Evan in the port of Tigre!
One of the "neighborhoods" on a small Tigre "road". There's no cars in most of Tigre, because there aren't any roads, just streams and boats. Each dock is a "driveway" you might say.
Dave on the flooded sidewalk. I wanted to take a picture of a dry spot.
One of the main roads in Tigre, and the sidewalk/now-floating-dock we took to find our restaurant.
A very small part of the massive Puerto de Frutas.
Thats all for now. I have the rest of the week free, so more adventures to come. Maybe the zoo or the Rosedal? Maybe both? We'll see. Svetlana will be here Saturday morning too! The good times never end.
Tigre, the land of the flood
After 2 hours of sleep on Saturday night, we got up and headed for the train to Tigre, a small city located on the river delta. This place was awesome, probably one of my favorite things we've done so far. There's a little port on the river filled with motor boats that you can pay a small fee to take anywhere you want on the many little tributaries/rivers that form a big spider web on the delta. We took a boat up the main river for about 25-30 minutes, on which I met a man and his friend from Palm Beach, fairly close to North Passage according to him. They were in Argentina/Chile for a few weeks for a friends birthday. We had a good time talking about Florida and traveling. The BC people got off at one of the millions of tiny little docks sticking out into the water. Apparently there's normally beaches all over the place on this river, but this month has been one of the rainiest months in years as far as water volume goes, and EVERYTHING was flooded. There were little houses and cabanas and stuff all over the land like isolated little getaways for vacationers, it was real cool. We walked around the flooded paths on the narrow strips of brush-covered land until we found a restaurant in the shade overlooking one of the rivers. We sat for about 2 hours eating and relaxing, all were pretty tired from the lack of sleep.
Afterward we took the same kind of boat back to the main port. The man from Florida and his friend happened to be on it again after they traveled a bit further up the river. There was also a girl from Boston who happened to sit right next to us and heard me say I was from BC. I always thought the phrase "Its a small world" really was just a phrase. We walked for a bit from the port to a place called the Puerto de Frutas, a huge outdoor marketplace. We spend about an hour and a half walking among the hundreds of tents selling leather products, fruit, candy, soccer jerseys, furniture, posters, ice cream, and everything else you could possibly imagine. It was real fun.
We got home around 7pm, passed out until about 915, and then headed back out. Dave, Malcolm, and I went to a bar called The Alamo, a place opened and run by Americans, to watch to USA-Canada Olympic hockey game. This place is American in every sense. The waitress didnt speak any Spanish, everybody in the place was speaking English, there was something other than soccer on tv, and the menu consisted of buffalo wings, nachos, pizza, and fries. We loved it.
Yesterday was incredible as well. We went to the famous Recoleta cemetery where all of Argentina's national figures are buried in a small city of mausoleums. These things are HUGE. The "graves" are very ornate concrete houses with entire families buried inside. We also spend a ton of time laying in the park because it was the most beautiful day I can remember, about 82 degrees, no humidity, a slight breeze, and not a cloud in the sky. Then we went to Puerto Madero, a more modern business/restaurant district on a port, to get some dinner.
Today was our last day of Spanish class. We're taking it easy now and then going out to celebrate tonight with a bunch of friends. Tomorrow we have to be at the other end of the city at 930am for our visas. Should be another fun morning.
Ill post pictures in a separate post. Talk to you soon.
Afterward we took the same kind of boat back to the main port. The man from Florida and his friend happened to be on it again after they traveled a bit further up the river. There was also a girl from Boston who happened to sit right next to us and heard me say I was from BC. I always thought the phrase "Its a small world" really was just a phrase. We walked for a bit from the port to a place called the Puerto de Frutas, a huge outdoor marketplace. We spend about an hour and a half walking among the hundreds of tents selling leather products, fruit, candy, soccer jerseys, furniture, posters, ice cream, and everything else you could possibly imagine. It was real fun.
We got home around 7pm, passed out until about 915, and then headed back out. Dave, Malcolm, and I went to a bar called The Alamo, a place opened and run by Americans, to watch to USA-Canada Olympic hockey game. This place is American in every sense. The waitress didnt speak any Spanish, everybody in the place was speaking English, there was something other than soccer on tv, and the menu consisted of buffalo wings, nachos, pizza, and fries. We loved it.
Yesterday was incredible as well. We went to the famous Recoleta cemetery where all of Argentina's national figures are buried in a small city of mausoleums. These things are HUGE. The "graves" are very ornate concrete houses with entire families buried inside. We also spend a ton of time laying in the park because it was the most beautiful day I can remember, about 82 degrees, no humidity, a slight breeze, and not a cloud in the sky. Then we went to Puerto Madero, a more modern business/restaurant district on a port, to get some dinner.
Today was our last day of Spanish class. We're taking it easy now and then going out to celebrate tonight with a bunch of friends. Tomorrow we have to be at the other end of the city at 930am for our visas. Should be another fun morning.
Ill post pictures in a separate post. Talk to you soon.
The good times just keep on rollin
Whats happenin everybody? Sorry I lied last time, I was going to post again with a bunch of random thoughts and observations that Ive been making a list of since I got here, but of course I got a last minute phone call about a party and wasn't able to post. That post will come soon, I promise.
Friday we went to my friends apartment and met and hung out with a ton of new people from all over the world. That night alone I was with people from the US, England, Canada, France, Morocco, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Australia, and a few more. Im pretty sure that by the end of the semester Ill have met somebody from every country. I had a great time, until this British girl from Bristol, England got into an argument with me about where Stonehenge is. She was trying to tell me that it was on an entirely separate island, part of Ireland or something. Now, as my dear Aunt Suzy can certainly attest to, Stongehenge is located precisely between Bristol and London, about 2 hours away from where this girl claimed she lived. And its Stonehenge! Thats like me saying the Empire State Building is in California. To make things worse, she had the audacity to say to me, verbatim with a sharply condescending tone, "Are you kidding me? You're just proving the point that all Americans are idiots." If this was a guy I would have pummeled him, instead I just gave her an earful and then got a computer and proved her wrong. Sorry for making that into a story, but it was the first real negative encounter Ive had down here and I was really upset afterward.
Saturday we didn't do much during the day I dont think, but at night we had a great time. Some kids from our class are living in an apartment that's almost like a hostel. Its like a big house that all the people in it share, but each has their own bedroom. It had this super cool rooftop with a room that had a kitchen and big table like a standard kitchen, and then an outdoor terrace with a big brick parrilla. About 30 people came and mingled and listened to good music, and the owner of the building offered to have asado for 10 pesos per person. See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asado. The steak here is unbelievable. After the apartment we met some porteno friends at the Belgrano Atheletic Club for the rugby teams huge party. It wasn't my cup of tea- a lot like a high school dance with a big younger crowd and huge rugby players who just acted like meatheads and pushed everybody around. It was kind of shocking how brutal they were, especially with girls.
Sunday we went to Tigre. All that in a new post-
Friday we went to my friends apartment and met and hung out with a ton of new people from all over the world. That night alone I was with people from the US, England, Canada, France, Morocco, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Australia, and a few more. Im pretty sure that by the end of the semester Ill have met somebody from every country. I had a great time, until this British girl from Bristol, England got into an argument with me about where Stonehenge is. She was trying to tell me that it was on an entirely separate island, part of Ireland or something. Now, as my dear Aunt Suzy can certainly attest to, Stongehenge is located precisely between Bristol and London, about 2 hours away from where this girl claimed she lived. And its Stonehenge! Thats like me saying the Empire State Building is in California. To make things worse, she had the audacity to say to me, verbatim with a sharply condescending tone, "Are you kidding me? You're just proving the point that all Americans are idiots." If this was a guy I would have pummeled him, instead I just gave her an earful and then got a computer and proved her wrong. Sorry for making that into a story, but it was the first real negative encounter Ive had down here and I was really upset afterward.
Saturday we didn't do much during the day I dont think, but at night we had a great time. Some kids from our class are living in an apartment that's almost like a hostel. Its like a big house that all the people in it share, but each has their own bedroom. It had this super cool rooftop with a room that had a kitchen and big table like a standard kitchen, and then an outdoor terrace with a big brick parrilla. About 30 people came and mingled and listened to good music, and the owner of the building offered to have asado for 10 pesos per person. See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asado. The steak here is unbelievable. After the apartment we met some porteno friends at the Belgrano Atheletic Club for the rugby teams huge party. It wasn't my cup of tea- a lot like a high school dance with a big younger crowd and huge rugby players who just acted like meatheads and pushed everybody around. It was kind of shocking how brutal they were, especially with girls.
Sunday we went to Tigre. All that in a new post-
Friday, February 19, 2010
Settling In
Hey everybody. Sorry its been a while since I updated, Ive had some work to do and the internet was out for a day. Things have really been settling in lately.
Not much happened this week. We've had lots and lots of class, some homework, etc. On Wednesday we went to MALBA (translates to Buenos Aires Museum of Latin American Art). It was pretty cool, some sweet paintings, some not so sweet. Theres a decent size Andy Warhol exhibit there right now. That was very cool. Afterwards the BC guys and I headed to Las Canitas to sign on that sweet apartment I told you about last time. I'm super excited for it, Ill post some photos below. Besides that we went out a tiny bit this week, twice exploring the ritzy neighborhood by the new apartment.
Class is going well. My comprehension has gotten significantly better, and my speech is a little more natural now, I just struggle because my vocab is still very small. Once I know the word I can usually say things pretty well, although its immediately apparent to everybody that Im a "gringo" (American).
Here's some pictures, click to view full size:
Not much happened this week. We've had lots and lots of class, some homework, etc. On Wednesday we went to MALBA (translates to Buenos Aires Museum of Latin American Art). It was pretty cool, some sweet paintings, some not so sweet. Theres a decent size Andy Warhol exhibit there right now. That was very cool. Afterwards the BC guys and I headed to Las Canitas to sign on that sweet apartment I told you about last time. I'm super excited for it, Ill post some photos below. Besides that we went out a tiny bit this week, twice exploring the ritzy neighborhood by the new apartment.
Class is going well. My comprehension has gotten significantly better, and my speech is a little more natural now, I just struggle because my vocab is still very small. Once I know the word I can usually say things pretty well, although its immediately apparent to everybody that Im a "gringo" (American).
Here's some pictures, click to view full size:
Flat Evan goes to MALBA!!! Sorry it took so long, Johnsons,
I never have my bag when I go out, but I finally did. More to come!
View to the east from the wrap-around balcony. Front to back: Horse track, polo fields, airport, Rio de la Plata.
View to the southwest from the balcony. This city is HUGE. The overexposure on the right side is the sun setting. $350/month is stealing from these people.
Our enormous and beautiful common room, complete with sweet chandelier (1 of 2 in the apartment).
Our kitchen. Pretty standard.
Its pouring outside and the streets are flooding, so I may or may not post again in a minute with some random thoughts. Chau.
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