Jornada Completa de Aventura.

"What's is it?"

"I have no idea."

"Okay, let's do that."

Today was self-proclaimed adventure day, and Sydney and I went above and beyond our adventure calling. So much so that I'm not even going to write it all out, I'm just going to give the bullet points and then hit the sack because when I got home, my hands were shaking I was so tired!!

BsAs has a free bike program, you just register and then you can take a bike! You have to check in at a station every hour, but they're all around the city so we went... everywhere. 

--left house at 8:30am, got back at 7:30pm.

--walked over 8 miles, biked 7 more.

BsAs has these cool biking lanes too! Look how happy we are.

The park in Palermo is bellísimo!

Might have to come back for those paddle boats.

It's called "Rosedal" because it's a rose garden! 

The Obelisk on 9 de Julio--the widest avenue in the world (16 lanes!)

 Our only goals for today were to not get hit by a bus and to not get robbed. SUCCESS. We came a little close on the bus one a few times though...

We visited the Catedral Metropolitana de Buenos Aires.

Swing break.

Buenos Aires has 73 "Bares Notatables." They're bars that are officially recognized as being important, either in history, architecture, or culture. So naturally I want to go to all of them.
We stopped by two today! (pictures below) Only 71 more to go.

Cervezas en El Gato Negro

Moscatos, medialunas, y un submarino en Los Galgos

Palacio de Agua Corrientes (why aren't the government buildings in the States palaces??) 

Puente Peatonal Figueroa Alcorta

Huge tree is huge.

And that's not even all... we also went to the Fine Arts Museum as well, found a Walmart-like store nearish us that'll come in handy in the future, figured out how to get a bus home (because our legs would move no farther), and made it home in time for dinner!

Quite possibly the most I've ever done in one day in my life.

Fracaso.

In other news, the voltage converter that I so-carefully researched and consulted the guy in the electricity store and the internet and my brother on, is no more.

I was happily curling my hair when I heard a soft pop and looked down to see smoke coming from the converter. So... I don't know what that's about but I'm pretty upset. At my own failure. I tried to hard to avoid this. :[

RIP curly hair. You will forever live on in our memory. 

Niveles Altos de Productividad.

GUYS.
I did so many things today. All by myself. Are you ready? I:

--exchanged money at the bank
--did not follow the old man who said he could show me where to sell my bills on the black market (you're welcome, Mom)
--bought a prepaid phone (after searching at three different stores.. it was quite the accomplishment to find one!)
--bought a subte card (subway) at the post office
--made a copy of my passport for my visa
--had an appointment with my academic advisor at school
--found out where to buy the right voltage converter for my straightener to work
--took the right bus to the right place at the right time

It was like my own scavenger hunt around the city. All of that took five hours, four miles of walking, and a lot of questioning locals about where things are. But they're all done! How independent and self-sufficient am I?

Dulce de leche milkshake to go with my empanada for my lunch break!

I'm so happy I got so much stuff done! I came home and collapsed on my bed and immediately fell asleep.

Look at 'em. Look at all those treasures. Look at all that plunder.  Okay the chocolate wasn't on the list but it's just as important.

La Primera Noche--Acabar.

Nicole, me, Sara, Adela, and Colleen

We went out for our very first night in Buenos Aires! We figured out how to use the buses ("colectivos") and were pretty darn proud of ourselves... we found this neat bar called "Acabar" where you can play board games while you sit and chat! It was in a pretty cool part of town. We played a strange version of Guess Who in Spanish, along with giant Jenga.

We played Jenga until there were no more blocks left to pull out, so basically we beat Jenga and we really happy with ourselves, until...

Disaster hit. We broke a glass and everything. Causing a scene on our very first night out... :[

It's okay though, the staff was really nice about it and didn't glare at us or anything.   

We successfully took our first taxi home too so we're basically pros already at this city. It was such a good night of firsts!

Acabar. (In the middle you can see the corner with all the stacks of boardgames!)

Conocer La Ciudad.

BIG MAP for those who enjoy visuals (Dad)

Christa, Colleen, yo, y Paula en el cementario

Hola a todos!!

Today we went on a quick tour of la Capital Federal (the actual city of Buenos Aires). By "quick" I mean four hours, but it flew by and we didn't even get to most of it!
Our guide, from my study abroad program, said that the purpose of the tour was just to familiarize us with the city and to give us a general idea of what all was out there so we'd have a better idea for planning our own trips in the future!  So we didn't stop anywhere too long, but we got to see so many cool areas that I definitely want to go back to and spend a whole day!

Buenos Aires has many different "barrios," (neighborhoods) that each has a distinct feel. They vary in their architecture, history, activities, and social class.  The map above shows the different barrios. I live in the middle of Belgrano (square 6 & 7), which is relatively residential and quiet.   Today we went through Palermo, Recoleta, Retiro, down through San Telmo and La Boca, and then back up through Puerto Madero.

Our first stop was the La Recoleta Cemetery. Recoleta has a beautiful park area and cultural center that I want to go back to! The cemetery was huge and full of giant mauseleoms. I've heard a lot of important people are buried there, but I'll have to go back and spend more time there to give you a full report. 

La Plaza de Mayo

On left, la Casa Rosa (Pink House), which is the center of the Argentine governemnt

Next we stopped at la Plaza de Mayo, which is a huge political center in Buenos Aires, and many protests have and still do take place there (like Las Madres de la Plaza in the late seventies). Our guide said that basically, if anything important happens (you know, like the favorite fútbol team winning, or losing), people run to the plaza to celebrate. Or cry together. 

Caminito, La Boca

We also got to walk around this little area called "Caminito" in La Boca barrio. It was very colorful and full of life! Lots of street vendors and tango dancers. There was a tango couple that carried around a jacket/hat and let passerbys take pictures with them. (For a small fee, of course). Overall a very cool area!

Kevin, with a street tango dancer...

Caminito, La Boca

We also walked around Puerto Madero, one of the more upscale areas of Buenos Aires.  You can see from just these few pictures how different all the different areas look! It's like you travel to a whole new city after driving for five-ten minutes. So cool!

Bridge en Puerto Madero

After our tour, a little group of us wandered over to el Barrio Chino... or Chinatown. It was almost too many cultures colliding for my brain to handle! I saw "Amigos: Restaurante Chino" and another restaurant called "Dragón Porteño," both of which made me chuckle. It was a really neat area! I wanted to take pictures, but I also didn't want to be that one obvious-American taking pictures so you'll just have to use your imagination :]

We stopped in our first café for a snack... dulce de leche ice cream for me. Let me tell you, it is about to become a staple.

It's a good thing I enjoy walking, because I mapped it out once I got home, and just from my apartment, to the ISA office, to Chinatown, and back home was four miles! That's good news though, it just means more helados y medialunas para mí :]

Shwell, I have yet to buy adapters (all the stores except for food places are closed on the weekends... which is bad news for the foreigner who arrives Saturday morning and wants a cellphone and wall converters!), and have all but exhausted the remaining energy on my electronics so that'll have to be all for now.

We're taking a language placement test in the morning so they know how hard of classes we can handle so.. fingers crossed. (Porque las clases que quiero tomar son un poco difíciles..)

LOVE.

ARGENTINA AL FIN!

I DID IT I MADE IT MAY THE ADVENTURES BEGIN!!

Just a quick update to let you all know I'm alive and well!
[I am alive and well.]

After a long (10.5 hours) flight and what-seemed-like-longer (2 hours) immigration/customs lines, and then waiting for the rest of the group (3 hours), I finally got to see Argentina, from the ground, outside of the airport, almost nearly 24 hours after I left my own home in Fort Worth! Yikes.

I can't believe that was this morning... since then we were handed off to our host families (I'm staying with a lady named Mimi, and she's wonderful), and given a short orientation of our program.

I know I've only been here a good eight hours now, but I absolutely love it.  It just has such a great vibe and I can't wait to spend the next five months here!!

And the Spanish is WAY easier to understand here than it was in the Dominican Republic, which is such a relief! I know I'm going to learn so much.

Look it's me! In Argentina! (This is outside the Universidad de Belgrano, where I'll be taking classes).

I didn't take too many pictures today, but tomorrow we're doing a tour of Buenos Aires so there should be photos aplenty.

And now I'm going to crash porque no dormí mucho en el avión y no puedo dejar de bostezar!
HASTA MAñANA! 



Oh P.S.: I put a gadget thing on the side so you can put in your email address and it'll tell you when I update this blog, if you're interested! Thought it might save you the trouble of checking it if I end up not posting so regularly. Also you can leave comments through your Google account if you have one. No pressure, just letting you know your options.  Love you all!!

Barceló Resort, Punta Cana

 We spent our last weekend at a resort... quite a good way to finish, I'd say. We spent three days eating, swimming, eating, tanning, eating, sleeping, and repeating.  Fantastic :]

"I need a picture of us doing cart wheels in floaties."

 We got to talk to a lot of interesting people from different places... we decided that we don't like Americans so much though. They were kind of obnoxious. Some people we talked to came from the US only for the resort, and that seemed kinda sad to me! I mean the resort was fun and all, but I'm not sure I would want travel that far and then only stay in one point. I much preferred all the traveling we got to do within the country, and hanging out with the locals. So this just confirmed for me that I'm not really a resort person, I'm more of a real-culture person :]

I wanted to do fun poses. They wanted to be lame.

We passed a man selling paintings, and I asked how much they were. He said $35.  We all kinda blinked, looked at each other, and said "Thirty-five dollars? What is that in pesos?"  Then we had to laugh at ourselves. Going back to America is going to be an adjustment.

Nuestro castillito de arena.

GUESS WHAT. I spent three days on the beach and did NOT get any sunburns. I was so super vigilant with sun screen... I have to be in a wedding on Friday! I didn't want to be a tomato! 

One night for dinner we went to a Hibachi Japanese restaurant. The completely-legit-Japanese (not) chef, José, was the most disappoint chef ever. There was no onion volcano, no flips, nothing was thrown at us. And he lacked a sense of humor. I was being so funny and he didn't even get it.