On Monday morning, I woke up really early and met up with Anne, Robin, Ben, and Emily to get our student visas, which was a lot of waiting around and getting shuffled from one department to another. I realized that my Spanish is definitely improving, though- if I had had to do that alone on my first day here, I would have been completely lost. The rest of the day was spent doing homework, grocery shopping, and other non-exciting things like that. Tuesday was more of the same- got up early to pick up our visas to turn in to UCA, then homework, class, etc., as was most of Wednesday. Wednesday was exciting only because Lauren and I made delicious Mexican food for dinner, and I got to talk to Beanie for the first time in forever.
Thursday was also more of the same, but when I got home, Lauren had made me dinner and bought me flowers and candy for our last night without Joe being home (not that we weren't happy when he came back, of course), which was really awesome. Afterwards Kela, Ben, and Jessie came over for a Disney movie marathon. We watched Aladdin, then Steve came over for the second half and we all watched Hercules. Basically we're all huge dorks and I love it.
Friday was boring day number 423535 for the week- homework, grocery shopping (I feel like we live at our grocery store sometimes), food, bed. Ditto for Saturday, until we all went out for Joe's 21st birthday. We went to a Mexican restaurant nearby called Cielito Lindo, which had awesome margaritas and really good food. We hung out there for a while and then went to a bar nearby in Plaza Serrano for a few hours, which was also really fun. Overall a very successful event.
Sunday and Monday were both homework and such all day, and also catching up on blogging (clearly) and some of my tv shows. Clearly my life is not as exciting now that midterms are around the corner. Hopefully once they're over I'll have better stories :)
Monday, April 27, 2009
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Tuesday was the first day back in the real world. Class, attempt number two to register officially with UCA (successful this time, thank god), homework in the park, class, homework, class. After my 6-9 class got out, I met up with Lauren, Joe, and Joe's family, and they took us out to dinner at the same restaurant we went to on our first night in Buenos Aires, which was delicious and a lot of fun. Lauren and I headed back afterwards to do homework and went to bed.
Wednesday, our designated productive day, we went grocery shopping and had breakfast/did homework until I left for class. Our BC class that afternoon was a field trip around Retiro and Recoleta, which was right around where I used to live but still really interesting. Afterwards I came home, made dinner by myself since Lauren was at our friend Danni's and Joe took off for a week to travel with his grandparents, had a skype date with Josh and did some homework before going to bed.
Thursday was slightly more interesting. Started off with class/homework/class/homework/class (the two hour blocks in the middle are killer- I start at 10am and I'm not done til 9pm) as always, and then headed back home for dinner. After that, we went over to the girls' apartment to celebrate Ali's birthday. We hung out at the apartment for a while, had wine and birthday cake and other birthdayish things, and then we went out to a really cool bar called Post for a few hours. At that point most of us were exhausted and went home, but the boys headed out to a boliche without us (after much convincing that yes, they could actually handle going to a boliche without our presence. I swear, the boys here are such wimps.)
On Friday we slept late, had breakfast/homework/lunch/class/homework/dinner, then our friend Kela came over and we all got ready to go out. We met up with everyone at a bar nearby called Sugar, and hung out there for the rest of the night, which was pretty low-key but a lot of fun.
On Saturday, we went grocery shopping (AGAIN) and did homework all day. That night we went to the DiTella boys' apartment for their friend's birthday party. Their apartment is crazy- literally two steps from the door is an in-ground indoor pool, and their entire apartment has no walls. They have curtains hung up to divide the rooms, and in addition to a staircase to get to the second story, they have a ladder and a fire pole off the second floor landing. Basically the craziest apartment I've ever seen in my life- I have no idea how it passed building codes. (Does Argentina even have building codes?) The party was a lot of fun, and it was a good mix of meeting new people versus hanging out with my friends. Overall a really good night. We left kind of early, maybe around three, and headed home because we had to get up early the next day.
Sunday was the day of the Boca-River Superclascio game, which is arguably one of the biggest sporting events of one of the biggest rivalries in the world. We somehow managed to get tickets through a guy that works with one of the study abroad programs, so Lauren and I got up early and went to meet Ben and Kela to go to the game. We met up with the guy and the 15 other kids going to the game, and they drove us to the drop off point. Once we got there things got really sketchy. Basically at these games, each side brings a massive flag that stretches from the top of the stadium, over the heads of all the fans on all three tiers of the stadium, down to the ground. They let it down before the game starts to show their colors and then the fans pass it back up for the start of the game. When we got to the outside of the stadium, all of the members of the Boca Juniors Club were lined up on the sidewalk with the flag rolled up on their shoulders. The line literally stretched as far as we could see in either direction. At that point, our guy told us to jump in the line without getting caught and pretend we were members. Our $350 pesos per person had apparently gone to bribing the guy regulating the line to sneak us in instead of towards actual tickets. The first half of our group, (me, Lauren, Ben, Kela, and maybe five others) jumped in line, got literally thrown onto the street when we got caught, and snuck back into line in between some very angry looking Boca Juniors club members. We were instructed to not let go of the flag FOR ANY REASON or we would either a) not be able to get into the game, or b) be trampled to death. We started walking when the line started moving, and the hundreds of people towards the back of the line got impatient. They proceeded to start a stampede and brought the back end of the flag up to the front. Unfortunately, this meant that everyone was trapped in the loop of the flag when it doubled up in the middle. At one point, I was pinned between four or five people and was being carried along without my feet touching the ground, and at another point I was pinned to the wall with the flag wrapped around my neck completely unable to breathe. It was complete madness. Kela and Lauren lost their hold on the flag, were knocked down to the ground, and were trampled by a good portion of the crowd before they were able to get back up. We all actually thought for a few minutes that we were going to die, but fortunately we all made it into the stadium in one piece. Of course, at that point we realized that we didn't have actual seats (the game sold out the second day that tickets were available. That was several months ago.)
Once inside and not in fear of our lives, we grabbed something to eat and then enjoyed the opening ceremonies. They were insane- confetti and balloons everywhere, fireworks, firecrackers, blue and yellow smoke, yelling and screaming, everything. Once the actual game started, the fans calmed down, which was a bit of a disappointment since they're supposed to be the craziest fans in the world. Honestly I thought BC fans were crazier than they were, but the game was still a lot of fun.
After the game (which was also freezing, by the way- we were all wearing t-shirts and froze because the temperature unexpectedly dropped like 20 degrees) we went home and spent the rest of the night making dinner/doing homework/trying to be warm. Overall a terrifying/fun/cold/good day.
Wednesday, our designated productive day, we went grocery shopping and had breakfast/did homework until I left for class. Our BC class that afternoon was a field trip around Retiro and Recoleta, which was right around where I used to live but still really interesting. Afterwards I came home, made dinner by myself since Lauren was at our friend Danni's and Joe took off for a week to travel with his grandparents, had a skype date with Josh and did some homework before going to bed.
Thursday was slightly more interesting. Started off with class/homework/class/homework/class (the two hour blocks in the middle are killer- I start at 10am and I'm not done til 9pm) as always, and then headed back home for dinner. After that, we went over to the girls' apartment to celebrate Ali's birthday. We hung out at the apartment for a while, had wine and birthday cake and other birthdayish things, and then we went out to a really cool bar called Post for a few hours. At that point most of us were exhausted and went home, but the boys headed out to a boliche without us (after much convincing that yes, they could actually handle going to a boliche without our presence. I swear, the boys here are such wimps.)
On Friday we slept late, had breakfast/homework/lunch/class/homework/dinner, then our friend Kela came over and we all got ready to go out. We met up with everyone at a bar nearby called Sugar, and hung out there for the rest of the night, which was pretty low-key but a lot of fun.
On Saturday, we went grocery shopping (AGAIN) and did homework all day. That night we went to the DiTella boys' apartment for their friend's birthday party. Their apartment is crazy- literally two steps from the door is an in-ground indoor pool, and their entire apartment has no walls. They have curtains hung up to divide the rooms, and in addition to a staircase to get to the second story, they have a ladder and a fire pole off the second floor landing. Basically the craziest apartment I've ever seen in my life- I have no idea how it passed building codes. (Does Argentina even have building codes?) The party was a lot of fun, and it was a good mix of meeting new people versus hanging out with my friends. Overall a really good night. We left kind of early, maybe around three, and headed home because we had to get up early the next day.
Sunday was the day of the Boca-River Superclascio game, which is arguably one of the biggest sporting events of one of the biggest rivalries in the world. We somehow managed to get tickets through a guy that works with one of the study abroad programs, so Lauren and I got up early and went to meet Ben and Kela to go to the game. We met up with the guy and the 15 other kids going to the game, and they drove us to the drop off point. Once we got there things got really sketchy. Basically at these games, each side brings a massive flag that stretches from the top of the stadium, over the heads of all the fans on all three tiers of the stadium, down to the ground. They let it down before the game starts to show their colors and then the fans pass it back up for the start of the game. When we got to the outside of the stadium, all of the members of the Boca Juniors Club were lined up on the sidewalk with the flag rolled up on their shoulders. The line literally stretched as far as we could see in either direction. At that point, our guy told us to jump in the line without getting caught and pretend we were members. Our $350 pesos per person had apparently gone to bribing the guy regulating the line to sneak us in instead of towards actual tickets. The first half of our group, (me, Lauren, Ben, Kela, and maybe five others) jumped in line, got literally thrown onto the street when we got caught, and snuck back into line in between some very angry looking Boca Juniors club members. We were instructed to not let go of the flag FOR ANY REASON or we would either a) not be able to get into the game, or b) be trampled to death. We started walking when the line started moving, and the hundreds of people towards the back of the line got impatient. They proceeded to start a stampede and brought the back end of the flag up to the front. Unfortunately, this meant that everyone was trapped in the loop of the flag when it doubled up in the middle. At one point, I was pinned between four or five people and was being carried along without my feet touching the ground, and at another point I was pinned to the wall with the flag wrapped around my neck completely unable to breathe. It was complete madness. Kela and Lauren lost their hold on the flag, were knocked down to the ground, and were trampled by a good portion of the crowd before they were able to get back up. We all actually thought for a few minutes that we were going to die, but fortunately we all made it into the stadium in one piece. Of course, at that point we realized that we didn't have actual seats (the game sold out the second day that tickets were available. That was several months ago.)
Once inside and not in fear of our lives, we grabbed something to eat and then enjoyed the opening ceremonies. They were insane- confetti and balloons everywhere, fireworks, firecrackers, blue and yellow smoke, yelling and screaming, everything. Once the actual game started, the fans calmed down, which was a bit of a disappointment since they're supposed to be the craziest fans in the world. Honestly I thought BC fans were crazier than they were, but the game was still a lot of fun.
After the game (which was also freezing, by the way- we were all wearing t-shirts and froze because the temperature unexpectedly dropped like 20 degrees) we went home and spent the rest of the night making dinner/doing homework/trying to be warm. Overall a terrifying/fun/cold/good day.
Chile- progressively downhill after Pucon
Friday was our last morning in Pucon. I said goodbye to my amazing bed, and we headed out to a cafe for breakfast before hopping on the bus to go to Valdivia. After a relatively short ride, we arrived, only to discover that there is nothing to do in Valdivia. Kind of disappointing, especially because Pucon was so amazing, but we made do. We found a restaurant by the water and sat down to eat at around 12. The service was SO SLOW that we didn't make it out of there until almost 4:30, in spite of the fact that we ordered quickly and asked for the check as soon as the food arrived. After we escaped from the clutches of our evil waitress, we wandered through the local craft fair and fish market, and watched the sea lions lie around and fight with each other for a while. Later on in the afternoon, we got some vary disappointing ice cream and decided to just pick up some groceries for dinner later instead of going out. After the grocery store, we went back to the hostel and played with their pet duck. We also tried to play with the pet rabbit, but the duck got super aggressive and attacked us whenever we got near his friend. Cute, in an odd kind of way. The rest of the night was spent watching Garden State and eating our grocery-store dinner: bread, cheese, grapes and wine. I was a little jealous when the other kids in the hostel cooked up a five-star dinner that smelled amazing, but then we found out that they're all in their thirties and have been cooking for themselves for a while already. After that I didn't feel so bad about our lack of culinary abilities.
Saturday, after breakfast at the hostel and racking our brains about what to do all day, we decided to explore the island across the river and walked to a park there, only to realize that there was an admission fee for what looked like a jungle gym and some grass. We decided that our $500 pesos was better spent on hot chocolate and coffee, so we made friends with an adorable old guy in a cafe and then set off in search of the German brewery nearby to take a tour. Once at the brewery, we had some beer and decided the tour was not worth the entrance fee, so we went in search of a restaurant, since Catherine didn't like the vegetarian options at the brewery. The restaurant we found was essentially terrible- awful food, terrible service, and they miscalculated our bill by several thousand pesos, which we immediately threw a fit about and got fixed. We picked up some groceries again and went back to the hostel to do our homework, since we had officially exhausted all of our options for things to do in Valdivia. We had dinner and went back to the grocery store to raid their bakery counter for delicious cakes, watched a bootleg copy of Slumdog Millionaire, and went to bed.
Easter Sunday, we woke up for breakfast (the hostel owners gave us chocolate eggs with our breakfast for Easter) and got on the bus to Santiago. I insisted on stocking up on groceries before we left, so we'd have something to eat on the bus, even though an eleven hour bus ride should include two meals and several movies according to our previous experiences on South American bus lines.
Fourteen hours later, we had still not been fed, (and had already gone through all the food we brought) had not been shown any movies, and had to deal with the smell of the bus bathroom for the last six hours because they ran out of toilet paper halfway through and then clogged the toilet. Overall a miserable experience, and if I hadn't had so many good ones, I would have sworn off the bus system forever. However, I think I can limit myself to saying I will never go on the Chilean bus lines again.
When we FINALLY got to Santiago, we piled into a cab to go to our next hostel, which is run by a tiny little old man named Oscar. The sign on his office door literally said: "If you need something and there is no one in the office, look for the old man. His name is Oscar, and he lives in the violet room." He was really cute and gave us advice on where to grab food at 12:30 in the morning, since we were starving. The only place open in the immediate vicinity was a gas station/fast food place, which had absolutely terrible food that, at the time, was delicious. After wolfing down our food in two minutes or less, we went back to the hostel and went to sleep.
Monday was our last day in Chile, and involved breakfast, a cab, lunch at "Gatsby's Airport Cafe", the flight to BsAs, and getting ripped off by our cab driver on the way home. Great welcome back to the city. When I got home, I discovered that Lauren had been trying to install our internet modem (supposed to be installed by professionals while we were gone, mind you) for hours. After harassing the tech guys multiple times, she finally got it working, only to discover that it was not wireless as promised, but a single connection. At this point, we were ready to throw our realtor off a cliff, so we took a break and met up with the girls to go to an empanada place for dinner. Fortunately those improved our mood enough to get us through a few hours of hw before we crashed.
Saturday, after breakfast at the hostel and racking our brains about what to do all day, we decided to explore the island across the river and walked to a park there, only to realize that there was an admission fee for what looked like a jungle gym and some grass. We decided that our $500 pesos was better spent on hot chocolate and coffee, so we made friends with an adorable old guy in a cafe and then set off in search of the German brewery nearby to take a tour. Once at the brewery, we had some beer and decided the tour was not worth the entrance fee, so we went in search of a restaurant, since Catherine didn't like the vegetarian options at the brewery. The restaurant we found was essentially terrible- awful food, terrible service, and they miscalculated our bill by several thousand pesos, which we immediately threw a fit about and got fixed. We picked up some groceries again and went back to the hostel to do our homework, since we had officially exhausted all of our options for things to do in Valdivia. We had dinner and went back to the grocery store to raid their bakery counter for delicious cakes, watched a bootleg copy of Slumdog Millionaire, and went to bed.
Easter Sunday, we woke up for breakfast (the hostel owners gave us chocolate eggs with our breakfast for Easter) and got on the bus to Santiago. I insisted on stocking up on groceries before we left, so we'd have something to eat on the bus, even though an eleven hour bus ride should include two meals and several movies according to our previous experiences on South American bus lines.
Fourteen hours later, we had still not been fed, (and had already gone through all the food we brought) had not been shown any movies, and had to deal with the smell of the bus bathroom for the last six hours because they ran out of toilet paper halfway through and then clogged the toilet. Overall a miserable experience, and if I hadn't had so many good ones, I would have sworn off the bus system forever. However, I think I can limit myself to saying I will never go on the Chilean bus lines again.
When we FINALLY got to Santiago, we piled into a cab to go to our next hostel, which is run by a tiny little old man named Oscar. The sign on his office door literally said: "If you need something and there is no one in the office, look for the old man. His name is Oscar, and he lives in the violet room." He was really cute and gave us advice on where to grab food at 12:30 in the morning, since we were starving. The only place open in the immediate vicinity was a gas station/fast food place, which had absolutely terrible food that, at the time, was delicious. After wolfing down our food in two minutes or less, we went back to the hostel and went to sleep.
Monday was our last day in Chile, and involved breakfast, a cab, lunch at "Gatsby's Airport Cafe", the flight to BsAs, and getting ripped off by our cab driver on the way home. Great welcome back to the city. When I got home, I discovered that Lauren had been trying to install our internet modem (supposed to be installed by professionals while we were gone, mind you) for hours. After harassing the tech guys multiple times, she finally got it working, only to discover that it was not wireless as promised, but a single connection. At this point, we were ready to throw our realtor off a cliff, so we took a break and met up with the girls to go to an empanada place for dinner. Fortunately those improved our mood enough to get us through a few hours of hw before we crashed.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Chile, parte dos- Pucon and its amazingness
Wednesday morning, we checked into our hostel, El Refugio, which was definitely my favorite hostel out of all the ones I've been to. It was log-cabin style, with the whole inside of the house done in natural wood with a woodstove in the living room to heat the house. My bed was a top bunk tucked up in the eaves of one of the bedrooms and was the coziest most comfortable bed I've ever slept in. After we briefly explored and fell in love with the hostel, we all went to get breakfast (for BC readers- at the Agora Cafe. Not kidding.) When it came time to decide what to do for the day, we were slightly overwhelmed, because there were so many options.
The town, Pucon, is tiny- you can walk from end to end in about fifteen minutes. It's in this valley, next to a gorgeous lake on one side and an ACTIVE VOLCANO on the other, which was really cool. The volcano smokes every day and glows red at the top at night, which was really cool to see. One of our choices for excursions was to take an all-day hike that goes right up to the rim of the volcano and includes climbing the ice at the top with ice picks and full gear. Unfortunately, it was also $75 a person, so we decided that we should probably go for the cheaper options so we could do more than one without going broke. Our other options were canopying, kayaking, bodysurfing down the river, horseback riding, visiting the hot springs, and a few other things that are escaping me at the moment. Robin, Ali, and I decided to try horseback riding (it was one of the few that still had spots available that late in the day) but Catherine and Lis decided to stay in town and entertain themselves for the day instead.
After Robin, Ali and I grabbed lunch (and by lunch I mean a hamburger that was LITERALLY bigger than my entire head- I think I ate less than a quarter of it) and befriended a stray dog that looked like Wishbone minus the spots, we went back to the hostel to wait for the horseback riding people. Although much of what followed would be super sketchy in the States, we went with it and fortunately survived.
This random guy (who later introduced himself as Rodolfo) showed up in a beat-up old car with his dog and told us to get in, which we did, and proceeded to drive us into the mountains for about an hour. The view was gorgeous the entire way, and he told us we would have to stop at his house to pick up his riding gear. His house was beauuuuutiful and perched on the side of a mountain with nothing even remotely close to it and the most amazing view ever. He also had about six dogs running around that we got to play with while he got ready, and then we met up with a young couple who were also going to be our guides on the horseback riding trip. They were adorable- Gustavo was gorgeous and really nice (and from Buenos Aires, coincidentally, which explained why he was goodlooking- Chilean men can't touch Argentine men in the looks department) and Francisca/Francheska (I didn't catch her name when she introduced herself but it was something along those lines) was amazing and really friendly. We all went to the barn, played with the kittens and the dogs there, got our horses, and set off into the mountains with no gear, no instructions, and no helmets. Definitely would not work that way in the US but I kind of liked it.
My horse was the old slow one (which I think they assigned to me because I had never been riding before) and I named him Old Fart because in addition to being miles behind everyone else at times, he was a gas machine. Robin's horse would stop every two seconds to eat any type of vegetation he could reach, and would go off the path randomly, but other than that we did amazingly. We basically rode for five hours up this mountain on trails that were barely wide enough for a person to stand on, never mind a horse, and were hanging off the edge of the mountain at some points. Pretty much the coolest thing I've ever done in my life. After coming back down off the mountain and saying a semi-affectionate, semi-annoyed goodbye to Old Fart, we went back to Rodolfo's house for drinks and such. We hung out there for about an hour looking at Rodolfo's rodeo pictures (he's apparently one of the best rodeo competitors in Chile) and getting a ton of insider information on Pucon from Francisca. Gustavo and Francisca drove us back home later on and we met back up with Catherine and Lis for dinner. We went to a really cool vegetarian restaurant called Ecole for dinner and then rushed back to the hostel to get as much sleep time in our awesome beds as possible. Our roommate, Ron, who was from Israel, could not believe we were going to bed at 10 or 11 at night, but the beds actually were that amazing.
The next day, we grabbed breakfast at another cafe and bought a bunch of lunch supplies at the grocery store before heading off on a random hike our hostel had suggested. Catherine basically booked it up the mountain while the rest of us tried desperately to keep up without killing ourselves, (the horseback riding muscles were not happy with us) and then we had to slide from tree trunk to tree trunk down the side of a nearly vertical incline to reach the bottom of the waterfall we were trying to get to. The falls were beautiful but too cold to swim in, so we climbed back up and had a picnic lunch and befriended a wild horse while we were at it. We hiked back to town and decided to go to the lake, which had black sand beaches from the volcanic rock that were really odd to look at. We went in the water very briefly (lakes in the mountains of Chile= freezing) and got drinks at a bar on the beach.
That night, the girls and I (minus Catherine, who wasn't feeling well) decided to go to the hot springs up in the mountains for a few hours before dinner, which were really cool but not what I expected. A hotel had built three different pools around the ones we went to, so it looked more like an outdoor spa than a natural mountain spring, but it was fun nevertheless. We headed home after a while and went to try Peruvian food, which Francisca had told us was amazing and easily the best restaurant in town, but Catherine vetoed the rest of us and we ended up going to a seafood/pasta restaurant instead before going back and jumping in our beds for the last time.
So if you couldn't tell, Pucon was my favorite place that I've been to since being abroad. If you ever visit Chile, go there.
Also, why is no one answering my emails? Some of them are semi-important and need answering, but this seems to be the week to ignore Katie's questions. Let's fix that, people. Also, I miss you all, so it's nice to hear from you even if I didn't send you a mile-long list of queries. I hope everything is going well in the States/the random countries around the world that my friends are currently in!
The town, Pucon, is tiny- you can walk from end to end in about fifteen minutes. It's in this valley, next to a gorgeous lake on one side and an ACTIVE VOLCANO on the other, which was really cool. The volcano smokes every day and glows red at the top at night, which was really cool to see. One of our choices for excursions was to take an all-day hike that goes right up to the rim of the volcano and includes climbing the ice at the top with ice picks and full gear. Unfortunately, it was also $75 a person, so we decided that we should probably go for the cheaper options so we could do more than one without going broke. Our other options were canopying, kayaking, bodysurfing down the river, horseback riding, visiting the hot springs, and a few other things that are escaping me at the moment. Robin, Ali, and I decided to try horseback riding (it was one of the few that still had spots available that late in the day) but Catherine and Lis decided to stay in town and entertain themselves for the day instead.
After Robin, Ali and I grabbed lunch (and by lunch I mean a hamburger that was LITERALLY bigger than my entire head- I think I ate less than a quarter of it) and befriended a stray dog that looked like Wishbone minus the spots, we went back to the hostel to wait for the horseback riding people. Although much of what followed would be super sketchy in the States, we went with it and fortunately survived.
This random guy (who later introduced himself as Rodolfo) showed up in a beat-up old car with his dog and told us to get in, which we did, and proceeded to drive us into the mountains for about an hour. The view was gorgeous the entire way, and he told us we would have to stop at his house to pick up his riding gear. His house was beauuuuutiful and perched on the side of a mountain with nothing even remotely close to it and the most amazing view ever. He also had about six dogs running around that we got to play with while he got ready, and then we met up with a young couple who were also going to be our guides on the horseback riding trip. They were adorable- Gustavo was gorgeous and really nice (and from Buenos Aires, coincidentally, which explained why he was goodlooking- Chilean men can't touch Argentine men in the looks department) and Francisca/Francheska (I didn't catch her name when she introduced herself but it was something along those lines) was amazing and really friendly. We all went to the barn, played with the kittens and the dogs there, got our horses, and set off into the mountains with no gear, no instructions, and no helmets. Definitely would not work that way in the US but I kind of liked it.
My horse was the old slow one (which I think they assigned to me because I had never been riding before) and I named him Old Fart because in addition to being miles behind everyone else at times, he was a gas machine. Robin's horse would stop every two seconds to eat any type of vegetation he could reach, and would go off the path randomly, but other than that we did amazingly. We basically rode for five hours up this mountain on trails that were barely wide enough for a person to stand on, never mind a horse, and were hanging off the edge of the mountain at some points. Pretty much the coolest thing I've ever done in my life. After coming back down off the mountain and saying a semi-affectionate, semi-annoyed goodbye to Old Fart, we went back to Rodolfo's house for drinks and such. We hung out there for about an hour looking at Rodolfo's rodeo pictures (he's apparently one of the best rodeo competitors in Chile) and getting a ton of insider information on Pucon from Francisca. Gustavo and Francisca drove us back home later on and we met back up with Catherine and Lis for dinner. We went to a really cool vegetarian restaurant called Ecole for dinner and then rushed back to the hostel to get as much sleep time in our awesome beds as possible. Our roommate, Ron, who was from Israel, could not believe we were going to bed at 10 or 11 at night, but the beds actually were that amazing.
The next day, we grabbed breakfast at another cafe and bought a bunch of lunch supplies at the grocery store before heading off on a random hike our hostel had suggested. Catherine basically booked it up the mountain while the rest of us tried desperately to keep up without killing ourselves, (the horseback riding muscles were not happy with us) and then we had to slide from tree trunk to tree trunk down the side of a nearly vertical incline to reach the bottom of the waterfall we were trying to get to. The falls were beautiful but too cold to swim in, so we climbed back up and had a picnic lunch and befriended a wild horse while we were at it. We hiked back to town and decided to go to the lake, which had black sand beaches from the volcanic rock that were really odd to look at. We went in the water very briefly (lakes in the mountains of Chile= freezing) and got drinks at a bar on the beach.
That night, the girls and I (minus Catherine, who wasn't feeling well) decided to go to the hot springs up in the mountains for a few hours before dinner, which were really cool but not what I expected. A hotel had built three different pools around the ones we went to, so it looked more like an outdoor spa than a natural mountain spring, but it was fun nevertheless. We headed home after a while and went to try Peruvian food, which Francisca had told us was amazing and easily the best restaurant in town, but Catherine vetoed the rest of us and we ended up going to a seafood/pasta restaurant instead before going back and jumping in our beds for the last time.
So if you couldn't tell, Pucon was my favorite place that I've been to since being abroad. If you ever visit Chile, go there.
Also, why is no one answering my emails? Some of them are semi-important and need answering, but this seems to be the week to ignore Katie's questions. Let's fix that, people. Also, I miss you all, so it's nice to hear from you even if I didn't send you a mile-long list of queries. I hope everything is going well in the States/the random countries around the world that my friends are currently in!
Friday, April 17, 2009
Viaje a Chile, parte uno
So once again I fail at the updating game. To pick up where I left off, Thursday the 2nd was a feriado (aka school holiday with no classes) and Friday I had one class like I always do. Other than that, I have no idea what I did with myself for those two days. I do remember that Lauren and I were both not feeling well and we basically bummed around and did nothing. However, knowing us, there were visits to Modena involved. Modena is the ice cream place on the corner by our house- the staff all know Lauren and I by name, where we come from, what our favorite ice cream flavors are, and probably know what every single set of pajamas/sweatpants that we own look like. Needless to say, we've gained a lot of weight recently and are going on a diet that does NOT involve ice cream every day. (We have the "Empanada-Face Diet House Rules" posted on our fridge with terrible fat pictures of ourselves to prevent us from snacking).
On Saturday, I spent most of the day doing my own laundry for the first time- Joe discovered that we've had a laundry room in the basement of our building this whole time, go figure- and packing for Chile. Had a heated debate with boy on the phone in the middle of the night and then lay down for about two hours before it was Sunday morning and time to go to the airport.
Flying to Chile by myself was a fiasco start to finish. I couldn't look at my reservation or print my ticket because I still did not have internet, so I just showed up at the airport and took a stab at what I thought was my airline. After waiting in line for about an hour, I learned that I had chosen the wrong airline, and went on to guess #2. Mind you, at this point I have less than an hour to find my airline, get through security, find my gate, and board the plane. Fortunately, guess #2 was correct, and my flight was delayed so I got there in plenty of time.
Once I landed in Chile, I had no idea if the girls were meeting me at the airport, a random bus station, at their hostel, or somewhere else, and our cell phones don't work in Chile so I had no way of finding out. After wandering around the airport for a while, I made friends with a sketchy bus driver who drove me into Santiago and then forgot to tell me which stop to get off at. Also, let me just state that every single building along this road in Santiago looks like a bus station, so that was no help at all. Once he realized he had forgotten to tell me which stop, he got one of his bus-driver buddies to drive me back for free, and fortunately this one was much more helpful. General first impression of Chileans: super nice and extremely hospitable but a little spacey.
I eventually arrived at the bus station, and wandered around for a while longer until I finally spotted the girls getting out of a taxi. We immediately bought bus tickets for Valparaiso and headed off. Our hostel in Valpo was generally nice- awesome staff, cute puppy to play with, but the bathrooms were pretty gross so we avoided them at all costs. The girls (Lis, Robin, Aly, who is Robin's friend from home, and Catherine) and I wandered around and found a place for lunch. For about $5 I got a huge bowl literally filled with more seafood than I could eat in a week- no pasta or anything. Chilean seafood is awesome, and it was a nice change from the beef/chicken/bread/cheese Argentine diet. After lunch we went on a boat tour around the harbor and got to see the entire city from the water. We saw a few sea lions, and I swear me and Robin saw a penguin, which our guide said is rare but not impossible.
Lis and I decided to call Amanda, and she invited us to come over to her house to visit and meet her family. After attempting to use the public transportation (same situation- the driver forgot to tell us the stop), we got there eventually, and I was FINALLY reunited with my roommate. Her family is amazing- she has two older sisters who are really cool, a seven-year old sister (Bella) who is a whirlwind but absolutely adorable, and the nicest mom and aunt ever. They insisted that we all stay for dinner, and so we crammed all 11 people around their dining room table and gossiped and talked for a few hours. Altogether a great experience. After dinner the girls and I went back to the hostel and met our other roommate, Rob, who was pretty cool and laid-back, and looked a little like Ryan Gosling.
On Monday, we decided to take advantage of being near the beach, and we went to Vina del Mar, a little beach town next to Valpo. When we got there in the morning, the fog hadn't lifted yet, so we went to see the museum nearby that has one of the Easter island statues, did a little shopping, and got lunch at a tiny empanada place near the beach. For the record, Chilean empanadas are good but NOT better than Argentine ones, contrary to popular belief. After that, we went back to the beach and hung out there for a while. We put our feet in the water, so we could say we've been in the Pacific Ocean, but it was too cold for swimming. We stopped at the bus station on the way back to buy our tickets for the next day, and went back to the hostel for a bit.
For dinner, we tried to go to a vegetarian restaurant that Catherine had picked out (she's a vegetarian, which pretty much dictated our restaurant choices while we were in Chile), but when we tried ordering, we found out that in addition to not serving meat, they were out of: bread, cheese, pasta, avacado, quiche, and about half of their drink selection. Since that eliminated about 99% of their menu, we left and went to another restaurant near the hostel. I unintentionally ordered raw fish ceviche, which was actually good even though I was expecting to hate it. I can check that off my list of life experiences, at any rate.
When we got back to the hostel, we learned that two of the other girls there, who were visiting from Australia, had been robbed. They were on a tour with thirty other people, in a busy part of the city in broad daylight, when two men ran up, threw them to the ground, and cut their bags off of them, while about 100 people looked on. Although we had already been being careful with our bags (the most common phrase in Valpo is "Watch your shit", if that gives you any idea) we were even more paranoid after that. After hearing that story, we walked into our room only to find that two new girls, who had arrived while we were gone that day, had stolen Lis's bed, so apparently it's a city-wide trend. Fortunately there was another bed for Lis to sleep in, but I was really tempted to throw things at the sleeping thief.
Tuesday, April 7, we had breakfast at the hostel and went to wander around the city. We went to the ex-carcel, which is an old prison that is now a sort of artists' commune. There's graffiti murals on all the walls and strange sculptures scattered around, but it was completely deserted when we got there so it was a little eerie. For Beanie: the main prison yard reminded me of Sona, if that gives you any idea. Just graffiti covered. We were a little freaked out when a man appeared out of nowhere, introduced himself as Peter, and proceeded to tell us that he had been imprisoned at that jail years ago, but dug a tunnel and escaped with sixteen other inmates at some point in the seventies. Not sure whether or not to believe him, but honestly I wouldn't be surprised if it were true.
At that point, Lis and I went to meet up with Amanda to have lunch. We grabbed some pizza and had a good time catching up, although it wasn't nearly enough time. When Amanda had to leave for class, she put us on a bus that took us to Pablo Neruda's house, where we met back up with Robin, Aly, and Catherine to take the tour. His house is really cool but didn't take as long to see as we thought it would, so we headed home a little earlier than planned and stopped at a calling center so Aly and I could call home. I called my dad to wish him happy birthday, and apparently gave him a heart attack. I guess when Rose gave him the phone, all she told him was "It's Katie, calling from Chile, and she said she needs to talk to you" so he thought I was in trouble or something. Hopefully the relief made up for the panic? I don't know.
The girls and I went to a little bar for dinner, which was really cool and had mosaic tiles all over the entire room. We tried a really gross drink which was basically pureed pear mixed with red wine (I don't recommend it) and had some quesadillas before going back to the hostel to pack our stuff. We took an overnight bus to the next city, which was fine except for the two little girls sitting behind me who whined the entire ride. Boooo. The next place we went, Pucon, deserves it's own entry, and I figure the long entries are a little tedious anyway. More later.
On Saturday, I spent most of the day doing my own laundry for the first time- Joe discovered that we've had a laundry room in the basement of our building this whole time, go figure- and packing for Chile. Had a heated debate with boy on the phone in the middle of the night and then lay down for about two hours before it was Sunday morning and time to go to the airport.
Flying to Chile by myself was a fiasco start to finish. I couldn't look at my reservation or print my ticket because I still did not have internet, so I just showed up at the airport and took a stab at what I thought was my airline. After waiting in line for about an hour, I learned that I had chosen the wrong airline, and went on to guess #2. Mind you, at this point I have less than an hour to find my airline, get through security, find my gate, and board the plane. Fortunately, guess #2 was correct, and my flight was delayed so I got there in plenty of time.
Once I landed in Chile, I had no idea if the girls were meeting me at the airport, a random bus station, at their hostel, or somewhere else, and our cell phones don't work in Chile so I had no way of finding out. After wandering around the airport for a while, I made friends with a sketchy bus driver who drove me into Santiago and then forgot to tell me which stop to get off at. Also, let me just state that every single building along this road in Santiago looks like a bus station, so that was no help at all. Once he realized he had forgotten to tell me which stop, he got one of his bus-driver buddies to drive me back for free, and fortunately this one was much more helpful. General first impression of Chileans: super nice and extremely hospitable but a little spacey.
I eventually arrived at the bus station, and wandered around for a while longer until I finally spotted the girls getting out of a taxi. We immediately bought bus tickets for Valparaiso and headed off. Our hostel in Valpo was generally nice- awesome staff, cute puppy to play with, but the bathrooms were pretty gross so we avoided them at all costs. The girls (Lis, Robin, Aly, who is Robin's friend from home, and Catherine) and I wandered around and found a place for lunch. For about $5 I got a huge bowl literally filled with more seafood than I could eat in a week- no pasta or anything. Chilean seafood is awesome, and it was a nice change from the beef/chicken/bread/cheese Argentine diet. After lunch we went on a boat tour around the harbor and got to see the entire city from the water. We saw a few sea lions, and I swear me and Robin saw a penguin, which our guide said is rare but not impossible.
Lis and I decided to call Amanda, and she invited us to come over to her house to visit and meet her family. After attempting to use the public transportation (same situation- the driver forgot to tell us the stop), we got there eventually, and I was FINALLY reunited with my roommate. Her family is amazing- she has two older sisters who are really cool, a seven-year old sister (Bella) who is a whirlwind but absolutely adorable, and the nicest mom and aunt ever. They insisted that we all stay for dinner, and so we crammed all 11 people around their dining room table and gossiped and talked for a few hours. Altogether a great experience. After dinner the girls and I went back to the hostel and met our other roommate, Rob, who was pretty cool and laid-back, and looked a little like Ryan Gosling.
On Monday, we decided to take advantage of being near the beach, and we went to Vina del Mar, a little beach town next to Valpo. When we got there in the morning, the fog hadn't lifted yet, so we went to see the museum nearby that has one of the Easter island statues, did a little shopping, and got lunch at a tiny empanada place near the beach. For the record, Chilean empanadas are good but NOT better than Argentine ones, contrary to popular belief. After that, we went back to the beach and hung out there for a while. We put our feet in the water, so we could say we've been in the Pacific Ocean, but it was too cold for swimming. We stopped at the bus station on the way back to buy our tickets for the next day, and went back to the hostel for a bit.
For dinner, we tried to go to a vegetarian restaurant that Catherine had picked out (she's a vegetarian, which pretty much dictated our restaurant choices while we were in Chile), but when we tried ordering, we found out that in addition to not serving meat, they were out of: bread, cheese, pasta, avacado, quiche, and about half of their drink selection. Since that eliminated about 99% of their menu, we left and went to another restaurant near the hostel. I unintentionally ordered raw fish ceviche, which was actually good even though I was expecting to hate it. I can check that off my list of life experiences, at any rate.
When we got back to the hostel, we learned that two of the other girls there, who were visiting from Australia, had been robbed. They were on a tour with thirty other people, in a busy part of the city in broad daylight, when two men ran up, threw them to the ground, and cut their bags off of them, while about 100 people looked on. Although we had already been being careful with our bags (the most common phrase in Valpo is "Watch your shit", if that gives you any idea) we were even more paranoid after that. After hearing that story, we walked into our room only to find that two new girls, who had arrived while we were gone that day, had stolen Lis's bed, so apparently it's a city-wide trend. Fortunately there was another bed for Lis to sleep in, but I was really tempted to throw things at the sleeping thief.
Tuesday, April 7, we had breakfast at the hostel and went to wander around the city. We went to the ex-carcel, which is an old prison that is now a sort of artists' commune. There's graffiti murals on all the walls and strange sculptures scattered around, but it was completely deserted when we got there so it was a little eerie. For Beanie: the main prison yard reminded me of Sona, if that gives you any idea. Just graffiti covered. We were a little freaked out when a man appeared out of nowhere, introduced himself as Peter, and proceeded to tell us that he had been imprisoned at that jail years ago, but dug a tunnel and escaped with sixteen other inmates at some point in the seventies. Not sure whether or not to believe him, but honestly I wouldn't be surprised if it were true.
At that point, Lis and I went to meet up with Amanda to have lunch. We grabbed some pizza and had a good time catching up, although it wasn't nearly enough time. When Amanda had to leave for class, she put us on a bus that took us to Pablo Neruda's house, where we met back up with Robin, Aly, and Catherine to take the tour. His house is really cool but didn't take as long to see as we thought it would, so we headed home a little earlier than planned and stopped at a calling center so Aly and I could call home. I called my dad to wish him happy birthday, and apparently gave him a heart attack. I guess when Rose gave him the phone, all she told him was "It's Katie, calling from Chile, and she said she needs to talk to you" so he thought I was in trouble or something. Hopefully the relief made up for the panic? I don't know.
The girls and I went to a little bar for dinner, which was really cool and had mosaic tiles all over the entire room. We tried a really gross drink which was basically pureed pear mixed with red wine (I don't recommend it) and had some quesadillas before going back to the hostel to pack our stuff. We took an overnight bus to the next city, which was fine except for the two little girls sitting behind me who whined the entire ride. Boooo. The next place we went, Pucon, deserves it's own entry, and I figure the long entries are a little tedious anyway. More later.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Finally caught up! Applause, please.
On Friday, we woke up and had breakfast, then did homework until Roxana, our maid came by. We showed her all of the things that needed fixing in the apartment, etc, made some lunch, and then I left for my UBA class. When I got home later, Ben came over to see the apartment, so I hung out with him and Lauren for a bit. Lauren, Joe, and I went over to the girls’ apartment yet again (it’s sad how dependent we are on internet access), and the girls, Joe and I booked our trip to Peru! We’re going at the end of June/beginning of July and hiking the entire Inca trail, visiting Cuzco and Macchu Picchu- basically it sounds like the coolest trip ever. We went back to the apartment for dinner, and then Lauren and I went to the Di Tella girls’ apartment for a while. We all sat around and ate the amazing dessert that Joanna had made and watched The Graduate, complained about how early we had to get up the next day, and headed back.
On Saturday, we all woke up early to go to the Buquebus terminal for our BC trip to Uruguay. We met up with everyone at the terminal and got through customs. Anne ended up leaving to go home because she had been sick for a few days and wasn’t feeling up to it, but the rest of us got on the ferry for the 3 hour ride. Then I basically fell in love with Ben Pickering, because he came over to me and told me that he had withdrawn extra money for me for the trip in case I needed it. (He knew Stephen still had not paid me back, and I still did not have a debit card or access to cash. The fact that he pulled out money for me without me even having to ask shows you what a sweetheart he is.) The rest of the ferry ride was spent napping/listening to music, until we got to Uruguay. We all went to hotel and checked in, and then walked around the tiny tiny town of Colonia until we found a place to have lunch. I tried chuvito, a traditional Uruguayan dish which was delicious. Also, I had the best chocolate and dulce de leche cake I’ve ever had, hands down. Afterwards, our whole group walked with everyone to the beach and hung out there for a few hours, before heading back for city tour. Most of the tour was via bus, but we got to walk around a bit and take pictures. We all went back to the hotel to nap and then went out to dinner at a restaurant called Patrimonio. We were seated outside, which was a little chilly and windy because it was right on the water, but the atmosphere and the food were great. The most disappointing part of the evening was my dessert. After tons of other people at the table decided they couldn’t eat another bite and didn’t order a dessert, they all decided to sample mine when it got there. Suffice to say there was left than half of my cake left by the time I got to take a bite. Booo. Figuring out the bill was a nightmare because we were paying with three different currencies (US dollars, pesos, and Uruguayos) and one person who shall not be named underpaid by a significant amount and refused to put more in. Got back to the hotel around two, showered and tried unsuccessfully all night to get some sleep.
The next morning, we had breakfast at the hotel, which was boring but not terrible. We all went to rent bikes, which is apparently the accepted method of transportation in Colonia. Some of the boys got four wheelers and mopeds, but I went with everyone else and got a regular bike. This turned out to be a relatively bad decision, because crappy bike + cobblestones + intense heat + long bike ride does not add up to a great ride. However, we biked to the beach (cobblestones = ouch), went swimming and laid out for a while, which was great. I needed more beach in my life, and that weekend definitely helped. Later on I went with Ben G on his moped, and we rode around for an hour or two touring the city and whatnot. We broke into the old bull fighting ring outside of town and took some pictures, then headed back to beach to meet up with the other. We all biked back and visited a little craft fair before finding a restaurant for lunch. Robin and I got some fantastic paella, but there were so many flies buzzing around the table (you literally could not pick up your fork for more than a second before you had to put it down to swat at them) that it kind of ruined the experience a little. A few of us took a mini field trip and climbed up in the old lighthouse in Colonia, and returned the bikes. Ben let me try driving the moped for a bit, and I got the hang of it pretty quickly, which was fun. We got ice cream on the way back to the hotel and went to the pool for a few minutes. At 6, we went back to the Buquebus terminal to catch our ferry home. Most of the ride was spent playing the “destiny” game, which is like MASH but supposedly reveals the name of the person that you’re destined to be with. Mine is apparently Ben Goldeen, and about six people got Lauren for theirs. Altogether hilarious. We were so tired by the time we got back that we basically went straight to bed.
Monday the 30th (oh my god, it’s been two months already) I laid out with Lauren by the pool for a few hours and did history reading/chatted for a while before making lunch. We went to the girls’ yet AGAIN to use their internet, and hung out there for a while. We headed back home for dinner much later (rotisserie chicken and mashed potatoes, with arroz con leche for dessert, yum) and watched Breach, which came on TV randomly. The rest of the night was dedicated to homework, as usual.
The next day, I woke up ridiculously early in order to be at UCA by 8:30 instead of 10. I waited for the bus for almost forty minutes before deciding to take a cab so I wouldn’t be late. Since I only had a $100 peso bill on me, I asked the taxi driver if he could make change before I got in the cab. He assured me that he could, so I got in and told him where I was going. About halfway through the ride, he informed me that he actually did NOT have change for 100 pesos, and instructed me to get out of the cab, buy a $30 phone card at a kiosk, and give him the card as payment. Mind you, my fare was in the low 20s. After taking me to FIVE KIOSKS, none of which had change for $100, I finally was able to buy a phone card for my own phone to break the $100 bill. I told him that I was going to keep the phone card and pay him the exact fare in cash, and he threw a fit. I guess he was hoping that getting paid with a card would mean he didn’t have to report his fare, but I just threw the fare at him and got out of the cab as fast as I could, because the whole situation was beyond sketchy. FINALLY got to school in time for the movie that my prof was showing before class, and got out of class around noon. I sat in park during my 2 hour break, ate some lunch, and did a significant amount of history reading. The rest of the afternoon/evening was class and homework, until I finished and took the bus home. I had dinner with Joe, and then the two of us headed out to a café to use the wifi there without bothering the girls. We got there, and I started writing my paper (my goal was to finish it before I allowed myself any internet time at all). Joe, who needed to go online for at least a few hours, sat there and refused to ask the waitress for the access code to the internet because he was too “shy” to ask her. He wanted me to ask, but I told him that since he was a big boy and his Spanish was about ten times better than mine, I thought he could handle asking himself. He hemmed and hawed for about a half an hour, and by then the café was closing for the night, so we went home without any internet time whatsoever.
I wasted April 1st and did not pull a practical joke on anyone, unfortunately. Since Wednesday seems to be the day when we get all of our errands done, Lauren and I went grocery shopping and headed back to make breakfast. Afterwards we went back out to the pharmacy to buy hangers and other necessities, which we’ve been doing without up until now. I stopped by the girls’ briefly to email my history paper to Lauren so she could print it out for me before class, and ran home for lunch. I had classes at UBA and Universidad de San Andres all afternoon, and then Lauren and I went back to the Modena café for internet and split a ¼ kilo of ice cream. (Dessert before dinner is totally permissible in our house.) I finally found out about my PEL classes (they’re letting me switch to the ones I need, thank god) and found out that my BC housing group did not get chosen in the first round of the housing lottery for the six-man apartments. Not the end of the world, but slightly disappointing. We went home for dinner, and then Lauren, Joe, and I had a roomie outing to the movies to see “Locos por las compras”. It reminded me a little of “The Devil Wears Prada”, but was more chick-flick style. Not a fantastic movie, but cute and funny. I ran into Katie, one of my new friends from UBA (who, ironically enough, is the only other person from the USA in our class and is from Boston) and then headed home to go to bed.
On Saturday, we all woke up early to go to the Buquebus terminal for our BC trip to Uruguay. We met up with everyone at the terminal and got through customs. Anne ended up leaving to go home because she had been sick for a few days and wasn’t feeling up to it, but the rest of us got on the ferry for the 3 hour ride. Then I basically fell in love with Ben Pickering, because he came over to me and told me that he had withdrawn extra money for me for the trip in case I needed it. (He knew Stephen still had not paid me back, and I still did not have a debit card or access to cash. The fact that he pulled out money for me without me even having to ask shows you what a sweetheart he is.) The rest of the ferry ride was spent napping/listening to music, until we got to Uruguay. We all went to hotel and checked in, and then walked around the tiny tiny town of Colonia until we found a place to have lunch. I tried chuvito, a traditional Uruguayan dish which was delicious. Also, I had the best chocolate and dulce de leche cake I’ve ever had, hands down. Afterwards, our whole group walked with everyone to the beach and hung out there for a few hours, before heading back for city tour. Most of the tour was via bus, but we got to walk around a bit and take pictures. We all went back to the hotel to nap and then went out to dinner at a restaurant called Patrimonio. We were seated outside, which was a little chilly and windy because it was right on the water, but the atmosphere and the food were great. The most disappointing part of the evening was my dessert. After tons of other people at the table decided they couldn’t eat another bite and didn’t order a dessert, they all decided to sample mine when it got there. Suffice to say there was left than half of my cake left by the time I got to take a bite. Booo. Figuring out the bill was a nightmare because we were paying with three different currencies (US dollars, pesos, and Uruguayos) and one person who shall not be named underpaid by a significant amount and refused to put more in. Got back to the hotel around two, showered and tried unsuccessfully all night to get some sleep.
The next morning, we had breakfast at the hotel, which was boring but not terrible. We all went to rent bikes, which is apparently the accepted method of transportation in Colonia. Some of the boys got four wheelers and mopeds, but I went with everyone else and got a regular bike. This turned out to be a relatively bad decision, because crappy bike + cobblestones + intense heat + long bike ride does not add up to a great ride. However, we biked to the beach (cobblestones = ouch), went swimming and laid out for a while, which was great. I needed more beach in my life, and that weekend definitely helped. Later on I went with Ben G on his moped, and we rode around for an hour or two touring the city and whatnot. We broke into the old bull fighting ring outside of town and took some pictures, then headed back to beach to meet up with the other. We all biked back and visited a little craft fair before finding a restaurant for lunch. Robin and I got some fantastic paella, but there were so many flies buzzing around the table (you literally could not pick up your fork for more than a second before you had to put it down to swat at them) that it kind of ruined the experience a little. A few of us took a mini field trip and climbed up in the old lighthouse in Colonia, and returned the bikes. Ben let me try driving the moped for a bit, and I got the hang of it pretty quickly, which was fun. We got ice cream on the way back to the hotel and went to the pool for a few minutes. At 6, we went back to the Buquebus terminal to catch our ferry home. Most of the ride was spent playing the “destiny” game, which is like MASH but supposedly reveals the name of the person that you’re destined to be with. Mine is apparently Ben Goldeen, and about six people got Lauren for theirs. Altogether hilarious. We were so tired by the time we got back that we basically went straight to bed.
Monday the 30th (oh my god, it’s been two months already) I laid out with Lauren by the pool for a few hours and did history reading/chatted for a while before making lunch. We went to the girls’ yet AGAIN to use their internet, and hung out there for a while. We headed back home for dinner much later (rotisserie chicken and mashed potatoes, with arroz con leche for dessert, yum) and watched Breach, which came on TV randomly. The rest of the night was dedicated to homework, as usual.
The next day, I woke up ridiculously early in order to be at UCA by 8:30 instead of 10. I waited for the bus for almost forty minutes before deciding to take a cab so I wouldn’t be late. Since I only had a $100 peso bill on me, I asked the taxi driver if he could make change before I got in the cab. He assured me that he could, so I got in and told him where I was going. About halfway through the ride, he informed me that he actually did NOT have change for 100 pesos, and instructed me to get out of the cab, buy a $30 phone card at a kiosk, and give him the card as payment. Mind you, my fare was in the low 20s. After taking me to FIVE KIOSKS, none of which had change for $100, I finally was able to buy a phone card for my own phone to break the $100 bill. I told him that I was going to keep the phone card and pay him the exact fare in cash, and he threw a fit. I guess he was hoping that getting paid with a card would mean he didn’t have to report his fare, but I just threw the fare at him and got out of the cab as fast as I could, because the whole situation was beyond sketchy. FINALLY got to school in time for the movie that my prof was showing before class, and got out of class around noon. I sat in park during my 2 hour break, ate some lunch, and did a significant amount of history reading. The rest of the afternoon/evening was class and homework, until I finished and took the bus home. I had dinner with Joe, and then the two of us headed out to a café to use the wifi there without bothering the girls. We got there, and I started writing my paper (my goal was to finish it before I allowed myself any internet time at all). Joe, who needed to go online for at least a few hours, sat there and refused to ask the waitress for the access code to the internet because he was too “shy” to ask her. He wanted me to ask, but I told him that since he was a big boy and his Spanish was about ten times better than mine, I thought he could handle asking himself. He hemmed and hawed for about a half an hour, and by then the café was closing for the night, so we went home without any internet time whatsoever.
I wasted April 1st and did not pull a practical joke on anyone, unfortunately. Since Wednesday seems to be the day when we get all of our errands done, Lauren and I went grocery shopping and headed back to make breakfast. Afterwards we went back out to the pharmacy to buy hangers and other necessities, which we’ve been doing without up until now. I stopped by the girls’ briefly to email my history paper to Lauren so she could print it out for me before class, and ran home for lunch. I had classes at UBA and Universidad de San Andres all afternoon, and then Lauren and I went back to the Modena café for internet and split a ¼ kilo of ice cream. (Dessert before dinner is totally permissible in our house.) I finally found out about my PEL classes (they’re letting me switch to the ones I need, thank god) and found out that my BC housing group did not get chosen in the first round of the housing lottery for the six-man apartments. Not the end of the world, but slightly disappointing. We went home for dinner, and then Lauren, Joe, and I had a roomie outing to the movies to see “Locos por las compras”. It reminded me a little of “The Devil Wears Prada”, but was more chick-flick style. Not a fantastic movie, but cute and funny. I ran into Katie, one of my new friends from UBA (who, ironically enough, is the only other person from the USA in our class and is from Boston) and then headed home to go to bed.
Why does Buenos Aires hate me sometimes when I love it so much?
I was lazy pretty much all day on Sunday, and spent the day reading/watching a movie/doing my homework etc. Joe spent the day at a friend’s house using their internet and Lauren was still at Iguazu Falls, so I had the apartment to myself. I tried to go back to the café again that night to steal their internet, only to find out that their wifi wasn’t working. Booo. I called the realtor again to harass him about the internet, among other things, and got nowhere.
On Monday, I spent most of the morning reading and listening to music by the pool, which was the first time I’ve really gotten take advantage of having a pool in our apartment building. I made lunch and hung out with Joe for a while, and then worked on updating my blog in a word document (the online version is now almost a month behind due to the lack of internet.) The afternoon involved more harassing of the realtor, etc. Altogether an uneventful day, but considering that all of my people are currently scattered around the country (the girls are in Iguazu, and the boys, Emily, and Catherine are all in Patagonia), I don’t feel too bad about my lack of itinerary.
Tuesday, March 24 was a feriado- which meant no class! Lauren came home from Iguazu and spent the morning trying to get a visa from the Brazilian embassy for her trip. After she got back (the embassy was closed) we spent a few hours laying out by the pool and getting some sun. We watched TV for a bit and then made pasta for dinner. Pasta is very quickly becoming a huge part of my diet- maybe I should branch out a little in my cooking. The girls came over that night for ice cream and we watched part of a really terrible movie on TV before going to bed.
Wednesday the 25th was mostly reserved for errands. I dropped off some laundry at the laundromat across the street, and then wandered around the city for a few hours going in every bookstore I could find to ask about my school books. I met up with Lauren after her trip to the Brazilian embassy (which was successful this time) for lunch. Afterwards, we got ice cream at Sei Tu, the same amazing ice cream chain from Villa Gesell that we finally found in Buenos Aires! We both got chocolate granizado (which roughly equates to heaven) and can only be found at that particular chain. We also received a bunch of text messages from Joe, who was supposed to let the maid in that morning, show her around, etc, since neither Lauren or I could be there. Apparently the maid showed up and had security pound on our door for forty minutes. Although Joe swore at first that he was awake and never heard anything, he later admitted that he might have slept through it. Basically, what it came down to is that we paid for another week of the cleaning service and did not get it. Fantastic. After ice cream, I headed off to my first class at UBA. The kids in my class are literally from everywhere (USA, Canada, China, Japan, Bangladesh, Holland, Germany, Brazil, England, Switzerland, etc) which was a nice change from UCA, where it seems like everyone’s either from Argentina or the States. After class, I ran to San Andres, where my next class started at exactly the same time as my UBA class ended. I made it, fortunately, in time to meet up with everyone for a walking tour of the city with our cool tour guide. I actually learned a lot, which was unexpected since a lot of the places we visited were places we’ve seen on tours before. The girls and I all hopped on the bus after class to head home, where we were accosted by a sketchy guy who told us to go to a certain bar every Thursday night at 7 for a special meeting, and a mean lady who came up to the seat where I was sitting and ordered me to move so she could sit down. We finally got back home, picked up our laundry and made dinner, and then headed over to the girls’ apartment to use internet and do our homework. The girls really deserve a medal for putting up with us- we invade their house to steal their internet so often that I’m amazed they’re not sick of us yet.
I got up super early on Thursday and went to UCA to take care of a bunch of paperwork-type things. I finally got my student ID, and tried register for classes. However, the lady at the registration desk gave me shit about my schedule, because my email requesting a change in courses missed the deadline by something like three hours. Never mind that I haven’t had internet for a month and we weren’t informed of the deadline until the day of. I ended up emailing the head of the Latin American studies program (which all of my classes are in) begging him to let me make the changes anyway because I had already talked to the professors, bought the books, attended the new classes, and started the homework/projects for each. Went to my Cuentos class and had lunch afterwards, and headed over to UBA only to find out that my class was canceled due to a strike. Apparently this is considered completely normal. Not that I’m complaining- I loved having the afternoon off. I ended up meeting up with Lis, and we went to buy my UBA book, and tried to get international student IDs, which apparently get you discounts on travel expenses and such. Unfortunately, we found out that you need about fifty different forms and types of identification to get them, so we gave up and took the subte back. I spent my unexpected free time hanging out at house. Steve texted me saying that he was on his way over with the money he owed me, so I waited for about an hour before finally calling him to figure out how he managed to get lost in the 15 blocks between our apartments. He then told me that he did not have my money, and could not take it out of the bank for me since all of the ATMs in the city were magically broken and would not accept his card. Strike two on operation pay-Katie-her-money-which-has-been-owed-for-over-a-month. Considering how fast the exchange rate is increasing, if I don’t get it back soon I’ll be losing a lot of money. After determining that Steve was not coming over, I headed back to UCA for my Revolutions class, only to find that it was canceled as well. Slightly pissed about the hour and a half in transit that was wasted on the trip out there and back, but oh well. Lauren and I made dinner (we work perfectly together- we decided that we’d make a perfect lesbian couple), and then sat around eating popcorn and watching bad movies on TV. Spent the rest of the night doing homework and went to bed.
On Monday, I spent most of the morning reading and listening to music by the pool, which was the first time I’ve really gotten take advantage of having a pool in our apartment building. I made lunch and hung out with Joe for a while, and then worked on updating my blog in a word document (the online version is now almost a month behind due to the lack of internet.) The afternoon involved more harassing of the realtor, etc. Altogether an uneventful day, but considering that all of my people are currently scattered around the country (the girls are in Iguazu, and the boys, Emily, and Catherine are all in Patagonia), I don’t feel too bad about my lack of itinerary.
Tuesday, March 24 was a feriado- which meant no class! Lauren came home from Iguazu and spent the morning trying to get a visa from the Brazilian embassy for her trip. After she got back (the embassy was closed) we spent a few hours laying out by the pool and getting some sun. We watched TV for a bit and then made pasta for dinner. Pasta is very quickly becoming a huge part of my diet- maybe I should branch out a little in my cooking. The girls came over that night for ice cream and we watched part of a really terrible movie on TV before going to bed.
Wednesday the 25th was mostly reserved for errands. I dropped off some laundry at the laundromat across the street, and then wandered around the city for a few hours going in every bookstore I could find to ask about my school books. I met up with Lauren after her trip to the Brazilian embassy (which was successful this time) for lunch. Afterwards, we got ice cream at Sei Tu, the same amazing ice cream chain from Villa Gesell that we finally found in Buenos Aires! We both got chocolate granizado (which roughly equates to heaven) and can only be found at that particular chain. We also received a bunch of text messages from Joe, who was supposed to let the maid in that morning, show her around, etc, since neither Lauren or I could be there. Apparently the maid showed up and had security pound on our door for forty minutes. Although Joe swore at first that he was awake and never heard anything, he later admitted that he might have slept through it. Basically, what it came down to is that we paid for another week of the cleaning service and did not get it. Fantastic. After ice cream, I headed off to my first class at UBA. The kids in my class are literally from everywhere (USA, Canada, China, Japan, Bangladesh, Holland, Germany, Brazil, England, Switzerland, etc) which was a nice change from UCA, where it seems like everyone’s either from Argentina or the States. After class, I ran to San Andres, where my next class started at exactly the same time as my UBA class ended. I made it, fortunately, in time to meet up with everyone for a walking tour of the city with our cool tour guide. I actually learned a lot, which was unexpected since a lot of the places we visited were places we’ve seen on tours before. The girls and I all hopped on the bus after class to head home, where we were accosted by a sketchy guy who told us to go to a certain bar every Thursday night at 7 for a special meeting, and a mean lady who came up to the seat where I was sitting and ordered me to move so she could sit down. We finally got back home, picked up our laundry and made dinner, and then headed over to the girls’ apartment to use internet and do our homework. The girls really deserve a medal for putting up with us- we invade their house to steal their internet so often that I’m amazed they’re not sick of us yet.
I got up super early on Thursday and went to UCA to take care of a bunch of paperwork-type things. I finally got my student ID, and tried register for classes. However, the lady at the registration desk gave me shit about my schedule, because my email requesting a change in courses missed the deadline by something like three hours. Never mind that I haven’t had internet for a month and we weren’t informed of the deadline until the day of. I ended up emailing the head of the Latin American studies program (which all of my classes are in) begging him to let me make the changes anyway because I had already talked to the professors, bought the books, attended the new classes, and started the homework/projects for each. Went to my Cuentos class and had lunch afterwards, and headed over to UBA only to find out that my class was canceled due to a strike. Apparently this is considered completely normal. Not that I’m complaining- I loved having the afternoon off. I ended up meeting up with Lis, and we went to buy my UBA book, and tried to get international student IDs, which apparently get you discounts on travel expenses and such. Unfortunately, we found out that you need about fifty different forms and types of identification to get them, so we gave up and took the subte back. I spent my unexpected free time hanging out at house. Steve texted me saying that he was on his way over with the money he owed me, so I waited for about an hour before finally calling him to figure out how he managed to get lost in the 15 blocks between our apartments. He then told me that he did not have my money, and could not take it out of the bank for me since all of the ATMs in the city were magically broken and would not accept his card. Strike two on operation pay-Katie-her-money-which-has-been-owed-for-over-a-month. Considering how fast the exchange rate is increasing, if I don’t get it back soon I’ll be losing a lot of money. After determining that Steve was not coming over, I headed back to UCA for my Revolutions class, only to find that it was canceled as well. Slightly pissed about the hour and a half in transit that was wasted on the trip out there and back, but oh well. Lauren and I made dinner (we work perfectly together- we decided that we’d make a perfect lesbian couple), and then sat around eating popcorn and watching bad movies on TV. Spent the rest of the night doing homework and went to bed.
The Kehew family does Buenos Aires
On Saturday, I woke up early to take a really elaborate route via public transportation to the airport- it involved walking eight blocks to the subte, taking two subte lines, another ten blocks of walking, and a bus. I went to the bus stop that the airport transportation website had listed, and after a long wait I finally hailed the number 86 bus. I asked the driver how much the fare was to the airport, and he told me that I was in the completely wrong section of town, on the wrong bus route, if that was where I’m trying to go. I guess he must have felt bad for me, because he told me to get on the bus (free of charge!) because his route overlapped with a bus route to the airport.
Once on the bus, I realized that I was the only passenger, and went back and forth between flattered and creeped out when the bus driver, Angel, kept commenting on how pretty I was. After about an hour an a half on the bus (during which time only one other person got on the bus and off again), Angel pulled the bus over in the middle of traffic and told me to wait for a second. He then proceeded to get off the bus, BUY ME A BOUQUET OF FLOWERS, and drive me to the overlapping bus route, where he gave me step-by-step instructions on how to get to the airport, including time estimates and estimated fares. He gave me a hug and sent me on my way, and I ended up getting to the airport only a few minutes late. Overall a very good experience, especially in a city where public transportation is sketchy more often than not.
There was a brief period of sketchiness while I was waiting for the bus to the airport, involving a 50something year old man named Pedro, who wanted my phone number and address. I declined, but had a very interesting conversation trying to explain where I was from- I told him it was near Boston and New York, but the only places he knew in the states were Los Angeles and Montana. (Side note: Montana?!) He was also very disappointed to hear that it did not snow year round, and I was not within walking distance to Canada. I finally escaped and had an uneventful bus ride to the airport to pick my family up.
We stopped at the hotel to drop their stuff off, and then I got to show off my beautiful city. We went to the Italian restaurant across from my old apartment so they could see where I had lived and meet my favorite waiters, and then we wandered through the parks and saw the exhibit in the main plaza (hundreds of giant bears painted to represent different countries in an international peace movement. Why bears? I have no idea.) We spent some time walking up and down Calle Florida, aka the most touristy street in the city, and then walked to UCA so they could see my school, stopping at a bunch of different parks along the way. By the time we got there, it was pouring rain, so we jumped in a cab and went to Sigue la vaca, a restaurant that I had heard of and wanted to go to but hadn’t visited yet. They got to try the Argentine asado and we got an all-you can eat meat and salad bar, which was pretty cool. Desserts were awesome, which was a definite plus. Dad was shocked that the restaurant was empty when we got there at 8:30 but had a line out the door at 11:00 when we left- I figure he’s got a week to get used to the later schedule here. After dinner, I went back to the hotel and stayed there that night. (Place to live number 5 for my two-week period of homelessness.)
On Sunday, my family and I had breakfast at the hotel, and then we all headed out to the boys’ apartment to pick up my luggage (which has been living there for two weeks). Joe and I officially moved in to our new place, and I gave my family the grand tour. They were pretty impressed, I think, especially with the balcony/pool/security. Every time they came by after that, security grilled them for quite a while before deciding they actually were related to me and were allowed in the building. After unpacking a bit, the four of us went to the feria in Recoleta and did some shopping, and then stopped for lunch at a café there. I refused to let them get dessert (unusual for me, I know) and then took them to Confiteria Norte (the most amazing pastry shop you’ve ever seen in your life and my new favorite place in the world) and bought a kilo of pastries. They stopped complaining about the lack of desserts after that- I think their eyes bugged out of their heads as soon as we walked in the door of the pastry shop. After spending far too much time and money there, we walked to the cemetery in Recoleta, listened to some street performers and wandered through the tombs. By this point, my dad’s feet were killing him (I forgot how bad the blisters are the first few days if you aren’t used to walking as much as they do here) so we went back to the hotel, where mom and dad took a nap. Beanie and I wandered up and down Calle Florida for a while ( I introduced her to alfojores- she’s a fan) and bought two more of my school books. In the three blocks between the bookstore and the hotel, I somehow either lost my debit card or was pickpocketed. This was especially problematic because my parents had deposited their money into my account for me to withdraw for them as needed. Oops. Fortunately, I still had my credit card and some cash, as did they, so we might be able to get by. We went out to dinner at Filo, a local Italian restaurant with excellent pizza, and went back to the hotel afterwards to go to bed.
Monday started off with breakfast at the hotel with my family, and then I walked to UBA (University of Buenos Aires) for 10am to take my Spanish placement test. They told me and Steve (who was also taking the test) that we would have to come back at four because so many people had signed up that there wasn’t room for us all. Silvana brought us to a café, got us snacks, gave us the money for the course and wished us luck since she wouldn’t be able to come back at four with us. We decided to kill some time and went back to Steve’s apartment to use his internet to cancel my debit card, and then I met back up with my family for lunch before returning to UBA to take the test. I ended up doing really well, and got a near-perfect score on the speaking portion (thank god I redeemed myself after the failed speaking test at UCA) and tested into level five. None of the level five courses fit, but one of the level fours did, so I signed up on the spot. The woman I was talking to told me that I would basically have an easy, slightly boring semester, but it will get UCA off my back about taking a language course and it will help me practice. After about three hours of paperwork and waiting in lines, I went back to the hotel. Lauren came over and came to dinner at the hotel with my family (which, ironically, was the most expensive and most disappointing meal we’ve had in Buenos Aires) and then the two of us took a cab and brought the rest of my stuff over to the apartment to officially move in.
Tuesday morning, I woke up ridiculously early to shower and get ready to head over to my class at 10. I made it to class after a 40 minute subte ride only to sit in a classroom for thirty minutes before my class finally determined that our professor (the same professor who told us that each time we were absent or late to class would take five points off our final grade) wasn’t going to show up. Slightly annoying but also nice to get an extra hour of free time in my day- after that, I didn’t have class until six in the evening. Headed over to the hotel and had lunch there with my family (the first American-style cheeseburger I’ve had in Argentina, I miss them) and then decided to walk around the nature preserve near my school. After walking around there for a few hours, we headed back, stopping at Puente de la mujer (Bridge of the Woman) for pictures and ice cream on the way. I went to a new class that I had just switched into, which seemed slightly boring but will hopefully fulfill one of the lit requirements for my Spanish major.
After class, Mom, Dad, and Beanie met me at UCA and we walked to a nearby restaurant called Bahia Madero for dinner. We were there for a few hours, and then went back to the hotel to hang out until I went home. The streets were full of drunken tourists pretending they were Irish for St. Patrick’s Day, which apparently was not celebrated here until fairly recently. My friends went to an Irish pub for the evening, but exhaustion won out and everyone went home fairly early.
On Wednesday morning, Lauren and I woke up with a checklist of errands a mile long. In the space of about three hours, including walking time from place to place, we made copies of the apartment key, dropped off our laundry at the laundromat (here, they wash, dry, and fold it for you and have it ready for pickup in a few hours, for less than $5- sweet), bought a loft bed frame for our apartment and scheduled a delivery time, went grocery shopping, hassled our realtor about giving us the internet access code, and did our history reading. Not too bad in a country where inefficiency is the rule.
My family came over to the apartment and we went to lunch at a restaurant a few blocks away called T-Bone, which was probably one of the best meals I’ve had in this country. We made friends with one of the waiters, got free ice cream shots for dessert, and then I sent them off to wander through the botanical gardens while I went to my history class. I was supposed to see Stephen there to get back the $1400 I had lent him for his rent, but he didn’t show up to class and texted me afterwards to say he would give me the money that night. Since my debit card was still missing/canceled and my family was depending on that for access to money, we had been living on VISA and the cash we had on us. We went out to dinner at Kentucky Rural Pizza (again, determined by whether or not they accepted VISA) with Lauren, and I introduced my family to empanadas. Fortunately, they all determined that they are a staple of the Argentine diet for a good reason.
After dinner, we got ice cream at an heladeria (aka ice cream shop) nearby and we headed back to the apartment to be there when the furniture store crew came to install the loft bed. Lauren and I worked on our readings for class, and were getting ready for bed when Steve finally texted me at 1:30am. After a few texts back and forth, the conclusion was that Steve was leaving for Patagonia at 5:15 the next morning, and was not going to give me my money before then unless I got dressed, hiked the 15 blocks to his apartment by myself in the middle of the night (see what lack of cab money will do to you?) and hiked back. The only other option he offered was to leave it under the doormat and hope it didn’t get stolen in the meantime. Mind you, this is to get the money that he had to return to me. Those of you who know me well will understand my normal reaction and will also respect the fact that there was no profanity whatsoever in my texts back to him. The fact that Lauren had to censor them before I sent them is irrelevant.
Thursday started off with my short story class. The professor actually showed up this time, and proceeded to change the entire syllabus to accommodate the class that she missed, meaning that none of us had the notes for the topic she wanted to discuss that day. Got through it somehow, and then met up with my family for lunch at Desiderio, another one of the cafes I frequent. We killed the time until my next class by going to the Plaza de Mayo, where we got to see the march of the women around the plaza, the Casa Rosada, the Catedral, and various other government buildings whose significance I do not know.
My 6pm class was interesting, and oddly enough, more difficult to understand because it was in English. I had originally been in the class that was taught in Spanish by the same professor, but switched because it conflicted with another class. The professor speaks English only slightly better than I speak Spanish, and it was definitely a challenge to try to decipher what he was trying to say. I give the Argentines here a lot of credit for putting up with my broken Spanish- it’s exhausting trying to translate it into something resembling a grammatically correct sentence.
Went to dinner with Beanie and the parents at Dada, which looks deceptively like a fairly cheap bar/restaurant but is hands down the best restaurant that I’ve ever eaten at. If you ever come to Buenos Aires, go there. It was fantastic. Beanie and I dropped Mom and Dad off at the hotel, and we went back to my apartment to get ready to go to Caix, one of the best boliches in the city, to which we somehow managed to obtain wristbands for free admission. We got to the club with Lauren, Lis, and Anne, only to find that it was pretty dead. (Given, it was only 2:00, which is ridiculously early to be going out here). The girls left after only an hour, but Beanie and I stayed and were basically attacked by lots of Argentine boys for the next few hours. We’ve determined that their English vocab consists of a few key phrases:
1. “Where are you from?”
2. “Do you have a boyfriend?”
3. “You are very beautiful”
and 4. “Will you kiss me?”.
These are usually uttered in rapid succession, within the first few minutes of meeting you. Many of them will just skip the introductions, grab your face, and attempt to make out with you. After a few hours, their aggressiveness was increasing with their alcohol intake, so Beanie and I left around five because we were getting tired of fighting them off.
On Friday, Beanie and I dragged ourselves out of bed after far too little sleep and went to the hotel to meet up with Mom and Dad. The four of us went to lunch at el Cabildo (the restaurant Steve took Lauren and I to for Valentine’s Day), and then took a taxi to la Boca. We got to see the trademark painted buildings, watch some street performers and musicians, and see the Boca Juniors’ stadium. On the way back to the hotel we stopped and got Freddo (which is an awesome local ice cream place), and ate our ice cream in the park. By that point, we had to head back to the hotel to shower and get dressed. We were picked up by the hotel shuttle and taken to the Carlos Gardel dinner and tango show, which was really cool and a lot of fun. Beanie has a bunch of videos from the show that I’m sure will be on facebook sooner or later. The show went pretty late, and I went home to crash.
My family came over to the apartment to spend their last day here with me, and we had lunch at a restaurant nearby and then went to the zoo. Favorite exhibits were the elephants (of course) and the chimpanzees, who are frighteningly intelligent but cool and really cute. The saddest one by far was the polar bear, who looked underfed, hot, and miserable in the 90 degree weather. Most of the habitats for the animals seemed really small to me, and in a lot of cases you could go right up to the bars and pet or feed them. We spent a few hours there, and then I put my family in a cab so they could head back to the hotel and catch their shuttle to the airport. I spent the rest of the day catching up on my homework and such, made some pasta for dinner that turned out really well (yay for me and my limited cooking skills!) and went to a nearby café with Joe to steal their internet. Finally got to talk to Joshua for the first time in weeks, which made my day. I left when the café workers started giving me dirty looks and went to bed.
Unfortunately, I was woken up at some point in the middle of the night when a strange man walked into my room- since I’m essentially blind without my contacts it was a little creepy because I couldn’t tell who it was. It ended up being Frankie and another guy, two of Joe’s friends, who had headed home with Joe to crash here because it was too late to go home. Still slightly creepy, but it was reassuring to know that at least they weren’t complete strangers breaking into my apartment in the middle of the night. After that interruption, I went back to sleep, and thankfully they were gone by the time I woke up.
Once on the bus, I realized that I was the only passenger, and went back and forth between flattered and creeped out when the bus driver, Angel, kept commenting on how pretty I was. After about an hour an a half on the bus (during which time only one other person got on the bus and off again), Angel pulled the bus over in the middle of traffic and told me to wait for a second. He then proceeded to get off the bus, BUY ME A BOUQUET OF FLOWERS, and drive me to the overlapping bus route, where he gave me step-by-step instructions on how to get to the airport, including time estimates and estimated fares. He gave me a hug and sent me on my way, and I ended up getting to the airport only a few minutes late. Overall a very good experience, especially in a city where public transportation is sketchy more often than not.
There was a brief period of sketchiness while I was waiting for the bus to the airport, involving a 50something year old man named Pedro, who wanted my phone number and address. I declined, but had a very interesting conversation trying to explain where I was from- I told him it was near Boston and New York, but the only places he knew in the states were Los Angeles and Montana. (Side note: Montana?!) He was also very disappointed to hear that it did not snow year round, and I was not within walking distance to Canada. I finally escaped and had an uneventful bus ride to the airport to pick my family up.
We stopped at the hotel to drop their stuff off, and then I got to show off my beautiful city. We went to the Italian restaurant across from my old apartment so they could see where I had lived and meet my favorite waiters, and then we wandered through the parks and saw the exhibit in the main plaza (hundreds of giant bears painted to represent different countries in an international peace movement. Why bears? I have no idea.) We spent some time walking up and down Calle Florida, aka the most touristy street in the city, and then walked to UCA so they could see my school, stopping at a bunch of different parks along the way. By the time we got there, it was pouring rain, so we jumped in a cab and went to Sigue la vaca, a restaurant that I had heard of and wanted to go to but hadn’t visited yet. They got to try the Argentine asado and we got an all-you can eat meat and salad bar, which was pretty cool. Desserts were awesome, which was a definite plus. Dad was shocked that the restaurant was empty when we got there at 8:30 but had a line out the door at 11:00 when we left- I figure he’s got a week to get used to the later schedule here. After dinner, I went back to the hotel and stayed there that night. (Place to live number 5 for my two-week period of homelessness.)
On Sunday, my family and I had breakfast at the hotel, and then we all headed out to the boys’ apartment to pick up my luggage (which has been living there for two weeks). Joe and I officially moved in to our new place, and I gave my family the grand tour. They were pretty impressed, I think, especially with the balcony/pool/security. Every time they came by after that, security grilled them for quite a while before deciding they actually were related to me and were allowed in the building. After unpacking a bit, the four of us went to the feria in Recoleta and did some shopping, and then stopped for lunch at a café there. I refused to let them get dessert (unusual for me, I know) and then took them to Confiteria Norte (the most amazing pastry shop you’ve ever seen in your life and my new favorite place in the world) and bought a kilo of pastries. They stopped complaining about the lack of desserts after that- I think their eyes bugged out of their heads as soon as we walked in the door of the pastry shop. After spending far too much time and money there, we walked to the cemetery in Recoleta, listened to some street performers and wandered through the tombs. By this point, my dad’s feet were killing him (I forgot how bad the blisters are the first few days if you aren’t used to walking as much as they do here) so we went back to the hotel, where mom and dad took a nap. Beanie and I wandered up and down Calle Florida for a while ( I introduced her to alfojores- she’s a fan) and bought two more of my school books. In the three blocks between the bookstore and the hotel, I somehow either lost my debit card or was pickpocketed. This was especially problematic because my parents had deposited their money into my account for me to withdraw for them as needed. Oops. Fortunately, I still had my credit card and some cash, as did they, so we might be able to get by. We went out to dinner at Filo, a local Italian restaurant with excellent pizza, and went back to the hotel afterwards to go to bed.
Monday started off with breakfast at the hotel with my family, and then I walked to UBA (University of Buenos Aires) for 10am to take my Spanish placement test. They told me and Steve (who was also taking the test) that we would have to come back at four because so many people had signed up that there wasn’t room for us all. Silvana brought us to a café, got us snacks, gave us the money for the course and wished us luck since she wouldn’t be able to come back at four with us. We decided to kill some time and went back to Steve’s apartment to use his internet to cancel my debit card, and then I met back up with my family for lunch before returning to UBA to take the test. I ended up doing really well, and got a near-perfect score on the speaking portion (thank god I redeemed myself after the failed speaking test at UCA) and tested into level five. None of the level five courses fit, but one of the level fours did, so I signed up on the spot. The woman I was talking to told me that I would basically have an easy, slightly boring semester, but it will get UCA off my back about taking a language course and it will help me practice. After about three hours of paperwork and waiting in lines, I went back to the hotel. Lauren came over and came to dinner at the hotel with my family (which, ironically, was the most expensive and most disappointing meal we’ve had in Buenos Aires) and then the two of us took a cab and brought the rest of my stuff over to the apartment to officially move in.
Tuesday morning, I woke up ridiculously early to shower and get ready to head over to my class at 10. I made it to class after a 40 minute subte ride only to sit in a classroom for thirty minutes before my class finally determined that our professor (the same professor who told us that each time we were absent or late to class would take five points off our final grade) wasn’t going to show up. Slightly annoying but also nice to get an extra hour of free time in my day- after that, I didn’t have class until six in the evening. Headed over to the hotel and had lunch there with my family (the first American-style cheeseburger I’ve had in Argentina, I miss them) and then decided to walk around the nature preserve near my school. After walking around there for a few hours, we headed back, stopping at Puente de la mujer (Bridge of the Woman) for pictures and ice cream on the way. I went to a new class that I had just switched into, which seemed slightly boring but will hopefully fulfill one of the lit requirements for my Spanish major.
After class, Mom, Dad, and Beanie met me at UCA and we walked to a nearby restaurant called Bahia Madero for dinner. We were there for a few hours, and then went back to the hotel to hang out until I went home. The streets were full of drunken tourists pretending they were Irish for St. Patrick’s Day, which apparently was not celebrated here until fairly recently. My friends went to an Irish pub for the evening, but exhaustion won out and everyone went home fairly early.
On Wednesday morning, Lauren and I woke up with a checklist of errands a mile long. In the space of about three hours, including walking time from place to place, we made copies of the apartment key, dropped off our laundry at the laundromat (here, they wash, dry, and fold it for you and have it ready for pickup in a few hours, for less than $5- sweet), bought a loft bed frame for our apartment and scheduled a delivery time, went grocery shopping, hassled our realtor about giving us the internet access code, and did our history reading. Not too bad in a country where inefficiency is the rule.
My family came over to the apartment and we went to lunch at a restaurant a few blocks away called T-Bone, which was probably one of the best meals I’ve had in this country. We made friends with one of the waiters, got free ice cream shots for dessert, and then I sent them off to wander through the botanical gardens while I went to my history class. I was supposed to see Stephen there to get back the $1400 I had lent him for his rent, but he didn’t show up to class and texted me afterwards to say he would give me the money that night. Since my debit card was still missing/canceled and my family was depending on that for access to money, we had been living on VISA and the cash we had on us. We went out to dinner at Kentucky Rural Pizza (again, determined by whether or not they accepted VISA) with Lauren, and I introduced my family to empanadas. Fortunately, they all determined that they are a staple of the Argentine diet for a good reason.
After dinner, we got ice cream at an heladeria (aka ice cream shop) nearby and we headed back to the apartment to be there when the furniture store crew came to install the loft bed. Lauren and I worked on our readings for class, and were getting ready for bed when Steve finally texted me at 1:30am. After a few texts back and forth, the conclusion was that Steve was leaving for Patagonia at 5:15 the next morning, and was not going to give me my money before then unless I got dressed, hiked the 15 blocks to his apartment by myself in the middle of the night (see what lack of cab money will do to you?) and hiked back. The only other option he offered was to leave it under the doormat and hope it didn’t get stolen in the meantime. Mind you, this is to get the money that he had to return to me. Those of you who know me well will understand my normal reaction and will also respect the fact that there was no profanity whatsoever in my texts back to him. The fact that Lauren had to censor them before I sent them is irrelevant.
Thursday started off with my short story class. The professor actually showed up this time, and proceeded to change the entire syllabus to accommodate the class that she missed, meaning that none of us had the notes for the topic she wanted to discuss that day. Got through it somehow, and then met up with my family for lunch at Desiderio, another one of the cafes I frequent. We killed the time until my next class by going to the Plaza de Mayo, where we got to see the march of the women around the plaza, the Casa Rosada, the Catedral, and various other government buildings whose significance I do not know.
My 6pm class was interesting, and oddly enough, more difficult to understand because it was in English. I had originally been in the class that was taught in Spanish by the same professor, but switched because it conflicted with another class. The professor speaks English only slightly better than I speak Spanish, and it was definitely a challenge to try to decipher what he was trying to say. I give the Argentines here a lot of credit for putting up with my broken Spanish- it’s exhausting trying to translate it into something resembling a grammatically correct sentence.
Went to dinner with Beanie and the parents at Dada, which looks deceptively like a fairly cheap bar/restaurant but is hands down the best restaurant that I’ve ever eaten at. If you ever come to Buenos Aires, go there. It was fantastic. Beanie and I dropped Mom and Dad off at the hotel, and we went back to my apartment to get ready to go to Caix, one of the best boliches in the city, to which we somehow managed to obtain wristbands for free admission. We got to the club with Lauren, Lis, and Anne, only to find that it was pretty dead. (Given, it was only 2:00, which is ridiculously early to be going out here). The girls left after only an hour, but Beanie and I stayed and were basically attacked by lots of Argentine boys for the next few hours. We’ve determined that their English vocab consists of a few key phrases:
1. “Where are you from?”
2. “Do you have a boyfriend?”
3. “You are very beautiful”
and 4. “Will you kiss me?”.
These are usually uttered in rapid succession, within the first few minutes of meeting you. Many of them will just skip the introductions, grab your face, and attempt to make out with you. After a few hours, their aggressiveness was increasing with their alcohol intake, so Beanie and I left around five because we were getting tired of fighting them off.
On Friday, Beanie and I dragged ourselves out of bed after far too little sleep and went to the hotel to meet up with Mom and Dad. The four of us went to lunch at el Cabildo (the restaurant Steve took Lauren and I to for Valentine’s Day), and then took a taxi to la Boca. We got to see the trademark painted buildings, watch some street performers and musicians, and see the Boca Juniors’ stadium. On the way back to the hotel we stopped and got Freddo (which is an awesome local ice cream place), and ate our ice cream in the park. By that point, we had to head back to the hotel to shower and get dressed. We were picked up by the hotel shuttle and taken to the Carlos Gardel dinner and tango show, which was really cool and a lot of fun. Beanie has a bunch of videos from the show that I’m sure will be on facebook sooner or later. The show went pretty late, and I went home to crash.
My family came over to the apartment to spend their last day here with me, and we had lunch at a restaurant nearby and then went to the zoo. Favorite exhibits were the elephants (of course) and the chimpanzees, who are frighteningly intelligent but cool and really cute. The saddest one by far was the polar bear, who looked underfed, hot, and miserable in the 90 degree weather. Most of the habitats for the animals seemed really small to me, and in a lot of cases you could go right up to the bars and pet or feed them. We spent a few hours there, and then I put my family in a cab so they could head back to the hotel and catch their shuttle to the airport. I spent the rest of the day catching up on my homework and such, made some pasta for dinner that turned out really well (yay for me and my limited cooking skills!) and went to a nearby café with Joe to steal their internet. Finally got to talk to Joshua for the first time in weeks, which made my day. I left when the café workers started giving me dirty looks and went to bed.
Unfortunately, I was woken up at some point in the middle of the night when a strange man walked into my room- since I’m essentially blind without my contacts it was a little creepy because I couldn’t tell who it was. It ended up being Frankie and another guy, two of Joe’s friends, who had headed home with Joe to crash here because it was too late to go home. Still slightly creepy, but it was reassuring to know that at least they weren’t complete strangers breaking into my apartment in the middle of the night. After that interruption, I went back to sleep, and thankfully they were gone by the time I woke up.
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