Elizabeth comes to BsAs!!

On Wednesday, I woke up superearly and hopped on the subte/colectivo to the airport to pick up Elizabeth! The airport was freezing and full of people wearing masks (swine flu, anyone?) but I found Elizabeth without much trouble and we hopped in a cab home. We went to Mark's deli for lunch with Lauren and then I introduced Elizabeth to Modena. She took her first bite of Argentine ice cream and swore she was never going home. After that, we went home so she could rest/so I could write my history paper, and then I took her to class with me to meet everybody. After class and a very crowded/uncomfortable subte ride home, we made stir fry for dinner, watched a movie, and went to bed early. I figured dragging her to the dinner/show/club event that we had planned was not the best idea since she hadn't slept in about two days, which turned out to be a good decision.

On Thursday, I let her sleep late and went to class as usual, and met up with her in the school lobby later, where Lauren had dropped her off. We spent the day exploring Puerto Madero, where my school is, the Plaza de Mayo and the Casa Rosada, and did the tourist thing and walked up and down Calle Florida. I showed her where I used to live and took her to lunch at Desiderio (hadn't been there in months but it was nice to go back.) We wandered around Plaza San Martin and I showed her all of the cool things that I love about Recoleta and Retiro. For the Mulligans: we also saw the Torre de los Ingleses and la Puente de la mujer. We spent a few more hours wandering around so she could see the ecological preserve, and got ice cream at the little stand near UCA. The guy serving the ice cream was so fascinated by Elizabeth's eyes that he asked her to take a picture of them so he could print the picture, cut out her eyes, and paste them over his. Slightly creepy, but we'll probably never see him again so it wasn't a big deal. After that, we both went to my Revoluciones class and were endlessly entertained by my professor, who translated things like "carne salada" (which actually means "salt beef" or "beef jerky") as "salad meat". Other than that, though, class was long and kind of tedious. We headed home and Lauren and I decided to introduce Elizabeth to empanadas, so we ordered some for dinner before watching a movie and going to sleep.

On Friday, we went grocery shopping and then spent the day cooking. We made meatballs, apple pie, and a chicken and pasta dish, and we had Lis over for dinner with us. After dinner, we got ready and headed out to the DiTella girls' apartment to hang out for a bit before we all headed out to Kika to go clubbing. I danced with one guy for a while who turned out to be really sketchy, but other than that it was fun. We stayed out til about four or five before we called it a night. The next morning, we were still too tired to do much, so we bummed around all day. Elizabeth and I eventually made it to the Botanical Gardens to walk around and explore for a bit, which was nice. We got back and made dinner, ordered a movie and Modena delivery, and had a lazy girls night since none of us were feeling up to going out again.

The next day, Lauren, Elizabeth, and I headed out to Recoleta for the day. We spent a few hours at the Recoleta fair buying presents for everyone back home, and wandered through the cemetery for a while as well. We got lunch at a tiny restaurant nearby, stopped at McDonalds for McFlurries, and went to see Angels and Demons that afternoon. After that we called it a day and went home. On Monday, Elizabeth and I went to La Boca for some more exploring and shopping. She got to see the Boca stadium and a few random tango performers in the street, and then we went back home for a few hours. I took her to Dada for dinner and dessert, both of which were awesome.

On Tuesday, I went to class in the morning and then headed back to the apartment, since my evening class was canceled. Elizabeth and I had lunch and then spent the afternoon wandering through Palermo. We found a really pretty park and sat next to the pond for a few hours and talked. It was so exciting to have someone from home to talk to- that might have been my favorite part of her visit. On our way back, we ran some errands, and got back to the apartment only to find that Roxana was still cleaning. We ended up sitting in the backyard eating Modena until she left. At that point, we decided to make banana bread and ordered sushi (and teryaki chicken for Elizabeth, since she wasn't a fan of the sushi) for dinner with Lauren. After dinner, we watched a movie that Lauren was assigned for her Cine class, which ended up being terrible.

Since I didn't have class until 4 on Wednesday, we slept late and made lunch before we headed out. In class, we had cake for Anne's birthday, and then afterwards we said bye to everyone and went to a little cafe for dinner, carrying all of our luggage with us. The cafe ended up having great food and our waiter was really nice and really attentive, so it ended up being a good sendoff. I made Elizabeth try the steak, since I figured it would be a crime if she left without having it. After dinner, I took Elizabeth to Sei Tu for one last hurrah with Argentine ice cream before we got a cab to the airport. I practically had to order her to get on the plane, which was sad, but at least I know she really did enjoy her time here if she didn't want to leave. I went home and watched another weird Argentine movie with Lauren and Joe before going to bed.

On Thursday, I woke up feeling horrible and skipped my classes. I spent most of the day catching up on my homework and my reading, so the day wasn't a complete waste. That night was Anne's birthday celebration, which included dinner, a bar, a party bus, another bar, and a nightclub. Since I was still feeling like death, I only made it as far as dinner, but it was still fun. Since I was also planning on going to Mar del Plata on the BC trip the next day, I figured getting some sleep was a better plan if I ever wanted to be healthy again. That didn't work out so well, since I had still not slept for more than an hour before it was time to get up for Mar del Plata, but there wasn't much I could do about it. I still felt horrible that morning, and decided to skip the trip, which was disappointing but necessary. Friday ended up being a recover-from-being-sick day and not much else, but was probably better for my health (unfortunately) than spending hours on a bus with no sleep and then partying all weekend.

Saturday was spent doing homework all day, and then Joe, Lauren and I met up with Anne, Robin, Lis, and Memo for dinner at a supposedly fantastic restaurant called Cumana. My dinner was actually pretty terrible, which was disappointing, but we met up with Kela after dinner and went to see "Los fantasmas de mis ex" (which translates directly to "The ghosts of my ex-girlfriends", but considering how bad some of the Spanish movie titles are, I have no idea what the movie is called in English). The movie had some funny moments and was entertaining, but wasn't that great. By the time we got home, it was almost 2am, so we went straight to bed. Today was spent working on my final papers, catching up on reading, and trying to recover from the awful cough that is currently controlling my life.