En la Ciudad

I have officially been in the wonderful city of Buenos Aires (BsAs) for a week now. I wouldn't say that I feel completely at home, but I am starting to get comfortable and feel like I at least know where I'm going most of the time.  So to catch up on the last couple days...

Plaza de Mayo

Casa Rosada

On Tuesday my friends and I decided to beat the heat (85 degrees) and go to a pool at Club Herrod's. However after getting there, we learned that it was closed for the week.  So instead we went to a park very close to our university called Barrancas de Belgrano.  Every time I've been there two cops on horses are always riding through the park.  I don't know why since it's not in a bad neighborhood, but it's kind of cool anyways.  At the park my friend Brian from New Richmond met us. It's very surreal seeing people you know from home in BsAs--having  something from your normal life in the states in such a foreign, new place. For the rest of the day Brian was our tour guide and showed us a lot of Puerto Madero, which is considered the "new rich" district of BsAs. In Puerto Madero we went to Plaza de Mayo.  We saw Casa Rosada, which houses the executive branch of their government. There was also a demonstration going on because it was International Women's Day.  The march was basically for women's rights.  There were people singing, marching, and police standing by.  We saw freshly spray painted graffiti on the side of a government building targeting the countries president Kristina Kirchner.  Protests and marches here are not uncommon and will probably be happening even more because of the upcoming elections. After our tour we all took the subte (subway) home.  You walk SO MUCH here and it's always in the hot sun (not that I'm complaining) that siestas are almost a must.  After dinner and resting up a bit, Merritt and I went for ice cream.  I thought I loved ice cream before I came here, but the ice cream in Argentina is on a different level.  It is so rich and the fruit flavors just have so much more flavor. Needless to say I'm in trouble. After helado though, we met a friend and went to a bar called Mundo Bizzaro.  The name translates to bizarre world and it lived up to the name. It was actually pretty cool though. They played a lot of U.S punk rock music and had cool drinks (mine was called a Zombie).

My university

I had my orientation at Universidad de Belgrano on Wednesday.  Right when we arrived all of the students had to take a spanish placement test.  Since I'm not the most confident in my spanish skills I was pretty nervous, especially after finding out that if placed in the either of the beginner groups I wouldn't be able to take classes in Spanish resulting in none of my credits transferring back to La Crosse.  Luckily though, I ended up testing into the higher intermediate class, so it all worked out. Anyways after the test we had the orientation.  I'll admit I didn't actually absorb a lot of what they said since it was all in spanish and not the most exciting information to listen too, but at the end the teachers of the tango class at the university put on a small show for us and it was amazing!  BsAs is known for it's tango dancing and now I know why! It was amazing that they can move that quickly and so in synch. We only saw two dances, but I'm definitely looking forward to going to more tango shows while here (hopefully pick up a few tango dance moves too :)) After orientation our school took everyone on a bus tour of the city.  We stopped in one district called Boca. It is very italian and houses the stadium of one of the main soccer teams called Boca. It is a very touristy place, but also pretty dangerous if you leave a certain two blocks or go at night.

Running through the sprinkler at the park

On Thursday we had a CEA event, but not until later so we laid out at our park almost all day. My friends' Argentine tans are coming in, while I got very burned.  It's ok though, I was just glad to be in sunny hot weather instead of the snow Wisconsin is expecting. Then with CEA we went on a tour of Belgrano, the district i live in.  We covered the busier street close to the university and then went to an area that is very European.  All of the building are gorgeous and with a lot of details.  Many of them used to be houses, but are now embassies for various countries. We all went to a woman named Elda's house. She houses 16 study abroad students and last night our director taught us how to make mate. Mate is a very common, traditional tea in South America.  It is made in a type of mate cup with an herb called yerba and water. Depending on how you like your mate you can use sugar, hot or cold water, and various other ingredients, like orange peel. It's really good!

Boca

Today, Friday, I got to go to the university for a meeting with my advisor. She informed me that I tested into Intermedio B and then we went over the classes I can take. I will know my actual schedule after online registration on Monday.  I'll be having classes with international students from around the world-Australia, France, Canada, and many more. I'm excited for classes so I can meet more people and hopefully improve my spanish A LOT.  Today on my walk home I stopped in a shop and tried to have a conversation with the clerk. It's frustrating because I can't always say exactly what I'd like to say and the woman couldn't understand me at times, but I know that if I had tried to do that a week ago it would've been much worse, so I feel like I've already gotten a little better.  I also walked around by myself for the first time today. I didn't get lost and actually knew the names of the streets I needed to get to off the top of my head. This may seem like a small feat, but in a city of about 13 million people, it's a pretty big accomplishment :)

I'll try to write again soon, besos!