Lluvia, lluvia, dejame en paz

I haven't updated my blog in a hot second....so here I go! Sorry about the delay, but I'm a sloth like person with needs like naps and eating out. It was pretty yucky last week, so my activities were limited. Here are the big exciting things that I have done so far:

Fuerza Bruta
Museos de Bellas Artes Nacionales (Fine Art Museum)
A lovely day trip to the delta Tigre
Teatro Ciego Gourmet (Blind Theater + food)
Barrio Chino with some Argentines

Fuerza Bruta is a performance group down here who had the most amazing art/ performance installation. Their show is really interactive and I left wet and covered in glitter. It obviously was amazing.... Here is a video that does absolutely zero justice to how amazing it was. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZpbqFbW5GY

It has been a nasty past couple of weeks here with some serious cold, wet rain. As a result we had a little day at the local, free museums. It was cool to see some of their work and some more famous work, as well. The next day we took a trip to Congress, which was just like every other congress building in the world really. I learned about laws and then contracted some form of death plague from our 30 minute march in the freezing rain. Boo hiss.

It finally morphed into the beautiful weather I know and love down here and last Friday we went to Tigre. Tigre is a little down in the delta of the Rio de Plata. The town doesn't use cars, instead everyone gets around in little boats and live in great little houses and live perfect lives. Their school buses are boats. How amazing is that? We had a lovely day outside (I mainly napped...) and got our sunshine on. It was so nice to be outside when it was pretty after a couple weeks of nasty.

Saturday night we went to Teatro Ciego Gourmet, which is literally a blind theater with dinner included. I wasn't in love with not eating my food, so I was pretty hungry after it. Turns out I really prefer to see my food, which might mean I'm a picky eater. The room was pitch black and we were served my people who maybe were blind or maybe saw everyone being embarrassing in what they thought was darkness with night goggles. We are still unsure. 

Sunday me and some of the girls went to Chinatown again with some of our new found Argentine(ish) friends that we met at the pub crawl. We just kind of walked around and goofed off. I bought my coveted peanut butter and I'm probably going back soon for siracha. Afterwards we went to this restaurant called Burger Joint which has the best burger I've ever had. It is also super cheap, which is fabulous! I realize I'm sort of rambley... but I've been chugging coffee so forgive me. Here is your weekly pic-fix. You can also go on facebook and search for UGA en Buenos Aires to see pictures that the program coordinators take of us during excursions!

 Some memorabilia from the dicey military dictatorship past.

 Series of trying weird apple jelly juice from a chino.....

 skepticism and self-loathing.

 Remains of my burger joint meal. (What remains?)

My apartment building!! (The tall white one)

Reserva Ecologistica y Feria de San Telmo

I know that some of you may be expecting a sappy missing home post soon. No dice, people. I'm still not planning on coming back. So here are all of the things that I've been doing that are slowly luring me away from the United States:
Thursday: Pub Crawl
Friday: Biking around the Ecological Reserve and gorging myself on buffet parilla
Sunday: Feria de San Telmo

So Thursday was international pub crawl night and we were feeling the need to speak English while drinking. It was probably one of the most entertaining nights thus far on our trip. I started Thursday by accidentally buying two pairs of shoes. I'm sorry. They were pretty. And both pairs combined were $360 pesos (about 40 bucks). Here is a picture (I'm the brown on the right).

So I started off the night assuming I would break an ankle and go to the public hospital a la vaccine clinic. I will proudly state that after completing the pub crawl and ending at a club, I never fell once. Not even on our walk home at ~4:30 am (early like the gringas we are). If you leave at 4:30 down here, you are leaving before the party is over. 7AM or bust, next time.

Some of my lovely fellow pub crawlers from my program :)

On Friday we woke up (a little too early for our 4:30 return) to go ride bikes around the ecological reserve in Puerto Madero. It was like stepping into a different world. The reserve was BEAUTIFUL and a breath of fresh, clean air.

 Okay. So who remembered that I said bike riding? And then who remembered that I hardly know how to ride a bike? Here is how that went:

Relatively unsuccessful, but good try anyway.

Today we went to the feria en San Telmo. San Telmo is one of the older barrios and it is insanely beautiful with its architecture and cobble stone streets. Each weekend there is a MASSIVE (like 6x4 blocks) fair with all kinds of amazing things. I treated myself to a nutella and banana crepe and then a BEAUTIFUL gold band bracelett that is hand woven around a piece of jade (80 pesos...that's right. i paid about 9 dollars for it). I'll absolutely be returning to that booth. It had my dream jewelry. We met in Plaza Dorrego and then stumbled on an impromptu tango show (literally people pulled from the crowd). It would have gone a whole lot different if I was chosen....

I have a video but it won't let me upload it. I'll try again later!!

Barrio Chino y Estancia!

So Caitlin missed her flight for the weekend, making me very very sad! :( But I rebounded to the best of my abilities.

On Friday during the day, we went to get our yellow fever vaccines. I guess I never realized I was in a 3rd world country until I went to the public hospital's vaccination clinic. It was a little scary and I guess we will just have to wait and see how it works out for me. But I am vaccinated against yellow fever! YIPPEE.

On Saturday, we went to Barrio Chino (the China Town) here. It is very pequeno (like 4 blocks) and very cool! There are lots of delicious little stands, cool little stores, yummy restaurants and chinos. Chinos here, in a what I assume is a not racist way, means supermarket. All of the supermarkets are owned by chinese people so, supermercados=chinos aca. We had lunch and made probably the most important discovery thus far on the trip. Not only does barrio chino sell peanut butter like I expected, they also have a WHOLE MEXICAN SECTION, SIRACHA, and NUTELLA. So that is where I will be grocery shopping from here on out. I've been sincerely missing spice in my life, which was unexpected.

Today was AMAZING! We went about 2 hours out of the city to a ranch (una estancia) that was one of the best experiences I've had to date. We got there around 11:30 and were welcomed with a house tour and some empanadas. After that, we took a little horsie ride. My horse was named Canario and he was beautiful and well behaved (ideal).

                                                           (My main caballo Cana)
After that little ride, we had a traditional gaucho asado. Asado is a way of grilling here and always means disgustingly copious amounts of meat are coming your way. I'm still full 9 hours later. While eating/ taking coffee we were serenaded by an adorable old gaucho named Oscar who was incredibly talented and sweet. The next activity was a horse show from the young, attractive Pablo the Gaucho. The gauchos here learned their tricks from the Indians, who obtained horses by luring them away with their gentle nature. Here is Pablo and his horse life-mate being adorable.

And then we got to pose with his horse life-mate. I really should work on my body positioning for pictures.

After the horse show, we went for another, longer ride. I didn't get Canario and got a really grumpy caballo, which wasn't that awesome but still very fun.

I haven't been feeling well lately so I'm hoping that I'm not getting sick! It was definitely worth powering through today to do such an amazing thing!