My Last Day In Argentina

Hola todos,

For my last day in Argentina, I went all out. Since I had gone to the Sunday Market again the day before, I therefore was able to see Casa Rosada, the most beautiful building. For that reason, Johan and I went to Buenos Aires's China Town. Haha! It was maybe three blocks. I told Johan that it was a tiny introduction to the China Town in NYC. Size aside, it had the typical China Town stores: selling little gadgets that no one actually needs, knock-off purses, but this one obviously had a twist of leopard.
After China Town, we went to a neighborhood called Belgrano. This area is known for all the shops they have. Because the Argentina peso isn't doing very well and no one wants it, I had to spend everything I had because it would've made no sense to bring them back to Chile and get half of their worth. Therefore, Johan and I went shopping! Since one of the first days I met him, we were looking for a jacket for him, considering he came without one. However, finding a jacket was particularly difficult for him because he is very tall and thin. Not many Argentines are super tall and thin. Therefore, 99% of the jackets we tried on were too big and too short. Well finally, we found one! He bought it and then later I ended up buying some bright yellow heels! They look so cool. It was funny though because afterwards, I was saying how I was even more excited about his jacket than my heels considering it was a huge pain to find that jacket!
Afterwards, we went to an event called Bombas de Tiempo. This is a very popular, drum-line that Buenos Aires is known for. I put on my heels and we went and watched them. They were really good! It was about ten of them all playing different beats on several different drums. It was a huge crowd of people dancing. We also met up with about six other international students that Johan knew. We all hung out there until about 10PM, and then.... Johan, four of the other internationals and I went to the Tenedor Libre!
My final request for my last day in Argentina was to eat as much wonderful food as possible. Obviously I am a big foodie. (I skyped with my mom earlier today and she said how I talk about the food I ate while in Argentina in all of my blog posts, which I suppose is true.) The Tenedor Libre was the completely correct place to go for the last Argentine supper. Wonderful meat and food and wine, and loads of it. We were there for about two hours, eating and talking. It was so much fun and was a wonderful meal. Of course, it was difficult to stand up and walk afterwards, but completely worth it!
Then, we all caught the bus and went over to Johan's rooftop terrace. He had found an apartment the day before and we figured it would be fun to do something not just my last day in Argentina but for his first day at the apartment.
It was a great last night, but it also made it hard to leave the next morning. I wanted to stay longer and enjoy everything even more. But, don't worry Buenos Aires, you have not seen the last of me!!

The best wine I have ever had. (Don't tell Chile) It is a mix of Malbec, Cabernet and Merlot!!

The gate to China Town

It didn't quite occur to me that the fortunes would be in Spanish. It means: If anyone has hurt you, leave it behind.

Bombas de Tiempo

Johan's jacket!!

Inside joke: we were at the reserve and we saw a man modeling in a swim suit at the water's edge. That was the pose. And, those are my yellow heels!!

The outside of the hostel

A Swedish Story of A Girl And Her Turtle

Hola todos,

During my trip in Argentina, I met so many interesting and fun people. One of them that I met and became very close with, especially after Jason left, is Johan, who is from Sweden. The first time we met, he was sitting in the lobby by himself and we were about to go to the Tenedor Libre, so I invited him. He fit right in with the rest of us and it was so much fun. After that, he became a part of Jason's and my experience in Buenos Aires, considering he started to visit places with us. It was as if he had come with us from the beginning. Johan however, was not on vacation, but was actually beginning to study there. He was staying in the hostel while he tried to find an apartment to live in. This made me jealous; how I was finishing my travels in South America, yet he was just beginning them. It was funny though because he was viewing the city as if he were a tourist and would only be there for another week or so, just like Jason and me.
When Jason left, since Johan and I had gotten to know each other so well in the past few days, we stuck together and he continued to be my travel buddy.
Along the way, I also learned some Swedish!! They include: historien om mitt liv which means story of my life. For example, Person A: Ah I just failed a math test! Person B: Historien om mitt liv! I also learned Helvete which roughly means, Why me?!?! As in: We all decided to travel to Peru, but we didn't hear back from you so we just left. Person B: Helvete!! The final word I learned was ö, which means, island. I know that's random, but he tried to teach me the vowels, but I gave up because there are 9 vowels, that I can't even begin to try and pronounce. Either way, ö is one of them.
Johan and I got along very well because we have the same humor. One of the first times we met, I was talking to Jason and said something sarcastic and Johan laughed but Jason looked at me and said he didn't get it. My reply was, "Wait, English isn't even Johan's first language, yet he understood it. Really Jason?" From that moment on, I knew that Johan and I would work well together because he could understand my humor, therefore me. While I am talking about humor, some of the funniest things that happened on the trip were with Johan. The winner of this was actually due to his not-so-perfect Spanish (he agrees with this so I'm not mean): We were at the Sky Airlines office in Buenos Aires changing my flight, and it turned out that if the change in flights was made in Chile, I wouldn't have to pay the Argentina tax. Therefore, I was going to call my host mom to do it for me. The guy was saying I could use the company phone and told me to wait a minute while he got a piece of paper for me. However, Johan thought he said, "One minute" as in, you only have one minute to talk on the phone. So, he looked at me puzzled as to how I would be able to tell my host mom what was going on and ask if she could change it for me/give her the details of how to, all in Spanish. I let him know that the guy said to give him a minute to get a piece of paper before I made the call. We laughed about this afterwards, and Johan was saying how he could just imagine the guy taking out a huge clock that counted down the seconds, starting it the second I picked up the phone. Perhaps this story is a you-had-to-be-there story, but I hope you all find some humor in it.
There are so many other humorous events, but I won't go on and on about those. However, the last few days, we were talking about what we think of when we think of Argentina and he said that he thought of Arge 'n' Tina, a story about adventures with a girl named Tina and her pet turtle named Arge. Moments like that reminded me that he is Swedish.
All jokes aside, it was wonderful to travel and spend time with him during the last week of my trip and will, not hopefully, but definitely, see him when he comes and visits NYC in December. These experiences are the benefits of staying at hostels; you meet so many wonderful people, and I am so happy I met a Swedish boy named Johan.

At the Tenedor Libre: The first day we met. First impressions definitely last a life time

At Malba museum

Coat shopping. A little feminine I think.

At a friend's house

Photo bomb!

One of China Town's many useless goods

Argentine Fever

Hola todos,

As I have mentioned, Argentina was absolutely wonderful and I didn't want to leave. However, I have realized that yes, I could completely live in Argentina forever, but, I do not regret Chile in any way. For that reason, I have diagnosed myself with Argentine Fever. Being there for such a short time, a person only sees a part of it, and mostly the things that are most appealing. I mean, it's vacation and who doesn't love vacation? Therefore, at times there were moments when I thought to myself... Why in the world did I choose Chile? But, reflecting back on it, that was my Argentine fever speaking and not me.
Chile is wonderful and there are aspects of it that Argentina completely lacks. For that reason, I want everyone to know that although I did love Argentina and could have had a wonderful time living there for five months, I do not at all wish I had chosen Argentina over Chile, and am in fact happy that I did choose Chile. (Although, men are more attractive in Argentina, and the food is better... But, hey who needs boys and food makes you fat!)

Five Months in South America

Hola todos,

I know this blog post is quite overdue, but I will write it anyway. On the 22nd of July, I had been in South America for five months! This is interesting because in all of my previous blogs about each month mark, it was always, x amount of months in Santiago, but in the past month I have broadened the trip and was in other countries. I am leaving in about two weeks, which I am not thinking about, and I feel that this is my last blog of the list of each month and how it has been. That is probably the saddest part about this blog post specifically. This blog post kind of represents the ending of my trip, but I won't talk about that because it depresses me.
This month was fun because I was able to experience such a different part of South America and although I absolutely love Santiago/Chile, Argentina was very refreshing and I fell in love with it. On the 22nd, I had been there for about two weeks, and I had visited Iguazu and Buenos Aires, two of places that I was determined to see during my trip here. That is why month number five stands out. Therefore, when I think of month five, I will think of Argentina; not the fact that my "classes" had ended nor saying goodbye to everyone. Although as seen in my blogs that was very sad, I guess this is okay then. It's sad that I had to say goodbye to Buenos Aires, but when thinking of month number five, I don't think about the last part of the way I had experienced Santiago, but the fact that a whole new wonderful part of my travels had begun. A part that included beautiful waterfalls, gorgeous weather, a nice tan, and then museums, breath-taking buildings, spectacular food and beautiful people upon numerous other things.
So, month five was a great month.

USA! USA! USA!

Hola todos,

As much as people can dislike us Americans, they do love our currency. It is worth quite a bit in Argentina and Uruguay. In Uruguay, you can take our dollar bills and by getting them exchanged at a currency exchange store, you get a lot of money; more than if you were to just take out Uruguayan pesos. When I was in Uruguay, we had lunch, and we discovered, (we didn't have any Uruguayan pesos) that if we were to pay with the Argentine peso, it would have cost equivalent to US$60, but paying with the dollar, it would cost US$45! A lot of people come to Uruguay so that they can take our dollars and then go back to Argentina to exchange them there.
Who would've thought that everyone would love our currency, even when charging us US$160 to enter their country?? (Luckily, there's no reciprocity fee to get into Uruguay).
USA USA USA!!

Uruguay/Montevideo: So Underrated

Hola todos,

The day after I changed my flight to leaving a week later than planned, I went to Uruguay! The people I met at Iguazu and went to the tango show with were going and I joined them. We took a ferry to Colonia which is a small, old town where all the ferries from Buenos Aires arrive. The ferry ride was nice... I think (I slept the entire way). The ride is about two hours and we arrived at around 2:30 and went for a walk around. It was beautiful, but quite cold because the ocean is all around, and there are no big buildings to protect us from the wind. We went out for dinner, in which I obviously got meat. It was steak wrapped around onion, cheese, and other things similar to a sandwich that I forgot the name of. They decided to get a parrilla, which is a mix of a lot of different meats. This one was much more unique than the average parrilla. It included cow intestine, heart, brain, and then the usual other things.
I had already tried the intestine at the buffet, and knew I didn't like it. But, I figured, well hey, not only have I never tried cow heart or brain before and may not have the chance to ever try it again, but also, how many people can say that they have tried cow heart and brain. At least this was the thought my own brain was persuading me with while I tried them. They weren't that great. Aside from the fact that they were brain and heart, they just weren't really that good. I have kind of pushed the taste and texture out of my brain so I can't exactly recall them. It was an interesting experience to say the very least.
Afterwards, we walked down to the water which was gorgeous of course. There were many old churches and houses and we stopped for a coffee at a quaint cafe. It was a nice beginning day in Uruguay.
The next day, we went to Montevideo which was so wonderful. I loved it. We took the bus there at 8:30AM and arrived at 11:30AM. When we arrived, we took a bus down to the main area of attraction including the city's center, the central park and the historic district. We arrived at a the beginning of the city's center on one of the main streets, 18 de Julio. It was filled with old churches and beautiful old buildings. We saw a store and went in to see what was going on with fashion there. Of course there was leopard, but thankfully not as much. As I was looking around (the others had gone to a store nearby) I realized how cheap everything was! Therefore, I ended up buying two shirts, a dress, a pair of pants, and a bunch of underwear (the laundromat I went to in Buenos Aires decided to steal all of mine) for US$75! One of the shirts was US$3.50!
Before walking more, we stopped and got sandwiches called Chivitas which are common there. It had a piece of lomito, which is a cut of meat, lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise and a hard-boiled egg cut into it. Very tasty. We continued on down the main street with the intent to eventually make it to the historic district. We continued to pass beautiful old buildings and then stopped at the Art History Museum, which was spectacular. They had an ancient Egypt section, an ancient Roman and Greek statue area and art of a few other ancient societies. It was small, but packed with beautiful art. Afterwards, we continued our walk and passed more and more beautiful buildings. The main park of course was wonderful and we stopped at an artisanal market.
The main street ended at the beginning of the Historic District. It then became a pedestrian walk way filled with street stands, little restaurants and places to buy Uruguayan things. It was very cute. After some time walking down this street, we saw the ocean past a side street and decided to go see it. Oh my goodness it was beautiful. Of course we timed it perfectly and the sun was setting so the entire sky was pink and orange with an endless body of water spotted with sail boats. It was just one of those sites that you hope to never forget.
We returned to the main walkway and eventually made it to where we planned on eating, the Mercado del Puerto which apparently is full of connected restaurants with super cheap food. Sadly, it had closed. (Places close early there.) Instead, we went to a restaurant where I got chicken covered in mushrooms, and potatoes noisette which are little baked potatoes balls. We relaxed there for a little bit and then caught a bus to get back to the bus station for an 8:30 bus home.
Montevideo was wonderful and I think it is completely underrated. No one says anything bad about it necessarily, it's just not talked about nor considered essential to visit. Well, they are wrong. I considered it to be a smaller, cleaner, quieter Buenos Aires, equally full of old buildings with beautiful Gothic architecture. I would say it's a must-visit.
The next day before we took the ferry back to Buenos Aires, we had a little time in Colonia and walked around a bit more. We were lucky and had beautiful the entire weekend.

I just thought this was funny: that they felt the need to translate Check-In

A Church in Colonia

The parrilla including the cow heart and brain.

View of the ocean from Colonia

A church in Montevideo

A Chivita which is a popular sandwich

Locks for love on a fountain

Marble statues at the museum

A beautiful building

The inside of a cathedral

A church near the water

Standing by the ocean

An interesting house

Shall We Tango?

Hola todos,

Well I have returned to Santiago. But, I will discuss that later. For now, since I have a computer and can actually write, I will go back in time and tell you all more about Buenos Aires.

A few weeks ago, two people that Jason and I had met in Iguazu, my Swedish friend, Johan, and I went to a tango show! (Sadly, Jason was sick.) It was a dinner and tango show so when we arrived, the four of us were seated and given an appetizer and wine (of course). We then had another appetizer and while we were being served our main course, (I got chicken covered in a creamy sauce with chopped almonds over it, so good) the show started. It was about an hour long, and it included beautiful men and women dressed in elegant clothing dancing across the stage. The dance is so complex and the couples body's have to be extremely in tune with the other so that they don't fall/trip over the other. There were scenes of a man and/or woman coming out on stage singing a song representing the tango dance, they too were wearing beautiful clothing. During this, we got dessert (ice cream in a thin bowl cone), and watched even more dancing.
It was so elegant and beautiful and we were in awe as to how in sync they were with their partner. Although it is said that these shows are touristy and are gussied up to dazzle us, it completely worked. I was dazzled. I think that after seeing that I could say that I had done something that I had to do while in Argentina. Tango is the most ethnic and popular dance in Argentina and it wouldn't be the same seeing it anywhere else. So beautiful!

The dancers

A singer

The band

Johan and me

One of The Many Things I Have Learned In South America

Hola todos,

I know I have been writing and writing about how much I love South America, and I do. But, if there is one thing that gets on my nerves, it is that you cannot rely on anyone! I have talked to so many people here; asked for directions, opinions on places, how long it will take to get somewhere, yet people still do not understand the whole idea of the truth/fact.
Excuse me, how do I get to the Obelisk?... Umm, take a left. I go to the left, not to the left. Excuse me, how do I get to the Obelisk?... Umm, take a right. I go to the right, not a right. Where is it? Several blocks behind me!
How many hours will it take to get to Montevideo? Umm, 4 hours. Umm, 2 hours. Umm, 1 hour.
Nothing is certain and everyone decides to put their own spin on things. Why? Do they not know that there is something called a fact/ the truth? Ah, I love South America and all, but occurrences like these make me want to strangle them all!
This is what I shall not miss about South America.

I´m Never Coming Home

Hola todos,

I love it here. Though I have probably mentioned this several times, I am telling you all again. The architecture, the food, the people, the culture, the arts; the US is looking less and less appealing as I spend more time here. I know the weather is nicer in the US and that is saying a lot! I am enjoying it here so much even when it´s cold, I can only imagine being here in the summer. Hopefully Argentina will grant Amnesty and I can just pay a fee and stay here forever/ a large majority of my life. People say that Argentina is a wreck both government-wise and economically, and although I can somwhat agree with that, I can completely deal with it. It´s not as dangerous as people say.
I just want to stay in South America and spend the rest of my life moving countries every few years. Even if Argentina doesn´t grant amnesty, I will find a beautiful Argentine man, marry him and therefore gain citizenship. Win win!

Buenos Aires, I´m Not Ready To Leave You Quite Yet!

Hola todos,

As some of you may know, I was supposed to leave yesterday (Tuesday). However, I had no urge to spend nine days in Santiago before going to Easter Island. Therefore I figured, well hey, I´m in Buenos Aires, why not take advantage and spend as much time here as possible? I mean, I´ve been in Santiago for over four months, and Argentina for only two and a half weeks. I changed my flight from Tuesday the 23rd, to the following Tuesday, the 30th! Yay, it is so wonderful please don´t ever make me leave.
Here are some random pictures

The hostel cat: He didn't care about anything

 

A statue on one of the main streets

Cheese!

Sunday Street Fair In San Telmo

Hola todos,

One of the most popular experiences in Buenos Aires, is the Sunday street fair in San Telmo. San Telmo is a beautiful neighborhood with statues and like most of Buenos Aires, beautiful old buildings. We went at around 2 since it closes at around 8. It was crazy, because we ended up running into a man and woman we met in Iguazú! We first watched a performance of dancing. Some dance I´m not sure what it´s called, and another Colombian-style dance.
Afterwards, we had a quick brunch, we both got omelettes, and then continued to the market. The market was gigantic! It went on farther than the eye could see. I bought some unique-Argentine things and another pair of leopard sunglasses because, a tragedy or all tragedies, my other ones were scratched. Half-way through, it started to rain, so we took a break at a nice heated cafe. We continued on a while longer and when everything was beginning to look the same and it was getting darker, we turned around and went to a different area that was serving Colombian-style food. We weren´t hungry, but w still looked at it all with interest. Afterwards, we walked a little ways from the market and saw the Casa Rosada lit up. Speechless. I looked at it, and it was so beautiful, I wanted to cry. It, obviously, is a pink house, and there were magenta lights on it, increasing the pinkness of it. This is why I love Buenos Aires.

A performance at the beginning of the fair

Casa Rosada by day

The Fair

How do I look?.. I decided against them.

Casa Rosada by night

A church in the San Telmo area

La Boca´s Caminito

Hola todos,

La Boca, which is a neighborhood in Buenos Aires, is known for a street market they have on a little street call the Caminito (the little walk). Upon getting there, we sat down and got some lunch. We both ordered pasta. I ordered pasta with pesto. So wonderful! It hadn´t occurred to me that pasta would be so wonderful in Buenos Aires. Afterwards, we walked along the street, looking at the stalls buying gifts (I will not say what) for people back home. I bought a pink/purple patterned belt and a few other little Argentine things. It was so beautiful to see and it was interestingly ethnic. It was shockingly different from most of the other areas of the city. Definitely a good place to buy gifts and artisanal goods!

Some men drumming on the street

Jason enjoying his four cheese ravioli, and my pesto about to be eaten

A site from La Boca's Caminito

Tenedor Libre

Hola todos,

I, for obvious reasons, have not been able to write in my blog as often as I would like, so this experience happened a few days ago.
A Tenedor Libre, is a buffet. Jason, I, and three new friends we made at the hostal (Russ from Texas, Fanny from France, and Johan from Sweden) all went together. Jason and I had luckily, not necessarily purposefully, not eaten at all that day, so our stomachs were completely empty and available for all the meat offered in Buenos Aires. Thank goodness for that.
When we arrived at around 7:30PM, luckily it wasn´t very crowded so we got a table just fine. (At around 8:30 or 9:00, the place became quite crowded). When the waiter came, he told us that we were able to eat as many plates as we wanted, got a bottle of wine or a bottle of beer... each, and that it was $145 pesos. That´s like, not even US$30!
We started off with some salad, I mean, we may as well have some vegetables. Then, we went to the buffet area and I got a little of everything, and only 2 or 3 of them I didn´t like. I didn´t eat my entire plate because, the best part hadn´t even started. We were to next go to the parrilla (assorted grilled meats). It was funny because Johan didn´t even realize and we were all about to head over and he said... There´s more?? I thought that was all of it! Ha, he had no idea what was coming.
The grill was so beautiful. Of course I took a few pictures. There were probably over a dozen different types of meats, and we collectively probably tried everything. By the end of the night, Johan and I were just sharing small pieces; we had to try all of it, but our stomachs couldn´t take much more! We had pork, chicken, sausage, steak and several, several other parts of the cow I can´t completely recall. However, I do remember trying the intestine! Not my favorite. It was really chewy and tasted fatty; but hey, how many people can say that they have eaten grilled cow intestine?
We drank a lot of wine to accompany all this meat and we were all in heaven. They also gave us dessert, which was wonderful. (Dessert was included in the buffet). We had: chocolate mousse, chocolate cake, vanilla ice cream with a drizzle of rasberry sauce, a chocolate tart-like cake, and... I can´t remember the last. But, it was all spectacularly wonderfully fabulous, and before I leave to return to Santiago, I do plan on going back. This time, not eating for two days!
I will confirm now, that people do not lie about the perfection we call meat here.

The Tenedor Libre

A picture of all of us

A piece of meat

The grill

The bigger grill to the side

The National Reserve In Buenos Aires

Hola todos,

As mentioned, when we returned to Buenos Aires, the weather was shockingly nice. Therefore, the day we arrived back, we went down near Puerto Madero and went to the National Reserve. It was right on the Atlantic Ocean, is grassy with lots of trees. It was completely shocking to see!
Before going in, we ate some lunch at a street stand nearby, I got Choripan and Jason got Bife de Chorizo. Can't really explain them, but all you need to know, is that it's meat. We then starting walking in the reserve and found a nice grassy area and fell asleep for a little while. We then continued on, and found an area where you can walk to the water. It was so cool! It looked at if there used to be a bunch of buildings on the rocks of the shore, and someone just knocked all of them down. There were pieces of brick, decorated/patterned tiles, I even found marble! We walked around there for a little while looking at all the interesting things, we felt the water, cold, but better than the Pacific Ocean. We then continued our walk.
Upon continuing, we were walking parallel to the ocean and could see the skyline of the financial district called Microcentro. Well, Buenos Aires is architecturally a strange city. There are buildings here that are the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen, and then there are others just I look at and think, ....why? The financial district is the latter reaction. There are maybe 10 sky-scrapers and they are just terrible looking! They are big, out of place, and not very well designed nor appealing to the eyes. But, that's just my opinion.
We continued our walk, which, nature wise was absolutely beautiful. We saw the sunset behind the buildings and that was spectacular.
The Reserve was absolutely wonderful and green and the Atlantic was so gorgeous. We hope to return before we leave back for Santiago.

At the beach of the reserve

Jason at the foot of the Atlantic

The sunset over the Atlantic

Buenos Aires from the reserve

A cool rock we found