Halfway Done...

Wow, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm officially halfway done with my study abroad experience as of Saturday. It's amazing how quickly the time goes, but on top of that, how much more I'm enjoying this city each day. It's been a while since I posted last, my apologies, but not much has happened. We started our midterm exams so we're all a little bogged down by school, but after having my first one and seeing how easy it was, I'm not as concerned for the rest!

I'm really enjoying my mate. As the weather is getting nicer here in the city (spring in 5 days!), it's so nice to sit out on our balcony and share a mate in the morning. We like to celebrate with "mate miercoles" and it's always a good time. I can't wait to drink my mate back at home, though I'll probably get some weird looks because I'll be drinking out of a gourd, oh well!

Like I said earlier, the weeks haven't been too eventful.  I have some exams in the next two weeks, but with the grading scale here, they really make it seem like there's nothing to worry about. Of course I'll be trying my hardest, but it's just kind of funny how it works out.

Last Thursday was probably one of the most interesting nights so far here in Buenos Aires. For those of you who don't know, there's a lot of drama and controversy here surrounding government, and especially the president.  She wants to make some constitutional reforms and is often linked to a lot of corruption schemes.  To put it in perspective, her and Chavez up in Venezuela are best buddies... Thursday night there was a huge protest planned all over Argentina, with the largest gathering happening in various spots in Buenos Aires. While other groups were told not to attend the protest (for fear that it could become violent if police become involved), we were told no such thing, so a few of us decided to go down to Plaza de Mayo to check it out, and I am SO happy we did! There was no violence, and we got to meet a lot of people in the plaza who wanted to talk to us and find out what we knew about the situation. We knew the basics, but it was wonderful to hear straight from the people what their concerns were, and also great to hear them thank us for helping them spread their message.  All in all, there were at least 100,000 people gathered at the plaza, and the crowd spread dense in the streets all the way to the Obelisco. Normally, there are smaller "pot-banging" protests (called cacerolazos), where people literally bang on pots and pans in the streets, and this was a HUGE example of that. Our host mom actually told us that her neighbor went to the protest and actually broke one of her pans because she was hitting it so hard. I was also able to learn some of their songs, which was a nice addition to the night! We left the protest after about an hour or so and headed home to our apartment, where we watched the protest unfold and grow larger on TV with our host mom. It was one of the coolest experiences I've had here in Buenos Aires, and for the first time the city truly felt alive to me.

Yes, I got one of these flags

The prettiest room in the museum!

On Friday a few of us went to the Eva Perón (Evita) Museum in the city. It was definitely an interesting experience. Across the world Evita is seen as a saint in many people's eyes. But she was also centered on a lot of controversy surrounding her choices, as well as the governmental choices of her husband. We had heard from our professors to go to the museum and see at the pure lack of facts presented, and boy were they right! It was basically a museum centered around her clothes, and every now and then showcased her philanthropy, but never showed how she got the money or resources to accomplish any of that. It was interesting to see how the museum was basically a shrine to her, when in fact many people don't believe she should be celebrated at all. Still, the museum was cool because I'm a big fan of vintage clothing, but oh the whole it was not what I expected it to be. After the museum we went on an adventure to find froyo and we FINALLY found it in this God-forsaken city. And it was delicious, and all was good in the world.

On Saturday we went to an event called the Buenos Aires Underground, and it was AWESOME! We went to the Almagros neighborhood of the city (which I had never heard of) and ended up at an old metal fabrication plant... not exactly where I thought I'd be getting some artisanal food from Buenos Aires. When we entered the building, we paid our 5 pesos to enter and then headed up to the 3rd floor. On all the floors in between, you could see all the old machinery and it was pretty awesome.  Once we made it to the top we found out that you had to buy "Indy Bucks" in order to get any of the food (why am I not surprised?), so we each bought a sufficient amount and started looking at what we could eat.  Even though we paid more than we thought we would, it was absolutely worth it for the experience! Not only that, but for about 20 dollars, I was able to have half a pulled pork sandwich, half a brisket sandwich, froyo (woohoo!), lemonade, and another small sandwich to try! The location was definitely one of the more hipster things I've experienced here, so that was definitely interesting. It seemed like there were A LOT of Americans there, though I'm pretty sure the whole thing was put together by Americans as well. If you're ever in Argentina and looking for something local and cool to do, you should definitely check out the Underground Market, so awesome!

Pulled pork... and it was spicy!

Today (Sunday) we headed back to the Puerto Madero neighborhood! I went there during the first week with a few friends, but this time we went with our program. We walked the length of the water and got to hang out on the bridge. We ended up going to a restaurant with our director Alfredo for lunch and it took over 3 hours to eat. The service was pretty bad, the food didn't all come out close to the same time (One girl and I waited to get our food when some people were already done eating), and it also took close to an hour for anyone to even take our order. However, the food was delicious and I was so full afterwards. Puerto Madero is beautiful!

On the way home we stumbled on a Brazilian festival! We only checked it out for a few minutes but it looked like lots of fun! Besides that, it's been a quiet few weeks. I found out a few days ago that my dad will officially be visiting in the beginning of October and I'm absolutely looking forward to that! For now, I'm looking forward to officially welcoming spring to the southern hemisphere on Friday, and maybe being able to wear shorts without being ridiculed. My roommate learned that lesson, even if we are hot because it's 75 degrees, it's not acceptable to wear shorts here because they think it's still jacket and scarf weather.  Crazies.

Puerto Madero

That's really all I have for now... I'm looking forward to some more adventures soon!

I hope everyone has a wonderful week, and ciao for now!

- Meagan