Frank Walsh comes to Argentina!

I wouldn't trade this past weekend for anything.  I had the wonderful opportunity to have my Dad come down to visit me here in the city, and it was absolutely wonderful!

My dad, me and my host mom!

He arrived Thursday afternoon after some interesting experiences traveling, but nonetheless he made it! I walked to his hotel after school and then we walked from his hotel to my homestay to meet my host mom! My host mom had invited him over for a "reception" as she called it, but in a weird turn of events she actually half forgot about it. In a way, I'm glad that happened because my dad was able to see my host mom in her true colors, frazzled, frantic, and absolutely hilarious.  When she arrived home she was in an absolute panic and it was pretty funny, but we calmed her down and gave her the book my dad had made of pictures of my hometown, which she loved.  She made appetizers and offered us drinks like "vino tinto." (Yes, just red wine.  The bottle literally just said red wine, no actual type.) Thursday night had to have been one of my favorite nights on the trip so far, and I'm so glad my dad got to meet my host mom.

The weather forecast for the entire weekend looked grim, but I secretly hoped that we would get some sunshine, and luckily we did! Friday was beautiful and sunny, and I wasn't going to complain.  We walked from his hotel along the Bosque de Palermo, and eventually made our way towards Plaza Italia.  While walking along the road, my dad and I were stopped by a man, who asked to see the photos on my camera because he had gotten a phone call from inside the United States embassy that they thought I was taking pictures of the building (which is apparently not allowed) and that security outside had to check it out.  Ironically enough, I hadn't even taken my camera out of my bag since the night before, and my dad was the one with the huge DSLR in a backpack behind him. I spoke to the man in spanish and explained that I hadn't taken any pictures, but for some reason they thought I was some sort of threat to american national security. Not only that, but the US embassy wasn't even pretty and I wouldn't have wanted photos of it anyway.

Once we got to the plaza we explored the Botanical Gardens of the city, and then made our way down towards Plaza de Mayo and the Puerto Madero area. I wanted to show my dad all of the cool touristy things when I knew the weather would be nice, so we did a lot of walking! Eventually we were both exhausted and headed back to his hotel just to lay around and watch some television. That night I took him to his first parilla restaurant (steak, chorizo, etc), and we had a wonderful evening.

La Flor

Saturday was another surprisingly beautiful day in the city. The rain held out and we headed down to Recoleta so I could show him the Recoleta Cemetery and the weekend artisan's market.  First we stopped so I could FINALLY see the flower! La flor is this giant metal sculpture in Recoleta that  looks like a flower and actually opens and closes like a real flower! It was extremely impressive in person. After that we headed to the cemetery, where we walked around the majority of it, getting lost between the mausoleums and monuments and appreciating the beauty.  After the cemetery we walked around the market and bought a few things as gifts. It was a really beautiful day overall and I had a great time. Saturday night we had tickets to a tango show (starring my professor), so we went to go see it at the legendary Cafe Tortoni! It was a great show, and I even got to dance on stage with my professor mid-performance!

Café Tortoni, and the stage where I danced

Sunday the weather was unfortunately not in our favor, but luckily we were able to head to San Telmo for the antiques/crafts market that morning before the rain hit! We were able to take shelter in a shopping mall and get some lunch before walking back towards El Obelisco in the center of city. While walking in centro we stopped outside El Teatro Colón, and then saw something super weird...

Do you ever have one of those stories that just no one believes? Well ours starts with a man on a little bike.  We were walking through centro when my dad told me to look up. When I did I saw a man riding a tiny bike with a 2 foot tall potted plant on his head.  Believe it or not, this isn't the weirdest part of the story.  It was raining too, which made it strange.  As we were standing across the street we saw another man come up with a two liter bottle of coke, and subsequently pour some of it into the other man's potted plant. The man with the plant stood up, yelled at the guy, and then tried to pour the coke out of the plant.  Clearly angry, the man with the plant told the other guy off for trying to kill his plant.  Surprisingly, the man with the soda then physically pushed the guy with the plant into the street, who then rode off in the rain.  I had no real words.

After that little moment the weather started getting pretty crappy, so we headed back to his hotel and were miserable excuses for human beings for the rest of the day.  We went out for dinner that night, got some ice cream, and overall just had a nice evening.  The next day the weather was so-so, but we decided to go out and explore some other stuff anyway. We headed back to Plaza de Mayo so we could find the San Ignacio church which has a series of underground tunnels. Unfortunately due to the holiday the church was completely closed.  After that we took a walk and I finally got to see the congressional building, which was very impressive! We walked back towards the plaza and along Calle Florida until we reached Plaza San Martin, which was very nice and had a cool clock tower.  My dad and I spent a lot of time just walking around his neighborhood and exploring all the city has to offer.

Unfortunately I had to say goodbye to my dad yesterday, which was not an easy thing to do because the weekend was not nearly long enough. Overall this weekend really made me appreciate home so much more, but it also gave me a greater appreciation of the city.

Beyond that, this was the weekend I finally realized how much I've learned here. Three months ago, I would never have been able to fully translate for my dad who speaks no spanish to my host mom who speaks no english. My confidence now is so much higher speaking spanish, and I finally realize how much I've grown as a person. This experience is one of those that I'm never going to forget and one that truly affected me as a person, and made me a better version of who I was.

The next coming weeks are pretty crazy looking. I have a day trip this coming weekend and a full weekend trip the following weekend to Iguazu falls! In reality, I only have ONE MONTH left here and I'm not quite sure I'm ok with that.  The days and weeks seem to be going faster and 33 days will be here before I know it.  It's a bitter sweet feeling, but I know for sure I'm going to be upset to leave this place. Argentina has it's ups and downs but the goods far outweigh the bads.

In the words of my host mom, "Qué voy a hacer?"

Love and miss everyone at home! Besos!

- Meagan

¡Primavera!

It's springtime in Buenos Aires! (Finally!!)

Friday marked the first official day of spring in the southern hemisphere and I couldn't be happier! I'm so ready for it to get warmer and to finally be able to lose my jacket! Right now I'm in the middle of midterms, unfortunately, so my life hasn't been too incredibly exciting.  I had a history midterm last Thursday, but luckily I had an extra long weekend! Which would be why I'm not in class today... You have to love random Argentine holidays.

Friday we had a day with the group, and we started off by attempting to go to the Bellas Artes Museum. We got there around 11:30 where we were informed they were closing and would open back up again at 12:30... well, alright. So we wasted some time in Recoleta and hung out on the bridge, and eventually found a comfortable spot on a bench to hang out. Instead of waiting for the full hour, our program director took us to lunch and I had a pretty awesome burger. We always try to take advantage of the free meals we get, obviously.

After lunch we finally went to Bellas Artes, where we were informed that there were no "large purses" or water bottles (even if empty) allowed in museum. Also there was no indoor photography, so sorry for the lack of photos on that one. The museum was pretty cool and had a lot to offer, but I wish the second floor was open so I could have seen the Argentine art instead of just the European downstairs.

After the museum we were heading to the Bosque de Palermo (Palermo Forest) to see the Argentine Spring Day festival where students from outside the city come to celebrate.  The Palermo forest is not a forest, it's a park, don't be fooled. We walked there as a group, but our program director was walking SO incredibly slow that we ended up losing him before even getting to the park. A few of us walked around the lake in the park, and it was really crowded! Kyla got her face painted for 5 pesos, and we all got to enjoy the scenery on the perfect first day of spring.

Unfortunately I got sunburn on the first day of spring, not surprisingly.

After I got back from the day I came home to find my host mom sick in bed, and a doctor had to make a house call. Basically all the neighbors and her kids were here comforting her so it was a little scary not knowing what was going on. I ended up staying in Friday night because I was doing stuff in the kitchen, but also felt a little weird leaving her here alone.

Saturday was another uneventful day, except I went to see Buscando a Nemo 3D with a few of the girls! The movie was dubbed 100% in different voices, so it was awesome to get to see it in spanish, as well as compare the jokes and translations. I forgot how awesome of a movie it is, and I'm so glad I was able to go see it! I'm relatively convinced that it was funnier in spanish because we already knew the jokes in english, so the spanish translations were so different but hilarious.

On Sunday I attempted to dedicate my day to studying, but that didn't happen, so I watched the Eagles get absolutely pummeled by the Cardinals. It was painful to watch. I'd rather not relive it.

Today I'm enjoying an extra day off for the holiday so I'm going to finish up some homework and relax! It's a bit overcast but I'll probably head out for a walk later just to get out of the apartment. Oh, and I've also been without a roommate since last Wednesday, so that's also been an adjustment for this weekend. Jenn is off exploring in Chile with her sister and I'm sure she's having an amazing time, but I'm ready for her to come back so I have someone in the apartment to talk to!

Can't believe I'm coming home so soon, so strange to even think about. I miss everyone very much! Ciao, besos.

- Meagan

Classes and Adventuring

I don't understand the necessity of the "study" portion of study abroad. I wish I could just spend the next 3 1/2 months just traveling and exploring the city, but unfortunately that wouldn't go well for my GPA...

We started classes this past Monday, and let me just say, this school is incredibly unorganized.  First off, we had to register for classes Monday at 8 AM (apparently) and classes started that very same day! Not only that, but none of us were able to register until after 11... and many people weren't able to register on their own at all. Once we got to school, we discovered the "faculty only" couches and elevators. Are you effing kidding me? There's this huge area of couches that are super comfortable and great for lounging before classes, and we were immediately kicked off said couches because they were meant for the faculty.  Because it clearly makes sense that the students can't sit on one of the completely empty couches untouched by professors.  I digress.

Classes have been pretty good so far. My professors are all really interesting people, but I'm definitely terrified of one of them.  My Argentine culture professor is insanely eclectic, and there's only 5 of us in the class, and he's definitely not afraid to get in our faces, literally. I can't decide if I'll stay with the class because frankly, I'm pretty scared.

Last friday we went on an extremely boring bus tour of the city, but we did get to get off the bus in La Boca for about a half hour, and it was beautiful! I definitely need to get back there because it was so colorful. La Boca is a very poor area of the city, but it's marked by its colorful buildings and street performers in some of the more touristy areas.  It's extremely dangerous at night, but I get to appreciate the scenery during the day and that's all that matters.

Definitely going back to get some artwork there!

The main touristy street

Traditional colorful "La Boca" 

Other than classes, we didn't do much this week. We had planned on celebrating the end of the first week of classes Thursday night (no Friday classes- glorious!), but we actually all just fell asleep instead.  We celebrated on Friday night and ended up at some insane club, and that's a story in and of itself.  We spent the day on Saturday lounging around and watching the Olympics, but rounded off the night by going to see The Dark Knight Rises... and it was AWESOME.  Like, seriously awesome.  It was in english with subtitles in castellano, so it didn't make much of a difference in the movie watching experience. I recommend it to everyone.

Today we had a little excursion with our program director into the Recoleta neighborhood of the city.  It's one of the oldest and most well-estabilished neighborhoods, and it's home to the craft market on the weekends, as well as the Recoleta cemetery. The cemetery was breath-taking, and hauntingly beautiful.  You could spend days going through the little "streets" inside.

An example of a "street"

As you can see, this isn't an ordinary cemetery.  Its compromised entirely of intricate and beautiful mausoleums (in no particular order by date), and in a variety of different styles.  Many of them are adorned with statues of angels, or with statues and carvings of the individuals entombed inside.  Each one is completely unique and has a compelling story to tell. Some of the ones I found to be most beautiful were the oldest... those that were deteriorating but still stood amongst the more modern ones from the 20th century.  I heard that it's actually more expensive to be buried in this cemetery than it would be to live your entire life in the city... That's the kind of people who are buried here. It could take days to go through and examine the entire cemetery, through each street and alley, but I absolutely plan to return at some point! I'll add some of my favorite shots from the cemetery below.

Many of the various toppers on the mausoleums 

My favorite shot of the day, looking down one of the alleys of tombs

A sign of love placed on the steps of a mausoleum

One of the coolest things about some of the mausoleums in the cemetery is that you can see inside them.  Actually, you can see the caskets inside many of them because they are in plain viewing sight. Some of the older mausoleums are falling apart, and the caskets are actually exposed to the outside (not behind glass or bars like many). It's really interesting how it's different everywhere. It's almost reassuring being able to see the caskets. It makes you feel part of their story, and makes the person behind the inscription and statue seems so much more real. Finally, we visited the tomb of Eva Perón. If you don't know who she is, look her up. She's very important (but also EXTREMELY controversial) in Argentine history.

Evita's Tomb

All in all it was an awesome day. We headed to the craft market afterwords which happens every weekend, and I got some great ideas for gifts for people back home. I'm a sucker for craft fairs so I was totally in my element.

We have a pretty standard week coming up. Classes start back up tomorrow and go until thursday. Then we have an excursion down to Florida Street on Friday, which is mainly shopping! I'm in the market for a leather jacket so I cannot wait to go! I miss everyone at home and I hope you guys are having an awesome summer! (Because it is cooooold here!)

¡Ciao!

- Meagan