Saturday, December 10, 2011

Mi última semana

NOTE:  My internet won't allow me to upload all of the pictures right now, I'll add them later

Lunes el 5 de diciembre – día 141
Monday I woke up not feeling well (I think that delicious choripan from the Feria de Mataderos gave me food poisoning…) so I pretty much stayed in bed all day.

Martes el 6 de diciembre
I still wasn’t feeling very good on Tuesday so I stayed in bed again.  For dinner Clarisa made me some plain pasta.

Miercoles el 7 de diciembre
Luckily I was feeling a little better on Wednesday.  I got up and had some toast for breakfast, showered then headed to UBA to get a paper signed with my final grade.   Afterwards I took the paper to my program office and headed home.  I met some friends in a park for a few hours to celebrate my friend Emily’s birthday!
Plaza Francia


Melissa and the birthday girl

No one was ready for this picture...


Mate and a cupcake, great birthday!

Cute picture... except for me




Libertador
They all went out, but I wasn’t feeling up to it, so I went home and had some chicken stew (with pumpkin, carrots, and potatoes) with my host mom for dinner.  After dinner I went to bed.

Jueves el 8 de diciembre
Thursday I slept in, then got up and head some breakfast.  I met up with Alicia at Gaston’s house and we made some delicious chicken burritos complete with guacamole for lunch!  After we ate I headed out to El Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes to meet Krissy and her friend.  Luckily the generator didn’t go out this time…  the museum was absolutely amazing, with a wide variety of art from all over the world, and it was all free!




After we left the museum I walked around for a little while, then stumbled upon the Museo de la lengua y el libro (Museum of language and the book) which is part of the biblioteca nacional (national library).  It wasn’t very big, but it was really interesting.  The language part was really applicable to my linguistics major, and I read a lot of the books on display in my clase de Literatura Argentina, so it was really neat!
Cool building, right?


I left the museum and headed to my yoga class, which is close by.

After yoga I went home and has some leftovers since Clarisa wasn’t home, then I got ready and headed out to meet Ludi and Alicia.They were hosting a despedida (good bye party) at Café de la subasta, a bar which their friend from tango owns.  A lot of people from IFSA were there, and it was really fun.  A few hours later I decided to go to a boliche (club) with Brendan, Glen, Andrew, and Michael, where another IFSA girl was having a birthday party.

We got on the colectivo going in the wrong direction, had to get off and go in the other direction, and ended up on a bus full of drunken fútbol fans, decked out in their team’s colors, clapping and singing various chants after a win.

When we got off the bus we had to walk about 15 blocks, and the entire time we really wanted a McDonald’s, but alas, there wasn’t one on our way to the boliche.  Upon arrival at said boliche we discovered the cover was $70 pesos, and the line was ridiculous, so we decided to just go to a bar instead.  The bar ended up being really cool.  I ordered a Volvex (a bar speciality), which was absolute raspberry, jugo de manzana (apple juice) and menta (mint), and tasted EXACTLY like juicy juice.  Brendan ordered an Irish carbomb, which the waitress didn’t quite understand, but it all worked out in the end.

After the bar everyone was hungry so we went to Shwarma (a gyro place) and then headed home.  On our way home we passed a group of school children leaving for a field trip (it was 5:30AM) and the birds were singing, so that just lovely.

Viernes el 9 de diciembre
Friday I begrudgingly got up at 9:30 to go to my yoga class (since I was sick I already have one class I paid for and won’t be able to attend, so I’m determined to use as many as I can).  After yoga I walked around, did some shopping, then headed home.

When I got home I ate some lunch, started packing, wanted to cry, packed some more, wondering how in the world everything was going to fit in my bags, packed some more, wanted to cry again, and finally finished packing.  I think my suitcase weighs more than me.  I’m not kidding.  I’m still dreading getting  my bags down to the first floor of the house from my room on the third floor.  Have you seen my stairs?  It won’t be easy…

Anyway, after I finally finished packing I got dressed and went to meet Alicia and Gaston at the planetario (planetarium) for Dia del Tango en la Ciudad (day of tango in the city).  Basically, the city sets up a stage and a ton of chairs, and various tango bands and dancers take turns performing to celebrate tango, and at the end there is a fireworks show, plus it’s all sponsored by the city, so it’s free!











The show lasted about 3 hours, then Alicia, Gaston, Ludi and I split a cab home.

I ate dinner (pasta) with my host mom, then went upstairs and went to bed – I was absolutely exhausted since I only got about 3 ½ hours of sleep the previous night.

Sabado el 10 de diciembre – mi última día
Saturday I woke up, had some breakfast and headed to my yoga class.  After yoga I walked home, stopping on my way for an empandad de carne picante (spicy beef).  I showered, got all my stuff together, then Clarisa and I attempted to take my suitcase downstairs, which was quite the struggle.  Now I'm off to have some tea and cake with host mom before hoping in a taxi and leaving on a jet-plane.  See you all soon!


Un beso,
Taylor


Random Photo:
The homeless man on the corner of Santa Fe and Scalabrini Ortiz... he has a bed, a recliner, 2 dogs, a tv (he was watching SVU when I took this picture) and now, a Christmas tree!



Monday, December 5, 2011

Un paseo por el lado salvaje y mi ultimo fin de semana

Viernes el 2 de diciembre – día 138
Friday I woke up and had some breakfast then did some random things before heading out to meet my friend Saleah to go to the zoo in Lujan.  We met in Plaza Italia and took a bus to Lujan, which is located about an hour and 45 minutes outside of the city.This zoo is a special interactive zoo that allows the visitors to get up close and personal with the animals, and it was absolutely amazing!
After we had seen everything we headed home on the bus.  I walked back to my house, uploaded the pictures, and then did some random stuff online.  Clarisa and I had a vegetable tarta and coleslaw for dinner, with some dulce de membrillo for dessert.  After dinner I showered and went to bed.

Sabado el 3 de diciembre
¡Feliz cumpleaños a mi padre!

Saturday I got up and had some cereal then got dressed and made my way to yoga.  After my yoga class I walked to the feria in Recoleta to do some shopping.   
Some graffiti I came across on my walk





I ran into some of my IFSA friends, so I browsed around with them before walking home.  I dropped my packages off at my house, then went to Plaza Serrano to look around, it was a really nice day out so I took a little walk before I went home to get something to eat.  I was fairly tired, so I had a pretty lazy night, I stayed in, watched some TV online, and went to bed early.

Domingo el 4 de diciembre
Today I got up and had breakfast, then made my way to the bus stop to go to Feria de Mataderos again.  I met Saleah and Krissy when I got off the bus and we wove our way through the crowds to the feria.  We did a lot of shopping, stopped for lunch (I got a delicious choripan), and then continued shopping until we ran out of money.  While I really wish I would have discovered this feria earlier in the semester, my bank account is glad I only got to make two trips!  If you ever find yourself in Buenos Aires on a Sunday afternoon, I highly recommend visiting Feria de Mataderos.  Not only is it less crowded and cheaper than the other ferias I’ve been to, it’s also much more traditional, and there’s more to see than just the vendors, plus the food is amazing!
Traditional folk-dance on stage at the feria
Random iguana man

Choripan!

Miniature horse rides

 I headed home, did some random stuff online, skyped with the fam and then had dinner with Clarisa (left over vegetable tarta and coleslaw).  After dinner I skyped with Kevin and then Alyssa, and now I’m off to bed!



Un beso,
Taylor

Random Photo:
Christmas time in Buenos Aires!