La bomba de tiempo at Konex. This was a little part of the audience clapping session. But it was all percussionists and later they had a special guest play piano. Every so often a drummer would switch and become the conductor. They took turns throughout the whole show. La bomba de tiempo goes on every Monday at Konex.

Belgrano Tour

After our placement test, we went to the mall to eat. We got this really good ice cream too, from Freddo. My Spanish was getting better and ordering went a lot smoother. The ice cream was really good, but really sweet. They give you 2 flavors together. I ordered dulce de leche y chocolate con almendras in a cone bowl thing. It seems like all Argentinians love dulce de leche anything. Nahuel, one of our program coordinators, recomended the dulce de leche and then i chose the chocolate con almendras...it was real good.

So after ice cream Nahuel took us (me and about 5 other girls) on a tour of Belgrano, where Im studying. The architecture there is all really old and different. All of the different embassies are in Belgrano and are really pretty mansions. I have some pics of them that ill post soon. Apparently Albert Einstein lived in the Australian embassy when he visited BA, its the nicest one. During our tour I also learned that most people in Argentina teach after they graduate university to give back to the community since the universitys are all free. (except for books and stuff like that). There is also this really good cake place Nahuel showed us, Maru Botana, by this famous chef, I havent tried it yet but its on my list.

Another random thing about Buenos Aires there are so many dogs. It seems like 9 out of ten people own a dog. There are dog walkers too where they walk like 8 dogs at a time. To go along with that there is dog poop everywhere too. There are also a lot of strays, one almost folllowed us all the way home one night. Ha and Anna saw one get on to the subway the other day.

On the subway people put on little skits for money. Its pretty interesting. Sometimes they have props like a ping pong net and paddles or they just do little plays. Everyone applauses and then they come around and collect money.

superbowl en buenos aires y amerika

Sunday we went out to an American sports bar where we watched the superbowl. It was a lot of fun, I met some other Steelers fans and I was introduced to a guy who lives in BA now and was from Pittsburgh. I didnt get to talk to him really, but it wouldve been nice. The bar was really neat with an open roof and a restaurant upstairs with the bar on the first floor. It was on the corner of a street and had couches out in the sidewalk where a bunch of us hung out and drank for a while after the game. I met Jose, a friend's host brother who speaks English very well even though we were all trying to speak broken spanish to him. We eventually resulted to a mostly English conversation though, unfortunatley.

After the superbowl, around 2ish, we went to a discoteca called Amerika which was actually a gay club. It was humongous with lights everywhere, screens, stages, and balconys over looking the giant dance floor. There was 90 percent guys and it was actually kinda expensive to get in (35 pesos) which is like 11 or 12 dollars. But I guess its actually not bad considering you also got a free drink. It was all electronica music and heavy techno but it was a lot of fun and the atmosphere was amazing.

Unfortunately I dont have pics of these but i'll be more of a photographer the next time were out, promise.

My First Day

I have no sense of time but i'll try to recalculate my first hours in Argentina. It started at the airport which wasnt as hectic as I thought it would be since I met a girl named Sierra in the Houston airport terminal who I met up with after we landed in Buenos Aires. We helped each other naviagate our way through the airpor, baggage claim, and customs, until we saw a woman holding a CEA sign. I felt like I should start speaking Spanish, but didnt know when to start....I went through customs and the money exchange place without using any Spanish, it was weird.

Anyway, we met up with the rest of our group that was on the flight and exchanged names, hometowns, etc. Next, I was in a van with Micah, Anna, and Mona to our residencia in Palermo. Anna is my roommate who I share a quad with and we have a little balcony too. Its cute. We got to our residence, unpacked and went to search for food with other girls on our floor. We sat down at a restaurant on Santa Fe Ave. It has a lot of little stores that sell cheap things and food. The streets are'nt very well paved or maintained by the way, I tripped like 3 times. And there are dogs and dog poop everywhere, and people drive really recklessly...supposedly the 2nd biggest cause of death is getting hit by a car here.

Maybe its just that I havent been around the city yet, but its not as Cosmopolitan/European as its made out to be. and no one really dresses that differently. Atleast I havent noticed any of that which I read soo many articles on. I ordered a little pizza for lunch and water sin gas. All the drinks come in glass bottles with like old school labels for coke and sodas. Then for dinner me and Anna went to La nina de oro, a restaurant which is like 2 blocks away. We ordered a hamburger and fries. It was different tasting, not bad though. Then we went to bed when we got home. The rest of the girls all went out but me and Anna stayed in. I felt kinda out of the loop but whatev, I was tired. Here are some pictures of my room and my view...