Bright Lights, Big City

Last Thursday our month-long intensive language and culture course ended, and after taking our finals and a language placement exam for the universidad we hopped on an overnight bus bound for the BIG city, Buenos Aires. The overnight buses here come in levels of luxury, starting with your normal bus and ending with a full blown bed chair that reclines and has a foot rest. We were in a semi-cama, meaning semi-bed, which was still pretty freaking comfortable. I don't sleep well on various modes of transportation, including buses, because I'm a side sleeper with a preference for the fetal position. But, low and behold, you can actually sleep that way on semi-cama buses! Big points for Argentine travel.

We got into town Friday morning around 7. I say town but I definitely mean that metaphorically. Buenos Aires is the biggest city I've ever been in, and I was only in a tiny section of it. We took a city tour on our super American tour bus, and this tour took us roughly 4 hours. We didn't even cover half of the city. What we did see was some beautiful arquitecture, lovely gardens, happy looking people, and major landmarks like the Casa Rosada (instead of a white house they have a pink house) and the Plaza de Mayo. What we didn't see was the southern part of the city where all the poor people set up shack. I understand that we couldn't go there, as it would be very dangerous and stupid for a group of American college students to go gallavanting around a Villa Miseria (literally village of misery, which is the name for slums). However, I wish I could have visited somewhere without manicured parks and a bazillion tourists buzzing around. The Villas are where I want to work, the people I want to help. Therefore, I kind of feel as though it's important to actually SEE a villa miseria for myself. Unfortunately, there's just no safe way to do that while I'm a student down here. Next time I'm back I'll hopefully be working with an NGO, so I guess I'll just have to wait to see what I'm up against.

We also visited the museum of Evita, or Eva Perón. Having taken many Latin American history and politics courses I was familiar with the story of Evita and Juan, but the museum was a great way to learn more about her story and the reason she is both so beloved and so disliked by many here in Argentina. Saturday was also the day I lost my voice, due to a cold I seem to have picked up somewhere. I still don't have it back, which makes it difficult for people to understand me as I already have an American accent. I'm assuming the collective 15 hours of sleep over the whole weekend didn't help too much, but I've been doing my best to catch up these past few days (11 hours each night!). The picture here is with Evita and Juan's awesome auto, which is currently parked in the museum.

One place you need to visit in Buenos Aires is La Boca. This barrio has such an interesting history, and is reknowned for its multitude of both boats (it used to be the main port in Buenos Aires) and colorful houses. Artist Juan Quinquela Martín grew up here and painted the shipyards his whole life, and we visited his home/museum to view some of his beautiful work. The colors in his paintings are ridiculous, but I guess that comes from the ridiculously colorful backdrop that is La Boca. Unfortunately we had to stay in one very small section of the barrio as it's pretty poor and relatively unsafe. I would have liked to see more of it, but at least we got to see the Boca Juniors stadium from afar. No fútbol game that day, but still pretty cool to see the place that many Argentines equate with church.

Sunday was my friend Olivia's 21st birthday, so Saturday night a bunch of us took her out to celebrate Argentine style, aka with a lot of Fernet. It was a fairly awesome way to spend your 21st in my opinion, because we also went to an amazing live dinner and Tango show on Saturday. The main dancers were incredible. I cannot fathum moving my legs so fast and with such precision, expecially when you're kicking all up in somebody's man parts (they did this backwards between the legs kick thing that I was just waiting to see go terribly, terribly wrong). However, girlfriend's face was SCARY as the result of too much plastic surgery at far too young an age. A couple of the other girls looked like they hadn't eaten in the past 2 decades, but that's Argentina for you - plastic surgery and eating disorder capital of the world. I'm assuming it's worse for the dancers.

Overall, Buenos Aires was a great weekend and I'd love to go back for another. However, we were all very happy to come home to Córdoba, where things move a little slower, the people are a little friendlier, and you don't hear as much English. I'm about 80 times more greatful that I'm studying here and not in BA or another huge city. It was also pretty cool to realize that when I got homesick this weekend it was for Córdoba and my life here. I think that's a pretty good sign.