BACK TO BA

So here we are seven months later and I have returned to Buenos Aires, Argentina. This time I brought two friends with me : ) One only came for a week, seeing as she has an actual job and all, the real work doesn't allow for unplanned adventures. Her (Ashley) and I arrived the same day, an hour apart, and spent an hour looking for each other in the airport. It didn't occur to me to designate a meeting place, not that I could remember what the airport looked like, if you refer back to my post in January about when I arrived you'll know what I'm talking about. Anyways, once we found each other, which was a huge reunion of sorts since we hadn't seen each other in about 3 years, we were well on our way into the city. We arrived thirty minutes later to the hostel I had called home for a month earlier this year. Slept for most of the day then went to my favorite French cafe around the corner for the best eggs benedict I've ever had in my life. Our first couple of days were spent relaxing, eating, and shopping.

It wasn't until my other friend Lauren arrived three days later that we really began to do anything touristy. Also, that weekend we moved into a cute studio apartment we would call home for the rest of the week. Having been here for two months before, I felt like the tour guide and showed to the best of my ability all the "must-see's" of Buenos Aires. Still, our days were short and tiring. We were all trying to adjust to the time and woke up well into the afternoon EVERY day so by the time we were ready to leave the apartment, we would only have a few hours of daylight left since it's still winter over here. Regardless, we still saw all the obvious attractions each day, The Obelisco on Avenue 9 de julio (supposedly the widest avenue in the world, spanning ten lanes), Puerto Madero-the seaport neighborhood with a lot of nice restaurants and new buildings, Calle Florida- similar to Canal street in NYC, the cemetary in Recoleta- a city all on its own with huge masoleums including where Evita is buried, streets of Palermo- chic boho neighborhood, San Telmo's Sunday street fair, Abastos live drum circle-which is every monday night year-round and some of the most amazing percussion music i've ever heard, an intimate Tango show at Bar Sur-where I was serenaded for my birthday...what else hmmm....it was a really busy week. We were also ending our nights pretty late, seeing as the typical time for dinner here is at 10:30pm and the bars don't open until after midnight.

Last Sunday I celebrated my 24th birthday here. Lauren and Ashley cooked a delicious meal for me and four of my friends that live here in Buenos Aires (all ex-pats though). Lots of wine, pasta, and cake...I had a great time : )

Ashley left last Tuesday and since then Lauren and I moved back into the hostel (a better choice economically not comfort-wise though), and spent the rest of the week recovering and relaxing. We had a couple rainy days so we went to the cinema more than once. Tonight is our last night in Buenos Aires until October. Tomorrow, our actual journey begins as we are leaving for our next stop, Rosario. It's apparently a smaller version of Buenos Aires, four hours north and sits right on the river so it should be greener and cleaner : )

From now on, I'll be writing regularly as the sites I'll be seeing will be for the first time and can share it with you guys as I see them. Until tomorrow, CHAU!!! (Argentines borrowed the term from the Italian Ciao)

Buquebus

11:19 pm 13/2/09

So this is my return trip back to BA from Montevideo, UY. I'm aboard the Ana Silvia liner of Buquebus. I just found this out...I kept seeing the name Ana Silvia on my ticket and other papers and figured it was the name of the lady who helped me on the first day at the counter in BA, I thought it was strange that they kept such good tabs on customer service....it wasn't until I was walking onto the ferry an hour ago that I noticed her name in huge white block letters painted along the side of the boat...wow they really love this lady, I thought...just kidding...thats when it clicked.

The ferry ride is three hours from Montevideo to Buenos Aires, its the fast one. The cheaper ride is 300 hundred pesos less but also three hours longer...no thanks. I wasn't sure what to expect about taking a boat to another country. I've never done it before. The longest I've been on a ferry ride was when I was 11 and went on a class trip to Vancouver Island to the city of Victoria....I think that was two hours. I remember it being the funnest thing ever, they had food, arcades, you could basically run around inside and out, there were different levels...way cooler than a plane ride.

This ferry ride is not much different except for the running around part, I mean its possible, there are kids doing it, but I would look strange, plus I have no friends. Well, at first I thought that's what all the kids did, run around, but not quite. I noticed the last time and now the amount of kids on this thing was outrageous! I didn't think I would survive. As soon as I ate and found a row of three empty seats to occupy, I started reading my book and fell asleep. It wasn't long before I heard the faint laughter of children...I could hear but it sounded muffled...awakened and staring at the ceiling, it seemed like the sounds were coming from the vent above me... I looked around and noticed all the empty seats and other adults fast asleep. Hmm, weird, I wonder where they put them all...and then I discovered at the front of the plane they have a mini kindergarten, with clowns and everything! smart....also they have two Wii stations downstairs in the center of the boat. also smart. so now its relatively peaceful.

These boats are huge....two levels and a car deck below. There is a two-level duty free shop with Prada sunglasses, clothes, alcohol, American chocolate and a whole level for perfume and makeup. Its all in US dollars and people are spending like crazy. I have to say, when I first was told to take the ferry over I had my reservations. A boat? with hundreds of people? I was skeptical about the conditions....but it turns out this is the preferred method of travel for most wealthy Argentines. Riding the ferry there and back were the only times I ever saw Louis and Chanel bags, gorgeous tans, iPhones, blackberry, iPods, Macbooks....even the children were beautiful. Of course, when I got off in Montevideo I never saw these people again, until I went to Punta del Este and I discovered their hiding spot, but thats a different story.

All in all, this is definitely way more relaxing than flying, even if the flight would have been only forty-five minutes...with two plane crashes in a month the odds are really high and water seems like a way better alternative than a twenty person baby plane....I'm leaving the nice blue water of the Atlantic behind and heading into the brown, murky, familiar waters of el Rio de Plata... Ciao!

Tourists Beware

Thankfully -knock on wood- I haven't been robbed...
Personally I hate tourists, even though I am one I try to blend in, which is easy because I'm Latina

BUT for those who aren't so lucky here are ways you may get robbed (as explained by my teachers, and friends that were robbed on more than one occasion, more than once a week)

1. People who you would normally assume to be suspicious probably won't wrong you- Watch out for small children, the disabled, the old, and the pregnant----they will most likely rob you, obviously not all but if they fall into the above category AND look slightly sketchy then YES

2. Don't be stupid and carry your camera in your front backpack pocket, or anything important in your backpack for that matter...while you're gazing at the beautiful tall buildings someone is unzipping your bag and taking your shit

3. If you see a $100 bill on the ground, it isn't your lucky day. While you're bending over to pick it up, someone is coming up from behind to snatch your purse/wallet and knocking you over....oh and taking the hundo...

4. If a parrot, pigeon, or any strange winged creature happens to land on your shoulder, you are not the bird whisperer. Right when you swing your arms up to shoo it away, you'll feel your purse pulled off your shoulder and by the time the feathers have cleared...you've been robbed

5. You're in a taxi, its a hundred degrees, got the windows down, smoking a cigarette, enjoying the only breeze of the day. Cab comes to a stop at a red light, guy drives by on a motorcycle reaches in the window and jacks your new suede handbag....sweet.

6. Aaah the subway...you get on, find a seat (for once), put your ipod on and just as the doors are about to close, some little fucker jumps on, grabs your shit and runs off just as the doors close and the subway takes off into the tunnel. WTF!?

As shitty as it may ruin your day, or your life, for the most part it's never violent. They take your shit and it some how ends up your own fault. Stupid gringo.

Sometimes though,

7. You go to the ATM, take out money, and then decide to wait outside of the bank 'cause its too damn hot inside, while your friend is taking money out. From nowhere a group of drunk teenagers approach you and say that they're gonna kill you if you don't give them all your money...just as you stagger back, your friend aka now you're new Argentine boyfriend/knight in shining armor runs out of the bank and saves the day...scaring the little shits off
-well let's just hope you're with an Argentine lover, this was obviously only one true story

or you may laugh about it later....or not

8. You're walking down the street, minding your business, when all of a sudden someone chucks dog shit at your face. You freak the fuck out, start screaming not knowing if you should wipe it off 'cause you don't want to touch it, so you're just blinding wandering, flailing, horrified....could it get any worse....YES...whoever just threw the shit at you, is now robbing you. HA!!!


SO what did we learn? Basically never bring your wallet, have a photocopy of your ID/passport, only bring as much cash as you need that day/hour whatever, and get a 'decoy' purse: a shitty purse you bought on the street so when/ if you do get robbed it's no big deal 'cause its a shitty purse with nothing in it.

BA Orientation

So Monday morning we have our first day of school...
The new kids are put into classes and each class has about 2-6 people in it. My group had 3 all together, which was nice 'cause we got more attention. One guy was retired, from Quebec, Canada, and has been travelling for a while, then the other girl just graduated from UCSB with a masters and is from NorCal...way up there though, near Humboldt. Her boyfriend, who was in the class next door, and her dropped everything in the States and are travelling all South America for six months and planned on making BA a permanent home after they travel.
Classes are four hours, where we ONLY speak spanish, talk about ourselves/lives, do grammar out of the textbooks, and watch a cheesy Mexican soap opera and discuss everything they say. We get a break after two hours, and they rotate teachers everyday so that we don't get used to one persons accent or method of teaching.
After the first class we went to orientation, which I assumed would be about the school, the language, and meeting everyone.
It turned out to be an orientation on surviving BA....
First order of business: You will get robbed
Second: You will get ripped off
Third: You cannot wash your own clothes at the laundromat and they will mix them with other peoples
Fourth: Don't plan on eating dinner till 10pm or after and don't plan on going out till 1 am or after
Fifth: No one curbs there dogs so watch your step
Sixth: Pedestrians DO NOT have the right of way

YAY BA!

Dead on Arrival - ??

domingo 11 de enero 2009
21:06 GST

Still muggy from the Ambien...I didn't sleep long enough for it wear off completely....I made it swiftly through customs. Upon exiting I tried to soberly recall what my Buenos Aires guidebook instructed me to do...and did the opposite (damn ambien). Instead of going to the Bank right outside of the exit I went to a currency exchange booth inside where they ripped me off and gave me got a lousy rate (I found out later they exchanged my money at $2.9 to the dollar when in actuality its $3.4!!) Secondly, my guide says to take a taxi oficiale as they are safe and cheap...but I head to a booth that says "taxi" on it, and of course it turns out to be a towncar which I also overpaid. argh.


My apartment is in a barrio aka neighborhood called Once (own-say..the # 11 in spanish), which is pretty close to downtown. Cool building, marble hallways, antique elevator..Settled in my room and was given a nice glass of ice tea and honey then passed out.
Around 5 pm the women I was staying with, Mirka, and I walked around the neighborhood, hopped on the B train and headed to the last stop N.Alem where I'll be getting off for school the next morning. Walked up Av.Eduardo Madero along the Port and ended up at my school's building. On our walk back we went along Av.Cordoba to the Galerias Mall and then all along Calle Florida (which is way too crazy, like Canal street in NY...a bunch of tourists trying to score cheap shit that is way overpriced and then getting their thousand dollar cameras stolen out of their backpacks)...we walked until the lady got too tired and jumped on the train back to Once, I decided to keep walking around, jumped into a shop and bought flip flops for like 8 bucks cause the shoes I was wearing had already ripped my skin off making every step insanely unbearable.

Kept walking until I reached this triangle of streets where they were filming some sort of movie and using leaf blowers to send a million little paper hearts in the air...Walked up to the famous Obelisco, jumped on the train there, headed home, got lost when I got out of the subway, found home...ate yummy pasta....passed out early.