To start, I woke up at 8:00 am and got ready for the day. Luckily, my host family has access to hot water, so my shower was enjoyable, especially after still be nasty from the long airplane flight the day before. Freddy had breakfast waiting on the kitchen table, which consisted of coffee, a pear, and bread. The bread is eaten with a very, very typical Argentinian spread, dulce de leche. Freddy compared it to what is peanut butter is for us in the U.S. Breakfast was delicious, and I think I'm going to be just as obsessed with dulce de leche as the Argentians are once this trip is done!
Pan y Dulce de Leche
At 10:00 am, there was a 3 hour orientation at the ISA office. Anissa and I took the subte (subway/metro), which only took about 10 minutes. At the orientation, the man in charge told us everrrrything we needed to know, which was great. Here are the most interesting points:
- Fake bills are a big problem here in Argentina, due to their poor economy. He taught us how to identity a fake, which hopefully I will not run into!
- American dollars are in HIGH demand here. There is a huge black market for US dollars, especially since it is almost nearly impossible for Argentinians to obtain them, even through a bank. The black market exchange rate for a US dollar is about 5-6 pesos! I also found out that there is no way for us Americans to retrieve US dollars from an ATM here, even with our credit/debit cards. There is some kind of law that prohibits it. The ISA coordinator suggested we exchange our US dollars for pesos with our host families here, because the families will give us a better exchange rate than any bank/ exchange office.
- Police here cannot be trusted, uh oh! In the words of the ISA coordinator, "if you need help, and have to choose between the police or a homeless person, choose the homeless." Good to know! Haha!
Empanadas
After lunch, we boarded a bus for our "taste of BA" tour. This tour was about 5 hours long, just pointing out the highlights of the city, so that we could go back and see them later on our own.
Here is a brief description of our tour:
- Belgrano: area where the ISA office and Universidad de Belgrano is (where my classes will be).
- Recoleta: a classy, and one of the most expensive residential areas in BA;also home to the most high-class, high-priced shops.
- Recoleta cemetery: A pride of BA, with streets and streets (they called it a metropolis cemetery) of marble mausoleums. To be buried here is stating that you are the richest, most important person. EVER. Evita Peron is buried here as well.
Recoleta Cemetery
- Plaza de Mayo: "downtown", and home to all the political buildings and city landmarks. Here we saw the casa rosada (pink house), which is similar to the US white house, but, uh...pink! The president of Argentina works there, but does not live there. There was also the San Telmo Fería nearby, which is a huge market lining a street for as far as you can see. The feria only happens on Sundays, and had everything from handicrafts, antiques, street performers, and artists.
- La Boca: this is a cultural center for the city, alive with brightly colored buildings, soccer (Team Boca Juniors), and tango.
- The Boca Juniors soccer stadium had huge stands of bleachers, with a Coca-Cola endorsement at the top. However, the Boca Juniors' rival, River Plate, colors are red and white, so the huge Coke endorsement surrounding the stadium had to be changed from the classic red/white coca-cola colors to black/white! Soccer here is taken very seriously!
- Argentina is home of the tango, and there were many people lining the streets to perform for money. Later in the week, ISA has set-up our very own tango lesson, so soon, I will be able to join!
- We also drove through the shantytowns of Boca on the way to our next stop. There is such a contrast between every barrio (neighborhood), it's unreal. The shanty town was sad, and obviously a place of troubled individuals, many of whom are alcoholics and drug addicts. Let's just say ISA didn't let us off the bus at this destination!
- Puerto Madero: the waterfront neighborhood of BA, and most modern part of the city. This is the home of the port, the ships, and also the most exclusive homes and restaurants. It was beautiful!
After the tour, Anissa and I walked back to our apartment from the ISA office, which took about 45 minutes. After this long, jam-packed day, we are both pooped. However, the BA culture consists of people going out almost every night, so I'm trying to rest up in case we act like locals tonight and hit the streets around midnight! Haha! Getting used to the time schedules here in BA are going to be a challenge. It's currently 9:00PM here, and dinner has yet to be served. Whether or not I go out tonight will be decided later...hey, I have until 3am to decided, right?! Haha, hasta llugeo!
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