Día 13: Ice Cream and... Protests?

It's another cold day here in Buenos Aires, but a few degrees warmer than yesterday.. and still interesting as ever! I really enjoy the University, and while a 5 hour straight class can be a struggle, overall, it is great. My professors are so fun and passionate, and really help us have a good time while learning.

After class today, I walked around some streets of Belgrano (near the school and ISA office) with my friend Anna. We were on the hunt for some authentic leather boots (Argentina's finest!), but ended up finding some other "treasures" instead! We made our way into a few very local, off-the-beaten-path grocery stores, and had fun just looking at the Porteño food selections. Among our favorites were the steak & grilled meat flavored Lays Potato Chips and the Dulce de Leche + Banana flavor-filled Oreos. Haha! We also found ourselves in a few Chinese-owned dollar stores, which had the most random variety of toys, paper lanterns, fake Ray Bans, and garden pots.

Dulce de Leche & Banana Oreos: Welcome to Argentina!

After ending the search for boots, we stopped at Freddo- the Argentinian equivalent of Baskin Robins- for some helado (ice cream)! As mentioned in a previous blog post, the ice cream here is heavenly. Even though it's freezing cold outside, the ice cream shops stay open all year long- which I believe is due to the fact that no one could bear to live without it...and I don't blame them! I had dulce de leche ice cream (In case you haven't noticed by now, dulce de leche runs this country- and I'm enjoying every bit of it!). Que Rico!

Can you hear the angelic chorus singing?! Amen to this ice cream!

Tonight for dinner, Cecilia cooked the breaded chicken Milonesa again, along with lentils. It would have been just an ordinary dinner, except for the protest happening outside on the streets! This past week, the President has enforced stricter laws concerning the ability to buy American dollars; this is due to the fear of inflation of the Peso, which is already at 25%. Yikes! Anyways, for the past few days, random protests have broken out in the form of people hanging out their windows and standing on their doorsteps banging on pots and pans. Eating dinner to the sound of "clingclingclingclingcling..." was crazy, and it was hard to keep a straight face. If you're interested here are some links and a video to further explain the situation here:

Protests in the form of pots and pans

Low-down on the economy

Video: Day 1 of the protests last week, to give you an idea of "la vida loca"!

After enjoying dinner to the "music" of pots and pans, Anissa and I finally got our laundry back! Yay! I am finally reunited with jeans- and they smell so wonderfully clean! Tomorrow we have plans to have a fun Friday night out and about, but that's another blog post! ;) ¡Hasta Manaña!