Ooooleee Ole Ole Ole, Olee Oleee

This past week was full of fun activities. On Monday I went to this outside bar called Konex. Every Monday night at that bar there is this music event called La Bomba. It’s a bunch of guys (one girl) on drums, bongos, and other similar instruments, and they just play for two hours. It was really fun to listen to, and you couldn’t help but move your hips. It’s the same group each time, but they have different special guests. This week they had this “jolly” man who played some beats on his chest and belly, did some form of beat boxing I have never heard before, and he rapped a little ha. He was really fun to watch. The other guest was a guy who played the keyboard. I really enjoyed that night. I would go every Monday night if I could, but I wouldn't be able to volunteer and then go because I would be too wiped out. I will definitely be going back though.

Wednesday:

I took a free city tour with my friend Tamara. It lasted for about three hours. It wasn’t the best thing I have done while I’ve been down here, but it was good to learn about some of the older buildings and to be able to learn some more of Buenos Aires’ history. There are a lot of really pretty buildings here in BA, so I really enjoyed seeing those. We started at the Congress building.

These purple tress are all over the city. I think they are so pretty.

On the side of a building there is a monument of Evita giving one of her famous speeches. We drive past this building everyday for volunteering and I have never seen this, so I’m really glad I got the chance to see it.

Someone said they thought this looked like a man eating a sandwich ha.

After the tour, Tamara and I went and got empenadas. We stopped in the first restaurant that was cheap, and the empenadas were the best empenadas I have had here in BA. The carne and pollo (chicken) ones were full of flavor and were so yummy! I was still hungry and was in the mood for some ice cream so I went to Mcdonald’s to try their vanilla and dulce de leche swirl. It was DELICIOUS! They really need to bring that flavor to the states. I would eat it everyday. The dulce de leche tasted like a very creamy caramel. I am going to make my family try it when they come down here to visit me after Christmas. I normally have a rule of never going to an American food place (especially Mcdonald’s) while I’m abroad, but I made an exception for this because we don’t have this flavor back home. The ice cream here is really good, but a little pricey (20 pesos = $5 so not that bad), but the Mcdonald’s swirl cone is only 4 pesos ($1), so I’ll be able to save a little money and be able to get cheap ice cream when I have a craving. Now that it’s getting hotter down here, I’ll be eating ice cream more often. Luckily for me, I have great ice cream places near my apartment ☺

After the tour and ice cream, we went to the modern art museum (it’s free for students on Wednesdays). I don’t really like modern art because I don’t really get a lot of it, but there were some interesting things in the museum. Here are some of things I saw that I liked (or thought were interesting):

Friday:

I went to a futbol game! It was so much fun and very last minute. Argentina played Bolivia; it was a qualifying game for the world cup that’s in 2014. I didn’t think I would actually go to one while I was down here because all the games that my program organizes for us are really expensive. They included the ticket, transportations, and a tour guide (just someone to take us to our seats safely I guess, I’m not really sure why that’s necessary). All the games they have organized so far have been local club teams, and I didn’t really want to go to one of those anyways. I only wanted to go to a game where Argentina played as a country, so this opportunity was hard to pass up. The game went by really quickly too, which really surprised me because whenever I watch a futbol game on tv, it feels like it drags on and on. I was talking to my friend Marco (he’s from Italy), and he said he went to an American football game while he was studying abroad in Ohio (of all the states he could choose from, I don’t know why he went to Ohio ha), and he was saying that that was really boring because it’s so long. He has a good point (when comparing football to futbol). I really enjoyed watching the game in person though. It’s so much better (I feel that way about all sporting events though). The crowd’s energy was so great (it wasn’t as crazy as I was anticipating it to be), and I really enjoyed listening to the people yelling in Spanish. I heard them yell “iBien!” and “iPor favor!” a lot, and they called the refs some bad names too.

One of my friends is living in a hostel, and she’s the one who told us about the game. My friends and I went with her and a big group of people who were staying at the hostel. The majority of the group were guys from Israel. I’ve never met anyone from Israel before, so it was cool to meet them. They were all really nice guys, and were really fun to hang out with. Most of them are just traveling around and are only staying here in BA for a week or so. Whenever you travel somewhere, people always tell you “Don’t be a typical loud, drunk, American. It makes you an easy target.” Well, I think that needs to be changed from American to Israelite(?). Before we left for the game, the guys took some shots and drank some beer, to get in a good mood for the game (as they said). In order to get to the stadium we had to take the subway. It was one of the many rush hours, so the subway was packed. The subway is a really common place to get pick pocketed, so I’m always extra careful when I ride it, and try not to speak English (if I do, I try to be quiet). These guys pretty much did the complete opposite. They were yelling to each other in Hebrew and passing around a big bottle of beer to drink. Natually, one of the guys ended up getting his camera and futbol ticket stolen, during the first 5 minutes of being in the subway. I’m not trying to blame him, but there are some different, more cautious, choices he could have chosen. I felt really bad for him, but he was fine.

After the game, we all went back to the hostel and the boys cooked an Estonsia for us (this is pretty much a BBQ, but the grill you use to cook the meat is different and there’s a certain way to do the cooking). Hands down, it was the best steak I have had since I’ve been down here, and probably one of the best steaks I have ever eaten in general. I don’t know what those boys did, but it was delicious!

After dinner, we all just sat around listening to music. At first the music came from an iPod, but then people started bringing out their guitars and a keyboard. That was really fun, just sitting around and singing. It was interesting to listen to people sing American songs. Since English wasn’t their first language, every now and then they would sing the wrong words or just mumble through a part. It was pretty great.

I have really been enjoying talking to people from other countries. I’m just fascinated with the different cultures and life styles. I found out that in Israel, more guys go straight into the army right out of high school, then after the army it’s common to travel for a bit, and then go to college. The average age for starting college in Israel is around 24/25 years old. I also had the pleasure of hearing what this one guy thought of grinding (the lovely way a lot of Americans dance). Apparently, it’s not very common in other parts of the world. The guy was telling me how he was really surprised when a girl started dancing like that with him while he was in California. He went through several phrases. At first he was shocked and confused. Then he thought it was awesome and was really enjoying it. But then he did not like it at all because afterwards the girl would just leave. I thought that that was really funny to hear his point of view.

Saturday:

I went to the Palermo market place with my friend Tamara. It’s one of the smaller market places, and nothing really repeats itself, so I like it. I ended up buying that piece of art I talked about a few weeks ago. The guy that had a series of drawings that had to do with how people are a slave to time.

I know art is subjective, but this is how I interpret this drawing. The guys on the right are trying to go back in time, while the guys on the left are trying to go forward in time. People are always thinking about the past or worrying about the future, but rarely do we fully embrace the moments that are happening in the present. I am definitely guilty of this, so I bought this drawing to remind myself to enjoy life as it happens and not be so preoccupied with what happened in the past or with what is going to happen in the future. I know that that sounds really cheesy, but I feel like it’s a good reminder to have in my life. The drawing is pretty simple, but I really like it.

After the market place, we met up with some other friends and had a free tour of the Casa Rosada (The Pink House). It’s where the president lives. The tour didn’t last that long, but it was really interesting to see some of the rooms. I thought the art work was the most interesting part of the tour. There were a few classic looking pieces of art, but I was really surprised with the amount of modern art that was there.

This night was my first girls night out, and it was absolutely amazing. Before we went out, my friend Tamara and I went over to her friend’s (Marion, from Germany) apartment. She lives on the 17th floor and has an awesome view! We sat on her balcony, drank a little wine, ate some snacks, and just talked. It was a good time. Later we met up with the rest of the girls (there were 7 of us total) at the club. The club was a lot of fun. It’s really big, and has many different rooms, and in each room they play different music. We mainly only stayed in two of the rooms. The room I liked the best had music like Rhianna, Offspring, Joan Jet, Shania Twain, Shaggy, Rolling Stones, and other random music like that. I always enjoy myself when I know all the music, and here they play a lot of older American songs, so it’s great for me.

The guys here were actually a lot better than the guys from the last time I went out. They were almost normal…almost. At some point during the conversation while talking with the guys he they ask if you have a boyfriend, and I say I do, and then they follow it with is he here, and I say no back home, and then they seem not to care and are just like oh ok that’s really far away. About half of the guys say they have a girlfriend, but that it’s ok to be hitting on me because she’s not here. Just awful. However, I experienced something pretty refreshing. So two guys came up to my friend and I, and one of them really wanted to talk to my friend and the other one just said hey to me. After I said hey, he told me right away that he had a girlfriend and I was just like cool I have a boyfriend too. And then he went off telling me how much he loves her and what not. That’s rare to hear from any guy, but it was very refreshing to hear that from an Argentine. He was fun to talk to.

There’s an outside part to the club so we went out there, and it was easy to talk to people because the music wasn’t as loud. I’m actually a little surprised to how many younger people can’t speak English. I just kind of assumed everyone would be able to speak at least a little. It’s really fun to practice speaking with people while you’re out. A good amount I can’t understand (since I don’t know a whole lot and on top of that the loud music doesn’t help), but it’s fun meeting new people and talking. We ended up staying out till about 7 in the morning. Ridiculous! It was so much fun though and really need to watch the sun rise on the coast.

Until Next Time,
Liz