First night out!

We finally decided we wanted to be a little less lame and go out for the first time in Argentina. We knew if we were going to go out it was going to be a commitment because no clubs start before 2am and people were planning on meeting at a bar around 12. We called a radio taxi to pick us up at midnight and we went and picked up Janelle from her house before going to Jobs bar. We arrived at Janelles house and our bricks of a phone failed us as we couldnt reach Janelle and we were awkwardly sitting in a taxi outside her apartment not knowing what to do with ourselves while the cab meter ticked away and the driver was loving life. Finally she came down and we arrived at the bar. The bar was a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be. It was huge! There were about 20 pool tables up and down stairs, different board games being played at a lot of tables, including my one of my favorites, Jenga. We then left there around 245 to go to a club Kika. Kika was a huge club with blasting techno, american, and some latino music with a huge dance floor. It was perfectly crowded so you did not feel stuffed in but it was a great dancing atmosphere. We stayed until I died of tiredness at 4am, hailed a cab and I fell asleep in the car home. It was definitely a fun first night out and is preparing us for many more and later nights ahead.

Pardee and me at Jobs

Jenna, Janelle, me and Leah still at the bar

so many great pics together tonight 

Jenna and Janelle

And now we are at Kikas

Dance Floor!

SO MANY PEOPLE

Dinners at Home and going to the gym

Yesterday we had our first long day of orientation. We were bussed to the National History Museum of Argentina where we were welcomed to the program and met all of the staff and other students. They gave us breakfast and lunch- breakfast was chocolate fruit fondue which was amazing. After lunch we had a walking tour of San Telmo, the richer part of Buenos Aires.

Me James Jenna and Janelle in front of Saint Martin

Where immigrants used to be forced to stay that is now turned into shops

Where the market used to be before the city was modernized

A fruit market!

The church our mom was married at!

After the tour we returned home and decided to go to the gym. We took a spin class and to say the least, it was NOTHING like soul cycle. The teacher would do 3-6 minute intervals and tell u a percentage you should be working at. I was basically improvising myself the whole class but I was glad we discovered the gym. We returned home and per usual dinner was not served til 9:30. The table was set so cute for me Jenna Sofia and the mom Gioia. We met the maid that lives in the house named Lillian who cooked the meal. We had a type of Spinach and meat lasagna. It was surprisingly tasty! We sat at the dinner table talking, unfortunately all in English, for a while. We got to notice the greatest family dynamic between Sofia and Gioia. They act more like friends than daughter and mother and argue over everything in the funniest way. 

Our dinner set up!

Jenna and I then had really great bonding time with our sister Sofia. We had a great girl talk and ending up sitting in the living room until midnight talking with her. 

This morning we got to sleep in and go to school for a presentation on obtaining a visa and a talk about mental health while studying here. Psychotherapy is a huge phenomenon to Argentines and we had a woman talk to us all about our mental health and how to overcome depression and adjust to new cultures. It was really interesting! 

In our orientatin

We went to lunch at Tea connection which was an amazing grilled chicken salad and got new argentinian nokia bricks as phones. We then went to the gym again and this time tried a Aero Combat class which was actually hilarious. I felt like we were in a fighting video game. It was such intense music and we were punching and kicking to the music. Then we went to an Aerobics class, which I FAILED in, could not at all keep up and ended up leaving because I could not remember any of the routines and was just embarrassed!

We got home for a home cooked meal of Veal Milanese which I have never tried before and it was delicious. Then we ordered two pints of ice cream from this incredible ice cream place. My favorites were dulce de leche and hazelnut.

The amazing ice cream we got: Raspberry, dark chocolate, hazelnut, Dulce De leche, and mint

We are going out for our first night tonight which should be fun! Until tomorrow!

Exploring the city

We woke up exhausted this morning and were brought by our mom to the kitchen where she taught us how to use the stove and showed us all the food we are free to eat. We cooked ourselves eggs for breakfast and some kiwi. I am loving this apartment set up! I took some more pics of the apartment to show truly how beautiful it is and how spoiled Jenna and I are compared to our other friends.

The garden in the back of the apartment with the dog named Pluto

Her office that overlooks the garden

The living room with a large window that brightens the room

She owns a clothing store inside of the apartment...she is apparently a designer

The dining room with a beautiful chandelier and a large mirror

The kitchen

We then met the rest of the students on the IES program at the IES building which was conveniently a 5 minute walk away from our apartment! Other students had like a 20-30 minute walk or bus ride but we really do have a prime location from the school. We loaded a bus and had a tour guide take us around Buenos Aires to see some of the many landmarks around the city. Of course I was snapping away with my camera so here are some of the things we saw.

The famous and beautiful oprah house

We were driving on what was known as the "widest avenue" in Argentina

A central Plaza and behind us in a statue built in 1810

In front of the government's office was a huge statue and a flag

Known as the Pink house - La casa Rosada - was the government house where many protests have occured in the plaza in front of it

Inside of a famous church this is a tomb guarded by two guards- La Catedral in which San Martin was buried

Again the plaza de Mayo but with James, Janelle, me and Jenna- Here every thursday what is called the "Women's march" where mothers come to protest to try to find their sons and daughters that were taken from them by the government 30 years ago when the government would capture pregnant women and give away their babies

Puerto Madero

Jenna, Janelle, and I- because this was a tour through IES we were lucky that us three were all in the same program and got to go on the tour together

The modern bridge- el puente de la mujer- on top of the river that we walked across

The Rose Garden- El Rosedal!

Also in the Rose Garden a part that overlooks the river

Today was a great day and we are starting to feel more comfortable roaming around the city. Since our house is so near to the school it is really convenient to walk around and explore the area surrounding our house. We found a  few cool areas in Recoleta and met two girls at Tea Connection a really hip coffee and tea place. Tomorrow starts orientation! 

Our first night- Long Dinner

For our first night we met up with 8 girls for a nice Argentinian late dinner. We went to Green Bamboo- a Vietnamese restaurant, I know not so argentinian for our first night. We started dinner at 10pm and ended up talking and ordering drinks and not ordering our food until 11:30. There were 5 girls from Penn me and Jenna from Duke and a girl from Colgate. It was really fun meeting everyone and talking over dinner. Once we got our food at midnight and had eaten we all decided we were tired and although the original plan was to go to a club, Terrazza, we decided to save it for another night and start off our first night a little slower. We left the restaurant at 1am and took a Radio Taxi 25 minutes home! Our house is a little farther than everyone else's so it is really good that Jenna and I will always be going home together.

We sat on the floor in the restaurant- Janelle, Jenna, and I

Me and Alex

Janelle and Jenna

It was definitely a fun first night- we got to experience a long argentinian dinner and meet a bunch of new people! Today we have a tour of the city and hopefully can figure out the gym situation here. Looking forward to it because as of now I have zero sense of direction...

Arrival!

Saying good bye for a second time was easier then the first but definitely a sad good bye. I had just come back to the United States after being in Guatemala for two months and had been home for just a short 9 days. I was nervous, anxious, and excited all at the same time for another travelling adventure. Never in my life had I really travelled around the world and in one short year I was going to be living abroad not only in Guatemala but also in Argentina! Of course Argentina was going to be a lot nicer more metropolitan than Guatemala and I did not have to be as worried about getting sick again but of course I had my doubts. I shed a few tears as my parents dropped me off for another adventure!

After a 15 hour plane ride of which I slept about 10 hours of I arrived for my semester in Buenos Aires! We were greeted by IES program people and I met my best friend who will be my roommate for the next four months Jenna in the airport. We changed money and took a taxi to our home stay which is in a part of Buenos Aires called Recoleta. We arrived to an incredibly nice apartment of which our family owns the entire first floor of! Our mother, Gioia, greeted us at the door. She was extremely welcoming showing us around telling us to feel free to eat any food we wanted and to use the kitchen as we pleased. She showed us to our rooms which are two single rooms right next to each other which each have their own bathroom! Also the house has wifi which is a huge plus. We feel like princesses as we really feel so comfortable already with our home stay mom and the set up could not be more ideal. We basically live with each other but have our own spaces.

My bedroom!

My desk with a flat screen TV

The view of Jennas room from my room...SO CLOSE!

We unpacked our stuff and then went to a fair in town! It was a fair to celebrate the country called the "Exposicion Rural" and there were cages full of livestock and chicken and chinchillos! There was also some kind of horse show and lots of music playing. It was a cool first glimpse of Argentina! 

Such large caged chicken

Some with cool stripes!

And we cheersed to a great trip ahead! 

We returned home and met our home stay sister for the first time. She is 17 and is going to be a senior in high school and is also pre med. She could speak english almost flawlessly so we had great and normal conversation. She told us that night life does not start until 2-3 am and last night she came home at 7am...going to be a lot of late nights here!