Officially One Month In

Hey.... so it's been a while since I updated this puppy and I don't feel like writing much, so I think I'll do more photo uploads this time.

Saturday the 21st, I decided to go exploring during the day. I ended up wandering into what I THINK is el barrio Villa Crespo. As I was walking, I heard a bunch of music and such, and ended up wandering into this park...

The following Tuesday, the 24th, was my first tango class.
Um... I think my last post kind of says it all.

Wednesday night, (the 25th,) I went out with some people to this little bar/cafe in Palermo. I can't remember the name but it was on the street "Borges" and that's all that really matters. It was really nice and chill to hang out with people in an environment where we could actually hear what the person next to us was saying.

The place was mostly empty, but there was this lively bunch of guys a few tables over playing guitars and dancing. It was great to be around.

Let's see... the next night... oh, haha. I went to Miloca then club Jet.
I don't really feel the need to talk about that night.

The NEXT night, I got invited to a Shabbat dinner at a Chabad/Jabad house in Recoleta. From what I understand, Chabad is a group of orthodox Jews who particularly aim to reach out to the community. I was kind of reluctant at first, but the service wasn't too long, and it was very entertaining to see a Rabbi speaking Spanish. Also, check this out:

The dinner was UNBELIEVABLE and all the people were really nice and chill. We stayed eating and talking and drinking wine til midnight, when most of us decided to head back home.

On my walk back, I saw this dude doing construction work and there was this biiig spot light thing next to him, kind of like one you'd see in theater. Naturally, I nearly peed my pants, so excited by the beautiful lighting. He was very cooperative and let me take several photos.

I like this one the best:

That Saturday, the 17th of August, I spent most of the day sleeping, reading, and writing. At night, I went out with Sara Bernal and some of her Study Abroad friends to a club called Crobar. I managed to weasel us all in for free, (of COURSE we're on the list....) which was awesome, because that night was clown/circus themed. It was really cool and REALLY crowded. I was super bummed that I brought my camera but forgot my memory card. We all got pretty overwhelmed pretty quickly, and ended up leaving early (at around 4am).

Sunday, a bunch of the kids from IES met at the IES building at 2, and took a bus to the town of Mataderos, where we went to La Feria de Mataderos. This fair is more/less in commemoration of the gauchos of the 19th century. There were pretty much three kind of gauchos: the "Gauchos Buenos" were basically slaves, made permanent servants in exchange for housing of the gaucho and his family; the "Gauchos Malos" who were also used, but for torture (mostly political); then there were the "Gauchos Mataderos" who basically just killed cows. So techically this thing was call, "The Fair of Cow Killers," but I have a pretty good feeling there's more to it than that. It was interesting, but La Feria de Mataderos didn't really have a whole lot to do with gauchos, other than the few areas with horseback riding and the few people dressed up in costume. It seemed to be more of just your average artesan fair. This fair goes on every weekend. It was about a half hour bus ride from IES.

"HUH!?!? DID SOMEBODY SAY 'WALK'!?! I WANNA GO FOR A WALK!!"

Choripan vender with silver eyes.

Man and his sister relaxing at the fair.

So there were all these dudes there riding horses, right? They were doing this kind of sport where you have to get a baton around this ring attached to .... I don't really know how to describe it, but I assume the old gauchos used to do this because these guys were all dressed up old fashioned.

Little girl and a little horse

"Hello, Mr. Horsey. May I pet you?"

This guy was real nice. After I took the picture his friend was like,
"Hey, you take his picture, you give him the camera, yea?"
I laughed and told him that's not how it works.

At around five o'clock, everyone met up again to head back.

It was pretty funny to see people leaving from the fair in costume and getting into their car or onto the city bus...

This past Monday, I went to find the package my Mom sent at thist post office in Retiro. Unfortunately, when I finished walking to the post office, I got there 15 minutes after it closed. Fortunately, it was right next to the Retiro Bus Station, so I could get home real easily. Since this was the stop where TONS if not all of the buses meet up, there were tons of venders. After I got on the bus, though, I was told I shouldn't have a camera out in that neighborhood. Whoops.

Tuesdays are my longest days. I had Spanish class from 11-1, Cultural Icons as Global Commodities from 1:30-4:30, then I bused back home. I got back home at 5, had a quick snack, then left at 5:30 to get to my tango class at a local university across town.
This was the first time I took the bus there, and I accidentally missed my stop. I was only about 15 minutes late, which didn't seem to matter, AND I got to explore the ghetto for a bit which was fun! I would have taken pictures but I had a veryyy strong feeling that that would be a bad idea.

I bought a new pair of tango shoes which actually don't make me want to cry when I wear them. After about two hours in, I decided to take a mini break and sneak some pictures....

there are so many girls in the class that most have to dance with each other

We learned this cool move yesterday where the guy slides the girls foot over. If done right it really looks cool.

Today we started talking about our final project, which involves a group of 8 people, (4 Argentinians, 4 Americans,) who will do a performance from 7-15 minutes long.
I have a feeling it will be the longest 7-15 minutes of my life.

Ok, well I'm gonna go try and be productive.

Chau.