He llegado!!

Translates to: I have arrived! Also, I did have to look that up on google translate... so. Here's to the start of this awesome journey!

To recap, I am studying for a summer semester in Buenos Aires, Argentina. During my time here I'll take a Spanish language and an Argentine culture class that will both count towards my Northeastern degree. I'll be traveling around the city -- seeing sights, eating food, and taking in as much as I can.

So far we have explored our neighborhood, gone on a bus tour of the city, watched the Argentina-Belgium soccer game, and eaten empanadas (twice). I've really only been here a day and a half and I can't wait to see how the rest of the month pans out.

I've decided to try and blog once a week to recap the adventures and sights, starting with this first weekend. A particularly thrilling experience may receive its own post. And there will probably be one dedicated entirely to food. We shall see. For this first update I decided to list a couple of the unique and interesting things I've noticed about Argentina as someone looking upon it with inexperienced eyes. I apologize for the lack of real journalistic skill my list-making implies.

1. The money is beautiful and the black market is your friend. 

Click to enlarge! :)

 In Argentina the exchange rate varies depending on where you go. Officially, the rate is 1 US dollar = 8.14 pesos, but on the "black market", you can get as high as 12 pesos. I put black market in parenthesis because though that's what it's called, it doesn't seem to be illegal -- or so my host mother, Ceci (say-see), has said. Regardless, after arriving most of us exchanged our dollars for pesos through our new Argentine school teacher who had collected the appropriate amount of pesos from a contact of hers. She said that he brought her the requested amount to her house after she asked. The Argentine system is peculiar, there seems to be many loopholes. I'm interested in learning more about the history of their government and politics. As Ceci said, it's "muy corrupto".

As I was counting my pesos out, I saw that two of my $100 pesos were very different than the others -- they were very colorful and had a woman (Eva Peron) on them instead of a man (Julio Roca). I loved the way that they looked and tucked them away, going as far as considering not to spend them (we'll see about that). A bunch of people on the trip have suggested they're fake since no one else at all received any that look like this, but I sleuthed around the internet and learned that they are a new issue from 2012. The backstory behind the change of face is interesting and nicely explained in this blog post I found here, if you'd like to know a little more.  

2. Food is incredibly cheap. 
I generally try not to eat out too often to avoid spending money on food. However, here, it is different. An empanada costs 120.00 pesos. Or, in American dollars, $1.20. Add another empanada for a full meal and a beer for a drink and the bill comes to 500.00 pesos, aka $5. It is awesome. Before we left our professor, Claudia, was constantly saying: "The dollar is very strong in Argentina." She was right and I am really, really enjoying how much food I am able to eat without worrying about it's cost.

3. Winter here is like fall at home.

My dirty winter shoes in the Buenos Aires

Metropolitan Cathedral. Typical wet sidewalk causalities. 

After learning that I would be visiting Argentina during their winter I mentally prepared myself to be thrown back into something similar to the winter Boston just experienced... so... Antarctica. I was so pleasantly surprised after arrival to step into the fifty to sixty degree weather. It feels great and is such a relief from the humidity and heat of the US right now.

It has been raining the past two days and the weather reminds me of fall so much. There are autumn leaves on the trees and they've been blowing around in the wind and rain, sticking to the side walk and being all shiny. The rain is interesting to see here because apparently Argentine winters are usually pretty dry. I love it, even though we got soaking wet today wandering around the streets, and I stepped in far too many puddles. I am happy to be back in my sweaters and boots.



4. Buenos Aires is huge. 
I was surprised when I learned that my journey to school everyday would take 40 minutes. But after driving through the Buenos Aires for two hours on a bus, dropping off different students to their separate hosts after arriving, I started to get an idea of just how huge the city really is. I know it's probably just because I am so unfamiliar with the layout, but so far it's been challenging to get any type of bearings aside from the neighborhood I'm staying in.

My roommate just reminded me of another interesting point as well. Trying to figure out our bus commute to the group tour this morning, we were asking Cesi how long it would take. We were having trouble wrapping our heads around the distance until she finally explained that Argentines think in blocks, not minutes. So rather than her telling us it would take 45 minutes, she kept saying that it was x-amount of blocks. It's an interesting way of viewing distance. Coming from Boston, I always think in minutes. But I wonder if people from larger cities, such as New York, think in blocks too. Any insight on this?

_________

Anyway, those are some of the things that have been on my mind and in my line of sight these two days in Buenos Aires. I'll write some more posts soon!

Also, here's a picture of the inside of the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral. We visited it today and saw the mausoleum of San Martín, who was Argentina's George Washington. I didn't know where to put this in here so I just threw it in at the end. Bye!