nice weather is a comin'

the weather is becoming spring and it makes me feel so happy.
its been 75 degrees all this week.
last sunday i went to the huge park (very similar aesthetic to golden gate park)
here are some photos of me and friends sitting outside drinking mate and enjoying the sun









There was also this band and dancers





and of course a sunset...

Sorry its been so long...lots to update

Hello all-
I am currently sitting in my living room, drinking mate, listening to the rain outside, sifting through my photos trying to decide which ones to post here - what a life huh? This is actually a wonderful task because I'm reminded of everything that I've been doing here. I can safely say that I am having a wonderful time here. I love this city, I am excited to explore more of the country, I love the food (MEAT!), and I love going to school in a city. I have basically been on a month-long vacation down here, but classes started yesterday so I have a feeling my life is about to change. This week is particularly stressful because I have to attended almost double the amount of classes I will eventually take in order to decide which ones I would like. And this task is particularly stressful because I am no longer in bubble town ohio, here the classes can be a 30 minute subway ride away from each other.
Here is a photo of a sunset I want to share with you guys. I took this from my balcony, pretty nice view. The sunsets here are unreal.



I am getting ahead of myself, I would like to share what I have been up to for the last week or so. My dear brother David flew all the way down here from Columbia to pay me a visit. We had a great time exploring Buenos Aires, going out together, and we took a trip up to the coast town Rosario. So photos of our trip in Rosario:
On our bus ride to Rosario we drove past a controlled fire. Supposedly they induce fires that they can control in order to avoid massive uncontrollable fires



Rosario is the birth place of the Argentine Flag and of Ché.
Here we are at the monument of the flag, David by the eternal fire:



A larger view of this monument:



We went to the top of the tower of this monument and got a pretty nice view of the city:





David and I shared this fish dish...amazing



We took a really long bike ride up the entire coast of the city....we took a break by a beach and drank some beer to cool off



Here we have the Ché monument. It is pretty small and literally in the middle of nowhere.



On Monday (a national holiday here) I went to the delta with my friend Daniel, a town about one hour up the coast from Buenos Aires. I didn't do my research correctly and we ended up on a two hour public bus trip our way there. But we got there eventually and it was beautiful. Its just a huge open market that sits on a delta. We ate choripan and drank mate and sat on the dock and watched the sunset. Pretty nice day I'd say.
Some photos of el tigre:





That's all for now...

Weekend in el campo

This weekend I went on a "cultural excursion" with my program. We went to a town called San Antonio de Areco to view traditional argentine cultures. I did not bring my camera because I was feeling lazy, but i will try to post photos that friends took soon. I think I ate an entire cow this weekend, and as most of you know, this is a big feat for a recent vegetarian. But it was delicious. I at meat empanadas (which is ground beef in a bread pocket), choripan (chorizo, pork sausage, in a sandwich) and lots of parilla (which is steak). I think they fed us every three hours. We also watched (and later learned) traditional argentine dancing, rode horses on a ranch, and watched traditional argentine sports that are on horse. The town and ranch we went to were pretty touristy but they show a pretty traditional way of life. It was nice to get out of the city and hang out with people on the program, but coming back into the city really felt like coming home.

I am entering my last week before classes start and david bluestone is coming to visit. I am very excited to be in this city with him but extremely nervous about starting classes. This will have been my shortest summer ever. The idea of taking a full semester all in spanish is very intimidating.

Today I went to a street fair in a neighborhood called san telmo. It happens every sunday and they close off about 20 blocks on this one road. The square in san telmo is all antique booths and then along the street are various artists (jewlery, clothing, paintings...). So many people go, probably thousands, because almost all stores are closed on sundays. I ran into a few people I know, which made me feel like i know people here...strange feeling.

I guess thats all for now

El cementerio de recoleta

On my first super touristy day here I visited THE cemetery.
It is huge, and it looks like a miniature village. Every single person buried in this cemetery is buried in a mausoleum. Most are really really old, housing 10-20 family members. The oddest thing about this cemetery is most of the coffins are above ground and most of the mausoleums have windows to look into and view the coffins. It was seriously the most ghost-town-y place I have ever been. It is also impossible to know where you are at any time, there are all these little allies and diagonal paths. It was super cool. We went to find the grave of Evita Peron but we couldn't find it because we kept on getting lost and were too cheap to buy a map. Its free to go though so I plan on returning. The other creepy thing about this cemetery is that it is in the middle of the city surrounded by high rise apartments, meaning hundreds of people look out their window and see graves. Originally when it was built it was outside of the city but because of the yellow fever epidemic a while ago all the rich people started moving away from the port and now surround this cemetery village.
Here are some photos for your entertainment.

some photos of my home

I took some photos of the apartment I am living in for your entertainment:

Here is my room





The living room



Kitchen



The view from my balcony









I have been nervous about taking my camera out around the city.
But I will try to do that and then post some photos of the city.
This city is absolutely beautiful. The architecture is unbelievable because this city was original the main port city of Argentina it was founded by tons of different immigrants who all brought over their own style of architecture. The city looks a lot like Paris in a lot of ways with huge avenues, the biggest is 18 lanes across. When I am walking around I often feel like I am in a very modern city and then all of a sudden I will turn the corner and there is this gigantic beautiful building sitting next to the bus stop.
So I will try to document this amazing city for you all to see