Week 21

Sunday was a pretty calm day. I met up with my friend Travis to go to la Fería de Mataderos about an hour away from where we live. It turned out that his host family and one of the students that he lives with decided to go as well, so we met up with them at the fair, ate choripan (chorizo-a type of sausage, on bread with a chimichurri sauce- So good and cheap!), and then wandered the fair for a bit. When we decided to head on home, my friend's host parents offered to drive us, so that we didn't have to take the bus, which was really nice of them! The bus is fine, but it seems to take forever. After I got home, I spent most of the evening on my computer following the soccer game. One of the main teams in Buenos Aires, River Plate, had an important game yesterday. They needed to win by 2 points to stay a principal team. They didn't, and are now a secondary team. The fans here are crazy about soccer here, so of course there was a riot in and around the stadium. Luckily, I'm far enough away from the stadium, so it wasn't a problem for me, but watching a video of the riot was crazy! There were over 2,000 police officers using tear gas and water cannons to try to stop the rioting, but they were unsuccessful. There were fires, injuries, cars destroyed and the people even resorted to throwing things at each and at the police officers. A crazy, but historic day in Argentina.

Monday I got to sleep in since I don't have classes anymore. I went to a cafe near my house for lunch and to use their internet since it works much better than the internet at my house. I also finished my book! It was called "La Sociedad de la Nieve" (The Society of the Snow). It is a book about 16 men who survived a plane crash and seventy two days in the Andes Mountains in 1972. It was a fascinating story and I was able to read the entire book without any problems! This is the first book I've read in Spanish that wasn't for a class or meant for children. Besides finishing my book, Monday was pretty uneventful.

Tuesday- I got out and did something. I met up with Travis to eat lunch in China Town (the BEST place to eat here) and then we went downtown to La Manzana de las luces (The Apple of the lights). It was a series of old buildings that I think were used by political heads a long time ago? I don't know. It was kind of confusing and boring. There are a set of tunnels underneath the buildings and they don't know why they are there or what purpose they served. That part was kind of cool. Luckily the tour was only 10 pesos and only took about an hour out of our day. At 7:30, I met up with Travis again and our friend Mora (from Argentina) to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. The cinemas here were doing a marathon of the first 7 movies. It was nice to see a movie in English and to get out of the house some more.

Wednesday was another lazy day. Didn't do anything terribly exciting.

Thursday I went to El museo nacional del teatro (The national theatre museum). It was a really tiny museum, but was kind of neat. Plus it was free, so it didn't really matter. I got to see some old costumes worn by famous actors. Most of the names were unfamiliar to me, but it was still pretty interesting. The only one I knew was a costume worn by Carlos Gardel in an old movie. Then I went to this art museum with works by Xul Solar (Sool Soh-lar). I was the only one in the museum and they didn't charge me, so I didn't stay for too long, but his art is very modern and strange. I really didn't have any interest to check it out, but I have all this free time and don't want to spend it sitting in my house.

Friday I went to the local zoo here in Buenos Aires. It was a pretty good sized zoo, but not all of the animals were out as it is cold here. It was definitely different than the zoos I'm used to. They had ducks and some other sort of animal just running around the zoo everywhere and a lot of the animals can be fed. They sell animal food around the zoo.

Saturday I headed out to Puerto Madero, the newest barrio in Buenos Aires. It was a bit of a trek, but I got to see the Puente de la mujer (The bridge of the woman). I also headed out to the ecological reserve, but it was essentially a giant field with a sidewalk. I grabbed some food from one of the many stands next to the reserve and kept walking for a bit. I then saw a huge rat on the side of the road, so I immediately left. Haha. It was a beautiful day and I didn't want to head home after going to Puerto Madero so I made a quick stop in Recoleta to go to my favorite street fair. I didn't buy anything, but it was nice to wander and look around. After getting home, I figured out that I walked approximately 7 miles on Saturday. Needless to say, I spent Saturday night in.

Puente de la Mujer- Puerto Madero