Buenos Aires and cold weather

So I guess maybe it’s time for an update…

Things are swell down in Argentina, if a little cold. Winter’s approaching, and I’m not a fan. I went to Buenos Aires last weekend and when we got back into Cordoba and stepped off the plane, I was ready to shoot myself it was so cold. It actually got down to 3 degrees C, but what I didn’t realize or plan on was being colder inside my house than outside. Nope, we don’t have heat. So I spent a few nights this week sleeping in sweatpants, long-sleeved shirts with sweatshirts and socks. Plus two blankets. I feel ungrateful for complaining but really now. Oh well, I will survive it.

As for Buenos Aires, I love it. I am ready to move there. I’m glad that I’m studying in Cordoba because it’s smaller and more culture/language immersion BUT I would love to spend a couple of weeks in BA. We went on a city tour, a province tour, saw the stadium for a big-time soccer team (BOCA JUNIOR!), went to a tango show, and shopped at a huge artisan fair.

Highlights:

-Team Paula is not fun. Our first tour guide gave us all stickers that said Team Paula and continuously made cheesy jokes about her Japanese decent. She wouldn’t let us use the bathroom on the bus nor at any of the five stops we made in the four-hour-long tour that we had to rush to immediately after getting into BsAs after 12 hours on a bus.

-We watched some movie where Ashton Kutcher gets engaged to a black girl and has to meet her family. Spanish translations and dubbings of “Oh I know you didn’t” and “I’m gonna beat yo ass” are NOT equivalent to their English counterparts.

-Picking out your own meat from a huge selection of asado straight from the grill at a restaurant is one of the most amazing ideas I’ve seen here. The guys grilling were so nice and told us all of the names of the cow parts. I don’t think I’ve mentioned this yet but the intestines are actually delicious, though a little chewy. We don’t ask about what’s inside of them.

-Going out in BA is an experience. First, our cabby dropped us off like 10 blocks from where we needed to go. I told him that we were German and tried to put on a German accent for the entire ride, and that was interesting. I proceeded to wear heels for 13 hours straight that night, eventually making it back to the hotel at 6:30 am for an 8:15 wake-up call. Also not a good idea when you have no time to nap the next day. My feet still hurt.

-Tango shows are incredible, even if the food served is still cold. The show we went to was so much fun. It was in this little corner restaurant and there was dancing, singing, acting, harp-playing. We loved it.

-International film festivals in BA tend to get filled up. Running late, as ALWAYS, we got to this film that my film professor had wanted us to go to that was outside but all of the seats were taken and we had to stand on the sides crammed together. Nevertheless, the movie was good. It was interesting to hear and see a mix of Spanish, English, and Italian. Somehow, I followed.

-Big artisan fairs are NEAT! Haha we have a street for selling artwork here (where my family works) but this was HUGE. There was entertainment (tango dancers, statues that came to life upon tipping them, magicians, etc) plus amazing artwork, clothing, knick-knacks, etc. The diversity on those streets was incredible—we definitely spotted some fellow Americans.

-Airports are much more lax in South America. Security wasn’t a joke but it really wasn’t all that big of a deal, and no one’s luggage got lost.