Uruguay

On Thursday afternoon, Trevor and I hopped on a boat to Uruguay. Fifty minutes and some odd customs/immigration checks later (a Uruguayan and and Argentine sit next to each other and pass my passport along and I'm done? All on one side of the river? Ok...), we were in Colonia. Lonely Planet calls Colonia "charming and quaint," and they pretty much hit the nail on the head. While there wouldn't be much to do there for more than a day, it's very cute, full of historical sites and solid restaurants, and worth seeing. Highlights include the view from the lighthouse and the beautiful colonial architecture in general.

Next stop: Montevideo, a city which I'll admit I knew nothing about and made me think only of memorizing Latin American capital cities in high school Spanish class. And... it's one of the weirder capital cities I've visited. I think maybe a day and a half wasn't quite enough to understand this place, but from what I've gathered, it's a smallish city in a quiet state of crumbling decay with bright spots of activity here and there. The part of the city I liked best was the old town, the Ciudad Vieja - old buildings, narrow streets, lots of vendors, plenty of cafes and bars - the only place that seemed to have anything going on at night, even on a Saturday.

Another highlight of Montevideo is the Mercado del Puerto, which, strangely enough, is a collection of bustling restaurants--mostly parrillas (grills)--crammed into a wrought-iron building of sorts. Unique atmosphere and, at least at El Palenque, where we ate, great parrilla. Sensory overload, though: voices, clattering, various wandering street musicians, crowds, the smell of meat cooking, etc. It's also home to Roldó's, a cafe that's been there since 1886 and is known for serving medio y medio, a mix of sparking and white wines--which, I might add, costs 25 Uruguayan pesos a glass... about $1.25 US.

Late Saturday afternoon, a relatively expensive cab ride took us across the city and up to El Cerrito, site of the Museo Militar, and more importantly, a great view of the whole city and a panorama of everything around it. As usual, the photo doesn't do it justice.


Now I'm back in Buenos Aires and excited to spend this week with my mom and aunt Lisa, who arrive tomorrow morning, and then the week after that with my dad and Melanie. And then the semester's kind of almost over...!?! Never a dull moment...

brave?

This morning on the subte, smooshed in by people on 3 sides and a wall on the other in my usual commute to class, I started thinking about how many things I've done since I got here, from the daily trials of living in a foreign city to all the trying, unpredictable obstacles and issues. And the good stuff, too, of course. And it made me feel tired just thinking about it (the Halloween party I went to last night and left early--at 3--probably didn't help)--and I thought, "Wow, if I had known it would be like this, would I still have decided to do it?" I remember before I left for my high school semester in South America, people kept telling me how brave I was, and my response was, "Brave? All I did was send in an application." But I'm starting to think it actually does take being kind of brave to do this stuff. And I'm kind of proud of myself for doing it.

I gotta get back to class. And then get to Uruguay this afternoon. Chau!

3 down, 2 to go

I love spring in Buenos Aires. I also love only having classes Tuesday through Thursday now that my intensive Spanish class has ended. Other than that, not much to tell. Yesterday we hit the three month mark, and I'll be home in two more...

Weekend: Rosario, Santa Fe, and Paraná

After a harrowing week of taking parciales (midterms), Trevor and I got on a 4:3opm bus from Buenos Aires to Rosario on Thursday. Rosario, which is four hours away, is Argentina’s second biggest city. Which isn’t saying much. Compared to Buenos Aires, it’s tiny, and muy tranquilo – in a good way. Highlights include:

• beautiful Parque de la Independencia. There’s just something about well-designed urban green spaces. The park is also home to the Museo de Bellas Artes, which has an interesting collection, although it was mysteriously near-empty on a rainy Friday afternoon of a holiday weekend.
• the impressive Monumento a la Bandera (where General Belgrano raised Argentina’s flag for the first time in 1812). While we were sitting and taking in the monument, a huge, gorgeous rainbow appeared over the river.
  
  
• the Río Paraná – especially gazing at it while I ate a huge, fresh, delicious alfajor.
  
  
• boat trip to Vladimir Island, where there is a pretty beach and a few bars. It must get bustling in the summer. As it was, we were there on an absolutely beautiful Saturday and it was mysteriously empty. I just don’t know what Rosarinos do on weekends.
  
  

…then we moved on to Santa Fe, an easy 2.5 hour bus ride away. Well, if we thought Rosario was tranquilo, Santa Fe was muy muy MUY tranquilo. Not to mention refreshingly short on tourists, especially other Americans. I’ve never been asked where I’m from so many times in one day. Apparently we’re a rarity around there. My favorite was a girl who must’ve been about 14, selling wax roses in a plaza for four pesos (about $1.30 American). When we started talking to her after her adorably impassioned and super fast spiel about what the colors of roses meant what, she asked us something that essentially translates to, “Where are you two from with your tone that sounds so strange?!” Naturally, Trevor bought me a silly wax rose. We couldn’t resist.

More inviting than Santa Fe for intangible reasons was its twin city on the other side of the río (in the creatively named province of Entre Ríos), Paraná. Entrerrianos, due to the relative insularity of the province, are friendly and even more tranquilo than Santafesinos. By far the highlight of our day trip to Paraná was walking along the river. The whole waterfront was flooded with people when we got there around sunset – it was suddenly abundantly clear that the rest of the city had seemed quiet not, as we’d suspected, because people just stayed in on Sundays, but rather because EVERYONE was down by the river: walking, talking, eating ice cream, watching dancers, enjoying the day.
So that was my weekend... it was fun, somewhat relaxing, and a great way to celebrate surviving parciales.

In other news, I am now living with Juliana, a 27-year-old chica, in a little apartment about 6 blocks form the resi where I lived before. The pluses: my own room, and Argentine to hang out with and speak Spanish with, a place where my friends can come hang out. Also, seeing Calexico here was awesome.

And now... it is suddenly mid-October and I feel like for weeks I've hardly had a moment to think. My lifestyle here in general leaves me feeling like I'm always running around or catching up and never really catching my breath, but I guess that's how one makes the most of a semester. Goals for the next few weeks: sleep more, breath more, gym more, enjoy.

I have no time to tell you why I have no time.

There's a whole list of things I should blog about, including moving (successful), Calexico (awesome), counterfeit money (keeping it as a souvenir), and school stress. But seeing as the school stress continues right up until I leave for Rosario tomorrow, this will all have to wait.

So for now: I'm alive, mostly well, about to take a scary midterm, and taking off for a long weekend in Rosario and Santa Fe. To be continued...