Adventures in Buenos Aires!

11.16.12

Good morning everyone!

My time in Buenos Aires was loads of fun, and it was one port that I basically did not have anything planned!  So the first day all I did was walk around and hit the main areas of the parts of the city that were closest to port.  The group I traveled with found a Starbucks, and were super thrilled.  (I hate coffee, so the only things there I would want are the pastries!)

That night I went with Ben, his brother Jake, and their friends.  We went to a place called The Roof...which was really cool, mainly because it was on top of a roof haha.  While I was there, I met this really cool girl named Anna from Switzerland!  She had been in Buenos Aires for 3 months studying abroad, and she wrote on my map some of the highlights that she wouldn't want people to miss while they were in Argentina!

So the next couple days I followed her advice!  I traveled with a few people each day, but it always varied!  With Colleen, Amy, and Megan Drew, I went to this interesting cemetery.  It isn't like the ones we have back in the States.  It basically is monuments for those who have passed, and their coffins may be in there, or it could be ashes.  Some monuments are for families and have multiple people there.  You could look into them, some had stained glass, but all were taller and larger than me!  It was also concrete, there was no grass in this cemetery.  I have some pictures that I would love to put up when I get home!  We also went to this metal flower that was nearby, called Floralis Genérica.  What was really amazing about this giant flower is that it closes at night, and in the morning it opens up again!  Like some flowers actually do!

The day after this Colleen and I went to the Pink House!  It's like the White House, but a) it's pink and b) the President does not live there, it's only a place of work.  We didn't get to go in, but it was neat to look at it!  We joined with our friend Jonathan later that day and attempted to go to the area of La Boca.  In this area, there are special houses that are painted all different colors!  We finally made it there, but it took about 5 hours because the tour guide, the tour guide! told us the right bus to catch, but the wrong stop, which led us in the wrong direction.  It was quite the adventure, but like I mentioned before, we finally made it, and the houses were really special.  I got a lot of pictures, and the scene looks like something out of a story book!  Everyone should look it up until I have the opportunity to put pictures up here!

Our last day in Buenos Aires I managed to get a free service trip to a program called L.I.F.E. Playtime program.  It was a lot of fun, and I bought the kids a soccer ball to play with too.  We made masks, played soccer, some children just made/decorated shapes like flowers or hearts!  I'm glad I was able to go, and I wish we would have had more time with them!  Not only that, but I thought maybe it's time to learn another language as well, because it wasn't just me who had a very difficult time communicating, it was everyone.  Maybe if I have time I'll look into that once I'm home!

It took a night to reach Montevideo, which I'll write about next!

SH