La Gran Ciudad de Bueno Aires!

Where oh where to begin?!  The last three days have been a whirlwind! The days are long and there is never enough time to do everything I want to do! (But, I guess I should slow down, right? I do have 8 weeks here!)

My group arrived at the airport a little late because of a delay in leaving but we still arrived around 10 a.m. (8a.m. in the States) and we had orientation the very first day at 3!  I had absolutely no problem falling asleep that night after 24 hours of travel, unpacking, orientation, and meeting the host mother...speaking of she is CRAZY! Her name is Monica, but she goes by Moni.  We (my housemate from Georgia, Erin, my housemate,Mai, from Holland, me, Monica, and her son Alan) live on the 8th floor (top floor) of our apartment building.  She is loud! Always singing, dancing, with the TV...and talking! She talks a lot! But she is so much fun and extremely personable so that makes living here easier!  I have a little room off of the kitchen with a shelf for my clothes, a desk, and a bed...its smaller than the other rooms but i have my own half bath which is nice.

On Sunday we had the city tour.  This city is GIGANTIC!  There are sooooo many different neighborhoods and they are all so different.  We visited Palermo and Recoleta which are the nicer areas of the city.  Recoleta had the very old cemetary that is famous for many of the important Argentine icons that are there.  It is one of those cemetaries where people have like a tomb above ground that you can walk in and then walk down stairs to the coffins...I think usually a whole family is buried in the same one...it was really neat!

 One of the "tombs"...i dont know what to call them but they are so neat!

This one is dated from 1788!

And El Centro, or downtown, where all of the different governments buildings and monuments are and then went to San Telmo.  I loved San Telmo! It has a market where people play the guitars in the street and dance the tango and sell artisan items!  Erin and I are going back this weekend to spend more time shopping there!  We also visited La Boca.  It was so colorful, had murals on the walls, and people dressed up in costume that want to take pictures with you (for money of course), but it was very interesting! However, I guess that it is also the slums or ghetto because it is the more dangerous of the barrios in the city. Which kind of sucks because I really liked it! :) 

In La Boca...or I guess, the ghetto? But its a pretty ghetto! I liked it! ha!

Finally, we went to Puerto Madero which is the newest of the barrios of Buenos Aires and is very modern. OH, and I had my first real Alfajor and I think I am in looovvvveeee :) Alfajor = cookie +dulce de leche+cookie covered in chocolate! ...mmmmmm que rico!!  After the tour, we all had empanadas..which are also very good..at the ISA Office and afterwards Erin and I just walked around our neighborhood exploring..and really looking for a park that on a map appeared closer than we thought because we never found it...Oh well! We stopped at a cafe and had a good time anyway! And in the evening we went to a small market close to our house and perused through the items there and played with some tops..like the toys..that were hand made and some were smaller than a penny and others very big...LONG DAY!!! But oh so fun!

AND today we had our placement exam at the University of Belgrano and another orientation! And in between we spent time walking/shopping, eating at a little restaurant called "Tea Connection"..it was very good..and buying our new Argentina cell phones!  Classes start tomorrow at 10!  And our first tango class is on Thursday! I think I am going to love Buenos Airessss!!!