First Week in Buenos Aires

I'm starting to feel that I can call this enormous city of Buenos Aires my home. Perhaps because, I seem to have so many blessings placed before me. My host mother, Mercedes, lives in the cutest of apartments in Belgrano, a barrio north of the city. Belgrano is well-known for its leafy atmosphere. There are shady trees on every inch of the streets. A garden of plants fill the balconies of every apartment! All I see is green and more green..and I'm not complaining. This part of town is heavenly, quiet. Traffic and crazy nightlife reside within the district of Palermo, only a 15 minute colectivo (bus) ride from here, but far enough to remain separated from chaos. So far, I've noticed that Belgrano is filled with families and elderly, rather than youth. Mercedes couldn't be a sweeter woman. She is very relaxed and leads a laid-back lifestyle. She works as a travel agent in the city during the week and comes home in time to make the most delicious meals!! mmmm...I've eaten more than I expected myself to. I'm positive that I've gained 10 pounds haha. But, the food is fairly healthy. It's much fresher than what I was eating in Atlanta.

view of the balcony in my room

Food: 
Breakfast consists of a medialuna or toast with fresh fruit spread. With that, we drink a nice cup of green or peach tea. I eat lunch out usually, unless Mercedes has leftovers from dinner. My lunch is usually small, like a teeny sandwich with papas fritas (french fries, my fave) and sparkling water. Dinner time is usually around 9pm or later, so very different than dinner time in the US. The first night here, our appetizer was a salad with the reddest tomatoes I've ever laid my eyes on! The salad was served with two boiled eggs, which I don't get enough of at home. Boiled eggs have come with almost every dish that I've eaten so far. Our main course was pastel de papa (potato pie), which looked just like shepherd's pie, but made with ground beef in the center. Mmmm mmmm mmmmmMM! Kylan, the coolest roommate to have in Argentina, is just as excited about our meals as I am. Mercedes informed us that every night after dinner, she likes to eat fruit because it aids digestion..my belief as well. So after, we ate nice, big pieces of sandía (watermelon).

tortilla española..already half eaten mmm

I've had some weird combinations as well. Not everything I've eaten has looked appetizing. But, I came  here with quite an open mind. Plus, I've eaten stranger things during my trips to China. When I saw Mercedes put a casserole dish of mashed potatoes topped with 3 fried eggs on our table, I frowned on the inside. Once I dug in, I was pleasantly surprised. I need to eat more eggs! I'd never even tasted a fried egg. I would have loved to get more pictures of our meals during this first week. But, I was trying to be extremely polite by not snapping photos of our food every time we sat down. Little did I know, Mercedes doesn't care one bit. She really is so easy-going. I will start to take pictures of traditional meals, so that you see what Argentines eat on a regular basis.

Let me tell you why my first week in Buenos Aires was so busy.
Saturday: 
I arrived in Buenos Aires at 8:00 am after a very short 10hr flight. It was an overnight journey, so I slept most of the way. About one hour from the airport, I was greeted by the sweetest woman named Mercedes and taken to her apartment by taxi. There, I unpacked, slept and drank extremely strong Coca-Cola. Here in Buenos Aires, every gaseosa (soda) has a crazy amount of carbonation, which I'm not used to. I live in Atlanta, Coca-Cola's home, and our restaurants serve flat Coke products at times. Interesting. Pues, luego Mercedes and I picked up my roommate, Kylan, and proceeded to have the most excellent meal after a long day of traveling. The time difference between Atlanta and Argentina was only 2 hours (now 1 hour due to daylight savings), but I didn't suffer from any jet lag.

My study abroad program is organized by ISA (International Studies Abroad). I chose their program because the courses they offer perfectly correspond to the ones I should be taking at Georgia State for my major. In my opinion, ISA also offers more affordable trips than others. The staff was incredibly helpful before my departure from Atlanta and has been very kind and welcoming since I've been here. BUT, I will never forgive them for making us wake up so early the day after our arrival (just kidding..they're already forgiven)! The day after we arrived in Buenos Aires, we had to meet at the ISA office at 10am! I am not really a morning person.

Sunday: 
Sunday wouldn't have been so draining, even with the early meeting, but our city tour was scheduled for the same afternoon. Directly after the meeting, where we received a ton of information about safety, housing and transportation, we ate for about 5-7 minutes. And then we were off!..headed to every part of the city that the bus was capable of taking us. We drove around Belgrano a bit, where my homestay is located.
We visited Palermo, which is totally a tourist hotspot. Palermo's streets are flooded with restaurants, hotels, pubs, designer stores and clubs. Palermo Soho and Palermo Holywood are divisions within the barrio (neighborhood) that are supposed to be mirror images of New York City, New York and Hollywood, California. They do have a lot of the same attractions. On the contrary, the pubs and designer stores are not Palermo's main attraction. Bosques de Palermo are a beautiful line of parks located around the edge of the barrio. Bosques de Palermo are filled with rose gardens, lakes and on the northeastern side, Río de la Plata and Costanera Norte. These are just beautiful features that you cannot miss if coming to Buenos Aires.
Next, we visited Recoleta, a ritzy district with French-style architecture and constructions. Almost everything in Recoleta is expensive. We were able to get off of the bus and walk about the Cemetery of Recoleta, where Eva Peron is buried. I didn't get to view her marble mausoleum because time ran short, but the experience was overwhelming. Graves in this cemetery are designed for entire families and their descendants and most are adorned with various sculptures and monuments to show off the capabilities of Argentina's elite class.

Recoleta Cemetery

We visited the city's Microcentro, where the world's widest avenue is located, Avenida 9 de Julio. There, in the center of the avenue stands the Obelisk. We visited the Plaza de Mayo, Buenos Aires' political center since Argentina's independence in 1810. Most of the political demonstrations that scare my parents back home take place in the Plaza de Mayo. They are very routine for natives here in Buenos Aires...one reason being that la Casa Rosada Presidential House is located in the center of the Plaza de Mayo. There are tons of political banners, signs and graffiti that cover the street across from where Cristina Fernández de Kirchner can easily see them.

La Casa Rosada Presidential House (the pink one)

We lastly visited La Boca, a very popular tourist attraction. My camera didn't want to stop snapping photos of the Caminito area. Caminito is a teeny walkway lined with plenty of arts markets. Live music fills the streets as natives dance the tango. The buildings and monuments in Caminito are full of vibrant colors that create life within images. While walking about the cobblestone streets, I felt each building had its own personality.

Caminito

I wouldn't have been able to see any of these amazing sights without the help of the Gilman International Scholarship Program, offered by the U.S. Department of State. I also received the IEF (International Education Fee) scholarship from Georgia State University and could not be more honored to represent my university by studying in Argentina.

The rest of my week revolved around registering for classes at the University of Belgrano and processing paperwork to receive my student visa. My week was packed with academic orientations (we had 5 orientations total), meetings with academic advisors and super early appointments with immigration services. I apologize for the delay in updating my blog, but now that I have a more steady schedule, my posts will be more frequent.

If you want to see all of the photos from my first week in Buenos Aires, you can visit my Shutterfly page. The link is on the right-hand side of this website and says Shutterfly. From there, you are able play a slideshow of the images (Play Slideshow button above the photos). I will update you soon with details of where I spent my first weekend in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Here's a hint:

The boat is named El Ceibo, after Argentina's national tree and flower..just like my blog :))