Tourism

Wednesday I spent the day at COPA finishing my paper. Then I went to class and went home.

Thursday I had more classes. I turned my paper in and went home for lunch. I went to the Evita Museum in my neighborhood. One of the COPA classes was going but the trip was open to all students. My tutor was the teacher in charge of the class and he took us on a tour of the museum. The museum was interesting, but extremely pro-Evita. The building it was in was worth the entire trip. Its this old house that was turned into a half-way house for women arriving in Buenos Aires (from the interior) to find work. They would stay in the mansion until they found housing for themselves and their children. The museum itself houses many of Evitas dresses as well as a ballot box from the first elections in which females voted, and a bunch of other items. After the museum, Steve and I went to the bótanico (because again, we both live right near it and had not been recently). Then we went to class and got there 20 minutes late (it was on purpose…Argentines are always late to things). We got our midterms back and I did well. Our teacher dismissed us for about an hour while he graded the Argentines’ exams. We went to a café/bar with our class where the Argentines ordered way too many beers (that we didn’t really drink). Then we went back to class and talked about the formation of Argentina.

Friday, Blythe and I went to Teatro Colón to take the tour. We did it in English (at her request). The tour was interesting: we got to see the practice rooms, storages spaces and workshops which are all two or three levels below the street. They are all below Av. Nueve de Julio (9th of July Ave.), which is the widest street in Buenos Aires (and maybe the entire western hemisphere). At its widest point the street is something like 16 or 17 lanes…but most of the time it is divided up in to sections of 5 lanes. It has parks running down the middle which separate the road from the service roads that run along side it. After seeing the theater, we went to buy tickets to the opera, we’re going on Sunday. Then we went to Recoleta and sat at a café for a few hours. It was one of those old cafes in BsAs, but is off the beaten path enough to not be overrun with tourists. They also had waffles (very rare here)…which were amazing.

Then we walked to Plaza San Martín, which has this growing display of large plastic/plaster/not really sure hearts. Each is painted/decorated and will be sold with proceeds going to charity (or so I’ve heard). A lot of the hearts are rather tacky…they use the heart too much and basically cover it with more hearts. Some of the hearts are covered with maps of the world (again, rather interesting because a map of the world is difficult to fit on the shape of a heart). Some of the hearts have parts coming off of them – like arms or faces. One heart was covered in band-aids; each band aid had a name and phone number on it. Another one had film strips (like from movies) with pictures of movies (Love actually was there!!). Another heart had sunflowers on it with their centers raised or recessed. The sunflowers were made out of pieces of stone in a mosaic. I don’t really know how many hearts there are or when they’ll be taking them down. Friday they were installing more. A guy was working on his heart which was interesting to watch. His was a “native” latina woman and he was attaching her arms to the heart.

Afterwards we walked around the center of the city trying to find a FedEx so Blythe could send passport photos to The Netherlands (for her program next semester). They required FedEx, which cost about $40 for the cheapest and smallest envelope. After finding FedEx and finishing all of that, we walked around a little more. Then I walked all the way home (only about ½ hr) and Blythe went to her gym. We met up later and watched Syriana (the George Clooney movie). It was very difficult to understand because of the traffic on the road outside…and the sound in the movie is soooo up and down…we wound up watching with subtitles and I’m still not really sure what happened.

When I got home my host mom was there cooking dinner. She has become afraid of the telephone… She used to be a psychiatrist or psychologist or something like that. One of her patients still calls her at home. The woman Graciela calls pretty much every day. I mean every day…and my host mom talks to her and then complains about how she calls every day…I don’t understand why she talks to her and doesn’t just hang the phone up. Sometimes she does just hang the phone up but mostly she talks to the woman and tells her about how her day has been and stuff. Well, on Friday, Graciela’s sister called to tell Gilda (my host mom) not to talk to Graciela anymore. Graciela lives by herself, but her sister is her caretaker/guardian or something. Most of the time I’m expected to answer the phone (esp. between 5 and 6 PM) and tell Graciela that my host mom is not at home. I do this and Graciela argues with me telling me that of course my host mom is home and I should put her on the phone. I’ve asked my host mom why she doesn’t just change her phone number and she said that would be too much trouble to have to tell everyone her new phone number.

Saturday I walked to Recoleta (I think its about a mile or two). I went to the Museo de Bellas Artes (museum of fine arts). After having been to the Met many times, as well as the National Gallery (in London), the Museum of Fine Arts Boston (many times) and the National Gallery in the Washington DC, the Museo de Bellas Artes isn’t that great of a museum. The Argentina (which apparently means Uruguayan) section was good, but the European section wasn’t that great at all….they also grouped Diego Rivera with the Europeans which was interesting...

The best part of the museum was the view from the roof of the museum and the photo exhibit up on the top floor. The geometric abstract photographs were vibrantly colorful and interesting – from the US and various cities in Europe. After the museum, I went to the big metal flower and took some pictures of it. I still don’t believe that the flower opens and closes by itself, but its (not really) interesting as far as public art goes. Then I walked up Libertador towards Palermo. I stopped at this little plaza thing near my house and got ice cream, which my host mom swears is the best in the city. The place was packed…I think the phrase madhouse is more appropriate. I had two flavors: one was peach, strawberry and orange mixed, which didn’t really taste like anything except fruit cocktail, and the other was watermelon, which was pretty good….they didn’t have my favorite flavor, which is grapefruit. Ice cream in Buenos Aires (and all of Argentina) is amazing. I get the fruit flavors which are made with water instead of cream/milk. Ice cream here is more like gelato and every place has a ton of fruit flavors…which is great for me. Then I tried to decide between going to the movies (alone…or with people) and going home. I finally decided to go home because I was tired and hot.

Saturday night, I went out to eat Indian food. This is a good opportunity to talk about food in Buenos Aires. Most food here is beef but I don’t eat that much beef. Most restaurants in Argentina serve meat, salad (which usually includes lettuce, tomato, and onion), empanadas, and pizza. The food has very little or no spices, but is all cooked in/with oil. I am completely sick of anything that involves oil…which is pretty much all of my food. My host mom makes very good salads, which include a variety of vegetables and I am allowed to eat without oil. This week my host mom made a different egg based dish made in a skillet, which means involving oil. One night was tortilla a la española, which is fried potato with sautéed onions and eggs made into a tortilla (flat round thing). When we do eat beef, its usually in the form of milanesa- which is sliced meat, dipped in egg, coated in bread crumbs, and fried (it can be baked, but my host mom usually fries it). Milanesa comes in many forms- meat, chicken and, for the vegetarians, soy patties. Its always the same…usually greasy and usually the cheapest thing for lunch/dinner….along with empanadas. Eating healthily here is very difficult. We’ve all had this discussion- all my COPA friends- and it’s the same with everyone’s host families. They also usually don’t eat vegetables raw. Normal for my friends are veggies boiled and with sauce (that’s if the families eat them at all).

Sunday, I woke up and was trying to figure out what to do for a few hours…which meant I did some homework. Then I went to the movies with my host mom. We saw a comedy called Cara de Queso, mi primer gueto (literally face of cheese, my first ghetto). It was about a bunch of jewish people living in a country club outside BsAs. Everyone knows everyone and they’re all in each other’s business. I understood most of it…which was awesome. Our tickets came with popcorn (we had coupons) and my host mom chose the sweet popcorn, which comes coated in sugar. I chose the salty kind; neither were served with butter.

Later on, I went to the Opera with Blythe. We went to Teatro Colón. It was interesting, but in Russian….subtitled into Spanish, which means I have basically no clue what went on for half of it. We had standing room tickets, which are seven flights above the sage and we leaned on a rail for the four hour production. It wasn’t as bad as it sounds. It was kind of fun to go to the opera…when I got out of the subte, everyone was flocking to the theater.

Monday I woke up really late. I went to the Japanese gardens and walked around a little. They were really nice, but really small. There was a pond and bridge and little island that were nice. I sat in the gardens reading for about an hour and a half. The problem is that the gardens are nice, but not fantastic and is surrounded on three sides by busy roads, two of which are practically high ways. That prevents the gardens from being really great because of the noise level. The best part was the restaurant, which had really good sushi. I haven’t had sushi since I got here because the fish here isn’t that great and its really expensive. I also ordered a lemonade, which came with sugar packets. I figured this was just the typical Argentine thing…they like things very sweet. So I tasted the lemonade and realized that the sugar was a little necessary…it was fresh-squeezed lemonade without any sugar added. After leaving the gardens, I walked a little bit of Libertador including the under-the-street gallery thing. it was a new exhibition of photography…which wasn’t that great. Then I walked through one of the smaller parks of Palermo. I walked by the US embassy, which really isn’t anything that special. Finally, I walked through one of the wealthier parts of Palermo and returned home. Then I went to the gym and returned home once more.

Tuesday
Again, I woke up late. It was super hot…like 35ºC (96ish) or something…the first hot day of the summer. I walked to the Museo del arte decorativo (museum of decorative art) which is in an old house that was designed by a French architect at the turn of the century. The museum wasn’t that interesting, but the house was beautiful. I was really only there for 15 minutes because there wasn’t much to see. Downstairs there was a Sweedish class exhibition….which wasn’t that great either. I continued walking to Sierra’s house where we walked to the Museo nacional del ferrocarril (National museum of the railroad). Again, the museum was free…we wouldn’t have gone otherwise. We walked around a little and saw really old stuff…like typewriters and cameras. The better part was outside: sculptures made out of old train tracks and scrap metal. Then, Steve showed up and we went to the Museo del arte hispanoamericano (Hispanoamericana art museum). It was another old house, which I really liked. I didn’t really care for the art which was pretty much all religious. Then Sierra and I left Steve and walked to Calle Florida (Florida St) where we searched for ice cream. We finally found it and it was really good…I got watermelon and kiwi. We continued walking to the Plaza de Mayo, which is the principal square in the city. We went to the Cabildo (town hall), but it was closed. Then we went inside the cathedral. It was ok…not super fantastic, but still really nice…I’m going to go back with my friends on Thursday. In the cathedral Sierra realized that someone had stolen her cell phone while we were walking. So, after the cathedral we walked to Movistar so she could buy a new one. Then we went to the Centro cultural Borges (Borges cultural center), but there really weren’t any exhibitions. Then I went home…I think I walked more than 5 km (3 miles) during the hottest day of the season….needless to say, I was exhausted. Wednesday=another day at COPA...