Buenos Aires

I have been having a grand few days in BA. There is so much to see and do - I can´t wait to come back and get to the museum of Latin-American art, and to have a better look around a few neighbourhoods. My first day I got to my hostel and took a nap and a stroll around San Telmo, the historical and antiquing district. I had dinner in a cafe-bar and inflicted my terrible Spanish on the friendly waiter, and then went back to the hostel and passed out again.

The next day I met up with Lydia, a friend of the family who is here on exchange, and her friend Erica, also on exchange. We did lunch in Palermo, a boutique-filled and leafy neighbourhood, and traded notes on the city. Her program is quite serious about keeping its students safe - "I have a security debriefing at the US Embassy tomorrow," she said -so Lydia had lots of information on which taxi lines and neighbourhoods to avoid, as well as fun things to do. It was quite nice to catch up, as I hadn´t seen her in years. She used to think I lived at the Minneapolis airport, actually, as our mothers would always arrange to meet there when my family was in transit from the East Coast. Considering my lifestyle in the past few weeks, not much has changed!

After lunch, I wandered down to the Bosques de Palermo and the beautiful rose garden the city maintains there. It keeps the gardens beautiful by employing an abundance of blue-vested guards who blow their whistles at you bossily the instant your foot makes contact with the grass. Thus died my dream of sitting on a tree branch in a rose garden by a lake , though I found a bench that served pretty well. In the evening I was, once again, pretty tired from walking, so I didn´t go out at all. Lame, I know, but bear with me.

Wednesday I did the Microcentro, the busy downtown core. It has a central pedestrian mall called Florida which, like Sparks Street, is full of discount apparel stores and is under renovation. There is quite a lot of historical stuff around as well. I failed to infiltrate the Casa Rosada, the huge, ornate pink building housing the president´s offices, as it is (notice the theme) under renovation. I had more success at the Cabildo, the hall where the assembly to proclaim Argentina´s independence was held in (I believe) 1810. It is overlooked by more construction, unfortunately, but once the construction is over the central courtyard will be a very serene and beautiful place. On my way over to the Cabildo, I happened to stick my head into the church where Eva Peron´s funeral was held. It is in need of a bit of paint but it is very gorgeous. The main altarpiece was a painting in an unusual sort of style that I will call art nouveau, since I know nothing about architecture or design.

Resolved to experience Buenos Aires´ legendary nightlife, I took advantage of the free tickets my hostel was giving out to a big club called Museum, and took myself out dancing on Wednesday night. After one too many over-persistent come-ons from local guys, I decided not to be a lone antelope anymore and made friends with a group of three girls, two of whom spoke pretty good English and were eager to practice. It surprised me how much of the music was familiar from home - I guess a club is a club is a club. I was impressed with the crowd, though, and couldn´t believe such a cavernous space could be so packed on a Wednesday night. It was excellent.

Yesterday I did the Recoleta cemetery (more dead Eva Peron attractions!) and happened upon one of the only two English-language tours conducted by the cemetery staff every week. It was all quite fascinating, actually. The guide obviously had a lot of affection for the place and for the stories of the people in it, even the ones who are not especially notable in life. She has nicknamed one of the statues Brad Pitt, because women always ask about him, and told us the story of a nineteen-year-old girl named Rutina who was accidentally buried alive by her parents.

Last night I met up with an English couple my age, and we sat on the terrace at the hostel and chatted for a few hours - very pleasant! Today we´ve agreed to strike out together for Maradona´s house, the soccer stadium in La Boca. It is known as La Bombonera because it is apparently shaped like a gigantic chocolate box - sounds more appetizing than the Butterdome in Edmonton! This is also excellent because La Boca has a bit of a reputation, apart from the tourist areas, but now I have company and an authentic football fan to answer my stupid questions.

Photos to follow!