Let me break it DOWN to UPdate you

puppy!

Gen./ Pres. Sarmiento's home in Tigre- i think a recreation
Flower sculpture
church seen from boat tour
waffles del mundo
MALBA

whew! Its been a while since my last post. It must be a good sign that I'm keeping myself pretty busy, although since its been so long and I have been doing so many things I really can't remember all the cool things I wanted to write on here! I will do my best.

Tuesday- woke up early and went to the ISA office for spanish/homework tutoring. It was very helpful and Paula (my tutor) was very kind and constructive. Ended up staying at the office for about 5 hours handling some academic business and eating lunch in the back room watching music videos. The program office is a pretty cool place. Its like Harry Potter style. What I mean by that is that nowhere on the outside does it indicate its the ISA office. You just have to know. And you have to ring the buzzer and tell them who you are so that you can be let in. The office has a wonderful staff that knows everybody's names. They chat with everyone and more often than not are singing and dancing while doing their work. I caught the music from hairspray being played the other day. It seems like a fun job! So, after that I went to tango class. We are practicing for our show. Our midterm is a performance of what we've learned. They are having a youth competition at our school and we are the exhibition. Its a bit of a joke and I'm pretty sure we will all prove ourselves the extranjeros we are!

Wednesday- the start of my weekend. Went home for dinner and then out to Recoleta to meet up with some friends. My friend Dan lives in the giant, sweet student residence that is three floors and just filled with all sorts of peoplel- mostly Americans. We hung out on his terrace before heading out to Plaza Serrano in Palermo for some drinks. Twas quite a relaxing night but fun nonetheless.

Thursday- I had to wake up early because the maid comes to clean the house in the morning and if I have to be up, I might as well be out and about. Walked around Palermo for a bit and came home to descansar and take a nap. Went out for my first time in Palermo Hollywood. It was a cool rooftop bar/lounge thing. Pretty interesting that all these places are named after places in the U.S. Its like hey! I live like 10 minutes from the REAL hollywood.

Friday- woke up and headed to Recoleta to meet up with a friend to go to MALBA. MALBA is a museum of contemporary Latin American art. It isn't very big so it was nice to feel like you really could see everything. I enjoyed it a lot. Plus its free for students! They had an exhibition of 20th/21st century latin american art that was organized by decade. It was really really cool. One part had these light switches that turned on this mechanical art that had lighting designs and moving wheels and such. Also they had this exhibition or recreation of installations by an artist named Torres. I cant remember his full name, but it was really cool because the topic of his pieces had a lot to do with the United States. One of the installations had individually wrapped red, white and blue lollipops in a pile in a corner and you could take them. Another part had piles of posters that were spotlighted and you could take those also! One last one had a huge rectangle of a silver wrapped candies in middle of the room and the border of the wall read significant events and dates that involved the U.S. That night I went to an 80s themed birthday party for a friend.

Speaking of the U.S. I am registering to vote abroad. Im thinking of voting at a poll at the embassy so I can have a real first presidential experience! I think they are having some sort of voting day party- although I have to vote much much earlier than you all! Im excited though! yay Obama!!

Saturday- woke up tired because I got in late the night before but I had to wake up early to go on an excursion with my abroad program. We took a bus about 40 minutes from Bs. As. to Tigre. It is where a lot of people from the city have weekend homes. The houses are on little islands that are close together so there are canals and what not in between. We took a boat tour through the 'neighborhoods' on the beautiful brown river. The brown color does kind of ruin the beauty but the houses were nice nonetheless and people drinking mate on their docks waved to all of us. It feels good to leave the metropolis every now and then. The rest of the day we walked around the ferias and ate of course. I had this delicious waffle filled with ham and cheese and another filled with apple and covered in dulce de leche. Then at our next stop I had the most divine ice cream- Freddo (which I also ate yesterday because it was two for one mondays!!). At the end of the day we had snacks and coffee at a restaurant right on the water. It was kind of beach like and felt very removed from the city even though we could make out the skyline in the distance. It was relaxing to sit in the grass and watch the sunset which is now setting later because spring is almost here!!

Okay, theres my weekend. Its been a few days yeah but nothing has really happened and Im too lazy to write too much more. Ill catch you in a few days!