pasándola bieennniiiccceeee

in my typical procrastinating fashion, i have now been in the bustling city of buenos aires for a solid five weeks and am only now setting up my blog. not a huge shocker. i almost had to begrudgingly create a gmail account in order to do so, but managed to get around that by using the georgetown students helping honduras email address instead. googlybear80@yahoo.com will never die!! 


but anyway. i'm here and loving the endless sights, sounds, and sabores (that means tastes in spanish, dropping a little bilingual alliteration here) of this cosmopolitan city!! the past five weeks have definitely been a transition period but i am finally feeling completely settled in and loving my new life as a porteña (buenos aires-an??). 


for those who don't know, here's the basic deal: i am a spanish major at georgetown (along with english and anthropology..... the most impractical academic plan imaginable but i thoroughly love what i'm studying) and wanted the opportunity to fully immerse myself in the spanish language (which argentines actually refer to as castellano, don't you dare say español here) and realize my dreams of fluency. i spent two months in ecuador last summer as well as a week in honduras over spring break.....on both trips, i realized how important speaking spanish is to me and how much the world has opened for me because of my abilities. in both ecuador and honduras, i fell in love with the people and their culture. since those two unforgettable experiences, all i've wanted is to experience more of latin america. so here i am!! 


i've done and seen and experienced a ton in the past five weeks but here are the main highlights so far. in an un-sarah-like organized bullet fashion!!

• tango classssss. right now, i'm taking a weekly 2-hour class with some other american students.  our teacher looks exactly like benjamin bratt and enjoys making me dance in front of the entire class, whoopeee. the dance is a lot more formal and serious than i thought, but i absolutely love learning and gliding around the room. i've also been to a famous tango club called "la viruta" several times to watch the pros and take a stab myself. i've mastered the basic steps and am excited for the more complicated stuff in the near future. the absolute coolest part about tango is the shoes however, they are absolutely beautiful. unfortunately, i'm already a scandinavian ogre here in argentina and most of the men are my height or shorter so i'm not sure i will ever be able to wear them without towering over my partner. until i find a very tall argentine boy, converse and boots will just have to do!! 

getting some free tango lessons at la viruta!!

• one saturday afternoon, i attended a free outdoor concert of classical music conducted by world-famous argentine daniel barenboim. more than 50,000 people attended, the streets were absolutely packed!!! the orchestra played beethoven's fifth symphony, a beautiful piece of music for a beautiful day. the even more entertaining part of the afternoon however was what happened before the main event. with a little time to kill before meeting my friends for the show, i found an empty bench at the park near my house and spent some time writing in my journal. a guy several years older than me approached wanting a photo of him in from of teatro colón (yess, one of the best opera houses in the world looms one minute away from my apartment, no big deal) and then asked if he could join me on the bench. we started chatting and found out he was a student like me. i asked what exactly he was studying, but instead of a normal response, he spontaneously BUSTED OUT into a full-blown aria and serenaded me in front of the entire park, dramatic facial expressions and hand gestures to boot. apparently, he's an opera student!! 

• before the official start of classes, our entire group of american exchange students (120 in all!) headed out to the small town of san antonio de areco to experience the argentine gaucho culture. which, to sum up, was a giant meat-binge that i think i've had dreams about since then. at a typical cowboy estancia, we sat down for an incredible asado lunch of choripán (simple sausage sandwich which is absolutely divine and absolutely lethal on the arteries), empanadas, and then lots and lots and lots of steak. i was in heaven. afterwards, we were treated to a real gaucho rodeo-show which was truly amazing, my favorite event was a game called pato pobre where the horseback riders split into two teams and gallop around tossing this fake "duck" into the hoops on each side of the field. and when the "duck" falls onto the grass, a rider has to jump off his horse in the middle of crazy horses and collect it to restart the game. i was amazed no one got bucked in the face. i hope to return to las pampas region soon, the countryside was so tranquil and provided a nice change of scene from the hectic pace of buenos aires.

• this past weekend, several girls and i went to a professional production of beauty and the beast.....all in spanish!!!! the show featured the same caliber as anything on broadway, but for more than half the price. our fifteenth row seats cost a mere $35!!! i understood pretty much everything and loved hearing some of my favorite disney and broadway songs in my adopted language. it was also really interesting to compare the translations and see how the music and syllabification affected what spanish translations were chosen. watching the performance brought back great memories of when i saw beauty and the beast in los angeles many years ago with my family, i was probably five years old at the time. and obviously, i loved having an excuse to get all dressed up for the theater, argentines definitely go out in style here!!

• shockingly, school. i'm taking a total of four classes, two of which are in the study abroad headquarters with other american students (a general spanish class and then an anthropology class called "ethnicity and multiculturalism of argentina" which is absolutely fascinating) and another two classes at la universidad de buenos aires. which, to say the least, is perhaps the FURTHEST thing away from georgetown. a completely different world, but i absolutely love going to class because the mere experience of going constitutes a whole experience itself. unlike the bright white walls of georgetown classrooms that feature a crucifix in each one, the classrooms at UBA are decrepit, covered in hand-painted posters advertising political rallies and random student causes, and always overflowing with students (one day i arrived to class late because the trains broke down and had to take notes standing outside of the classroom). to call the place "liberal" would be a severe understatement. to give you an idea, the classroom where my latin american lecture takes place (for over 300 students) is literally called "ernesto che guevara classroom". to give you another idea, my class on monday will be canceled on monday due to the student strikes!! which are so common at UBA that they even have their own name: estudiantada. the different buildings get literally "taken over by students" protesting this and that. i got a warning email about the upcoming estudiantada from our study abroad advisor and i honestly imagined teacher hostages. not sure that i fit into the über-political and opinionated UBA-student stereotype, but i thoroughly enjoy watching them in action. 

in general, my favorite things about buenos aires thus far 

• the professional dog walkers that trek around the city with up to twelve fatties at a time!! twelve is the highest i have counted so far, 8-10 is usually the average. apparently there is an argentine law forbidding dog-walking groups of over fifteen. yes, they actually have to implement laws like that!! this city is very dog-friendly and people don't seem to mind the huge groups of dogs that completely take over the sidewalks every morning. so obviously, due to the huge amount of yellow labradors traipsing around buenos aires, i am constantly in a state of euphoria. 

• unlike in the states where we only have ridiculously expensive ghiradelli or ridiculously nasty hershey's cookies and cream, here in buenos aires the white chocolate is everywhere. perhaps my favorite snack from the kioscos to help tide me over before the argentine 10pm dinners!!! 

• the cozy bookstores that can be found on literally every corner of buenos aires. i love perusing the shelves and killing a little bit of time going through the different titles. some really cheap used copies!! although one thing i simply can't understand: despite the fact that che guevara is EVERYWHERE here (you literally can't walk anywhere without seeing some che image or poster or reference), for the life of me i cannot find the original motorcycle diaries with his writings about latin america!!! i've been to six different bookstores!! makes no sense. still on the lookout, i really want to read his early writings in spanish. 

• wine here is often served in adorable ceramic penguin pitchers (pingüinos!!!). with my american friends, we now refer to wine simply as pingüinos.....as in, "you wanna go out for some pingüino tonight??". even more wonderful, the wine in buenos aires is cheaper than water (literally....bottled mineral water goes for about 8pesos whereas delicious wine turns out to be about 6pesos, even less sometimes)!! my wallet is very grateful.

• i wouldn't say i necessarily like the argentine catcalls, but they are definitely entertaining. i knew it was time to finally buy a black coat when i passed a group of men and all they said was "ooooooo rojoooo" (red) in reference to my bright red peacoat. the typical porteño wardrobe consists of black, black, and more black. i guess my little splash of color was a little too spicy. another time, a guy at one of the newspaper kiosks loudly screamed "HI MY FRIENDD!!!" in atrocious english for everyone to hear. some girls get offended by the constant piropo comments, others like the attention, but for me i just find them all really funny. like the time i passed a boy in the park and he started singing james blunt's "you're beautiful" on his imaginary air guitar for me. 

• dulce de leche. obvi. there is nothing better than this thick, rich caramel spread, which i love with bananas or any type of cookie. fortunately, my host family has still not caught me sneaking spoonfuls straight out of the jar (a daily ritual of mine) but respects my full-blown addiction to this argentine staple. 

• the café culture here is unlike anything i've ever seen. like the bookstores, on any given block you will pass a MINIMUM of four cafés, which become packed around 5pm for the daily merienda, usually a cup of tea or espresso shot accompanied by medialuna croissants or other delicious, carb-y and sugary treats. i've definitely racked up my fair share of hours and pesos in the many different coffee shops of buenos aires, i'll never be able to test them all. i miss MUG (a tiny coffee kiosk where i work back at georgetown), but am getting plenty of coffee fixes here in buenos aires. fret not. argentines like their caffeine strong. there is DEFINITELY nothing like my sugared-up personal coffee creation back at home: half milk, half iced coffee, and a million pumps of vanilla syrup. thus, i'm learning to suck it up and take my coffee like a real coffee drinker!!! hence the background photo of this blog!!! 

soooo, that's a general snapshot and summary of the past few weeks!! much, much more to come, no worries!! keep checking when you feel like doing some sarah stalking. for a quick side-note, at this exact moment, my kooky and adorable host mom patricia is in the family room painting with her friend pablo and belting out "memory" from the broadway production of cats. true story. also in the painting-sesh playlist: "splish splash i was taking a bath" from the first airbud film. home stays are the best. don't know why my mom was ever worried.