i'm crying for you, argentina

after wrapping up my last exams and giving UBA a classy middle-finger farewell, i finally had the opportunity to get back to fully enjoying the city and loving argentines and loving my life here.   school stress ceased to be in the picture and i finally went back to breathing those "good airs" of buenos aires. despite the fact that being a student here in argentina was borderline traumatic, i survived. only three days left here in this fascinating country that i've come to absolutely adore.

10 things i will sorely miss about buenos aires 

1) the mysterious music man in my building who blasts great reggaeton music when the sun goes down. literally, blasts. i cant even imagine how big his stereo system is, the entire building was practically thumping one night, before he got in a tussle with a neighbor and shut off the music. i don't know who he is, but he has enriched my time here with booming dance parties to makano and daddy yankee.

2) the dog-walking groups. no brainer. whenever i pass the hoards of dog-walking groups in palermo or stroll through plaza lavalle near my house and watch the dogs taking their rest break together around lunchtime, i stop and think to myself: COULD THERE BE A MORE PERFECT CITY FOR ME?!?!?! although argentine owners have some odd aversion to picking up their dogs' droppings (i've had to learn to walk with my head down to avoid the doggie dumps that litter each corner), i can't help but adore those little sweeties.

the best medialunas in the entire city

3) the café culture. there is nothing better than cozying up in an empty café, pulling out a newspaper or some readings for class, and sipping away on a coffee or fresh squeezed orange juice. i've probed about thirty different cafés since being here and i absolutely adore them. i especially love the one on the corner of my house, which is always quiet and has quite the eye-candy waiter, jorge. i also love not getting hassled by waiters if you feel like staying for four hours and merely paying $2 for a coffee at the end of it all. the customer service here kinda blows, but the great thing is that waiters are never shoving the check in your face and hinting that you should probably get the heck outta there.

4) oreo alfajores. these became an obsession of mine in the past few months. every kiosco has standard alfajores, but oreo ones are a rarer find. thus, after much exploring and denials, i have managed to map out buenos aires based on which kioscos have them and have staked out a carrier in each neighborhood that i ever have to be in, in the off-chance (a daily off-chance) that the craving hits me: i have one location across the street of my apartment building, one a block down from FLACSO, cheap ones on the second corner of my anthropology building....the list goes on.....

5) little kids speaking argentine spanish. basically, it's the CUTEST THING EVER. the argentine accent still strikes me as super elegant and sophisticated, very adult-ish. which is why whenever i hear a kid open their yap with beautiful porteño lilts, i always wanna laugh. just doesn't work, but still so adorable and endearing.

6) pumpkin ravioles at teodoro's. every week, almost religiously, my friend hannah and i (and we eventually pulled thomas and paige into the tradition!!) would hit up an amazing little hole in the wall on callao, where the decor is eclectic and the menu ejecutivo is my dream come true. for 38 pesos, about ten american dollars, i dined like a queen on wine, amazing ravioles with fresh pumpkin filling, endless bread baskets, and ice cream!! ALWAYS worth the extra pound i gained following each lunch!!

7) rollerbladers. in argentina, rollerblading is not considered an activity for losers. i totally regret not having bought rollerblades when i got here and joining some group. every time i stroll through the parks in palermo, i spot at least a handful of rollerbladers, confidently gliding around. my dad would love this place!!

cheap produce is the best!! 

8) the little mostly bolivian-run fruit markets. whereas back at home, my options are either giant safeways and whole foods, or the once a week farmers markets, definitely one of my favorite things about buenos aires are the tiny fresh fruit stores on every block. open-aired with wooden fruit baskets literally spilling onto the sidewalks, staffed by friendly bolivians, the largest immigrant group in argentina and the main controllers of the produce market in buenos aires. right now, the cherries are DIVINE!! i have made friends with the vendors from the shop on my street because of it. i am overly giddy bagging up my half-kilo of cherries and they get a kick out of my excessive enthusiasm but are too nice and unassuming to tell me "oye chica, it's just fruit for god's sake!!". i can't make it through the day without hitting that place up for my fruit fix.

9) breadbasket biker guys in the morning. even though waking up at 7am for my 8am anthropology class every tuesday morning was kinda rough, i loved walking the sixteen blocks to class and watching the city come alive.

10) speaking spanish almost all of the time. back at georgetown, i'll have to seek outlets to make sure i don't lose everything i've learned here!! if there's anything that i've learned about myself (or just reaffirmed once again), is that i freaking LOVE SPANISH!!! 

things i definitely won't miss about argentina (no offense buenos aires, still love ya!!)

1) noise. i had a legitimate meltdown one day over the nonstop drilling noise in my building (8-5 for the past five weeks, non-stop). i'm looking forward to falling asleep to the sound of frogs and waking up to nothing but natural sunlight. as much as i ADORE living in a vibrant and fascinating city, i'm definitely a small town girl at heart.

2) the hours. i never managed to settle into the insane hours of the typical porteño lifestyle. i've come to enjoy having dinner late but the whole going-out marathon is definitely not my style. go big or go home. here in argentina the motto is more like "go boring and never go home". no matter how long i were to live here, i know that will never become my thing. my ideal night is a long dinner, hitting a bar/club around 10:30 and going all out until about 2, crashing in bed right after and still waking up midmorning with a full day ahead of me!!

3) argentine salads!! if you can really call an argentine salad a salad in the first place: salad creations usually consisted of lettuce and oil or shaved carrots with boiled egg. i can't wait for my seasonal chopped at pizza antica, my personal creation at sweet green, and dressings other than standard olive oil. (or salt. literally, one time my host brother loaded his plate with plain lettuce and then literally dumped half the salt jar on top and added nothing else. almost vommed.)

4) LAME DANCING. perhaps the biggest shock and disappointment when i arrived here in argentina was finding out that people DO NOT DANCE. period. i had been envisioning all-night dance parties to awesome reggaeton and salsa music, similar to the nightlife life i lived over in ecuador, just in bigger and louder clubs. here, there ain't much of that latin flava i love so much. instead, argentines stick with the general beer bobbing and slow swaying. i've been made fun of on multiple ocassions by argentines who don't understand my dancing philosophy of "bust out and shake it".

5) feeling bad about loving sleep. argentines don't sleep, don't nap, and don't really seem to get tired either. my host family constantly commented upon my sleeping habits and made me feel kinda guilty about snoozing later than usual. sorry i love my pillow!!