Buenos Aires.

Ah where to begin. For the past couple days, I’ve spent my time in the capital of Argentina, Buenos Aires, for a school trip.

We left early Sunday morning (5:45 am) to be exact. The bus trip is about 6 hours, so Rose and I passed out in the back and woke up at this gaucho ranch. One of the classes that I’m taking is called Folklore. This trimester we’re learning all about the gaucho (Argentinean cowboy). Little did I know that the whole entire day would be dedicated to the gaucho.

The ranch was cool. You could ride horses, there was a cart ride you could go on and even a museum. We were all super tired so after we did that we sat around waiting for lunch. Everyone, not just our group, gathered in this big dining hall and sat down for lunch. They served us bread, salad, spaghetti, meat of all kind and dessert. During the meal, there was live entertainment from this man and woman who danced for us. There was also a guy playing the accordion and a guy playing the guitar.

It was about 5 pm when all was said and done so we got back on the bus and headed into the city to our hotel. I feel asleep once again on the bus. We stayed at a pretty nice hotel (nothing like the 5 star hotel we stayed at in Rosario though.) I roomed with Ashley, Chelsea and Sabrina. We chilled for a bit since we had free time and set out to find a Starbucks with about 6 other girls. We found out and enjoyed the coffee that we haven’t had in awhile. I got a Té Chai Latte (Chai Tea Latte), but it wasn’t very good. Oh well. After that we walked around the mall there. After awhile we came back because we had to go to an opera. So we all piled on the bus and set off for our next adventure. We got to the place and realized that it was an outdoor amphitheater. So we sat on the uncomfortable benches and waited for the show to start. About the second song, I realized that the singers were actually lip-synching. Now I realize that it was cold, they were dancing around outside in an area…etc. but I was still a little disappointed.

After that we went back to the hotel. The girls wanted to go out, but my leg was killing me so I decided to stay behind and rest. I turned the television on and found Sunday Night Football, so naturally I was going to watch that instead of going out. Around 12:30 am, the girls plus Adam, EJ and Luis came into the room and we stayed up talking. They were trying to figure out if they were gonna hang out somewhere and I just sat there with my leg up on a pillow waiting to fall asleep. That didn’t happen until 3 am.

The next morning we woke up and rushed off to do some more sightseeing. We saw Casa Rosada, which is the president’s house. It looks like the while house, but pink. Fitting since the president is a woman. We also saw the Plaza de Mayo, which I figured out I learned about in Spanish 4 in high school. Señora Orrego would be proud that I paid attention. We saw a bunch of other historical stuff…that I don’t exactly remember at the moment.

For lunch we went to the Adventist restaurant, Granix, that they took us to when we were first in Buenos Aires. It was alright. Reminded me of the cafeteria food, but a little better. Rose and I wanted to go back to the hotel. I really needed to take a nap since I barely got any sleep that night. So me, Rose, two other girls, James, Paul and Adam headed back. First we stopped by the Plaza de Mayo again so one of the girls could take pictures since she didn’t when we were first there.

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned the vast amount of pigeons here in Argentina. But at this Plaza they were EVERYWHERE. We pressured James and Adam into feeding the birds. Paul got it on video, but the guys were surrounded by pigeons. It was kinda nasty. I’m not a fan of them since they poop EVERYWHERE here on campus, but it was pretty funny to see the guys scream.

We went back to the hotel and chilled there until about 6. We told the rest of our friends who wanted to shop that afternoon, to meet us up at the nearby mall so we could hang out the rest of the night. Well of course, that didn’t happen. Rose and I waited for about an hour for everyone to show up. By then we were tired and didn’t want to stay out late. We found this burrito place to eat (that doesn’t taste like Qdoba, Paul) and hung out there for awhile. It was the first time I had a burrito since leaving the US. Strange I know. After dinner, our group split up. Rose, James, Paul and I found a Coto, like a Walmart, and went crazy buying toiletries. While we were buying our stuff, Paul and James sprayed AXE for about half an hour trying to figure out which one smelled the best. At the end of the day, neither of them got any. We went back to the hotel and watched a couple episodes of Chuck before we went to bed. We were all so exhausted. On the elevator ride up to our rooms, Paul made the comment, “I’m so glad we didn’t go to the movie. It would’ve been an expensive nap.”

I showered and passed out. Woke up the next morning for more sightseeing. This was Tuesday. On our schedule, it was planned for us to see a whole lot more than we did the day before. I still was super tired, but stuck it out. We saw the Palacio Paz, that was super cool. We went to lunch at this buffet and then headed off to this Rose Garden. It was HUGE. Really beautiful. I took a ton of pictures, which will be on my Facebook later today. Then they took us to a cemetery, which was like the one in the movie Double Jeopardy with Ashley Judd. Kinda creepy, but cool at the same time.

We finally made it back to the hotel after getting everyone back together and checked out. They took us to this HUGE mall for dinner and hang out time until we were supposed to leave to come back to the UAP. Now, when I say this mall was huge. It was huge. Like Mall of America huge. James, Paul and I conquered that in about 2 hours. Of course, we didn’t really buy anything ‘cause we’re all broke and the stores were really expensive, but it was fun going around with them. Especially to the knife store.

After we conquered the mall, we got back on the bus. The four of us, James, Paul, Rose and I, sat together and watched a couple episodes of Chuck before we all fell asleep.

We got back to the UAP at 4 am. Went to sleep until about 11 am…Needless to say it’s 2:15pm and I’m gonna take a nap.