Holiday!

Okay, so on Sunday, Dylan was trying to remember what happened on Friday. Now it’s Tuesday and I’m going to go back to last Monday, so there might be a lot missing.
Last week there were midterms. Surprising, I know, as having work and class and have been a little lax for the past five weeks or so. But in any case, there was much studying and testing. Now it is done and the Center is no longer full of crazy stressed Stanford students, but partially sane Stanford students. I think that by almost everyone else’s standards here, I am a crazy hippie. They haven’t met very many crazy hippies apparently. In any case, midterms was last week and I am so glad that they are over. During this period of midterms, I slept a lot; I think that was a healthy decision. Oh, I also spent a day wandering around Santa Lucia and taking pictures and that was fun.
Then I flew to Buenos Aires. And that was absolutely amazing.
Buenos Aires is beautiful and there is art and roses and pretty buildings and good espresso and bookstores and friendly people and dancing and spice. And lots of other things too. When we fist got there, we wandered down to La Florida, the pedestrian/tourist strip, and wandered. We stumbled across Plaza de Mayo and Casa Rosada. The white house in Buenos Aires isn’t white, it’s pink! And they call it The Pink House. Then we managed to find some very rich Italian food at an overpriced tourist restaurant. And wandered back to the hostel. It was a relaxed evening wander and there were lots of people out, the way that there hasn’t been people in Santiago. Also, I think I told Samia earlier that I wasn’t as impressed with Argentineans as I was with Brazilians. I rescind this statement. Friday was a day of museum as Kara and I spent 4 hours in Museo de Bellas Artes and then wandered to go find a bookstore and some coffee. That night, we joined the other 8 or 9 people in Buenos Aires at the time to go to “Sigue La Vaca.” The door handles were giant cow’s heads. Yep. An all you can eat beef place where you get your own bottle of wine. I got the chicken. But there were many other good reviews. Then we went dancing where there were tons of Australians and some Argentineans, too. And then the next morning we went to Recoleta, the graveyard city. Literally, it’s all tombs above ground. Like the dead people live in little houses and have a party at night when there is nobody else around. Which might be accurate because there are pubs and strip clubs all around the graveyard. The graveyard was intense and eerie and beautiful, but it gave me the feeling that I get whenever I walk into large empty churches. Then we went out to lunch at the place where the waiters think we are crazy and Kara and I headed off to MALBA (museo de arte latinoamericano de Buenos Aires) (yay!), the rose garden, and the horse races which were much more fun than I expected. That night Ilana, Kara and I wandered to the BEST/spicy food I have had yet. Okay, best is pushing it, but it was spicy and we were gluttonous in terms of spice, wine and desert and all was good. We ended up wandering back up the stairs of the hostel in tears because we were laughing so hard. The next day was spent wandering around San Telmo and La Boca, two very different neighborhoods, but cool to see. Like I said Argentineans are really nice. We also accidentally found a Carnival festival on our way back home, which was amazing and dance-y and colorful. Found dinner next to Recoleta and then Kara and I got demolished by Gloria and Dylan in a game of pool. I think that Team Super Awesome maintained their cool though and will definitely dominate the pool table by the end of spring break. Then Kara and I wandered the next day, drinking coffee and finding universities to sit in and talking to interesting folk, before heading on the plane back home. Now we are in Santiago again, kind of wondering why they call it “studying abroad.” That is the kind of brief version of Buenos Aires, in my mind it is a lot more beautiful and there is a lot more happening all at once, but I am too tired and that would take too long right now. Happy Tuesday!