For my last week in Buenos Aires I flew the coop and headed to Igazu again!!!! Whoo!!!!!
Just kidding…
In downtown Buenos Aires there’s a “Monument to Igazú” but it’s actually just a mock Igazú Falls for all the tourists who won’t be able to make it up to Igazú. I mean come on, that’s totally what it is, look at it.
As it was our last week in Buenos Aires we spent time going back to all the places we wanted to say goodbye to or to places we hadn’t been yet. There was a new building that opened last week in the old detention center, so in my free time on Thursday I dropped by again. Unfortunately the building was closed, even though it said it was open so I didn’t get to go inside. Instead I roamed through the area one last time before meeting up with a friend for a lunch at a nice cafe.
Fun fact after that little town in France with the love locks is taking all the locks down (talk about a sad story). The Women’s Bridge in Puerto Madero was on our list of places to say goodbye to (and we wanted one last choripan) and on the way back I finally remembered to get a picture of the locks next to the bridge. The collection of locks is still small, but I don’t doubt it will slowly grow…
Fun story! A long time ago my friend and I were headed to Costanera del Sur to get some choripan. We had taken a slightly different route than usual and passed by this excellent statue. Someone had been taking a picture with him at the time so I didn’t get a chance to snap my own, slightly disappointed I figure we’d see him again. Fast forward two and a half months and we hadn’t seen him again, we weren’t really sure where he was anymore. Then, this fateful day, I passed him again on my way to get choripan. It turns out he’s part of the Historical Walk through San Telmo and he’s one of many statues a few of which we’d already seen in passing but never connected them. When my friends met up with me we returned to him and finally took our pictures.
We also said goodbye to La Boca, a small neighborhood in the not-so-great part of town with a history full of tango. Walking along the streets there has always been fun and the bright colors make for a cheerful day. There’s also a small store with possibly the world’s best empanadas. On this fateful day we’d gone to get my friend a llama sweater, I’d gotten one in Bariloche, so I figured I was all set. But then I fell in love with this llama sweater…so we got matching llama sweaters…
When I got to Belgrano University I joined the volleyball team to give me something to do in the evenings, a chance to play volleyball again, and meet some Argentines. Three nights a week we would practice/play and hang out. I made quite a few good friends on the team and learned a lot of vocabulary. Some of my favorite evenings were on the volleyball court. A couple weeks in we got new jerseys with our names on them so we wouldn’t have to wear the salmon pink ones!
This my host family 🙂 we’re just missing one of my host sisters, she was out that evening. They’ve been super sweet to me this whole stay and I’ve absolutely loved living with them. The little dog, Kino, has kept me company almost everyday, in the summer we would take siestas together outside in the hammock.
For our final day in Buenos Aires we visited the Floris Generico, it’s a giant flower that closes its petals at sunset and it’s one of the more famous landmarks in Buenos Aires (just like the Women’s Bridge). It’s been broken for about 10ish years now, just last week they finally got around to fixing it and had a re-inauguration party.
This gigantic bench is in a park near my house, where occasionally I go to study. Most of my memories in this park are centered around teaching my classmates how to tango right before our tango exams. I’ve always wanted to get a picture on this big bench so we stopped by on the way to the flower.
After seeing the flower, we started heading home. But as we often do, my friend and I became very sidetracked and ended up exploring the University of Buenos Aires Social Sciences building. It’s a giant building built with huge marble columns and more floors and confusing hallways than we could count. After about fifteen minutes we were thoroughly lost in the place. The coolest part, however, was the entrance. It was a long hallway with student artwork at the base of the column and these giant statues at both ends. How cool would it be if this was the entrance to your university?!
At the end of the evening we had our goodbye party at the director’s house where they cooked us and incredibly gnocchi dinner with even better desserts. Some of the students had gotten themselves organized and created a few superlatives such as “API Dad/Mom,” “Best Porteño,” “Uncle Sam Award,” and then of course there was the “Future Spouses Award.” As pretty much everyone expected, my adventuring friend (who has featured in pretty much every blog post from Argentina) and I won that award. Our plate was cut in half like a kids friendship necklace. The students have lovingly nicknamed us “The A-Team” and even the directors of the program have been asking whether or not we’re dating yet, so you could say it wasn’t much of a surprise. #adventurebuddies #notgettingmarried
#datcitylyfe: Other obligatory post about how amazing this experience was and how much I learned.
#datcitylyfe: Winter has arrived in Buenos Aires, we’re all excited to return to warm weather in our hometowns (counting down the hours until I can change into my dress again!). Here in Buenos Aires, the porteños have reacted to the cold by pulling out their down jackets and fur-lined ankle boots to protect them from the 55-65 degree weather. Of course, fashion down here is very important and they all have these incredibly cute coats and it’s been a struggle not to buy myself one–I have no room for that kind of thing in my luggage, besides I have cute jackets at home. However, the people aren’t the only ones who wear their winter best when it gets cold down here. The owners of the dogs of Buenos Aires have decided that if they are cold, so to are their dogs. Now, every dog that I see getting walked around the city is wearing a nice jacket as well. Sometimes it’s not a jacket but a shirt, or a sports jersey, but, unless the dog has long hair, it’s rare to see one out and about without clothing. And this doesn’t just apply to the smaller dogs, I saw a dalmatian sporting a lovely pink furry jacket yesterday. She looked very comfortable.
#adventuresabroad 
