Springtime in Buenos Aires

Too much time has passed to give a more in depth entry of the past few weeks, but I'll summarize some of the high points.

Last Sunday was Mother's Day in Argentina (during their spring) so 17 family members came over for lunch (read: an entire afternoon spent eating). I think I've met every possible family member, and have all of their names down, so family gatherings are much more enjoyable now. They're all extremely nice and understanding when I'm not always super talkative (like at a lunch table of 18 relatives). We ate delicious paella and choripan and I tried blood sausage for the first time ever (not as horrible as I was expecting, but not my favorite food ever...). I even finally got a picture of my host family (only 2 of the 4 kids live with us in the house).

Its finally springtime here in Buenos Aires!! (sorry for all for all of you suffering through the snow up north). I forgot to write about Dia de la Primavera, but it coincided with Dia del Estudiantes (now there's a good holiday!) so we spent the day picnicking in the park and soaking up one of the first days of sunshine. I had been eagerly awaiting springtime since the best way to see Buenos Aires is just to wander around the streets, which will be so much more pleasant now!

We took advantage of our particularly warm day to travel a little bit up north of the city. Originally we planned on going back up to Tigre for the afternoon (I posted about Tigre before), but we got off a couple of stations early on the train to go to a lunch place my friend had read about. Its famous for its nachos, and it was incredible. Then, our waitress told us about a place called "Peru Beach" so we decided to skip out on Tigre and just stay where we were (a barrio called San Isidro) and walk over to the beach.

The beach was really just a beach bar, a lawn and a deck overlooking the edge of the river. But it was such a nice day out and there were lots of people sunbathing and others kite-surfing and wind-surfing so we decided to stay and enjoy daquiris overlooking the water.

This past Wednesday was also a beautiful, sunny day so my friend and I decided to go to the rose gardens in Palermo, which are in the middle of an entire section of Buenos Aires dedicated to parks and lakes. This might be my favorite area of Buenos Aires just because its so much more relaxing than in the middle of all of the buildings and there's a different type of garden for any interest. The rose garden has been my favorite so far, but there are still a few I haven't ventured to yet.

I've also spent a few more Saturdays outside of the city with Un Techo para mi Pais, and I'd say that now I know the barrio pretty well and even know some families that live there. This past Saturday we spent all day with one family, eating lunch and playing games in their brand-new house. I even taught them all how to play ninja! (They wanted to learn a game from the states and I couldn't think of anything else...). They were the sweetest - its incredible how willing they are to invite you into their homes and to spend the day with their family.

Aside from wandering the city in my free-time, spending time with my host family and friends, and classes, I've unfortunately been studying more recently since we're in the last 3 weeks of the semester, which is always hectic with final papers and projects. Last night I finished up a one-week take-home midterm essay that was 6 pages, single-spaced, 11 point font on the rise of Juan Peron to the presidency. It was the hardest assignment I've had here so far, but overall I think it went well and I'm just glad to have it over with! Just 2 more papers, 1 oral defense, 1 oral midterm, and 1 final left until the end of the semester and I can enjoy the rest of the time here without schoolwork!

This weekend my friend from high school is coming into town (she's studying in Santiago, Chile) and its a good friend's 22nd birthday, so I'm sure I'll have a lot to share next week!