This has been a busy week or so!
Last Tuesday I look my first formal Tango class, which was very exciting. On the Calle Florida there is an enormous shopping centre called the Galerias Pacificos which has an enormous Tango school on the top level. I found this to be very strange but I went and gave it a try! My teachers name was Chiche and he was this a little old cute Argentine man. There were about six girls in the class and four guys so we had to rotate. I really did not know how to do much and the first thing the instructor asked me when he saw me dance was... what other types of dance do you do? So of course, I had to tell him that I had 13 years of classical dance experience, which really hindered my tango abilities. But, I did get some of the steps in the Tango class and I have three more to take before I leave so we shall see how that goes! After dinner on Tuesday night, Jeremy and I went to Jobs where we hung out with some of the people from his program and enjoyed the 2 for 1 drink specials.
Wednesday I just hung out around the house and continued to read all of the interesting articles that Jeremy has from his Latin America classes. Thursday night we went out to a really cool bar in Las Canitas which is the next neighborhood over from Palermo. It was a bar that was not in my guide book, but I was lured in because they were playing David Guetta- The Love is Gone, which is one of my favorite songs to party to, so I figured por que no? We happened to stumble in on another 2 for 1 drink special. I had two for one Daquiris which were amazing! I am going to go to that bar many more times.
All of the nights in this week can not even hold a candle to Friday night. Now, of course, this is the night before I am going to hang out with Jeremy's mother and sister before I tell the story. Jeremy and I started drinking after dinner and I bought this awful Argentine rum that was the most horrible thing I have tasted in a long time. After a few of the fire water drinks that I was drinking we went to a local bar in Palermo and had a few long island iced teas. And then at about 3 I started being attracted to the Corona's since I haven't had one in so long, this lasted until about 4:30 when we finally decided to try the infamous Club Amerika that we had heard so much about. And Club Amerika did not let us down. Club Amerika is one of the best gay, trani, straight clubs in the city. We paid 50 pesos ($13) for entrance plus an open bar. At this point we were already doing very well but then proceeded to have 5 more cuba libres each. We danced a lot and the guys were very aggressive at this club, if Jeremy walked too far in front of me, they would attack like vultures. Our friend told us not to go into the tunnel part of the club, which of course made me want to go in more, so we went. In the tunnel people were having sex on the floor of the club which reminded me of what Ibiza would be like. We then decided to leave the tunnel so we did not have to watch gay and straight people having sex and danced at the club. We kind of lost track of time because we walked outside and it was light out. It was 9:30 am. Now, in all of my partying escapades, I would say that this was one of the latest nights I have ever had. The only unfortunate part, we had to meet Jeremy's mom and sister in 3 1/2 hours! So we crashed at got up to meet up with them!
Also, our friend Adam from GW was in Buenos Aires so he came with Jeremy's mom, sister, and I to La Boca. La Boca is a very touristy part of the city that is also home to the Boca soccer stadium. We wandered around Boca for the afternoon and then headed back to Recoleta to have coffee where Jeremy's mom was staying. After we finished coffee, we headed out to the suburb of Lanus to have an authentic Asado with Jeremy's language partner Natalia and her family. Lanus is about a hour and a half outside of Buenos Aires. Natalia's family is very nice and we had so much fun eating all of the wonderful food that her parents prepared on the grill. We ended up staying until 2 a.m. visiting with her family.
On Sunday, Jeremy's mom invited me to go to the San Telmo Market with them so I brought cash this time and bought some souvenirs. The market had a bunch of wonderful things! I bought an Alpaca sweater which I have been eyeing for weeks, a mate tea cup, and a very cool necklace. I also helped Jeremy's mom shop for gifts for their family friends. We stopped for lunch at a wonderful Parilla and I ordered Arroz con Pollo (Rice with Chicken). It was amazing! Then we continued to wander through the wonderful antique stores of San Telmo. We wandered around San Telmo for the remainder of the day and dined in an amazing steak restaurant called La Cabrera for dinner. I had my first rare steak because they switched Jeremy's sister and my plates by accident, and now I am never ordering a medium steak again!
On Monday, Jeremy's mom and sister left and we went out to a all you can eat Parilla for dinner! It was amazing! What I didnt realize was that I had accidentally picked up a counterfeit $20 at the San Telmo market the day before. So we tipped for dinner with the fake $20 pesos and ran out of the restaurant quickly.
On Tuesday, we went to the Jobs bar again with Adam which made Jobs even more fun. Adam and I played a game of pool that we lost by a lot of balls and we enjoyed the 2 for 1 drink specials.
On Wednesday, Jeremy finally went to eat at my favorite restaurant, Kentucky Pizza with me! He can't eat much there because he is allergic to milk. But we enjoyed our meal and then went to meet up with Adam again at the MALBA museum, which is the modern art museum. I really enjoyed all of the artwork but my favorite was a Frida Khalo painting that I saw! It was my first Frida Khalo painting that I had ever seen i person. I also saw a very impressive Diego Rivera painting too! After the museum, we went to Freddo, which is Argentine designer ice cream, and had some of the best ice cream that I have ever had. It was a very fun day!
On Thursday, I went to my Tango class with Chiche again. This time there were way fewer girls than guys, so I had to dance the whole class. I was still horrible, but I was much less horrible than before! I finally began to throw my ballet background out the window and started to move a little better in the Tango style. I really enjoyed the class and I still have two more to go! Other than Tango, I came home and had a nice dinner with my host mother. I decided to take it easy so that I can have fun this weekend!
Until next time,
<3 Jacque

Since Jeremy's birthday was oh so exciting we needed a night off to sleep. So we waited until Thursday to do some more sightseeing. I met Jeremy at his school at 2:00 so that we would have enough time to walk down the Avenida de Mayo to the Plaza de Mayo to see the Madres of the Plaza de Mayo. I was so excited to see the Madres march because I had written a paper on them in my history of Latin America class at GW. So we waited in the Plaza de Mayo on a bench for a little while and then all of a sudden an enormous white van drove up with all of the Madres sitting in it who were all wearing matching white bonnets. The bonnets had all of the names of those who had disappeared during the Dirty War who were family members, close friends, etc. The Madres originally started marching in the Plaza de Mayo 30 years ago to protest the basic human rights that were being violated by the military junta that was governing Argentina at the time. They used the Plaza de Mayo which is still today a popular place to have political displays in order to form a peaceful resistance movement that is now known all over the world today. So every Thursday at 3:30 the Madres still march around the Plaza de Mayo carrying pictures of their loved ones that have disappeared. Jeremy and I were fortunate enough to be early enough to see the Linea Fundadora which is the first Madres who marched 30 years ago. It is amazing to imagine that they have been marching every Thursday for three decades. Then after the Linea Fundadora we saw the Madres who joined the movement later on. Both groups marched around the Plaza de Mayo for about 30 minutes and then sang a traditional song and left. I was so excited to have seen that movement because it is a very well known and respected womens movement throughout the world.
After we saw the Madres, Jeremy walked me over to Puerto Madero which is the very wealthy part of the city. I have to say this place tripped me out so much because it felt as if I was walking in Dubai but yet I was in Latin America. Puerto Madero is home to tons of beautifully designed buildings, trendy fusion restaurants, and designer stores. And the sidewalks were actually even and paved! My feet did not know how to react since they are now used to the streets of Buenos Aires. Another funny thing about Puerto Madero is that since the buildings are comprable in price to US prices, they are all empty because not many Argentines can afford that bracket of real estate pricing. And they continue to build more buildings which Jeremy and I just laughed at. The other interesting thing about Puerto Madero is that it is not far from the Villa where 30,000 impoverished people live without running water or electricity. Puerto Madero also only has three bridges of access because the Argentine government figures that limited access will keep the poverty out. But Puerto Madero really did symbolize to me of what Latin America could potentially achieve many years down the road. I feel as if the Argentine government built this area as a symbolic representation of what they hope to get out of their country someday because the place was truly spectacular.
After Puerto Madero, Jeremy and I walked home which was about the equivalent of 8 miles I would say. We walked through the theater district of Buenos Aires which was beautiful and then walked to the back part of Palermo from 9 de Julio. We got a little bit lost on the way home in Palermo but that made it more of an adventure. I saw a lot of the city that day which made me very happy that I walked that long distance.
On Friday, I met Jeremy at 1 to go to lunch with his friend Jeremy from his program at this insanely cheap steak place near the Retiro Bus Station which is near the entrance to the Villa which is the most impoverished part of the city. I paid only 10 pesos for a juicy glorious steak that came with bread and a coca light. (That is about 2.50 USD). After we enjoyed the steak, we took the 50 minute local train to Tigre. Tigre was a quaint little suburb that was out of the Buenos Aires province. There was not much to do in Tigre but there was a beautiful river to look at and relax near by, so that is what we did. We bought a massive bottle of Coca-light and relaxed near the river. After the river, we went to a Casino and tried our luck at the slot machines but we did not win anything too exciting. Tigre was a nice escape from the city but we decided to go home to get ready for Uruguay!
On the train ride home, we had the sudden urge to buy a 13 peso bottle of Vodka and some mixers to party before traveling since that seems to be a tradition started by originally Jeremy, Alex, and I. Our decision to carry on that tradition was probably not the best idea, but it was the most fun idea. Jeremy and I invited his housemate Kyle to pregame with us in my room. Kyle learned the hard way that night that I am a strong pourer because I filed 3/4 of his glass with vodka, I doubt he will ever have me pour him a drink again haha. The three of us ended up finishing the bottle of vodka (mostly Jeremy and I of course) and then going to a bar in Palermo. This is the evening when I came to the hilarious realization that I could drink the majority of people in Jeremy's program under the table. After the bottle of vodka, Jeremy tried to get them to drink more while he ordered a Long Island Iced Tea and none of them could do it. So there we were messed up when we had to leave on a boat to Uruguay in 2 hours. So what did we do? We passed out for two hours and then somehow woke up still drunk and got ourselves to the port.
The second we got on the boat we passed out again on the 3 hour ferry ride to Uruguay and when we got there felt as good as new. We took a bus into the old part of Colonia del Sacramento which was a beautiful old Spanish influenced city! I loved it there. There were beautiful old buildings, nice views of the river, and cute shops. We decided to eat lunch at one of the most romantic restaurants that I have ever been to. The restaurant was situated inside someones actual house and it had artifacts, amazing cuisine, and each room of the house only had a couple of tables, while old Tango like music was playing. I ordered an amazing Ensalada Caprece that I was not able to finish and Jeremy ordered Calamari. It was one of the best lunches I have ever had!
After lunch we took the tour of the city in Spanish and the guide had a lot of wonderful historical facts to share with us about Colonia del Sacramento during the days of Spanish occupation. After the tour we walked up to the top of the lighthouse and hung out there for a long time and watched the sunset on the harbor.
After that I went and quickly grabbed a cool souvenir for my apartment next year. I got a ceramic spoon rest for my kitchen that says Colonia del Sacramento because I am going to try to cook for people next year back in D.C.
Then sadly, it was time to go back to Argentina and once again, Jeremy was almost held hostage at the Uruguayan border since he forgot his student visa haha. That was a great one! But finally he was allowed to board the boat, otherwise, we could still be in Uruguay today. Our problems with border entry were far from over when we were docking in the port in Buenos Aires they made an announcement that they were going to take everyones temperature because of swine flu. While this normally would not have worried me, I had an awful cold that I caught in Buenos Aires and I knew that if I made one noise that resembled a symptom of sickness that I was going to be quarantined. Thankfully, the temperature was a heat sensor and not an actual thermometer that is used at a doctors office. So I held my coughing in and ran through customs and then went into a massive coughing fit outside the boat terminal. Jeremy and I were very relieved that I did not get sent for Swine Flu testing.
After the boat, we went out to dinner at an awesome buffet place called Grant's in Recoleta with other Jeremy, Cory's friend Julia (from home not Randall haha), and a few other kids from Jeremy's program. I really liked this group of people, they were a lot more real and chill than some of the others that I have met. The dinner was a blast and then we went home and passed out since we were still hungover and hadn't slept in a long time.
I rested most of the day Sunday because Jeremy's mom and sister are in town. But when I finally woke up, I ventured out to see the Sunday market in San Telmo. This was the biggest market that I have ever seen. Thank god I did not bring any cash with me. I browsed around the vendors for hours and I watched several live Tango performances. It was a very fun Sunday afternoon. Then, when I got home, Christina my host mom invited me to an outdoor Milonga. A Milonga is where people dance Tango. Now, I will say this first off, I am a very experienced dancer, but nothing could have prepared me for the Tango. This cute old man asked me to dance so I said what the hell and went for it. There were no American's at this place and I was the least experienced Tango dancer there. I learned that my Salsa background had no validity in the land of Tango that I was dancing in but the fact remains, that I went for it and learned how to Tango somewhat out of the experience. This week I am going to begin Tango classes because I know that with my previous dance background that once I get the steps I will be great at it. So this week has been yet another, crazy and wonderful experience.
Until next time!
<3 Jacque

Since I have been to Iguazu I have done quite a bit of exploring in Buenos Aires. The area that I live in is called Palermo, which is more of the hipster part of the city. The area of Palermo also hosts my favorite restaurant, which is called Kentucky Pizza. Now when I think of the state of Kentucky, I will only think of pizza and not fried chicken. The restaurant is a chain that on the inside of each has hilarious pictures of the state of Kentucky combined with Buenos Aires Tango posters...quite the combination but I find it hilarious. You can get a slice of pizza for under a dollar with the currency advantage! Aside from my find of the Kentucky Pizza restaurant, Palermo has several beautiful parks that Jeremy and I have walked to. The botanical gardens have several replicas of famous statues that I remember seeing in my Art History textbook along with a variety of unique types of plants. The rose gardens on the edge of Palermo are beautiful and have statues of famous Argentines. Two of my favorite Spanish authors are from Buenos Aires: Borges y Cortazar, whose statues can be found in the rose garden. The rose garden has several different paths of shrubbery that reminds me of Alice and Wonderland and boasts two beautiful lakes with an option for paddle boating. Aside from the beautiful parks, Palermo has several unique restaurants and bars that are very wonderful to go to as well. The next neighborhood over is Recoleta, which is a very beautiful ritzy area. Before going to Recoleta I walked to Jeremy's school and we met his friend Jeremy for lunch at a steak place near the Retiro bus station which is near the entrance to the Villa which is where the poorest part of the city where a lot of the poor immigrants from Paraguay live. We at a steak place near the entrance of the Villa, which only cost 10 pesos for an enormous steak, fries, and a drink. 10 pesos is equivalent to about $2.50. After we visited the border of extreme poverty, we walked home through Recoleta and happened to stumble upon the Recoleta Cemetery, which is where Eva Peron is buried. The cemetery was beautiful with elegant above ground graves. There were stray cats all over the cemetery that were roaming around the graves. The cemetery is also where Borges is buried. The cemetery was illuminated by the beautiful sunset that evening which made you feel like even more that you were standing on hollow ground. After we ate dinner we went out to Plaza Serrano to meet up with more of the people from Jeremy's program. Jeremy and I often go to Plaza Serrano to go to the many awesome bars which each have a different theme. First off, I love how strong the bartenders pour in this country! The bartenders fill 3/4 of my drink with run when I order a Cuba Libre, so not only is drinking far more economical, but much more time effective. On the nights where we do not go to Plaza Serrano we go to the next neighborhood over which Las Canitas. On Saturday we went to a Parilla for dinner called Las Cholas (which I found hilarious because that means Mexican gangster in Spanish) and I ate an enormous amount of meat. The level we ate on had gravel floors and candlelight lighting, which was beautiful. There were a ton of portenos in line so we knew it was a good authentic Parilla. After dinner we went to Soul Cafe, which is a bar that I found in my book. It plays live Jazz, Hip-Hop, and Motown music, which Jeremy loved. The bar had the most wonderful decor. There were enormous hanging dice from the top of the bar and tons of pictures of famous artists from the 60's and 70's. Saturday night was a wonderful night!

On Sunday, a girl from Jeremy's program named Sarah invited us to the beautiful apartment that her family was renting in San Telmo. The apartment was fantastic!!! I had beautiful crystal light fixtures and gorgeous artwork and it probably only cost $400 a month! That evening I experienced southern hospitality for the first time in my life. Her family prepared a pasta dinner for 30 people and we finished 25 bottles of wine that night. I met her whole family and this was a girl I had only met two times before so it was very nice that she included me since I am not in Jeremy's program. Her family was very nice and her sister lives in San Diego, which made me even more blown away about how small the world is! After Sarah's dinner we went to Plaza Serrano again and continued to party.  

On Monday night we took it easy because we knew that Tuesday was Jeremy's 21st birthday! On Tuesday we had quite the line up to celebrate Jeremy's birthday. I met him after class to meet his language partner Nati who is from Lanus, which is a suburb outside of Buenos Aires. We met up with her in the enormous McDonalds that is across from the Obelisk on 9 de Julio, which is one of the largest streets in the world. She was very nice and invited me to eat with her family while I am here which I am very excited about! After we met Nati, Jeremy and I went home and his host mom made him a special dinner. Then at 12 we headed over to Jobs, which is a bar, that has 2 for 1 drink specials on Tuesdays. Jeremy was getting free drinks right and left! After Jobs we went to Kika, which is a club in Palermo and then got home at 5:30 in the morning. Jeremy partied like a rock star for his 21st birthday, which is a very important experience. Tonight we may go check out a new bar in the area, but that is my first week in Buenos Aires in a nutshell! Until next time!

<3>