The Monedas

Check it out, it's seriously an issue!!

For the Love of Monedas - Still Life in South America

Riding as a Collective - What's Up Buenos Aires

Only in Argentina...

The ridiculousness of the series of events that occurred last night cannot go undocumented...sooooo a few of us decided that we wanted to go out last night, because I hadn't done much all day and felt kind of boring and they had all gone to Uruguay and just laid on the beach, so we were all a little antsy. I met Jared, Liz, and Elise around 1AM and we walked to the bus stop to wait for the good old 152. The bus system here is slightly ridiculous. Buses are called colectivos, and they're all owned by private companies so they're all different, but you can pretty much find one that will get you anywhere you need to go in the city. The problem is that they only accept change (monedas), and each company hoards the monedas because no one has figured out how to redistribute them. This has created a pretty obnoxious situation in Buenos Aires and Argentina in general, because it appears as though there's a moneda shortage and you always hear about some mafia that takes them all for one reason or another. Either way, you can't go to any store, supermarket, or kiosk and ask the attendant to exchange your 2 or 5 or 10 peso bill for monedas, because those monedas are freaking coveted. Even when making a purchase, they'll try and bargain with you to avoid having to give you your change in monedas. The whole thing is quite obnoxious and creates some very interesting situations (my host mom is friends with my friend Jared's host mom who has a house in the country...one Saturday they both told us that we were going to her country house the next day, and that we needed 10 pesos in monedas to get there. We were informed of this on Saturday, when banks aren't open, and Jared and I were forced to wander around the city for the entire day contemplating where the heck we would each get 10 pesos in monedas before 8AM the next morning...)

Anyways, last night we all came prepared with our 1.20 in monedas and waited at the bus stop for 20 minutes while we watched 3 buses zoom past us because there were SO MANY people on them that the drivers wouldn't stop to let us on (mind you, this is at 1:00 in the morning). A 152 FINALLY stops and lets us on, along with about 6 other people, and then we had the bus ride from hell. Why the other bus drivers were just fine with ignoring us because there were already enough people on their buses but this bus driver stopped for EVERYONE that flagged him down, I really could not tell you. We were literally on top of each other for the longest bus ride ever to the Alamo (this kind of sleazy American bar where my best Argie friend Rocio works), where we finally got off and could BREATHE (but not for long). We go into the Alamo, get our huge pitcher of beer, which Jared is forced to cradle and carry around while we wander upstairs and down for another 30 minutes trying to find SOMEWHERE to sit.

We finally end up making friends with some Argentine and Brazilian boys, who all didn't believe me when I told them I wasn't from Buenos Aires, and we sat down at their table. I got to practice my Spanish, which is always good, and the Argentine did a bunch of magic tricks for us, which was also ridiculous, but there was an obnoxious group of Americans sitting/standing at the table next to us (who also all thought I didn't speak English, so Jared and I played it up for a while). Anyways, they kept yelling and singing and 2 of them fell right into our table, almost killed me, and nearly spilt all of our beer. It was when one of them puked all over the floor right next to us, that we decided it was probably time to call it a night. Totally not worth my 20 pesos, plus my 1.20 monedas! Things like that seem to happen on a very regular basis here, and I can't help but laugh at how absolutely ridiculous this city can be sometimes.

FINALLY

I finally found a website that lets me upload photos quickly!! I have 2 albums so feel free to look at them :)

http://picasaweb.google.com/Lizzaaaaaay

Gracias! Chau!

Ok...

Ok so yes, I am officially the worst blogger ever, it's just there are so many more exciting things to do in my very little amount of time here than blog! Hahahaha, it's been another crazy month since I last posted anything (ok, I really am terrible) but my time here is sincerely flying by. I can't believe that in less than two months I will be back in the States, back to "real life". More and more, Buenos Aires has started to feel like home to me. I'm finally getting a handle on everything, and I'm finally getting used to nothing EVER being easy or going right! This place is full of funny situation, but I think it makes for better stories! Today, I went to La Boca (the kind of sketchy area of BA but it's supposed to be safe on weekends because it gets SUPER touristy). Anyways, we sat down outside of a restaurant and were about to order when all of a sudden this fight breaks out over who knows what, but there were people punching each other RIGHT next to our table-our waiter was actually a part of the whole thing. We didn't know what to do, like do we move or what? Then someone looks like they're pulling out a knife, so we get up and BOOK IT...so ridiculous hahaha. I've just gotten used to expecting the unexpected here, but still I continue to be amazed.

The Argentine/Buenos Aires culture is really VERY different from everything I know. It's actually a very odd place in a lot of ways, because it's a Latin American city but ever since its creation it's been a city that WANTS to be European. From the architecture, to the people, the dynamics here are so interesting to observe (for example, there really are no natives here, everyone is of European heritage). I actually really love all of my classes because we are learning about why Argentina is the way it is and all of the origins of the culture. People here are VERY proud to be Argentine, and Buenos Aires natives call themselves Portenos/Portenas. They're beautiful people, who love to drink their mate (yerba mate is kind of like a strong tea you drink from a gourd...there's lots of traditions and customs that go along with it, and there's lots of people here who you NEVER see without their mate), sit in parks, eat lots of meat, and stay out until all hours of the morning. They're never really in a rush to do anything, which I'm sure will frustrate my mom when she gets here! You have to flag down waiters in restaurants to ask for the check and wait for EVERYTHING. Yesterday, I had to go pick up a package that my aunt sent me. I got a card at my program's office saying I had a package, so I had to take 2 subways to this area called Retiro and wander around for about 25 minutes before I found the Correo building where I needed to go. Then I got a number, waited for a half an hour for it to be called, paid 6 pesos to some guy, then got another number and waited for another almost hour before it was called and I had to walk through like 3 doors and down 2 hallways to find some man who had my package. All for some tea and Cliff bars Aunt Jeanne sent me. But that's pretty typical here!

Although it's sounds like it would be a hard place to live, I couldn't be happier that I chose to study abroad in Buenos Aires. It's so different to live in a big city, especially because I never really have before. I also love exploring other parts of Argentina. I went on a trip to Cordoba a few weeks ago and this past weekend I went to Mendoza, which was AMAZING. It's a beautiful city near the Andes mountains, and it reminded me so much of Colorado! It's famous for it's wineries, and apparently is the best climate in the world for Malbec. We went on a wine tour and got to ride bicycles between three different wineries (they're called bodegas). Another day, we went paragliding, which was incredible. We also went horseback riding and ziplining in the mountains. The funniest thing about the trip was that we were doing some activities that would probably be labeled pretty high risk, and we got all of the instructions for them in Spanish! My mother loved hearing that!!! Ohhhhh the things we get into here! I love all the trouble, it makes for much better stories :)

Well I suppose that's enough for now, I'll say I'm going to update this again soon, but that might be a lie so don't count on anything!! Hahaha that's just the way things go?

Chau!!