After getting off the plane at Ezeiza International, I hopped in a cab with all my stuff and headed to my host-family’s house. My first impression of the city was that it’s gigantic! My second thought? Graffiti…everywhere. Maybe Boston and Richmond are abnormally graffiti-free cities but I am nonetheless surprised by its prevalence here. I mentioned this to my host-family and they told me that many times the graffiti has political significance and some politicians even pay artists to paint graffiti favorable of them. This could be political mockery of an opponent or a statement on governmental policies of animal protection…but then again, it might just be a parrot.

La Recoleta Cemetery is located in the neighborhood from which it gets its name. In 2013, CNN ranked this cemetery one of the 10 most beautiful in the world because of its expansive grounds with the juxtaposition of slightly deteriorating historic tombs and gorgeously maintained modern mausoleums, still utilized by families today. It was too tough to choose just one picture of this amazing cemetery, so here are three!

Among politicians, Nobel Prize winners, and entertainers, former First Lady of Argentina, Eva Peron was laid to rest 19 years after her death. In Argentina, the Perons are extremely controversial. You either love Eva or you hate her. Obviously her grave is a bias place to see this as it is perpetually filled with flowers and flooded with teary-eyed visitors. Lauren (another Richmond student) and I searched all around the 14 acre cemetery for her very modest and relatively secluded tomb.

As an”extranjero,” I have found it exciting every time I get to tell someone about the US or see an imported Pringles can in “el supermercado.” Well, on Sundays, there’s one place in Buenos Aires, we Americans can find New York bagels and cream cheese made freshly by a guy named Sheikob. Sheikob is a former PhD candidate who decided to take an adventure and move back to Buenos Aires where he had studied abroad as an undergraduate. Now every Sunday he sells bagels outside a little café in Palermo. (He even has a Facebook page!!) Ben, Bergen, Lauren and I sought him out our first Sunday in the city and told him all about our new adventure, coming from Richmond to study.