This week I took some time to walk around the city and explore. I’m feeling more and more at home every day. It really helps to walk around the different neighborhoods and start to get a feel for where everything is. People are always talking to each other on the street and always talking to me! Being so immersed in the language, I feel like my Spanish is improving exponentially. However, when people speak in slang or just talk really fast I can’t catch everything. Usually I just nod and don’t let on that I don’t understand everything they are saying!

This is the area that I think I’ve heard people call “El centro.” There’s cool places to walk around, restaurants, and shopping near here! Also, it’s super close to my university, UCA.

The “Pink House” is the Argentine version of the White House! It’s in el centro as well, and right next to the subway stop I use to get to school so I get to walk past it every day! Right now, they are re-doing the plaza that’s in front of the pink house, so there’s a lot of construction everywhere. I hope they finish it while I am still in Buenos Aires so I get to see the final product!

I did some exploring around the Recoleta this week as well, which is the area where I live. It is so pretty with tons of parks, restaurants, a couple malls, and an old cemetery in the middle! The restaurants are my favorite, they are all so cute and well-decorated. These ones are on a huge patio at a mall called Buenos Aires Design. I love the string lights that are always lit up at night!

I’m excited for my last week of Spanish classes, my semester is starting so soon!

See you next week!

Ella

Finally, I have arrived in Argentina and started my semester. It is so crazy that in less than a day I’ve gone from snow-covered Minneapolis to the incredibly hot and humid Buenos Aires where it is close to 90°F every day! This city is truly overwhelming. Everything is happening so quickly, people always seem to be hurrying from one place to another. So far, I have bought an Argentine SIM card so that I can use my phone here  and I have learned how to use the colectivos (public buses) to get to my university. I feel pretty accomplished just to have completed these basic tasks!

My host mom’s apartment is so cute. Here’s her little balcony!

Yesterday my Spanish class got to go on a tour of Teatro Colón. Our Spanish class got to take a tour of the theater, and we learned so much about its rich history. Though it is now almost 110 years old, it is still considered one of the finest theaters in the world. The tour guide spoke to the incredible acoustics inside the main stage.

Here’s another part of the theater where the guests with the most expensive tickets would mingle. My favorite part of the theater was the fancy light fixtures that were in every room as you can see in this photo. While we were exploring this room, we learned that the theater took 20 years to build, and the creators had both Italian as well as French influences, and imported the valuable materials they used such as marble and gold from these places. This eclectic European style made me feel like I was inside a castle!

The sun was setting by the time we were done with our tour. Another beautiful summer day in Buenos Aires!

See you next week!

Ella