Project 365, Day 3

Day: Today, I had to go apply for my Argentine student visa, since I will be here for over three months. I had to be at the Subway station by 6:20 a.m., which takes 15 minutes to walk to, and of course I woke up at exactly 6:05. haha. I hurried up and showered/dressed, then walked to the nearest station and took the subway ("Subte") from one end to the other, then switched lines again. Once I got off the Subte, it was 7:30, which was the time I had to be at the Immigrations Office, and I had no idea how to get there. I walked up to a lady, and just as I was about to ask her directions, I look up and see a fellow student! I was so happy and relieved; it was like seeing an angel on earth. We figured out how to get to the office by asking directions, and everything was painless from then on. Oh, and the visa cost $50, not the $100 that my study abroad people told us to bring, so today I basically won $50 and it was awesome.

After school, I went to the UPS store and bought a Sube card (finally!), which cuts train, subway, and bus fares in half, then went to a panadería, a bakery, and bought five delicious things for my host family and me. Two were like square croissants folded diagonally filled with dulce de leche, one was a cream puff filled with dulce de leche and covered in chocolate, one a roll with creme inside, and the last a ball thing filled with dulce de leche and covered with powdered sugar that tasted exactly like a doughnut. OH so good! 

Then I walked home, ate the doughnut one, and took a three-and-a-half hour siesta. Woke up to a delicious dinner of lentil soup, bread, grapes, and a pelon. A pelon kind of tastes like a peach and has the same shape, except it has a beautiful, deep magenta-pink outside when ripe and the inside is white! It is so beautiful and tastes better than a peach, in my opinion. Have I mentioned the fruit here is super delicious?

Picture: Cut my hair again. Feels so much better/healthier now. 

And because I hate webcam pictures, here's this from the other weekend's fruit picnic on the water:

Chao!

xo amanda

Project 365, Day 2

Day: After school, us study abroad kids went to el Teatro Colón, a famous old opera house (that's still being used!) It was so beautiful and I was reminded of my grandmother, who would have loved the gold plated rooms and classic decor of the building.

Picture: We were late for the first tour, so we had an hour to kill and decided to head to the Obelisk, which was only a couple blocks from the theatre. It was cool, but even cooler was the surroundings- this place basically looked like Times Square, with the huge billboards (both electronic and not), colors, and just in general craziness. Pretty awesome.

Oh! and see that McDonald's? Some of us went there to get smoothies, and this place was like a freaking patisserie. It had tons of pastries including croissants, eclairs, and macarons. MACARONS.  Oh Buenos Aires I love you.

oh, the food of buenos aires

Things I miss from the US: my family. spicy foods. sleeping comfortably and cool. being able to walk outside without being overwhelmed by the vast majority of people smoking. good cheese. pizza.

With that being said, buenos aires is amazing and those things are shrink in comparison to what's happening here.

Things i love in BA: having a jumbo size jar of dulce de leche in my room that i can dip into whenever i want. being able to walk everywhere or take cheap transportation by way of bus, subway, or train (each about $0.50). having so many activities available. the amazing and fresh food (as shown by the many pictures above... haha). the absolutely BEAUTIFUL clothes- it's like walking through a free people/anthropologie/urban outfitters store in the summertime where beautiful flowy dresses abound. being able to go to the beach by free transportation that's 30 minutes away and have picnics- whenever you feel like it.

I hope you all enjoy your weekend! I have to stay in today and write a paper, but I may head to Chinatown later (3 blocks away from my apartment!), and I believe I will go to a beautiful cathedral tomorrow morning that is only one block away, then head to San Telmo after, a street fair held every Sunday.

Chao!
xo amanda