i went to Carnaval this weekend. everything was so unexpected; it was an insane and colorful and almost surreal adventure.

lately i've been trying to plan my life for when i return to the real world; that is, the u.s. 

i was going to take an internship in another state far from virginia, but i've begun to realize that once you are away from family for a long time, those things fall by the wayside and you want nothing more than to live one last time with the people you love most in this world.

it's quite sad that a childhood must end.

Project 365, Day 15

Day: I didn't have school because the new study abroad kids arrived this past Saturday, so today they had to take their placement tests which meant no class! I stayed home for most of the day, but went to La Bomba de Tiempo again just like last Monday. And just like last Monday, it was so much fun. The 14 percussionists are amazingly talented.

"Feeling the palpable, pulsing energy of everyone around you. Feeling your heart rate change with the beat of the drums. Sharing the experience with wonderful people. Pure magic."

Picture: Tried this out for the first time with my grandfather's old shirt.

Project 365, Day 14

Day: Got up early and went to El Tigre. It's about 30 minutes outside the city and has a slower pace of life on the river. We had planned on going there by train, then taking an hour boat ride to a private beach on the river, but of all the boats available and the thousands of beaches, only one boat was operating and going to one public beach. 

So, we decided once we got to El Tigre to walk through El Puerto de Frutos, a street market held every weekend. We sat down at an outdoor restaurant and they drank fresh fruit juices and ate choripan. Afterward, we found a beautiful grassy spot and set up camp where we stayed for four hours, and enjoyed 70 cent dulce de leche/vanilla swirl cones from the McDonald's a couple feet away from us (you can kind of see the yellow 'M' in the top right of the last picture below).

Picture: ... it was wonderful.

xo amanda

Project 365, Day 12

Day: Had my oral exam today! I did pretty well and got a 90% on it, and a 92.5% on the written part that was on Wednesday. Afterward some friends and I ate and talked at a local supermarket, where I discovered that Oreo Alfajores exist:

As you can imagine, it was super delicious.

Picture: Of my new black and no longer red hair~

Project 365, Day 11

Day: Yesterday was relaxing. It was a national holiday in Argentina, so no one worked and I didn't have school. In the afternoon, I went to an ice cream store, Persicco, with a bunch of friends to celebrate a birthday. The ice cream was so delicious. I shared with a friend and we got strawberry cream, passion fruit (have I mentioned this is the best flavor of any fruit, ever?), Swiss chocolate, and dulce de leche con brownie. The dulce de leche ice cream was SO good! It had huge chunks of brownies and pecans. Afterward, I went to a friend's house to dye her hair red, then returned to my apartment, ate, then fell asleep writing this post with my laptop on my stomach. haha.

Picture: I went to a dance club Wednesday night because it was Ladies Night and it was free and that's not something you just pass up, and when I got back my feet looked like this-

So much fun.

Chao!

xo amanda

Project 365, Day 10

Day: Final went well today! It was extremely long, but I was done in about two hours, so that was cool. Afterward, I went to a diner-like restaurant called Forrest Gump, then to COTO again to buy some stuff I needed... like hair dye... because I realized from this picture that I had red hair, which I realized because the guy in front of me has red hair. And so we were basically hair twins. And I don't know how I feel about that.

Picture: Stuff from COTO: a glass soda bottle, orange soda because it was the cheapest, dye, a tortilla on the bottom left, a flan in the bottom middle, and some yerba mate called amanda that at $0.90 I just had to get. I mean, come on.

(Tortillas- pronounced tor/tee/jas- are like a potato omelet- the inside had thinly sliced potatoes -like scalloped potatoes- mixed with cheese, crushed red pepper, salt, and strings of onion, and in a mixture of eggs and flour that I'm guessing was pan-fried. It was so good. Oh, and the $0.50 flan was pretty disgusting and eggy.)

You guys. You guys. This exists:

 ... and I can't wait to put it in my soda bottle collection back home. Passion fruit is basically the best flavor of any fruit out there.

xo amanda

Project 365, Day 9

Day: Last day of classes before finals! I am doing an intensive Spanish course, so basically I took a whole semester's worth of classes in the past 3.5 weeks (five hours every weekday), and the written exam is tomorrow and the oral portion Friday... and no class Thursday! So happy.

Picture: After school I went to COTO, the huge supermercado, and finally bought lotion after going without it for 3 weeks. Also, I've been missing yogurt, so I went to the refrigerated section and picked a Disney marketed brand in the sweet orange flavor. I was so excited.
Except then this happened:

Here's the thing guys. Turns out it was some kind of milk-juice. It was actually really depressing.

Project 365, Day 8

Day: (yesterday was crazy, so here's the post that should've been!) Here's what happened- After school, I took the subway downtown to transfer some money (Oh- if you ever happen to be in a foreign country, use Xoom! It has a way better transfer rate and it's super easy; you will save so much money. For example, lots of people here transferred US dollars to Argentine pesos for 5 pesos to the dollar, while Xoom's exchange rate is 7 pesos to the dollar. Crazy), then headed home quickly to change and eat, and then go to La Bomba de Tiempo. This is a drum show held every Monday night from 8-10 p.m. It was so much fun! After the show, we went to a club where they played more music similar to what we heard played live at the concert.

Picture: because i couldn't pick just one~

^^the required closed-eye shot^^

There you have it! Perfect night full of music and dancing. I'm going to miss this when I'm back in the States where there is literally nothing to do except to make a midnight Kroger run to redbox a movie and get popcorn and ice cream. Which I mean, don't get me wrong, that's a pretty awesome time too.

Chao!

xo amanda

Project 365, Day 7

Day: So. Didn't do anything today, really. Homework, iTunes because Spotify doesn't work here for some reason, and then a long walk! I headed to a park called el Bosque del Palermo, Palermo's Forest. It was a gorgeous park with a lake in the center with white pelicans everywhere, a carousel, and a plaza where children could ride ponies. It was adorable.

On the way home, I went to a grocery store called Amor (how cute, right?) and bought a 50-cent pack of six hotdogs, an apple, buns, a large pouch of ketchup, and a 60-cent 3 L bottle of soda. Came home and ate while rewatching Season 1 of Modern Family. Preeety good day. 

Picture: I love mornings around here.

Project 365, Day 6

Day: Today, we went to the Buenos Aires countryside so some of my friends could learn how to play polo! It was absolutely gorgeous (pictures to come). It took us about three hours to get there by public transportation- walking to the subway stop, taking the subway, switching lines, walking to the train station, taking the train, and finally taking a ridiculously expensive taxi to the final destination. SO worth it though. On the way back, one of the ranch hands drove us to the highway that was right outside their property and dropped us off on the side of the road, where he told us a bus would come by, slow down on the highway, and pick us up. Kind of sketchy, but that's exactly what happened.

It was an awesome day, and when I came back to the apartment, I felt bad because it was already 9 o'clock and I hadn't told my host mom I'd be out that late! But, she's super nice and left me a note next to a covered tray that said, "Amanda, I hope your day was great and that you enjoy the food! I am in my room. A kiss, Silvia". It was so sweet, and she had made me a two inch high omelet stuffed with cheese and potato chunks, along with some kidney beans (I eat vegetarian here), basil leaves, and a thick slice of tomato with melted cheese on top of it all. It was so flipping delicious I could hardly believe it. I also had green grapes, a plum, and some bread. So good.

Picture: When the ranch hand drove us to the highway side, some of us got to ride in the back of the falling apart truck while overhanging branches swept past us in the face and inhale the kicked up dirt from the dirt road! (it was actually really fun and it felt like we were in an old western)

Project 365, Day 5

Day: Didn't do much of anything today. Went to class, gave a presentation in Spanish, came home and skyped my mom for two hours! Also introduced her *finally* to the world of Pinterest (here's to hoping for some desserts sent my way!). Then I slept for a couple hours, had dinner at 10 p.m., which is the norm around here. Dinner was an amazing bean/potato soup, with bread, green grapes, and a plum. Now I plan on catching up on my shows :).

Picture: Salsa dancing was so fun last night we decided to head to a club to continue what the porteños do best- dancing and staying out way past midnight.

Project 365, Day 4

Day: Headed to a salsa class tonight! After that, who knows... maybe grab dinner at a cafe with friends. (and working on a presentation for tomorrow right now)

Picture: From Instagram~

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.

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1. so in love with BA fruit. usually i'm good after one, but here they are so juicy and so fresh and so sweet that i can't stop

2. went to touristy pub crawls, but so much fun nonetheless. met people and had a good time. (by Buenos Aires Pub Crawl)

3. an ice cream alfajor- dulce de leche ice cream sandwiched between two cookies

4. my study abroad program people and i went to el tigre on saturday- it's a 30 minute ride outside the city. rivers and boats and sunshine and happiness live there

5. ... as well as the first protest in years. argentines were riding their boats and holding signs because the electricity has been off for days

6. we rode an hour long open wooden boat to a private beach

7. such adorable houses and beautiful plants along the river

8. banana licuado and choripan (banana blended with milk, and chorizo + pan = sausage and bread) literally one of the most delicious meals i've ever eaten

9. it was seriously the best

10. friends

11. at a restaurant later that day

12. cheers for cool drinks on a 90 degree day

13. toasted ham & cheese

14. it was my friend's birthday yesterday, so we went back to el tigre, this time to the larger river where we had a fruit picnic with cake and alfajores and for some, beer

15. gorgeous day

16. communal meal of watermelon