Ray Bans and Rosary Beads

Sunday, Feb 5^th, 2012

Ana dropped us off at part 2 of our orientation and I got my first glimpse of all the ISA students. Which are 90% girls. Everybody seemed fashionable, and while normally, estoy de moda, I felt a little out of style because I was just wearing a t-shirt and jeans, but being that we were going on a city tour I didn’t want to be glammed up, only to find that my feet hurt and my clothes were sweaty anyways. By lunch I’d already lost about 5 pounds of sweat, so I made up for it by eating my first authentic empanada.

What’s an empanada? The best way to describe it is a flaky pastry filled with meat, vegetables and/or cheese inside. Sometimes it seems like they’re baked, other times it seems like they’re fried—depends on the grease amount left over…There’s a lot of different types of them and it’s one of the staples of Argentina—in addition to being a cheap snack on most menus (and if you’re from Boise, go to Tango’s on Orchard so you can try for yourself!) Looks like I’ll have to be on a quest for the best empanada here…

Full of empanadas, we strolled out to the buses for our city tour. In a nutshell, we visited the major areas of the north/northeast end of the city (Recoleta, Belgrano, Palermo, Puerto Madero and La Boca). Expect more on these places later, when I’ve had a chance to go to them for more than 5 minutes…

Places of note included the cemetery in Recoleta where Argentina’s finest are buried (like the beloved “Evita”). The tombs are incredible, and while I’ve always been against being buried (I’m dead, I don’t need to take up space on earth anymore. It’s already crowded enough) being in a grave like that might make it seem worthwhile.

The 9^th of July avenue (9 de Julio) has the prolific obelisk that honors the “original” founder of Buenos Aires (even though the city more or less failed the first time they tried it). It’s the widest avenue in the world, so eat your heart out, Paris. And while it’s brimming with trees, it’s buzzing with people of all kinds.

The Plaza de Mayo is the historic area in front of the Casa Rosada (the Pink House, where the president [who’s a woman, I might add!] lives—exactly like our White House). This is where las madres march every Thursday to demand information and raise concern about their “desaparecidos”, or lost children back from the Dirty War from 1976-83 and have done so every Thursday since then. In general, it’s an area of great political and historic worth, not just because of its location close to the Casa Rosada, but the events that have taken place here and how they have changed Argentina.

Also, there is La Puente de la Mujer, which is a bridge that appears like a wing in flight to some, while to others it looks like the leg of a woman dancing the tango. I think it’s both. The bridge is named as such because the surrounding streets are named for important women in Argentine history. I think we need something like that in the U.S. too. While walking on the bridge, we noticed that PDAs are no big deal in BA, as there was a shirtless guy (wearing rosary beads) was totally making out with his muffin-top girlfriend on the bridge. We saw this at least 3 more times. In addition, everybody has Ray Bans. Not just the “Ray Ban style”, but actual Ray Bans. Are they real? Probably not…but I’d better get some so I can finally get rid of these cheapos I got in New York and start looking like a native.

The tour was finished off with a stop at La Boca neighborhood where the stadium of the La Boca Jrs. fútbol team is located, in addition to the famous painted houses of the neighborhood, which are painted brightly in various bold colors—which you know I love. Apparently this neighborhood isn’t safe at night, however, and you can see that when you look at the surrounding homes…

After the tour, we were dropped off near the tail end of Cabildo ave. near the ISA office (which is about an hour walk from my host family’s house). So it was me, my roommate, my new friend and about 8 other confused Americans who only knew to keep walking forward (and speak loudly in English…).