TravelStream™ news feed for member marina721 on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/marina721 en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:25:50 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marina721/1/1215709440/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marina721/1/1215709440/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marina721/1/1215709440/tpod.html Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:25:50 -0400 Is the air here good or is it just me?

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San Ignacio, Argentina

We woke up early on Tuesday morning to catch the bus to go to San Ignacio, site of Jesuit ruins from the 1600s.  We got to the bus station at around 9:30am after breakfast at the hostel, and hopped on our 4 hour bus ride to the town.We got to the small town (really small.  I'm talking some dirt roads, one-story houses, etc.) at around 1pm and walked over to the Jesuit ruins.  We walked around the museum, which was actually very well-made and adapted to tourists (the translations were actually good! better than most museums in BsAs), listened to some native Guarani music, watched a video on the history of the Jesuit missions in that part of Argentina (the province is actually called Misiones).  The Jesuits got there in the early 1600's and were able to create these communities because Guaranis were seeking protection from the Spanish and the Portuguese.  The Jesuits also made sure to learn the Guarani native language and try to maintain a lot of the culture that the natives were used to.  After the museum, we took a guided tour of the ruins.  The introduction of the tour lasted WAY too long, but we saw a lot of the residences of the people before making our way to the plaza where the church was.The community was really impressive.  It housed thousands of Indians.  What's interesting is that all the buildings and structures are reddish because the land in that area is red.  The church was really impressive -- though not a lot of it has survived, the parts that have are incredibly detailed.  The ruins were definitely worth the visit. After we got bored of the tour, we sat in the old cemetary of the ruins (that didn't have any markers or anything) and ate apples and cereal bars and just hung out.  Once everything was over, we walked around a bit and found a place to eat.  We sat there for a few hours, waiting for our bus, but still got bored and decided to leave.  After walking down one of the "main" streets of the town (which lasted about 2 blocks and whose main attraction was a casino, Casino Yen (why a Japansese name? who knows?)), we sat by the bus stop, which ended up NOT being the bus stop after all.  It was pretty chaotic, but 10 minutes before our bus was to come, we realized that we were in the wrong place and ran to the right bus stop, down the road.  Once we found it, it was ok, but those were a stressful 10 minutes.We talked to the old man at the bus stop, who told us of other ruins nearby and was just very nice, and once the bus came, we hung out and played 20 questions with famous people.  After dinner, I took some Nyquil because I wasn't feeling to well and passed out for the remainder of the 15 hour bus ride.  We got stopped at some point for a few hours because of "fog" but I heard people behind me talking about roadblocks from the campos strike again.  We got to the city at around 12:30, and once I got home, I drank some tea and fell asleep until 8pm.  I still feel preetty sick, but it's mostly just stuffy and a head cold...  Nothing serious, I hope!Tomorrow is my last day with Road2Argentina, and then I'm on my own.  It's also Mark's last day tomorrow, and a bunch of people are leaving Saturday.  It's gonna be sad without them, but at least I get to hang out with most of them in NY! 
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marina721/1/1215485100/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marina721/1/1215485100/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marina721/1/1215485100/tpod.html Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:03:54 -0400 Is the air here good or is it just me?

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Puerto Iguazu, Litoral, Argentina

So this is how the trip went down so far:I ran into Nathan and Cati on the Subte to the bus stop at Retiro.  We got there, found our bus, and got on it.  The seats were AWESOME -- they reclined to an almost horizontal position and were really comfortable to sleep on (though nothing compares to a bed that isn't on a moving vehicle).  The 15 hour bus ride was actually tolerable.  I watched a movie, listened to some music, had some wine (! world class service!) and dinner, and slept.  I woke up to the most beautiful sunrise I'd ever seen, over the Argentine pampas, or flatlands.  After a while, the scenery changed and everything became much more forestlike (though not quite the selva, or jungle, I was expecting).  We got to Puerto Iguazu at around 11am.  It was about 75 or 80 degrees out and so humid, definitely jungle weather.  We took a Colectivo to our hostel, which was more like a little resort!  It was really nicely decorated and had a lot of amenities that most don't have -- a pool, internet, etc.  After an awkward check-in (turns out Nathan and Cati are not JUST friends after all--oops!), we dropped our stuff off and took the bus to Iguazu National Park, which is where the waterfalls are.We took a long hike and got to walk over some of the falls.  Every view we came to was more incredible than the last.  Even the small waterfalls throughout the park (which on their own, would be absolutely wonderful) seemed dwarfed by the series of gigantic falls..  I thought that Niagora was the biggest waterfall ever, but these are multiple times bigger.  Niagora is just a tiny chunk of what Iguazu is.  The name, by the way, comes from two Guarani Indian words: Y (water) and Guazu (big).  So it's Big Water!  Very appropriate name...We then took the "Nautical Adventure," which was a boat ride to the falls.  It was kind of a dumb idea in retrospect, since all that happened was we got taken really close to the falls and were DRENCHED in water.  The view was only better for a half a second before we were being pounded with water and couldn't see anything.  We didn't even go behind the falls, which is what I would have liked to do.  I wish we hadn't done that, but it was fun, I suppose.  Everyone came off of the boat soaking wet and then we had to do the long hike back to the bus and the bus ride to the hostel.  It wasn't cold per se, but my clothes were heavy and after dark it did get cold. We got back to the hostel, I took a hot shower, and we met up for dinner.  The hostel's dinner was excellent!  We had asado (barbecue) and it was so delicious.  I kept eating and eating. And drinking.  We drank caiparinhas, which are these Brazilian drinks made from liquor from sugarcane extract, lime and sugar.  We laughed a lot, saw some other Roadies (one of whom was Caroline, who goes to Georgetown with me! We're all over Argentina this summer!), and had a good time.  We went to bed at around 11pm, Cati and Nathan in their double, me in my bunk bed shared with 4 other girls, because the next day would be busy as well... (Continued in the next post)The first glance of the waterfalls was from above them.  They looked like a huge hole in the ground, with an enormous amount of water gushing down.  It was truly breathtaking.  We walked around the park a bit, which had some amazing butterflies, flowers, and of course, lots of water.  We saw the Brazilian side of the waterfall, which was close enough to swim to!  I was almost in Brazil!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marina721/1/1215378000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marina721/1/1215378000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marina721/1/1215378000/tpod.html Thu, 10 Jul 2008 12:44:16 -0400 Is the air here good or is it just me?

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Buenos Aires, Argentina

Friday: Decided to do a wine night at the residence and then went out (or tried to) to the Shamrock, an Irish pub/bar in Recoleta... They didn't let Graham in because he didn't have his ID with him, so Nisa, Graham and I went out to Plaza Serrano.  Nisa's former Spanish teacher is a waitress at this bar there so we hung out for a little while, eating peanuts and drinking Quilmes beer.  We passed by this one bar and I asked about something and the host thought I was Brazilian! That was very exciting =)   Afterwards, we decided to go to some bar/club nearby called Levitar, where we found a really strange couch that was only comfortable on one side and then slanted downwards and was generally pretty horrible, but we hung out there for a couple of hours.  The things that drew my attention were: a disco ball in the shape of a camel (!), an attractive bouncer, and the fact that towards 4am, people were smoking SO much that it got hazy in the club and was hard to breathe and see.   Saturday: I woke up at around 2pm again (whoops) and went to the residence again to meet up with Graham and Nisa for some "Guac and Rock."  We made guacamole, Graham brought his guitar, they played, I listened and sang a little (and learned a song! WOOHOO!), and recycled some beer bottles at Coto (the local Walmart type of store) only to buy more beer.    I was supposed to leave around 6pm to go bake a cake with Mark and Julia for Nathan, but never got her address and so just stayed at the res with the chicos.  We went out and got some Chinese food, and Nisa tried to show me how she can stretch out in the doorway and hang in semi-mid-air with her head on one side of the doorway and her feet up on the other.  And she almost fell. It was hilarious.   I met up with the StuyPlus group (Ben, Mark, Nathan, Cati, Andrew, Julia) and we went to Nueva Gata, which apparently had fantastic empanadas that I was too full to try.  Ben told us a great story about how he met a waitress in Rosario (small city about 4 hours Northeast of Buenos Aires, and incidentally, where Che Guevara was born) and went out with her and her friends the night before.  I gotta say, I'm kind of jealous of the fact that boys can do things like that without fearing for their lives or being raped.  I would never go to a club with a stranger I met somewhere, much less a new city in a foreign country.    We then headed to Julia's house to eat the cake!  Julia lives with her aunt and uncle, so her "homestay" is actually living with family.  I am jealous.  Not only that, but their house is fantastic-full of art, books, a fluffy white dog... The cakes were phenomenal and we had a good time lounging around drinking tea and talking about language, accents, and how odd it'll be to go speak non-Argentine Spanish again in the states.  Then the fun started.  Julia taught us how to play this Italian card game called Escoba (means to sweep) that we played for a while before leaving...   Afterwards I decided to not be a flake and actually meet up with the Roadies at Dubai since I promised them I would.  By this time it was already almost 3am, but here at this time, the night is young... Dubai was FULL, but I still got to say hi to Alfie (Road staff that also bartends on Saturdays.. and is VERY attractive) and get a free beer out of it =).  John and I sang-yelled Madonna to each other.   Sunday: The last Café Bercy brunch for most of the group... We met up at our usual 1pm and hung out and had our Desayuno Americano before parting ways.  Tonight I leave for Iguazú, the famous waterfalls of South America.  I'm excited, except for the fact that it's a 20 hour bus ride and I don't know if I can handle that.  I'm going with Cati and Nathan and I know we'll have lots of fun, and I'll definitely update soon!  
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marina721/1/1215197100/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marina721/1/1215197100/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marina721/1/1215197100/tpod.html Fri, 04 Jul 2008 15:03:04 -0400 Is the air here good or is it just me?

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Buenos Aires, Argentina

The title means "Getting to know the city and celebrations."  It's not very eloquent, but I like the alliteration of it.. This week I had my last days at both of my jobs (woohoo! freedom!), relaxed, slept until 2pm on Wednesday, walked around the city, etc.I walked the ENTIRE city up and down, trying to find a replacement jacket but so far, nothing strikes my fancy..  Yesterday was an excellent day all around..  I met up with Nathan, Cati, Andrew, Julia, and Ben in Cafe Tortoni, which is probably the most  famous café in Buenos Aires.  It's the only cafe to be declared a historical landmark in this city and it hasn't changed its style since the early 1900s (dont know exactly when it was established).  Lots of famous people have dined there, and it's almost like a little museum.  After brunch, we went to a tour of Palacio Barolo, which is a really beautiful building in the city that was constructed based on Dante's Inferno.  We rode two old-school, 1920's, Tower of Terror-style elevators to the Torre (tower), which is supposed to be heaven.  From there, we had an excellent view of the entire city, though it was cloudy and foggy.  It was actually kind of cool and gave the city a surreal feel.  Afterwards we descended to the 4th floor, which was purgatory because you had a view of the bottom floor (hell) but no way of going up (to heaven).  The lobby was hell, and the lamps had little devil figures and hellish designs.  It was really cool.  After that, we had some time to kill, so Andrew took us to this cafe that used to be a lechería, or a place where you'd buy milk.  All the walls were white tiles and they had very good submarinos.  We ended up at Conreso, the national congress, and took a tour of the building.  It was really beautiful inside, with materials from all different countries (marble from Germany and Belgium, crystal from Argentina, wood from different countries that I don't remember now..) and had some interesting history.  There was a pink room that is now called the Eva Perón room because she used to host female politicians and visitors there.  We also got to see where the Senate meets..  I wish the tour had more history, because that's more interesting to me than the architecture, but it was a good way to spend an hour anyway.Afterwards I took a nap and got ready for the festivities because it was Nathan's birthday.  For dinner, I went to the student residence because we got a wave of new Roadies for July.  There were SO many people there.  I had wine, chorizos, hamburgers.. it was sooo delicious!  It was also a lot of fun to hang out with the Road staff and catch up with some of the peeps that I hadn't seen in a while.. At around 1, I went to go meet up with Nathan and friends at a boliche called La France.  Since it was his birthday, we all got in for free, which was awesome cause drinks were only like 3 pesos each!  We danced a lot and had fun, though I got tired SUPER fast and just hung out on the couches with Mark for a while.  I kind of thought about how I was jealous of the fact that he COULD just go to a boliche to dance without trying to meet people because he already met his person to love.  I guess that sounds silly but it was kind of a bummer at the time..I also decided to go to Iguazu with Nathan and Cati, even though I feel really bad that I'm leaving Catherine behind.  It's just that they're leaving next weekend and I want to aprovechar (take advantage of) the time we have left.  So now I'm off to the bus terminal to try to buy tickets! Yay!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marina721/1/1214864400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marina721/1/1214864400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marina721/1/1214864400/tpod.html Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:35:40 -0400 Is the air here good or is it just me?

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Buenos Aires, Argentina

Saturday daytime was: Lunch with Eva at Bercy, since she was leaving.  So sad, but at least we'll have all of next year at Georgetown! YAY!  Then, I met up with Leandro, my language partner.  He is 28 and works for some American company that makes the sprayer thingie in aerosol containers.  He was very interesting and spoke in a typical porteño way, which means using a lot of hand gestures, pointing to his eye (ojo) a lot, which means "be careful" roughly, said "o sea" and "tsk" all the time... We talked for THREE hours so my voice was pretty hoarse at the end of it all, but I hope to meet up with him again because it's such good language practice for me..  It should be for him as well, but I didn't wanna speak any english =P.Saturday night was a lot of fun.  I met up with Graham and Jeremy in Plaza Serrano to go to (shocker!) Prólogo!  We got there and there were no booths, so we sat by this bar-like space and two Germans sat down right across from us.  They were brother and sister, 35 and 28 years old, respectively, and we all totally hit it off!  We talked about our travels, work, politics, fútbol... It was great!  We ended up sharing a couple of beers and just talking for about 2 hours.  It's always fun to meet fellow travellers, since at least you know you have something in common right away.Afterwards, we went to a party that Jeremy's host family was throwing for a friend of their daughter's.  First of all, his apartment is HUGE!  It's a mansion, practically!  The party seemed very high school-socialite, kind of like Gossip Girl, Buenos Aires style.  The kids were mostly nice, though some were pretentious and a little condescending even.  I still can't decide if they're more or less mature than US high school kids.. I guess teenagers are very similar everywhere.  I actually just remembered learning that in International Business, that teenagers have similar consumption habits all over the world, as well as middle class people.  On Sunday, I went to my second-to-last group brunch at Café Bercy with Ben, Mark, Nathan, and Cati, which was wonderful, as usual.  We then walked toward the Biblioteca Nacional and played some frisbee in the park and I walked home and watched a movie with Catherine.  It was a pretty lowkey night, which involved dinner at home and 5 episodes of Grey's Anatomy (oops!) and thus going to bed very late.  Unfortunately, I had to wake up early.  Fortunately, it was to meet up with Mark in Chacarita to go to the less famous and grandiose (though by FAR bigger) Cementario de la Chacarita.  He told me that chacara is one of the many words that signify farm.  The most interesting thing about the cemetary was the mandarin trees growing everywhere.  We even tried a little bit of one, but it was very sour.  I thought of how the trees are probably fed by decaying bodies and that creeped me out, so I didn't eat any.  Then I walked to work and told them that I was finishing the program earlier than I thought, to which they responded "Dale" (ok) and told me that I was free to go whenever I wanted.  I still hung out today, but now I'm done with one job, and tomorrow will be done with another.  Yay for exploring Buenos Aires more!I think I am going to Iguazú falls next week with Nathan and Cati.. I also extended my flight and am officially coming home on August 1st at 6am. Unless my flight is delayed 4 hours again. (God, I hope not.)  This weekend, the weather has been absolutely beautiful, and I wish I had taken advantage of it more, but at least I spent a lot of time outdoors at Cafés, parks, and walking today with Mark.  I hope it stays this warm!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marina721/1/1214672760/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marina721/1/1214672760/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marina721/1/1214672760/tpod.html Sat, 28 Jun 2008 13:37:36 -0400 Is the air here good or is it just me?

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Buenos Aires, Argentina

This week has been a giant blur of sounds of BsAs.  On Tuesday, I went to a free concert of the Orquestra de Tango de Buenos Aires, which was fantastic.  It was a full orchestra doing really great tango songs, mostly without a singer, but a couple with a man who sang very well.  The first piece was called Estaciones de Buenos Aires, about the four seasons in the city.  It was so great because you could feel the bustling cold of winter, the blooming of spring, and the calm of summer.. Then we had a wine and cheese party at the student residence, after which we went out to a bar in a hostel called The Clan.  It was a pretty cool space, and I decided it would be really interesting to live in a hostel for a couple of days and meet people from all over the world.  After that, we went to this club near Plaza de San Martin that played craaazy fast techno music and had super bright lights all over the place.  It was fun, but only for a little while cause it felt so crazy.On Wednesday we went out again to an irish pub called the Kilkenny, where we ate lots of delicious popcorn with our beers.  Afterwards, we went to another club by my house (somethign Belleza) that played some techno and some latin music, and we also ran into all the Georgetown kids that are just starting their abroad program for government classes.  There are so many hoyas in BsAs right now, it's crazy!  I was having a really good time at this club and all of a sudden, I noticed that my purse pocket was open.. and my phone was missing. UGH.  It seems like something bad happens to my phone once a week!  I searched my whole bag for it and then thought that I lost my keys too, but thankfully, they were in my pocket.  After that, I didn't feel like partying anymore and went home.  On Thursday I went to the Road office to get a new phone and also talked to them a little about my job and how I'm thinking of changing to something different within the exporting company.  We'll see cause now, I'll only be working there a couple more weeks.  I decided to extend my stay, but not with Road.. I'm going to just stay with Maria, travel a lot, and hang out with mom and grandma when then (!!!) come here! YAY!  Afterwards, I met up with Mark and we walked around Recoleta a bit, hung out at a park and ate great empanadas, observed some little kids and thought about how awesome it is to be able to act like a kid, played frisbee (he taught me) and then walked around some more..  We ended up at the Recoleta Cultural Center right by the cemetary but everything was empty cause they were planning for some event this weekend..  We later met up with Ben, Andrew, Cati, and some other people, to go get dinner because it was one of their friends' last night in BA.  During dinner, I mentioned that I heard about this show called El Choque Urban, which is very similar to STOMP in the US.  Everyone was pretty interested, so we left quickly and taxi'd over to Av. Corrientes to see the show.  It was in this cool alleyway called Plaza del Paseo where there are a lot of gardens, cafes, theaters.. It's very interesting landscaping and I had come across it a couple of days before.The show was INCREDIBLE. The concept is that it's people making music with common things like garbage bins, pipes, lids, etc.  I never thought that such boring things could make such cool music.  It was like being in a club and we all wanted to dance after. Also to join the group and be a part of that crazy, energetic bunch.  Afterwards we went to Liquid, which is a bar/club in Palermo, to meet up with Nathan.  It was awesome!  The musical selection was so eclectic -- madonna, elvis, techno, salsa, shakira... just everything! We danced a lot and had a good time.On Friday I went with Andrew to a contemporary ballet for only 5 pesos (about $1.50) that was fantastic.  The music was really interesting and the dancers were great.  It was really nice to be reminded how beautiful the human body is and what we can do with it.  It also made me want to do ballet again.. Also I thought about how I've been finding all these really interesting opportunities here for sooo cheap, and how I should do that more in NY. There are definitely things going on all the time that I don't pay attention to..  Me and Andrew then went to this restaurant across from La Americana, Reina de las Empanadas (queen of the empanadas, the spanish version of pirozhki) because Americana was (as usual) supperrr crowded.  That place is great!  Anyway I had a lovely lunch for about $3.  I love that exchange rate.Afterwards Catherine and I planned our trip.  Which evolved into multiple trips because we realized we don't have the time or money to go everywhere we want to.  We decided to do two trips: One to Córdoba and Mendoza, and one to Bariloche and San Martin de los Andes for skiing and patagonian scenery.  It's gonna be a 20 hour bus ride to Bariloche, but we're ready to spend our last week here skiing and having fun.  I also think I'm gonna go to Iguazú, either with Catherine or with Nathan, Mark, and  Cati.  I figure it's a once in a lifetime thing that I need to aprovechar (take advantage of). Friday night (yesterday) we DID make it to the empanada queen and had delicious food. Then Graham, Jeremy and I went to this bar called Ambient House where Graham's host dad is a DJ.  It was really nice and his host dad was very friendly and cool.  We later all went out to a boliche (dance club) called Jannoy in Palermo to meet up with some Roadie girls because it was their last night in BA as well.  Lots of people are leaving =(  We danced a lot to all kinds of music and had a great time.. At least the guys that tried to hit on us weren't as old as some others hahaha.  It's been a really fun week and verrrryyyy full, which is why I haven't written.  I'm loving all the stuff I get to do while I'm here and hanging out with my new friends (and my oldies but goodies!) and experiencing life in another city.  So far, so good!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marina721/1/1214265600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marina721/1/1214265600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marina721/1/1214265600/tpod.html Mon, 23 Jun 2008 20:32:54 -0400 Is the air here good or is it just me?

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Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay

So what I ended up doing Friday night was not quite the plan.. I ended up going to Azucar, another branch of the salsa club I went to the other day that's located in Belgrano.  There, we danced the night away until about 4:30am.. My salsa's improving dramatically from knowing abouttttt zero to at least being able to dance!  The porteños tell me I learn very fast.  One of them spun me around like mad and it was so much fun!  Then he asked me what shampoo I use and said it's "muy rico" and I was pretty weirded out hahaha.  But it was very fun.. Me and Ben tried some of the combinations we learned the other day too.. Must take more classes.So needless to say, it was rough waking up at 7am to go to Colonia the next morning, but I did it!  Catherine and I got to the Buquebus, the ferry company that takes you across the river to the small Uruguayan city.  The ferry was HUGE! It was almost like a cruise ship, with comfortable seats and decorations and even a duty-free shop onboard.  We sat down and I spread out over 3 seats and slept almost the whole trip, though we did get some pictures in..  We got to Colonia and walked to the heart of the town.  It was so cute--it's a small colonial town on the Rio de Plata (which is actually a murky brown river) that was established by the Portuguese at the end of the 17th century.  We bought a ticket to all the museums in the city for 10 pesos (about $3) and walked around all day.  The houses are almost all colorful and in that old Latin American style: one-story, flat roofs, wooden doorways, gardens with beautiful flowers all around.. The streets are still mostly cobblestone and there are few cars that go through the town (especially the old part of it).  We climbed up into the lighthouse (180 steps up a steep curvy ladder) and took pictures of the entire city down below.  We ate some delicious food, some ice cream, had so cafe, walked through shops, and enjoyed the old charm of the city.  When it was time to leave there was some confusion because we thought Uruguay was an hour ahead of BsAs, but because of daylight savings time, it ends up being the same.  Anyway, we ended up being early for our ferry back and waited around in the terminal.  Catherine told me some hilarious stories about travelling with her friends to Italy and we were both so tired and delirious that we were hysterically laughing.  I think people were scared.When I got back home I was too tired to go out, so instead I slept for about ten hours.  Sunday morning a few of us went to the cancha, or stadium, of Boca Juniors, Argentina's most famous futbol team, to buy tickets for the match later that day.  We stood in line for a while (they have a separate line for women!! I thought that was nuts) and bought our tickets to the game.  After that, we walked around the neighborhood of La Boca a little bit, which is incredibly colorful and full of street vendors and performers.  But it's supposed to be a pretty dangerous neighborhood if you stray off the touristy streets, so we left not long after getting there.  Later on, I met up with Ben, Mark, Nathan, and Cati (their friend from their program) at Cafe Bercy.. I think it's becoming a weekly tradition for them, and the waitress even knows them by name.  We hung out for a while and talked about future travel plans to either Iguazu (the waterfalls) or somewhere closer, like Cordoba, the second largest city in Argentina.  Haven't decided yet...After that, it was time to go to the game.  When we got there, we saw some vendors selling Boca gear and souvenirs and some kids bought jerseys.  Then we got to our seats and sat for about an hour until the game started.  All I can say is that it was COLD.  The other team was from Tigre, a suburb close to the capital, and their fans were CRAZY.  They were yelling and singing during the whole match.  There were fireworks, little pieces of paper with ads being thrown around, cheerleaders, and of course, lots of yelling and singing "GOL" every time Boca scored.  It was a lot of fun, but not as crazy as I hoped.. The crowd was definitely tame.  After the game (we left early, but they were obviously winning!) we went to get some food and then went back to my apartment with a couple of bottles of wine to celebrate.  We had some good conversations about travelling and diversity and race and school and it was good to connect to people in my program.  Everyone left at around 2am and I went straight to sleep.  Today was my first day working at Exemys, the tech company that I'm doing a market analysis for.  So far, it's kind of hard because I don't really know much about the industry or the product and it's a lot of specifics that I don't understand (i.e. random combinations of numbers and letters that mean something that I don't understand) but I'm sure it'll come with time.  The people there are all really nice and welcoming, and they only speak Spanish so I'll be forced to improve =)This week is pretty open so far, but I want to go to a tango show tomorrow (it's free!) and maybe a museum on Wednesday or maybe explore San Telmo (one of the more historic neighborhoods in BsAs).  Til next time!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marina721/1/1214003520/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marina721/1/1214003520/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marina721/1/1214003520/tpod.html Fri, 20 Jun 2008 19:25:17 -0400 Is the air here good or is it just me?

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Buenos Aires, Argentina

The past couple of days have seen a LOT of dancing.. The milonga on Tuesday night was really fun, and now I wanna take tango lessons more than ever!  The place was cool.  It looked like an old cathedral from the outside and was just a big room inside with tables around a dance floor.  Everything was soaked in red light.  After the lesson, people just danced and there were a couple of pairs that were SO incredible that it was a pleasure to watch them... We also saw a tango band who played and sang together and the music was great too.Wednesday was work and lunch (at around 6pm!) with Catherine.  After lunch we got REALLY good ice cream at Freddo's, a chain ice cream place in BsAs. YUM.  At work, I did some research on publishing companies in the US to help one of our partner firms that does printing.. My boss also set up a meeting for me with one of our partner tech firms for Thursday. So on Thursday, I got up early and went to the office of this tech firm, which is sadly a bit farther than my current job but not too bad, especially by NYC commute standards.  The meeting went well, and the guys that I met with want me to come work with them to perform a market analysis of this one product in the US.  I think it'll be interesting, since I haven't done too much marketing work yet, and since I'll really be able to help them because I speak English.  So we decided that Mon & Wed afternoons, I'll work there and on Tuesday mornings I'll work with my company.  Hopefully it'll be interesting!On Thursday I met up for café and a snack with Eva by her house and then went salsa dancing with Ben! It was a lot of fun. We went to a club called Azucar (translates to Sugar), which is where the salsa class was.  The funny thing is, we didn't realize there were different levels, so we just joined the class -- AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL! No wonder we were so horrible! I had never even taken a salsa class in my life, and here I was spinning and twisting and what have you.  By the time we figured out that we were in the highest level class it was a bit too late to join the intermediate one, but we gave it a shot anyway and it was a little easier.  We teamed up to try to get the intermediate steps (at the advanced level, we kept switching partners.  It must've been so frustrating for the guys I danced with!! OOPS!)... Will have to do that again.  Later, Eva and I went to Prólogo again but, once again, it was the end of the night, not a prologue.  Maybe it's an unlucky place. Or maybe it was so dead last night cause of the rain (the weather's been pretty crappy the past two days).Today I slept in and then went to the Road office with Catherine to buy tickets to go to Colonia, Uruguay. We're really excited! It's supposed to be a really charming and quaint town that still feels colonial and small.  We were gonna go to Montevideo, the capital, on Saturday night and stay until Sunday, but instead decided to go to a fútbol game on Sunday!  It's gonna be a packed weekend...Tonight I'm going out to about 3 different places (maybe) but I have to figure out my timing so that I can wake up tomorrow to make our 9am Buquebus, which is a ferry that takes us to Colonia.  Pictures to come soon!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marina721/1/1213728420/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marina721/1/1213728420/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marina721/1/1213728420/tpod.html Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:13:11 -0400 Is the air here good or is it just me?

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Buenos Aires, Argentina

The past couple of days have been fun and very busy.  On Sunday night, my neighbor and fellow Roadie Catherine and I went to Alamo, a sports bar owned by an America who's lived here for years.  The reason? NBA finals! I cheered for the Celtics with her, as did most of the bar, though I actually don't care.  It was so strange to be in a bar where 95% of the people, including the bartenders, were Americans.  We had fun, though the Celtics lost and are now gonna have to play another game (tonight!).The next day (yesterday, Monday), we had a holiday for Flag Day, or Dia de la Bandera.  Our program planned a trip for us to an estancia, or Argentinian ranch for the whole day.  We took an hour bus ride northwest of Buenos Aires to the ranch called Los Ombues, which is an interesting type of tree that's huge.  At the ranch, we ate a LOT of food (meats of every kind: chicken, beef, chorizo (sausage), flan dessert, little cakes, salad), rode bikes all over the property, saw some very cute animals, and rode horses.My horse was a bit of a revolutionary: he wanted freedom.  Twice, he walked himself to the gate of the ranch and tried to get out..It was very amusing! The boy that was walking the horses with us couldn't control all three of them at a time, so one of us was always lost somewhere.  Still, it was a lot of fun and hilarious.  Eva and I (a fellow Georgetowner) bonded and are planning on hanging out soon, so it's exciting. Especially since we can stay friends after this is over!On the way home, Catherine and I talked about going to Uruguay this weekend... Colonia is only an hour away by ferry and Montevideo, the capital, is about 2 or 3 hours from Buenos Aires.  I'm gonna be quite the world traveller once this is all over!! :)Instead of going out last night, I read a little and went to bed early, finally.  This was in part because I had to be at work at 10am today.  My job so far is good.  It's only about 15 minutes away by subway and the people seem nice.  Today I researched what the company does (an NGO that provides BsAs companies with international opportunities and a network of peer companies) and some of its partner companies (some interesting ones included a travel company, a publishing company, a manufacturer of medialunas, which is what they call croissants here).  My boss Diego also told me that he set up a meeting for me for Thursday morning with a technology company because he sent them my CV (resume everywhere else but the US, where it's called a resume) and they wanted to meet me.  So it may end up that I'll work for them part of the time and for Bairexport the rest of the time.  It would be nice if they paid me =\Tonight Road is taking us to a milonga to dance tango! Yay! I'm pretty excited and hopefully will be good at it :)  Pictures definitely to come later.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marina721/1/1213567740/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marina721/1/1213567740/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/marina721/1/1213567740/tpod.html Sun, 15 Jun 2008 18:35:32 -0400 Is the air here good or is it just me?

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Buenos Aires, Argentina

The past two days, I've explored two neighborhoods in BsAs: Puerto Madera and Recoleta.  Puerto Madera was basically done alone since I stillll don't have a working cell phone and it's therefore super difficult to stay in touch with anyone. BOO. Yesterday, I walked all the way to Puerto Madero, which used to be the port in BsAs when the city was first founded.  Since then, the Río de la Plata has been filled with man-made landfills basically to create new land on the other side of the port.  The neighborhood is the newest and most up-and-coming in the city and has a lot of skyscrapers and buildings that are under construction.  All along the docks (called "diques") are cute restaurants that are probably pretty pricey.  I saw two ships from the 1800's that are kept in the port as museums and have the old sails and everything.. It was pretty cool.  So afterwards, I was walking back and I was gonna walk through Plaza de Mayo to take some pictures of stuff I saw the first night here when I forgot my camera. BUT it was all blocked off and there was police at the entrances and some kind of noisy demonstration going on. I was pretty confused but decided to just walk home, and on the way, at the Obelisko, there was also a crowd of people protesting something.  I got home and María told me that she had the TV on all day and the news have been reporting live non-stop so here's the story...  It's a pretty crazy time to be in Argentina right now.  For the past 3 months, the "campos" have been on strike, meaning the agrigultural companies have cut off their routes.  It's pretty vague how much of the campos are involved in the strike since they never talk about specific places, but rather just farmers as a whole.  The reason they're on strike is cause the government (Christina Kirchner is the current president since 2007) tried to impose huge export tariffs of 80% or something wild like that on all of the farmers.  María and I talked about this and she explained the situation to me, as well as the guys, and from what I gather, it's all the big agro companies that are really striking, even though the tariff would most hurt the small family-owned farms.  Anyway so yesterday, the government arrested 19 (I think) of the big leaders behind the strike which caused the countryside to ERUPT in protests and demonstrations.  BUT, here's the kicker: the protests I saw at Plaza de Mayo and the Obelisko were in protest of the farmers' protests.  Confusing, I know. They're basically supporting the government, thought María tells me that the government has to pay people off to support them and that most of those people are in the government or otherwise affiliated.  It's pretty corrupt here in terms of politics... They were chanting "Con la comida no se jora" which translates to something like "You don't fuck with food." Vulgar, huh?  Anyway, last night I went to a cafe called Kafka to meet up with the Ben, Mark, Patrick, Nathan, and their group.  It turns out Julia (girl I met the first night out with Pat and Ben) has a friend who sings with her boyfriend every week at that cafe.  Let me tell you, this girls voice was one of the best I've EVER heard.  She was absolutely incredible.  Aaaaannnndd I got to see Ben's debut as a "gran silbador" or great whistler.  He's in AirCappella at school, a group that basically whistles.  It was pretty cool and kinda impressive.  We stayed at the cafe for a long time and then ended up going to Julia's cousin's birthday party which was like a dance party in a rented out room.  It was awesomeee except everyone there seemed really young.  Let me tell you, these porteños (this is what the people of BsAs refer to themselves at) are very.. passionate.  It's probably a more interesting way to live life, but it's a little awkward for a person raised in a Puritan culture to witness.. Anyway, after getting home at 5 last night, waking up even at 12:30 was difficult, but I did it to go meet Ben, Mark, Nathan at a cafe for Brunch. It was deeeelish and in Recoleta, which meant I got to explore after while they went to the library to study.  Thank god I have nothing to do here :)  I met up with Julia at the Recoleta Cemetary, which is the upscale cemetary for all the rich people. It was pretty amazing and like nothing I´ve ever seen, because it was all beautiful mausoleums, statues, plaques, etc.  It had a ton of important general, presidents, and of course, Evita (Perón's wife), who is something of a heroine here.  Julia and I then went to a cafe (lot of that lately) for some tea and a crepe with AMAZING fruit, dulce de leche, and crémé toppings.  It was muuuy rico (very rich, or delicious).So far, BsAs is pretty awesome.  I like the lifestyle and the attitude, and I'm even getting used to the accent and the vos, especially after hanging out with some porteño friends of the guys' last night.  I even cracked some Spanish jokes. :)
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