Danny!

Holaaaa todos. Okay, let me just warn you this is going to be a super long entry because I did more stuff this week than probably the entire month before combined! Danny just left about 2 hours ago, and I finally have some time to sit down and write. Where to begin...it was a super fun and jam-packed week with a great friend! We did just about every touristy thing in the city, according to my trusty guidebook. Some overly-detailed hightlights...
Museums: the MALBA (modern art), Bellas Artes (with a large collection of Argentine art), and the City Museum (which featured a whimsical exhibit of old children's games and toys)
Barrios: La Boca...we got a glimpse inside the stadium of Boca Juniors, saw some tango in the street, admired a lot of local art, and generally soaked up the fun atmosphere. San Telmo...we ate at an old cafe right on Calle Defensa and the Plaza Dorrego where Sundays thousands of people crowd the square to shop at the huge fair. Recoleta...we enjoyed checking out some new parks, cafes, and the fancy open air mall along the main drag where we saw a free tango show one night and stayed for lessons after. Plaza de Mayo/Centro...we saw the cathedral, the Casa Rosada, and rode the ancient subway Linea A. There were also a ton of security protests going on this week in this area that shut some streets down and got pretty intense I guess. We got warning emails from the embassy haha.
Festivities: St. Patrick's Day...we went to this bar called The Shamrock that was packed with Americans but it was very fun and festive and we had a Guinness. My birthday...My birthday was yesterday but we started celebrating Friday night. My friends Hanna and Ed surprised me with all these pieces of delicious cakes that we always want to buy. Danny and I went out to eat and sat upstairs in this glassed in room overlooking a big street in the theatre district...it felt like New York. Then we went to this really cool, classy bar in an old mansion a block from my house called Milion. We felt a bit underdressed and tacky but it was super fun drinking wine and Cosmopolitans and watching all the beautiful people. Saturday morning when I woke up my host mom immediately grabbed me and pulled on my ears 20 times, which is a custom that she thought was done everywhere. Needless to say, I was half asleep and a bit surprised. Claudia and Fran sang me happy birthday and were generally quite excited. The sister and the grandma both called to wish me happy birthday, so it really felt almost like I was at home. Fran told me Obama was on the phone for me, and when he handed me the phone I decided to play along, saying "Hola Obama." It was actually his grandma. During the day Danny and I just hung out around Recoleta, and we went to happy hour at this brewery and tried their sampler thing. There we happened to sit next to this middle-aged guy named Jeff from LaCrosse (small, small world), who noticed my Badgers shirt. We ended up talking to him for over 2 hours. He was just this crazy guy who is apparently independently wealthy from the railroads and owning a bar in LaCrosse (only a bar in Wisco could make you independently wealthy...). He has been to Argentina more than 10 times, and just about everywhere else in the world as well. He was just such a character, it was so funny. For dinner, two of my friends from the program, Danny, and I went to this super nice restaurant by the cemetery. Hanna insisted we do something special for my birthday, so we got champagne and thought we ordered lobster ("langostina"), which was really 6 shrimp on a plate. Six. They were at least delicious for 60 pesos...beware the false cognate. After dinner we got ice cream, met up with another friend, and then walked towards Palermo to meet Fran and his friends. We went to this awesome bar called Jobs. Here they have a lot of what I'd called "entertainment bars," in which you can play pool, videogames, and board games. Board games! At a bar. It was sweet. There were just a bunch of picnic tables and TVs with soccer and music videos and people sitting around ordering pitchers, singing happy birthday, and playing Scrabble in between rounds of pool. We ended up staying till 6 AM! and it was super fun.

Restaurants (of course): So many. Haha we ate out every lunch and dinner the whole week, so I got to highlight a lot in my guidebook and we stumbled into other good places as well. At the famous Cafe Tortoni we got the hot chocolate with churros and a submarino (steamed milk in which you put a little chocolate bar shaped like a submarine!). At a tenedor libre (all you can eat) place we had kiwi, stawberries, medialunas, flied plantains, and ice cream. Sanjuanino had empanadas to die for and also delicious tamales. We went twice :) Juana M was super fun and classy the first night...we had steak, wine, and the extensive salad bar. In San Telmo we ate at a French restaurant where Danny tried tongue. I've gotten really into flan lately, and they usually have it pretty cheap for dessert.

Classes: More stress with classes this week...in my Solidarity class we took a bus out to the train station in Chacaritas to visit this little organization serving poor children and mothers. Tuesday night was my first time at USAL, and I tried a theology class and a political communication one. The theology class was awesome, although I almost left when no one was there 20 min after it was supposed to start. The class is just three Argentines, me, and the professor, who is in his 30s. The girl I sat next to was super nice and walked me to find the bathroom. A guy took me down to the student terrace during the break to meet his friends. They all kissed me goodbye after class. The professor was super understanding and informal. We all went around and talked about ourselves and if we believed in God or not. I barely felt nervous actually everyone was so nice. The professor said we can plan the midterm around our other exams, have class in a bar or restaurant sometime, and add anything that interests us the the syllabus. Overall, it just seems like a great opportunity to make a couple of Argentine friends and be forced to speak. In the political communication class I couldn't understand one word the professor said. Not one. So I won't be taking that. But I did meet a cool French foreign exchange student. Wednesday Danny and I went out to try my UBA class really far away. Getting there was a disaster because the subway line we needed was shut down. And then the professor never even showed up...we waited almost an hour. But just being in the building was seriously an experience. I can't even describe this place...I'll have to get some pictures of it from Danny to put up. There are just graffiti and signs everywhere. In classrooms, in the halls, from the ceilings. It's dirty and it smells and there are people smoking inside. The desks are broken and vandalized. My building looked like this old warehouse, with broken windows and this graffitied garage door that opened up as an entrance. Really crazy. A lot of leftist leftist political stuff. The atmosphere is just like a movie or something. Thursday was my first program class...I have a couple of friends in it but it seems like more work than we were expecting. We have to read several novels, watch documentaries outside of class, and write an essay every week. Then my Psychology class was just super difficult to follow. The classes here are so argumentative and people are just shouting things out and debating and speaking really fast and interrupting. I felt super lost, plus I wouldn't have understood the reading in English. I've decided although it seems like a good class, I just can't deal with having it hanging over me the whole semester. It's a ton of complicated reading, and I just have better things to do. So, even though I feel really bad about giving up, I'm dropping it.

Ok, if anyone's still reading...here's the best story of the week. Danny and I were sitting at a table near the door in this basically empty restaurant. A guy came in alone and sat at the table closest to the door, right between us and the window. He had his back to us but kept looking toward the back of the restaurant, hoping to catch the waiter's attention I thought. All of a sudden I look up again and he's walking out the door with a backpack. Then I just get this sick feeling, jump up, and ask Danny if he has his backpack. Danny ran after the guy and he just set down the bag and fled when he saw Danny. So it was all good but we both felt really jittery and taken aback afterwards. Danny had had it right next to his feet. You have to be so careful.

Okay, I am absolutely exhausted and have a bunch of reading to do tomorrow so I'll be going to bed. Badgers lost today, that sucked. I tried to follow the game on the internet but just got disgusted. Thanks for reading, buenas noches!