This Weekend

Last weekend before classes starting. On Friday night we had the "Argentine Experience" dinner where they make us wear ridiculous hats while teaching us how to make empenadas, prepare mate and alfajores, and also gave us some illustrative examples of the colorful hand-language vocabulary of Buenos Aires. Expressive hand movements is just one of the legacies of the Italian heritage of many porteños and it's pretty hilarious I guess. Also since we were making our own dinner I could just make it with cheese and no one bothered me. Before the dinner, we walked around Salima's part of Palermo and it was so cute and adorable. After the dinner, we ended up at some random persons rooftop party in  god knows where and I won't tell ya how I got there cause it was dumb but I'm alive and I even managed to talk to some Argentines so it was ok. I guess my spanish is actually really bad cause people keep tryna talk to me in English - like, ok, I'm not good but I can understand you almost perfectly and I can talk back jesus. Anway this party was more fun than any of the clubs we had been to, so there's that.
On Saturday a bunch of us from the dorm went to the Recoleta fair which is right outside the Recoleta Cemetario. It was nice, much more relaxed than the San Telmo Fair and there were tons of families, friends and musicians in the grass in the park. That night I went with a group of girls to a cute taco place in Palermo where we sat at communal tables on the street. The Vegetarian Taco (on the menu described as "para nuestro amigos que comen pasto" "for our friends who eat grazing grass") was literally a taco shell and peppers.
Yesterday, I went to see Cuidanza with Camisia - I met Camisia when we PF-ed at Macalester but she ended up at Brown. Anyway she is here! She is technically here with IES but is doing independent housing and almost all her classes at the UBA. Anyhow's Cuidanza was a four day urban dance festival with dancers from all over South America I believe and yesterday was the final day. It was rather short but had three dancers of all different styles, a lot of people and was in the same plaza as the St Pattys day festival. There were bagpipes involved. (in spanish, Gaitas)
Classes start today and it seems surreal. Last night we were all doing homework. What. I mean, Macalester is on spring break right now. Model UN is kicking it in NYC. So weird...but I am excited to have a schedule and be more busy. It is hard to insert yourself into life in a huge anonymous city like BA - there are tons of events and things happening but the buses are still a struggle for me and it's hard to plan things when you are first making friends and figuring out what everyone- and everything-is like.  Such is the nature of the beast, I suppose. I'm excited to have some semblance of normalcy and start taking more pictures. I am still confused about many things happening with IES and scheduling but whatever...I'm letting it go.