Fragmentos

YUM!

Though my host family loves to remind me that I'm going to engordar, I've made the executive decision to take advantage of Buenos Aires' incredible food scene while I can. And yeah yeah I know no one else really cares what I've been feasting on for the last few days (por eso I have shown impressive restraint when it comes to #foodgrams, if I do say so myself), but considering that I probably spend the majority of my time here eating I think these moments are worth documenting. 

Waffle (woff-lay) with blueberries and cream cheese at Mooi

Mooi

Goat cheese (+ several other irrelevant ingredients) salad at Le Pain Quotidien

French toast, bagel sandwich, eggs, and bacon (REAL BREAKFAST!) at Café Crespin

Not pictured because I was too busy stuffing my face and forgot to take a photo: 

Fugazza (cheese and onion pizza) at Los Maestros

Philly cheesesteak (¡!) at El Banco Rojo

Dulce de leche churro from a street vendor in San Telmo 

Every single insanely delicious meal at my homestay (homemade pastas, empanadas, and desserts to name a few)

It's also worth noting that I've begun a self-imposed challenge to try out Argentina's Top 10 Candies , and I have made embarrassingly good progress within the last week. To be continued...

FUERZA BRUTA

On Friday we went to the most entertaining/fun/inexplicable espectáculo that I've ever experienced. We had been told that it was a cirque-de-soleil-esque show, but none of us really understood what we were walking into until we were (literally) in the middle of it. At the beginning, the audience stands in a nondescript room in almost complete darkness and then as the performance unfolds everyone has to shift positions to see/participate in the next part. Like I said it's pretty hard to explain but this might help:

Also these pictures I stole from Eliot:

MÁS...

This morning my host parents and I went to the famous Usina del Arte in la Boca to take in what was advertised as a classical music concert. I was feeling tan sofisticada until the musicians began to play; instead of the traditional arrangements I had expected, the concert consisted of what was more or less intentional cacophony (like clashing notes/rhythms, random pauses, spoken and electronic elements...), so I spent the rest of the concert wondering how to politely express my impressions to my host parents afterward (my best plan: "¡Era... interesante!"). However, gracias a Dios, they were thoroughly confused as well and we all shared a good laugh about it! 

Then this afternoon I explored the lovely San Telmo street market with Natalie, Kasey, and Casey. La feria spans many, many blocks (this is just the very end) and is a popular tourist attraction. It's always a pleasure to peruse the antiques/art/souvenirs, and it's also a great opportunity to make fun of the other gringos who aren't blending in as much as we like to think we are (a distinction which is probably an illusion, but at least we speak castellano in public!).

Snapshots

Plaza de Mayo, Buenos Aires

My sincerest apologies go out to all of my eager fans who have been anxiously awaiting my next post! I've just been so busy getting into the rhythm of my "real life" here (i.e., trying to remember how to do homework) and then this past weekend I was off adventuring in Uruguay (i.e., trying to forget about said homework). But to make up for it here are some photos/blurbs to illustrate my last couple of weeks...

LA BOCA

Two weekends ago a few of us spent an afternoon in La Boca, a barrio in the south of the city that's famous for its colorful buildings and... well, I'm not sure what else but I went for the colorful buildings. We enjoyed endured an overpriced lunch of questionable empanadas at a touristy restaurant (I was really hungry, OK?!), and then wandered through the area in search of photo ops. I'm definitely glad I visited so I can check that outing off my list, but I will most likely have nightmares about the creepy life-size statues for weeks to come.

DAILY LIFE

This is Parque Chacabuco, the track and green space 5 minutes or so from my house, where I like to walk/run in the mornings. There are always people there exercising and socializing (running clubs, high school sports teams, families), and on weekend mornings it's absolutely packed. To avoid drawing attention to my gringa self, I try not to wear t-shirts with many English words and I don't usually bring my iPhone to listen to music (I like to think it's an opportunity for introspection?). Acquiring this photo obviously required an exception to the lay-low strategy, but #noregrets.

I'm a big fan of this hidden-gem of a café. It's really close to la facultad (a.k.a. UBA-Filo), its cappuccino rivals the one from El Ateneo at half the price, and its American-themed decor features a cardboard cutout of Justin Bieber (not pictured, desafortunadamente). It is the perfect spot to read skim/highlight indiscriminately the texts for my literature courses, and the soundtrack is right up my alley. Also, pro tip: when attempting to order toast (because your tummy hurts), DON'T choose the miga or you may end up with two giant ham and cheese sandwiches. Or so I've heard.

URUGUAY

 

Then there was that time I woke up at 5am so I wouldn't be late and then got to the port 2 hours early took the ferry to Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay para aprovechar the long weekend! We stayed in a really cool hostel and had a great time exploring the adorable town. There's not a whole lot to do there, but the laid-back atmosphere was a perfect break from bustling Buenos Aires. Basically we ate a ton of delicious food (above: a GIANT version of my favorite Spanish tapa from last summer, la croqueta, stuffed with rice/ham/cheese) and admired stunning views (waterfronts, artwork, sunsets, oh my!), all the while accompanied by a stray dog or two. Those who know me well probably won't be surprised to hear that I loved the bike ride I was peer-pressured into about as much as I loved being shadowed by stray dogs all weekend...  (#tbt to McSwain fam vacay in Maine anyone?) Let's just say riding on cobblestones/steep hills/the shoulder of a busy highway didn't make  for the most calm/cool/collected Malissa, but I survived and got a great profile picture out of it so what more can you ask for really? 

 On Sunday a few of us went to Montevideo, a 2.5-hour trip by bus (which may or may not have been the best part, the bus was so cheto!). We hadn't planned anything in advance so we just walked from the bus terminal to the ciudad vieja in search of a lunch spot. Along the way we encountered a street market featuring fruit, trinkets, and... puppies?! So cute but also quite disturbing. Though other parts of the city resembled a ghost town (almost nothing was open since it was Sunday), we finally found a conglomeration of like 50 restaurants where we ate a nice meal. We later realized  that no one was around because everyone was by the beach soaking up the scorching hot beautiful day! Though our pleasant walk along the water somehow turned into a grueling 5 mile journey, our spirits were easily lifted by our oreo/dulce de leche McFlurries-- so overall I'd definitely call our day trip un éxito!

p.s. the yearbook editor in me is freaking out about the inconsistent spacing of these photos but Blogger is stupid so I can't do anything about it. 

Limbo

This week has been weird. Not necessarily weird in a bad way- as my super geeky study abroad mantra states, "different is not inherently bad"- but in the transition from our jam-packed orientation period to the "real" part of the semester, I have encountered several firsts, false starts, and quite a bit of sometimes-dreaded-sometimes-cherished unstructured free time.

But let me back up (like my loco taxi driver from last weekend who insisted on driving several blocks in reverse down a one-way street to provide me with the true door-to-door service...). On Sunday afternoon some of us ventured to Palermo Soho for a delicious American-style brunch. I have to say that one bad different thing about the Argentine culture, as I've experienced it, is the lack of appreciation for the best meal of the day (breakfast, claro); thus, I very much savored my panqueques, especially after smothering them with dulce de leche. When I returned to the house afterwards, some of my host family's relatives were visiting so I greeted them each with a beso and then, naturally, scurried up to my room to escape any more potential overwhelming social interaction. I did join everyone for dinner, where I did my best to keep up with the numerous overlapping conversations as well as the programs on the tele (one thing I actually understood/enjoyed: someone's remark as we clicked past a channel playing the movie Surrogates- "¡Mira, Bruce Willis con pelo!"). Sensing my exhaustion from trying to follow everything going on, my gracious host mom snuck me an alfajor, which I gratefully took up to my room to devour in privacy.

The next morning Caroline and I met up at la facultad bright and early for our first class, a seminar called "Lecturas del presente." There was basically no one around the building and we waited alone in the classroom for about 30 minutes before a handful of other students trickled in. After another 15 minutes or so, a faculty member came in to tell us our professor was sick and class wouldn't start until the next week. Though disappointed that my first-day-of-class outfit was wasted, I was thrilled to spend the morning shopping with Caroline instead of sitting in a 4-hour class! Our first actual class was Tuesday evening, and this time we arrived too late and had to sit in the very back, practically out of ear shot of the professor. I think it's safe to say that neither of us were prepared for this drastic change of ambiente; the vibe of the class could not have been more different from Davidson. The classroom itself was papered with political posters and there weren't nearly enough dilapidated desks for everyone. Throughout the night, the professor was interrupted by the political announcements of various student groups and a little boy winding through the rows of students selling trinkets. We preferred both the content and atmosphere of the materia the following night, a course on Latin American literature held in a large auditorium (attended by around 200 students!). To humor our program director (whose friend teaches the course), we also visited a class called "Introducción al lenguaje de las artes plásticas," but I left still clueless as to what the "plastic arts" are exactly and with the realization that the art students were way out of my friendship-league in terms of coolness.

Other highlights/memorable moments of the week include: visiting Centro CONVIVEN, the site of my pasantía, for the first time; trying an interesting dessert called zabaione that my host dad prepared for me by blending (by hand, for close to 10 minutes) egg yolks and sugar (shout out to my high cholesterol!); morning runs walks-punctuated-with-spurts-of-running in Parque Chacabuco; struggles communicating with waiters (requesting la cuenta typically involves multiple attempts and extreme hand gestures) and taxi drivers (Me: "Thames, por favor, T-H-A-M-E-S" Him:"¿Charcas?"); the discovery of a Walmart supermercado near my house that sells peanut butter (!!!); and riding the same colectivo as a couple of "Little Things"-humming Directioners.

I'm hopeful this strange in-between stage will give way to a more predictable rhythm sometime soon! (By the way, for anyone left doubtful after this somewhat whiney post-- I really am having an amazing time so far!)

Museo de Arte Hispanoamericano 

Muma's Cupcakes!

A memorial for all of the UBA-affiliated desaparecidos 

DELICIOUS sandwich (brie, goat cheese, caramelized onions, apple chutney, mustard, lettuce, tomato) at a'Manger

Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes

Though it's SO different from MALBA in terms of content and atmosphere, Caroline and I thoroughly enjoyed browsing the works here (including several by some of my favorite artists!).

Camille Pissarro

Vincent Van Gogh

Eduoard Manet

Eduoard Manet

Claude Monet

Claude Monet

Edgar Degas

Más...

Adorable lunch at Tea Connection, complete with fresh grape/apple/grapefruit juice!

Cappuccino preci(oso)

I may be doing some good eatin' but just walking around the city is great exercise (as measured by my phone app).