Holy cow!

When Carrie and I were initially texting about the possibility of her coming to visit, the idea seemed far-fetched and the potential dates over Thanksgiving break seemed depressingly far-off. But ever since she officially purchased her tickets I'd been excitedly anticipating her arrival (and that excitement really sustained me through my more homesick moments!), so our time together definitely had a dream-like quality. On top of the amazingness of just being in one another's presence, we managed to jam-pack each day with a bunch of fun activities. It was SO fun to play the tour guide and show off my knowledge of the city (and it didn't hurt that C was very easily impressed-- she oohed and aahed at everything from me hailing a taxi to ordering a meal); plus, staying with my host family let her experience my day-to-day life here, something that I'm sure will be hard for me to describe when I return home. We shared so many hilarious moments that we'll definitely be talking about for years to come (like when she taught my host dad the phrase "Holy cow!" and translated it for him as "religiosa carne" [religious meat]...).

p.s. photo creds to Caroline for most of the pretty pics

Tuesday

Our meet-up in the airport miraculously went off without a hitch, and after swinging by the house to meet Lili & Gus/drop off luggage we headed out to explore! Thanks to Caroline's enthusiasm with the camera, we now have several photos of me in my "natural habitat":

My BA home!

UBA

And of course my favorite café/cupcake shop Muma's was an obligatory stop on our walk through Caballito:

It's "Sin TACC" (aka gluten-free and our motto for the week)!!!

Next we took the subte over to Plaza de Mayo:

C was also really into forcing me to pose for solo shots

We walked to Puerto Madero, where we sat to take in the view of the water (and some pibe tried to flirt with us by asking what we were looking at, to which we responded with awkward laughter)...

Next up on the itinerary was El Ateneo, the theater-turned-bookstore that's one of my favorite spots in the city.

Obviously we had to break for a quick nap before the big night ahead-- a tango show at Café Tortoni, one of the most famous tourist destinations in BA. The Brazilian couple we sat with (particularly the guy) was almost as entertaining as the impressive dances...

Our new friend insisted on creating the most authentic photo op for each of us 

Wednesday

We hopped on a colectivo to travel to our first stop of the day, los bosques de Palermo. (Caroline, upon boarding the bus: "You mean you do this by yourself sometimes?!" Me: "Uhh, yeah like every day...?") 

GBWC reps @ the Jardín Japonés 

We were both reminded of the Atlanta Botanical Gardens because of the contrast between the natural & urban landscapes (but we missed you so much, Mimi & E!)

~~swan lake~~

We're not exactly sure what was going on here but we liked the music video vibes

El Rosedal

After so much paseando we were ravenous for lunch, which we devoured at a lovely cafe in Palermo Soho (salads + gourmet juices-- hers with ginger and mine with mango). By a stroke of luck, we stumbled across a gluten-free store while window-shopping in the area so Carrie got to have a special sin TACC version of an alfajor!! We were hoping to get mani-pedis as well, but when they started preparing for Caroline's pedicure by filling a dirty at-home foot spa with cold water, we made up a (probably unconvincing) excuse and ran out the door...

That night we went to see Mockingjay, and since it was only my second time going to a movie theater here we slightly embarrassed ourselves by ignoring the assigned seats listed on our tickets (so when another group came to our row we had to gather up our $15 worth of popcorn, beverages, and self-serve gummy candy and sheepishly relocate). Despite all that, it was a great experience because the movie and junk food binge were maravilloso (one of C's new fave Spanish words).

Thoroughly unhungry after gorging on movie snacks, we naturally made our way to a nearby steakhouse for dinner. As much as we loved the delicious ojo de bife and mashed potatoes, the waiter made fun of us because we could hardly make a dent in the huge quantities they had brought us (in my defense, I *had* to eat both mine and Carrie's bread and empanada appetizers that came with the meal...).

Parrilla Peña

Thursday

Since the Argentines have no reason to even acknowledge Thanksgiving (and my host family's knowledge of the holiday is based only on the related Friends episodes), we didn't really observe Turkey Day in any traditional sense. Instead, Gustavo and Lili offered to drive us to Tigre, a small port town in the BA province. We walked through the shops of the market along the river and then had a boat tour!

Mi familia <3

Lili telling me to find a boyfriend on the boat tour

Since we had woken up bright and early for the mini trip, by the time we got back to the city we still had several hours to kill before dinnertime. So we grabbed some food at Miró, a precious café that I often go to para estudiar. (In general it was really strange to be so outright American [e.g. speaking English in public], especially in my neighborhood which is not touristy at all. But I think going back to some of my normal haunts with Caroline in tow explained a lot for the people working there who had always been very confused by me/my accent/weirdness...) And then we decided to check out the newish exhibit at MALBA, a museum I hadn't visited since the very beginning of the semester. I'm now a huge fan of Antonio Berni (all works below are by him); his multimedia style is fascinante. 

Over dinner with the fam we discussed the historical origin of Thanksgiving (which we basically concluded is largely based on myth) and then we went around the table to say what we were thankful for (their idea, not ours!). Though it felt weird to be away from home for the holiday, I was indescribably grateful to have my sister/bff by my side!! And then, to top it off, C & I had the chance to FaceTime with Dad :)

Friday

For our last day I was determined to fit in everything else we had yet to see, and surprisingly we were able to accomplish it all with time to spare! Shoutout to C for being a good sport when the walk to from the subte to the San Telmo market turned a little sketch...

"Let me take a picture of you looking through the photos!!!"

Lunch spot

Celiac-friendly sandwich and squash risotto nom nom nom

Our next destination was El cementerio de Recoleta (the perfect place for Caroline to practice her photography skills after our lesson with Leandro the night before...):

Is it sacrilegious to take smiley pictures in a cemetery?  

If so, I'd assume that this Selena-Gomez-AMA-performance shot probably is too...

After Caroline accidentally walked into an employees-only entrance of a kiosk and thus became the laughingstock of a group of nearby teenagers, we got refreshments and then ventured over the pedestrian bridge (where a political group from UBA were filming a demonstration about the recent Mexican students' disappearance... and asked us to participate, which we politely declined...). 

We also visited El Museo de Bellas Artes just for kicks, and then sat in a cute café for a bit before going back to the house for dinner (a special gluten-free pizza!).

I don't think I can put into words the antics from dinner Tues/Thurs/Fri, but ask Carrie if you want to hear (a most likely significantly exaggerated version of) what went down. I'll just say it involved lots of confusing but delightful conversation in English/Spanish/Italian, endless laughter, and at one point Caroline "playing" the guitar and singing... 

So yeah I'm basically convinced that my host parents like my sister better than me-- Gus sent her off by blasting "Sweet Caroline" at 6am as we were leaving for the airport and they said if she ever comes back to Buenos Aires she has a place to stay... And it was muy difícil to say goodbye, but thankfully it was more of a ¡hasta pronto!, because I'll be reunited with her and the whole fam in just a few short weeks!! (Though I'm doing my best to soak up my last bit of time here, since I know I'll regret it if I wish it away!)

In other news...

We had a party with our students and some of their parents at Centro Conviven yesterday to celebrate the semester. It was amazing to hear several moms say that because of their children's progress in the class they had passed their school English exams! I'm going to miss those kiddos SOOO much.

This was the "serious" picture, if you couldn't tell...