From Paris to...... Paris?

Actually, we are in the "Paris of South America", but it is beautiful nonetheless. We have been in Buenos Aires for almost two weeks (I can't believe it's been that long!) and in our apartment for a week. After many trips to many different stores, we are officially settled into our temporary home. We have found an excellent butcher, a great produce guy (who happens to be literally outside our front door), and all the other important vendors that go along with helping you get settled. Steve has mastered the art of the "parrilla" (Argentenian for barbecue) and has successfully prepared the most delicious steak, chicken, eggplant.... the list could go on for much longer..... that I have ever had and to sweeten the deal everything is so cheap. Almost like Southeast Asia cheap. AMAZING Argentenian bife de chorizo (steaks) for $1.50 each from the butcher, a few pounds of vegetables for $2, great bottles of wine for $3 (and this isn't your two-buck-chuck stuff!) Needless to say, we are LOVING having a kitchen to cook in, a dining room table to eat at, and well, everything else that goes along with having a place to feel settled. Even watering the plants on our terrace is a daily activity I look forward to.

We spent this week taking some Spanish classes, learning the Argentenian style of Spanish. It turns out that they have some pretty big differences in pronunciation of basic Spanish words.... and after finding that out in class we understand folks a lot better. Italian immigrants have had a big influence here, so it is basically people speaking the Spanish language but with a lot of the gusto of Italian. Plus, we are using one of the weird conjugations of "you" that your Spanish teacher probably skipped over (like mine did) explaining "you will never, ever, need to know this, ever" except now we do need it.... it is "VOS" instead of "TU" for those interested. It felt odd doing homework for the first time in..... well, we don't need to mention HOW many years..... and it also felt odd that Steve had completely finished his homework while I was still procrastinating on even starting, ha!

Today we ventured out to do some sight seeing, and stopped at the Recoleta Cemetery. This turned out to be WAY cooler, and much less creepy, than expected. Being one of the most popular tourist destinations in the city I expected it to be interesting, but it really was fascinating. It is literally like a city, complete with "street" signs, except the buildings are all mausoleums and, well, you can kind of fill in the rest. This is where the city's elite are buried, including Eva "Evita" Peron. Her tomb was pretty normal compared to the rest, except there were LOTS of flowers piled around it, and according to the guide book if we had been there at a busy time (we accidentally went 45 minutes before it closed) there would have been a huge line of people waiting to get close to it. Also interesting is that right around the corner is the Hard Rock Cafe Buenos Aires..... not exactly where I would have expected it to be, but oh well..... we didn't go in, but if we are looking for a super shot of "American" culture in the near future we know where to find it!

We have had a great time just wandering the streets checking out all of the amazing architecture..... although we can't look up for too long because a) the sidewalks are pretty broken up in areas so it is easy to trip, b) in places the sidewalk is literally like a mine field covered with "presents" from the many dogs in the city. There are some great parks in the area, but apparently the dogs prefer to just go on the sidewalk.... and the ones that have owners aren't terribly concerned about picking up after their dogs.... So, if you visit, consider yourself forewarned.

I am not sure if I just happen to be outside a lot, or tuned into it, or what, but I have seen a very large number of blind people in the city. Steve and i both agree that Buenos Aires could probably be the most difficult city to be blind in. We haven't seen any seeing eye dogs, either. The other day we literally saw "the blind leading the blind" along a sidewalk in our neighborhood, and it wasn't pretty. The good news is that folks seem to be pretty helpful, strangers helping strangers navigate in the subways, crossing streets, etc.

Tomorrow is the first time in a long time where we will actually feel the difference between a weekday and the weekend, because we don't have class and we don't have homework! We haven't figured out exactly what we will do, but probably check out one of the great weekend markets (if anyone is in the market for an antique gramophone let me know, I have seen about 50 stores selling them just in our neighborhood!) There was a volcano eruption hundreds of kilometers away from us this week, but the ash has travelled all the way to BA giving sky a grayish tint. Hopefully that will clear up by tomorrow so we can go back to the perfectly blue skies and great weather we have been enjoying!

Cheers,
Anna