Buen dia!
Today was a good but exhausting day. It started off by taking the subte (metro/subway) to FLACSO (my school) with my host mom. Once at FLACSO I attended a security meeting. I heard about how to protect myself from getting pick-pocketed, a big problem in Buenos Aires. After this I had a Spanish oral exam which literally took less than 5 minutes, so hopefully that's a good thing. :-) Then I went out to lunch with two other participants and ate a local favorite, empanadas con carne (basically a fried piece of dough with steak in it). Close to FLACSO is the department of education building and the department of water building, both of which are beautiful, so we took some pictures and looked like total tourists.
Now comes the best part of the day: We got to go to the government center, La Plaza de Mayo (above), and got a walking tour all in Spanish! La Plaza de Mayo is where both the Casa Rosada (pink house-our equivalent of the capitol building) and the obelisk (which looks like the Washington Monument). I understood probably about 40% of what the guide said but I was able to use what I know of Argentina and my Spanish to figure out the main points. The buildings are beautiful and the architecture is very diverse with influence from France, Italy, and Spain. It was hot and I am definitely sunburned but it was so worth it. After leaving La Plaza de Mayo, we walked around the residential areas (there is a road that separates the city into the north (the wealthier neighborhoods) and the south (the poorer neighborhoods).) After the tour was over I walked around San Telmo with some friends. San Telmo is a great little neighborhood with lots of shops, and I got my first drink ever (some iced lemonade and alcohol mix). While we sat and talked, we watched the street performers, who were doing a Tango, which I am now more excited to learn.
Now we have a 2 day weekend. Tomorrow I think I'll explore Palermo :-)
Hasta luego!
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