buenos aires

getting to BA from sao paolo was no problem. said a sad goodbye to my family (i wish they were still coming with me!) and got on the plane, landed, realized my spanish has NOT gotten better with no use in the past 3 years, got on the bus to my hostel and started to get nervous. but! when i got on the bust, one of the new songs i had downloaded by miranda, an argentinian pop artist was playing so i felt a bit more comfortable.

it was pouring when i got to the hostel, which is cute and apparently one of the best hostels that several of the other people here have been in. its not bad. i'm glad to have people around to find things to do with during the day and in the evening. they have coffee at breakfast, hot showers and wireless. and whereas the mattress is going to go soft at some point, its a new hostel, so it is fine now!



evenings don't start here until 9pm or so. as my guidebook says, you know when the family with the stroller arrives at the restaurant at 11pm or midnight as you're finishing you're meal that you're just not an argentinian (or porteno). crazy. when people "go out" they leave at 1:30am or 2. not really my style. unfortunately its the style of many in the hostel. if i had friends here with me it might be a very different story. especially my friends who are fluent in spanish!

BA is beautiful. LOTS of old cute buildings. i've done a TON of walking. been to a couple art museums and seen a lot of the landmarks.

BA is extremely fashionable, similar to manhattan, in that regard. its hard to avoid looking very obviously like a tourist when you're living from a backpack. though otherwise i totally fit in (until i open my mouth). which is weird-- to blend in but not speak the language all that well.

tonight i'm finally going to a tango show at a famous old cafe (cafe tortoni).

i am drinking the water from the faucets, there's always electricity, i saw a starbucks today (apparently it only opened 2 weeks ago), i've seen not one but TWO mac stores, which even more than starbucks and mcdonald's is a sign to me of ... something. anyway...in so many respects i think that its correct to classify BA as a more european city, and similar to NYC, too. i've also seen public works going on-- electric trucks working on wires, people working on the sewers, etc. and BA seems to be a huge tourist hub for people from all over argentina and south america, and other places. the stores and cafes are fullllll.