BUENOS AIRESSSSS!!

the first day we got there was a little overwhelming. We wanted to take a bus from the airport to our hostel, but the buses only take coins and we could NOT get any at the airport. We tried to buy little packs of gum, newspapers, drinks, but no one would give us coins. So we got a taxi. And the taxi kept having to go on different streets because practically every other street was closed by massive numbers of protestors. We asked the taxi driver what they were protesting and he said they were hippies and always protesting something. So we thought it was normal for the streets to be full of protestors and almost all of the stores to be closed. Later we found out that it was the anniversary of something to do with a dictator, so it's not usually quite that crazy.

We went to the cemetery where Evita Peron is buried, and it was HUGE. Also, kind of creepy to be walking around so many dead people. Even though the mausoleums were fancy and some were cool looking, I still don't actually like graveyards that much. Outside of the cemetery is a huge artisan fair and a lawn where bands are always playing.

Our hostel was very close to Florida St., which is not actually a road you can drive on, it's just stores and people with their blankets set up on the streets selling a bunch of random stuff. We went there a lot since it was so close and fascinating! On Sundays there is a HUGE market on a street that was near us. The whole street is filled with booths of people selling mostly souvenir-type things...my favorite!!

One of our favorite things was learning how to play polo. We drove about 45 minutes, out of the city and into the campo. There were three other people, and none of us really even knew how to ride a horse. After semi-mastering steering the horse with two sets of reigns and a whip in one hand (NOT EASY) our instructor decided we were ready to move on to hitting the ball with the mallet things they use. He was wrong. The sticks were heavy to hold in one hand! And the horses didn't seem to want to go where we wanted them to go. We learned the rules (pointless since none of us could steer our horses well enough to follow them) and started playing. My team was victorious...it helped that Briana was on the other team and she couldn't even keep her horse on the field, she was always wandering off on her own. Even though we were really terrible at it, it was really fun, and now we are polo experts.

Plenty of shopping, pizza, pasta, and croissants later, our fabulous two weeks in Buenos Aires were over. If anyone else wants to come visit me...I might be willing to skip another week or so of classes to go back...