MI VIDA EN BUENOS AIRES

[definitelynotmichigan]

Dear people (yes you!)

The last two weeks before I left Argentina were kind of a jumbled hodgepodge of things and I didn’t really take any pics, so I think I’ll close this chapter in my life in BA with this little paragraph. These last few weeks I’ve just been SO READDYYY to be home. I just wanna let everyone of you back in Michigan know that I MISS YOU GUYS like crazy. Literally love everyone so much and it’s been this weird transition to live with a part of me missing... Ugh that sounds so cheesy but really, I left so much back in Michigan and it was just hard to be gone for so long. BUT that doesn’t mean I didn’t have some super awesome kickass adventures in Argentina. Cause let me tell you, this experience, even through the bad times and the awkwardness and the struggles – it’s been so worth it. I think mostly for life reasons. Mostly I’ve learned a lot about myself, and have kind of figured out what I need in my world, if that makes sense. I also know that I want to continue traveling and continue learning Spanish, but that it is not my passion, and I will not be a Spanish teacher. I dunno if that’s a shocker to some of you but yeah, not gonna teach Spanish for my career or probably ever. So with that, I give a huge thank you to the people reading this, to my family and friends back home, to my new friends that I have made, and to my host mom and friends that I’m leaving in Argentina. I would not have survived this without you all, and I feel so lucky and grateful to have you in my life. 

Love always, Sarah 

[definitelynotmichigan]

June 16th 

One of the best things about this whole trip has been my roommate Ana. We are very different but somehow get along really well. Our thing was to take long walks down libertador, the big street near our apartment. We basically rant about whatever is bothering us and it’s a really good stress relief. She also usually brings her phone so we listen to Spanish music… but really just reggaeton. There were some tweens skateboarding, and so we checked that out and then um well we got a little lost in a different part of the city, which was fun.

6/18 There was a presentation by the director.. only went for the free empanadas, but it was actually kind of interesting, he talked about marketing yourself at job interviews and how to use the whole study abroad thing as an advantage

6/21 San Telmo market with Rachel and then merienda with paula

6/22 – 6/24 finals week

6/25 ies farewell dinner, finally went out with everyone, went out to this place called chupitos and then to a club called hip hop culture

6/26 had a tarta with ana for dinner, went out to air bnb with leah and her friends, boliche afterwards, everybody was there!

[definitelynotmichigan]

June 11th & 12th  Trip to Iguazu

My friend Rachel and I went to the waterfalls! It is said to be one of the world’s natural wonders and god yes it is amazing and gorgeous. Stepping off the plane, you could feel the humidity. Had to be at least 85%!! It was warm and sunny which was a nice change from chilly Buenos Aires!! Rachel and I got along really well. The first day we went on a boat tour that took you underneath the falls – we got soaked!! Haha it was so fun. There was a group of high school boys at the hostel, too, which was really funny. Like, boys in Argentina are generally hilarious and stupid when it comes to American girls but like these boys were just so much worse. They just were really struggling to impress us and work up the nerve to talk to us and Rachel and I were just chilling, listening to music at the pool and they were just in a big group discussing amongst themselves haha. Then the next day we went to the upper part of the falls which I thought the first day was amazing and then the upper falls are the HUGE falls so it was really amazing. There was also a little boat that we took to the island the day before and that was really fun because that view of the falls had a rainbow! UGH overall it was just SO pretty and super fun. 10/10!!

6/13 The day after we got back Rachel and I had dinner with her roommate, Jesse, which was fun. Guess where we ate? Pani. Haha.

[definitelynotmichigan]

June 5th Today was a chill day. I slept in, then had coffee and hung out with Paula, then Ana and I worked together to help our host mom reset her iphone… it was a good day haha

June 6th went to estancia portena which was basically an argentine farm with pigs and horses and sheep and cows. BABY cows and BABY pigs and BABY sheep, by the way. I played pool with this one guy who I’ve talked to a few times who is pretty nice. I beat him once and then we played foosball and I won 7 to like 4 haha.

June 7th

Went to brunch and then the san telmo market with Ann Bianca and Alyson

[definitelynotmichigan]

June 4th 

surprise y’all GOT MY NOSE PIERCED!!! My roommate and her friend were going to the piercing place and literally half the program had already gotten piercings… so I was like why not?? It was only 80 pesos aka 8 dollars sooo yeah. The prettier one is a more recent picture, the ugo one was when I first got it!

[definitelynotmichigan]

After I get home at the crack of dawn from Salta, I got up and went to the airport to greet the family I babysit for! 

May 26th   We took the bus to the hotel, they relaxed for a bit and then we headed to a buffet on the locks of Puerto Madero. It was pretty freaking good food. Not horribly expensive, either. Then I took them to la casa rosada and the plaza. We went to pani for dinner, which I’ve been to before and love!!

May 27th They went to the zoo without me while I studied for my exam. I got an 8 out of 10!! I was so happy. 

May 28th Had creative writing class til 11, then I babysat Marco and Renzo from 4-7. We went to the park down the street from the hotel and just hung out for a bit. I missed them <3   May 29th We went to el museo de los niños, which is in the mall on Corrientes… we took the subway there and back, and I mostly made sure we didn’t get lost 

May 30th We went to this really freaking good Italian restaurant after a long day of exploring Colonia, a small city in Uruguay just across the river 

May 31st We went to the San Telmo market, which was super fun, then we had dinner at the hotel. It was a pretty chill day 

June 1st We went to the cemetery as one last hurrah, but I think it was too many dead people because it ended up being kind of upsetting. Oops… but then after my class I met up with them for their lunch meeting and took care of Renzo. I got him to sleep without much milk which was pretty impressive in my book. When I get home I hope he hasn’t changed much but it’ll be another 2 months so he might be able to walk and talk… who knows!!

[definitelynotmichigan]

May 21st Flight to Salta, dinner with dancing and singing

May 22nd tour through Ciudad de Salta, el Museo de Antropología de Alta Montaña

May 23rd Tilcara, La Garganta del Diablo, Mercado de Tilcara

lunch at this artist’s house

May 24th Salinas Grandes, conocer la comunidad del lugar, Barrancas. Lunch at Florentina’s – literally a local woman’s house

May 25th  Hornocal, la ciudad, sus monumentos, sus calles y su mercado. Saw llamas painted on rocks, returned home at like 1 in the morning cause our flight was delayed

[definitelynotmichigan]

May 14th hung out with Ana’s family, had dinner at Pani

May 15th hung out with Rachel watched les mis on netflix talked took a walk in the park (plaza francia)

May 20th went out with Bella and Issa to 878 (Ana’s twin sisters that are a year younger than her)

May 18th Coffee at oldest café in Buenos Aires - Cafe Tortoni - with Spanish class

[definitelynotmichigan]

May 3rd – 6th My life returned to normal, taking classes, going to the villa on Wednesday, all of the routine of the daily porteña life…

 7th After doing homework together, my roommate and I went walking at night down the main road near our house called Libertador. We passed through some parks and just hung out and it was pretty cool. 

8th Anita introduced me to the office… yeah so I´d never seen it before and we watched a few episodes together. It was super fun :))

10th Ana, Bianca and I went to the MALBA!! It’s an art museum and at first it was super weird.. the first room we walked into we were like wait why are there two guys painting the walls like should we have gone a different way? BUT GUESS WHAT IT WAS ART. On the wall there was a little description on the wall that was like "two unemployed men painting the wall endlessly." But the next room was even cooler cause the first time we went in there was a guy at a desk with a computer and then there was a screen up on the wall and he was typing and it was on the screen and it was describing US… like we were the art and then so he described us as tourists and whatever and then we came back when we had gone through the whole museum and it was a different girl and she described us completely differently. Then the next room there was just names and times written in sharpie on the wall and there was a girl there and she came up to each person who came in to the room and asked them what time it is and what their name was and then added it, so my name is on the wall…So that is "contemporary art" and then the next floor was modern / avante garde / all that kinda stuff, so pretty paintings and collages and there was this one girl singing in the corner… I mean I guess I don’t really get art but it was cool.

[definitelynotmichigan]

Had to head home after a wonderful trip!

[definitelynotmichigan]

May 1st HIKED UP MY FIRST REAL MOUNTAIN Okay but for reals hiking up a mountain is no joke. For the first 4ish hours, it wasn’t so bad, it started out in this huge open field and then into a forest and then the incline started and I mean I had to take it slow cause it was not easy but like not so bad but the last half hour was STRAIGHT up a pile of rocks that slid under your step so yeah it was terrifying and really hard. BUT it was beautiful and totally worth it. On the way back down there was a cow just chilling… yeah so that was cool.

[definitelynotmichigan]

30th We took the bus to chalten and didn’t have very much time to hike so we just did a short walk to a little waterfall

[definitelynotmichigan]

29th GLACIER TREKKING did you see that WE CLIMBED up on a GLACIER.... it’s TOTALLY casual!! No it was freaking amazing... At the end there was whiskey and also iclimbing up was totally fine but once you had to walk down you really had to like press your shoes into the ice and it was scaryyyy cause as you know I am the least balanced person alive sooo yeah. but I didn’t fall so all was well :))

[definitelynotmichigan]

28th It was our last day in Ushuaia and so we did one last hike before leaving – it said it would take 4.5 hours and we did it in 3… so basically we ran it haha but it was really fun! There were really muddy parts though because it was a valley and we were headed towards the laguna so basically we all ruined our shoes… oops! Also there was this cute dog who followed us through the path both ways and he was really playful and I wish I had had some beef jerky or something to give him cause he was a bit scrawny but he was so cute. Then we took the flight to calafate, got glacier shoes and had dinner at a parrilla

[definitelynotmichigan]

Monday april 27th So we tried to hike up a mountain again buuuut it didn’t work out so we just hiked in the valley instead and it turned out to be this amazing forest with a really cool river and it was called rio chico which means little river and there were just really beautiful plants and trees and there were wild horses and it was basically a magical Narnia place!

[definitelynotmichigan]

Sunday april 26th PARQUE NACIONAL I have no words for how beautiful it was… just look at the pics haha!

[definitelynotmichigan]

Saturday April 25th  So there was supposed to be this mountain that we could climb to see this glacier, but after walking up like half the mountain, and feeling a bit like dying, this guy on a four wheeler is coming down and stops to tell us that there is no way we can get to the top of the mountain or that we will be able to see the glacier because it’s all snowy and icy up at the top. (In the pics are my Ana, my lovely roommate) BUT it’s okay cause we decided to go to museums, one of which was inside this old jail where there were crazy dangerous prisoners. The whole thing was really interesting, there were little stories about each prisoner and then one section of the jail was preserved so you could walk into the jail cells and all that and then there was a section with art and a section with history and it was really cool. Then we went to this restaurant where I got all you can eat dinner and there was a parrilla (grill) so that means I had chicken and pork and steak and like everything