La vida porteña: Raindrops keep falling on my head... ♬

Buenas noches, amigos :)
I am currently mid-way through my first week of classes, and it's been quite the shock. First of all, I haven't been in a class since December 18th, which is something in and of itself. Secondly, instead of one Spanish class per semester like I'm used to, everything is in Spanish. I'm taking classes on 20th century Argentine Poetry, Argentine Foreign Relations, Spanish Grammar, and Regional Blocks & Globalization. The hardest of these was Globalization, since it is taught at UCES, Universidad de Ciencias Empresariales y Sociales (local university in Buenos Aires) instead of through the IES Program at the center. Luckily, there were 5 students from IES taking the class with me, so we struggled through the econ and business vocab together!
Last week, we took a field trip to visit the Boca Juniors' soccer stadium in the neighborhood of La Boca. It was much smaller and older than Minnesota's newly-built TCF Bank Stadium, but it was clearly the pride of the area and well-known throughout the country. The team is one of the best club teams in the world, having won over 40 national and international titles and included players such as Diego Maradona and Carlos Tévez. The area of La Boca is known for its brightly-colored buildings, so the blue and gold stadium fit right in.
We celebrated our last day of orientation in Puerto Madero, the newest neighborhood of Buenos Aires. It is known as the "clean business district" on the river, and it is still under construction in many parts. IES hosted a dinner at La Bisteca, an "all-you-can-eat" steakhouse right on the edge of the water. There were so many different kinds of meat and cheese that came from locally raised Argentine cattle, as well as a variety of other traditional foods like empanadas and spaghettis. I was stuffed after topping it off with a delicious tiramisu, but walked it off by the river where we found the famous bridge of Puente de la Mujer. It was designed to look like the embrace of a man and woman while dancing the tango! Overall, it was a beautiful night.
On Saturday, we took a city tour by double-decker bus. It would've been an amazing way to see the city, but it was difficult to completely enjoy it since it rained the entire time :( One benefit of this was that it brought down the humidity, so we were finally able to enjoy a day out without sweating like crazy. Most of the buildings have a Spanish-European influence, which makes for a truly beautiful cityscape.
Minor sidenote: The title of this blog relates to the fact that when it is extremely hot out, everyone in the city runs their air conditioners, which unfortunately drip water onto unsuspecting pedestrians. I have tried and failed (many times) to dodge the random "downpours," so actual rain was a nice change of pace!
My last outing recently was to visit the famous Recoleta cemetary. I knew nothing of the place, so I was expecting rows of rotted gravestones with nice greenspace... I was completely wrong. Recoleta is filled with intricately carved mausoleums, which are made to resemble small chapels and other important buildings. There are rows and rows of them, and you could easily get lost while looking for any one of the many former presidents or cultural icons buried there. One such well-known figure is Evita Duarte Perón, First Lady of Argentina from 1946-1952 and champion for causes such as women's rights. After exploring the cemetary for a few hours, I left the eerie walls to find the world outside alive and bustling with the Recoleta fair, commonly referred to as "la feria gypsy." Many vendors set up tents to sell their crafts, and there is plenty of food and live music to keep the crowds entertained. I spent the rest of the afternoon taking in the excitement, and I can't wait to go back another weekend. Until next time...
Sending my love from Argentina- besitos!
-Taylor

Boca Juniors Stadium