Buenos Aires: Part II

Alright, so we left off with Saturday night at the tango show. Sunday morning we woke up, packed our backpacks and took the subway to another part of BA. The city is huge. We took the subway called the "Subte" and I felt like I was in NYC or Boston again. We went to church and met three girls that go to Pepperdine that are studying abroad in BA. They were nice. The church that we went to was bigger than ours. We enjoyed fellowship for a while and then had service. The song leader was good and reminded me somewhat of my brother. After that we went to the English class to help them out by having another few English speakers. It was so odd to hear people that weren't in our group speaking English. It's like the only place that we expect to hear English is with each other and when someone else speaks it, it is very exciting. Then we hung out and played ping-pong and fusbol with the youth of the church for a while. After that we walked to a bus station and all took the bus to the mall. That was the last activity that we all did together until getting on the bus on Tuesday afternoon!

That night, Amber, Josh, Amanda, Jaimie, Dara, Rachel, Matt and I went to a live jazz concert at a restaurant/coffee shop/book store that was really cute. The performer sang half her concert in English and half in Spanish. She sounded perfect when she was singing but when we met her afterwards she said she only spoke a tiny bit of English. I suppose its like learning to sing in Latin, Italian, or German for us, we are taught to pronounce it right to sing but don't really know what we are saying. The contrabase player was rather fond of eyeing Amber and I at our table, but never did anything about it. Thank goodness!

Monday morning it was my birthday and we woke up and had a wonderful breakfast. Everyone here was super nice and remembered and everything. They have like sweet cresant things here called "media lunas" which are absolutely to die for. I had two on my birthday because I like to get what I want on my birthday. Then Autumn and Joyce and I took a stroll down Florida street which is a major pedestrian street with lots of shops and such. Then everyone met at La Boca for my birthday lunch. Matt, Linley, and Dara and I went off to look for a restaurant that would give us a good deal and seat all 19 of us. We were greeted on the street and talked to a guy for a while. He told us that he would give us drinks, starters, and an entree for 40 pesos, which is like US$8 which is great! So we did that. They also had a live tango show and dancing gauchos (like cowboys). I got to sit right by the stage and then they played "Happy Birthday" and sang in Spanish and I got to get pictures with all of them. So much fun! La Boca has so many bright and wonderful colors and the neighborhood just screams, "Kate!" After that we walked around and shopped. Taylor, Rachel, Autumn, Joyce, and Matt stayed with me most of the day.

We then went to the Recoletta Cemetery. I know it's a bit odd on my birthday, but the place is interesting and beautiful. There were so many statues and amazing things to see. The mausoleums are all super individuals. They have religious and blatantly anti-religious, like Masons and such buried there. Some of them we looked in went down like 2 stories at least and would have HUGE families buried in them.

After that we walked to the huge flower and hung out there for a while. Then we walked to the English tower (a clock tower that was a gift to Argentina, pre-Falklands War). It was about a two mile walk, but in the direction of our hotel, so we just enjoyed the cool but pretty weather that way. After that, we walked back the hotel and I got to take a 2 hour nap. I know you are thinking that this was a waste of time on my birthday, but we had been going so hard the whole time that I really needed it.

Taylor, Rachel, and Allie came and woke Linley and I up after that and we met Matt and Amber for dinner. After that we went and got ready (a little bit cuter) and went to a concert thing. The band only like warmed up at the time that they were supposed to start, and started at 12:30AM (two hours late). We played some games to pass the time and I got to bond better with the group. It was great! That was it for my birthday, but it was seriously one of the most amazing days of my life to date. Stack that on top of emails and facebooks from friends and family and you just can't get any better (besides actually being with my family).

Tuesday, we got up about the same time and took the subway to the Japanese gardens (shout out Bethany Newman). The gardens were beautiful. There were amazing water features and flowers and trees. It was very relaxing. Autumn, Matt, Joyce, and Abel and I ended up being in a group and it was really fun.

After lunch at a restaurant called Kentucky Pizza and decorated with horse racing things, we went to the zoo. First of all, for like US$5 we got to see all of the exhibits including the special ones. Right when we walked in, we decided that we needed a bucket of food for the animals and we were so glad we had it. First of all, there were these like giant water rats/beaver/otter/webbed-toed things that were cute until you got up close. They would come right up to you and try to eat out of your hand or bucket. Then there were these like rabbit/deer/dog things that also came right up to you. Then there were two peacocks (shout out Norris family) and then we got to the animals in cages!

There were so many things. GIANT snakes and turtles (one turtle smiled for my picture) and alligators. Penguins, sea lions, fish, sharks, and a lion fish. Followed by wolves (long-legged fox according to Matt), tapirs, deer, goats, cows, monkeys (a baby monkey!), white and yellow tigers, lions (one looked like Scar with a black mane), antelopes, prong-horns, guineas, chickens, donkeys, hyenas, hippos (we sang the song), birds, spiders, butterflies, llamas (comó se llama, llama? lol.) capybaras, ant-eaters, giraffes, camels (one had two humps), and more! I had never seen most of the animals. We spent all afternoon there and I would have loved to have had more time there. We got to feed basically everything even the sea lions!!!! It was the best zoo ever!!!!!!

So then we got on the bus to the boat to the other bus. The boat ride was really rough on the way back. I was trying to read, but I started to get a little nauseated which is odd because I don't get motion sick ever. Then we got on the two-hour bus ride back to Montevideo. This was amazing because we could see the stars because we were driving through the country. I thought about the stars in Samoa and got to see the Southern cross again, the first time since I have been here!

I got a little sleep on the bus, but I was ready to get back to my home away from home (Casa ACU). Overall, we decided that BA is great for visiting, but Montevideo is better for living because it is smaller, slower paced, less tourist oriented, and well, home...for now!