Buenos Aires

Yesterday (Monday Oct 29), today, and most of tomorrow has been/will be spent here in Buenos Aires. We left from the UAP aroudn 6:30 am yesterday morning and arrived at Hotel Victory around 1 pm. We settled into our rooms and then headed to the local mall as a group for lunch. The people I was with ended up not wanting to eat in the mall, so we took off in the rain and down the walking street to see if we could find anything to eat. I ate breakfast really late because I fell asleep on the bus so I didn't eat lunch. We found a Starbucks and I bought Megan and I Argentina Starbucks mugs. I don't really collect things. But we both collect Starbucks mugs and I also collect Coke bottles from places I've been.

Last night for dinner, some friends and I ventured out into the rain again and went to a Thai restaurant a few miles from our hotel. It didn't open until 9 pm so we had to wait out in the pouring rain (under and awning) for 20 min or so. Needless to say, after a full day walking in the rain and then standing on a sidewalk that was flooding in parts, I was soaking wet . Dinner was good. I got some form of curry and then Jasmine tea to try and warm me up a bit.

Today we left the hotel around 9 am and set out to tour the city. The bus took us to La Boca, which is where they have the soccer stadium and I think Haroldo said it was where there was a lot of Tango places. We stopped at this touristy place. It was really cute, I took a bunch of pictures and then purchased a mate cup, bombilla, and yerba. Mate is a kind of tea they drink here. There are two forms: mate and terrer. Mate is hot, terrer is cold tea mixed with juice. I like both forms. The cup is painted with a couple tangoing and the Buenos Aires obelisk in the background. It's really nice and I got all three in a pack for about $9 USD which is really good.

After we went to La Boca, we headed back across town to Casa Rosada (the president's house. It's called the Pink House like our's is called the White House. And yes it is a shade of pinkish). Across the street was this church/shrine for Libertador San Martin. San Martin is the one that fought for Argentine independence...I think lol. It was really awesome inside; very typical Catholic church.

We went to Grantis for lunch. I think that's how you spell the company's name. They are the Adventist company that makes the cookies and crackers packs we can buy at the UAP. It was, obviously, an all vegetarian buffet restaurant and the place mats had an Ellen White quote on them. :)

After lunch we drove buy the Obelisk and then headed to this really cool cemetary. I didn't hear the history of the cemetery, but all the people buried there are in these very elaborate crypts. Some of them look like houses or churches. Most of them have engravings or sculptures on them. We walked around in there for a while taking pictures of them.

After the cemetery we went to a giant rose garden. It was really pretty in there. I decided if by some stroke of luck I got an all expense paid wedding (and the flights of everyone I invited paid for too) I would want to get married there. It was so gorgeous.

Right now, my hotel mates and I are resting in the hotel room until we decide to go to dinner. I'm not sure what the plan is exactly for tomorrow, but I know we have to be out of our rooms/checked out by 10 am and then we are doing something. Then we have free time and we are leaving for the UAP around 6 pm so we won't get back to campus until 12 am or 1 am Thursday.

Classes for Thursday morning have been cancelled. I have some homework due in the afternoon but I never have class on Thursday so it doesn't really affect me at all.

Anyway, until next time.