No soy turista, soy viajera

San Telmo



With the cardinal Porteño rules of 1. Do not speak loudly in English 2. Do not carry more pesos than necessary and 3. Do not expect a Porteño boy to leave you alone just because you say you have a boyfriend at home (no le importa) we embarked on our four hour bus tour of Buneos Aires.

Despite a unanimous feeling of jet lag upon arrival, we had decided to start the trip off right by going out to a nearby boliche the night before. The club was called Tazz. Here Yaki became someone’s “novia americanaaaaa,” Casas made friends with a bar tender named Iziquiel (more commonly known as “Easy Kill”) and I made it utterly apparent that I was a foreigner by shaking a guy’s hand instead of dos besos on the cheek... Dios mio. But I was not alone in my easily identifiable extranjera traits. When we went to leave the club around 3 a.m. everyone we passed on the way out asked why we were leaving so early. In Buenos Aires a typical night of partying can last until 9 a.m. No wonder they eat dinner at 10 p.m.

Back to the bus tour... That Sunday started off with an International Study Abroad orientation presentation given by Guillermo, the ISA director, in ENGLISH. Guille is fluent in both English and Spanish, but as most of our Spanish is spoken a bit more slowly than our English, so is Guille’s English. This lethargic yet smoothly spoken English combined with the constant zhh sound of the Argentinian accent made for a lovely lullaby leaving some of us (mainly me) struggling to stay alert and anxious to get out and actually see the city.

Thus, when we were on the bus and Guille asked for a show of hands for who preferred our tour to be given in English, my roommate Flor and I turned around and glared, daring one of the Texas Christian University students to raise a hand.
Once Spanish was settled upon as our language of choice, we set off to devour Buenos Aires most renowned land marks. From el Cementario de la Recoleta to Puerto Madero we absorbed the sights, sounds and tastes of the Paris of the South. All together we made five stops: El Cementario de la Recoleta, Plaza de Mayo, Palermo SOHO, La Boca and Puerto Madero. This blog could go on and on about all the things I have seen and done in the few days I’ve been in Buenos Aires but apparently I already have a mountain of reading to do. I’m crossing my fingers for lots of field trips!