Buenos Aires, Camp, and Coming Home

My new school sweatshirt

My bus meal going to Buenos Aires

A street performer in Buenos
Aires--holding that position
for pocket change.

The view from Florida Street, a big shopping
area in Buenos Aires

One of the big towers and parks in the capital

One of many statues littering the streets of the national
capital

The famed Tiger of the city of Tigre (meaning Tiger)

Little fabric hanging from trees in
Tigre, in memory or respect of fallen
soldiers or prayers or something.

The balcony of the old art museum in Tigre

The art museum in Tigre

The chandelier store--actually more of a tent, in a little
marketplace.

Caramel apples with popcorn stuck on the
outside, just because they can.

Waffles with syrup, dulce de
leche, and oreos. Just because.

Chocolate dipped, cinnamon sugar covered churros with
dulce de leche inside. We like our sugar here.

Me in Tigre.

The river at Tigre

Plaza de Mayo in the center of Buenos Aires

San Martin in the Plaza de Mayo.

Me in front of the Pink House and San Martin

It's a waffle ice cream cone
with dulce de leche inside that
someone was selling in the
plaza. Very yummy.

The National Congress

The National Congress again.

A mural outside one of the marketplaces we went to
talking about how important origins are.

A store selling all sorts of retro posters

An interesting store window

The gold store.

Noquis for lunch.

On the tour bus.

This is just the museum for my soccer team--our colors are
obviously

The entire neighborhood around the
Boca stadium (my team) was decked out
in the famous blue and yellow.

The Boca Stadium

Two old bridges--one from 1900 something that doesn't work
anymore, and a new one built behind it in a similar design.

The old bridge.

The colorful neighborhood around
Boca.

A cat near the neighborhood of Boca.

Odd papermache people

A free asado!

View from the stadium 

A Boca market (can't have too much
Boca stuff here)

The floating casino--you have to be on a boat since
gambling is illegal in Buenos Aires.

A glorious statue from the bus.

My lovely hair after the open topped bus.

View at night

The obelisk in the center of Buenos Aires
that commemorates the first time the
national flag was raised 

Me in the neighborhood of Boca.

An accordion player with his paper mache buddy

In the boat yard of Buenos Aires, Puerto Madero

This last week I went on a short visit to Buenos Aires, Capital of Argentina, which was a nice way to close my trip. I stayed with a family in the city, whose daughter, Clara, had gone on an exchange with AFS the year before to Austria and was now a volunteer. I went to Florida Street, which is a famous shopping area, and saw a whole bunch of street performers--one had a wire holding his tie up in a ridiculous manner and was very funny, holding wild poses. I also went to the town of Tigre, which is surrounded by lots of old houses and has a gorgeous view of a river as well as an art museum. We also went to a little market while we were there and saw everything from chandelier stores to waffles with oreos. I bought some mates and leather and it was all very fun. The next day, Clara and I went on a double decker tour bus and saw all the attractions of Buenos Aires from the bus, and got off on several of the stops (it was a hop on hop off system and very nice when I didn't have a lot of time in the city), including several marketplaces where I bought mate cups, bombillas (the special straw for mate), a leather wallet for my dad, and a hand woven wool scarf for me, as well as other things. We also saw the Boca Stadium, my soccer team, which was absolutely massive and the entire neighborhood was just decked out in blue and yellow, even the houses and stores. There was also a four story museum about the team--we don't mess around when it comes to soccer in Argentina. Buenos Aires is a very beautiful city, with beautiful statues and old buildings all over, just a part of the city rather than being any sort of tourist attraction. The next day I had to go to my closing camp and it was pretty enjoyable--lots of talk about the same thing, but that is to be expected. We got to go into the city again which was a lot of fun. On Thursday night, after about two days straight on planes, I finally got home--it is a very nice end to a great semester!

My welcome home party

Family before I arrived.