Porteño Life

The weeks passed by and slowly I really begin to get used to this city, these people, the streets and huge houses. I know I will never get used to eat so late, or sleeping so long or drinking coffee without a coffe machine but some pulver that barely consists of real coffee (luckily they have starbucks here). But in fact, all these little things do not bother me that much-its another city, a complete different world so far away from home.

Its halftime-six weeks Im here now in Buenos Aires and six more weeks are left. All I can say until now is that I dodnt regret doing this exchange at all-my spanish got really good now, I met so many nice people but the most important: I learned a lot about myself, about my kind of beginning friendships and also noticed that Im not the most self-confident person in this world. I think in the past weeks I got mentally stronger-I hope these next weeks will be great for me: to enjoy maybe the last time this really interesting porteño life. But now-enough talking about myself, here some fotos and experiences I want to share with you.

My favourite place to relax and go for a run: the parks of Palermo

some really nice germans from school



Plaza Rosedal






Andalusia



 

a fruteria in Palermo Soho



Another must-do in Buenos Aires is the bookshop "El Ateneo" on the "Avenida Santa Fe" also in Palermo. It is a former theatre with a huge collection of books from latin america but also from around the world.



What I really enjoy doing too is sitting on the roof of our house, watching the traffic of Buenos Aires and the sun setting. Its amazing!

A Day In The Park

Even though the weather got colder you still do not need a thick jacket-autumn started in Buenos Aires. Because I had nothing much to do and my exchange parter had to learn much for the following week full of tests, I decided to spent some time in the park near the house. The place is called "Plaza Castelli" in the middle of Belgrano. Its small but really nice, relaxing and clean. Like I said in some posts ago, Belgrano is the district of people who have money-you can notice that especially in this park which is mostly full of families and children playing at the playground. Apart from that young people or couples spend their time here too, and drinking, like all the others, "Mate".

So, I laned against a tree and began to read a pretty famous book about some spirituality stuff-Now by Eckhart Tolle. I listened to some music, enjoyed observing the people and suddenly three persons came to the park to play some really stunning music. Different than the one in the "Recoleta Park", the past week; it was much more for themselves but to entertain. Then, one of the guys came over to me and asked me to join them. I did it and they welcomed me so kindly and lovely and began to sing some Mantras. I was so happy to get to know these people, who treated me without any prejudices, just really nice. And to all the people who were walking by the gave a smile and said "Have a nice day" and when the song ended everyone of the musicians clapped their hands. I talked a lot with them, laughed and had a pretty good time...



people drinking mate





the nice people



Shots of Buenos Aires



a bridge with colorful art



Because my camera wasnt working well I could only take a few photos of my last weekend which we spent in Recoleta. On sundays there is a a huge "feria"(market) in the park which Ive told you something about in one of my last posts, and its full of people drinking the famous "Mate" and enyoing the sun laying in the grass. For those of you who dont now what "Mate" is: its THE drink of Argentina and Uruguay. Almost everyone here drinks it everywhere-even while they are walking, working or just sitting in a park. Its more than just drinking this interesting tasting kind of tea-which many foreigners do not like at first. Its kind of a sharing, talking to friends and drinking and drinking their mate. Many people drink it with sugar even though thats kind of destroying the tradition. In my case-after drinking it a few times I really got into it and every time I drink it I feel a bit more like a "porteño".









recoleta park



university of law

 Another thing I really enjoyed-apart from alternative looking people-was the music they were playing in the park. Amazing jazz music which sounded so great together with the sun setting and the whole growd of people. 

Barrio Chino-Chinatown

Like many big cities in the world-London, Sydney or New York-Buenos Aires has a Chinatown as well. You may think its one of the huge ones because of the size of BA but its mostly just one street. Even though its small I liked it a lot being there and eating at first cheaply at a chinese restaurant with Martu and her friend Camila, and then visiting a bad smelling chinese supermarket. There, weve bought an ice cream tasting like melone.

Sometimes you didnt want to know what they were selling! :D

Apart from plenty of shops selling all the same crapy stuff, there was also a great hippie shop with amazing bags and clothes. Furthermore, I discovered the next time I went there, the "Casa China" with chinese teas, drinks, spices and rice. Another thing which surprised me that they sold a creme, Weleda, which I use a lot in Germany, and Ive seen it for the first time here.
Even though everyone is calling this district "Chinatown", its officially called "Asiatown" after some habitants protested because they were from other parts of Asia too.
It was a relaxing, yummy and interesting day because Ive seen a Chinatown for the first time of my life.


chinese shops everywhere



the bad smelling supermarket



what the...



martu and me at the restaurant...yey



Palermo Soho

The saturday before Uruguay, Lali, Martina, Lalis friendly mother and me went to one of the hippest districts of Buenos Aires: Palermo Soho. A district full of alternatives, gays, fashionable girls and boys, musicians and a bunch of stores, cafes and "ferias"(markets).

From my apartement in Belgrano we only drove 15 minutes to get there and even if it was full of people I kind of got a feeling of silence because no huge buildings were placed here and not so many cars.

the feria

streets of palermo

My Week In Uruguay



on the horse



In my easter holidays here in Argentina, I spent my time in Uruguay for one week with my family. It was really nice and the weather was just great. Not comparable with the storm the last days here in BA but luckily the sun just came out. I feel so sorry for the neigbourhoods who were flooded by the water and at least 46 people died. In our "barrio", we had much luck not having a flood.

We drove about 5 hours to get to the "campo"- a farm in the middle of nowhere, including horses, dogs, cattles and fields of soja and mais.

In the house were living friends of my hostfamiliy and we were not the only visitors at that time. Every time we were about 15 to 20 persons and I met a lot of people. Some had another farm "near" the house or were  friends from Montevideo(where Ive been to one day).

The fact that Im a vegetarian made myself feel a bit uncomfortable because they always had to cook another food for me but they really had no problem with that and that made me happy.

In Uruguay and Argentina as well, people eat four times a day. The most in the evening and always, here in the deap country of Uruguay, meat. No wonder, they use their cattle to export but also to eat them themselves.

All the children, who were regulary coming to the campo rided the horses perfectly, even a 5 year old girl. I was only a few times on a horse but the first day here I did it pretty well. We rided through the fields and watched the sun setting. It was pretty romantic. Sometimes the moon had at first clolors like red or yellow and I was really stunned by that.



me on the horse

all the chidlren on the farm on horses



Well, the first day was great, but the following day I didnt have my horse under control. When it started running like crazy I fell of the horse pretty hard, couldnt breath for a minute and was just shocked. I call it my self experience, but of couse I had much luck nothing, exept of some bruises, happened to me.

Another great

experience I had on the farm was the chance getting to now a farm life: I watched them seperating the cattles, how they vaccinated them and they did much on their horse: here you

call the cowboys "gauchos". I also saw a lot of fields and and saw soja in its actual form for my first time. Of course, I always had a strange feeling watching the cattles while knowing they are supposed to die but still: I didnt think about that too much and just enjoyed having the chance to be here, on a real farm in Uruguay; probably similar to the ones in Argentina.

I didnt only learn how to ride (a little bit at least) but also to DRIVE! A boy, 14 years old, drove like he never did something else and the father of Martina just said: "Come, Ill  show you how to drive". I had a lot of fun and hopefully I wont forget my knowledge for the drivers licence in Germany.



Punta Del Este



waves of the atlantic



sunset on the beach



I didnt just spent my time on the farm: we also visitet THE hot spot of Uruguay- Punta Del Este.  place, everyone of the locals in Uruguay and the rest of Latinamerica is going. Its place full of grand hotels. long beaches, on the one side full of surfers, and on the other side of the "point" silent sea. I got brown a bit, smelled the sea and heard the sound of the waves...it was beautful but the huge hotels annoyed me. I prefer beaches surrounded by nature :)

Montevideo was interesting too: kind of small Buenos Aires but it was obvious that the city didnt have much money to restore the old buildungs. The beaches there were beautiful, even though it wasnt the sea-> its the widest river in the world so at the first sight you though it was the sea.



main plaza of Montevideo

I enjoyed my time in Uruguay and will always think with happiness about the friendly people I met and the beautiful sunsets over the stunning landscape of Uruguay.

ou yeah



La familia en Uruguay