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



City Tour through BA and La Boca

Today was a really funny and great day here in Buenos Aires. The sun still shines and it has been about 27 grad and I already got a sunburn!

The germans, the practicants and me did today a city tour through the most important points here and spent some time in "La Boca" and the park "Ricoletta" which I enjoyed a lot because of all the different impressions. This city has so many sites: from modern to really old, from rich to really poor and all kind of mixed and growing.

In the morning we started walking to the subway to drive to "Catedral" a half hour. After we left the uncomfortable and hot station (but only 2,50 Pesos which is about 40 cents) we went to the point for the tourist bus. Compared to rest of Buenos Aires, the tour was pretty expensive (150 Pesos) but it was worth it  and you can get on and off from the bus at many station for 24 hours.

We drove through the centre including the town house and other important buildings. Especially here you could notice the influence of french culture concerning the houses.    

(there is sitting Mrs Kirshner)

Then we left the centre and drove to the south, nearing us La Boca. The we got off the bus and could walk around the touristic district. Although it is very popular there, you shouldnt walk further more cause actually La Boca counts to the districts who are poor and also dangerous. So we just stayed in the middle, getting asked to buy or drink things and always said "No, gracias". 

The houses are all very colorfull and was formerly the district of italian immigrants. I felt a bit like in a disneyland or something. 

 The football team of La Boca "La Boca Juniors" is pretty popular and there were thousands of shops who selled trickots and shirt and other things.

                                                       (me in front of the port)

                                                                 ¡Hasta luego Boca!

Later in the day, the sun came out and it got really hot. We decided to get off from the bus at the park "Recoleta" after we drove through the "Puerto Madero" , a district full of modern towers and famous brands located there such as "Siemens".

I was really impressed because it was such another site of Buenos Aires compared with Boca.

The Recoleta Park is directly located next to famous cemetery with lots of rich people. It was scary walking through it because you could even see the coffins and because of that we didnt stay long and relaxed in the park, eating and drinking a bit and enjoying the hot sun. 

                                                              (The Recoleta Cemetery)

(a huge tree in the park)

 On our way back we drove by some other important sights such as the flower, that is opening and closing concerning the time of the day. We also saw the "Planetarium" located in front of a beatiful small lake.

Now Im tired from the day, drinking an iced tea from Starbucks and watching the sun setting...

Buenos Aires Numero 1

Its my fifth day in Buenos Aires now and I really begin to get used to this huge city. And when I say huge, not like Paris or Berlin, Buenos Aires is like a big big city, isolated from everything. The district Im living in is called "Belgrano" and is one of the "good" ones. In Germamy you would maybe consider it as a mix of really rich people and people who have money but arent on the top of society.

My flight was at night so I could mostly sleep, even though I woke up every two hours. Once Ive even watched a film: "Silver Linings" which I liked a lot but there where much more films in the airplane but I was too tired to watch them. I was pretty lucky not having somebody sitting next to me so I could just relax. I imagined the 13 hour during flight mich more exhausting but when I finally arrived on the airport I wasnt tired at all.
There, my hostfamily including Martina, welcomed me and my adventure in this far country had began.

Firstly, we drove through the "villas", really poor dirstricts, till we arrived in the microcentre with the famous "Obelisco" right in the middle of Buenos Aires. The sun shined and everything was green and I was so happy after the harsh and really long winter in Germany. The building of the centre of Buenos Aires remembered me  on the architecture In France and the mother, Rossana, explained, that the "porteños", so the inhabitants of Buenos Aires, have all european ancestors and that was the reason for its grand influence of european culture and architecture.

A main difference I recognized was the height of the buildings: everything was so huge and I felt a bit like I was in New York or something.

After driving a bit around, I visited the oldest cafe"Cafe Tortoni" of the city, which was founded in 1858, and is just near the "Avenida de Julio" and I drunk a tasty "Cafe con leche".

Then, we drove to the famous district "La Boca", to watch a volley game of the sister of Martu, but I will tell you more about La Boca the next time because Im going to do an excursion tomrrow with the other germans.

On sunday, we visited the aunt and her family in there weekend house which is outside of the dirstricts.
There I had my first argentinian barbecue, but Im vegetarian so they made paprika with eggs and aubergines for me. I felt very happy they care so much for me even though I now meat is so important here.

I passed three days at school now and I really like it there and the good thing is that its just next to Martus flat.
The classes consist of about 15 students, cause its a private school, and everybody has to wear uniforms(exept of the germans). In the breaks I hang around with the friends of Martu who are really nice and sometimes we go home to one of them to just chill out or eat something.
Today I had my first spanish class which is only for the germans and a german girl is teaching us. She divided us into three groups because not evrybody is the same in spanish. Luckily I got into the "best" gropu but that means too that our homeworks are much more diffucuilt.

The flat Im living is is small but cute and really comfortable and all the people here have a woman who is cooking and washing and stuff like that, the whole day.

                                                         (Room of Martu and me)
Now another day is almost finished (although we eat at 10 in the evening) and Im looking forward to tomorrow and my trip to La Boca.

view out of the window...