Aparna and I have spent the past few days making lots of plans, and following through with just enough of them to feel relaxed while getting to know the city. So far we’ve walked almost everywhere, since our host family lives in the center of the city (the cross streets are Callao and La Valle, for those who feel like Google Mapping).
A map of downtown Buenos Aires. I marked where we walked on Jan 1 in pink.
Our two longest walks so far were the six hour walk around the city on our first day here and walking home from the Zoo yesterday. We’ve only taken the subte (“subterraneo”–the subway) twice: once to get from class to the zoo and again to get home from Plaza de Mayo, even though we normally would walk, because a bunch of other people from the program were taking it and we are trying to be more social outside of class. Almost everyone else in the program was placed with host families in the Palermo neighborhood, which is more residential and more trendy than our neighborhood but also significantly farther away from the microcentro, which is where class is held. The microcentro area is a bit like Herald Square–lots of tourists, crowded during the day, lots of shopping, etc.
The Zoo, in Palermo, was near the top of our list of things to do while in Buenos Aires. It is a 15-20minute ride on the subte, and we were there from 5pm til closing (7pm). The zoo is quite a bit bigger than the one in Central Park, and there are some animals that are allowed to roam the grounds freely, like peaocks/peahens, ducks, and a few animals that neither Aparna nor I had ever seen before (but are way cooler than squirrels or chipmunks). Check out Aparna’s blog for lots of zoo photos in the next couple days! I had gone to the Prospect Park zoo on Christmas to watch meerkats attempt to open wrapped presents, but the zoo here was way more fun, if less neat and with a bizarre population of small roaches in and on the snake terrariums.
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Today was the first full day of classes. The morning class runs from 10am-12:30pm and is about Eva Peron. The afternoon class runs from 1pm-4pm. Both have some field trips, a couple of which are during class hours but most of which are after class (from 4-6ish). We eat dinner (and breakfast) with our host family, and dinner is typically between 9 and 10pm, so those 2 or 3 hours are our chance to cross things off our to do lists. So far it hasn’t been unbearably hot–highs in the 80s most days, and not very humid–which I hope continues so that we’re not wiped out by the early evening (which is considered afternoon here).
It’s nearly 2am, so this blog post will be cut off here–photos and more about our adventures soon!
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