Our first day in Buenos Aires was a very busy one. The day began with a visit to The University
of Buenos Aires. Ana studied at the college
and taught there for several years. She
is basically a celebrity around the building.
The university is the national school of Argentina, so if citizens of
Argentina get accepted, they will receive a free education. Sounds like a pretty nice setup. The architecture program though is longer
than it is in America. Students must
study for 7 years to receive their degree.
It is not split up into under graduate and graduate level programs
either, basically all or nothing. The building
itself houses several different design programs each with thousands of students
enrolled. To imagine myself studying at
this school is terrifying to me. The building
is so loud and chaotic; it seems that I could never get anything done. Students do not have a studio space assigned
to them; instead each must bring all the supplies with him or her daily. Seeing how other students study around the
world makes me appreciate my rural, sheltered life back in Muncie. Traveling has a way of doing that to me and
it is a love/ hate relationship. The
minute I begin to feel overwhelmed by the density of people, dirtiness of the place,
or inconvenient location, I realize how incredibly lucky I am to have been born
into the life I have.
We visited with a few professors and students for about an hour before Ana began a lecture to the first year students. A few girls spoke decent English so we talked to them mostly. They were very nice, as well as, intrigued by our lives as American architecture students. When we parted ways, they hugged us and kissed us on the cheek, as if saying goodbye to good friends. I am sad we did not have more time to talk to them. Ana’s lecture was very interesting I am sure; however, she spoke most of it in Spanish so I did not take much away from it.
After we left the college, we all grabbed a quick lunch and piled into three taxis. The next activity of the day was a bike tour throughout southern Buenos Aires. It sounds fun on paper, and at times it really was fun, maybe even relaxing; but with a population density of over 4 million people in the metropolitan area of the city, it was quite stressful at times. Buenos Aires has very nice bike lanes throughout the city, but trying to deal with the traffic was insane, especially towards the city center. Beunos Aires is the capital city of Argentina, similar to Washington D.C. in the United States. Monday is Argentina’s Independence Day so as one may imagine there are all kinds of festivities scheduled for the extended weekend. It seems all of these activities were being set up during our bike tour. At times there was so much traffic it was more stressful than it was worth to be riding bikes. Once we got out of the center it was a little easier and more fun. We even stopped with our guide about half-way through the tour for Mate and pastries. The second half of the trip was fun until we hit rush hour on the main street in Buenos Aires. That was exhilarating. Bryce and I were so close to being sandwiched by two cars; I thought sure we were going down. Luckily we both lived to tell the story!
Everyone was exhausted after the four-hour bike tour of the city, so we returned to the hotel to freshen up and rest for dinner at Siga la Vaca. Dinner was an all-you-can-eat buffet complete with wine and dessert. The buffet featured several different types of meats grilled by chefs, cooked to order. Of course since Ana is from Buenos Aires, she knew exactly what to order for all of us. The meat and wine was fantastic, but what sealed the deal for me was the dessert. You are only allowed to order one dessert item out of about 15 choices. With a different dessert in front of each one of us, we began a “speed-dating” approach in order to sample each dessert. We all ate a bite of the dessert we had, and passed it along to the next person on Ana’s count, “Uno, dos, tres, SWITCH!” We continued on with 2 or 3 rounds until all the desserts were gone. Easily the best dessert experience I have ever had!
We visited with a few professors and students for about an hour before Ana began a lecture to the first year students. A few girls spoke decent English so we talked to them mostly. They were very nice, as well as, intrigued by our lives as American architecture students. When we parted ways, they hugged us and kissed us on the cheek, as if saying goodbye to good friends. I am sad we did not have more time to talk to them. Ana’s lecture was very interesting I am sure; however, she spoke most of it in Spanish so I did not take much away from it.
After we left the college, we all grabbed a quick lunch and piled into three taxis. The next activity of the day was a bike tour throughout southern Buenos Aires. It sounds fun on paper, and at times it really was fun, maybe even relaxing; but with a population density of over 4 million people in the metropolitan area of the city, it was quite stressful at times. Buenos Aires has very nice bike lanes throughout the city, but trying to deal with the traffic was insane, especially towards the city center. Beunos Aires is the capital city of Argentina, similar to Washington D.C. in the United States. Monday is Argentina’s Independence Day so as one may imagine there are all kinds of festivities scheduled for the extended weekend. It seems all of these activities were being set up during our bike tour. At times there was so much traffic it was more stressful than it was worth to be riding bikes. Once we got out of the center it was a little easier and more fun. We even stopped with our guide about half-way through the tour for Mate and pastries. The second half of the trip was fun until we hit rush hour on the main street in Buenos Aires. That was exhilarating. Bryce and I were so close to being sandwiched by two cars; I thought sure we were going down. Luckily we both lived to tell the story!
Everyone was exhausted after the four-hour bike tour of the city, so we returned to the hotel to freshen up and rest for dinner at Siga la Vaca. Dinner was an all-you-can-eat buffet complete with wine and dessert. The buffet featured several different types of meats grilled by chefs, cooked to order. Of course since Ana is from Buenos Aires, she knew exactly what to order for all of us. The meat and wine was fantastic, but what sealed the deal for me was the dessert. You are only allowed to order one dessert item out of about 15 choices. With a different dessert in front of each one of us, we began a “speed-dating” approach in order to sample each dessert. We all ate a bite of the dessert we had, and passed it along to the next person on Ana’s count, “Uno, dos, tres, SWITCH!” We continued on with 2 or 3 rounds until all the desserts were gone. Easily the best dessert experience I have ever had!
Buenos Aires is referred to as the New York City of Argentina. With all the bustling traffic and business, I
can certainly see why. I cannot say that
the population density is my favorite. I
constantly feel in the way on the sidewalks, and well, pretty much everywhere
else I go. Despite that though, I know
the next week in Buenos Aires is going to be fantastic. The city has so much culture to offer!
No comments:
Post a Comment