Buenos Aires and La Plata, Argentina

Yesterday we did not have much planned until the afternoon, so we took it easy in the morning.  Spodek took Amanda and I to a famous café called Café Tortoni.  It is a fancy historic café located in the heart of the city.  I ordered my usual café con leche and some pastries called medialunes.  Medialunes are very common to Argentina.  Breakfast was great, but I felt somewhat out of place; everyone was so dressed up, and there I was in my hiking boots.  Regardless, I was glad to visit when we did because we walked by today and there was a line outside that stretched two doors down.

We left the café and wandered around the neighborhood for a while before heading to the San Telmo district.  In San Telmo there is a nice square surrounded by cafes and shops.  There is also a market with local foods and trade.  Spodek bought three bananas, I bought three loaves of bread, and Amanda bought a block of white cheese.  We split the food among us and had lunch in the square.  It was two dollars each.  Cheap and delicious!

We met with the rest of the group back at the hostel and left for a short bus trip to La Plata.  In La Plata we first visited Le Corbusier’s project, a private home Casa Curutchet.  Le Corbusier is a “starchitect” famous for his mastery of the five points of architecture.  I really respect his work because mastery of design it is something that cannot be achieved by many.  That being said, this house seemed too sterile to live in.  The design was fantastic; I don’t think I would be comfortable living there though.  It is divided into two sections, a private residence and a public doctor’s office with an open air breezeway.  Cool, but not necessarily my favorite style of architecture. 

Also in La Plata we visited La Plata Cathedral.  The outside was amazing as the scale dominated the surrounding city.  I have seen a lot of cathedrals, but I would rank the exterior of this one in my top 10 favorite cathedrals.  Unfortunately the interior wasn’t quite as impressive.  I mean, it was still amazing, but I don’t think it made my top favorite list.  Seeing all these cathedrals makes me miss Europe. 

The cathedral was our last stop in La Plata before we headed back to Buenos Aires.  From our hostel, we walked to San Telmo again and got a quick tour of the neighborhood from Ana.  Her apartment is located in the same area.  We sat for a while at San Telmo’s oldest café and enjoyed a quality cup of joe!  If you can’t tell, coffee shops are quickly becoming my favorite part of this trip.  South American culture is very much rooted in coffee (and mate) and I love it!  There really is nothing better than coffee and conversation with friends. 

After coffee, we had group dinner at a favorite restaurant of Ana’s.  It sure didn’t look like much from outside, but the food was great, a hidden gem!  We headed across the street to get gelato at a place, again recommended by Ana.  It was gelato, so of course it was fantastic!  After gelato we walked down to the main square to observe all the festivities happening for the holiday weekend.  Live music dominated the square as we watched musicians and dancers perform on a stage in front of the Pink House (Argentina’s equivalent of America’s White House).  It was so fun!  It is stupid but seeing the national pride of Argentinians almost brought tears to my eyes.  It is amazing to think about what they had to go through to get freedom.  I wish there was more pride like that in America.

Staying in a hostel complicates several things while traveling.  The thing that hurts most right now is the fact that I do not have a place to wash my clothes.  If we were in a hotel, I could wash them in the sink, no problem; however, at the hostel there are dorm style bathrooms.  I am not about to wash my clothes in a community sink.  So I improvised and washed them in the shower, while I was also showering.  It was not the easiest, but it got the job done.  Really though, this hostel life is not for me.  Thank goodness the traveling makes it all worth it. 

Buenos Aires, Argentia

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!

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!

Colonial, Uruguay

Yesterday we spent one more day in Uruguay before leaving for Buenos Aires.  After an early morning departure from the hostel in Montevideo, we arrived in Colonial, Uruguay around 11 a.m. Colonial is a picture perfect town located on the wide river that separates Argentina from Uruguay.  It reminded me very much of an old, historic European town, a little larger than Little Nashville, Indiana.  At any street corner one may find a cute little café to drink a coffee and relax, or a quaint hotel or gift shop.  The streets and alleyways are decorated with vegetation, flowers, trees, and ivy.  All the streets are brick.  It was like walking through a daydream the entire day.  I had a wonderful café con leche (coffee with milk) while I sketched a postcard-worthy alleyway, enjoyed a gourmet lunch with wine on the waterfront, and watched the sunset as I drank fresh lemoncello.  I could not have dreamt to have a better day because it was so relaxing and unexpected.  We had nowhere to be, nothing to do, and only the scenery to enjoy.  

Amanda and I spent a majority of the day with both of our professors, Ana and Jonathan, and another person from our group Ege.  The day in Colonial began with coffee and pastries when we first arrived.  We sat at the first café and sketched for about two-and-a-half hours.  During this time, Ana taught Amanda how to drink Mate, a tea-like drink custom to Uruguay’s culture. We wandered around town for a while before stopping for lunch at a nice restaurant tucked behind a small street corner with private access to the waterfront.  We sat, ate, talked, and drank for a few hours taking in the scenery.  After lunch, we wandered through town again, this time towards an old lighthouse.  We paid $1 U.S. dollar to walk to the top and see a panoramic of the picture-perfect city.  Amanda, Ege, and I headed for another café to sketch and enjoy the last couple hours in Colonial.  The waiter served us complimentary Lemoncello while we watched the sunset over the water.  It was so pretty; it almost beats the sunset I saw in Greece.  

I am having a hard time finding words to describe how magical yesterday was.  In this case, I think pictures speak so much more than I could even begin to describe.  Our time in Colonial sadly came to an end around 7 p.m. when we walked to the other side of town to catch a ferry to Buenos  Aires.  We only spent about 8 hours in Colonial, but I think I could spend a whole week there

Montevideo, Uruguay

Montevideo is referred to as the Europe of South America.  I can definitely see the similarities and some characteristics of the two, but Montevideo is a bit more rundown.  We got into our hostel in Montevideo around 10 a.m. Monday morning.  The 9 hour flight was not near as bad as I had imagined. The flight was only half full so everyone was able to stretch out and actually get some sleep.  

Most of the day Monday was spent exploring the city.  Later, Ana (our professor) led our group to the old town where there are nice markets and older buildings.  The old town had a lot of really interesting shops and vendors, but it is a little more difficult to communicate with the people of Uruguay than I imagined.  Not near as many people speak English as I thought there would be.  For this reason it was hard to barter at the market, or even communicate with the server in a restaurant; however, in the old town I was able to muster up enough Spanish to order my first cup of coffee, a cappuccino.  As to be expected, it was delicious!  Amanda ordered a drink specialty of Montevideo, Mideo y Mideo.  It is a wine made from both green and red grapes.  Together we sat at a cute little café as I tried to convince myself that I actually was sitting in Montevideo, Uruguay in South America.  Amanda napped.  

Later in the evening, before dinner, Ana, Amanda, Jonathan (our other professor), and I sat at a café on the main road in Montevideo and enjoyed coffee.  It was nice to relax and talk to my professors about the trip.  Ana taught us a lot about South American culture as well.  A little later we had a group dinner at a restaurant called Facal.  Ana ordered us three pizzas, South American style, to try.  Es delicioso!  

Everyone headed back to the hostel for showers and bed, but in the spirit of travel, nothing can ever be that easy.  A routine check for bed bugs turned into a nightmare as two of our roommates found bugs.  We notified the management, who handled it nicely.  The bad part is there was not anywhere else for us to stay.  Instead of everyone sleeping on the bottom bunks we moved up to the top for the night.  Apparently the bugs do not migrate, on their own, to other beds.  Between the threat of bed bugs and the loud traffic outside, I got maybe a few hours of sleep. 

Tuesday morning we traveled to Atlantida to visit a famous church by Eladio Dieste.  Iglesia Cristo Odrero is an amazing feat of brick masonry engineering, aka the exterior walls are wavy and made entirely of brick.  I really enjoy modern churches, so I appreciate that I was able to see it.  I continued my tradition of praying in any religious facility I come across during my travels.  Praying in Cristo Odrero was a humbling experience to say the least. 

The second half of the day was spent exploring more of Montevideo.  We walked the entire length of the city, it felt like.  The walk was scenic along the riverfront/ shore of Montevideo.  We stumbled across an architecture school and decided to pay a visit inside.  Their facility is so much more exciting than Ball State.  All the classrooms/ studios surround an open air courtyard, a much more inspiring environment than CAP in Muncie.  A few of us stopped for dinner at a bar/ café.  

The night should have ended with a relaxing pizza and beer, but upon arrival at that hostel a roommate found more bedbugs, in her top bunk!  Again, we notified the management, and this time decided to sleep in the guy’s room with them.  They had exactly 5 extra beds for us!  So everyone but Ana slept in the same room last night.  Hopefully this problem does not keep happening.  I never have enjoyed hostels much.  Despite the unfortunate bed bug situation, Montevideo has been a fun start to the trip.  From what I have been told, it is only a warm up compared to what Buenos Aires has to offer.

My Next Adventure, South America

It’s go time! The hardest part is over.  The goodbyes. The packing. The anticipation. The preparation.  That is all over; now it is time to enjoy it.  What is it that I am going to enjoy, you may ask? 

Once again I find myself with an amazing opportunity to travel.  This time it is not nearly as ambitions as World Tour; but in the same spirit, I am traveling for one month through 4 countries in South America (Uruguay, Argentina, Bolivia, and Peru) with a group of 11 Ball State Architecture students and 2 professors.  This trip counts towards my summer term of classes required for the master’s program in architecture.  I have no idea what I did to deserve such a trip as this, let alone come across the opportunity to begin with, but I am here.  I plan to make the most of it.  Sometimes I feel guilty for these once-in-a-lifetime chances I have been blessed with.  Because of this, I have to make it count for myself, my family, friends, and even acquaintances who may never have the chance to visit South America. 

Looking back on World Tour, I learned so much about myself and who I am as a person.  Not only did I discover invaluable culture and architecture, God began to open my eyes and show me the world in a way I have never experienced before.  I can only hope for the same experience on this trip.  I am on my way to South America for a reason.  God blessed me with this opportunity, and I wish, more than anything, to share it with as many people who will listen.  I will share it all: the good, the bad, and the moments in between, because traveling is more about the journey than the destination. 

(a little while later)

World Tour was unique in that I began the trip by myself.  To elaborate, I did not know anyone that I went with.  A few people were classmates that I shared studio with, but we were not close friends.  I signed up and decided to leave home for a semester and travel without knowing anyone, which by the way, is completely unlike me.  By an act of God, funds were made possible and my parents willingly supported me through the whole process, even though I am sure they were more scared than I was.  I felt drawn to this trip as my own adventure, just me and God.  You see it’s the most challenging and uncomfortable times in my life that I feel closest to Him, which last time I checked that is how it is supposed to work.  I have never been more terrified, excited, and just plain nervous than I have the day I boarded that plane to leave for World Tour.  That feeling is something I will be chasing for the rest of my life because those moments are the ones that are the most rewarding.

Of course I jumped at the chance to take another trip. World Tour was an amazing trip of self-discovery, but even with the comfort of God by side, it got pretty lonely at times.  I see this trip to South America a little differently.  This time I have a pre-established friend to travel with me, a great friend and former roommate, Amanda Heinzman.  While I still hope for another trip of self-discovery, I am beyond excited to share my experiences with a friend this time, a friend who knows me almost as well as I know myself.  That being said, there are apparent differences between the two of us.  If you know both of us at all, you just laughed.  We are complete opposites in some aspects, which is what leads me to believe this will be a memorable, yet enjoyable trip.  I am the introvert who needs “me time”, while Amanda is the extrovert who requires an excessive amount of attention.  She is generally excited to share, more like force, her happiness on anyone and everyone around her.  I am laid back and chill the majority of the time.  She is a tourist.  I am a traveler.  There has been a running joke for a couple months that since I am an experienced traveler, I will have to watch out for Amanda and keep her alive. (probably true)  What she probably does not realize is that she will be keeping me alive as well.  She reminds me that it is ok to be excited about the littlest things in life.  Let’s just say her energy is enough for the both of us.  Please, standby for our exciting and sure-to-be-entertaining adventures in South America.  

Jasonville, Indiana USA (51 Days Later)

The summer is starting to settle down, and so am I.  I am finally getting used to living in the same place for more than 3 days.  I will not lie; it was a tough adjustment coming home, not a bad one, just hard.  Culture shock is definitely a real thing!  For a few days I came home and felt like an outsider; it took some time to catch up with everyone and regain my sense of belonging.

51 days after the adventure of my lifetime, I find myself editing photos from World Tour in the gatehouse at Shakamak State Park.  I work the evening shift and people tend to slow down as the night rolls on which leaves me alone in the gatehouse 5-6 hours every shift.  It sounds boring because it is, but I cannot say that I mind it.  Actually, the peaceful times in the park after everyone has left are what make this job worth it.  After the semester I just had, I welcome any chance to just sit down and relax. 

As work slows down in the evenings I try to edit a couple cities-worth of photos every night.  Every photo gives me a new memory to reflect on or something new to appreciate.  I am finally realizing how awesome it all was, and how blessed I was to be able to experience it.  The diversity of the places I have been is hard for even me to comprehend.  On the trip we were shuffled from place to place without much time to think and appreciate it all.  Thank goodness for pictures!  They have allowed me to relive my trip, the good and the bad. 

Along with the pictures I remember the stress I went through trying to get homework and my project done.  I look back at the 10 days of madness I had to put together my project board and it is obvious, only God would have been able to get me through that.  Not only did he get me through it, he guided me through a project I am proud to call my own.  I even presented it to the President of Ball State, Jo Ann Gora herself.  After my project was finished that week I had some fantastic days making up for lost time with all of my friends.  For once I was sad to leave Muncie; I had just arrived it seemed like and all my friends were leaving for the semester. At least I can look forward to seeing them when I go back in August!

As one can imagine, I have been drilled by everyone since I have been home.  What was your favorite place?  What was (insert country) like?  What was the weirdest food you ate?  Would you go back?  Even the simplest question prompts the most difficult answer.  Traveling the world is not something that can be understood.  Sure I could talk until I was blue in the face and show you every single one of my photos, but until you have experienced the culture and stumbled your way through everyday life in a different country you will not understand it. 

The thing that strengthened my experiences, appreciation, and understanding of life around the world is the fact that God walked with me every step of the way.  Living in the world, he showed me a greater understanding of life itself, what is really important, what to strive for in life, and how to be content with even the littlest things.  Even now, 51 days later, it is hard for me to comprehend that there was once a time on WT5 when all I wanted was to be able to read a restaurant menu, to have a good seat on the plane, to stay at a hotel with free internet access, or to have ten minutes of alone time.  The simplest things made me happy.  I have everything I have ever wanted in life at home right now, yet I still find things to make me grumpy.  What is up with that?  Another thing, I learned really quickly last semester is how to take a step back from the situation and re-evaluate.  Every time I got upset or caught up in a bad situation, I found God waiting patiently to share his peace.  It is little lessons like these that I will keep with me for the rest of my life.  Yeah this trip was awesome! I saw countries and cities that people only dream of visiting.  I stood before some of the best architecture in the world; but even more importantly, God taught me how to live.

The Journey Home

I woke up this morning knowing it would probably be one of the longest days of my life.  That still could not keep the excitement from spreading across my face every time it had a chance.  Our first flight of the day from Dublin to Washington, D.C. was the longest of the day at 7.5 hours, not to mention U.S. customs and security beforehand.  It took us three hours to get through it all.  The flight was relatively uneventful except for the fact that I could not watch free movies because the headphone jack on my seat did not work. 

We arrived in Washington on time and had about an hour layover.  Excitement was in full as we all dusted off our phones and began texting and making phone-calls for the first time in three and a half months.  You could easily tell everyone was ready to be back in America. 

The excitement quickly faded as we learned of a couple of explosions that happened at the Boston Marathon.  As the news developed, the spirit of the airport became more and more somber.  I got up to go to the bathroom and noticed that most people waiting for their flights were glued to the television watching CNN coverage of the tragedy.  I later realized that our plane had landed in Washington, D.C.  at almost exactly the same time as the bombs detonated.  Welcome home!  To make this even more dramatic, we boarded our plane to Chicago and the screens on the plane were playing the news coverage.  I’m not going to lie; I was a little worried as our plane took off.  I was flying out of the nation’s capital with a destination of one of America’s major urban cities, Chicago.  At this point the only thing I wanted was home and my family.  We made it to Chicago safely, thank goodness!  About half of our group had another flight to Indy, but nothing could break the excitement of me going home.  I watched some of my friends reunite with loved ones and then I headed through security one last time.  I boarded the tiny airplane to Indy and immediately fell asleep.  I opened my eyes to the lights of Indianapolis as we landed.  Finally after 103 days, I had made it home safely.

It is hard to pinpoint a time in my life that I was happier than the moment I realized I was back home.  I rushed off the plane and through baggage claim only to be kept waiting for several minutes outside.  Apparently our flight got in a little early so my parents had not arrived yet.  When I finally saw my blue Jeep pull up I was relieved.  A dream-like 103 days of traveling had finally come to an end.  Nothing could have prepared me for the semester that I just lived through.  The past 2 years of saving and preparation all ended with this night, but I was not sad.  I had 10,000 photos and three-and-a-half months-worth of new experiences to share. 

To top the night off, the face of one of my best friends, Jenica, was staring at me through the back window of my car.  She surprised me and came with my parents to pick me up.  It was a great time!  Perhaps my favorite part of the night, however, was the moment I got to crawl into my own personal bed, with my room and bathroom surrounding me.  It’s hard to understand the importance of this until you have spent the last 103 days living out of two bags and a hotel room.  Oh my, what an experience!