BUENOS AIRES: CITY OF TANGO AND EMPANADAS

after a looooooooooong four months of distance i was finally able to visit martijn in his exchange hometown of buenos aires. it was amazing to be together again!! from the moment i met him outside security to the moment i left him at security.

we travelled to a few different areas but buenos aires was the most different for me. extremely busy, very cramped, and SO MUCH SPANISH!! it's a good thing i travelled with martjin because i would have had a hard time on my own wtihout knowledge of the language. there was one afternoon that i was on my own and tried out some of the spanish i heard. pretty basic, but at least i got what i had intended to get.

we walked around the city quite a bit with martijn showing me some great areas (san telmo, la boca). we took in a tango show which was one of my favourite parts of the trip. we had a really nice dinner followed by tango dancers and singers performing on the stage. i was able to meet some of his exchange friends when martijn hosted an "asado" which basically translates to "really good barbeque" ;). it was so great to meet the people that have been part of his life down there and whom i've only heard about in various stories. we visited plaza de mayo which is probably the most famous square in buenos aires (also the site of their independance on may 25, 1810). we walked the markets in san telmo. checked out the cemetery (which was more like a city of dead people) which houses some of the most famous artisans, politicians etc. of argentina. i was also introduced to empanadas!! they are absolutely delicious...pastry dough filled with meats, cheeses, herbs, vegetables, basically anything. my mouth is still drooling!!

for me, it was wonderful to see where martijn had been and what he'd been doing for the past four months. he would tell me about how he gets to school, but when i was there, i was able to actually see for myself what that was. i was able to see his apartment, his neighbourhood, his grocery store...all the things that made up his exchange. it was a great feeling to skype with him back in sherwood park and be able to picture the places/people he was talking about.

while we walked around a TON!! we also had the opportunity to do nothing, watch some movies, cook dinner, and just be together. i really loved this part because it felt normal. so much of the past year has been travelling and doing things so to be able to just be was really great.

i had a number of impressions of the city. a few which contradicted my expectations:

1) it felt cramped and busy. busy in a good/bad way. on the one hand, as a canadian used to mass amounts of space, i felt there were too many people in such a small space. on the other hand buenos aires definitely had an energy which was cool to experience.

2) i had expected poorer. there were definitely signs of the poor: homeless men and women sitting on the sidewalk missing a limb, dogs scouring the entire city. but it definitely wasn't as bad as i expected.

3) i did feel a bit unsafe, not physically, but i definitely held my purse very close to me. anytime i was out i really had the impression that i could be robbed.