After a week and a half in Buenos Aires we have found our groove. Our little apartment and neighborhood feels a little more like home, we have adjusted to the Argentine accent and our Spanish lessons are going well. Agostina, our Spanish instructor, is fantastic and fantastically affordable as well. Agostina has given us the opportunity to discuss the economic and social changes taking place in Argentina. As a young woman from a very poor, hard background, she has now positioned herself solidly within Argentina's growing middle class living and teaching in one of Buenos Aires' nicest neighborhoods. Her story, her casual but effective teaching style and her great suggestions for restaurants and activities in and around Buenos Aires have all been very welcomed additions to our Argentine experience.

Last weekends' activities in Buenos Aires included a trip down to La Boca, a working class ethically Italian neighborhood with a touristy, tango-filled twist that feels more like New Orleans than the rest of Buenos Aires. The poor neighborhoods separating the bustling city center from the tourist Caminito (little street) of La Boca was a reminder of Argentina's still recovering economy from the devaluation of the Argentine peso. When the Argentine peso was un-pegged from the US dollar due to inflationary pressures and being artificially over-valued, the value of the Argentine peso dropped by 60 to 70 percent overnight. The Argentine peso is still only worth $ .33 to the US dollar which is a far cry from the 1 to 1 ratio before 2001.

On Saturday night Todd accidentally locked our keys in the apartment. We spent the next 2.5 hours on the pay phone arranging for our landlady to let us in the following morning at 10AM. We had fleeting ambitions to do as the Argentines and stay out all night however unsurprisingly come 4AM we were in a cab in search of a hotel. As promised our landlady, Nancy, returned from her night in el campo (the country) to let us into her apartment. We sheepishly yet sincerely thanked her with as many 'muchas gracias' as she would tolerate.

After a short nap we were off again this time to the River Plate soccer stadium. River Plate played San Lorenzo, another Buenos Aires team, to a 2 - 0 victory. The day was hot, half the fans were shirtless Argentine men (see photos!), the crowd chants were frequent and vulgar (the parts we could understand anyway) with lots of 'you sons of' this or that shouted at the opposing players and fans and, of course, the referee.Frankly the atmosphere was more memorable than the soccer. At the conclusion of the match, we had to wait while all 10,000 of the San Lorenzo fans exited the stadium and boarded their buses before any of the other 40,000 River Plate fans could leave their seats. The post-game violence of past seasons between rival fan groups has forced the Argentine police to take these extreme precautions. Clearly, we didn't mind the wait and overwhelming police presence.