¡Hola de Buenos Aires, Argentina! I arrived here safe and sound on Wednesday the 28th, and this is really the first chance I've gotten to sit down and update this blog for your amusement. So, a few quick answers to questions of what life here is like: It is February and I am walking around in tank tops and sandals. I can buy alcohol and drink it in public. I can go to clubs without showing any ID. I can get beer delivered to my house. My defining moment when I really realized I was in Argentina was when my host mom's one-year-old granddaughter toddled into my room drinking yerba mate out of a sippy cup. All in all, it is pretty fucking awesome.
However... remember when I said that Buenos Aires is the whitest place in Latin America? Well, it really is the WHITEST fucking place in Latin America. The government likes to keep the brown people invisible, so they live mostly in the shantytowns and areas like La Boca where it isn't safe to go. This city has the second largest Jewish community in the world, Brooklyn being the first. I can count the number of black people I've seen on one hand. People from Buenos Aires are called Porteños, people of the port, and have a reputation for being liberal snobs who look down on the rest of the country. (It's almost as if I haven't left the East Coast. ;D The rules of the road here are also comfortingly similar to Boston—red light means go, pedestrians don't have rights, etc.) A major reason I chose Buenos Aires as a place to study abroad is because it is so white, so I as a white person don't feel like I'm intruding as much on another culture, but little did I know just how similar white people are everywhere.
Anyway, I've been feeling like a total sterotype this past week, even though I've been thoroughly enjoying myself. We went on a bike tour (See what I mean?!) of aristocratic Buenos Aires yesterday, after which we hung out with some friends of Jenni's that can only be described as bros. (Or, by the name I gave them, bro-ches; “che” is like “hey”.) Our second night here, we went to this guy Jonathan's family's apartment. He lives in Palermo, which is the ritziest district of the city. This was the kind of house that I would never be invited to in the States. (I am classless, so I took pictures.)
Last night, we pre-gamed at a restaurant, then pre-gamed again at Jonathan's place before going to the club. (Haha America, you suck and I'm allowed to do that here!) You know that Family Guy episode where Stewie founds the nightclub called pLace, made especially for pretentious douchebags? Yeah, that's what Crobar was like. I was so excited to go out dancing, but it really wasn't a positive dance experience for me... it was full of straight white people and played all American music, and I was tired after ten minutes of guys grinding into my ass without permission and assuming I wanted to dance with them because I'm sexy. (Or saying I am “imaginative” because I wanted to find some girls to dance with.) I'm definitely going to a gay club next weekend, so I can hopefully avoid the excess of machismo.
So there are definitely ups and downs. I need to adjust physically and mentally to a whole new lifestyle. Argentinians can meet for dinner as late as 11p.m., then go dancing at 2. Two of the hardest things in the world for me are socializing for long periods of time and going to restaurants. Guess what the major pastimes are here? Yup, you guessed it. I'll get acclimated over time, but for now I feel like I need to turn myself into a different person in order to make friends here... I'm so not Latina in the way that Tomas described himself and his friends as Latino.
I miss everyone at home, and am sure that you all are having a good time in your respective corners of the world. Be on the lookout for more updates to come!
Con mi amor, xoxo Hannah
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