Went on a guided tour with students from my program today. We started walking in the area of Puerto Madero (most expensive place to live in the city) and headed to the reserve.

A welcoming spot by the fire Video

Courtyard video

If you want to visit Argentina I highly recommend la casa de Monica y Marcelo. They welcomed me with such kindness and openness into their home. Their house was my first stop before going to live with my host family.

They are quite interesting folks. They have lived in their home for over 40 years and seen their neighborhood change greatly. Here’s a short experience of a street near their house.

Palermo City Street Video

Has my first steak in Argentina here. Bife de Chorizo (sirloin) It was so good!

Until 3 years ago Marcelo was the director of Argentina’s National Park system. Monica is an archeologist who retired and has an Acupuncture practice.

It was winter Holidays For the schools when I arrived and their three lovely grandchildren had a sleep over with them. There was also many acupuncture clients coming and going all the way till 11pm. Things happen late here!

Today I went back to their house because I had left my hat there. We had coffee and I brought peanut butter cookies and oatmeal cookies I made.

These are exotic cookies here and not so common. It was so amazing to talk with them because I was very tired and just beginning my immersion into Spanish when I met them.

Wow! What a different experience I had today. I understood everything they told me and could keep up much better with what I wanted to say.

Somewhat randomly but not I have been getting to know a lot of lovely women from Switzerland. One of them Christina is good friends with my host family Nora and Antonio. Her childhood friend Miriam came to visit and then I met Lilian who came to buenos aires for a month to immerse herself in Tango clases and Milongas.

Since they live Tango we went to some historic tango spots. One of which is called Boliche de Roberto (has a resident cat) and the other, La Catedral del Tango.

http://www.lacatedralclub.com

Christina took the black and white photos.

This painting reminded me of Bruce Saunders Mandala art.

I made new friends and we had a special outing in the River Delta of Tigre!!

photo cred

phot cred

photo cred

I met them at a special event held each Saturday called Mate Club. https://www.mate-club.com.ar

We drink the tradicional Argentine yerba mate at Rabia Bar.

Mate is more popular here than coffee. There are special cups and straws used to drink it.

photo cred

My new friend Matías and I are featured with it below. That is also his daughter relaxing in the sun above.

photo cred

Traditional styles of mate gourds and bombillas.

Here’s a video of our time together. We rode a boat i to the Delta for an hour and a half and booked a private lunch cooked and served to us by the owner Laura.

Here are some videos of us on a 100 year old boat. Yikes!

These boats are like public busses for visitors and residents of the Delta. We dropped off and picked up many people on our ride.

Best desert ever. Vanilla and chocolate mouse on homemade crepes with blanched cumquats and mandarins oranges marinated in simple syrup.

There is a floating grocery store that came to our doc.

Laura the owner and someone from our group went out to buy something.

Matius bought some very beloved traditional cookies called Pepas. They have quince jam in the center (called membrillo)

Keys to my house! The buildings are very old and most people have keys like this.

The doors to my room!!! I live in a five bedroom house with a terrace on the roof that over looks the city. Guys I really lucked out : )

Below is my host family. Nora y Antonio. This phot is on the roof of my house.

My first meal at home. Torta and some tho ya I do t know the name yet.

This was my second Air bnb. The owner did that mosaic.

Typical breakfast items. You will see a lot of photos of media luna’s the croissant looking thing. I just learned there are two kinds. The fats ones=media Luna’s manteca (made with butter) smaller ines i. another photo are Media luna’s. in gris (made with a rich lard)

see the skinny media lunas? I like these best!

My first Air bnb. I miss Monica and Marcelo mucho. He used to work for the national park system and she was a paleontologist and is. ow an acupuncturist.

Some phots are out of order. This is Las cholas. My first restaurant.

My first Air bnb

My first room in Argentina. It was a lovely home that the couple has lived in for 40 years.

My first bill!!!! Went to A Las Cholas for empanadas, large cesar salad with chicken , water white wine and and coffee. $735 Argentine pesos = $16 American dollars

This is a typical way to buy and store milk. It comes in these pouches and you have a long lasting container to hold it.

One of the two kitchens in my house.

Hallway by my room.

My room!

I went to a mall with a local friend who needed to get a book for her niece. I found some familiar characters in the store.

Also on a second outing in a neighborhood l have come to love greatly called Caballito I went into a candy store and a store for birthday decorations/celebrations. I love stores like these and wanted to share them with you.

Next to office for my program is a movie theatre. Right now it is a winter holiday and this area is filled with kids waiting for the movies when I go out the door for lunch.

• This is Mafalda a beloved children’s story character in Argentina. The author is from a neighborhood called San Telmo. This is the oldest part of the city and where I will be going to school At Fundación Universidad del Cine https://www.ucine.edu.ar

www.facebook.com/photo.php

Hello friends and family. I am here!! Thank you all for making me feel so supported in more ways than one. I am happy to announce I surpassed my GoFundMe goal thanks to many of you. A big donation from an old friend Theresa Eager pushed me over the top. Thanks Theresa! Ironically she is the person who helped me leave the United States for the first time when I was 16. I visited her family in Berlin and they showed me many cities and sites in Germany and Denmark. Here’s a link to the site as it explains a bit about me and my program. Also I am allowed to surpass the financial goal if you had wanted to contribute still. https://bit.ly/2JW0e9O

However Buenos Aires…..

The night is still young. So much has happened in the last 24 hours. I can’t believe I left North Carolina.

I never knew I could be so nostalgic and sad to leave home. It is very bitter sweet and a bit of uncontrollable random crying happened throughout the day. However I met some lovely teenage girls from Buenos Aires who I sat next too on the plane. I had two flights one to Miami and the second to Ezeiza Airport in Buenos Aires.

At the moment I am at Marcelo and Monica’s house. She is an acupuncturist and he is a retired biologist who worked for the National Park system. They live in Palermo, a fun area of the city with lots of restaurants and bars. Marcelo helped me to feel brave enough to leave the house after I settled in (he doesn’t know that) He walked outside with me and pointed at two restaurants just out the front door. It was wonderful. I chose the one he mentioned that had empanadas! I drank the house white wine and ended the meal with a coffee so I can meet up with my friend Sol later. Argentinians are known for their late nights. Sol was an exchange student at UNC from Buenos Aires and we will be going to University of Buenos Aires together.

At this concludes my first blog post ever. If there is a comment section feel free to ask questions or request phots or explanation.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.