Procrastinating this paper never felt so public...

Probably the most striking statue I saw.

Last week, I spent nearly every weekday thinking, "I'll go to bed earlier tonight."  And I never did.

The time flies here after class.  It's already past 4 o'clock when I get home, which leaves just under 2 hours of daylight to be out and about in the city.  I've spent some of that time reviving my running habit, and some of it walking around my apartment scoping out the territory.  At dusk, I begin my homework.

Reading literature in Spanish takes a while.  I'm currently reading Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal, and that's no sweat, but reading works by Mario Vargas Llosa and Jorge Luis Borges takes quite a bit more time.  I've found that using my physical dictionary does not help much, since it takes too long to look up words.

This weekend I had my first real assignments.  Thursday and Friday I "went out", but I decided to spend the rest of my weekend relaxing, catching up on sleep, and doing homework.  I've spent a good deal of time writing a few short essays in Spanish for my history class, and I'm on the prowl for a place to print.

One thing I did manage to do this weekend, however, was to visit the famous cemetery in Recoleta.  All the pictures here were taken on that expedition.  The cemetery looks more like an extremely wealthy ancient city, full of mausoleums with elaborate Greek columns, museum-worthy statues, and towering steeples.  Even the callejones weaved a city-like grid.  I spent a lot of the time trying to keep my jaw closed, thinking I'll probably never make enough money in my whole life to be worthy of a burial there.

I saw the place where Evita Peron was buried.  After two weeks of history class learning about the great respect that the people of Argentina have for that woman, I was surprised at the modesty of her tomb--much smaller than most, and tucked away in the corner.  Flowers and photos decorated her doorway, but due to it's inconspicuousness, we spent a solid half hour winding through the cemetery before we found it.  I suppose that suits her former role in Argentine society: a woman of the people.

Main view.  Kinda reminds me of the Congressional
Cemetery in D.C.

Now that I've been here a few weeks, I have gathered a few noteworthy differences between my home in the United States and Buenos Aires:

1.) A lot more people smoke here.  The air almost always smells of cigarettes.  (also, all the young people here are very good looking, whereas all the older people are a bit more worn and wrinkly...connection??)

2.) Buses drive as if they want to hit pedestrians.  'Nuff said.

3.) You have to buy water at restaurants.  Absolutely bogus if you ask me.

4.) Things are almost always closed on Sundays.

5.) A lot of people listen to foreign music here (aka, popular music from the US).  I would really like to hear more Argentinian music on the radio, but at restaurants and in taxis I almost always here music in English.

6.) Rollerblading is still cool here.

7.) Graffiti is everywhere. Perhaps they don't care that much, or perhaps their police force is not as widespread, but there is spray paint on just about everything.  Lots of scribbles and stencils.  Every so often there's some cool stuff.

8.) People know more languages here.  Spanish, English, and of course Portuguese.  Also, French is pretty common here I guess.

I'll update that list as I discover more things.  I'm sure I'm leaving a few things out right now.

I'm starting to think a lot about my coming school year.  On every trip of considerable length, I always devote way too much time to planning out what I want out of life.  I've finally reached that point on my Argentina trip.  I have only two, and possibly fewer, years of school left, and I'm trying to work out how to spend it.  Over the past few days, for a variety of reasons, I've been seriously second guessing my decision to become an RA at UW-Madison.  I'm just fearful that it will constrict me from getting myself involved in a few things I might have more of an interest in (for instance, Slow Food internship, studying abroad and continuing with my Spanish journey, working at SAFEwalk, etc.).

Any advice for me?

Had to take this one.  Like father, like son?