Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Happy 9th of July!

The other night Molly and I went to a yoga class at the gym we've been going to.  The gym is really quaint - everyone who comes in is greeted with a kiss on the cheek, everyone kind of knows each other somehow, and the power went out in the middle of the yoga class.  The yoga class was a good lesson in spanish anatomy vocabulary and it's always nice to mix in with local people, even though they can always pick us out as Americans.  Whenever I say that I'm from Seattle someone says "Oh, sí, como Grey's Anatomy!"  

We had a couple birthdays to ring in last night, so we all headed down to Palermo around 11pm.  Nate's host brother is a bartender and happens to know a lot of people with connections, so we were able to get into a reservation-only bar called "el buey" (the ox) by saying that we were "friends of Lucas" and then we headed to a club called "Asia de Cuba" in Puerto Madero, which started out as an industrial district down by the water but now has a bunch of trendy converted warehouses.  The lines outside were crazy - it was one of those clubs where huge crowds hover around the entrance and wait for some mysterious guy to beckon them in.  There were 5 girls in our group and we were able to get in by pushing to the front and again saying that we were "friends of Lucas."  The club was amazing - it was packed, they played a mix of latin music and really good american remixes, and there was a huge golden buddha statue right next to the dance floor -  but we only stayed for a little bit because the guys weren't able to get in.  It seemed like there were twice as many people waiting to get in as there were inside the club. When I eventually got home it was 4:30am, pretty early by Argentine standards.

We didn't have school today, it was Argentina's Independence Day.  We celebrated Nate's birthday at his family's house (his host mom made this delicious dessert - it was some incredible dulce de leche/pudding/ice cream combination) and then Mark's birthday at his host family's house (which involved a chocolate and dulce de leche cake).  The whole day was so relaxing and I love spending time with everyone's host siblings.  I noticed that most of the time we speak in spanish to them and they speak in english to us, and the whole conversation just goes on seamlessly.  We spent most of tonight eating and playing guitar and singing - if there are two things that never fail to bring people together it's food and music.  I am so incredibly thankful that this specific combination of people decided to come on this study abroad, and I am so thankful for how wonderful all of the host families are.

       

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