The City:
Buenos Aires (BA) is a very interesting place. Even thought I am in another country I don't feel like I am. BA has the characteristics of many other big cities. If I had to explain it I would say it is a mix of Chicago, New York City, and Washington D.C. Chicago because everyone is so stylish and skinny. New York City because of the traffic and the people on the street selling stuff. And Washington D.C. because of the elegancy of the buildings.

The People:
BA also has some really beautiful people. I only saw two overweight people today, and believe me, I saw a lot of people today. Many of the women here wear silver jewelry. I have yet to see anyone other then Courtney's roommate Lacey wear diamonds. Even wedding bands are all silver. The ones with open toed shoes on mostly wear their shoes too small, so their toes stick off of the front of the shoe slightly.

This is also a place of much affection. Friends seem to walk arm in arm down the street (mostly women and women). Couples show affection in an appropriate yet very romantic manner. They hold each other in public and gaze strongly at each other like no one else is there.

Second Café:
Argentines are so nice to tourists. As long as you attempt to speak their language and are polite they treat you wonderfully and try to speak English to you...if they know it. Me and Court's waiter, Luie, from the cafe spoke English to us and we spoke Spanish to him. It was fun. Court tells people her name is Lynn when they ask. Down here not many words start with "c" so Argentine's cannot pronounce her name at all. It just makes things easier. In addition to speaking English he brought us bread and this very unique sauce. Court had never had it before either. It was spicy and delicious.

Also tonight I learned a lot of Spanish. Courtney, Lacey and I were out to dinner at this steak restaurant. Their old neighbor Juan Pablo and his friend Luie arrived while we were getting our meals. They ended up joining us. It was really fun talking to them. We ended up going out to a bar where the five of us shared two beers. People here do not get drunk they just drink and socialize. It was really warming and fun. The bar was beautiful. We were upstairs where this is no roof, just walls. Juan and Luie helped Courtney a lot with her Spanish pronunciation and I tried some.

My First Ride in a Car:
Drivers are terrible in comparison to the US. I am not sure how bad they are in comparison to other countries. I had a gentleman, Carlos, about 60 years old, from Tienda Leon drop me off at the 1816 cafe on 11 de Septiembre. It was my first ride in a foreign country. I paid US$36 and gave him a 10peso tip. Not bad for a 45 - 50 minute ride. He drove on the shoulder and weaved in and out of traffic the entire way. He had really bad English and I have really bad Spanish, but we arrived in one piece. The funny thing was with our communication difference he thought I needed to go to the address 1816 not a cafe named 1816, but we figured it out. He was great. He actually reminded me a lot of my gramps, a cute old man, except for skinnier...and he could drive. After Carlos left me at the cafe I realized I forgot my email from Courtney with the driver. The email had Courtney's information on how to contact her if I got lost...oops. While I was thinking about it he showed back up. He realized he had it and brought it back to me at the cafe. After he gave it to me he wished me luck...I think, I couldn't really understand him, then he kissed me on the cheek and left. My first, of what has turned out to be many, Argentine kisses.

Another thing I noticed that made me chuckle was the trucks that carry fruits and vegetables. The one I saw was an old flat bed pickup truck with crates of lemons and bags of potatoes on it They looked stable, but at the same time looked as if they might fall off.

There are many mopeds here. I would be too afraid to drive one here. It seems as if you could easily be run off the road or hit because there is so much aggressive driving. One thing about the mopeds is for certain, they have the easiest parking. Half of them seem to just park on the sidewalk, but then again cars just stop in the road and park there while they let passengers in and out. That happened with me when I was with Carols. Cars beep at you, but you just ignore them and you beep at them when they do the same thing you did.

Speaking the Language:
I didn't have too much trouble getting my bottled water "botella agua" and coffee "cafe" which I know now is actually straight espresso. I didn't learn that until later in day so needless to say I have been wired all day. I speak terrible Spanish so I am keeping my pen, paper, and dictionary handy.

Even though I have only been in BA for a day I have fallen in love with it. This is a city where you can walk forever and never see the same thing twice. Courtney and I went strolling to find a cafe to do our homework at. On our way, with no particular destination in mind, we walked by hundreds of buildings and hundreds of people until stopping at a cafe next to a park with some statutes and palm trees near the "Congreso" building. The funny thing about BA is the liquids that fall from the sky. Courtney says you should just try to ignore them. It is probably from an air conditioner or something. One would think this would be a city with a lot of pollution, but the winds seem to blow the pollution out of the city. I heard that you also burn a lot faster down here because the ozone layer is thinner, possibly because of the pollution. I did not burn today though.

PoliticsThere are also some very interesting conflicts going on between the farmers and the current president. First of all, for a little background...what I was told anyway...is the current president is the first woman president in Argentina. She was the wife of the last president. She was voted into office by rural Argentina. BA residents do not like her. She decided to implement a 43% tax on the farmers. The farmers, in protest, blocked the roads stopping the meats and fruits and vegetables from going into the city. Courtney said there were empty spots in the markets and the city was actually running out of food. The president decided to hold off on implementing the tax until negotiations with the farmers. Once the time came for the burning of the fields, like they do every year to kill off something, the winds shifted. Generally the winds blow from North to South but this year they blew west to east causing the fires to go out of control. Apparently a couple of days ago you could hardly breath in BA the smoke was so bad. Rumor is the president was upset at the farmers so refused to help control the fires; kind of interesting. It will be interesting to see what happens since they still haven't come to an agreement with the tax.