I kind of dislike this title as it feels like it should be a segment in the 28th minute of a bad half-hour reality tv show, but for lack of one better and no desire to think of one I'll stick with it. I'm exhausted, but for only good reasons as I'm still adjusting to the crazy porteno lifestyle. For starters, when Argentines go out at night, they don't leave around 10 and return around 2 like we do in Boston. If I went to a club here (other than the most touristy ones) at 1:30 in the morning, it'd be closed. Not because it's too late, but instead because it's too early--people here don't go out until about 2am and true portenos don't return until 7am. Likewise, dinner isn't until 10/10:30pm, and lunch usually isn't served before 3pm. I truly feel as though I've been in Buenos Aires for at least a month already.

Buenos Aires really is a huge city. This week I went to most of the well-known barrios (neighborhoods) in the city which are all proximate to the east coast. The map below shows how the barrios are laid out within the city. I live near the red (line B) subte stop in Almagro, which is a very central location within BaAs.



Like I said I feel like I've done a lot since I arrived here so I'll try to describe some of it here. I've visited Palermo, Recoleta, La Boca, San Telmo, Puerto Madero, San Nicolas y Monserrat. FLACSO is in Balvanera so I've passed through there a lot and I even went to Belgrano briefly.

Palermo is easily the most touristy area (although Calle Florida is the most touristy street) so of course that's where we went bar/club hopping the first few nights here, especially around Plaza Serrano. Palermo has two very touristy "districts," appropriately named Palermo Hollywood and Palermo Soho--part of the reason they're such a tourist destination. At night the streets are packed with other young people and endless taxis. I walked up from my subte stop, Medrano, with some friends during the day though and the area was empty.



Recoleta I've been to twice: once briefly yesterday at a friend's house and again today to go to an urban art festival and the weekly street fair. I haven't been to the Cemetery yet which is a very important place to portenos since people like Eva Peron are buried there. That said, the urban arts festival was great; my host sister told me about it and it didn't disappoint. It had two floors. Each level had its own dj, and then the lower level had very unique urban paintings while the upper level had BMX bikers on a half-pipe. The street fair had great mate gourds and some other hand-crafted goods but otherwise wasn't that impressive.



La Boca was an experience only because it's a real contrast from the other barrios of BaAs that I've visited thus far because of its relative poverty. I saw the Boca Stadium which is the pride of the area, but what I enjoyed more was seeing the pickup soccer games and eating in a small restaurant with locals who were adamantly watching various sports programs.

San Telmo I visited only at night after drinking some Fernet, so I don't have much to say at the moment, but each Sunday there's a large street fair there that I'll be going to tomorrow. Supposedly the fair gets up to 10,000 people on a good Sunday and contains many milongas (tango locales).

Puerto Madero is a sight to see. It's the ritzy waterfront district that's about as eclectic as any place I've ever seen. There are numerous skycrapers there currently under construction and endless expensive cafes and restaurants. Essentially as one moves east(as you can see if you look at the map) short bridges connect the mainland of BaAs to the skyscrapers of Puerto Madero, followed by a large, untouched natural reserve, followed by the Rio de la Plata to the far east. Aside from sitting at a cafe overlooking the water for a while I for the first time on the trip bought food from a street vendor. For 12 pesos ($3.50) I got easily one of the best sandwiches I've ever had: bife de chorizo with a sundried tomato and pesto sauce...incredible.



San Nicolas and Monserrat are districts in which Calle Florida, La Plaza de Mayo, much of la Avenida 9 de Julio, and other notable places are. Calle Florida is the most touristy place in Buenos Aires. It's a street on which no cars are allowed, down the middle of which are street vendors with expensive shops on either side. The Calle Florida Harrods location recently closed but was the only Harrods in the world outside of London for a long period of time. La avenida 9 de julio is a 20 lane street that is as wide as a city block. It's really not that exciting and is a real pain to cross. And I haven't been to the Plaza de Mayo but I'm going to try to get there soon.



And Belgrano I visited for the birthday party of a friend at her apartment, but the town is pretty far west so it's not anywhere I plan to go.

It's amazing how much different I feel now in comparison to a week ago. Just writing this makes me realize how busy I was and makes me feel less bad about being so tired now.