Gay Clubs and Birthday Parties

There are lots of gay clubs here in Córdoba, Argentina and I recently went to one for my friend Cindy's 21st birthday.  First we had a previa (pre-party) at our friend Ambika's house.  We ate pizza, hung out, and those of us with no TVs or no cable took advantage of Ambika's cable television.  There's always lots of great English movies playing with subtitles so we watched bits and pieces of those.  Once it hit about 2:00 we headed out to flag down some taxis and went to a gay club I can't remember the name of.  It was super fun and a tad bit interesting too.  I experienced a few firsts while there:  Saw a drag queen up close and personal and saw two girls kissing for quite awhile.  They were actually right behind me!

The first drag queen I've ever seen!

The two girls kissing that were right behind us!

The stage in the boliche!  There were about 6 DJs and an awesome light display.

For the actual day of Cindy's birthday her host mom, whom is my host mom's best friend,  prepared the cutest little merienda ever!  It was so girly and cute!  There was a table set up outside with the most adorable tea set and delicious finger food.  She made small sandwiches using media lunas, which are extra mouthwatering croissants, with ham and melted cheese in the middle.  Scrumptiousssssss!  To top it off, the cake Monica (Cindy's host mom) made was FaNtAsTiC!  She even managed to make four little pájaros (birds) from meringue that she put on top!

Recently

In line waiting to finish one of the last steps of the visa process.



Afterward, Zach and I went to grab some empanadas for lunch from on of the best empanada places in town. La Vieja Esquina! I highly HIGHLY recommend the criollo dulce (sweet) empanadas. They're my fave!



Stopping for dessert at Del Pilar, my favorite panaderia here on the street 9 de Julio! Doesn't it look AmAzInG?! It is!!!



This wonderful piece of heaven is called a factura!



Passing by one of the many protests that happen in Córdoba, actually all over Argentina. Literally, protests happen at least once a week usually bi-weekly or tri-weekly. They're always extremely loud too. They fire off air bombs? It's just the sound of a bomb, not an actual one, that you can hear from pretty much all parts of the city. Lots of drums and very loud determined people!



For my class Cultura Latinoamerica we went to downtown where our teacher explained in--depth details about the area. One of the facts we learned is that the colonial city of Córdoba is centered around the first two building constructed: The church and the central political location called Cabildo. The church took 100 years to build and the city is still completely centered around the area called Plaza San Martin where these two building are.



Visiting my host Mom at the shop where she sells her beautiful handmade clothes. It's such a cool store. There's a collection of the creations from about 40 artesans in town and everything is so unique!



Merienda with (from right going counter clockwise: Javier, Laura, Lisa and her two friends that are studying abroad in Buenos Aires) Javier taught us all the technical ways you need to know to make Mate and Terere, which is this delicious drink with mate and some sort of juice. It's how they drink Mate in the summer.



Hanging out with my host mom and her boyfriend Carlos. They're both so fun!



This is my host mom and I trying out best to make this extremely tedious, boring task of rolling up yarn into a ball, to make it easier to use, more fun. We ended up putting some music on and dancing all over the house while we did it. Each one took about 20 or 30 minutes to do with us going super fast! We definitely felt accomplished when we finished.

Visa, Exploring, Merienda at Buen Pastor, Ray's bday!

Another step of the visa process began today - It's such a hassle! No wonder they're are so many illegal immigrants living in countries all around the world. I went to several different places to get this and that paper before heading to my final stop, which was immigration. It had the longest line of people I have seen in all of Argentina. The wait would've been at least 3 HOURS and I just wouldn't have been able to handle it all by lonesome with no books or anything to keep me occupied. So I just left and am planning on going back in a couple days with some friends. It was super interesting to see though. People from all around the world were in one central place sharing in the same strenuous, nonetheless interesting process, of receiving their visas. After all that I returned to my beloved past time of exploring. Walking around the city definitely improves my pretty much nonexistent sense of direction. When I'm alone I have to figure it out. So I went off, map in hand, ready to tackle downtown (El Centro) Córdoba and I came across some pretty beautiful sights during the process. One of them is called Plaza Italia, which is the picture with the magnificent flowers below! There are also tons of ancient Catholic cathedrals that I am always wanting to explore. Today I went into the main one in Plaza San Martin (The heart of the city) and it was incredible, just like all the others. This one though was especially fun today because when I was walking around taking pictures like always this AdOrAbLe little girl starting following me around. We ended up playing for about 20 minutes! First we walked around for a bit and when I sat down for a second she came over to me, with her ball in hand, anxiously wanting to play with someone while her mother prayed in another part of the church. Soooo precious! Later, off to my next class and then merienda, my favorite meal of the day by the way. It consists of mate, tea, and all things sweet! I met up with several friends at Buen Pastor, a place where there are a bunch of people just hanging out in the grass with their friends enjoying life! There is a picture of it below with my friends Rachel, Jose and Kelsey while we wait for the others to arrive. After that Rachel and I left to go celebrate our friend Ray's 24th birthday at his apartment which was luckily only a 10 minute walk away. His host mom and Ray himself made us all home made empanadas. Ray actually also made some picante from some spices he had just bought from Peru when he went there for spring break. It was so wonderful because we have all been craving spicy foods since we arrived because they're really hard to come by here. Argentinians don't even use pepper! Oh, and the best part was that the birthday cake we had was from this famous bakery in Córdoba of which I cannot remember the name. First letter of the first word is G and first letter of the second word is F. I'll remember it later. Anyways, this was the second cake I have tried from there and I completely understand why it is famous. Wonderful end to the day.



One side of Plaza Italia



Catedral in Plaza San Martin



Merienda at Buen Pastor with Rachel, Jose and Kelsey and waiting for the others.



Ray's 24th birthday celebration!

Catedrals y Colectivos

So today was a wonderfully relaxed Sunday as usual. Helped with some cooking (It's one of my goals to come back knowing how to cook a little better than when I arrived) My host mom and I made some wannabe tacos for lunch. We basically just put a mixture of vegetables and other things into crepes - Argentine tacos. . .Argentacos! They were delicious and super saludable (healthy) Later, I met up with my friend Merritt to go to mass (misa) at one of the GORGEOUS Catholic cathedrals downtown. It boggles my mind thinking about the fact that all Catholic masses around the world are on the same schedule and completely in sync with each other. So, even though it was in Spanish and I wasn't able to catch every single word, I still had a slight clue about what was going on. Después (later), Merrit and I couldn't just go straight home or else we'd be missing out on some of the fun the city always has to offer. We had a blast just walking around not really doing much of anything except people watching and experiencing life as Argentinians! Now I know that there are a lot of people in the city, but seriously there are a TON of people living here. It was a Sunday night and downtown was bustling with people in the crowded streets. After we had our fun Merrit and I finally split ways for just about a 10 minute walk by ourselves to our different bus stops. Usually we wouldn't even think of walking anywhere at night alone. However, there were so many people around and the streets we walked were well lit. This was actually my first time taking bus R3, or colectivo in Español, that passes right by my house. There are other R buses that go really close to where I live, but R3 is the only one that drops me off literally two houses down from mi casa. It's was the perfect first-time bus riding experience right to my front door step! I didn't have to wait long at all, only 10 minutes when it can be up to 45, and it only took 10 minutes to arrive at my destination. I love public transportation! Go green!


My friend Merritt in the magnificent Catedral


The street view I had waiting for my bus R3!