The padres came to visit!

My parents left earlier tonight for the airport. Their plane should be taking off pretty soon now. It was a really great visit--lots packed into 9 days. A bit exhausting, but good. It was really good to see them. I hadn´t really been missing things from home (mostly because I´m distracted by my exciting "new" life here), but I definitely got really excited thinking about them coming and it was a little hard to say goodbye and see you in December. Elvira said its because before I was distracted, but now I reestablished that connection. She's probably right. I can't even imagine what the goodbyes are going to be like in December when I won't be coming back to see those people after a month or so. It's going to be rough.

Anyway.... About the visit.


My parents arrived Saturday morning and went to the appartment they rented. There was some problem with the locks, but it all got worked out. We had empanadas for lunch--I figured we´d start out right with a very typical Argentine food. That afternoon we did a driving tour to see some of the highlights of the city. Afterwards we went to my appartment and they met my host family. It went really well. I played interpreter. My dad is did suprisingly well understanding and speaking a little bit of Spanish considering he hasn´t taken Spanish since college. His memory is ridiculous. We went out to dinner at a nearby restaurant that night with my host family as well. Yum. I packed my things up and then headed over to their appartment, since we were leaving in the morning. Unfortunately, we blew a fuse or something and all the electricity went out. We waited for the owners to come, but they couldn´t do anything either. A slightly rought start for the appartment building.



Sunday we went to Colonia, Uruguay. It's only an hour on the ferry across the river (or 3 if you take the slower one like I did earlier in the semester). Unlike my last visit, the weather was fabulous this time. We checked into our hotel (a hotel! Not a hostel! How wondeful!) and then went wandering in the historic district. Historic Colonia is very quaint--lots of old buildings and houses, cobblestone roads, restaurants and shops, all surrounded by the river. We basically wandered, browsed stores, and ate all day. We stopped by the restaurant I at lunch in last time and the owner/waitors/cooks, Ana and Carlos, remembered me. Ana had to think for a minute after I said something, but Carlos recognized me and came up to me right away. It was nice to talk to them for a bit. Had a nice dinner (also returned to where I ate dinner before. Maybe not original, but tasty) and then went for coffee at another restaurant with live music. Nothing else too noteworthy in Colonia, but it was very pretty and relaxing.

Also, Sunday was election day in Argentina. The current president's (Kirchner) wife, Cristina, was elected president--the first elected female president in Argentina.

Monday we came back to Buenos Aires. I thought I was going to have work and classes all days, but some plans changed so I got to play tourguide instead. I had to stop by FLACSO, so they got to meet a few people and see where I have a few of my classes. Stopped by a deli for lunch that I usually frequent a few times a week. Went on a mission for newspapers (for my independent study) and a hairdryer (which wouldn't be a culprit of another poweroutage in the appartment) and then wandered around Calle Florida, Plaza San Martin and Plaza de Mayo. After that I went to class, then came home for a big family dinner: Elvira (host mom), Joaquin (host brother), Catalina (host sister), Annie (Cata's student), and my real parents. Elvira had appetizers and wine waiting for us at the house. Dinner was a bit of an adventure. We started out walking the wrong way (2 similar street names, went to the wrong one) and when we arrived we learned were at El Palacio Espanol instead of Vasco Frances... we had the wrong address. The address I had gotten from the internet was really the address of another restaurant. We ended up eating there and it was good so it all worked out. Just made life a bit more interesting.

Tuesday I skipped my Spanish class to spend the day with my parents in Recoleta. We went to the cementary, which, though it sounds a bit morbid, was really cool. Its filled with monuments/mausoleums and there are lots of famous people from Argentina's history. I was able to explain a few, though a majority of the names that I did recognize I knew from street names or subte stops. We saw where Eva Peron (Evita) is buried and it was suprisingly unelaborate. We met up with Sarah and had lunch, which was fun. Tried to go to the Cultural Center to see some art exhibits afterward, but they're closed more or less on strike (welcome to Argentina). Went to Buenos Aires Design for a bit (basically a mall of cool things for the house?) and wandered around for a bit. My parents came to watch my tango class for a bit and afterwards we went to a tango show at Cafe Tortoni--a very classic and historic cafe in Buenos Aires. The show was really good and during one part, both dancers brought people up onstage with them and I got to dance!! I was quite excited and was actually able to follow pretty well and half-way pull it off. I think the combination of having come from tango class, a glass of wine with dinner, and the fact that he was really good and could lead all went together to make it work. I was super excited. It was really interesting to see where everyone in the audience was from as well. Out of 15 or so tables there were people from 10 countries. Pretty impressive.

Wednesday: Happy halloween, though its not really celebrated here. My parents brought me some halloween candy (including Reeses and candy corn!) which was exciting. I had class all day (11-8 with 2 hours total of breaks in between) so my parents were left alone in the city. They had various (outdoor) plans, but unfortunately it rained on and off all day. They went to the botanical gardens anyway (which apparently had many more cats than flowers in bloom) and to lunch in Palermo. There was an amusing/frustrating series of events trying to get to dinner that night. I was going to talk to my parents from my appartment about meeting up but discovered that I had the wrong number for their appartment, my house phone can't call cell phones, my cell phone was out of minutes, and my internet wasn't working to use skype or email. So I just walked over to their apartment. When I told them the name of the restaurant we had reservations at (Meridiano 58--which I had gone to early on in the semester and planned since that night to go to with my parents) they told me they had stumbled upon it and eaten there for lunch. Haha. I just couldn't win. We ended up going to Bar 6, which a friend had recommended and I'd read about in some of the guide books. Very good food, so everything worked out.

Thursday I had class in the morning and then we left for IGUAZU! It was an absolutely incredible trip. We spent all day Friday in the parks, but unfortunately had very rainy weather. I guess thats to be expected in a sub-tropical climate where it rains every 4-5 days. Even though the skies were gray, the views of the falls were still incredible. I took lots of pictures, but they just can't even capture it. The falls are an array of lots of waterfalls of all different sizes. There are falls in both Argentina and Brasil, but we couldn't go on the Brasil side since its so difficult (and expensive) for U.S. citizens to get visas there. We did the various trails and then took a speedboat out under the falls. Have you been soaked by a massive waterfall? I have. Incredible. From there we took the boat down the river and then rode in the back of an open truck through the jungle. Unfortunately, it starting pouring at this point (making us even wetter than from the falls) so the ride wasn't quite as enjoyable. We attempted to dry out a bit during lunch and did a bit more sight-seeing before going back to the hostel. We stayed at the Hostel Inn--amazingly nice for a hostel.
Saturday the weather was absolutely beautiful ( I got nice and sunburned as well, though yes I was wearing sunscreen). We took the train out to La Garganta del Diablo (Devil's throat), which is a really impressive view of the falls--my favorite. We took a raft down the river from there, which was really serene and hard to imagine that we had been so close to such a powerful waterfall. We repeated some of the walks from the day before to see the falls with a blue-sky background and got to see a rainbow as well! If you ever have the chance to go to Iguazu, I highly recommend it. It was just breathtakingly beautiful.
We were really lucky about spotting animals in the park also. We saw toucans, guinea pigs (wild), a deer, coatis (kind of like racoons), monkeys, turtles, and various other birds.

Saturdany evening we flew back to Buenos Aires. Elvira made dinner for us and, as my dad said, it was probably the best dinner we had during the trip. She made lomo (steak--filet?) with grapes and almonds and rice and stawberries with cream for dessert. Yum.

Today my parents brought their luggage over to my house and then we went out exploring the city one more time. Elvira accompanied us to the feria (market/fair) in San Telmo, which is 2 streets from my house, lunch at a parilla (grill), and then to La Boca, famous for its multi-color painted houses. When the immigrants (mostly Italian) moved there, they used whatever paints they had, which resulted in brightly, multi-colored houses. After we went to find a t-shirt for my dad and relaxed for a bit in a cafe before final packing and goodbyes. Around 7:15 they got in a cab and were off to the airport. Now my life will go back to "routine," though I'm quite alright with "routine" since I'm in Argentina.

Overall, it was a great visit and we got to do lots of fun things, including lots of things I hadn't gotten the chance to do before. I'm in the process of uploading pictures of our adventures, so be sure to look for them soon!