Ohh what a night!

So.. my first week in Buenos Aires is complete! Class is going well, in fact surprisingly well, considering it's 5 hours a day straight (minus the lunch break). My profesora Mage does a great job of making everything really interactive, and she's bursting with energy which I really appreciate even when we're not. For example, Thursday night a bunch of us went over to the Australian's apartment (theres a small group from Australia who have their own place instead of staying with a host family, clutch) and following the pre-game we went to a bar and a discoteca. The bar was a ton of fun-- the DJ started playing classic American funk music, needless to say, somos la fiesta (we are the party). Once we all started dancing the rest of the bar crowd joined in, and there were some great vibes floating around in there! Afterwards we went over to a discoteca where the girls got in for free (score), and danced the night away. There was a live band, confetti falling from the ceiling and a few people even whipped out some sparklers.. definitely made for a fun night! Although getting 4 1/2 hours of sleep before class didn't make for such smooth sailing on Friday.. woops!

Yesterday the ISA group went on our first excursion- to Tigre! We took a train and a ferry to get there, and 50 of us relaxed on a beach for a few hours. There are people who are native to the island and don't leave much, which is why the outside world comes to them-- there's a supermarket boat that stops at each house! Granted, prices are more expensive, but they save a ton of money on boat fuel. (There's also a small theme park!) The water at Tigre kind of resembles the chocolate river from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory-- but not really because it's dirty, but because there's so much dust and mud that's thrown into the river that it has just become this dull brownish color. Not complaining though, well, maybe a little bit due to the sunburn... but anyhoo, after hanging out at the beach for a few hours, we went to some markets by the water and walked around before heading back towards Buenos Aires. Our last stop though was a beautiful restaurant right on the Atlantic ocean in one of the burroughs of the city, it was such an incredible view and the water was hot tub material. I have a rough life here, I really do. ;)

We all ended up going home, eating dinner with our families and then meeting up in a bar called Sullivan's waaaay across town for a girl's 21st birthday celebration. Because there were so many of us it ended up getting hectic and we split up-- around 2:30 or 3am we got to the Plaza Cerrano and camped out at a bar called Bruja until it closed at 5! It's weird, I'm usually such a grandma and would have hated staying out that late, but for some reason time doesn't seem relevant or applicable in Argentina. When the bar closed we realized that the sun was coming up... so naturally, the 9 of us walked home as the sun rose and then stopped at a pizza place to get some beer and empanadas around 6 or 6:30am. We weren't the only ones though-- the place was poppin and so was the city! Honestly, the night was perfect. The last time I watched the sun rise was probably Relay for Life.. but let me tell you, seeing the sun come over the horizon was incredible. I feel so blessed to even be here!

Now it's just a matter of recovering... time to go do some studying and lounge in the park! Ciao!