Hello!!

I have an exam on Monday, but I did want to mentioned that yesterday I GOT to go to a third world hospital and see a patient. Yup, a real patient and I GOT to interview him and present the case to the doctor. I was so excited (okay I still am excited)!!! I'll have to write about it more later, but he was the best paralyzed, sickle cell patient on the planet!!!

Back to memorizing pathology and pharmacology! I've got to finish the Argentina posts or I'll forget what happened there!!!

belated posts....

I promise that I will finish posting about Argentina very soon and that I will let you know how the second year of medical school is going. I'm up to my ears in pharmacology to memorize tonight.

Saturday--A City Tour and a few hundred pictures!

We started Saturday with a bang: A three hour tour of Buneos Aires. I wish I could remember all of the names of the buildings that we took pictures of. I will do my best to tell you what everything is.

They picked us up about 9:45 and we headed down toward the pier where all ton of tour buses met and they distributed people based upon what tour they signed up for. First we saw the English Tower. I can't remember the exact story, but apparently there is some irony about the location of this tower because of a battle between the Spanish and English or the English and Argentians or something. Anyway, I liked the tower.

We putted around a few more streets and ended up in a neighborhood of town (Recoleta is the area of town, I believe) and many of the museums as well as the Buneos Aires Law School were located there. The Law school (and I believe the undergraduate programs) were FREE of charge to locals and foreigners. Farley and I think we should learn medical Spanish and move to Argentina. Near the Art Museum and the Law School there is a giant flower. I'm not sure it's exact name, but it costs over three million to build and it open and closes at dawn and dusk as well as when the wind is too bad. I hear it lights up at night too. We went to the Art Museum on Sunday, so I have more pictures of this area to post when discussing that .

After leaving the little neighborhood, we ended up on Avenida 9 De Julio (Avenue of July 9th--their Independence Day). This is the BIG 14 lane wide avenue and it is where the Oblelisk is located (more pictures to come). On this street, not too far from our hotel, is the Colon Theater which is the third most influential and important theater/operas in the WORLD. Unlucky, it is in the middle of a major remodel and we didn't get to go on a tour of the theater nor did we get to go to an opera, symphony or ballet. Bummer for us! Here is the building:

After leaving this area, we went through the fancy-dancy areas. Many of the mansions that were build initially for the rich European immigrants. Now, they are designer stores. I love Burberry as much as the next purse shopper, but I couldn't get any good pictures from the bus. Sorry!!

Next we ended up at May Square (it had a different name, but it was for a political movement that occurred in May) and it is located right near the Casa Rosa (the Pink House) or the place where the Present does his work. It looked a bit like the White House, and it sounded like the equivalent of the White House, except that the President does not live in Casa Rosa. Rather he lives 10 Km away and FLYS via helicopter to the Casa Rosa every day. Here are some pictures of the square and Casa Rosa. Argentina has LOTS of statues so there are many in the area.

After finishing up at the Capital we moved to the Football stadium and the neighborhood (I don't remember the name of the area).

Above: Football Stadium. The colors of the team are obviously Blue and Yellow. They LOVE soccer!!

After finishing up at the soccer stadium, we headed toward the La Boca neighborhood. It is BRIGHT, COLORFUL and full of life. This is also where the tango dancer attacked Farley. In retrospect, I think it is funny; however, if I was grabbed by a tango dancer, who is older than my grandparents, I'd probably think it wasn't funny either. Every time I look at the picture, I laugh, but Farley hates it. There were beautiful younger tango dancers, but they weren't so aggressive and thus I don't have any pictures of either of us with them. Throughout this beautiful little neighborhood, there were artists, restaurants, sculptures, musicians, dancer and such. Here are some pictures.

After finishing up in La Boca, we headed back toward the pier then we were dropped off by the Galerias Pacifico. We decided to walk past the mall (in the opposite direction of the hotel) and headed toward a park. Buneos Aires was beautiful, in large part, because of so many little parks. Here are some pictures. First where the pedestrian street ends (you cross a street and your in the park)

We wandered around the pedestrians streets for the next few hours. We took a few more pictures on Avenida 9 De Julio---remember, this is the BIG 14 lane wide avenue and it is where the Oblelisk. The Oblelisk looks a lot like the Washington Monument (see it behind Farley's head in the first picture).

Later that night, about 10:30, we headed out for Steak dinner. It was pretty good. In fact, it was Farley's favorite. We had an amazing wine, which we tried to get shipped home for Christmas presents but we couldn't find a way to send any home without having to pay an enormous amount. We went back to the Oblelisk to take a few night shots of the street.

Above: look at all those headlights--that's just half the road!!!

A Friday in Buneos Aires

Friday morning, we went to brunch at another little cafe. We both order a sort of weird dish. It was turkey, ham, pineapple, peaches and cream. Well, it was exactly THAT on a plate. To my surprise, it was pretty yummy, but I don't think I'll order it again. Next, we decided to explore "the mall" known as the Galerias Pacifico, which was about three or four blocks from our hotel. Well, this was one heck of a mall!! It looks a lot like the Venetian in Las Vegas. Farley and I didn't like the shopping as much as the street level because the mall was much more commercialized--we LOVED the local merchants on the street!! However, the mall was beautiful. Above: The ceiling of the street level of the Galerias Pacifico.

Above: the ceiling of the basement. Doesn't it look like a church?

The fountain on the basement of the "mall."

We had such a great time!!! After exploring the mall, we walked around the streets looking into little mom and pop shops (on the search for shoes and handbags...oh and ties, can you guess who those were for??) I found the cutest little wedge, brown round toe shoes and I got a great bargain! I wasn't intending on buying shoes in Buneos Aires, but I had a pair of cheap brown heals for our introduction to clinical medicine (we have to dress up) and I wore them one day and managed to get enormous blisters and couldn't walk in them (or any other shoe) comfortably for over a week.

For our anniversary, Farley took me out to the most amazing evening of wine, food and tango! We heard from several locals that THE place to see a tango show is La Ventana. First, they picked us up at the hotel, then we had a great dinner. There were three courses. We both had excellent veggie soup, then Farley had steak and potatoes and I had pork chops and sweet potatoes and then we had dessert. I had the most amazing Flan--oh my, my mouth is watering just thinking about it and Farley had fruit cocktail. There was a live orchestra, a parade of dancers, several singers, a traditional Argentinan Band, a gaucho (who did a tap like dance and used these traditional balls on stings, used to hunt--sorry don't know the name of them). They even did a portion of Evita, the famous musical. Here are some of the many pictures.

Farley and I before dinner was served.

Above: The restaurant has their own wine and it was yummy!
Below: The ceiling was really pretty with the stained glass

Above: one of the amazing tango dancers, who looks a LOT like my mom.

Above: one of the singers performing from Evita.

Below: the dancers after the completion of the show.

I close my eyes and I'm back, back in Argentina....

Every time I close my eyes, I'm back in Argentina. I hear the click-clack of the stiletto heals on the cobblestone streets, I feel the brisk early spring breeze on my skin, I see the tango dancers and hear the tango music, I smell the coffee and the fire roasted steak and then I open my eyes to realize that I'm not in Argentina anymore.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008--the day it all started on . The taxi arrived at 4:40am to take us to the airport. I barely slept all night. I couldn't wait to get to Buneos Aires, but I was also afraid because I don't speak any Spanish. I wasn't sure about the LONG trip. We had to stop in Antigua for a half hour, during which we had to go back through security two more times. Yes, we went through security three times before being allowed to board the plane to Puerto Rico. Finally we arrived in Puerto Rico, hoping to rush through check in so that we could sit and sip coffee; however, the airlines didn't open up until several hours after we arrived at the airport, so we sat outside the airlines waiting for them to open. Luckily, we still had several hours in which to enjoy a coffee before the flight to Panama. Farley and I both slept the whole way to Panama City, but Copa, the most amazing airlines I've ever flown, served a small meal--the flight was only two and a half hours! We had a two hour lay over in Panama and there was basically a mall inside the Panama airport. There were 40 gates at this terminal and a million designer stores. You could get any perfume you desired, European chocolate, Designer handbags, but you cannot get a Panama shot glass (sorry Dad, your collection will be one country short) nor could you get anything to eat besides a hot dog!!! That's right a hot dog! Okay, that isn't quite fair as there was ONE restaurant with a thirty person line and two hot dog stands---realistically, a hot dog was the best option. We got on the plane for Buneos Aires at 9:00pm and I was ready to get back to sleep. However, I was also really hungry. Luckily, Copa (the amazing airlines) severed spaghetti and meatballs. I had to wake up Farley because I don't speak a lick of Spanish--he didn't seem too happy with me, but I think we both needed a hot meal and it wasn't too bad (honestly, it was better than some of the meals I've had in Dominica). After leaving Dominica at 4:30 am, going to Antigua, Putero Rico, and Panama we finally arrived in Buneos Aires at 6:00am local time on Thursday, August 28th. After about 24-hours of traveling, we were both tired but incredibly excited. We checked our bags at the front desk of the Grand King Hotel then headed out to observe the city. We were about 100 feet from the intersection of Florida Street and Lavalle, which were two of the hottest pedestrian streets in Argentina and where lots of street performers put on their acts. However, there are not any street performers at 7:00am. So, we grabbed a nice breakfast in a little cafe then waited back at the hotel reading books until they could get us into our room at 11:00 so we could take a nap.

By mid-afternoon we were back on the streets and the streets were alive. First we walked to the right of our hotel, which in about six blocks led to the pier. There were tons of restaurants, boats, historic monuments, and the beautiful bridge below. I'm not sure of the name of it, but it is very famous. There were people all over and this is when Farley and I first realized that Buneos Aires is a city of lovers. They were all over holding hands, embracing, kissing....not just the young teenagers but lovers of all ages. I'm sure it's just a cultural difference, but it was a bit surprising at first to see two grandparents embracing like teenagers on the street corner.

After we left the pier, we walked toward some government buildings. We weren't sure exactly what buildings they were until we took the city tour on Saturday morning. Apparently, this is the government building, but the Casa Rosa (Pink House) is across town (the Pink House is the equivalent of the White House and I'll show you pictures later). We didn't get any amazing pictures of the government buildings near the pier (that's right, in the 400 pictures we took of the city, we didn't get a great one of the government buildings near the pier). After looking at the government buildings, we decided to head back to our hotel and the streets were alive. The street performers were starting to come out, all the little shops were open so obviously we decided to do some shopping. The US Dollar is worth about 2.65 to 1 Argentina peso, but the small shop owners would give 3.00-3.20 a dollar. Obviously, I wanted to look for a handbag in Buneo Aires so we wandered into a leather store. There were more leather stores than one could count. I've never been a huge fan of leather jackets, but I saw a couple beautiful jackets at the first store we went into. The first one I tried on, I fell in love with and I bought. It is amazing how reasonable the jackets are in Argentina. The place I bought my jacket in was owned by a family and the shop was up stairs. They would have made any of the sample jackets into any color and any size--for the same price. The one that I bought looked as though it was made just for me--no alterations needed. As I type this, my beautiful leather jacket is in a giant zip lock back and stored in a suite case until I return into Spokane. After leaving the jacket store, Farley and I kept looking in stores. One kind woman asked us to come into her family's leather store. The first jacket Farley tried on fit beautifully. There were racing stripes on the sleeves and I thought that was a bit too trendy, but the jacket was beautiful. So, the saleswoman gave him the same jacket without the racing stripes to try on. It was perfect! Farley wanted to sleeves a little shorter, which they included in the price of the jacket--so he obviously bought it. So, we didn't get matching t-shirts in Argentina, we got matching leather jackets.

We went back to the hotel about 8:00 to get ready for dinner, as the Argentineans don't eat until 10:00-12:00 at night. We headed out about 10:30 for dinner. We ended up at La Estancia. It is a meat extravaganza!!!!! When you walk into the restaurant there are two glassed in meat cooking places. To the right, is a fire pit with meat near the fire to the left, is a grill---a giant, enormous grill.