Meanwhile, in Argentina...: Feria and Jardín Botánico

Mientras empiezo escribir este blog, estoy pensando en escribirlo en castellano. ¿Por qué, me preguntas? PORQUE ESTOY EN ARGENTINA Y ESTOY USANDO CASTELLANO CADA DÍA Y QUIERO HACERLO EN ESTA MANERA, te respondo. But I can't do that to all of my poor ingles-hablantes back in the states, now can I?

So, changing Chrome's spellcheck to English, I shall attempt to appease all of thee.

Sunday I woke and since I had nobody to go to Church with (all out of the city, traveling) nor a church picked out, I opted to not go to touristy mass en la plaza de mayo and instead to spend a while looking for a church online. This wasn't exactly fun, but I found a bunch of churches that interest me that are within travel distance for a Sunday morning. Maybe. We'll see how that goes. I am sure God will put me where He wants me, but I have definitely been feeling a great want for communion with other believers. It's a big hole in my life lately, though it is only due to having a whirlwind of events and such passing by. Things will normalize with the first week or so of classes. After that I ended up retrieving my backpack from a friend who still had it from after the concert. We proceeded to meet up with another friend and wander about the Feria. Every weekend there is a "Feria" on a street about 150 feet from my front door. Up and down la calle Defensa you can't drive cars - it's blocked off. Street vendors and performers and musicians pack the street up and down, and it's awesome. Since it was Carnaval weekend this Feria was stepped up a bit, I do believe. I spent quite a while going up and down the street just checking things out. I was very wary about spending money, but I ended up buying a few things. I bought a CD of fully danceable Tango music (:D :D :D), some Argentine Churros (filled with Dulce de Leche, covered in chocolate, a donut, insanely cheap, 6 pesos/$1.50USD), and a small antiquated silver cross. I think it's beautiful, and the next chance I get to look about the Feria I am going to search for a suitable cadena (chain). I started to look for one, but I realized that I needed to take some time with it. I spent quite a while looking for just the right price. Funny story with that, too. I saw the one I wanted, asked how much, and was told 30 pesos because it's silver. Sure, that's a decent price. I'll pay that, I thought. I told the man I would probably return. And 20 minutes later or so, I did. Though there was a different vendor manning the booth this time. I asked again how much for the cross - this new man told me 90 pesos without flinching, looking right in my eyes. Well, I told him what was up and got it for 30. He backed down as SOON as I said the other man told me 30. hehe. In retrospect I should have told him the other man told me 20 pesos or something like that. But anyway. Beautiful cross. Some pictures:

This dude stood UBER still. It was frustrating because I took video to prove he was a man...and he didn't budge. So I gave up.

Literally the ONLY Stop sign I have seen in Argentina.

Alright, that's a lot of people.

If you know any Spanish, this is pretty interesting to you. Probably. I have higher resolution if you wantsa read it. Just ask me.

Monday I had nothing planned to do, so after passing several hours about the house, I headed down to the Zoo to meet a friend there and peruse a bit. As soon as I got there and we met up it was easy to see that it was FULL. Must be because of Carnaval weekend...well...maybe another time. Also, it was much more expensive than I had thought. Ohhh well, there was another interesting attraction just across the street. El Jardín Botánico awaited! The name translates to Botanical Garden or something very similar. It was very beautiful. I took lots of pics, which you can see on Facebook. Here are a few contributions to make my blog look pretty:

There were a million cats at the Jardín. It was ridiculous and very interesting to see...and very adorable. My friend Sarah was always making "awwwwww" and "eeeeeee' and "oooohhhhhh" sounds. ALL the time. It was funny, but warranted. They were some really nice cats :) I enjoyed their company. Also-BEAUTIFUL AMAZING WONDERFUL sculptures everywhere.