Rain, Pancakes, Movies and Starbucks

Well…I spoke too soon in the previous blog when saying the weather has been nice because this last week has been filled with rain, thunder and lots of lightning…and apparently when it rains in Buenos Aires, it POURS. Being from California, I’ve never really experienced a thunder storm before and the thunder has been so loud the last few days that it has caused me to wake up several times though out the night. Yet as much as I hate rain, I do have to admit that I find the sound of the raindrops pattering against the streets to be quite soothing and the freshness in the air after a good pouring to be quite nice. 

Yesterday me and some friends in my Contemporary Argentine Art class were planning on going to “El Museo de Bellas Artes” to take a look at some art pieces for a project due next week. Yet, because it was raining “como piedras” (like stones) as my host mom has said, we decided that we would rather save it for another day and instead, go to an American Restaurant/Bar that has “American” breakfast served all day and has 2 large screens showing the Olympics. I know I had mentioned the whole breakfast ordeal in Argentina a bit earlier, but just in case you didn’t get that, I MISS BREAKFAST! In Argentina their breakfast contains a couple pieces of white toast with jelly and ducle de leche along with a few sugar-glazed coated pastries, which for me being an American AND an athlete is pretty much next to nothing compared to my usual 3 egg omelet, 2-3 bowls of cereal and a fruit/protein smoothie with greek yogurt and oatmeal. So believe me, the hardest adjustment to this country has been breakfast. The last 3 weeks I have been CRAVING pancakes and have been wondering where the International House of Pancakes is when I really need it internationally? After many google searches for restaurants that serve pancakes, I supposedly found one called “Sugar Bar” and was SOOOO exited to finally indulge in my cravings. Yet when my food came out, as I should have expected, the pancakes I was expecting were not American. American pancakes are thick and fluffy, yet in argentina, if you can even find them, their pancakes (called panquques) are extremely thin and have a different consistency. So if you happen to know a good American breakfast café or restaurant in Argentina, PLEASE do not hesitate in informing me about it.

This past week, I have gone to the movies twice. Once to see Batman (FINALLY, it was great…AND in English with spanish subtitles), and the other to see an Argentinean Independent film called Elefante Blanco (White Elephant) at a Latin American Indie Film Festival. If you know spanish or happen to be able to watch it with engligh subtitles, I would definitely recommend this movie; it does a great job of capturing the Argentine culture and displaying the importance of the things they stand for. Below I have included a link to the trailer for the movie on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2el1OiOR-c4

After watching Elefante Blanco we went to a bar in Palermo called Acabar, which has a lot of spanish board games and that night had a house special of 1 liter of beer or wine for 29 pesos ($6). We ended up playing a spanish version of Pictionary, which I was HORRIBLE at since I didn’t have the vocabulary that was required to know the words listed and was at a distinct disadvantage as I was with an Argentine, a Mexican and a Spaniard whom are all fluent in spanish. Even if I knew the English word for the picture shown, they wouldn’t give it to me because I “had” to say it in spanish since “it’s Argentina”, but it was still fun.

Today I did end up being able to go to El Museo de Bellas Artes and visited Plaza Francia as seen in the monument given to Argentina by the French below.

To end this blog (for those of you coffee addicts) I would like to inform you that YES there is Starbucks out here; actually, all the chalk that the professor’s use on the chalk board in my university is stored in Starbucks cups, which I find rather amusing.
Until next time, CHAU!