Back in the US

Today is July 19, 2009 and I’m sitting in the JFK International Airport in New York. I have a five hour layover till my flight to Boston, so I figured I would write my final blog post here. I have a lot to cover, but I also have plenty of time.

Last time I posted I wrote about the onset of the swine flu precautions in Buenos Aires. By now, Argentina has overtaken Mexico as the country with the second highest amount of deaths from swine flu. For portenos, residents of Buenos Aires, exams from this past semester will continue and finish in August before their next semester starts. Many of my friends from my Argentine classes have decided to travel with their extra long break and it was sad to say farewell to them!

So, my classes had pretty much wrapped up last time I had posted, I was still waiting to hear back about a final paper I had written from one class, but as of now, I still haven’t heard anything about it. So I’m assuming that it went fine.

I was going to head to Brazil on the 7th so before that I was trying to wrap up a lot of things in Buenos Aires, like souvenir shopping and things of that sort. I was not successful and still had much to do when I got back. Also, I started to say bye to a lot of kids in the program and it was really sad.

Then, on the morning of the 7th, I boarded a flight from EZE International in Buenos Aires to Rio de Janeiro, where I met up with my sister and my cousin! I loved Rio de Janeiro. We started our days off early and were in bed by 10 most nights so we didn’t see the night life, but we were able to see the Jesus the Redentor statue, the Botanical Garden, the Copacabana Fort and Beach and Sugarloaf Mountain! It was really hot there too! About 80 degrees Fahrenheit and it was the middle of the winter! Then on Friday we traveled to Foz de Iguacu which is on the border of Brasil and Argentina. There, we spent the first day shopping and avoiding the rain because our flight landed in the afternoon in a storm. The next day, we took a tour of the Argentine side of the Iguazu Falls with seven other people who were all very nice! As Americans we had to fill out many forms to cross the border! But the falls were worth it! It was incredible to see so many waterfalls in one place.
The next day was my birthday! On that day we went to see the Brazilian side of the Falls. Although the Brazilian side is not as big as the Argentine side, it has a great panoramic view of the Falls and we took many pictures. The next morning I departed and went back to Buenos Aires for my final few days! Upon arriving I had learned that many people had also changed their flights and had gone home earlier which was sad because I didn’t have the opportunity to say goodbye to everyone, but I hope that we’ll catch up in the future again.

This past week has been crazy. First, I had tons of souvenir shopping to do, which I completed the day before my flight home! On Monday I visited one of my favorite parks in the city and hung out most of hte day with a friend. Tuesday, I finally went to Boca, which is a part of the city that has very colorful buildings. It’s only like two or three streets so we just walked around for a little bit, but it was still good to see it!

On Wednesday I went to MALBA which is a museum of Modern Art in the city! It was great to just have a relaxing day in the city. That night a group of us FLACSITOS went to Sugar, which was a bar that we frequented during the semester for one last time. Even though it wasnt a great bar, it was a place where so many of us went to hang out during our weeks here in Buenos Aires. The next day was another lunch at a restaurant that had great! lasagna and a salad bar with the entree. That night my some of my friends from FLACSO and I went to a club in the city with some of our Argentine friends! It was my last night to go out in teh city, but we had a good time!

Then Friday was another busy day. After lunch, I headed to the Recoleta fair to pick up some gifts and then to downtown to pick up some more too. After that, my host family and I had our despedida (goodbye) dinner. It was very sad to say goodbye to them! They gave me a framed picture of us together and I gave them an Argentine decoration! We have each other’s emails so I’m sure that we’ll keep in touch!

I spent the rest of the night- literally until about 4am packing! I had soo much stuff! Demasiado as we say in castellano. I knew that one of my two checked bags was definitely going to be over weight limit, and I had two carry-on bags as well! I guess that 23 kilograms isa bout 50 pounds cuz thats the limit. My lighter bag was 19 kilos, even though it was completely packed, and my other bag was 29 kilos, which is like 62 pounds i think! I had to pay a 50 dollar fine, but I didn’t have any other choice so I had to pay.

During the morning I finished getting everything together and said farewell to my friend Kelsey from Georgetown, who’s in BA till Thursday.

Time at that airport seemed too short. I shared a car to the airport with my friend Sebastian from FLACSO, and then we met up with other FLACSO students at the bar/restaurant before our flights! My flight was at 8 and at 715 I had to go to board and it was sad to leave. I have to say that this flight felt shorter than the one to BA from Texas in February even though it was longer, but we didn’t have personal tv’s like we did on the way down and they showed Inkheart, which I decided to not watch after five minutes.

I still can’t believe that the experience is over. It’s so strange to be sitting here in New York after five months not in the US. I’d be lying to say that it isn’t really nice to completely understand what everyone is saying, but at the same time it’s almost like I was uprooted from a new home, right when I was starting to adjust to it. But I’m excited to be back, it’s like returning to reality from a month off from real life.

I want to write here the thing that I will miss the most and the least about Buenos Aires.
The most: How nice and friendly the Argentines were. Although there were some portenos who were not the nicest, the truth is that the Argentines in my classes, Argentine friends of my host family and Argentine friends of my American friends here were all so nice and welcoming and accepting. I will really miss just how kind the Argentines really were to the extranjero whose Spanish was just okay.
The least: This is an easy one. The subte. If I never have to take the subway system in Buenos Aires again in my life, I will be very very happy. It’s so hot and crowded, I look forward to American public transportation (although American public transportation will be so expensive in comparison!)

I want to say thank you to all of you who have continued to read by blog! I know I was never the most consistent blogger, but I do hope that you enjoyed what I read and the pictures I sometimes posted. In a few days I hope to be able to post a link to Picasa where I will upload all the pictures from the trip! Good luck to everyone with everything in the future! I’m sure I’ll see many of you soon!