"No te pierdas"

People here are not so intimidating after all… they're not so smiley either; just how I like it. Yesterday and today has consisted of much exploring for me. Soon I will blend in and seem as though I always know where I am going ;) Yesterday was my first day with the professor from the University de San Andrés and I LOVE her. We had two breaks during the day and I ventured out to a different restaurant/cafe both times that were awesome. Whoever said I would have a lot of trouble being veg. in the beef capital of the world was wrong. After class, we stopped for a merienda and had a glass of wine at Biblos. The food and drinks are super inexpensive, but material items in the stores are much more costly than in the states. I met Maria's 10 year old grandson who attends a bilingual school and he taught me so much; I'm looking forward to his next visit. My friends talked me into going out after dinner last night and even walked all the way to my apartment so that I didn't have to walk alone, and did the same on the way back to our apartments. I got so lucky with this group.

Today was the best day I have had in Buenos Aires so far. We spent the day at the actual main campus of the university instead of a smaller branch. At the end of the day we spent nearly 2 hours learning to drink Yerba Mate with other students from San Andrés. It was such an incredible experience to get to know them and spend time with them. We hit it off and weren't ready to stop talking so when the professor forced me to leave two of the students ended up walking with us all the way to the train station so we could finish our conversation. We exchanged numbers and I made plans to hang out with one of the chicas next weekend.

This weekend is the weekend of 25 de Mayo, perhaps comparable to 4th of July in America. It was the start of the first war of the revolution for their independence from España. I am pumped to be able to experience an Argentin holiday while I am here. We are starting off the weekend celebrating a girl's birthday in our group… we may even stop by a "fraternity" party.

Somethings that I've learned about the city:
- Starbucks exist, but drinks to go do not.
- Nearly all ice cream places deliver. (María conveniently just invited me to start going to her gym)
- Graffiti is legal.
- Just because a destination can be found during the day, does not mean that will be the case at night.

Ciao!