It is an amazingly huge city, surrounded by farming and a long way to the mountains. We had planned our return home, and at that point of permission, we began to be a bit more homesick and a little tired of planning all the excursions. We are here to start the process of returning home.First day we found a gluten free vegetarian restaurant a few blocks from our apartment. Bakeries are everything here, I swear.We are here to assimilate back with a schedule and structure. We are enrolled in a Spanish immersion school four or more hours a day. And excursions, like this one to Tigre neighborhood. I’m impressed that we joined an excursion the weekend before we even started school.Having to be on schedule and get up in the morning and have a plan every day rather than just what we feel like is a step toward normalcy and is becoming welcome with all the unstructured time. But it was funny how little motivation we found to get out of town on weekends or see the countryside. This neighborhood is full of canals and residents get around by boat. With neat old houses. We liked it. Buenos Aires is a sweet colonial city. It is so interesting the similarities all over the world as cities were built up during the late colonial period But I feel like this one is the most willing to build and only slowly replace old with new small piece by small piece.I’m really not sure where the entrance to this church is anymore. I am sure it’s grounds used to include the whole block…Walking to the weekend market areaReminder that Pope Francis is from this cityI love the tiny tile work. There’s many blocks of the market, including a couple blocks devoted to indigenous artists.
And a huge street band just comes by…Impressive downtown old buildings Our sleep schedules are so off at first. A 13 hour time change is pretty brutal. I literally HAD to take a nap at five pm for over a week. And people gathered waiting for the delayed start on the World Cup final….And our cohort starting school on Monday. New people come through starting and stopping every week. They place you by ability and so classes change all the time. I chose to opt out of placement and just start at the beginning. Zarah was more brave and challenged herself. Teacher, Rosanna, teaching us about Mate. We had taste tests and learned some health benefits. And how hard it was on this culture to stop sharing the bombilla (special straw) and thermos of Mate in gatherings of families and friends during the Pandemic. It normally is just passed around.Captivating courtyard apartmentsBeautiful church on an evening excursion where I couldn’t understand most of what the Argentinian tour guide was saying. And a replica of the familiar. The Thinker. It is so cool to me to have seen it in so many cities – Paris, Philadelphia, Singapore, Melbourne and here. Maybe I should try to check them all off in my lifetime. I really love Rodin.Our solo excursion, we got tickets to “El Principito” thinking a children’s story would be partly understandable. I might have understood about 1/2 the gist of it with context and actors.A lively production with great use of animation with set design, costumes and live action to give the fantastical feel of The Little Prince.Our new friend Kim from Cape Cod. Bonding over middle aged vision problems while we look for a restaurant. And coming back to a Chinatown seeing that “where there is Ocean, there are Chinese” is true on this continent too.Ok, this is now a shopping center…? Repurposing of old buildings is amazing Monk parrots in the park near our apartment. A big park is right by our apartment and there are Monk parrots as well as ducks and more common birds. A woodpecker on what I know as an “itchy-bomb tree” (sycamores). I don’t think they are native, but they line the streets and populate the parks. It’s nice to have familiar things after being gone so long. These are all over Salt Lake.Monuments and sculptures of people are EVERYWHERE! Like literally every block will have several in public spaces and major streets.And another dance and band performance in the park. Local indigenous group. All ages. And the band behind. In the cold.
And then Zumba fitness 50 feet later. Music and dance is everywhere. We joined if for a while and if I lived here I’d go twice a week. This is just people playing around after class. And sunset, farther around the lake, the dance continues
And the next day a horse parade a few blocks north. Stuff is just constantly going on.
And people celebrating the election in Venezuela, before it was annulled by the dictator, Maduro. School friends: Christina was in Zarah’s class and Michael was in mine. They were so fun to have a meal or a walk with. I hope we get to visit them in northern Brazil someday. More sculptures from the parkGiant group of bikers with orange balloons on a weekend. They stretch back a full block. I don’t know why…My class: Australia, Israel, Argentina (teacher), me, Germany, Boston, Netherlands, New York, Miami, Indonesia, Germany, Los Angeles. I loved meeting so many people from many places, and having Americans too. It is really a special mind bender for me to hear Spanish with a German accent. I had more German, and earlier, and I get German words in my head when trying think for Spanish. At the late night tango hallJust normal folks out dancing to a live band in a shabby chic arty old building. MattAnd a cat, stray as far as I can tell, just wandered up to the second floor where there are 50+ people and a loud live band. And just curled up on my lap and enjoyed some petting. More of the dance hall with art. And the band. We finally got ourselves out late enough (started at 11:30 I think) to see. La Boca, very touristy but brightly coloredA different park and the same Zumba teacher in the park. Super cute playground More monuments. Clouds are beautiful everywhere.
Jessica Wandering 
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