Quinceñera

I had the chance to be a part of a traditional

Quinceñera!

Learning about this celebration since day 1 of spanish class in 7th grade, finally I got to see what it's all about.
It was a wedding... well no, but more elegant than a wedding i've ever been to. You know the show "sweet sixteen" and it's a grand party.. it was close to that. Super elegance, and a ten hour night event, The fifteen year olds birthday party started at 9pm. I dressed up in a black formal and arrived at the Marriott Hotel, one of Buenos Aires most prestigious hotels.
In the room were servers among servers. The foyer had large paintings hung on the walls and a huge chandellier in the center.
Then, at about 10pm, these story high ruby curtains open, and lays a huge room of many chandelliers, and beautiful tables and dance floor.
The night was beautiful, and over the top incredible.
The birthday girl arrived with a big entrance and throughout the night were shows of her and her sisters dance routines, photo videos, aunt from spain singing to her on stage, and a flaming birthday cake. About every hour a platter was served, bringing out more food than possible to eat. Plates so beautifully arranged.
Later, was a festival and we dressed up and danced the whole night. Everyone was dancing.. ages maybe ten to ninety!
About 4 or 5 am, the curtains opened once more and all i saw were flames! the many at the party croweded up to see what this spectaular was about.. it was a sweet table.
literally.
a table filled of cheesecakes, fruits, and three dishes of flaming desserts.
the fifteen year olds birthday was unforgettable. I arrived home, and in my bed at 7am. Thus, a ten hour, non-stop, family and friend filled gathering.
No wonder it was so talked about in my spanish classes.

La Noche de Las Provincias

The country of Argentina is made up of Provinces, so this night was to honour and bring awareness to the provinces in the country. Throughout the city, there are government buildings for the province, and this night you can go to each one, or some to see what they're about.
Julia, Jesse, Alanna and I met up and Casa de San Luis.
San Luis is a province in the northen-middle of the country. It is very much so a dessert like geography with pueblitos of el campo.
Artisin work was hung and played, and later we had the chance to walk around the governor workplace.
like a small small white house.

The building was a gem! Gorgeous architecure all about the inside. We walked through each rooming, meeting quarters, etc. Style of early 20th century or late 19th century- with adorned statues, gold and reds. so beautiful. While persuing about, we walked up a few flights to come upon a news room!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Thanksgiving in Argentina??

Me and seven of my friends (Alanna, Arlene, Emily, Julia, Jesse, Sarah, Shata) cooked our favourite family thanksgiving foods and shared a big feast with my host family (Ignacio, Adriana, Sofia, Emilia). The day before, I made a lattice top apple pie with Adriana. We mixed argentina pie crust with the traditional american pie= delicious!!!!
The day of, after my spanish oral exam, we started preparing for the feast. Alanna came down after she had made her chocolate pie and we listened to christmas tunes as I cooked a spinach-green bean casserole. Julia and her sister Jesse arrived about 3 and we could began spicin up the turkey. Took us a bit to go in at the turkey.. haha, but once we plucked off a few left behind feathers, we prepared it together. Alanna taking action and reachin in to pull out the inners :/ yuck


we chopped up carrots, onions, celery and basted it with delicious herbs.
Hours later on a hot 90* Argentine day, it was ready to take out of the oven.
Friends came over one by one preparing potatoes, cheeses, bread, salads, corn, stuffing.
All the traditional goodness was there.. and then, to top it off... Jesse brought from the states cranberry sauce and turkey design napkins!!



Our table was beautiful ! A collection of combined efforts, and a home away from home.
That dinner we shared as 12... feasting food made from our grown up traditions.
We started with fine cheeses for social appetizer
Ignacio, being the man of the house, had the honour to carve the Turkey
Once the pies were served, we went around the table,each taking time to say what we;re thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving.

La Noche de los Museos

A new tradition in Argentina, idea taken from France, is a night of museum hopping. The bus services are free,and you hope on a city bus and go museum to museum.. all free. It goes 8pm to 2am. the time flies a lot fast than you'd think.
Went with a big group of friends and we started out at MALBA.. museum of latin american art. The line was quite literally around the block. But we all kept eachother good company and played on the teeter-totters while in line. haha
there were a lot of people. the featured exhibit was Andy Warhol's art.
Later we trekked over to a Crotain Music museum.. kinda stumbled upon it actually.
that was our night of the museum. didn't get to many museums hhaa, but it was a good time. It's ok though, becuase weekly while here, i've been to several museums.
After we went to a cute restaurant called Acabar, where we played pictonary and ate smoothies :)

Polo

Apparently Argentina's top sports are as follows...
Soccer...☑
Polo...☑
Tennis...'tis the season.

So I went to a Polo match. it was so relaxing.
The skill was unbelievable. The coordination with the horses and equipment to score. very cool
it was a nice sunny day, and after we got right up close to an ESPN interview with the players!
Learned that in Polo, a lot of the teams are family members, who play at their estancias (ranches). so the team who won this game, were 4 brothers. very cool
Also learned that Argentina is so good with Polo, that's where the men get their fashion mode from and Prince Charles' Polo coach is Argentine.
pretty neat huh.
Later, we, Alex (Germany), Tomas (Argentina), Alanna and I went to all you can eat sushi :D

Halloween in a country where there is no celebrated Halloween

Happy Halloween
I spent thursday night, and saturday night in costume. Carved 'pumpkins' and dressed up. For thursday night, the international students went on a boat party. Costume mandatory. A fun time, I decided last minute to dress up as Helga from "Hey, Arnold!" series. Many creative costumes were seen. The boat was fun, live band inside and a lot of good conversation all around. We even had a group of German Power Rangers who saved two guys from France out of the water.
Saturday I carved 'pumpkins' with Alanna and Julia. I say 'pumpkins' because we only found japanese squash.. but it worked :) Left for dinner at a Chinese restaurant where my Argenitne friend Tomás met up. Dressed up and put on spooky make-up. Saw a group of 'ghouls' in the streets, but only about 10 people and it was a group of U.S study abroad students. ha
Overall, a very fun night, and good memories. Can't wait for the next US holiday we'll celebrate here... Thanksgiving. ..stay tuned ;)