Our Argentine New Years and Initial Exploration

two posts in the first week? no F-ing way!
Anyways,
spent New Year's Day touring some of the city and beginning to get a feel for our surroundings. It was good to see more happening areas of the city and to begin to see some of the architecture and culture that Buenos Aires has to offer. Not much to report there, but check the photos.
So we decided to partake in our hostel's new year's barbeque because, well, let's face it- it's not like we had anything else to do. however, it was pretty awesome. About 20 or so people partook and the kind hostel people grilled up a whole ton of meat, potatoes, and vegetables. It was our first taste of real Argentine meat and we were not disappointed; plenty of delicious and succulent ribs, sausage, and beef to go around. Sorry Lando, but i think you've been outgrilled. Altogether the meal cost us 100 pesos (about 25-30 bucks) and included plenty of wine and ice cream too. The people we've met in the hostel thus far have been pretty awesome; a couple Canadians, some Germans, an Irishman, some Brazilians, a few Americans, plus the young Argentine employees of the hostel. After the meal we headed over to Art Factory hostel, the Garden House Hostel's sister hostel, for a party on their considerably larger and bar-toting terrace. The party on the terrace was a lot of fun with music, dancing, cheap drinks, plenty of people, and quite the fireworks show over the buildings at midnight.
We've been seeing more of the city in order to get a better idea of all the different neighborhoods so we can make an educated decision about where to pursue longer term housing. The city is an odd place at times. Many of the ATMs had no cash to dispense today, city trash clean up appears to be lacking, and we have been unable to find a single open mobile phone store yet. Tomorrow, being Monday and the end of the holiday/weekend, should see more stores open and the return of the bustling traffic we've heard so much about it. We also begin our TEFL certification program, which hopefully will provide us with the opportunity to meet some folk doing the same thing we are and not be dreadfully boring.
Now that we'll actually have things to do it'll certainly be a bit before I get around to posting here again/ have interesting things to talk about. Sorry for spoiling you guys. Hope everyone's New Year's celebrations were festive and fun and 2011 is off to a good start!


a don quijote looking statue, and some kind of small Argentine protest, seemingly against non-Argentine occupancy and control of the country but couldn't be sure

they love their crocs here. Which is funny, because crocs suck

a small sample of the some of the street vending on calle florida. This stretched on for a good mile

street art is prevalent and awesome

some cool museum, if you look closely there are some interesting sculptures behind the fence

the city's famous obelisk. it's windy here, thus the fat suit appearance of my shirt


came across a new year's day marathon, which included some hardworking handicapped people. The race began at the obelisk which had a ton of people and a huge highway blocked off

people are subtle here. This was a bus ticket booth right on the corner.

this building is probably important, but i forget what it is. maybe i'll look it up and change this comment later. but probably not.


why yes, those ARE palm trees in the nativity scene


The Dakar moto rally took place on New Year's day. It's apparently a pretty big deal and this year started in Buenos Aires and goes all over Argentina and Chile



a sample of the crowd, the race started at the obelisk in the background


Some of the motocross bike riders. There were also plenty of people on ATVs and other motorized vehicles.
Me: man, I hope someone does a dope ass wheelie *put camera away*
30 seconds later...* guy on motorcycle does dope ass wheelie for a good two seconds right in front of us*
GRR....


loads of people attended, a fun/interesting thing to see for sure