This was my final week of taking Spanish intensive courses so I have been pretty busy cramming for the exams. The finals are worth around 75% of my grade so I have been pretty preoccupied making sure I am familiar with all of the material we have covered. I am excited because I will have an entire week off before I have another 4 weeks of intensive Spanish classes. My girlfriend is also going to show up for a week during my break to come visit me. I have been spending a lot of time trying to find her a nice hostel to stay at while she is here. I did a lot of shopping and walking around this week. Somehow the value of the dollar went from 7 pesos to 8 pesos this week so I thought it would be a good time to check out the markets. One of the markets I went to is called San Telmo and it’s in a very old part of Buenos Aires. Thousands of people come out to this market which stretches to about 20 or more blocks in length. I ended up buying only a few things, but I took several pictures of the booths that were there. We went to a second market with my advisor, but we traveled by taxi and I forgot the name it. It was really far west in Buenos Aires and it was a much more poor area of the city. I don’t really know how to organize all of the different thing I did this week so I’m just going to post a bunch of pictures with captions underneath them. ith all of the material we have covered. I am excited because I will have an entire week off before I have another 4 weeks of intensive Spanish classes. My girlfriend is also going to show up for a week during my break to come visit me. I have been spending a lot of time trying to find her a nice hostel to stay at while she is here.

I did a lot of shopping and walking around this week. Somehow the value of the dollar went from 7 pesos to 8 pesos this week so I thought it would be a good time to check out the markets. One of the markets I went to is called San Telmo and it’s in a very old part of Buenos Aires. Thousands of people come out to this market which stretches to about 20 or more blocks in length. I ended up buying only a few things, but I took several pictures of the booths that were there. We went to a second market with my advisor, but we traveled by taxi and I forgot the name it. It was really far west in Buenos Aires and it was a much more poor area of the city.

This building is known as the pink house and is located right next to San Telmo. The building is pink because it was made with a pink colored clay. I believe that this building has a similar significance to the White House in the United States.

A few of the more quirky market stalls in San Telmo

Below are some images from the second market I went to.

These bottles are everywhere here. They are used to make mineral water.

Meat on the street

This is some sort of game that was going on outside of the market. The jockey has a small pen that he has to stick through a small ring that dangles between two posts. I don’t know what the game is actually called but I call it the Lord of the Rings. Hundreds of people line up to watch this event.

Churros and other homemade pastries.

Dancing gauchos. I believe that these people are not in costume and are actually from the Argentine countryside.

They had a paintball range. This little guy was probably excited to be shooting a gun for the first time.

Funny “in case of emergency” items.

Area just outside of the market. The markets are completely packed with people on Sundays. It’s the place to be in Argentina.

I don’t really know how to organize all of the other things I did this week, so I’m just going to post a bunch of pictures with captions underneath them.

Not the best picture, but I found an amazingly big horse racing track in Buenos Aires a few miles away from where I live.

Probably the best/quirkiest thing I’ve eaten since I’ve been here. It’s a triple waffle breakfast sandwich with egg, cheese, bacon, avocado, ham and tomato.