Settling in

Over the last week and a half, I've enjoyed the chance to settle in and get to know Buenos Aires a bit better! Here are a few pictures of my adventures...

Last Saturday was a beautiful day, and I decided to go to a Latin American art museum. Unfortunately, I found out when I got there that it was closed for renovations (you'd think they would put that on the website...) but the outside of the building was really nice...

...as was the inside of the building. The exhibition areas were closed, but I was able to get into the building to see the architecture.

And then on Saturday night, I went to something called a "closed door dinner." It's something that exists around the world, but is pretty big in Argentina. A chef basically opens his/her home to around 10 guests, who then pay a fixed price for the meal that the chef serves up. It's touted as an interesting way to meet people because usually the guests sit at one or two big tables and talk to one another. Unfortunately, I found out when I got there that I had chosen one ("La Cocina Discreta") that did not have shared tables. Instead, the chef, knowing that I would be there on my own, set me up a little table in the kitchen so that I could hang out with him and his two assistants.

Here I am with the two assistants. It wasn't quite what I was expecting, but it turned out to be really fun anyway!

And I thought I would include a few pictures from around town...

This is a picture of the intersection near where I work. One of the streets is actually a full block wide, and it seems like what they did when they built it is demolish a full block's worth of buildings and fill it in with a big avenue. The funny thing is that it's a divided boulevard, and then there are two smaller streets (with their own, different names) on both sides of the big avenue. It's hard to explain, but it ends up looking like four streets all next to each other! You can also see the famous Buenos Aires obelisk in the background here.

Another sight near my work is this statue of Don Quijote de la Mancha. I think it's cool!

Another typical sight in Buenos Aires are these small "fruit and vegetable" stores. Although food is generally really expensive here, fruits and vegetables are actually really cheap. As an example, I bought three potatoes, a small squash, a carrot, an onion, a cucumber, a head of lettuce, and two tomatoes, all for a total of about $2. It was shocking!

Another thing that I've noticed here is that there is really no zoning whatsoever. This car repair shop is literally right next door to my house!

Blockbuster might have gone out of business in the US, but it seems to be going strong in Argentina!

This is my elevator at work, and in fact almost all the elevators here are like this. It has broken at least four times since I got here, so really I think newfangled elevators are a positive development! Also, there is a sign posted next to the elevator on the ground floor, which in translation says, "Given that we provide a stairway, the building is not responsible for damages that might result from use of the elevator." Hmm...