Rio and Fun around Buenos Aires

I can't believe it took me this long to post pictures from my trip to Rio de Janeiro a few weeks ago! To be honest, I thought I'd already put them up.... Anyway, it was great to get to see my Michigan Law classmate and friend Hermine in Rio! She was there for work, and I went up for a weekend and got a great taste for Brazil.

This is me with Hermine at the Copacabana beach. It was really beautiful, although also really built-up as you can see!

One of the most famous sights in Rio is the Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer) statue on top of one of the HUGE hills in Rio. I wish I had a better picture of the hill, but it took us 20 minutes by train ("funicular railway," to be exact) to get up the side of the hill!

There was a cafe at the top of the hill, just under the Cristo Redentor statute. The juice in Rio is amazing :)

There were a bunch of really cool and unique things in Rio. One was these sand sculptures along the beach. This one was a really intricate sand castle.

Since coming back from Rio, things have been a lot tamer, but still a lot of fun. It's been nice to relax around Buenos Aires and see some of the things I haven't done up to now. A couple of weeks ago, a few church friends and I went to the "Feria de Mataderos," which is an open-air market in a neighborhood on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. We had been told that there was a gaucho (Argentine cowboy) show, so I was expecting it to be really out in the country. Instead, it was in a park right in the middle of a very urban setting, and they didn't even do the gaucho show the day we visited. Ah well, it was fun anyway!

Me with church friends in front of a mural at the park where the Feria de Mataderos is held on the weekends.

Me with another church friend at the Feria de Mataderos (you can see the food tents in the background).

And then today, I got to do something really exciting... go see an Argentine polo match! Apparently horse polo is a really big deal here, and it's something I heard about shortly after I arrived in August. I was looking for something fun to do this weekend and realized that the polo championship started yesterday! So I went to one of today's games with my roommate Liz and two interns at the nonprofit where I work.

Here I am with my coworker Jacqueline (from England), my roommate Liz (from the US), and my coworker Christina (also from the US). We had a great time!!

Here I am with Christina and Jacqueline in front of the polo field, after the game ended.

A live action shot during the game.... The skill required to hit a ball while riding a horse is incredible.

And then after the game, a bunch of guys with guitars (and one with a drum) started walking through the crowd playing their instruments and singing Argentine folk music. The crowd loved it... especially me!! This was their finale where they finally gathered into a group for one last song. It was really a feel-good moment!