Many things had surprised me about Buenos Aires, and the people who call this place home. For starters, I imagined living in a tiny apartment and sharing my room with Rachel. To my surprise Graciela has a 4 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom apartment, and for the first time in my life I had a room to myself (it was a little strange a times I'll admit). Also having a mother who is a cleaning lady, I never thought I'd be on the other side. My mom has a maid who comes and helps clean once a week, it was really awkward and uncomfortable for me at first because I was used to being the help not having the help. Honestly, I'm still not used to it.
What surprised me the most though, are the people who live here. Buenos Aires is not just a city of Argentines, but of migrants from all over the world. I encountered so many other languages and cultures in my time here, and had the chance to not only learn about Argentine culture but culture in Colombia, Germany, France, New Zealand, Chile, Uruguay, Venezuela, and so many other places. One of the things I love most about the Argentines is how much they take advantage of their political voice. In the States, talking about politics is almost always to be avoided. Here in Argentina, it's inevitable. But here's the catch, everyone has an opinion, and most the time (like 90%) it's an educated opinion. That's one big aspect of the culture I wish I could take back with me to the U.S.
In my last couple weeks I got to really experience what spring is like in the city of fair winds. The flowers are bright and vibrant, there is always a light breeze, and the weather just calls for you to be outside. I honestly can't even count how many parks I've just sat and laid in. Last week I had the opportunity to even learn some basic steps of the Argentine Tango!
This city is also always full of surprises. For instance, last Saturday I had plans to go on a graffiti tour. It was one of the top things of my list of things to do before I left BsAs. I left my house with about 45 minutes to get there when I only really needed 20-30. As I got onto the bus, A FREAKING FIGHT BROKE OUT ON MY BUS! A FIGHT! Imagine just sitting down, minding your own business, daydreaming out the window and I hear these two men getting in a yelling fight. From what I could gather (since I wasn't paying attention to what was going on) Male #1 tried robbing Male #2's girlfriend. And Male #2 was not happy about that. Their yelling match got so intense they started pushing one another, it eventually got bad enough that my bus driver pulled the bus over and kicked all 3 of them off the bus. Then while I was on the bus I realized I took the wrong #39 (this one bus # has 3 different routes, and I almost always pick the wrong one) and was left about 15 blocks away from where my tour was supposed to begin. Because of the slight altercation on my bus, I had 10 min to walk 15 blocks. I literally RAN all the way there, and just barely missed my tour. Bummed, I began to walk back to another bus stop because I knew some friends were going to have bottomless mimosas in the same neighborhood. When I got on that bus, I ran into 4 kids who live at the Residencia! How crazy! Honestly I was still so phased by my original bus ride, I didn't even care to freak out over the fact we just randomly ran into each other- I had to tell someone my story.
Tomorrow will be my last day in the city. I will wake up, go to class, and then by the end of the day I'll be headed in a taxi on my way to the airport. It still doesn't even feel real that it's all coming to an end.
You will always have a special place in my heart Buenos Aires.
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