PuraVida!

Now that I am older, wiser and generally better (yes Birthday’s even occur in Argentina, and yes I am now 21!!!) I will fill you in on my ever more interesting life.
I am not quite sure where to begin as the last update was regarding my amazing time skiing the Andes (yup, this me again rubbing it in that I skied the Andes).
So after the wonderful weekend away the next week was pretty standard, class, café’s, generally wandering the city…than the weekend brought the celebration of my Birthday!
On Saturday Kelsey (the girl who lives across the hall from me in our fancy Recoleta apartment) and I ventured into the fancy hair salon across the street from us, called Vol. 3. The hair place was equipped with a bar, a boutique, a disco ball and internet (who knows why…) along with the usual hair dressing equipment. Kelsey was brave enough to ask for the “portena” hair cut, meaning half her hair was chopped off so that her thick hair appeared thin and “Argentine.” I however did not have audacity to do anything other than a little trim. With our new hair-do’s we were ready for our Saturday night. Morgan came over to the apartment and we walked to block to Milion (my favorite ‘lugar’, the location of my first date with Andy, and home to the famous frozen mojito). Thanks to my parents I was able to host my friends in the fabulous French mansion for tapas and drinks. I couldn’t have been more content with the crowd, some friends from the program (including old and new roommate), some friends from UCLA, some friends from Palo Alto and some Argentine friends. The night at Milion ended with an oozing chocolate torte and a candle, but the night was far from finished. From Milion we walked over to El Living, a very cool club that typically plays 80’s music, but luckily was playing hip-hop on this chosen Saturday night. (Possibly for my 21st birthday? –am I perhaps that vain?) Now for those of you who have yet to experience the Buenos Aires nightlife, you will have a difficult time understanding the greatness of hip-hop being played in a club. The fact that anything OTHER than techno was blaring, was a godsend. Now the fact that they played Justin Timberlake and other such songs that we could sing and dance along with…now that was just perfect. No, it was ‘perfecto’.
Sunday brought a recap of the night with brunch at Mark’s Café in Palermo (I am slowly figuring out the bus system so that I am able to head to my old ‘hood.)
The day before my official Birthday was perfect. (Maybe for that reason the actual day didn’t even need to be ‘perfect’…just a thought, as there is so much pressure on Birthdays.) Anyways it was perfect for very small reasons. I hit up my favorite café/health food joint in Recoleta called “Pura Vida” and I not only had the most amazing lunch, but I also made a friend! Sounds silly but making a friend is very exciting in a foreign country. Than I had a creative, inspiring painting class and to make the class even better, it was a girls Birthday and she brought in treats. (Oh the little things in life…) And I also discovered my new favorite Argentine drink, this refreshing pomelo (grapefruit) juice!
So when the actual big day rolled around, I was content drudging to class in the rain (yuck-) and was lucky enough to have a bag of gifts from the states, curtsey of Mr. and Mrs. Holland (Morgan’s parents). Than Andy took me to a Sushi dinner in Puerto Madero, the barrio bordering the river where we spotted (meaning he spotted and I pretended like I was in the ‘know’) an Argentine celebrity, some television ‘estrella’ (star).
However for some horrible reason the Birthday celebrations must have really taken the ‘juice’ out of me as from Wednesday on I have been nursing the worst cold. It is so difficult to be miserable because the weather is changing and the sun is amazing!
Despite the foggy cloud in my head, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky on Friday and to top it off it was “Dia de Estudiantes” so all students were off school to celebrate the first day of spring! Kelsey and I headed to a park in Palermo armed with a baguette, some cheese and a soccer ball. We met up with some other friends (including two from the UCLA crew) and witnessed the wild scene of a day just for students.
I am slowly trying to get together my studies for this coming week of papers and midterms but the end seems nowhere in sight…If only there was a week devoted to enjoying this nice weather and the plentitude of café’s that I am dying to try-
P.S. Finally a photo of the boy! And one of me taking my first legal shot of alcohol, Haha I can post this photo without a sliver of guilt as I can now legally drink!!!