Argentine Observations...

Dog poop. I'm starting to not like the dog poop that lines every single street of Buenos Aires. You're not only trying to avoid the fresh dumps, but the skids of previously stepped in ones as well. The smell and the amazing quantity of dogs that all poop on the street is becoming somewhat shocking.

Fashion update: I can't make my mind up about the fashion of low crotch jeans/pants. Men, women, children all wear them, and with the right bod, shoes and accessories many pull them off quite well. Some people in my program have bought them, and for some reason they don't quite work on North Americans (gotta remember to say norte when referring to americans because everyone here is american too--south american!) Check this out...would you wear these?

Speaking of hot Argentine bods--we've all been incredibly interested in discovering their secret to staying to crazy skinny and beautiful at all ages. We have learned the hard way that the secret is NOT in alfajores--these chocolate covered cookies with DDL (Dulce de Leche) in them that sort of rock my world--to our dismay. BUT...Niall learned that the drug in Mate, which is called "Mateina" instead of "cafeina", is an appetite suppressor. This weekend we are going to buy Mate gourds, yerba and bombillas (the special straw--see below) to start reaping the benefits of this Argentine ritual.

Knitting stores! I finally went to the city's "knitter's row" that is made up of about 10 huge knitting stores. They all have an incredible amount of inventory and were packed on a Thursday morning. Many of them had those number dispensers so that people could get help from an employee. Another thing that shocked me was that most of the employees were men! They were all incredibly attentive and knew everything. I bought 5 small balls of yarn for A$1.90 each which is less that 50 cents a pop. I also bought a larger skein to make myself a little purse and get my fingers moving in a productive way again, for A$15 = around 4 dollars. Sooo I bought 6 skeins of yarn for around 5 or 6 dollars. INCREDIBLE. I'm so excited to get really into my new project after my midterm!

Tomorrow we're going to buy tickets to visit El Calafate in the south of Argentina in the region of Patagonia! There is a large national park with glaciers and adventures to be had (see below). I figured, why not go to Patagonia and see the glaciers in one of the southern most parts of the world? I'm here right???