Random BA I

So, as it was pointed out to me, I´ve been living here in Buenos Aires for 6 weeks now and yet have neglected to put up any photos of the city itself. I have been snapping quite a few as I wander the city exploring parks, plazas, and various other things but they are anything but organized at this point. Thus, I figured I would just throw them up at random as the opportunity arrises.
In this edition, we have a shot of the very urban view out the kitchen window of my appartment where I lean on the window-cill and look out whistfully while waiting for maté water to boil. Next is a close up of these absolutely gorgeous flower they have here (still haven´t figured out what there called. Appologies to any botanists who might be looking at this). They have been bursting vividly off of trees in every part of the city and are only now (as we have officially enterred autumn) dropping to the ground, leaving an other-wordly pink carpet over the concrete landscape.


Next is a shot of the observatory where I went to hear a public lecture called ¨Borges and math¨ which had a much more interesting title than it actually deserved, I assure you. Next is a slightly more artistic take of the observatory after the sun went down.

The silhouette shot is from the Recoleta cemmetary which is one of THE coolest things in the city. I took a ton of photos from there that I plan to post up in a bit. This is just a taste so that the antici---pation might build a bit.


The green dome is the Congreso Nacional de la República de Argentina and the plaza leading up to it. It´s an interesting contrast to our capital dome in DC which is gleaming white to suggest the purity of our neoclassical democracy. The BA version on the other hand is overly ornate and stained with soot and pigeon droppings, suggesting the less idealistic attitude Argentines tend to have of government and its role in relation to the people. It´s also a great visual metaphor for the acceptance and quasi-celebration within the Argentine psyche of their turbulent and chaotic development (and a darn good land mark when trying to make it home from the club).


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The towering monstrosity is the Universidad de Buenos Aires Facultad de Ciencias de Medicina. It´s part medical school, part public hospital, and all Argentine. Surrounding the plaza from which I´m taking the picture are severally equally monolithic and decaying towers of various other faculties.

Finally are two shots of the wonderfully-seculded little plaza ¨La Plazoleta Roberto Arlt¨ just a few blocks away from my appartment. Something about the stone and vivid pink trees and its hidden away quality really made it stick out to me and I´ve sort of adopted it as my home away from home (away from home). I go there for reading, yoga, reflection time, and the weekday afternoon reggae band (I think they´re skipping their high school classes to be there, bless their hearts) that sets up there. Speaking of which, I think I´ll head there right now...