Whirlwind

As promised, I had no time whatsoever to keep this updated while my brother was here, there was hardly a free hour for us to rest the entire time he was here. However, it was an awesome experience in my life to be able to meet and spend time with my brother on another continent where no one in our family had ever been before. Because of all the sleep deprivation, my memories are a blur, but here's what I can piece together of what we did.

On his first full day, Thursday, Jamiah accompanied me to my daily Spanish lessons, and made it clear that he spoke the language much better than me. That night we went to a Salsa dancing lesson where we met up with another expat and met some Argentines. Later that night we visited an over-popular bar in Recoleta called Shamrock, which was so crowded that you couldn't even stand comfortably with your friends inside.

Friday, my brother and I were invited to dinner at Adrianna's house, one of my favorite Argentinean professors from the school. There we ate a stir-fry dish made by her Columbian husband (who is a decent clay court tennis player) and talked with their American 15-year-old son. Later, we visited a small hip-hop club, on Bolivar, in the San Telmo neighborhood called The Limit.

Saturday, after staying out way to late, my brother and I woke in a hurry after 2 hours of sleep to catch the regular ferry from Buenos Aires to Uruguay. After overcoming a ticketing mix-up, we slept most of the 3 hour journey, and enjoyed most of the day in the tranquilo town of Colonia del Sacramento. Only in Uruguay could my brother and I have enjoyed a $470 meal without a heart attack (that's $20 U.S.). That night we went to a party in my friend Kara's dormitory, filled with international volunteer workers and students. There were people from Spain, Austria, Japan, Brazil, Germany, Canada, and a ton of other countries I can't remember. With plenty of time to spare, we left the party at 2 in the morning to go to Plaza Serrano in the Palermo neighborhood to join a friend at another bar. At about 4, we stood in line for about 30 minutes to try to get in a recently reopened nightclub before we gave up and went to another one filled with a group of Argentinean girls who were so tipsy, they repeatedly fell backwards into us.

Sunday was much more relaxed, we woke after midday to recover, and then visited an artisan's fair in Recoleta where we met scores of interesting people. First, we talked to a 60-year-old protonño selling "natural clothes" who had never left the city in his life but had buena honda (a good vibe). Next, we shared ideas with another vendor in Spanish about the spiritual aspects of the "Live Strong" bracelets, which fund cancer charities, after which, the man gave me a rosary as a gift. Finally, we bumped into 3 girls from New York City who were in town for the week. That night we visited Teatro Astral where we watched "Tangera," an Argentine musical which chronicled the origins of the dance Tango while depicting a tragic love story at the same time.

Monday and Tuesday were days of rest, which we spent visiting museums and tourist spots around the city, and we enjoyed great food at my favorite restaurant in the city, El Desnivel, an Argentinean steakhouse on Defensa street in San Telmo. By the time my brother left Tuesday night, like me, he didn't want to leave.