ANXIOUS MOFO

Today, after having completed our final written exams, Jack and I decided to go to the Boca barrio to see Caminito.  You may not have heard this name before, but you've seen the pictures.  The brightly painted houses in Boca are an Argentinian national icon-more famous, perhaps, than the image of the Casa Rosada or the Cabildo.

Jack and I had lunch before we walked around.  Boca had a lot of Italian immigrants, so it wasn't hard to find good Italian food.  As I'm sure I've mentioned, the Argentinians love ham.  So do I.  My lunch today was meat sauce over ravioli stuffed with ham and ricotta.  It was definitely one of the best meals I've had here!  Jack and I gave up trying to find a sushi restaurant after Jack asked a few locals in broken Spanish where the sushi restaurants were... We were invariably confused by their responses and directed toward Italian restaurants.  That works for me!

As for the photos, I'll first share those demonstrating the fanaticism surrounding Argentina's most popular club soccer team, Boca Juniors who a

Boca is famous for its soccer club, Boca Juniors.  Almost everywhere you turn, you'll find Boca Juniors colors...

...this place is no exception.  It's a restaurant and sports bar across the street from La Bombanera, Boca Junior's stadium. I can't imagine it's easy to be served here after a Boca match!

Speaking of La Bombanera...

...this place is impressive.  It seats 60,000 people.  One day, I hope to be one of the 70,000 in attendance for the Superclasico-the game between Boca and their rivals River, named the #1 event every sports fan must experience.

Notice that these Coca-Cola signs are black.  Jack told me that they're the only black Coca-Cola signs in the world because River's colors are red and white and the proprietor of Boca's stadium at the time said (by Jack's account), "Yeah... That's not happening" when told by their sponsor to sport their rivals' colors.

This is one of my favorite photos from the day-definitely my favorite having to do with soccer.  This is Boca (CABJ)'s crest smashing through River (CARP)'s!

This person's home is essentially a monument to Boca Juniors.  This photo shows the evolution of CABJ's crest.  The stars in each panel represent titles won-international titles above, and Argentinian league titles below.

I also love this one (sorry Jonty).  Diego Maradona is a national icon in Argentina.  If you're at all familiar with soccer, you should be familiar with Maradona.  The Hand of God is the most infamous goal in World Cup history.  Maradona's also got an interesting personal life, including: illegitimate children, steroids, a beautiful wife, and one of world history's most expensive cocaine habits.  He played for a brief time with Boca Juniors and in the mural above is portrayed removing his international jersey to reveal the Boca jersey underneath.

That's about as much soccer as this American can handle...

The rest of Boca is unlike anything I've ever seen.  For those of you who enjoy the photos and not my writing (I have only Lynley in mind!), you'll love the rest of this post!

Nearly as interesting as the colorful houses and businesses is the street art.

This one's for Greg.  I love the commentary. 

This is great stencil work!  I'm really glad I stumbled on these.

Of course, you've gotta save the best for last.

Once again, thank you all for your continued interest in my travels and for all the positive feedback... I sincerely appreciate it.  Even you, Jasmine.  What started out as a way for me to remember my trip and "bring my family along with me" has turned into its own little phenomenon.  I feel like I'm in The Beatles.  Dazzamania!

BURRITOS/I WANT THE ONE I CAN'T HAVE/TURNING JAPANESE

I planned to see some sites on Saturday but this plan was thwarted by how exhausted I was.  Twenty-five hours of class per week, an additional five to ten hours of homework per week, and last week's exam and project really caught up with me.  I slept twelve hours and didn't really get out of bed at all on Saturday.  This is unfortunate because I missed a day of sightseeing and you all miss out on my great photography, but fortunate for reasons that will become apparent toward the end of this post.

As I've been missing Mexican food, Sunday I decided to try a restaurant called California Burrito Company.  If you ever come to Buenos Aires and have the chance to eat here, avoid it like the plague.  It was-without exaggeration-the worst burrito I've ever eaten.  I'm just going to leave it at that since I have a lot to talk about.

After I ate, I saw a church across the street that reminded me of the Jefferson Memorial (my favorite monument in D.C.) begging to be photographed.  

What I like about this building is the contrasting designs.  It's angular in the front and round in the back... It's kinda like the mullet of architecture when you think about it.

These photos are just for added detail.  Can you tell I like to do that?

Next, I saw the Monumental Tower which commemorates the May Revolution.  I guess they think the May Revolution was pretty significant to their history.

Surprisingly, I am very happy with the first shot I took.

Here's a close-up of the top of the tower.

This is the crest of the nation of Argentina.

This is England's royal coat of arms.  The English in Buenos Aires commissioned the building.  This came to be a problem during the war over the Falklands.  The tower was vandalized many times during the conflict.  From a design standpoint, I really love this because the lion looks so regal. 

I was standing pretty close to the base of the tower for this shot.

This is a (read: the prettiest) part of the Retiro railway station.  ("If you ever need self-validation, just meet me in the alley by the railway station."  [I bet Jonty can guess who wrote that lyric.])

This is the last photo I got before I headed to the Gardens... I was hoping my camera would capture the golden color of the building.  It did.

Welcome to the Japanese Gardens!  From here on out, I won't say much-I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.  I expect that this will be a relief to all my readers (especially Lynley!)!

This is Samurai statue wasn't as cool as it could have been...

As you can see from this and the following photo, there were a lot of people here.  Perhaps they were trying to emulate the population density of Tokyo to give this American tourist the full effect...

...but the fact of the matter is that there was a celebration at the Gardens.  ¡Qué suerte!  I'm not sure if this was a celebration of a Japanese holiday, the Argentinian holiday "Kids' Day" (a bullshit attempt at creating a holiday akin to Mothers' Day [seriously do children really need a day?]), or San Martin's Day.  I don't care because the celebration was badass.

These drummers are playing a traditional Japanese song as part of the ceremony.  I'll edit the video later so I don't have to stare at the back of this guy's dome for thirty seconds, but you all just have to deal with it until I get my Mac.

The ceremony was centered around this:

Notice the change in the drumming.

Seriously, there were so many people there.

Here's my favorite photo from the day.

I'd just like to thank everyone again for your interest in-and positive feedback on-this blog!  I love you guys.  I'll try to cram as much as I can into my last week here in Buenos Aires!  Let's eat burritos when I'm back in the States.