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.
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