St George's College Quilmes, Buenos Aires

Arriving In Argentina - North Campus

We arrived in Argentina at 4pm on Friday afternoon after a long 13-hour flight from Auckland. When we arrived, we were welcomed with flowers and cheers from the families. We were all very tired as we had not had much sleep on the flight so we went home to our exchanges houses and went straight to sleep. When we were driving home, we found the city to be really different compared to New Zealand with the highways, the buildings and our general surroundings.

The next day we went to the zoo and saw a lot of different animals but it was pretty similar to New Zealand's animals, we tried empanadas which we all liked a lot. Then after that we went to Paloma's house and met a lot of the girls that go to St. Georges which was nice and we had dinner at their house as well.

On Sunday it was Easter and I went to church with Maggie's family and then went to her grandparents house for lunch. Then we went to Cata's house in the late afternoon for an Easter Egg hunt with the rest of the girls and then went home early to get ready for school the next day. Today we went to school and it was very interesting with every class being in Spanish! Most of the teachers and students can speak English very well though.

Argentina Sightseeing - Quilmes Campus

I arrived with the other three girls, Ella, Evelyn and Imogen at around 3 in the afternoon. Nadia, my exchange student and host, and her mum Anya were there to pick me up, and we had a late lunch / dinner at a fancy place in town called Kansas. It wasn't very expensive but it had valet parking, which was crazy for me because it is very seldom seen in New Zealand. The food was really good but I found it difficult to order because of the speed of which people talk and they blend their words together so it is very hard to understand.

On Saturday I went out for dinner and a movie with Nadia and some friends, which was very fun, but again, very fancy. Sunday was mostly a sightseeing day where we drove past all the main landmarks such as the obelisk, the Casa Rosada (Presidential House), and a local street market. I was amazed at the sheer number of people, and the age of the buildings, which I thought were beautiful examples of architecture. It is so contrasting here, with some parts crazy busy, and then other parts very relaxed and slow.

Spanish Immersion - North Campus

On Tuesday morning we had our first school assembly which was quite different to the ones at Kristin. We have been absorbing heaps of Spanish as most of our classes are spoken in Spanish and are starting to find it easier to understand everyone. It's neat being able to help in their English classes. We all really enjoyed getting to know everyone better this week.

Yesterday we visited El Teatro Colon with our host families for a tour. El Teatro Colon is the opera house of Buenos Aires and is ranked as the third best opera house in the world. It was really stunning inside and the tour was really interesting! In the afternoon we visited MALBA, the main art gallery in the city. We got to see a Frida Kahlo original, the famous Manifestation by Antonio Berni along with lots of other amazing modern works of art. Following that we went to Palermo where we had afternoon tea and went shopping before heading home to rest.

Today Catalina and I visited Puente de la mujer, we walked along the edge of the water and across the incredible bridge. After having lunch we went on board a ship which has been turned into a museum before driving home past some of the city's monuments such as the huge metal flower, Floralis Genérica.