Birthdays, Birthdays, Birthdays!

Susana (my "cousin", from Colombia), me, and Kelly at Gecko

This entire weekend has been one birthday celebration after another. Last Friday, a couple days ago, Kelly and I baked a tarta de acelga, and head out for the night of birthday celebrations for Schiller and Martin. First we went to Palermo Hollywood to meet up with Schiller and some of the Colombians for his birthday bash at Gecko Hostel. Like I mentioned in my reemergence entry, Schiller was the first guy at the hostel to say hello to me, and that always meant a lot to me. We danced a little salsa and shared some beer, but since Kelly and I had already said we'd be at another birthday, we headed out early. Any other night I would have stayed with him and all of them for some more Colombian fun, but we went over to Polite to celebrate Martin's birthday.

Fede (a new one), Martin (straightened his hair!), Kelly, Santiago, and me in front

I met Martin through Fede M., pictured below. I met Fede last June when I first got here, he was the first Argentine boy I met, and I'm actually quite surprised that we still talk. We went on a couple "dates", and left the friendship at messaging online. Through him I met Santiago, Martin, and others that are not mentioned in this entry. For months and months I wanted to add Martin and Santiago to facebook or something, because they are some really cool guys, and finally I had the guts to just do it... I added Santiago, 7 months later (and through Santiago I met his sister Agustina who is a complete angel and let me live with her for a couple days when I got kicked out of my house).

After not seeing him for months, i finally saw Fede again!

We tried to take a decent picture with smiles buuuuut I guess we're just not photogenic when in the same frame. Taking some goofy pictures seemed to work, however, and this is what I have to share. He is so tall, oh man. I don't know if I shrank or if he grew, but I don't remember him being so tall! Also this picture does no justice, this picture makes him look old, and he's not at all, he's younger than me actually... he's 21, and I'm 22. We drank and danced until really late, and Kelly and I decided to leave. Fede seemed like he was leaving too, but ended up staying. I said goodbye to Martin and Fede and went home with Kelly.

The New Kids, on the opposite side of the table (the ones facing the camera)

I stayed at Kelly's and when I woke up I had to go to the API office to meet the new students! Besides Carmen's first group of summer students last year, I have met every single group of API Buenos Aires students since the program opened. I feel so old.. it's only been one year, but with people coming and going constantly I can't help it.

Later, I spent all Saturday night with Agustina, Santiago's sister. She's my buddy man... I love her. We went to Gibraltar bar in San Telmo and I was reunited with Patricio, Lucas, and some others that I had met a couple months ago. I was afraid it might be weird and maybe we wouldn't have anything to talk about but it was great. I always have a great time talking with Patricio. After a few hours at Gibraltar we went to Red Door until it closed, I think that was at 6:00am, and then we went to Julio Bar. I didn't like Julio Bar that much, but being super tired didn't help much. I laid my head down on the table until they decided to go. Agustina invited me to sleep at her place and have some leftover food when we woke up. I took up that offer and we took a cab to her place and crashed until 5:30 in the afternoon the next day, Sunday.

This whole weekend has been exactly what I needed. It is one gigantic party. This isn't because I'm irresponsible or anything, but May 25, today, is Argentina's 200th birthday!

Google Argentina has this cute celebratory image for the Bicentenario

How lucky have I been this year? Celebrating the Bicentenario de Argentina... and I got to see all these amazing bands in concert, one of which is Metallica, who canceled shows in Buenos Aires for 10 years and this year FINALLY came back. after 10 years! and I was here for it. I was here when  Juan Martín del Potro won the US Tennis Championship, and ranked 4th best tennis player in the entire world. Also, I wouldn't call it luck, exactly, but I experienced the freak floods of summer 2010 that never usually happen. I went with my host mom last spring to vote for the next Argentine President...

So much happens in a year.

I will go into further detail about the Bientenario in my next post.
Chau chau!

-Jenny

PS - you can click on the images and look at the full size version, I recently discovered this!