Moneda Hunting and the World's Biggest Animals

This week i've learned that the national sportof Argentina is moneda hunting. Monedas are nothing special, they are coins that come in 5 cents, 10 cents, 25 cents, 50 cents and dollar increments, however, here they are hoarded. For some reason, that I cannot figure out, there are just not enough monedas ever, making people do crazy things to get some. You need monedas to ride the bus and because I use the bus frequently I've been forced to take part in moneda hunting. It sounds a lot easier than it is but vendors would rather charge you less than have to give you change and if you have too big of a bill they completely refuse service. The best way to get monedas seems to be buying small things at kioscos, which are located on every corner. For this reason, I have a seemingly endless supply of gum and hard candies because they generate a lot of change. The grocery store acrossthe street from me sells candy for 25 centavos and I have been using a 2 dollar bill to get an impressive amount of monedas every morningbut I think the cashier is on to me and has started to give me dirty looks.

When I have not been preoccupied with my moneda search I have explored some more of the city. I am constantly impressed by the number of the people and the size of everything I go to. This weekend I went to a mall with some friends and I was expecting it to be like the ones at home but boy was I wrong. This mall had a ferris wheel, a pirate ship and many more rides! Just getting a table in the food court turned into an extreme sport. After the craziness of the mall we decided to go to a nearby park, expecting a park to be a lot calmer, but wrong again! There was a flea market to end all flea markets going on! The park is circular with a circumference of about a mile. We started on one side and within the first few stalls realized that here we could buy everything that we would ever need, or in most cases never need. Need a samurai sword? Check. Used light bulbs, underwear, books from the sixties, glow in the dark dinosaur skeletons? They had it all! We did not make it all the way around the park, or really very far at all, but this market and park definitely deserve another look.

Here is one of the stalls. (Photo credit to Kelsey)

On Sunday, some friends and an I went to La Rural, a fair in honor of the bicentennial. Even after many hours at the fair I am confused as to what they wanted to exhibit. The first part was filled with the biggest farm animals I have ever seen. They definitely put the animals from the Minnesota state fair to shame!

After marveling over the size of those creatures and navigating through a huge crowd we wandered outside where we saw stage coach races, people riding on horseback carrying the Argentine flag and some of the newest cars on the market.

We then wandered back inside where we came face to face with what looked like all the characters from transformers. This farm equipment was like nothing we had seen before! With pieces moving in all directions and the gigantic sizes we were impressed!

After more wondering about what this equipment does, listening to Bob Marley in Spanish and sampling many types of dulce de leche, which were located between machines, we decided to call it a day. Most classes start tomorrow meaning it will most likely be a very hectic week! This week we can sample classes at four different universities throughout the city and next week we have even more options. I plan to go to eight or nine different classes this week before making a decision.

Hasta Luego,

Miriam