Alta Cordoba y La Plaza San Martin

Amanda and I started our first official day by rolling out of bed at 11:00 AM- so much for waking up early.  We walked around Barrio Alta Cordoba- the neighborhood we are staying in; we found a nice fruit/vegetable/meat shop. I guess it is like the the South American version of the Southeast Asia wet market- though not as chaotic.  We saw a sign that said that we weren't supposed to touch any of the merchandise; we watched as people would grab a ticket and wait for someone to help them.  They would point to and ask for what they wanted and then take a ticket up to the counter to pay.  The durazanos (peaches) and las uvas (grapes) were fantastic. We also stopped at a panderia and bought a nice pastry for breakfast. 

We then walked to the Plaza San Martin to look around.  I'll be honest, I don't remember a lot about who San Martin is (though I've read of him in my travel books), I think he's an important military figure that lead during the fight for Argentina's independance from Spain (It's 2:00 AM and I'm too lazy to google it).  I'm sure we'll go back to La Plaza de San Martin and we'll learn about the history in more depth.

There was an amazing cathedral in the plaza

We initially didn't think photos inside were allowed, but then we saw a bunch of Argentines taking pictures so we figured it was okay.  The inside was absolutely amazing; I've been inside dozens of Hindu and Buddhist temples but I can't recall ever going inside a cathedral- especially one so old. It dates back to the late 1700's or 1800's, I don't know because it's 2:00 AM.  (My blog is my journal, I'm determined to keep one because I regret not doing so while I lived in Malaysia; I'm making myself write as much as I can). 

We also walked around the square and towards some other cathedrals and monuments.   I saw what looked to me like an Argentine mullet.

A view of one of the side-streets:

We briefly walked through the Jesuit Block...more to come later. 

A cool picture:

Around 7:00 we stopped for a drink; I've found that you must specify that you want hielo (ice) with your drink. I loved how the ice was served in a bucket with tongs, I'm not being facetious either, I really did think it was great.

We did some more grocery shopping... I didn't buy these but thought Christina would like to see a picture.

We headed home with a banana y dulce de leche ice cream cone; dulce de leche is a very popular flavor- tastes like a caramelized milk. 

It was a great day over all.  I had forgotten how challenging it can be to do simple tasks like buying groceries, navigating where you need to go, or even figuring out how the key to your apartment works- this is the kind of stuff that is really exciting and new at first, but then builds and builds to become a really stressful part of culture shock.  They did tell us all of this kind of stuff would happen last semester in our prep-class but I figured that I'd lived abroad before and knew what to expect- in a way I did.  It didn't get through to me until now that mom and dad were there to figure out where to buy groceries, navigate us around, and everything else while I tagged along.  I'll figure it out though... one day at a time.