A story of grafitti, an 1830 house and the world’s biggest dinosaur discovery.

What does a walking tour, four hours of sleep and a painted astronaut all have in common? That was my state of existence last Saturday when I went on a graffiti tour of the city. I will first explain the sleep. So the night before, a few friends and I (including my fellow PC friend, Brian) decided around 3 am that after a long night out that it wasn’t time to go home, rather to stay out and watch the sunrise – so that is exactly what we did. The rest of our night included, a 5 am stop to get choripan (the most delicious bread and sausage combo), a subte ride to Puerto Madero (the port), a chat with a hotel guard, and finally the sunrise over the ecological reserve. Granted, we we were all eaten alive by mosquitoes for the two hours it took until the sun rose (it rose much later than we anticipated – around 7:15), but we all thoroughly enjoyed witnessing a “Lion King”esque sunrise while singing Hakuna Matata. So that is why I had four hours of sleep. The next day I was going on graffiti tour and it was lovely.

Lion King

Just a Little Respect, Rubio

Argentina has made more U.S. news this week when United States Senator from Florida, Marco Rubio, on Thursday, described Argentina as a country inadequate at being an “ally” to the U.S. and not a “mature democracy.” (Yikes…ouch.) And Argentina is not happy about the prognosis.

Here is a brief summary of what he laid out before I go into detail:

• “[Argentina has] seized our equipment”
•  “[They] need to make a decision about who they are and where they’re headed government-wise”
• “not the signals of a mature democracy and not the actions of an ally”
•  “For more than a decade they’ve refused to honor their bond obligations”
• “repeatedly defied U.S. courts”
• “and they’ve refused to negotiate in good faith with foreign stakeholders”
• “[Argentina] doesn’t cooperate with our military”
• “By the way, it looks like they’re headed for another default”

Anticipation & The Shock Factor

The days are drawing nearer and it’s official: twenty-four days until Buenos Aires and I formally meet. After being home for what will be two and a half months (the longest I’ve been home since summer of freshman year,) the days are seemingly going more quickly. I have been spending my days working at ContributionLink, a political data-basing firm, where I often find myself feeling like a spy — due to the fact that I am clearly the only non-conservatively thinking employee in the office. I actually find it quite funny. When I am not working at ContributionLink, I am either swimming while thinking about Argentina, reading articles and books about Argentina, or just sitting blank-faced in a chair wondering what I will be doing in less than a month in Argentina.