Sunday Strolls, Swigs, & Services!

Hola!


What a day! It was a pretty fantastic Sunday-my first one in Argentina!


I got to sleep in today, till around 11, which was fantastic. My host mom, Rossana, woke up about a half hour before me and we enjoyed breakfast together--coffee and toast with dulce de leche! 


Bot and I spent the rest of the day exploring our neighborhood, Palermo. We met up at Alto Palermo which is the 'mall' near my apartment. We figured out that Bot only lives about 4 subte (subway) stations away from me! We walked around the mall for a bit, doing some window shopping & ended up at the Claro Kiosk (our phone company). We both had received phones from our host families and we needed to add minutes. At the kiosk, Bot had no difficulty getting minutes added to her phone. I, unfortunately, ran into some trouble. My host mom gave me what she thought was the number for my phone (In order to add minutes, you need to know your number) Little did I know, this wasn't actually my phone number. So I added 50 pesos to a number that was not mine. No big deal, 50 pesos is around $12. Anyway, I eventually got it all straightened out in my broken Spanish. We grabbed lunch after that, a broccoli and pesto tarta that we both ended up hating! 


From the mall, we quickly stopped back at my apartment to grab my sunglasses, and Bot met my host mom. And off to the botanical garden we went. A few blocks away from my house, we found the Botanical Garden of Carlos Thays which is absolutely beautiful. We spent a lot of time walking around and taking pictures! 

Outside of the garden, I finally took a picture of God's little reminder to us that Gordon is our home!

Our own Gordon Fighting Scot, smack in the middle of Buenos Aires

Around 5 o'clock, Bot and I headed to a little cafe a block or so away from my apartment. We decided, being the legal adults that we are in Argentina, to get a drink and something to eat since we wouldn't be eating dinner until 9 or 10 that night. We ordered a tarta bariloche

which was fantastic! 

We also ordered some fruity drinks, at which point our waitress told us they didn't have the 'ingredients' to make it, so we ended up blindly choosing a 'Negroni'

Little did we know that a Negroni was one part gin, one part sweet (red) vermouth, and one part bitters. 

Bot's reaction is quite appropriate.

Needless to say, neither of us finished more than half of the drink.

But, last minute we decided to go to church that night. We crossed the city, to a different neighborhood and ended up at Iglesia del Centro, an Evangelical church we heard about from a fellow-Gordon student (Thanks Amy!) It was an amazing experience. We were able to worship our God in a completely different language! We were welcomed into the church and immediately recognized the first worship song: How Great is Our God, rather, Cuan Grande es Dios! The service ended up being more than 2 hours long, which we weren't really prepared for, but it was still incredible! God is good, all the time!

I'm getting more and more excited about the next 5 months, although I'm still quite aware that 5 months is a long time!

Buenas Noches

-C

(another song we sang in church)

Tú eres todo poderoso (You are all powerful)
Eres grande y majestuoso, (You are great and majestic) Eres fuerte, invencible (You are strong, invincible)

y no hay nadie como tú (and there is none like You)