Adventures in China Town!

Church of the Immaculate Conception, Belgrano

      Yesterday our group was heading to Barrio Chino (Buenos Aires' China Town). We had to find our way to Barrio Chino on our own so I was slightly nervous that I would get lost. However, Luciano sent us an amazing website that's very similar to Google Maps/Maquest, except for you can choose your mode of transportation (ie. by foot, by car, by colectivo/bus or by subte/subway). If you choose by colectivo or by subte it will show you every possible route that you can take to get to your destination and it even gives you directions to the bus stop or subway station. I really wish they had something like this in the United States!
        It took Kasiddy and I about thirty minutes to get to our meeting place. The bus ride was interesting because it took us through a part of Buenos Aires where I had never been before. We passed the Buenos Aires Botanical Gardens and also the Buenos Aires Zoo...both of which are places that I would like to go to. There were also a lot of apartment complexes (which is very different from the more commercial part of Buenos Aires where I live). Finally we reached the bus stop where Luciano and the rest of our group was waiting. I was so proud of myself for making it there without getting lost.

I keep seeing these parakeet like birds in BA

I'm still trying to figure out how to rotate
pictures. Bare with me!

         At the street corner where we met there were men selling jewelry and incense, which was laid out on mats lining the street. About a block away was a small feria (Feria Belgrano) where Luciano told us we could look around for a while while he waited for the rest of the group. I didn't care for Feria Belgrano as much as the one at Recoleta. It was much smaller. Plus, it had just opened so only a few vendors were set up, which made it seem even smaller. I walked around for a little while and looked at some of the things being sold...lots of incense, mates, jewelry made of silver (there's lots of silver here) and leather wallets and purses. I walked around for about 10 minutes before a large building behind the feria caught my attention. Shelby and I decided to go inside and see what it was. As we got closer we realized it was a large Catholic church, Iglesia Immaculada Concepcion. Mass must have just ended because a lot of people were leaving and the priest was standing in front speaking with people. We decided to peak inside. The interior of the church was beautiful: lots of sculptures, stained glass, elaborate molding, gold embellishments and a beautiful painted ceiling. The sculptures were very beautiful and detailed. One sculpture of Christ on the cross detailed every muscle in Christ's body and the area where the nails pinned him to the cross was painted red and brown to make it look like real blood and scarring. You could tell the church was old because the paint was beginning to peel off of the walls and there was a lot of work that needed to be done. There were also pictures of the Pope outside of the church so I imagine that he must have delivered a sermon here in the past. In the molding outside the church there were green birds that looked like parrakeets. I've seen them often around Buenos Aires.
              I wanted to take pictures, but I thought it was inappropriate as mass was just ending, so we returned after we had explored China Town. There were lots of homeless people laying outside the church asking for money. When I came home I looked the church up on the internet and it is one of the oldest in Buenos Aires (constructed in the late 1800s). The church has a large ministry to help the poor which serves dinner Mon-Sat and gives away clothing Mon and Wed. That would explain all of the homeless people laying outside. If you want to know more about La Iglesia Immaculada Concepcion click here
            Shortly after walking through La Feria Belgrano and the church we walked about 5 blocks down to Barrio Chino. Buenos Aires' China Town is much smaller than that in New York. It's about 2 blocks long, lined with stores and restaurants. We had reservations at a restaurant for 1 so we walked in and out of some of the stores before it was time to eat. The stores mostly sold Chinese teapots, good luck charms and little Buddhist and Hindu statues. They also had knock off designer handbags, but they really looked cheap...not like the ones you can get behind closed doors in China Town in New York. They also had a butchery and a spice shop, where many of the people in our group went into to buy spices requested by their host mothers (lol!). We thought that all of the workers would assume Aki was Chinese (she's Japanese) and try to speak to her in Chinese, but instead all these Argentines kept asking her to explain the significance of all the statues in the stores. LOL! Following the trend in other parts of Buenos Aires, there was a lot of really pretty graffiti in Buenos Aires. Then it was time for lunch.
               That meal was probably one of the best that I've had since I've been to China Town. I enjoy Argentine food, but every restaurant has the same menu and serves the same things. I'm seeing how as an American I really take for granted the fact that we are truly a melting pot of cultures. I miss having a variety of choices to eat. One night I can have Chinese, the next Italian and the next Mexican. I've been yearning for something that I could get in America/something that wasn't Argentine & this was exactly what I needed. Maggie, Aki, Caroline and I split four meals. The program was paying four our lunch and we each had 100 pesos to spend, so we made the most of our money and put our 400 pesos together. We had dumplings and spring rolls as our appetizer and we shared beef lo mein, chicken fried rice, spicy beef and pork. Yum yum yum. I was nervous about my 10 million allergies, but the UGA en Buenos Aires program has done an excellent job of making sure that I don't eat anything that I'm allergic to and Luciano helped me translate to make sure that I wasn't going to eat anything that I'm allergic to. Our waitress told us that nuts were too expensive to buy so they don't put them in their food. LOL. It was delicious and we were really full.

Some of the amazing street art in BA

             After lunch, we were free to do whatever we wanted or to head home. We were all craving something sweet so we decided to find a pastry shop. It was also really cold on Sunday (very different from the 70 degree weather on Saturday while we were in Uruguay) and we were all under dressed so we decided to go to a cafe. I couldn't decided if I wanted a pastry or coffee so I just decided to have my cake and eat it too (almost literally). We stopped at a coffee shop called Cafe Martinez that was similar to the Argentine equivalency of Starbucks. I ordered a hot cappuccino that had a giant cookie in the bottom that was separated from the coffee by a layer of caramel. It was delicious and it warmed me up!
            On the way home I took the subte (subway) for the first time with a group of friends. It was easy to navigate the station and I like it so much more than taking the bus. It was at an odd time on a Sunday too so it wasn't too congested. A man heard our American accents and asked us where we were from. We had a conversation about Argentina that I think I've had at least 20 different times with every other Argentine that figures out that I'm American. lol!

            For dinner that night a group of us decided to meet and find somewhere to eat. Half of our group met close to Alto Palermo and while we were waiting we saw some of the most bizarre things. First this lady walking with a baby ran her stroller right into Shelby's leg and didn't even apologize. Then she turned around, ran the stroller into the curb, almost poured her baby out, and didn't even check to see if the baby was okay.  Then she came and asked us for money. Her lack of concern for the child made me wonder if she was running a scam, but I couldn't tell if the baby was real when I looked into the carriage. After she left a blind man almost ran into us. We all had to stand right up against the window of a shop to keep him from running into us. Then a man just drove his motorcycle right onto the sidewalk where all these pedestrians were walking. After that a lady with 6 kids who all looked the same age (and we all under 6) came to the bus stop. Her kids were running wild into the busy street and playing with the pay phone next to the bus stop. LOL. When we finally all made it to our meeting point we headed out to find a restaurant. We went to eat at Argentina's normal dinner time (9pm), but it seemed as if everywhere we went was closed. We finally found a restaurant on the polar opposite part of town from where we intended (close to UP), but it was packed outside so we had to sit outside in the cold. When we got to the restaurant a group of about 200 bicyclists were crossing the intersection and all the cars were honking at them. They were all dressed in regular clothing too. We couldn't figure out if it was some sort of protest or maybe Buenos Aires' version of Twilight (the bicycle race in Athens). Needless to say it was a strange night. The restaurant was expensive for Argentina (50-75 pesos per meal=about $10-$12 USD) but the food was delicious & they had tacos!

Since it's been three days since I've last blogged, this post is continued in the following post...so scroll up to continue reading.

But if you have enough of reading...

Besos y Abrazos,

Jackie

One more from the Church of the Immaculate Concepcion