Botanical Garden

On Friday night I felt like going out, so I went (with a friend) to a nighttime tour of the Botanical Garden, which is just a couple miles from where I live. To be honest, it wasn't really anything special, but it was an excuse to get out of the house, plus I got to listen to the tour guide talk and practice some Spanish with my friend. Afterwards we went to a bar to meet with an English conversation group that I wanted to check out just for fun. I ended up speaking more Spanish than English (which is a good thing), and finally got home about 1:00 am. Which, by the way, is not at all late in this city. Some people don't even leave the house to go out until 1 or 2 am.

Last night I went to the "suburbs" of Buenos Aires to meet with the church that I know here. I took the train there last night. Overall time to get there was a little over an hour and a half. Beto, a guy from the church, met me in the train station and we rode together to the church meeting. He happens is able to speak with a very clear accent, so I understand nearly everything he says. About halfway through the train ride he switched to English and told me that everyone around us was listening to me very curiously, I imagine because of my accent. He said the same thing happens to his wife, who is from Brasil (and who definitely has a perceptable accent, even to my ears).

I found out later that there's a better way to get there that probably only takes about an hour on one of those really nice buses with reclining seats and A/C. Of course, it costs more, but it's still only a dollar. I returned home last night on the comfy bus, which dropped me off about 12 blocks from my apartment. It was a nice night so I walked home from there.