Rosario

Parque Espana

Bathroom project by Iglesia

all of us on the boardwalk

A few of the bridge at sunset

Monument to the Flag

I am getting behind on my blogs, but two weeks ago we went as a group to Rosario, a city about 4 hours from Buenos Aires. It was a great city with about 1 million people. We all really liked it, and architecturally it is doing pretty well. We arrived on a Tuesday, left on Thursday, and went non stop the entire time we were there. Our first day we walked around the city and met up with some architecture students there and were able to see what they are doing in school. After that we saw our professor, Claudio, give a lecture to the school. That was interesting, but it was all in Spanish, so needless to say I didn't understand everything. Then we went out to dinner with the students and teachers at a local restaurant. It was nice to interact with students and locals, we all really enjoyed that dinner. Wednesday we got up bright and early and had an itinerary of 10 buildings to see. I have included a few pictures of only a couple that we saw. The first one is a school on the waterfront that is a huge staircase on the outside, it was quite amazing how much it is used by the public for exercise and just getting around. The next one is a bathroom done by Robert Iglesia. It was pretty interesting, we saw a few different buildings he did. He was a different guy a little cocky, but that is definitely not unusual for an architect. I included a picture of the signage for the bathroom, because he said he hates how signs usually just show a person standing, so he did one of what actually goes on in the bathroom, i though that was funny. The next project was a boardwalk over the river, and we were there just in time for the sunset. Also a nice project. Then finally we saw the addition to the monument to the flag. The main building was done much earlier, but there was a competition for opening up the upper platform to the street. It was a nice addition, however Claudio had mixed feelings. Mostly I think because he entered that competition, and even though he was given an honorable mention, he still had a little hard feelings about not being awarded the project. It was really cool to see the monument at night, a very different experience with the lighting. All in all it was a great trip, with lots of interesting architecture to see.

Xul Solar Museum

A couple of paintings by Xul Solar

Images from inside his apartment, exactly how he left it.

Interior shots of the museum.

About a week ago instead of one of our classes we went to various buildings around Buenos Aires. By far my favorite, and possibly even of all the buildings I have seen in the city, was the Xul Solar Musuem by Pablo Beitía. Solar was a local artist that went to Europe in the 20's and 30's and then returned to Buenos Aires and lived in apartment that was one of four units in one building. He always imagined turning the whole building into a musuem for local artists. After Xul died it was decided that they would do just that, except it is mainly just his work that is exhibited with a smaller space in front for exhibits of local artists. His apartment is still in tact, and we were allowed in it, which is quite a rarity. Our teacher joked that we were probably the only people in the country who were allowed to do this. We were able to meet the architect as well, he came and gave a tour of the space. It is always nice to have the architect tell you first hand exactly what they wanted to achieve with the spaces. I also really enjoyed Solar's artwork. Latin American art is an area I am lacking in with my history, so it was great to learn about an important local artist. He does mostly watercolor, and they were fairly small sizes, so you had to get right up to them. His work was pretty amazing.

Bariloche part 2

View of the mountains from the car

Views from the lookout point we hiked to.
View from the ride we took on the horses.

Images of the woods.

I was so cold! But it was lots of fun.

Victoria Island

View of Llao Lloa lake

Our fire on the beach the last night of our vacation.

Trip to Bariloche

Blogger is having technical difficulties this week! I tried getting on yesterday to upload photos and it wouldn't let me, and tonight is still a no go. So until the pictures can get on I will just write about my break. Last week we were given an "unofficial" aka asu doesn't know about it, break after our mid-review. It was so awesome to have a whole week off to relax and unwind after an intense week of work. Six of us decided to go to Bariloche, which is the lake district of Argentina. It is on the border of Chile and Argentina. Our program coordinator has quickly become one of our group and joined us on our trip and offered to have us all stay at her grandmothers vacation home. It was so much fun. The house was right on one of the lakes, and had a great view, and lots of ground to run around on. The first day we got there we went for a hike to a lookout point where we could see the lake and mountains from a higher point. It was so gorgeous, and very sunny. Apparently Briloche is under a hole in the ozone layer, so the sun was quite intense like nothing I have ever felt. It was crazy! After the hike we went to the beach of the lake and hung out while we watched the sunset. Then next day we took it easy, bought a soccer ball in town and played a couple of games at the house. It was a very relaxed fun day. Tuesday we went into town and decided to go horseback riding. We went for a two hour ride that took us to another lookout point to see another view of the landscape. It was so cold that day! I had a tank top, long sleeve shirt, sweater, hoody, and rain jacket on! I may have looked funny, but I was the warmest one on the mountain. We had a lot of fun doing that, it was some of the boys first time on a horse, they claimed it was the highlight of their trip. Weds. we went to Bariloche (the town we were actually staying in was about an hour outside of the main town of Bariloche). Here we took a boat tour of the Arrayanes woods and Victoria Island. The woods are apparently unique in the world because they have such a large concentration of Arrayanes, which are technically bushes, but look like trees. It was quite amazing to see them all. It was too bad it was so overcast that day, I can only imagine how beautiful it must be in the sun light. In fact that day was very cold as well, but fun. Victoria Island reminded me a lot of Wyoming, it was very pretty and wooded. Thursday we hung out and watched movies, had a barbecue, and made a fire on the beach. It was a great way to end the week. Friday we came back to Buenos Aires. I had a great time, and it was fun to get out of the crowded city for a week. However it was very hard getting back into the rhythm of school this week. :) Hope everyone is doing well in the States, hopefully I will get the pictures on soon!

Colonia, Uruguay...Muy divertido!!!

The whole group on the top of the ferry, and Dave relaxing on the seats inside

Yay for the pink helmet and my scooter!
Luis in one of the Go-karts, Paul, John, Ryan on their scooters

The Restaurant were we had lunch.
Different shots of the town.


The bull fighting stadium, and one of the dog who loved us.

The road that lead us to the beach, and shots of the beach.

Beautiful sunset to end the day!

This last week our professor was going out of town and had to move studio to Thursday. So we had Friday off. We decided to go to Colonia, Uruguay, a town that is only a ferry ride away from Buenos Aires. We weren't able to get tickets for the fast ferry (1 hr long) so we ended up on the long ferry (3 hrs.). However they both arrived at the same time, we just had to get up a little earlier. The ferry was pretty nice, they had a cafe, a duty free shop, really comfortable, reclining seats, and the top deck was open to hang out on. So the ride actually went pretty fast. Once we arrived in Colonia we headed to our first location...the scooter rental. The town is pretty small and really laid back, so the thing that everyone does when they come here is rent scooters and drive around town. We arrived at a rental place and they had plenty of scooters waiting to go, but also these go karts. So after discussing we decided to rent 2 go karts and 4 scooters. I was on the list for a scooter (let me mention here that all morning I told the boys how I was determined to get a pink scooter and a pink helmet to match). So we start our paper work, and I was the first to finish and lo and behold the guy pulls out a pink helmet from behind the counter, with out even asking me anything. It was so funny, all the boys took out their cameras and started taking pictures of me in it. Sadly, they did not have a pink scooter, so I had to settle for a blue one. Once I found out we would be renting scooters I was excited, but also a little nervous. I have ridden a little honda rebel before (a long time ago), and Dollys scooter up and down the street, but I wasn't sure if I would be okay handling it. So I get on the scooter and the guy showing me how to drive was really rude, and kept telling me I should drive the go kart, and that I would injure myself and the scooter if I wanted to ride it. I was mad and also a little freaked out because I already had my worries about it. The boys were all really nice though and stuck up for me and told the guy that I was fine and wanted to stick with the scooter. I almost just drove the go kart, but I am down here to experience new things, so I went for it. The guy had me go around the block once before leaving, and I did just fine. It was a lot easier than I thought, once I got used to the gas controls (it was a little finicky). So with all of us ready we headed out. We first stopped for lunch along the coast. We found this really cute, and small restaurant with a great view. It was really good, we all got steaks and enjoyed a great lunch on the patio. The weather was awesome all day, around 75 (it is spring down here and some days are still rainy and cold but not this one). After lunch we drove some more around the coast, then a little through the city. We drove to what we were told was a Bull Fighting stadium, that was very cool. While driving around it a stray dog started barking at our go karts, and started running alongside us for a while. You could tell he really loved finding scooters and things to run with. We eventually wound up on a higher speed road that led us a little outside of town. From there we took a random dirt road that ended up leading us through farm land that was so green and beautiful, and very few people around. The road ended at a private beach were we parked the scooters and walked around a little. It was so quite and pretty, there were only two local people there, one fishing, the other just relaxing. After a while Luis decided to take his shoes off and wade around in the water. Then one thing lead to another and all the boys ended up in the water. It was a lot of fun, and such a pretty beach. By this time we had to start heading back to return the scooters (we had them until around 6 and our ferry left at 6:30). The ride back was awesome, we took a different ride along the coast and it was very beautiful. Randomly the stray dog from earlier in the day found us again, and ran for a long time beside us until he was too tired to go anymore. It was sad to end the day, but it was so much fun, and it ended with a gorgeous sunset that we enjoyed from the boat. We got back to Buenos Aires around 10, and we all felt like it was just a dream, because it was such a great, fun day. We all want to go back before we leave Argentina. Enjoy the pics, and finally i have some of people and me!