Still new to the city, our group event in our second week in Argentina was a walking tour of downtown Buenos Aires. We met at the satellite university Expanish building where we had our classes offered by the program and the Mount. I personally took two classes there: “Political Science: America North and South,” taught by Dr. Towle, and “Argentine Life and Culture,” taught by Professor Lisandro Kahan of Argentina. The AIF program coordinator, a young Argentine named Valentin, was our guide for this trip and the others.  He led us to the closest subway, and we took a few stops to a connecting subway that we rode until the end of the line, the Catedral stop.  

We walked from the subway to the Plaza de Mayo, which is the area in front of the Casa Rosada, the Argentine presidential palace. This is where Eva Perón rallied working-class crowds from the balcony. The wife of Argentine President Juan Perón, she too was a politician. The whole area is historically charged. The Plaza de Mayo is where the Madres y Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo would protest for their missing loved ones every Thursday during the time of dictatorship in the 1970s and 1980s. We visited the Catholic Catedral Metropolitana where Pope Francis led mass as Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio before becoming pope. At the site, we also saw the resting place of José de San Martín, a national hero and military commander who liberated Argentina, Chile and Peru from Spanish rule.  

We finished our tour by walking to the famous street market called San Telmo. This street market had all type of authentic and handmade items. It had leather purses and jackets, Mate and bombillas used for Argentinian traditional drinks, jewelry made with different metals and stones and much more. At the end of the market, there was tango music and dancing where the public joined and enjoyed the display of culture. Toward the end of my stay in Buenos Aires, I returned here to buy keepsakes and gifts for my family and friends back home.