So yesterday I saw the most awesome van ever. It was pretty baller.

I finished up classes and went exploring downtown. I visited the touristy areas (Florida) for the first time. Snapped a few pictures where the sky looked greyish at the time, but they came out with this cool eerie blue.

Later, I tracked down this group that meets once a week on Fridays at the end of one of the subway lines. They meet to speak English, and I thought, "hey I know English." So I went out to this Argentinian equivalent of a Sizzler and sat around waiting for these guys. We met up, and I talked with a few different people. After an hour or so, we went to a restaurant to celebrate one dude's birthday and the rules relaxed a bit so that they could speak Spanish (which helped me). I met some cool people. Marta, who started the group (middle), is a psychologist who volunteers at an orphanage which is unique in that it allows families of children to stay together. Art (far right), who is an expat from San Francisco and a stock trader in a "former life," was explaining that the government tried to shut down the orphanage and separate the children. This happened for complicated reasons -- it more or less comes down to the building being worth a lot to sell or rent out -- and a few weeks ago they sent in riot police to forcibly remove the children. So then the community pulled together and protested, and blocked the police from entering, and Marta and a few others spent the night in the orphanage. I guess they removed about half the children, and 15 or so are still there. Crazy.

Oh yeah, and then the bus ride home at 2am was one of the most exciting and scary experiences I can remember. I thought I was going to die, and there was a couple standing up, making out. People make out everywhere in public here. It's weird.