One of the nice things about our trip is that we are not only living in another country but we have also exchanged our suburban life for life in a big city.  We love living in Palo Alto for many reasons, but urban life certainly has it’s advantages.  This weekend we began to enjoy them.

On Saturday morning, Jake and I played a rousing game of futbol in the park next to our hotel.  Afterwards, the entire family visited Malba which is literally next door to our apartment building.  The Malba is a spectacular museum featuring numerous Latin American artists.  We were fortunate to see the amazing works of Antonio Berni whose paintings are on special exhibit this month

From the special exhibit.

The permanent collection contains work from Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera and a host of other  prominent artists.  It is a gem of a museum and one that we look forward to visiting many more times.

Frida self portrait

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Che what’s up?

Berni from the permanent collection.

After touring the museum we walked down toward the center of town where we passed, the United Nations Plaza with the famous flower statute (the pedals open and close each day)

Got it

and the classic Greek architecture of Buenos Aires University, which deserves its own Rocky statue.

Gonna fly now!

We then visited El Museo Participativo De Ciencias a children’s museum where it the kids are not allowed NOT to touch.  It’s science and technology similar to the Children’s Discovery Museum and San Jose.

Probihido NO tocar

After a day of kids’ type events, Michele and I managed our first night out without them.  We are doing our best to adjust to the Buenos Aires lifestyle so we decided to start the night with a cocktail at 8 and then go to dinner at 9.  Well when we stopped into Caracas, a cute little spot in trendy Palermo Soho, it was just us and the bartender.  I tried to acclimate myself by ordering the Argentinian aperitif Frenet Branca.  It tasted like a cross between Jagermeister and dishwasher detergent, but I finished it so as not to look bad.  We then had an amazing dinner at Unik though at 9:00 the only people in the restaurant were us and 4 Chinese tourists and the staff spoke English to us as soon as we walked in the door.  Our meal was lovely (particularly Michele’s egg appetizer) and we look forward to visiting again.  By the time we left at 11, the restaurant was starting to get going.  Not sure if we will ever make this adjustment.

Today we were invited to yet another Asado in the suburbs.  The Argentines have been so warm and welcoming to us, and it has made us consider how we can be more kind and inviting to strangers when they move to our community.

Goal!

After the required post Asado nap we finished the day watching from our balcony where we could see Ringo Star (of all people) and his band playing to an outdoor concert.

The view from our apartment

A nice urban weekend.  Looking forward to many more.