I'm here!

I arrived in Buenos Aires yesterday afternoon, after a nearly 11-hour flight from D.C.  Ana Lía from the SPBA office picked me up at the airport and took me to my host family´s apartment in Retiro, in the center of the city. My host parents are a retired couple with an apartment on the 4th floor of a building overlooking Avenida del Libertador and the Retiro train station.

I had some time yesterday and today to explore the area. I´m about 2 blocks from Plaza San Martín, which has tons of gorgeous flowering trees. 

Another view of the plaza:

There seems to be some sort of photography exhibit set up around the edge of the plaza near Calle Florida. This was one of the more interesting posters:

Buenos Aires became the federal capital in the 1880s, and it looks like a lot of the buildings around here date from about that time period. Here´s one on a street I wandered down.

And here´s my room. It´s hard to take a picture that shows it well:

I´ll probably have a chance to explore more this weekend (and maybe figure out the colectivo system). Orientation for the program starts Monday.