Winding Down...

So here we are, our last full day in Argentina. It feels like the time has flown by, but at the same time, it feels like we’ve been here for years. Either way, I feel like we’ve definitely made the most of our time while here.

The last couple of days have been very relaxed, and I must say I’m quite grateful. We’ve had a lot of free time to explore the city and do anything that we might’ve missed. But before we could do that, we had a meeting at an advertising agency yesterday. Since the offices were across the city in Belgrano, we opted for public transportation and took the subway in order to save pesos. After arriving in Belgrano sans incidents, we realized we were extremely early for our meeting, so we sat in a park that overlooked what appeared to be a doggy daycare. It was a large fenced-in area where dozens of dogs were playing. Since the park was surrounded by a corporate building, we assumed that businessmen and businesswomen could drop their dogs off there on their way to work.

After entertaining ourselves by watching the dogs, we headed to MEC Advertising (as soon as we entered, the Mad Men theme song became stuck in my head). I’m one of the few in the group that is interested in the news and information side of the journalism school as opposed to strategic communications, but it was still an interesting visit, regardless (plus, they gave us dulce de leche-stuffed churros and hot chocolate, which made it even better). They are one of the largest advertising companies in Latin America and have offices all over the world. Their local clients include Microsoft, Toyota, Playtex, Netflix, Citibank and Ralph Lauren. They explained some of the challenges in the advertising world, and they also talked about their increasing presence with social media. 

It was lunchtime by the time the meeting was over, so we (plus two of the people we met with) headed to a restaurant in the neighborhood. Linda noticed a restaurant called Kansas in her guidebook, so naturally, we had to go there. After a 10-block walk, we stopped in front of Kansas, a gated, modern looking restaurant. The inside was a gorgeous mahogany décor with a fountain in the entryway. Our ad agency friends were wondering why we were chuckling, and we had to explain that you would never in a million years find anything this fancy in Kansas. They told us that this is where people come when they want American food, and sure enough, the menu was something like you would find anywhere in the Midwest. There were salads, burgers, and pastas. I think everyone was secretly glad for a familiar menu because the entire table cleared their plates.

After returning to the hotel, Kara, Margie, and I decided to spend a couple of hours shopping in the area across the street from the hotel. I finally found a reasonably-priced soccer jersey, which I had been looking for. A man that we met in a bookstore advised us to return to our hotel earlier rather than later since the area becomes questionable around 8, so we cut our time short and decided that we would return the next day (which was a completely free day).

So this morning, Kara and I decided to return to the shops, grab some lunch, and walk around the areas that we missed. After spending what was probably too much money, we headed back to the hotel (so we wouldn’t spend any more), where we are relaxing right now before our farewell dinner. 

But our adventures aren’t over just yet. Today might have been a free day, but we are making the most of our day tomorrow before our 9 p.m. flight. Nico’s giving us one final tour to El Tigre, a theater, and then he’s taking us sailing. I like to think of our relaxing day today as the calm before the (enjoyable) storm.