Blogs from La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina, South America - page 4

This Sunday I decided to go to La Plata, the capital of the province of Buenos Aires to visit my friend Santiago, who was the one that taught me the basics in Argentine Spanish about 3 years ago. La Plata is 45 minutes away from Capital Federal- the city of Buenos Aires and has a somewhat different feel from the megacity (Capital Federal). The people there seem nicer and less hurried, and many young people from the province of Buenos Aires and other places go to La Plata to study. (there are several universities and colleges in La Plata) I first returned to La Plata cathedral whose simple grandeur I like. It is a largest Gothic style cathedral built in Argentina in the 20th century. Because it was Sunday, the city was somewhat quiet. All the ... read more

Today waking up and trying to convince myself I needed to get up before dawn to get on a megabus…boy was it hard to do here in Buenos Aires, this place has a night life that literally starts when Sydney Sleeps hard into the night…so waking up early is near zero…But anyways, after making the mountainous effort I finally woke up and decided to walk to Retiro bus terminal and got me a megabus to La Plata!!! La Plata, is kind of like the Canberra of Argentina, even tho Buenos Aires is the Capital…but nevertheless La Plata is where all the jurisdictional buildings and legal places are…So finally getting there…I was kind of shocked to discover I didn’t have that good of a map to begin with and to make things worse…the tour guide and info ... read more

Things are winding down but not without a ton of work and play and of course another Argentine Crisis. My 25th Birthday I turned 25 about a mth ago but I have been slacking on my blog entries so I thought I would start with that. I had a fantastic Birthday thanks to all of my friends especially Jennifer! We had a huge American Southern food fest in her house, which the Argentines seemed to like. From there we made it out to one bar where a bunch of people met up with us and the bar gave us a few free bottles of sparkling wine to celebrate. From there we went to La Mulata, a really cool night club, whose owner happens to be dating our program coordinator, so we got first class service. We ... read more

It’s not all about traveling Just wanted to make sure to add some info about the work I'm doing so that it doesn't seem like I took an 8 month vacation ;) CEP I work for CEP (Centro de Entrenamiento para la Producción)(http://www.centrocep.com.ar/Index.html). They are an NGO that works with PYMES (Small and medium sized businesses). CEP works with PYMES to promote the development of an entrepreneurial culture in Argentina, which is quickly growing as the government has started offering a lot of growth subsidies and tax credits for training and technology that make them more competitive with larger businesses. CEP is one of the NGO windows through which the PYMES must apply for these subsidies. I have been working with the operations department learning the application procedures for these types of government assistance programs. I ... read more

Mini Update! I wanted to write a few things that I’ve got in the works because I’m very excited about my time here! 1. My Host mom has a friend who might get me onto one of the local field hockey teams!! Argentina is one of the best in the world for women’s field hockey so this is extremely exciting! 2. My Internship is with CEP, an organization which consults and gives training to both small and medium size enterprises in the BsAs area. Apparently my Spanish is good enough to accompany them on the consulting interviews around the province where they do their needs assessments!! I will still be working with the patents and translations but we shall see how good I am with that 3. My host family goes to Conception del Uruguay every ... read more