guilty

23712

monday, once again a not very exciting day, woke up for class, rode the train to class, attended class, and completed class. for lunch myself and a number of other kids went to the California Burrito Co. (quite authentically Argentine right?) and all of us paid with 100 peso bills, which is what comes out of the ATM here, but instead of being the equivalent of a twenty dollar bill, businesses treat it like a hundred. i mean, my burrito costs 35ARS you should easily be able to break a hundred, even if the five people before me also broke hundreds.

anyways after lunch we reconvened for classes, it was the last class with the cool history professor guy, and it was about the economy of Argentina over the last century. while i have previous knowledge of pretty much all that was discussed, it was very interesting to see it from a locals' prospective. everyone is very cynical of the government and its fiscal and monetary policy. they do not have confidence in their leaders or their Peso, considering the inflation that today's generation witnessed, this is no surprise. the professor claimed that the people, particularly in Buenos Aires are very sensitive to the global market and currency prices. he also explained why the currency Black Market was so healthy; the Argentine people are betting against the Peso. Today the government sponsored exchange rate is 4.57ARS to 1USD, but on the black market you can easily fetch 6.5ARS to the 1USD, this is because people are betting against the Peso, they are willing to pay a little extra to buy a safe currency (the USD). a few people had a hard time understanding these concepts, unfortunately at least one of them was an International Affairs major, and i was subsequently embarrassed.

after this class we split up and went home, now, i will admit i feel bad that i am not getting much of the cultural tourism done as i would like. but when we get out of class at 333-400 pm, and my commute home is another hour, not only am i a little tired to traipse around this very large city and find museums (which in themselves are 20 or 30 minutes away from class), but i think a lot of them close by 5-6 at night anyways. i am sure my senioritus is kicking in too (thank the gods i was able to stave it off for this long), but as the afternoons and weekends free up, i will certainly try to hunt down some culture.