Welcome Dinner (Written by Kayla Bauerlein)

*Due to technical difficulties, I (Kayla) will be posting on Nick's account.

As stated in the previous post, on January seventh we arrived in Buenos Aires with a good amount of free time before the “welcome dinner.” Groups of students went to the mall, flea market, women’s bridge, and walked around the city to become somewhat familiar with the area. The flea market was a twenty-minute walk from our hotel, Melia; it was a long cobble stone street that went at least three blocks in length and had stands of sale items lining both sides. There were various handmade objects available to buy, such as the clay magnets Zach Valckenaere bought, and the culture of Argentina surely shined through. For example, many gourd bowls for the serving of Mate tea were up for sale, as well as small metal statue-like bowls which can serve as a souvenir.

Left: Gourd bowls for Mate
Right: Photo of the flea market

 After everyone went around town, we all met in the lobby of Melia at 7:40pm to take a bus ride as a group to a local Italian restaurant, La Parolaccia Trattoria, for our “welcome dinner.” Upon arrival, we were politely greeted by the hostesses and wait staff into the beautiful restaurant. The table settings were presented just as you would expect for a high class Italian restaurant: white table cloths, bread plate, silverware placed so perfectly on the napkin and table, and of course beautiful glassware. 

Everyone ready and excited to eat!

The two main waiters, Juan and Diego, worked as a team to make sure our service was paced well. Juan walked around asking each of us what we wanted to eat for our “Antipasti,” “Piatto Principale,” and “Dolce,” while Diego walked around individually pouring us soft drinks or water. Alan was the third member of the wait staff who helped us and he mainly cleared our plates, and also came around with bread multiple times. To give an example of the high class image this restaurant presents, the wait staff wore dress pants, a black vest and tie, and a white button down. Juan also kept a white cloth napkin on his left arm while individually taking orders. All of us who do not speak or understand Spanish well chose to respect the native language and order in Spanish, even though the menu had English descriptions.

There were four choices for each meal and everyone was pleased with what they ate. I went around asking everyone how their experience was after eating dessert. Bridget Gomes said, “There was a variety of bread which was all so good,” and Adam Gosselin gave the overall experience “a solid A.”

Me (Kayla Bauerlein) with my meal!

I personally ate the calamari for an appetizer, spinach ravioli for the main meal, and a cream puff dish for dessert; all three were delicious. My favorite aspect of the dinner was seeing the connection between everyone in the group.

Cheesin’ hard from a delicious meal!

We may have not known each other too well going into this experience, but we are having a blast sharing laughs and making memories. Cheers to our first night in Argentina!