"Lo sabe, no lo sabe"

Due to heavy clouds and rain, today was a mostly indoor day. It began with a lazy morning around the apartment and some cartoons on TV. Then we bundled up and headed out, with the ever-pleasant doorman, Andrés, greeting us in his strong accent with "Hola, buenos días Don Drew y su bonita esposa!" We found a cute breakfast spot at a nearby café and had...you guessed it: the typical (yet looked-forward-to) coffee and 3 medialunas. Isabel liked our bald waiter.

 

Then we walked a few blocks in the rain to a beautiful church and decided to attend the mass taking place. The Lord's Prayer in Argentine Spanish was interesting, as were the hymns in Latin. The girls behaved very well, and Isabel even told Pauli and me to be quiet at one point as we were whispering to each other. 

Next door to the church is the Recoleta Neighborhood Cultural Center, which houses a small science museum whose only rule is "Prohibido no tocar" ("Prohibited NOT to touch things"). We spent a pleasant 2 hours exploring well-put-together experiments of sound, water, light, and energy, dodging the dozens of school children on field trips. The coolest part? The easy-to-understand explanations in Spanish next to each display. Isabel and Gemma had a blast.

Leaving the science museum spawned a few temper tantrums, so luckily there was a street vendor selling meat (hamburger, chicken, and sausage; vegetables optional). Not a bad $3 burger, actually!

We then headed to the mall to pass the remainder of the day. 

Here are the highlights:

Levi's store as top fashion (jeans price = $145...ridiculous!):

Clothing store where I took a cute photo of Isabel, after which the sales clerk came over and told me "No pictures of your daughter...it's illegal":

Running into random group of famous people with video cameras and groupies. We asked around and it turns out they were filming tonight's episode of "Lo sabe, no lo sabe", a nightly gameshow featuring street contestants who answer current events questions for money. While they didn't ask us to participate, we were definitely in background shots:

Alfa Romeo for sale ($255,000):

Bookstore where taking place was a discussion and book-signing by the author of "Estoy verde", a book discussing Argentina's dependence on the U.S. dollar. While the Peso is the common national currency, due to price fluctuations most large-ticket items (houses, cars, etc.) are purchased in dollars. ATMs on the street here dispense pesos, but inside the tellers all also have dollars. I bought a copy of the book. Here's a photo of the discussion:

Guess who occupies about 90% of the "New Releases" on the front shelf of the bookstore? The new (Argentine) pope Francisco:

Then a delicious dinner of carne milanesa with french fries, and a tortilla española (what's it doing so far from home?):

We ended our day with a late walk home through the rain and a quick stop for a "submarino" (a tall glass of warm milk into which you slide--submarine style--a big bar of chocolate, making a truly delicious hot chocolate).