Serious slacking on my part. Serious apologies as well.
Sorry for the lame title. :/
It's been such a long time since I updated, and lots of things have happened. I wish I could go into detail about everything, but that would turn this simple blog into a doctoral dissertation, so I'll be brief.
- Spring break= badass. Loved the part of Uruguay I was in. Beer. Beach. Stray dogs. Pizza.
- School starting= a pleasant beginning. A bit of trouble running around looking for advisors and professors to approve classes and such, but worked out in the end. I'm taking Argentine Literature, Urban Fictions (literature), Latin American History, Tango, and Public Relations (with Argentine students). I have class at 8:00am Tuesdays and Thursdays. Acceptable but definitely not preferable. I enjoy my professors, especially my lit professor. He's Fabulous and chatty and super intelligent. He spends a good portion of our class making fun of Argentina and its general inefficiency. I can't tell if he's serious or not. He also somehow connected the Recoleta Cemetary and the attraction to death with "stupid girl who really wants to lose her virginity to an attractive half-life, while she is followed by wolf boy and his gay boys" (the Twilight series). Win.
- Excursions= such a nice break from the city. Last weekend we went to the city of Tigre, which is right outside of BsAs. It's a super cute town right on the river. It's interesting to me how much calmer people are when they live near water. It was so much more tranquil, easy living. I wish I had pictures for you. Wut had happind wuz... I was super responsible and charged my battery over night, and then was super dumb and left the battery in the charger. Sad day. I still have my memories. The next day we had a "Dia del Campo" ( day in the country). We went to a beautiful Estancia and were greeted with steamy empanadas and orange juice. They did some folkloric dances and fed us a feast. I'm serious. The amount of food consumed at an "asado" is stoopid. First "the salads"- potato salad, carrot salad, veggie salad, etc. And tons of bread. Then the meat (which was brought out with a blasting of festive music- almost sounded like royal trumpets). The sausage was delicious , and I don't usually eat sausage. I tried blood sausage too. Wouldn't have been too bad had I known it was blood. Kinda mushy, black, sweet-ish. One bite was experience enough. Then they brought out the chicken, and finally the beef. the beef was kinda fatty but I liked it. I ate the world, and I don't feel bad about it. I RODE A HORSE! If you know me, you know that I'm not a big fan of horses. In fact I'm quite terrified of them. Despite my sweaty and shaking hands and better judgement telling me not to, I got on the horse. A twelve year old who worked there helped me mount him. Horses are hard to get on. My horsey hardly moved, but I gripped the reigns for dear life. I tried to nudge him in the ribs to get him to trot a little, but he would just turn around and nip at my feet.... but I RODE A HORSE. Good Solange. After that, they had some fun little gaucho games and then we had mate (herbal tea thing) and more food. More folkloric dancing, ice cream and then we all danced. It was a really good weekend, and it was all in exhaust-free air. Beautiful.
- This weekend= holiday! We didn't have school Thursday or Friday because it was a remembrance day for the 30,000 people who "disappeared" during the military regime in the 70s ( read up on that, it's really interesting and really frightening). We went downtown toward the Casa Rosada where thousands and thousands of people demonstrated. I can't tell exactly what they were demonstrating about, but Porteños don't really need a reason. They just need a lot of people and lots of drums. It was loud and passionate and HUGE. People and flags everywhere. It was also interesting to see how many young people there were. Kids from about 14 were fully participating in the demonstrations. Either they really care about their history, or they really care about politics, or they know where the party's at. Regardless, that wouldn't happen back home. I liked it.
After the demonstrations and stuff, I went to an outdoor concert. Placido Domingo ( who is the world's biggest and most important tenor) was performing. Why an outdoor concert? A strike, of course! The musicians at the Teatro Colon ( the most important theatre in BsAs) don't get paid enough, so they refused to play for Domingo. Way to stick to your principles! I'm totally fine with it because I got to listen to some beautiful opera without paying a dime. There were an estimated 100,000 people at this concert. I left early because that many people trying to get home via limited public transport sounded like hours and hours of frustration. It was a really good experience though, and I am officially a better and more cultured person because I went to an.. no, The, opera concert. Get lyke meeee!
I also went to the Ecological Reserve, and inhaled real air and did not have to dodge dog poop. Once again, Win.
And now I'm sick. Boo. Don't worry mom- I'm drinking lots of water, and I took meds. Chill. And no, I'm not going to the doctor. Please don't hassle me. I got this.
I'm too tired to present the deep cultural difference ponderings... so that'll happen later. Love you though.
Things that made me LOL:
- Disco balls, black lights, and play boy bunny stickers in the buses. Just tryna party.
- Some sir taking some dog (~ 30-50lbs) by the skin of his neck, twirling him around and throwing (not tossing) him into a shallow decorative pond. Huh? Please tell me that was your dog, sir... We are in downtown BsAs. What are you doing? Kicks and giggles? I kicked and giggled/ laughed hysterically.
-The colony of 50-65 year old men walking around shirtless and in flip flops. Sirs, this is an ecological reserve, not Daytona Beach. I think your confused. Really though, there were like 8 of them, just sitting around taking sun, bronzing that nice round, salt and pepper hairy gut.
- A man, in the ecological reserve, bird watching, with speakers playing nature sounds. What? I thought we were in ... oh...hmm.. okay.
- Pimp my bike. Oh yes. 15 year olds, with low rider bikes that oh so attractively scraped the ground as they peddled through crowds of families. They had speakers on their bikes too. Loud ones. Bompin. Nice paint jobs. No bells or streamers or white woven baskets. No class..
- Male hair: A mohawk that turns into dreaded rat tails? a shaved head with one single dread flopping awkwardly at the side of your head? Spain mullet that turns into 7 dreads? I don't understand and it hurts my feelings.
I promise to update more.
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