Activities around Buenos Aires

Hi everyone! It has been awhile since I last wrote, oops! What have I been up to? Alot of reading for my classes! A blog about my long reading assignments would be very educational, all about the rise and fall of Rome, the history of Argentina, and proper uses of various spanish verb forms, however, this post will neglect these topics and instead focus on various other activities.

A little awhile ago I went site seeing with a few other international students and some tourism majors (tourism is a major here, i figured they were probably the best people to go site seeing in the city with!). We visited various neighborhoods like the famous Caminato in the working class Boca neighborhood. All the colorful buildings and vibrant tango culture was fun to walk through. We also visited the stadium of Boca Juniors where Argentinean soccer legend (and current, not-so-great coach) Maradona played, hence the picture of me next to his statue in the teams museum. The day also included a trip to the wealthy, waterfront Puerto Madero and an antiques market in the old San Telmo.

Yesterday afternoon I went to a nearby park. The park is always full with students from a nearby medical school and people hustling in and out of the busy subway station. I walk by on my way back from a few of my classes and always notice the tables set up where people play chess, yesterday afternoon I just couldn't resist the urge to play a pick up game. After waiting for awhile for a spot to open up I finally got a chance to play a game. While I lost it was a fun experience, good memories and fun to play in a park.

Last week there was an international film festival here in Buenos Aires. I went with some friends to a film called "Don't Let me Drown" about innercity teenagers in the weeks following 9/11. I enjoyed it and since it was only a couple of dollars definately worth it.

Also my second roommate got here a few weeks ago! He is also from Argentina and is studying to be a hair stylist. He is a fun guy and free haircuts!

A short exploration of my diet here: My meals consist mainly of the cheap spots within two blocks of the dorm. Salami sandwhiches from the kiosk, empanadas (little pouches with meat or cheese inside) from the pizza place, chinese food, super panchos (hot dogs), or sausage sandwhiches from the parrilla (big grill). I have also been eating ALOT of mandarins since right now they are just over a dollar for 3 kilos (about 15 mandarins)!

important note: I am very excited for the world cup (El Mundial) and have already marked dates and times of games that i want to watch in my planner.

More dias buenos in Buenos Aires

This first picture is of the house of Sarmiento, a past president of Argentina. It has been encased in this glass box to prevent it from decaying. Anyway we saw the house from a boat tour that we took from the river town of Tigre which I visited over the long weekend. It was a nice little town with an amusment park (whcih we didnt go to) and a large market (which we did go to).

The second picture is of the very large cemetery located near our dorm. It has the graves of many famous Argentinians, including Eva Peron and Sarmiento. The graves are all enclosed by a large brick wall and are extremely ornate. They come in sizes from the ones shown here to giant sculptures and huge monuments. It was interesting to see. I chose this picture to talk about the cemetery becasue you can see the houes of living poeple in the background. After going to this cemetery we went to a market that was located in a park which was fun. There were bands playing, people dancing the tango, and people doing sort of acrobatics in the lawn.

March 25th was a national holiday and my friends and I decided that we wanted to partake in some festivities. We took a bus over to Plaza de Mayo where we heard some activities would be occurring. I knew they were going to be political activities but I was not prepared for the passionate speeches (during the ones that fervently denounced the US we were especially careful not to speak english to each other) and huge number of people. The picture here is of one part of the crowd, you can see some of the flags waving and smoke from something. It was interesting and exciting to see people so passionately involved. The plaza area was packed but more people were pouring in from the streets in groups that denoted the organziation they were with (Argentinian socialist part, mothers of the plaza de mayo movement etc...). In the crowd snack vendors worked there way around. There was a very defined police line. Che Gueverra (the Socialist revolutionary who was born in Argentina) was a prominent figure in banners and flags along with Tupac Amaru II (an Incan leader who lead a revolution against the Spanish). I had heard that these rallies were not all that uncommon here (and been told by the US embassy security lady not to go), it was good to see people so passionately involved, but also a reminder of the political realities and past of Argentina.