Excited, sad, competitive, relaxed, humbled, proud, lonely, surrounded...I am feeling way too much at once.
I guess I'll start off with my weekend, but there's a lot more on my mind. Yeah, retelling the details of my day is fine, but hopefully what I'm thinking is somewhat halfway interesting too.
Anyways, we started off the weekend by waking up early (for once) Friday morning to visit the Recoleta Cemetery. By early I mean 9:30 am. It's the good life, right? We're really fortunate that we live on the corner of the cemetery, so I plan to go back again for a tour to learn who the important people are. Friday we just walked around, and I didn't even get any pictures because my camera was dead. Fear not, I'm a Facebook picture thief from my friends. It's one of the largest mausoleums in the world with room for over 4800 vaults above ground. The mausoleums cost more than a house and entire families are kept in them. It is incredible how intricate and stunning they are. Most have glass doors that you can see inside. I'm not gonna lie, it creeped me out. A lot. Inside there are pictures of the family, flowers, gifts, stained glass, etc. It would be a really nice memorial to visit a loved one, but I felt very intrusive peering in on dead strangers. Not to mention, I've been trying to come to terms with being away from home for the 1 year anniversary of my friend's death. It's been on my mind almost every day and being in a cemetery definitely didn't help. Anyways, lots of important people are buried there including scientists, presidents, but most importantly, Eva Peron. She was the first lady of Argentina during one of it's most volatile and influential political eras, as well as worked hard to earn many more political rights for women. The line to see her gravesite was very long even in the 90 degree weather.
After the cemetery was Spanish class as usual, but it was my last day!! Alejandro, our profe, took us on a "field trip" for the second half of class. We read a story in class about Don Pedro de Mendoza, the founder of Buenos Aires, so Alejandro took us to the site where the city founding took place. It's a beautiful park now where old men play chess, and there are monuments to honor the excursion that founded the city. It's astonishing that in the heart of the city is where the coast used to be! There are several hills in that area because it was the old sea level. Afterward, we went to a museum that housed several of the original documents laying out the first government of Buenos Aires. I'm a total geek, so it was really cool. Alejandro knows EVERYTHING about EVERYTHING. He is working on his doctorate in literature, so I understand he does a lot of reading, but he puts us to shame. He knows more about the history and important people in all of South America and Europe than I know about my own country. I guess I never really paid attention in History, but I think it's a fundamental difference in the education systems. We memorize some names and dates to get a decent grade on a test and then never more than vaguely remember them ever again, let alone learn about other countries. I mean, we have the show "Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader?" Really, we can't remember facts so simple and important we learned them in elementary school? Yikes!
Later that night, we had our first red meat dinner, much to the excitement of Kylie who loooooves meat. I'm not much of a meat eater, but Argentina is world-known for it's steaks. Of course, I played it safe and ended up getting Chicken Florentine instead.
And now, for the night we've all been waiting for...
CROBAR!
Since we got here, we have been looking forward to attending Funny Fridays at a well-reviewed club Crobar. It's advertised as being free for girls and having ridiculously cheap specials for their Happy Hour (until 2 a.m.). Being the tightwad skeptic that I am, we checked their Web site in advance to make sure there were no * we missed in the free part. Arriving in style, (on a bus, of course) we got there plenty early, around 1 a.m., to make sure we could take advantage of the specials. It was not free at all; it was an outrageous 50 pesos cover. It's really only about 12 bucks, but in Buenos Aires and especially so early, this is unheard of. We weren't going to let that ruin our fun though because we've heard amazing things about this club, arrived early for once, and were ready to get dowwwn. Plus, the cover included a drink. Once inside, there were absolutely no specials and drinks were ridiculously priced too!!! I could hear the ja ja ja's of their owners in my head as I shelled out my money to the tourist trap. Slightly misleading ads are accepted and expected; however, nothing on the ad or Web site was true at all!! Either way, we shook our hips to the electronic remixes of the live DJ until we could barely stand. That is, before Kylie got pickpocketed. Without noticing at all, someone had lifted the flap of her purse, unzipped it, reached it, unzipped the wallet inside, and stolen 200 pesos and her brand new camera. I guess all we can say is lesson learned and be thankful it wasn't worse. We thought nothing of it then, but we ran into a boy who "was visiting from New Jersey and had been separated from his friends." Looking back now, we think he was working with his "roommate" to distract her while they stole it. It's disappointing we can't even dance with people without having to be paranoid.
That just meant that we left early to get plenty of sleep before today: a trip to El Tigre.
We paid about 50 cents for a round trip train ride to El Tigre, which is about an hour from Buenos Aires. It's a small town at the delta of 5 different rivers. It was absolutely divine. There are always people selling things on all the busses and trains, but today we got a special surprise. A man played us songs on the ukelele and some sort of wind pipe instrument. The music was tropical and a perfect way to start the morning. We had lunch in a small local restaurant before renting a private boat to take us on a ride. There were huge catamarans taking tourists, but we managed to find a company that took just our group of five to a recreational area. They dropped us off and just said to call whenever we were ready to be picked up. That sure sounded a lot better than having to stay on a boat with 100 other people. It was exactly like being on the Osage at home!! Houses lined the banks and people barbequed and played games. Our boat dropped us off at a little campsite-type area where we walked up to the familiar stares. It's strange, but we prefer to be the only tourists wherever we're at. We may stand out more, but it means we're getting a more authentic experience. Anywho, we swam in the VERY dirty river, sunbathed, and played several games of sand volleyball with the locals. It was so fun! I haven't played volleyball in forever, and it was a great way to meet people. While we were talking to one of the locals, we found out that very rich people in Argentina dye their hair blonde and wear blue-colored contacts as a sign of status. He said since mine are so light, they look like contacts. Maybe that explains some of the stares I've been getting. Like pretty much everywhere in Argentina we had fresh squeezed smoothies (with rum for the weekend, of course). My new favorite way to order is to tell the waitress or bartender to make me their favorite choice. I have yet to be disappointed; today's drink was a melon and peach combo. After hanging out a few hours, we exchanged kisses with everyone and returned back to the main port.
Well, this brings up part of Argentine culture I haven't talked about: kisses. Instead of shaking hands, whenever you meet someone, you kiss them on the cheek. People also kiss when the say hello or goodbye, oftentimes with a hand on the neck or lower back. As we have learned, Argentines kiss once, Brazilians once on each cheek. It took a day or so to get used to, but I think it's a wonderful tradition. Ok, so I have a kiss a bunch of strangers and some people are a tad too touchy feely, but why not show everyone you meet/see how genuinely interested and happy you are to see them?! Americans' idea of personal space is really dumb. Argentines are very intimate, even among friends and men with men; but all you need is love!! Kisses, sun, and fresh fruit amount to much more satisfaction than anything we could possibly define as happiness in the United States.
Once we got back, we walked through another street fair, Puerto de Frutos where we ate churros filled with dulce de leche. Dulce de leche is a caramel like treat eaten with almost every dessert in Buenos Aires. Dulce de leche flavored ice cream is one of the most heavenly foods I've ever tried. I also finally got a bombilla (straw) to drink my mate with! We also saw a group of boys riding low rider bicycles with radios attached playing rap music. How funny.
The train home seemed a lot longer after being in the sun all day and not eating any dinner before we left. Once we got back, we cooked ravioli filled with ricotta and mate and decided to relax at home.
It was un día perfecto all for 30 American dollars.
Speaking of the adjective "American"...we are trying to break our habit of using it. All the people that live here are American too! South American. It is a conceited, ethnocentric tendency for people from the United States to refer to only themselves as American. People from Canada are American; people from Mexico are American; and people from Argentina are American. The Spanish language has an adjective for "Unitedstatesian." Not surprisingly, the United States does not. The Spanish language is also currently undergoing change to become less gender biased. Go Español!!
Hmm...I still didn't get to half the topics I wanted to, but it's 3:30 a.m. here, and I'm going to bed, Fred.
Do be excited for a new page in the works about crazy stuff we see in the streets! Hopefully, it's as hilarious for you guys as it is for us. Pictures to follow soon.
Buenas Noches y Hasta Luego,
Amelia
"I will raise my soul so high no offense can reach it."
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