The Luxuries of Buenos Aires

I went to a protest, a bar, and a museum, watched Evita, played Tabu in Spanish, saw a soccer game and went to church this weekend. There were 2 protests in one night; one about asking for more security and harsher punishment for criminals and one was about human rights in general. Pretty intense crowd. There were people calmly singing with candles and the other one had drums and people shouting and marching and waving flags. It was a very interesting night and I got to see what true passion is. La Marcha, the one about needing more security, had a Time Square New Year’s sized crowd.
by becrachThe fútbol game was amazing. We got to see Boca Juniors play Estudiantes in the Boca stadium, which is HUGE. The fans were singing the entire time and we were trying to sing along but all we got was da da da BOCA!! Da dee dooo daaaa BOCA!!!
by becrach I haven’t seen a soccer game all the way through since freshman year of high school, and this was no ordinary soccer game. I definitely enjoyed it. After the soccer game, we went to this restaurant/ bar called the Alamo and it’s apparently owned by some rich dude who just wants Americans in his bar. So they give away free stuff all the time and they play American sports! I was really excited to see my Big Ten highlights on Sunday. I’m going to the same church every week now just because I like the people. I actually understood the sermon this week too, so that was a plus.

Classes are going well and my home stay is wonderful. I get a home cooked meal EVERY NIGHT! And breakfast every morning. I get clean sheets every week and my madre even cleans my room. She’s a lawyer and she’s very smart, religious, and opinionated. She’s definitely my “mom;” every single day she asks me what I had for lunch, and when I told her that I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, she said “what would your mother say?” I told her that my mother loves pb & j but she didn’t buy it as a nutritious lunch. Something else besides my madre though, that I think Stephanie Field would appreciate, is there are no laundry mats here. You have to take your laundry to a little laundry woman who washes, drys, and folds all of your clothes. Oh the luxuries of Buenos Aires!

This weekend, I’m going to Esteras de Íbera, which are huge wetlands in the north. I’m going with my “history of the environment” class and I’m really excited!!