Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Hola!
Again nothing too exciting in the last 2 weeks but I thought I'd update on a few things.
So April in Argentina is the month of feriados, or holidays-since march 24th I think we have had 5 days of public holiday. Needless to say it has been a bit more relaxing during the last few weeks. The first holiday was a kind of memorial day for the period of dictatorship ( the date being the date the military junta occcured and thus followed the military dictatorship from '76-'83) This being the time of the "Dirty War" here during which an estimated 30,000 people dissapeared. And about 10,000 political arrests occured. Overall it was a very sad and tragic period in argentine history.
About a week later was the holiday serving as the memorial day for La Guerra de Las Malvinas- or the Falkland Islands War. This conflict lasted about 2 months when argentina invaded the british controlled areas and argentina was in the end forced to surrender. This occured in 1982, at the end of the dictatorship.
Ironically enough, former president Raul Alfonsin passed away just a few days before this memorial day. He was the president who was elected and took over first after the dictatorship. As with any politian there is much controversy surrounding how much good he actually did, but overall argentines regard Alfonsin as one of the only honest politicians they have ever had. (Argentine polititians are known to be severly corrupt) Therefore his death was a very sad event for the argentine people.
His state funeral was held on Malvinas day, therefore overshadowing any memorial services for the 700 soldiers lost in the war. However, this made for an interesting afternoon for me...
I'll preface this by pointing out that my 2 good friends here are both named Sarah so just pretend like you know whats going on if i mention sarah...
sarah #1 was supposed to leave to go traveling with a friend but he cancelled at the last minute and so she was upset and didnt know what to do. so other sarah and i decided we should all get together for lunch to help her make new plans and given that it was a holiday none of us had to work so it was perfect. sarah #2 picked an amazing pizza place near her to meet. long story short sarah#2 lives on the other side of a main avenue here than sarah#1 and i do. This particular avenue was where the funeral march was taking place. the service started at the congress and passed down callao(the avenue) for quite a distance. Its very easy to get to the meeting point as it is about 20 blocks straight down one road from me, therefore i hoped on my trusty 152 bus to get there. first, the bus wouldnt accept my change which was really obnoxious and cause the bus driver to yell at me and the machine ended up eating most of my change as i frantically just kept putting in coins till it gave me my ticket. after all of that, about 4 blocks into the journey the driver announces that due to callao being closed the bus would have to take an alternative route, since it couldnt cross. this alternative route being completely the wrong direction for me, so with many other pissed off passengers i got off the bus a few blocks later and continued on foot. when i got to callao, i realized it was going to be a problem. im now probably only about 6 blocks from my destination but stuck. i tried texting and calling both sarahs but nothing would go thru and both of them happened to be out of credit so they couldnt contact me. finally i got thru to sarah#2 who was very angry because she was waiting for sarah and i who of course couldnt get there but she didnt know that. finally as a group of people were marching on the street (seemed like average people)i pushed my way through and joined in. it took me about a half a block to get across the avenue as i was continually being pushed forward by the walking crowd. but i can now say that i took part in a state funeral in argentina! it was a cold day here, one of the only ones we've had, which added to the atmosphere that day, but it was quite an impressive site. Imagine a large european boulevard and all the old apt building overflowing with people on the balconies waving their flags and throwing confetti and 20 feet deep crowds lining both sides of the street.
anyway we all finally made it there and had a great lunch!
that whole week i had had a bit of a cold which i thought was getting better, but my sinuses wouldnt allow that. Since saturday i have had a TERRIBLE sinus infection and barely left my house all this week. luckily for me, you can walk into any pharmacy here and simply ask for antibiotics and get them. so a 10 minute trip to the closest Farmacity and $20 later i had some augmentin, which ive been on since monday. the last 2 days ive been feeling much better but am still quite stuffed up. i cancelled both spanish lessons this week due to that but still volunteered because my co-coordinator was gone this week so i felt obligated.
on monday i did a pin the tail on the donkey game in the form of "put the egg in the basket" for easter. I drew 2 giant easter baskets on posterboard and taped them to the wall. i had the kids study some english easter-related words and color their own paper eggs and then blindfolded them and let them go at it- it went very well and am continually amazed that i actually have come up with these activities! yeterday, being the day before good friday, and therefore counting as a holiday....yet again...i didnt have many kids show up which proved to be a quite relaxing change. i had them made easter cards for their families and spent about an hour before the activity in the office with some volunteeres i scrounged up cutting out shapes and stickers for them to use and glue on to their cards. it also went very well and allowed them to be very creative.
on another note i recently met some american expats here who are looking for a babysitter which im planning on doing- i could definitely use the money! so ill let you know when/if that starts and how it goes.
today of course is a holiday here, and also sunday obviously, so today was very quiet and most places were closed.
its still quite warm here which im not happy about but i guess its good since apparently i brought no warm clothes? ill have to do something about that.
however it may be good since im planning on going to uruguay next week. as a visitor here, an american is granted a 90 tourist visa and mine runs out in 2 weeks- crazy! 3 months already wow! anyway, to avoid paying a fine i have to leave the country and re-enter to extend my visa for another 90 days. darn..i have to go to uruguay...haha im quite excited as ive heard only great things and hopefully i can take advantage of the calmness and beaches there. sarah is coming back from her travels and will most likely join me otherwise ill go alone but will visit montevideo and punta del este ( the st. tropez of this region in south america)
alright well i think that's about it for now
besitos to all!
p.s. i love getting comments on the message board/ on the pictures so please leave me some message! thanks!
- comments