Horsing Around
2013 August 15
There are many way to go from point A to point B in this city. For example, when I walk to school, the typical route is this:
After some trial and error though, I found that a better route was this one:
There are less times that I have to cross the street and wait for the notorious Buenos Aires traffic. It also looks a little nicer on the way and saves some time.
Sometimes, however, when I’m feeling a little adventurous, I’ll turn down a different street and see what else there is on the way to my destination:
But I usually end up just getting lost. Luckily, I haven’t been late to class because of this (at least by Argentine standards).
Anyway, last Sunday, a big group of us went to Tigre for the day. Tigre is a town right outside the Buenos Aires, Ciudad Capital Federal limits. We went to a mate museum, took a boat tour around the river delta, and visited the Tigre market, which was different than the Buenos Aires market in that people actually sold more things like furniture and home decor rather than tourist items like wallets, lighters, and t-shirts. I think it goes without saying that I only bought a couple armoires and bathroom tile sets.
This is us on the boat tour. In all seriousness, it was a little fun keeping the wine glasses from spilling when we were on the river. From left to right goes Crystal, Kristen, Esther (from Holland!), Andrea, me, and Blaine. Andrea and Blaine are only staying for a month (for some reason), and therefore leave in two weeks. We live in the same house and I feel like I’ve barely gotten to know them 🙁 So I guess we’ll have to hang out more, eh? And by the way, Esther is here on scientific research instead of being a student, where she dissects rat brains, which always makes for great dinner conversation. Seriously it’s fun watching the others lose their appetite.
People first drank mate out of human heads… or gourds.. or something.
El Río de la Plata. Barry, do you want to take your boat here when I return? It’s only a couple thousand miles south of the Missouri.
Tigre. Roar.
Now I’m going to Tarantino this post and backtrack a little. The night before we left for Tigre, my study abroad program brought us to a museum that I thought was much more interesting than El Museo de Bellas Artes. There was abstract art in this one that actually made you say things other than, /“Oh, that’s nice./”
Instead, it made you say things like, /“Oh… hmm… uhm…/”
“Uh…”
“Oh, that’s… uh…”
But really, I liked it.
As soon as I walked home from the museum, a group of people were leaving for some horse races. I planned on resting, but invitations are my only weakness, at least when you don’t count stab wounds, falling, mean words, crocodiles, etc.
El hipódromo.
I’ll post the video later.
Something that I’ve been forgetting to post about is volleyball practice. Every Monday and Wednesday I’ve been going to the school’s volleyball practice and improving the volleyball skills I barely have, especially when compared to the other people on the men’s team, who are all Argentine and all very good at hitting the ball. I’m in no way that great at it, and I joined it very randomly, but I’m definitely improving and the Argentines are more than happy to help teach me the skills I desperately need.
These fellows are Agustín and Mariano, both of whom are working with our study abroad program and show us around the city. They invited us to watch them perform at the Medio y Medio bar last Sunday night. They mostly played Spanish songs, but when we requested their favorite American band, Pershám (aka Pearl Jam), they played Last Kiss but didn’t know the words and happily volunteered me to sing for them. There were about four other people in the bar that weren’t apart of our group, so I obliged and mumbled through the parts I didn’t know (it’s okay, the other people didn’t speak English).
This is that cat that I mentioned existed awhile back. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not at all a cat person, but this one has been sleeping in my bed lately and it is a very nice cat (even though every time I move she invades a little more of my territory). But I also feel I should mention that Martina (the cat) is freaking weird. One night, it decided to open the door to my wardrobe, stay in there for about half an hour, then jump out like it realized that it was just trapped inside a wardrobe, waking me up from almost falling asleep and probably waking up those in the neighboring rooms too. Also, this cat doesn’t always meow. It yells and won’t stop, all the while never breaking eye contact. Still though… nice kitty.
Here’s an obligatory link (which you click on with the left part of your mouse, Grandma 🙂 )
http://whenyouliveinargentina.tumblr.com/
One thing that’s kind of sad is that about half the house, the graduate students, will be leaving this Sunday for the states, and I’m leaving tonight for Mendoza and won’t return until Monday (we get school off), so today will be the last day I’ll be seeing them. I’ll try to get a picture before the day is done.
But at the same time, I’m excited for Mendoza. María, my host mom, was telling me about it and said that the streets and lawns there are clean. CLEAN. LIMPIO!! So I don’t have to worry about stepping in dog mines, like what happened to one of us last night… poor Morgan. Seriously, with about half of the piles you see on the sidewalk there are footprints that go away from it, then skid-marks that follow, which shows just how long the victims had that stuff stuck to their shoe before they realized it and started dragging their feet to get it off. Each one is like a crime scene that you can be a detective for. “Looks like our culprit left the trap here about 15 minutes prior to the time of the event, judging by the viscosity of the evidence. Victim took 3 steps with their right foot before realizing he or she had been struck and frantically dragged the foot for about 5 more steps, which is where we see the evidence taper off. It appears that the victim survived but fled the scene of the crime.” …gross… so yeah the streets of Mendoza are clean.
I leave at 10:30 tonight by bus and we arrive at around noon tomorrow. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some homework to shamefully finish up on the day that it’s due. Luckily, it’s not much, so don’t worry about it, Mom.
Chau.
