Tranquilo!

One of the porteños' favorite words to say, and one that completely reflects their lifestyle, is "tranquilo". Meaning, relax! Geez, crazy US girl, why so stressed? I have heard that word several times the past couple weeks. As we are getting into our classes and my schedule is becoming more concrete, I'm becoming exponentially more stressed. Oh, you mean study abroad actually is STUDY abroad? I didn't sign up for this...

Just kidding. I understand that I need to study. It's just so difficult to focus on schoolwork while living in the city that literally never sleeps. Besides the ridiculous amount of reading that takes three times as long because it's in Spanish, I am taking some cool classes. The poetry class that I mentioned before has been great. I dropped the politics class and picked up Cultural Icons as Global Commodities. I'm not so sure about it yet, but it definitely is a class unique to Buenos Aires. As is my Argentine Cinema class. I will tell you this, if you want to know anything about gauchos, you can ask me. That is what we have been focusing on for the past two weeks in two of my classes. I'll practically be an expert by July.

My sculpture class at UMSA has been interesting. We have moved on from 2D to 3D with cardboard and tape! The professor still talks to us like we're in kindergarten, but I don't mind. Yesterday my friend and I spoke in Castellano (the Spanish dialect spoken in Argentina) for the entire four hours that we were in class. A very proud moment. Next week we will work on making friends. One step at a time, right?

Last Wednesday, 24 de Marzo, was a national holiday and we didn't have classes. It is called Día Nacional de la Memoria por la Verdad y la Justicia, Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice. It is the anniversary of the military coup that took power in 1976 and that also lead to the disappearance of 30,000 people, the "Desaparecidos".


The mothers of the desparecidos march every Thursday from 3:30-4PM in Plaza de Mayo to demand information about their loved ones and as a reminder that those events should never happen again. The plaza is a perfect location to march because it is located across from the street from the Casa Rosada (Pink House), the government house. Plaza de Mayo was also the location of political demonstrations last Wednesday.


I had never been to anything like it before, and I wasn't sure what to expect. But when my friend and I got there and ventured our way through the crowd of signs and smoke and marchers, I didn't sense any violence or danger. To me it seemed to be a relatively calm demonstration, considering the massive amount of people that filled the plaza and surrounding streets. I was really excited to be there, because the energy of the people was incredible and I loved being in the middle of it all.


This past weekend I went on a trip to Tigre with IES. It was fantastic. Totally relaxing, probably the best weekend that I've had here so far. First we took a bus to Puerto de Frutos, about an hour away. We walked around the market and got lunch.


Then we took the bus to the Museo de Arte Tigre. The building was a museum itself; it was previously used as a casino. The art depicted several things about the Dirty War (a topic that is highly prevalent in Argentina right now as it's fairly recent).


After the museum we took a ferry to our resort, La Becasina Lodge. Tigre is in a delta region and consists of a ton of islands. The lodge is located on one of the islands and is gorgeous.


It looks very jungle-esque, and has a bunch of different bungalows that we stayed in. IES rented the whole place out which was amazing, because we could use the pool at all hours and have the dining and living areas to ourselves.



Saturday night we had some amazing asado for dinner which we saw them grill on the parrilla. We blasted music really loud and had a dance party and played cards at night. On Sunday I went kayaking and there was fishing and paddle boats. I really wished that we could have stayed more than one night, but it was incredible while it lasted.

Mis hermanos!

My homestay has been such a blast. I love having three older brothers. A couple weeks ago, my friends and I went out to a bar to watch Francisco play in his rock band, Tercer Ojo. It was a great night! Really authentic, something that tourists wouldn't know about, and we were definitely the only United States kids there. I had no idea what they were singing, but it was so fun. Then the other night, Fran, Mateo and I jammed out while they played guitar and the three of us sang. Some Pink Floyd, some Van Morrison, and some "Sweeeet Home Buenos Aires!" I'm looking forward to another night like that.

This week is Semana Santa, holy week for Easter. We have Thursday and Friday off, so most of the students in the IES program booked it for Iguazu Falls this weekend. A couple friends and I are sticking around the city. It will be nice to explore barrios that I haven't yet, and hopefully because of the holiday there will be less crowds at markets and such. Hopefully this will help me relax, and maybe I won't be told "Tranquilo! Tranquilo!" next week.

Happy Easter to all!