November 11-21, Soccer Tournament and Game and Brazilian Party

Hi all!

It's been a great week! Pretty consumed by homework, as I will continue to be until I finish December 3rd. I do manage to still have some fun on the weekends, though. Here it goes...

Friday we went out for dinner at a Japanese restaurant (not the best of the cuisine of Buenos Aires, but still a welcome break from steak and wine) and saw the movie Abrazos Rotos with Penelope Cruz.

Last Saturday, one of the small private universities in the suburbs of Buenos Aires hosted a soccer tournament and invited teams from all the exchange student programs. Our program sent a teams to the boys' and girls' divisions. However, when we got there we discovered that the 3 other girls' teams had all canceled. Instead of sitting out, the girls' team decided to play in the boys' division. It was really fun, and though we only won one game, we played them all pretty close and the Argentine guys were very surprised to see girls who could actually play sports. A very fun day.

Saturday night was Mueseum Night in Buenos Aires. From 8 pm until 2 in the morning, the government sponsors an event where all the museums in the city are open for free to the general public. They supply maps, guides and free bus tokens. We planned to see a few of the most popular museums in the city, but drastically underestimated the popularity of the event. the line for the MALBA (one of the most popular art museums) stretched around an entire city block. We instead ended up going to the Metropolitan Museum, which had some modern art and a piano concert, and the Planetarium, which had it's telescopes open for public use (we never got to use them due to line problems). For me, the best part of the event was how many diverse people were out in the city that night. Everyone was wandering around, maps out, looking for the best museums and the best ways to get there.

On Sunday, I went to my first Argentine-league soccer game. Although I already went to the Argentina-Peru game, I wanted to go to a league game because they're a more typical part of the Buenos Aires culture. We went to a River game, which is one of the two most popular teams in Buenos Aires. The two groups of fans were separated by an empty sections of seats so that they couldn't throw anything at each other. There were police men in riot gear everywhere, and the players had to enter the field through giant tubes so that no one could hit them with flying objects. The game was very fun, the two groups of fans sing songs back and forth at each other the whole game. River won 3-1 after scoring 3 goals in ten minutes in the second half. By the third goal, the whole River side was absolute chaos. 4 little boys sitting in front of us spent the entire game singing, jumping, and spinning their shirts around their heads (pretty adorable). After the game, no River fans could leave until they cleared the entire other side to prevent fights between the two groups.

One slightly less fun experience... on Wednesday night, I stepped on an unidentified object in my bedroom and got a pretty deep puncture wound in my foot. We never found what I stepped on, and I'm still hoping it's not floating around somewhere in my foot.... My host parents took me to a hospital to get it checked out and get a tetnus shot. Although the situation wasn't ideal, it was very interesting to see how another health care system works. There was lots of waiting involved, and we actually had to walk around the block to the pharmacy, buy the medicine and then come back so a nurse could give me the shot. I've been hobbling around the house since, getting a little frustrated that I can't go out and do all the things I want to do. I'm hoping it heals up soon...

My host mom's boyfriend has a friend who organizes parties, and he got me two tickets for a party with the Brazilian on a boat in the Rio de Plata. I went with my friend Rob, and it was very fun. The boat was full of dignitaries from all different embassies in Buenos Aires. They had a famous Brazilian women sing, and everyone was dancing. Very fun.

School's trucking along. My host family is great, and I still absolutely love the city. I'm trying to start planning a potential trip for the couple weeks between when I finish and when I leave to go home. It feels like I just got here even though I only have less than a month less!

Hope you're all well!

Love, Melanie

PHOTOS FROM SOCCER STUFF AND NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM

Uruguayan Adventures

Hello!

I just got back this morning and can't yet force myself to confront the looming pile of homework, so I decided to update the blog as a relatively useful way of procrastinating. I went on a four-day trip to Uruguay this weekend, had a really incredible time and became somewhat of a lighthouse consieur. It was really relaxing to get away from the hubub of Buenos Aires one last time before super crunch time in November. Here's a summary...

We (my friend Carolyn and I) left Thursday in the middle of the night on a ferry headed across the Rio de Plata for the city of Colonia in Uruguay. Colonia is an old city the Portuguese built in the 18th century to smuggle goods into Buenos Aires. It has a really beautiful and well-preserved old quarter that was recently declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We got there at about 3:30 in the morning, spent the rest of the night in a hostel and then ate some fruit and bread on the beach for breakfast after getting a few hours of sleep. We spent the day wandering around the old quarter. We went to a bunch of old museums with old Portuguese art and artifacts. My favorite exhibit was of a lot of the old maps of how they used to think the world looked. We saw some really pretty old buildings, churches and the old wharf. We also climbed up the lighthouse to get a better view of the city. My favorite was a street called the "Street of Sighs," which is a street with the original Portuguese cobbling and beautiful red and yellow buildings, and a nice view of the water. After a nice nap, we cooked at the hostel for dinner then went to a cool bar called the Drugstore for some wine a live guitar music.

Friday morning, we caught an early bus from Colonia to Montevideo (Uruguay's capital). In Montevideo, we spent the day exploring around the part of the city called Ciudad Vieja (old city). First, we went to the Mercado del Puerto, a really pretty old building that holds a lot of parilla restaurants (barbeque). We were lucky to be there on Saturday, the most popular time of week for the Mercado, and we sat at the bar and watched them grill our meat (delicious). Then, we walked along the waterfront to the Plaza Independencia (main square of Ciudad Vieja). From there, we saw the presidential residence, some cool old buildings, palaces, museums and a cathedral. We wandered through a flea market in a plaza and found lots of cool old books. After another quick little nap, we watched the sunset into the water from the wharf. We went to dinner and to watch a band at an Irish Bar with a few guys we met from the hostel (although we were looking for something a bit more authentic, the woman at the hostel assured us that the Irish Bar was the best place to go). We slept as much as we could, considering that we were sharing our hostel (and our door room) with a Brazilian rugby team.

Early Sunday morning, Carolyn caught a bus back to Buenos Aires and I continued on up to the coast to a little beach town called La Paloma. The bus ride was really beautiful, the Uruguayan countryside is very green and full of cows. Gauchos kept climbing on the bus along the way. La Paloma is on a point on the eastern shore of Uruguay. As it's still late spring/early summer here, there weren't alot of turists in La Paloma so it was really peaceful. The weather was absolutely beautiful, so after checking into a hostel, I took a little nap in the sun on the beach. Then I took a little walk down the point to the lighthouse (biggest in Uruguay). I climbed up the lighthouse for a really pretty view of the point and the Atlantic Ocean. As the lighthouse is on the tip of the point, the Atlantic surrounds it on 3 sides. After the lighthouse, I found a spot on the rocks with the waves crashing and read for a while. In the evening, I grabbed some dinner and watched an absolutely incredible sunset from the beach.

Monday morning, I caught a 5:45 bus from La Paloma to Cabo Polonio. Although I was pretty tired, it was cool to watch the sunrise from the bus. Cabo Polonio is a little town nestled between sand dunes and an enormous seal colony, accessible only by foot or a 4x4 truck ride. I caught the first truck at 7:30 and went on a rough but very beautiful ride across the dunes to Cabo. Cabo was even smaller than I expected, consisting of nothing more than a collection of little houses, shops and shacks to get food. There is definitely a very hippy attitude- the town doesn't have running water (because it would be too difficult to lay pipes) or power (because the residents prefer not to have electricity). I scrambled across the rock beach to the seal colony, where I watched the seals swim, sleep, snuggle, and fight for a while. I was the only person there and it was really cool to be there with just me and the seals. Next, I climbed up lighthouse #3. At the top, I met a young Uruguayan navy guy painting the lighthouse. He took a break to teach me about the seals, explain the lack of whales (unfortunately I missed them by a few weeks), and the history of the town. He also showed me how to light the lighthouse. Next, I walked through the town and then along the beach to the dunes (accompanied by a very friendly local dog). The dunes were beautiful, but with the wind the sand really hurt my skin so I didn't stay for long. I hung out on the beach for while, then got fish for lunch at a little shack and hung out with a women selling bracelets and sandles. Finally, I caught the 4x4 truck down to the road for the trip back to Buenos Aires. Although I loved all the places I visited, something about Cabo Polonio was extra special and I hope to return someday.

After a long series of bus and ferry rides, I got back to Buenos Aires at about 8 am this morning. I plan to spend the next couple of weeks trying to somehow get all my work done, then travel in Patagonia for two weeks before one final week here in Buenos Aires. I can't believe I'm leaving so soon- it still seems like I just got here. I've avoided picking up the ever-present smoking but gotten hooked on drinking mate, and although I'm looking forward to getting home will definitely miss the city a lot.

Hope you're all well! All my love, Melanie

PICTURES FROM TRIP TO URUGUAY

Madres del Plazo Mayo and Halloween, Oct 29- Nov 5

Hello! It's been a great week in Buenos Aires. Not super eventfull due to the 12-page research paper (in Spanish) I had to turn in on Tuesday, but still did some cool stuff...

On Thursday, I went to the Plaza de Mayo to watch the Madres del Plaza Mayo march. It was a beautiful but very hot and humid day. I grabbed a sandwich and found a spot on the grass near the Casa Rosada to watch. The Madres started marching in the 1970s in protest of the military dictatorship. They were formed as a group of mothers of disappeared people and wore white hankerchiefs and carried signs as they marched. They continue to march today in rememberance, as part of their support for the tribunals against the military leaders that are still going on, and in a more general support of human rights in Argentina. There were two groups... one was the larger original Madres del Plaza Mayo, and the other was the smaller splinter group Madres del Plaza Mayo Linea Fundadora (they split in the 80s over political differences). The women marched slowly through the heat, helping each other out with umbrellas to block the sun and engaging in lively discussion. Many held photos of their disappeared children, brothers and sisters. The whole experience was extremely moving.

This past Saturday was Halloween, an event that still hasn't quite caught on here yet. We went and got costumes at a little shop that was filled almost exclusively with Americans. I dressed as Cleopatra. We had a little party and watched the World Series in costume and then went out to a Halloween party at a club. It was a very fun and throughly un-Argentine experience.

Now that I have my camera back, I`m on a mission to take pictures of the inside of the UBA. It's a little intimidating... I don't think the students would love for an American to come in and take pictures of all their Che pictures, so I try to sneak my camera out whenever I happen to be in a hallway by myself. Look for random pictures over the next couple of weeks.

It's seems like the time has flown by, and I only have about a month and a half left here in Argentina. Classes all finish the first week of December, so life is about to get very hectic. Within the next month I have a test on service learning, a final paper on Argentine fiction, a final portfolio of my volunteering at Help Argentina, a research paper on water privitazation in Bolivia in Argentina, and an oral presentation on the history of Cuba, Bolivia and Chile (all in Spanish). Also, there are a ton of things I`m still hoping to do in Buenos Aires. I've loved the city the whole time I've been here, but the spring (southern hemisphere is opposite seasons) here is really incredible. I'm taking a little trip to the Uruguayan beaches this weekend as a final hurrah before school gets super tough. I'm also planning to spend a couple weeks in Patagonia in December between the end of school and my flight home on Dec 21. I'll try to keep posting pictures though!

Hope you`re all very well and would love any news of how you're all doing!

Love, Melanie

MADRES, etc.