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
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