p.s. if you've tried to talk to me via fbook, my computer freezes when those chats come up. Something about a quicktime player and my firefox being stupid. So sorry about that.
So for those of you who don't know, A&M has a camp for incoming freshmen, called Fish Camp. At this camp, you are divided into discussion groups (DGs). My freshmen year, this guy named John was in my group. We were both INTS Catholics, and we hit it off. When we're in the States, we go to mass together basically every week. He left for Chile back in February though, so I haven't seen him in a long time. Oh, and I call him Church John to distinguish from my brother John. Anyways, he came to Buenos Aires this weekend, and I got to meet up with him today!!
It began with me meeting him outside my apartment at 10:20. I debated being a few minutes late as is customary when he picks me up for mass, but I decided that wouldn't be fair since this isn't his country ;) I almost didn't recognize him at first - umm, hello beard and grown-out hair - aka Latin American version of CJohn. So we walked to the church, catching up in general. The service was beautiful as always; this week talking about the body and blood of Christ. Oh, I had also written down Spanish responses in my little notebook, so I was able to say more of the Spanish mass en vez de closing my eyes and repeating in English. When we said the PadreNuestro, I couldn't hold hands b/c I wouldn't let go of my notebook.
After mass, we headed back to the Roadhouse, swapping comparisons of Chile v. Argentina. After his talks of Chile, I'm thinking I should appreciate BA more. I had been thinking that it wasn't very pretty, but he made me think of it more as a paradise, haha. It all depends on perspective, right? So me, Cjohn, Hasil, Rebe, and Dave headed to La Boca. Now that we've made it back safely, I can tell you that last week one of the Roadies got mugged down there. His downfall being he left the main road, and some guy grabbed him from behind and took his bag. Needless to say, we stayed on the main road (and with our 3 guys). We found our bus, and only had one hiccup when we got stuck in traffic for about 10 minutes. We think the holdup was a Boca futbol game, which can get crazy/dangerous. When we arrived, we had to walk past some yucky, stagnant water, and then we hit the neighborhood. What's cool about La Boca is that when the Italians moved there, they were really poor right? and so they couldn't afford to paint their houses. So they would just get leftover ship paint and paint as much of their house as they could on whatever day. So there's this street, called El Caminito, which has really pretty brightly colored houses. And which has since been turned into a tourist area. So we walked in, and found a restaurant to eat. And basically, as you're walking down this street, all these different guys are approaching you saying, ehhhhh, where are you from, come eat at our restaurant? They're not creepy...just more like annoying car salesmen. When our friends came last week, one guy told them that his restaurant was like Obama and the opposition was like McCain, so the choice should be easy. So anyways, we selected a resataurant, and we got to watch some live tango dancers, as well as homeboy dressed like a gaucho who had some cool moves with rope. I ordered milanesa, as did Cjohn who was super excited about it. Our group was going to split a bottle of wine, but alas, they were out of all the cheap stuff. It was a good, filling lunch, capped with a Pepsi, and then right as we finished they finished their show, so we got to take cool posed pictures with the tango peeps.
Then we browsed some shops and basically made our way out. CJohn wasn't sure how he was going to meet up with the rest of his group (phones not working), so he was just going to get off at Plaza de Mayo near his hostel. I decided to get off too, so we ended up walking through the downtown seeing all the government buildings. It was so wonderful to hang out with someone more intrigued with government stuff than me! We also went to the Casa Rosada (=Argentine white House) and got to get a free tour. We saw lots of pretty rooms, as well as one beautiful room which equals where they meet with ambassadors and have official meetings and such. It was really cool, and of course I learned some stuff from Cjohn. Then we meandered down, and split ways at the subte as he left for his hostel. The subte was thankfully uneventful, and I made it home without incident. Dinner consisted of trying to heat up leftover pizza from last night and succeding in burning myself. Maria Laura promised that we would have some yummy food tomorrow to make up for "sick week", but I really wouldn't even mind it if I just wasn't eating by myself cada dia. That gets hold. Here, I have done 2 things - worked on lesson plans and inquired about the happenings of Murano's resignation. Bummer on both fronts, although I am happy to say I emailed in my completed "lesson plans" before blogging. This means I turned in the Eammon copy....I still haven't actually made the nitty-gritty detailed plans, or finished my one-to-one. I also still don't know enough about Dr. Murano, except that I was really bummed to hear that and am curious to learn more beyond the newspaper scoop. For those who want to quote that report that was issued by the Regents....provide some facts to back up those allegations and then use that as a valid reason. Ugh. I just hope Dr. Murano knows that her efforts were appreciated and that the next President has the best interests of A&M at the forefront of her/his mind.
Argentina update - this week = end of TEFL course, El Fantasma de la Opera, Spanglish, tango dance, and week trip across Argentina/part of Chile.
It's going to be an awesome week :)
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