Yo Tengo Tango: mucho que decir!

So much to say!....

The past few days have been very exciting and I finally have some pictures to put up. I wish I could put them all up but it takes forevs.

Thursday Fenneke and I got breakfast at the hostel nice and early...yummy sweet breads and fresh oranges. Then we slept again since the night before we were up pretty late. By the time we woke up from our nap we decided to head to La Plaza de Mayo, the famous plaza in Buenos Aires where numerous protests go on every day. Every 3:30 on Thursdays, La Madres del la Plaza de Mayo silently protest the Dirty War in which 30,000 Argentinos "disappeared." It is such a touching protest...I studied this war in Spanish and history classes and its crazy. Las Madres all have handkercheifs tied around their hair. The sign they are carrying says "fair distribution of the wealth."

There are dozens of other protests going on there too every day. We saw one that was a public teacher protest, and here are some other signs advocating the end of unfair firings, sufficient wages for casino workers, one that says, "Veterans of war not remembered," and the last one says, "Here's to the triumph of all our fights."

Then that night, our hostel hosted mate tasting. Mate (Mah-tay) is the quintessential Argentine drink. It's like green tea and Argentinos drink it all the time in social settings. It's extremely bitter and extremely hard to get used to (in Spanish class senior year, I can distinctly remember Bri exclaiming, "it tastes like a barn!"). But I actually enjoyed it this time. This picture is kind of bad, but it's the last one I took before my battery died. Contrary to my face in this shot, I liked the taste of mate.

So that was Thursday. Friday, G.T. (from Australia) and I took the subway (they call it the subte here, short for subterraneo) to Palermo. It's a very lush and more suburban part of the city. Unfortunately I left my map and guide at home, so instead of going to the many cool museums, we just wandered. We ended up at El Cementario de la Recoleta, a huge cementary of mosoleum structures where famous and powerful Argentinos are buried, like Evita Peron. It was huge, a city of tombs. The doors to the tombs are so intricate, and with most of them, you can peer in and see coffins and urns. Creepyyy.