When I was in 2nd and 3rd grade, my teacher made us write a summary of our weekend and turn it in every Monday. I absolutely hated it and it became a joke that “Oh, What a Weekend” was the bane of my eight-year-old existence. Last week, my dad suggested that I start updating my blog at least once a week and he joked that it would be just like writing my weekly assignment of “Oh, What a Weekend.” So here it is Dad, my first installment of the second edition of “Oh, What a Weekend.”
This past weekend started on Thursday. Argentina has a wonderful rule that if a holiday falls on a Tuesday or a Thursday you get off Monday or Friday to make it a four-day-weekend. The U.S. should adopt this policy—it’s great. Thursday was the 24 de marzo, the federal holiday commemorating the beginning of the last military dictatorship. We went to Buenos Aires for a march/demonstration/protest which was really awesome. Argentina is such a politically charged country and the march was unlike anything I’ve been too. People from all sorts of political groups of all ages including children and grandmothers were present to show their support for justice for the crimes committed during the dictatorship. We walked around trying to find the “Madres de la Plaza de Mayo,” a group of women who protest each week (from the dictatorship-present) to find out more information about the “disappeared.” They are an incredibly strong group of women who hold so much respect in the argentine culture. As we were walking around behind the Madres, people would stop their chanting and start applauding the Madres as they walked by. It was really awesome to see such admiration for the women that have devoted their lives toward recovering the memories of their loved ones.
After the March in Buenos Aires, Ruth Ann and I stayed in a hostel in Buenos Aires because we were headed to El Tigre early Friday morning with our family. El Tigre is a river delta near Buenos Aires that really is like a city of different rivers, “The Venice of Argentina.” We took the train and a boat taxi to a house on the river and met up with Eli (my host mom) and her family and friends. This included about 20 people in two different houses. It was a great family weekend with lots of great food (including a barbequed pig and homemade pizza made on the grill) charades and lots of stories. We were able to swim, sit out in the sun and even go out on the boat. I tried wakeboarding but to no avail but the highlight of the weekend was definitely taking the boat to the mouth of El Tigre to see the Buenos Aires skyline. It was awesome to see the whole city from the water—it really is enormous.
I loved spending time with Eli and her family and friends but it definitely made me miss Grady family vacations (plus, charades with Argentine movies was really hard… Mosquito Coast and Without Anesthesia are really hard to act out). It was a beautiful weekend and I hope to return to El Tigre when my mom and aunts come to Argentina to visit in a few weeks.
Back to life in La Plata this week (which hopefully means finalizing classes)—plus, U2 concert on Sunday! I hope you are all doing well at home, I miss you!
Con cariño,
Caroline
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