Wednesday was a national holiday here—Día de la Patria (Homeland). It celebrates the first step in the independence process (Independence Day isn’t until July 9th). For the U.S., I think it’s the equivalent as the first day of the Continental Congress. We went with Eli’s family and friends to a party to eat Locro (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locro) which is an indigenous stew from the northern part of the country. It has all sorts of meat, corn, and other veggies and was super tasty. We sang the Argentine national anthem and the March of Perón and listened to a few people give little speeches (everyone is super political so they all have some opinion on La Plata/Argentine politics). It was so great to watch everyone get together to celebrate. After we had a relaxing day and called it an early night.
The next morning, we met at the bus station to go into Buenos Aires for a hearing for the cases of h
uman rights abuses brought before the Escuela de Suboficiales de Mecánica de la Armada (ESMA) which is a military school that was used as a torture/detention center during the last military dictatorship. It was interesting to see the courthouse and watch how they were laying out the case against the leaders of ESMA. We were only able to stay for an hour or so but then we stuck around Buenos Aires for the day. W
e went to a new museum behind/beneath the Casa Rosada (Government House – basically the White House without the residential part). It was a great museum that walked through Argentine history since independence in 1810. It also houses a mural by Siqueiros, a Mexican artist, that involves the floor, walls and curved ceiling—very beautiful. After getting back to La Plata, I met up with Leksa for a drink at a folklore bar called Salamanca that has live music every Thursday. Another full day.
Friday we had a relaxing day checking out other things to do in La Plata and Buenos Aires. We bought tickets to a ballet/tango show 
and looked up some film-screenings and concerts. We came back to our house to find that hour host mom had decided to get a new puppy! We now have a month-old beagle named Bosco who is absolutely adorable. Eli also informed us that she just finalized the paperwork for buying our house. She was so excited and already has started planning things to change around the house. We got take out pizza where my friend David works and then spent the night playing with the puppy and celebrating.
Saturday, Maya and I decided to make pancakes for everyone here. They have 
panqueques here that are basically crepes so we were excited to show them our pancakes. We made chocolate chip and blueberry pancakes and everyone seemed to enjoy them. I LOVE making pancakes and it was great to have everyone over for the day. Later that night, Maya, Leksa and I went to a beautiful ballet/tango show in La Plata. I really enjoy tango music and it was very cool to see a ballet version of tango.
I really enjoyed doing more things around La Plata. It’s a very cultural/political city and I’m definitely going to miss all the events that a city offers when I get back home. This week we are looking at a few different shows/movies and trying to go to an international rugby game on Saturday.
As always, I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the long weekend!
Love, Caroline
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