Carneval 2011: Gualeguaychu, Argentina

Carneval in South America is huge and Argentina is no exception. We went to Gualeguaychu with almost our entire group from W&M (Maya was with her parents in BsAs).

This trip was very haphazardly planned (we didn't have a place to sleep) and we departed from La Plata early Saturday morning with tents and the bare essentials and boarded the best bus i have ever been on. Argentina has an incredible bus system and the seats on the buses made a 15 hour bus ride to Mendoza seem like a possibility in the future. We got out of the bus in Gualeguaychu and it finally hit me how many people came to Gualeguaychu for Carneval. We took a taxi to the river and were instantly surrounded by lots of people on very small beaches

However, we had more important things on our mind than joining the party, mainly finding a place to camp. We crossed the river to the less popular side and walked around for about two hours asking different campsite if there was room before deciding to stop at a restaurant and ask if they knew of any places we could camp. I was so amazed at how willing the owner was to help us. He jumped on his motorcycle and returned in about 20 minutes with the name of a campsite that still had room for tents.

After setting up our campsite and checking out the beach for a while, we returned to the restaurant that we stopped at earlier in the day for an early dinner. We had a killer parrillada with more meat than you can imagine. We had the traditional pork, chicken, beef, chorizo and then a few meats that I’m not really sure what part of the cow the came from. Not all of them were great, but it was a uniquely argentine experience. The best part of the meal, was by far the puppies that the waitress brought out. There is nothing better than a puppy break in the middle of a delicious dinner.




The rest of the weekend consisted mostly of going to the beach, eating whatever we could find close to the beach/campsite and a combination of going out/sleeping at night. It was fun and the beach parties are crazy (here are a few pictures, including the boys dancing on stage with the DJ/party starter) but I think I could have done Gualeguaychu in 2-3 days rather than 4. I’m glad that our group was able to experience Carneval and get to know each other a better but the comfortable seats on the bus and finally getting home felt great after 4 days of camping in the heat and eating whatever we could find in convenience stores.

Buenos Aires: Part I

I knew that I shouldn't have started a blog-- I'm so terrible at updating it! Since i last posted, we have made two trips to Buenos Aires and it is an awesome city. That being said, I'm really happy I'm living in La Plata and BsAs is just a short bus ride away. It is an enormous city and definitely feels more touristy than La Plata. Our first trip to the city was with the Comisión with our entire group and our wonderful tour guide Juan Ignacio. We went to all the historical parts of the city and were able to learn a lot about the different parts. We started in La Boca, near the mouth of the river and checked out the Caminito. The Caminito is a really bright neighborhood with lots of vendors and tango galore. On Sundays there is a street fair through San Telmo and we saw lots of art/souvenirs to buy.


We then went to Plaza Mayor which is kind of in the center of BsAs. There's a cathedral and la Casa Rosada (the Pink House) where the president works, and its been a center for political gatherings and protests. This picture is from inside the Casa Rosada with one of the guards and looking out onto the plaza.


Next, we took a subway to Congreso (where the legislative building is located). The subway was built in 1913 and the cars look really antique. They also used different colors for all the stations so people who couldn't read would still be able to navigate the system.



One very unique place that we saw was El Cemetario de Recoleta. Its an enormous cemetary with big mausoleums of the rich and famous in Argentina's history. It's kind of weird but also really beautiful. We saw the grave of Evita which has lots of flowers and a constant stream of visitors. However, the mausoleum next to hers was for sale so if you want to be buried next to Evita-- check it out.


Finally, we went to Palermo. It's a very young, artsy, shopping-based neighborhood in the northern part of the city. We walked around and peaked inside some stores. There were groups playing music throughout the streets and its definitely on the list of places to return.


Overall it was a great introduction to Buenos Aires. It's a beautiful city and I'm really excited to take advantage of being so close to it. The bus ride from La Plata to Buenos Aires is about an hour and costs about $2-3 each way so it's very accessible and convenient. This past weekend we went in for another day trip but I'll write more about that later. For anyone interested... my address here is:

Caroline Grady
Calle 60 N. 318
entre 1 y 2
La Plata CP 1900
Buenos Aires, Argentina

Love,
Caroline

Random Thoughts

1. We walked around for 2 hours trying to find cell phones that were cheap but we walked to five different stores but they didn't have enough for our entire group and we all want the same company so its cheaper to communicate. We saw more of La Plata which is good but another day without phones is getting annoying. It's hard to meet up with our group and talk with our host moms about when we'll be home and such. Hopefully, we'll get them tomorrow.

2. I think I'm going to take a tango class. At a cultural center close to La Comisión you can sign up for classes in art, language, music, theater and most importantly, dance. We want to learn tango when we're in Argentina but even if I can't take tango I think it would be a good way to meet people too.

3. Ice cream is delicious. We stopped after class at una heladería and I had some sort of Dulce de Leche with peanuts and chocolate. It was wonderful (plus i miss peanuts/peanut butter especially so it was good to have some here).

4. People at La Comisión talked to us today about a program that they have called "Jovenes y Memoria" or "Youth and Memory." It sponsors a year long project for high school students of research into the disappeared from their region and helps them create a project to display their work. We watched an awesome documentary that showed incredible courage and curiosity in the students to investigate what happened with bodies that washed up on the shore in their town during the 1970s. It's really great to see young people so interested and involved in their country's history.

5. I talked tonight with Eli a little about politics and she is a Peronista (and thus, she supports Cristina Kirchner the current president of Argentina) through and through. I hate to say that I don't know much about the politics in Argentina but I'm excited to learn more seeing as they have an election in October for President.

That's it for now. More pictures later.

Love, Caroline

Hola from La Plata, Argentina

Hello everyone! Before leaving for La Plata, Argetnina I didn't think I was going to keep a blog but I just have so many things to tell everyone and it's easier to tell people all at once on a blog than explaining each thing to every person. No promises as to the content and promptness of this blog but we'll see how things go.

I arrived in La Plata on Sunday and I already love it. La Plata is the capital of the province of Buenos Aires. There are about 500,000 people in La Plata and almost 80,000 students. It's a very youth based city and there are lots of people my age (but also older because many people go to school for almost all of their 20s b/c higher education is completely free). It's an easy city to navigate, numbered streets in a grid but then a few diagonals too. I've explored a bit but I'm still gaining my bearings. I like living in a city-- there's a lot going on and everything is within walking distance (plus i haven't figured out the bus system so I've been walking everywhere).

I live with a host family and one other student from W&M named Ruth Ann (here is a picture of our room-- I'm on top bunk). My host mom is Eliana (or Eli) and she has two kids: Francisca (7 years old) and Isidro (10 years old). Eli is so welcoming and really wants us to feel like its our house too. Living with kids is fun and they have no reservations about correcting my spanish or laughing at me when I sound like and American (here they say "yanqui" like yankee to describe Americans). Fran sometimes jokes with me when I ask her how to say certain words in spanish and instead tells me bad words instead. Una chica tan loca. I had a great Harry Potter chat with Isidro today complete with spells and a promise to go to Harry Potter world if he comes to the U.S. Eli also has lots of family around the house every day and I really like that they are such a big part of her life here. There are sisters, cousins, grandparents etc. and its hard to keep them all straight.


Let's see... classes. We started class today at La Comisión Provincial por la Memoria. It's a commission established in 2000 that focuses on human rights especially with "los desaparecidos" or the disappeared from the Dirty Wars and military junta in Argentina. They do some incredible work and I'm excited to learn from them and hopefully research with one of the departments that they have. Today was just a class de español but we start history classes this week too. The spanish here is definitely different than what you learn in school but its getting easier to hear even after three days. They don't pronounce "y" or "ll" but instead use "j". Me "jamo" Caroline. Vivo en "Caje" 3. It's definitely a different accent but I like it so far.

This is getting to be long so here are just a few things that i really love about La Plata so far:

People always kiss you on the cheek when you say hi-- its cute.

There are lots of parks or plazas around town. This is Plaza de San Martin from a window in El Pasaje de Dardo Rocha.

Its warm! Like 85 degrees today which got a little hot in the middle of the day but is still nice.

I understand more than i thought i would (expectations were really low) but i still have a long way to go.

I saw lots of people biking and running today so that's a good sign. I’m pretty sure biking here would be about 4789356935793805 times more dangerous than in the US. Nobody wears helmets (except people intense road biking people) and there are no stop signs and few stop lights.

Mate! Its kind of like green tea? but stronger and you share it with people when you drink it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mate_%28beverage%29.


















El Catedral (Cathedral) in La Plata is incredible. I love love love churches in Latin America and this one is beautiful. The stained glass is so detailed in every window and it makes the light inside really pretty. I can't wait to go to mass there (hopefully this weekend).

This is a long post but I'll make sure to add photos next time. I love and miss everyone at home and I hope you are all doing well!

Con cariño,
Caroline