Thoughts of the week.

Hola mis amigos!

So, it has now officially been over a week here in Argentina and it already feels like I have packed so much into such a short time. Here's the update since my last post:

Like I previously mentioned, this weekend marks Argentina's anniversary of it's fight to freedom. Considering on an average workday there are about 9 million people in the city's center, my group members and I estimated that there had to be at least double that or more here this weekend. Needless to say, things got a little crazy.

Crazy is the only adjective I can use to describe the chaos of this weekend. After hitting the town with my American friends for a week, we decided to head over to Tigre on Monday (a nice change from B.A.'s tall buildings and massive amounts of traffic). We arrived via train early that afternoon, walked around a bit, and enjoyed an hour boat ride along the river. The language barrier did us wrong again and we were tricked into thinking that the ride would only cost 5 pesos. Our dreams were crushed and it was a bit more expensive, but we were able to see entertaining sights along the river, including the thrilling theme park, and it took us away from the pace and pollution of our home in B.A.

I know, I know. Not too crazy, but today ensured craziness. We headed over fairly early to the "bicentario" to celebrate with the rest of the Argentines. The day was filled with parades, fighter planes, decorations, street shows, music, and a variety of food. It would have been nice to see more of it, but most of our day was spent fighting the crowds. Assertion was key when trying to make your way through each street and there was no room for shyness. Even the children knew how to fight through the crowd. It reminded me, at times, of a few mosh pits I've witnessed at Warped Tour back in the day (Oh, my middle-school punk days...). It was a great way to see the city, though, and definitely a once in a lifetime event. My group members and I calculated that we walked about 5 miles throughout the city. Of course, in a roundabout way. (We're still learning!)

Tomorrow we start another eventful week full of Spanish classes and meetings (ugh, back to reality after that nice long holiday!). I will be working for the weekend as we are headed to beautiful Montevideo on Saturday! Uruguay better be ready for such an exciting group!

Hasta luego!