Independence Day!

Happy Independence Day for Argentina!

So apparently May 25th is Argentina's independence day so it was very interesting. We got to see Alta Gracia's parade which is very different that the parades in Naperville. In Alta Gracia, all the schools and all the children march where the student with the highest score gets to carry a flag and the top three highest score students get to be recognized on a stage with the mayor and the principal and vice principal of their respective schools. I think that is really cool. Then all the clubs and whatever you can do gets to march too. Close to the end was the paramedics, police, volunteer firefighters, veteran firefighters, and firefighters. At the very end there is a lot of people all different ages riding horses. I guess horses and a popular well-known thing in Alta Gracia. I saw toddlers riding horses, of course they weren't steering the horses but then were riding them. All ages and all different types/sizes of horses. It was crazy but really cool. There was also some dancing that we got to see right before the end of the parade, so before the horses.

Then we had a really nice lunch with some people who work in schools. One of the relatives of our program director is the principal of one of the schools we will be observing in. Then we had the vice principal of that same school, the husband and son of the principal, and an old friend of the principal that use to be an English teacher. And when I mean English teaching I mean she taught English to people so her English was a lot better than she gave herself credit for. It was a very good and interesting lunch. I had a typical Argentine steak sandwich which is called a lomito. It was really good. So good I might have to go back sometime this month and get another one. Or I will try it at many other restaurants.

Siesta time! After lunch is Argentine's siesta. So basically it is free time where most stores are close but today since everything was closed because of the holiday some things were open during siesta time. I took a very short 15 minute power nap but when I woke up I was really energized for the rest of the day. That is probably why I can write this post at 3:30am. That and my roommate isn't back yet but that will be mentioned more later. I literally woke up at 6:30 from my nap. lol I should have not taken that nap. Oh well. It's the culture and I am trying to experience as much of Argentina as possible. I am even trying to learn Spanish. It's not going so well but that's okay.

After siesta we met as a class and went to the plaza to see some traditional folk dance and hear some bands. It was very interesting and different. It was also really loud. After the concert was dinner time so around 9pm. Yea they eat really late here. We had our first assignment of splitting into groups and going out to different restaurants to write reviews. It was fun. I was in a group of 6 and we went to this little cafe type place that I think is called Cafe De Los Viejos Tiempos. It was a good restaurant. I would definitely go again. I shared a pizza with a classmate and had hot chocolate which they call submarino. It is basically warm milk with a piece of chocolate put in it to melt. There is no sugar in it so I had to add one packet of sugar. It was very bitter before I added the sugar. I also tried some of the chocolate cake and it was really good, very moist and chocolatety. 

Dinner was great then we went back to the hotel because we thought we were going to meet with the other group but they didn't come back until 3:30am hence why I am up because these hotels only give one key and my roommate was in the other group. No worries. I'm not mad or anything. They could go do whatever they want. I wish we could have gone with them because they went out to a bar and that would have been a fun experience. Next time. I still had a fun time talking with the group I had dinner with until 2am.

This whole one key to a room thing in foreign countries kind of bugs me. It was the same in Italy except if you left the room it automatically locked so you don't have to worry about anything as long as one person leaves the room with the key. Here you can apparently lock people in because that is what happened to me last night when my roommate went out to the courtyard area to play catchphrase with some of my class. I had to text her to come let me out... lol I guess it is one way to punish your roommate if you don't like them...

I have lots of photos from today. I think I will put them on facebook and post them here in another post another day. They are a lot of photos of things I see, not my classmates but that is soon to change. :)