It is very late so this will not be as long as I would like for it to be. Hopefully, I will get a chance to add to it tomorrow.
I just returned from a Rotary “party” to celebrate a club´s 35th anniversary. It was very interesting. I was sitting next to a group of gentleman who had a little too much to drink and were telling/asking me everything from “what are you studying in school?” to “you are too young to be married” to “you have been married too long not to have kids” to “what do Americans think about the pope?” Hay de mi! I went thinking I was going to a purely social party (this was not a group event) with my host parents but regardless, it ended up being a good experience. I even tried to dance with one of the “old guys” but he was a much better dancer than I am, so I just smiled and bopped around a bit. It was fun.
Earlier today we went and saw the inside of a submarine being repaired. It was very cool and we all enjoyed it a lot! I took lots of pictures and hope to upload them soon, but like I said, the Argentine´s party way later than we Americans do, thus I am writing this at 1:41am. Seriously, the party started around 10pm, and the majority of the people were over 50!
Yesterday, I went to HP for my vocational day with Jen. It was very interesting and I think spread a lot of knowledge about the environmental and recycling program and hopefully can work in the future to get Argentina involved in the program. I talked a little bit about MFP´s, but come to find out, with Argentina’s depressed (but recovering) economy, MFP’s are out of most small businesses price ranges so there was really not much to talk about. It was interesting learning about IPG and HP’s business in Argentina, nevertheless.
Both yesterday and today I/we got to do a bit of shopping. Yesterday Cristina, my host mom, and I went to a huge mall and I found a gift for Andy and Anna and for myself a leather jacket for a muy buen precio! The prices are so good, since the Argentine Peso is 3 to 1 with the dollar!!
Yesterday evening, I joined my host family, who are huge fans of the River Plate (pronounced kind of like “Reever Play”) soccer team for a game at “La Cancha.” It was so much fun and absolutely amazing to see how much the fans were into the game. I took a couple of videos where the massive chearing section is all moving in unison, cheering River Plate on! It was unlike I had ever seen before. The cheering section sang songs about the team the entire game except for when the opposing team scored. The stadium was huge, able to hold 70,000 people. There were only about 30,000 there yesterday since it was a Thursday but I heard that it fills up on Sunday’s. The two big teams in BA are River Plate and Boca Juniors. It seems that everywhere you go, people ask you which you are a fan of. It is similar in Guadalajara with Chivas and Atlas, but I would say that the fans are much more passionate here. And yes, even much more passionate than BSU versus U of I!
Everyone else but me changed host families today. I was supposed to but there was a miscommunication. I am hoping I will continue to have Internet access in the next house but will not know until probably Sunday.
Tomorrow, we are off to an artifical insemination farm for cows. We are not exactly sure why, but it should be another adventure.
Alecia
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