Buenos Aires, Asunción and Inbetween

Three weeks ago my family and I went to Buenos Aires. Now with my knowledge of the Paraguayan lifestyle being so laid-back, I expected to relax, see a couple sights, maybe purchase a couple recuerdos. Only one of those statements turned out to be true and none of it involved twiddling my thumbs. I suppose a little language lesson could explain my misconception... in Spanish, exists a word called conocer meaning ¨to get to know¨ or ¨to know of¨. Usually it used in relation to people. Ex: ¨Do you know Juan?¨ and the accompaning response would be either ¨Sí, le conozco¨ (or ¨No, no le conozco¨). However, little did I know you can conocer places as well. So when they said we are going to go conocer Buenos Aires, what it really meant was that we were going to be damned if we didn´t turn that place inside-out.

We were up at 0800 hours every morning whether it be to visit the Plaza del Mayo, Casa Rosada or Casa del Gobierno. Additionally, we managed to ride the subway several times, on which you can get you a fair distance for about 35 cents a ticket. However, personally, I prefer the taxis due to the fact that the taxistas are quite knowledgable (or at least the ones we ran into) and the fares won´t break your bank.

Some other cool tourist sites that we visited included: BA Zoo, the BA International Book Fair, Caminito and Tierra Santa.

Caminito is basically a block full of little shops, music, resturants and overall traditional Argentinian art. Definately one of the more touristy places you could go to in Buenos Aires.

Tierra Santa meaning ¨Holy Land¨ is essentially Catholic Disneyland, the first of its kind in the world. A spiritual amusement park full of ancient religous recreations, marked by an enormous mountain in the center from which assends on the hour (everyone take a deep breath here, because I am about to speak in metric) an 18-meter high Jesus figure, every hour on the hour. There are benches beneath Him, on which the majority of the people within the park gather to watch and pray. We checked out most of the exhibits and I allowed myself a couple religously-insensitive and ignorant remarks to make up for the fact that I was extremely insecure. Someone: ¨Hey, lets go to the Last Supper¨ Me: ¨Sure, but I´m vegetarian, does that still mean I get to eat the Body of Christ?¨. Me: Is it true that after Jesus was ressurected he became a Calvin Klein Underwear model, I mean come on, you know he had to be workin´out in that damned cave!¨

The Nightlife in Buenos Aires was a whole other ideal in itself. The first night we went to Teatro Revista (better known in English as Revue). It is an art form unique to Argentina and thousands of them take place all over the country. It combines the aspects of Sexuality, Wit, Dance and Music, all in the setting of a beautful, rustic theatre house. Definately a sight to see.

Another notable evening was when we decided to go out for a late dinner the second to last night we were there, I believe. So we caught a taxi and headed toward, well, who knows where, I wasn´t giving the directions. After we got out of the taxi we were advised not to wander too far, due to the fact that there was some sort of political uprising farther down the way, so our dinner plans appeared to be limited. We wandered down the street and seeing no viable options, ventured back in search of another restuarant, however just as we were about to turn around the corner we were beckoned to enter some guy´s resturant. We initially thanked him and were about to leave, when he started to explain some promotion that his restuarant was putting on, half off on dinner and a ¨show¨. It was all very vague and my spidey-sense was going nuts and I was about to implore my fellow comrades to get the hell out before we find out that the show involves the feast of our human flesh, but he had my mother convinced so we ascended to stairs to his roost with no idea what to expect. When we arrived and were seated it was just as I had feared, there was this ominous music playing, a soft lulliby before it turned into Hostel III: South America. The walls were covered with abstract paintings and chandeliers lined the ceiling. It was elegant, but I was convinced that the ambiance was part of the trap, not to mention the fact that the place was completely empty. The situation began to deteriorate when Margeret Shelley´s Igor arrived, with half of his teeth missing. I was still tense after he took our drink orders and bathed my arm in his gleek. However shortly later, the appetizers arrived and to my surprise, were actually quite delcious. Soon after, the place started to fill up with some people and I was finally at ease. The ¨Show¨ turned out to be a live Tango preformance, which included a three piece band, two seperate dance groups and two different singers. It was kind of an intimate setting, (only about 20 people) so the singers got the audience involved, taking proposals, evening attempting a little Johnny Cash, after asking the nationality of everyone there. After the five-course meal and the front row seats I was sold, the place had been worth picking after our initial hesitation.

Wednesday the 29th of April we returned and that evening my classmates and I went to Caravan. Caravan consists of an abundance of teenagers driving around the city, hanging out the windows, showing off their stereo equipment, being incredibly obnoxious in general. It is usually done the night before a party. So, in addition to supporting the people who were having their party the next day, we were able to promote our own (on the 6th of June). As it turned out, the timing couldn´t have been more perfect for our return, because we ending up having Thursday and Friday off due to El Día de Trabajadores and another day that doesn´t come to mind.

Since I go to Brasil so often, (a couple times every week) I thought it would be fun to take some Portuguese classes. I started two weeks ago and have classes twice a week. The amount of similarites between Spanish and Portuguese is astounding, so it isn´t incredibly difficult.

The 14th of May is Paraguayan Independance Day, so we had been having dress rehersals for our Desfile, a march through downtown which every student in every school participates in, which amounts to tens of thousands. However it rained, so it has been postponed to the 12th of June.

That afternoon, we drove to Asunción for the weekend, because Friday was Paraguayan Mother´s Day. We spent the first two days we probably spent a combined eight to ten hours in Mariscal Lopez Shopping. (Kind of odd, they call what we would call a Mall another english word -- Shopping). I bowled a PR of 112 and was able to see more box office hits: ¨Angels and Demons¨ and ¨X-men 3¨ also I met a small group of the exchange students from the year program. They seemed to be somewhat disillusioned, I suppose being here for ten and a half months can do that to you.

Saturday, at last, I was able to do some sightseeing around Asunción. We checked out some interesting museums, the view of Río Paraguay, (Which seperates the two regions of Paraguay -- the Chaco and the Oriental) Old congress building, Casa de la Independencia and the Casa del Presidente.

Saturday night we went to a discoteca called May-b, whi

ch of course led to some joyous punning. As the night was wrapping up and everyone was about to leave, the police, for whatever reason, started shooting someone outside on the street. (I never got the full story) We ended up getting home safe and sound, though it was a little scare.

Whew, well that is all for this time.

Leif