Has things to say, but doesn't feel like saying them.

So, it's friday night. I should be excited to go do something super awesome, but I haven't actually found myself excited about anything in a long time. Lord, I am so emo, I need to get over this shit. Like I said, it's friday night and I feel guilty because I haven't been writing in my blog but I honestly don't feel that there is anything all that interesting going on in my life. Whatever.

(Here is where I tell you wrote that paragraph on friday and have just now made it back to my blog, it's sunday.)

So, I had class on Thursday, it was the only class I will have had in a ten day period because I don't have class on fridays or wednesdays and monday and tuesday were both holidays in honor of argentina's birthday. They celebrated for five days, I think 2 days would have been enough, I only went 2 days, although I am glad I got to go. I'm glad I got to be here for such an event and it was actually a lot of fun to be there.



Anyways, on Tuesday, Ami and Lindsay and I decided to go to the parade for the bicentennial. This was the most important thing to happen during all the festivities. It was supposed to start at 7, so we left our houses a little before 7, knowing it wouldn't start anywhere near 7, argentines just aren't that timely. So, we arrive at 9 de julio (the street where all the jazz is happening) and there are just more people than you can possibly imagine. They predicted a crowd, but holy man, this was a crowd (and I went to inauguration, remember?). We walk and walk and walk in the direction we think things are happening in. We get there, we can see the big screen, Cristina is talking. We try to figure out exactly where the parade route is so that we can somehow find ourselves in the middle of the action. We ask someone and walk in the direction of the diagonal where the parade is to be and by walk, I mean attempt to walk. There were far too many people to actually walk. I would describe it more like a black hole where gravity (here it's people) is pressing on you from every side and you are getting pushed and shoved and are trying to maintain standing and then you get hit by a stroller and the man next to you stops to have a cigarette. You can imagine this was a most lovely experience.

At some point we realize that we are standing between two rows of metal barriers meant to partition off the parade route and we're not the only ones, there are a ton of people standing where they shouldn't be. The police were trying to get all the people out of the parade route and after they realized very quickly that this wasn't working, they made another solution. They found some police tape and just made new barriers of people in front of the metal barriers giving you a partitioned off middle section, then some police tape, people, then metal barriers, then more people. It was really an excellent design. So we stand, we wait, we're behind the police tape. Nothing happens. We know the parade has already started, we saw it on the big screen. We stand. Nothing happens. People start to ask the police officers questions. Usually this seems like a good idea until you realize not a single police officer here actually gives a shit about the parade route. An Argentine asks one officer, where is the parade supposed to go? He says here. And she says, well how is it going to do that? He shrugs. We and everyone else realize that the floats literally have no where to go because of the wall of people, oh fun.



The police tape breaks, the people flood into the parade route and then somehow, miraculously, there is a reformed parade route and there are floats and lights and people coming down the street. Not that it wasn't well lit before, it's BA, but still, these were flashing lights and there was music. So Ami and Lindsay and I find ourselves on the other side of the parade route being crushed to death by people and then by more people who are moving out of the way of the parade as it approaches. I find one of those metal barrier things that for some reason is now perpendicular to the parade route, how effective and decide that this would be the perfect place to stand. I climb onto the barrier and yell for Ami to give me her camera, because I can see everything from here. Perfection. At some point, I hand my purse back to Ami, there is no way I am getting my camera out in this madness and then she and Lindsay decide that want to go back a little bit to be able to breathe and so as to not get trampled like Mufasa in The Lion King. Ami gives me her phone and I stay to take pictures. It was so awesome, somehow even in the midst of the most ridiculous street party/gathering/parade nonsense I have ever found myself in, I managed to start talking to some argentines beside me and made some friends. This was nice once Ami and Lindsay had left because periodically, the entire parade would have to stop to push the people out of the route to make room for the floats. Like I said, this was well-planned and well-executed. Go argentina.



The parade pretty much was designed to travel through Argentina's history, both the good and bad points were highlighted and it was really interesting, like I said, a good experience. However, when the last float finally made it to where I was, which was near the end of the route, all the people flooded out into the street behind it (because the last float was just a DJ playing popular argentine songs) and it became a moving street party. There were people everywhere just singing and dancing and screaming and then randomly, all the argentines, with pride of course, would start jumping to the music. I found myself in the middle of the hubbub with my two new argentine friends and the only thing to save yourself in a crowd of people jumping is to jump, so I jumped. It was amazing and so much fun and fortunately, I did not get crushed to death. At some point, I managed to find Ami and Lindsay again in the massive and endless crowd (which the news reported to be 2-3 million) and we went home, but man was I energized. Good job argentina, I really mean it, buen trabajo, feliz cumpleaños.

Fortunately yet again for me, I did not have to get up for class in the morning. This was doubly good because I had been sleeping really horribly and having some pretty wicked nightmares. However, on the recommendation of the my mother, I started taking melatonin and now I have actually been sleeping well, I think my body was just out of whack for some reason, maybe it's the argentine food.

Wednesday I did nothing, Thursday, I went to class, then yoga and then had coffee with Ami and Nikhita but mostly did nothing, unless you count skyping with my future husband Sean for an unnamed number of hours, something (which I secretly do), but I did nothing productive. Friday, I woke up with intention of doing homework, but I'm pretty sure I actually did nothing. I like sleeping in and apparently, contributing not a damn thing to society. My mother should be so proud of me. I promise to become a useful person again someday, I just don't think I am going to find that in Argentina, oh whoops, it's not counting towards my gpa, thank the lord.

Speaking of how useless I am, I have been finding it extraordinarily difficult to do anything lately. No one in the university system holds you accountable, which usually doesn't bother me, but there is also the little fact that the majority of my readings have no play on any form of evaluation for the class. All I have is final papers and one in class exam and one oral exam. None of the readings I currently supposed to be reading count for any of that. So, would you be working either? I doubt it, I'm watching Dexter. You should too.

Saturday, I went to the organic farmer's market in Palermo, which in itself wasn't easy to find but it was amazing and we ate organic chocolate while drinking organic coffee, in case you are unaware, this is my version of heaven. After we finally pulled ourselves away, we went and had lunch at Buenos Aires Verde, which was good but still had a little bit of that Argentine version of nutrition as it's core. It rained all day and I loved it because it gave me a reason to wear rain boots, a rain coat, to carry an umbrella and to look like a complete idiot for a day. Also, to note, the three of us got confused for germans and brazilians, don't understand either.

After this, we did nothing. I started watching Dexter. Oh and then there was some meat, but that's really worth seeing and not talking about. Here, just a tease, kidney. Mmm, delicious.

Anyways, that's all for now. I tried adding in some pics. Hope you like it!

Love
besos
amor
kristin