Tigre

So yesterday was a feriado, or national holiday. It was actually a pretty somber one, Dia de la Memoria, commemorating the start of the military dictatorship and the disappearances of the '70s. Anyway, my friend Hanna and I got up early and took the commuter train (for less than 2 pesos!) about 30 min. to Tigre, a smaller town about 18 miles north of BA. Tigre is part of the Parana Delta, and many people have vacation homes / cottages along the various criss-crossing rivers and clusters of islands. It was a beautifully hot, sunny day, and we started out walking along the river, past a huge amusement park, and towards the Puerto de Frutos, a little touristy shopping area. We met up with another friend Katie and her friend Josie, who is an Argentine and a med student in BA but graduated from Kenyon College last year. We got a traditional asado at a restaurant, complete with sweetbread, blood sausage, kidneys, etc. I wasn't feeling very adventurous so I had a spinach salad instead, but it was nice to have some not disgusting looking greens. We discovered that Josie's family is from El Calafate down south in Patagonia, which is exciting because we just bought plane tickets to go there next Thursday through Monday. It is home to the famous Perito Moreno glacier, and Josie gave us lots of other tips on stuff to do. She's also going to lend us winter jackets because we didn't bring any and it will be below freezing! The whole buying a very expensive plane ticket without having anywhere to stay or any concrete plans was a little stressful, but now I'm going, plans or not!

Back in Tigre, Hanna and I split off from the other girls to take an hour long boat ride on the river. We took a big wooden open boat for about $6, and it was certainly worth it. The rivers are super brown, disgusting, and polluted, but somehow still beautiful. There are lots of ethnic rowing clubs and country club/campground type places along the shore, and (surprisingly) many people were out swimming. There are also many whimsically named private cottages with docks and boats. If I didn't look down at the water, I could have been in Spread Eagle! After we got off the boat we got 1/2 kg. of flan ice cream for 14 pesos total and realized we've been paying way too much in BA. We just sat and talked on the riverbank for awhile then, with hundreds of other people. We walked down about half a mile and the entire riverbank was just completely covered with young people drinking mate, families having picnics, couples making out (this may warrant an entire separate entry someday haha), etc. Everyone was just out relaxing and having a good time, so it was really fun.

Last night I finished my reading assignment for class tomorrow. We are reading this boring and confusing book that takes me forever, and I only bother to look up one or two words every page otherwise I'd never finish. The book also has a lot of slang and sexual words that aren't in my dictionary, unfortunately. This morning I did some more class-trying and subway-riding, and now I am completely exhausted and ready for bed. It's really hard to get to bed at a reasonable hour because we eat dinner so late. I was starving for lunch around noon today but ended up waiting until 4 to eat so that I wouldn't have to binge before dinner. Ahhh the eating habits here are so strange. Well, that's all for now. Chau!