Well, my plan of going to bed early didn’t exactly work out that well. I was in bed before eleven (which I thought was good) and I was almost asleep when a man started screaming in the street at the top of his lungs. It was about 11:30 at this point. I was not sure what was going on, but all sorts of things came into my head such as a robbery or murder. After a few screams, he shouted some words and a man down the street answered and then started screaming, too. Then, a ton of people started screaming and shouting and I was thinking that a riot must be going on outside. I was really glad I was inside. Then, all of a sudden, I realized that Boca had a game with Brazil last night and that that was probably what they were yelling about. I was right and soon the street was going crazy! People were screaming and yelling and chanting in the street. Car horns were blaring and it was impossible to sleep. Then people started setting off fireworks or shooting guns or something of the sort which made it even worse. I tried to tell myself that this (fútbol) is an important part of the culture, but after ten minutes, I really wanted it to stop so that I could sleep before my test. After over an hour of intense racket and chaos in the street, things began to settle down and I fell asleep… finally!
I got up at 7:30 on the first day of winter (in the dark) and got ready (I wore my favorite socks) and looked over my notes before eating breakfast at 8:20 (two media lunas, two cups of hot chocolate, tostadas with dulce de leche, and grapes). I left for school a little before 9. Fani told me that it was supposed to rain today so I brought my umbrella, but it never rained. There was a class in our room so we waited out in the hall until 9:30 when we went in. The woman giving the exam (Gloria) was nowhere to be seen. We all looked over our notes more and asked each other questions. I feel like we have learned an awful lot in the past week. We were all trying to remember which phrase goes with each verb tense. We waited for almost 20 minutes before a worker in the university came in to bring chalk and we asked him if he knew about our exam. We were getting worried that it had been moved to a different room and we didn’t know. He told us that Gloria was running behind and that we would have our exam at 10 instead of 9:30. That would have been nice to know! Oh, well. We sat around nervously for ten more minutes because our brains were too full to study more. Finally, Gloria and the other intermediate 2 class arrived to take the test. Gloria passed them out and we got started. We had exactly two hours to complete the exam, but I had plenty of time because I am a fast test-taker. I went over the exam three times and found some corrections to make each time. The whole test was about ghosts and urban legends which was kind of strange. It was hard, but I think I did okay. I am not really sure how well I did, but I am pretty sure I passed. After I finished, I waited out in the hall for about 20 minutes before they began doing the oral exams. Our profesora, Graciana, administered our oral exam and we did it in partners. Surprisingly, it was really easy. We just had to give our partner advice about visiting our favorite city by telling the other person things to see and things not to do using a list of starter sentences. I talked about Hong Kong and I didn’t even get to finish talking because she cut me off (which I think is a good sign). I waited out in the hallway for other people to finish and talked to Rachel, Jenny, and Will. Jenny gave me her ID card because she is leaving and doesn’t need it anymore. That was a really nice thing for her to do! (The ID cards don’t have our pictures, just a number and our name.) Now I can use the computer lab without buying a new ID card. Jenny left to go play soccer and Will and I were heading off on some adventures when Ping Ying, a girl from our class who is from Taiwan, asked if she could come, too. We, of course, said yes, and we headed out. Ping Ying asked if we could stop by her apartment very close to the university so she could drop off her school stuff and grab her camera. We said yes and we walked to her building. She invited us to come up, so we did. She introduced us to her Colombian housemate and disappeared into her bedroom. After waiting about a half hour for her to reappear, she finally did and after showing us her bedroom (very big, actually the whole apartment was very big), we set off. She told us about a bus that comes in front of her building, so we waited for it, but there were lots of people and we couldn’t see a bus coming and it wasn’t really going to take us very close to where we wanted to go, so we decided to walk to Cabildo and catch the 152 bus. We did and one came about 5 minutes after we arrived at the bus stop. We rode a long way on the bus and got off without incident. We walked a few blocks to this mall called Galerias Pacificas (I think) that has some huge murals on the ceiling. We took some pictures and headed off to see the mothers march at the Plaza de Mayo. On our way, we heard music and looked in the street and saw what looked like a parade. There were people dressed in black with ghoulish masks on and I saw a banner that said the name of a theater. I thought they were advertising an upcoming performance, but as we watched a little more (and read the signs), I realized that they were artists and performers protesting the lack of support for theaters and fine arts in Buenos Aires. They had doomful music playing from the back of a van and all the people marching had on black garbage sacks over their clothes. Some of them were carrying a sign that said something like, “Culture is dying here.” It was interesting to watch. As we got closer to the Plaza de Mayo, they stopped in front of an important-looking building and people on the roof dumped tiny pieces of paper off the roof. We watched a little more and then headed over to the Plaza. We saw the mothers and while we were there, Spencer, a boy from ISA, came up behind me while I was taking a picture and grabbed my arm and I about had a heart attack. I said hi and saw some other ISA girls there, too. Then, as I was watching, someone else came up behind me and surprised me and it was Jessie. Anne Miller was there, too. This was the first time I had bumped into Jessie unexpectedly and the very first time I had seen Anne in Argentina. When Tammy gets here, I think we all need to get together! We walked around with the mothers. There is a lot of controversy surrounding the mothers. Lots of people, including Fani, don’t like them and think they don’t have the right to continue making such a fuss after so many years. I don’t really know a lot about the controversy, but I think the mothers are an important part of the culture either way and they aren’t going to be around forever so I wanted to see them. We were planning on heading to Congreso (the Congress building) for a tour at 4, but it was too late, so we decided to go to Café Tortoni, a famous café that has been around since 1800-something. Jorge Luis Borges used to go there! Lindsay from CEA had told me to get churros (which are fried doughnut-stick things) and hot chocolate, so I did. After Café Tortoni, we headed to Congreso. It was going to be close, but we hurried and made it there right at 5. However, when we went to get in, the lady told us we needed ID, so we talked to her for a while and asked about our copies of passports. She said that was okay, but that the tour had already left so we would have to wait for the 6pm tour. She told us that we had to go to the door on the other side of the building. We left and walked around close to Congreso. We saw another protest. I am not quite sure what the purpose of this one was, but the people marching were veterans of the war over the Islas Malvinas/Falkland Islands. They were blowing horns and banging empty pop bottles. We walked down the road a little bit and then came back. We saw a van towing a huge TV screen on which they were showing propaganda about on the candidates for mayor. Everywhere we walked today, we had to wait for Ping Ying. She would not stay with us and while it was very frustrating at times and slightly embarrassing at others, overall, she was very amusing. While she is very timid and quiet in class, she is quite bold outside of class. She would go right up to complete strangers and ask to take their picture. Will and I didn’t know whether to be impressed or embarrassed at her audacity. She went up and knocked on the door of a police van and asked if she could get a picture with the policeman who was drinking mate! She also got a picture with several of the veterans who were marching. It was quite hilarious. She left before the tour because she was going to meet some friends. Will and I went to a door (which we believed to be the correct one) and asked about the tour. We were about 20 minutes early, but we didn’t want to miss this one! The girl there told us to go to the next door. We did, but without opening the door, the security guard motioned for us to go back the way we came. We were really confused, but when back to the first girl. The girl told us that we had to go to the other door, but not until closer to 6. We said thank you (all this was in castellano) and then the girl said (in English), “Go to the other door, but not until 6.” Urgh! We just want to speak castellano and everyone here tries to speak English! It is frustrating at times. We went back to the other door and waited outside until about 5:55 when the guard opened the door and we went and waited inside. For some reason, we didn’t even have to show the copies of our passports on this side! There were three other young people on the tour, too. I think they lived in Buenos Aires, but I’m not sure. The woman who led our tour spoke very clearly and it was easy to understand her. We saw a room with two big paintings and then the room where Congress meets. It was cool to hear about the fingerprint identification system that they have to make sure it is really the representatives that are there. We also heard about the young people who handwrite everything that happens there. She said that when Congress is in session, they take a 5-minute turn writing every hour. She told us how many words per minute they can write, and while I can’t remember exactly, I know it was over 100! She said that more than half of the representatives have to be there for Congress to be in session. We learned lots about the system of voting. Lastly, we went to the library. It was extremely neat with wood paneling everywhere and lots of books (obviously). The lady told us that they have over 900,000 titles, but that they have two copies of every book because there is some sort of law that says all authors have to give two copies of their book to the library. She said that when they get books they don’t want (like children’s books), they send them to poor schools in the provinces (at least that is what I got out of it!). We left after that and headed to the subte. We paid and went through the turnstiles before I noticed that we were on the wrong side. We asked a man selling candy in a little kiosko and he said that we had to go outside and cross the street to get to the other side, but that if we explained what happened, they probably would not make us pay again. We did as he suggested and it worked! We weren’t too worried since a subway ticket costs about a quarter! We hopped aboard a train that wasn’t too crowded and rode to the station where we had to switch to another line. We found where we were supposed to go, but there were tons of people and we decided to wait for the next train. We waited not even five minutes until the next one came and we hopped on. People crowded in after us, but it wasn’t too bad. However, when we got to the next stop, a whole bunch of people pushed and shoved to get on, so we were jammed in like sardines! It was the most crowded subway I have ever been on and I am pretty experienced at riding the subway! I could not even lift my arm or take a step in any direction. We rode like that pretty much the whole way until about one stop before I got off. I left Will at the Jose Hernandez station and walked home. I got back about 7:30 and Fani greeted me. I felt bad because she said that she had been worried about me because it was later than I normally come home. I had realized that when we were at Congreso for the 6pm tour instead of the 5pm one, but Fani’s phone number was in my wallet (that was stolen) and so I had no way to call her. I need to put it in there again. She fixed my dinner while I put some stuff away. I had soup, cucumbers and shredded carrots, a chicken patty with a fried egg on top, and peaches with dulce de leche on top. We talked about politics and the election while I ate. Fani got a phone call as I was finishing. I went to my room and put my pictures on the computer and checked my email. I had a whole bunch of emails because I hadn’t checked it all day! I wrote this super long blog entry about my super long day. I am going to read my Bible, journal a bit, and go to sleep! Tomorrow, I will receive my grade for the class! Hopefully, I did okay!
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