I can’t even believe how bad I am at updating this blog, I’m so sorry!!!! Today is El Dia del Estudiante also called Dia de la Primavera which means the day of the students/day of spring. Like I said earlier, they have a day for everyone! Yesterday was the day of perfumista, the people who sell perfume. As my Norma said Argentina sometimes is una joda which means a joke haha. So today none of the students had class and had the day to celebrate. I went to the 3 de Febrero Park in Palermo Park with a couple of friends and the park was absolutely filled with students. There were thousands of what seemed to be high school students hanging out, playing soccer, watching performances that were going on and most of all getting drunk. Although it was exciting to see so many young people together it was a little overwhelming. It was also the only time since I’ve been here that I felt like I really stood out (on that note someone thought I was Brazilian the other day woot woot). Maybe it was because I didn’t have a crazy haircut. It seemed like every guy had a mullet, dreads, frosted tips or a combination of all. My favorite that a lot of guys had was the bottom half of their head shaven and the top half longer with white tips. I swear guys with that haircut traveled in packs haha. Afterwards I caught the bus to go to the place where I will be volunteering in a neighborhood called Flores. I am working with an organization called Mensajeros de la Paz that runs numerous programs around the city but the one that I will be working with is a house where children that are not able to live with their families (due to drug, abuse and other related problems) come to live. Because today was Dia del Estudiante all the kids were at a nearby plaza but I was able to meet the director and talk about what kind of work I would be doing. I’m going to be just helping out, picking up the kids from school, doing activities etc. The director told me that there is also a German guy living there who will be helping out too and another American girl but besides us we’re the only foreigner volunteers but that over the years they’ve had numerous foreigners volunteer with them. I’m really excited for next week when I get to meet all the kids!

All my classes are going pretty well meaning I have very little homework. Right now I have a two week break from my film class at Di Tella in order to study for midterms. At UBA things have been a little bit crazy. The social sciences students have decided to stage a strike demanding that the government remodels one of the buildings and gives more money to the university. The whole thing was set off by an incident in which a huge window pane feel and almost fell on a group of students and injured one student. They are protesting by blockading the classrooms so no one can enter and refusing to attend class. Some classes such as mine, have continued to meet however we’re forced to have class outside of the class room. Two weeks ago I had class outside and last week we blockaded the street and had class in the street. As I said, the COMPLETE opposite of Whitman haha. I have a friend who only has UBA classes and has not had class for almost a month now! I’m not sure if I agree or understand the students’ tactics but apparently they’ve done it before. I guess we’ll see how productive it turns out to be.

Last Friday I woke up nice and early to go on a trip organized by IFSA going kayaking in Tigre. Tigre is a smaller, much calmer city about an hour from BA by train. It is famous for the canals that run through the city (only maybe one or two) and for the Puerta de Frutas which is an old trading port. We went kayaking through a canal through the city and then crossed a channel into an area of the countryside. Along the canals were houses built on stilts. Although we passed numerous boats it was extremely calm and quiet. We ate an adorable little restaurant along the canal and soaked up in the rays. I was in a triple with two other girls and on the way back we really struggled to get there. Our guide Juan kept encouraging us but we just kept complaining about how tired we were and how it was the longest canal ever hah. Saturday I went to a rugby game in San Isidro, a northern part of BA. My neighborhood team Belgrano was playing San Isidro’s team and even though we lost it was really fun watching the game.
The past couple weeks I’ve been eating some really great food. I’ve had a couple great choripans (sausage sandwiches), found a great empanada place and organic place by my house, an actually pretty good Indian place we went for Lauren’s birthday and a place I’m most excited about is a place called Marfa delivery that’s about ten minutes from my house that my blogger friend recommended. It was really cute, had great, cheap soups, sandwiches, salads etc and was playing great hipster music. Definitely my new fav place! Also, I’ve discovered these great drinks that all the hip restaurants serve is a lemonade or grapefruit juice with ginger and mint. Sometimes it’s juice but it also sometimes is kind a slushy texture and it’s always amazing!!! Anyways, I really love writing about food so sorry if this turns into more of a food blog. I’ll write more soon I promise!! Tell me if there’s anything that I don’t talk about that you’d like to hear more about!!

Oh and here's some pictures I stole from someone's facebook!