I went to Rosario two weekends ago. Rosario is just a smaller city slightly north of Buenos Aires. It was fun, but nothing spectacular. Is where El Che was born, so I can now say I’ve been to the cities where Che was born and died (in Santa Cruz, Bolivia) Rosario is also where there’s a giant monument to the flag that looks like the coliseum that I didn’t even know was there. There’s also the stock market where they trade all commodities. I went out both nights I was there and ended up sleeping so late that I actually never saw the city during the day. Getting back to Bs. As. was a little complicated because the road that we were supposed to take was closed due to low visibility caused by all the smoke from the fires in the farm fields. The bus took a different, longer route that was also covered in smoke. At about midnight the bus driver pulled over at a gas station and told everyone that we were going to have to stay the night. After about an hour he changed his mind and we kept going, but had do drive at a snail’s pase. Instead of getting back at 8pm we got back at 2am.
I went out a couple of nights ago (in Bs. As.), the night before a holiday here, and it ended up being one of the craziest nights. It started normal, had a drink at a bar. Then two friends of a friend showed up and it turns out they are practically millionaires. One of them paid the $100 bill for all the drinks (which here is a small fortune) and refused to let anyone contribute. Then that same guy took us all to a party in Recoleta in his brand new Mercedes that was so new that it still smelt like crayons (like all new cars do). Everyone at the party was rich; I got to talking to a guy that owns a vineyard in Mendoza. It was insane. I woke up the next day at 2:30 pm and had a “is this really my life” moment. I spent the rest of my holiday with Carolina. We ate pastry in the plaza and went to the book fair, which is a huge event here.
I almost wish I could stay here another semester. I ended up doing embarrassingly well on my exam, and I now realize that no one is really trying hard in class, except for me. There is absolutely no sense of competition like in the US. The professor called out the grades out loud and no one was ashamed of not doing well. In some ways I do look forward to getting back to my real life, where I can identify with everyone, and where I just can live on automatic pilot instead of having to investigate how to go about the most mundane tasks. But I know as soon as I get back I’m going to miss it here.
