Fun Outings

Today I finished my last class with Paulina (photo), at least while I’m here in Tucumàn. We are going to have a few short clases over Skype after I get back to MN and see if I want to continue with them every couple weeks.

Last night she invited Beth, Laura (who lives in a duplex apartment with Paulina’s grandma) and I to a farewell dinner. We ate at Costumbres Argentinas. I had a lomito sandwich which consisted of a hoagie bun with lettuce and tomato, then lomito which is a cut of beef similar to a steak, then ham (think bacon) and the top bun. But that’s not all. Over the entire top is a layer of melted motzerella cheese. I had to do some minor surgery on the sandwich since the top bun was soaked in mustard. Yuck! After carefully removing the cheese and bun and then replacing the cheese, it was riquìsimo (very delicious, the best). The other girls spit a napolitana pizza (slices of tomatoe, Italian spices, lots of cheese).

February 4th Ivanna and I returned to visit the Luna family. We talked some, shared some mate, played Scrabble in Spanish, ate delicious ravioli, and talked again until almost midnight. It was nice to have Ivanna with to help me the words I couldn’t think of. They have offered their home to any students from the states who want to come here and study Spanish. Let me know if you’re interested!

Ivanna has 4 final exams this month (from classes that finished in December) that she defered since she had 4 others in December. We took a break Friday night to to out with Lili. We tried 3 boliches (dance clubs) before we found one open. This one, however, had more than 200 people outside in line to get in. We finally went back to where we started, near Lili’s apartment, and went to a bar that had music. It was OK but not nearly as fun as the first time we went out.

On Sunday it finally dawned on me that my time in Tucumàn is almost up. I realized I had a lot left to do. One of the things on my list was to see the museums downtown. Laura, a missionary from Alberta who recently moved here from another province, also hadn’t seen the museums, so we went together yesterday morning. Our first stop was the Casa Historica where independence was declared for all of Argentina on the 9^th of July, 1816. I decided to join the mural depicting the signing of the declaration.

The Casa also has an entire wall covered in bronze plaques from different groups of people commemorating the day of independence (some were from the 100 year celebration).

We tried to go to 3 other museums but they were all closed for renovation. This is the window at the Anthropology Museum. One lady told us many people come here for Easter, so much of the construction is done in the summer. I guess I will have to see them next time I come : )

We WERE able to have a short tour of the Casa de Gobierno (like the capital building) with “Sue,” a tour guide who speaks French and English. We weren’t able to stay long in the Sala Blanca(White Room) because the Minister of Health was giving a talk about dengue in the surrounding countries and doing something before it’s a problem here.

Because we were having such bad luck, we decided to head back to Laura’s apartment and watch El Secreto de Sus Ojos (The Secret of Their Eyes), a wonderful Argentine film. I believe it was the first Argentine film selected to compete for the Grammy Awards. A couple parts are graphic, but the rest is beautifully written and directed.

Tomorrow I will update about my plans for my last week here, trying to completing my goals, and my plans for Chile. So far I know I'm going to El Calafate (about 6 hours from where my cousin is) on Wed. February 23rd and going back to Buenos Aires on the 3rd of March, then to Minnesota (overnight on the 3rd to the 4th). I have yet to plan what I'll do in Pategonia.