Buenos Aires in a Day

3/11/10: Buenos Aires, Argentina

Only one full day in Buenos Aires, and what did we do?

We went to a cemetery.

What? What would you have done?

La Recoleta Cemetery, where rich and famous Argentinians are buried.

I thought that walking around all those dead people would feel creepy, or at the least, a bit uncomfortable, but I was pleasantly surprised by how – well – pleasant it was to walk around.

The cats contribute to the peaceful atmosphere.

A peek into one of the mausoleums.

There's no other reason for this picture being on the blog except that I like it.

We spent a good half hour wandering around the cemetery looking for Evita (found her eventually) and the three amigos. I have no clue who the three amigos were, but I’m pretty sure none of them looked like Steve Martin.

We also visited the Plaza de Mayo, where we saw the weekly Mothers’ March. The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo are an association of mothers whose children were abducted by agents of the Argentine government in the late 1970′s, early 1980′s. The mothers come every Thursday around 4pm to the Plaza de Mayo, where they read the names of all the children that were taken and march around the square.

Reading of the names.

The names of the children are also embroidered onto the mothers' headscarves.

It was a really solemn experience to see all the women together with their white headscarves and especially heartbreaking to listen to the list of names go on and on. I can’t imagine how it must feel for the mothers to come to the Plaza every week, knowing that no matter what they do, they probably will never see their children again. It was a privilege to see them.

_____________________________________________

Picture of the Day: Kevin just can’t seem to stop climbing trees.

Read Full Post »

No Hablo Espanol… Until Now

3/10/10: Buenos Aires, Argentina

“Me puede avisar cuando lleguemos a Plaza de Mayo?
May… pway-day… avee-sar… quan-doh… yay-gay-mos… ah… Plaza day Mai-oh?
May pway-day avee-sar quan-doh yay-gay-mos ah Plaza day Mai-oh?”

Ok, that’s not too bad. I got this. First is when you receive your salary during the fifth month of the year. Then it’s the James Cameron blockbuster. Then it turns Chinese for a second, and I can remember the rest. The bus driver will surely understand that I’m asking him to tell us when we get to Plaza de Mayo.

We stepped on the bus at the airport and I readied myself for my big moment. Zhou moved past the driver so I had his sole attention. It was go time. “Hola! Me puede avisar cuando lleguemos a Plaza de Mayo?” Booyah! It went off without a hitch. Now all the driver had to do was nod or say “Si” or give me a high five or something and Zhou and I could sit back, relax and enjoy the ride.

Oh no! He’s talking back to me in full sentence form. Is he asking me a question? Is he telling me that he’ll do it but we won’t be there for a while? Good, he stopped. Oh, wait, now he’s talking again! I need to run.

I began nodding my head and I think I uttered a “Gracias” and maybe a “Buenos dias.” Heck, I was so caught off guard that I probably even threw in a “Dui bu qi” or a “Xie xie.” Fortunately my momentum was now taking me to a seat and away from the driver. I decided to assume that the Spanish for “Sure, no problem” is really complicated and takes a long time to say.

Wait, what if he really said “You fools are on the wrong bus. I plan on driving around in circles all day and you will never get to your stop. Bwa ha ha ha.”? He did look like a Super Mario fan after all. But it was too late now. We sat nervously and waited. And waited. And waited.

An hour and a half later, we were still on the bus. Fortunately, our driver had gotten off a long time ago and we agreed that he must have been explaining to us that he wasn’t driving all the way there. (Don’t worry, another driver had taken over; we weren’t just recklessly speeding down the freeway.) Also, we had the Buenos Aires map up on Zhou’s ipod and luckily figured out where we were. After another half hour the bus had turned too far off the path to Plaza de Mayo for our comfort, so we decided to hop off and walk to the nearest subway station. 30 minutes later, we had safely reached our hostel.

More importantly though, I am now batting 100% when it comes to speaking Spanish. I think.
_____________________________________________

Picture of the Day: Everybody wants to smell like Kevin.

Read Full Post »