Last week: On Monday, we showed up to Spanish class at UBA and our teacher was not there. After about 15-20 minutes, she came in and informed us that all of the teachers were on strike! The teachers, already underpaid, were promised a raise and only ended up getting a 4% raise. Monday was also the first for registering for language classes at UBA, so they decided to go on strike. However, even though we take classes at UBA, we are not directly enrolled there, so we will continue to have our classes. Anyway, since our teacher wasn't able to teach that day, we had the opportunity to interview students as well as teachers about the strike. An Argentine student told me that she agreed that the teachers should get a higher raise but she didn't find the strike to be surprising because they happen so frequently in Argentina. I thought that was interesting because back at home, it seems like there is a lot of media coverage when a group goes on strike.
In our History class, we just learned about the Process, or National Reorganization Process (1976-1983), in which the militaristic government attempted to eliminate those against the dictatorship, particularly left-wing revolutionaries and liberals. The government kidnapped, tortured, and killed thousands of their own people in illegal detention centers around the country. On Wednesday, we were split into groups and my group visited Olimpo, a detention center located in Buenos Aires, in the middle of a neighborhood. We watched a video there about the history of the place and were also given a tour. It's hard to believe that the government used that facility during the dictatorship and it was right in the middle of the city, let alone a neighborhood. Olimpo was only open for about 8-9 months and during that time, about 500 people "disappeared." Also, the government destroyed all of the cells and any evidence that it had been a detention center. It was a lot to take in, but I am glad I was able to visit Olimpo because it showed me a different side of Argentina's history and that it literally happened in public space. Below is a map showing detention centers scattered across Argentina. They are all in yellow and this map only shows about half of them.
After visiting Olimpo, I grabbed lunch with some friends at a cafe near our school- all of us were wiped out from the afternoon and starving. I was really in the mood for chorizo, which is an excellent sausage. I ordered "bife de chorizo," as did two other girls. Well. . . when we got our plates, we learned that that "chorizo" and "bife de chorizo" are definitely NOT the same thing. We got a huge slab of steak, which the three of us could have split! It was tasty, but I mean, who wants to eat a whole cow for lunch? Needless to say, I did not want anything to eat for dinner that night. (The picture below is what we ended up getting!)
On Friday, I had a lot of class- three hours of Spanish in the morning and then my history class for two hours (in Spanish). I was drained at the end of the day and some friends wanted to go out later, so I took a nice, two hour nap after school. I think that nap was one of the best decisions I made that week. A friend and I met up with about 8 other kids from our program at a bar and we hung out there for awhile. It was fun and then later, we headed to a boliche (dance club) for the remainder of the night. It was so fun; they played some weird techno music as well as American songs. I was back home and in bed by like 4:30 and my host brother told me that I came home early...I guess I'm an old lady to them!
Funny side story:
Boliche means dance club. Bariloche is a region of Patagonia. I have said countless times, "I want to check out a bariloche!" Oh, and I did say this to one of my host brothers. . . ah! After class last week, a friend came up to me and said, "Abbey, I now know the difference between a 'boliche' and 'Bariloche' " I have never laughed so hard and it was comforting to know that others have mixed up those two words!
On Saturday, I went to Tigre with three friends and one of their host Moms. Tigre is a very touristy town, about 6o minutes north of BA. We took the train, which cost a hefty $1.10 (roughly 30 cents). We walked around town for most of the day, checked out a museum, and also took a boat tour on the river. Tigre kind of reminded me of a very touristy town in Florida- lots of shops, restaurants, and people walking around. It was great to get away from the city and get some fresh air, too. Great weekend! A few pictures from Tigre:
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