A little history, a little culture.

Our class took a field trip to El Parque Memorial, which is a tribute to the 300,000 people who disappeared during Argentina's Guerra Sucia (dirty war).  In short, between 1976 and 1863 a military government seized control of Argentina, and created a regime which forcibly suppressed dissidents.  These political activists were stolen from their homes and were never heard from again which is why they are referred to as "disappeared" because they cannot be classified as either living or dead.  Many were held in detainment camps while they were tortured and killed for the names of more revolutionaries.  Military planes also flew victims of this awful regime out over the ocean and dropped them out of the sky.  Anyway, the park was created as a memorial to all the disappeared and it includes a black wall with placards for all those who are missing, written next to many of the names is the word "embarazada" or pregnant.  Many of these babies born in the camps were secretly given to military families, and now Argentina and Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo are making an effort to relocate these individuals and reunite them with their biological families.  Their biological parents are still missing.  The youngest placard I read was for a 10 month old girl.  

one of the monuments in the park: pensar es un hecho revolucionario...to think is a revolutionary act

Cannot begin to explain how amazing of a afternoon I had on Friday though.  I convinced my friend Lindsey to take a two hour bus ride with me to this small zoo called Luján outside of Buenos Aires after class.  We found ourselves dropped off at a bus station in the middle of nowhere, so we followed the arrows and found ourselves standing at the gates of this zoo.  Upon walking in, we were literally handed a six week old tiger.  Literally the most adorable thing (sorry Beau!) that I have ever seen and we got to play around with her for a good hour or so.  We finally pried ourselves away and walked through the rest of the park, closely followed by a rather large pack of sheep.  Walking past the puma's enclosure, the zookeeper opened the gate and ushered us both in, handed us a bottle of milk and had us squirt it into our hands so the puma could lick it off.  There was only one moment of nervousness as the puma decided my leg looked tastier and wrapped his mouth around my calf-he didn't bite though!  Apparently, this zoo has found a way to eliminate a lot of the aggression found in big cats and other animals.  When they are born, they make sure each cub has equal access to it's mother's milk so that there is no need to compete for food.  Vocal commands are also used to help the animals distinguish between food and the hand that is holding the food.  All the years this zoo has been open they have never had an incident or injury.  Following the pumas, we took a camel ride, went to see my old friends the elephants, and then went and hung out with Simba for a while. Simba's teeth = massive.  Strangely though I felt no fear as he was licking milk out of my palm.  Maybe that's an indication that there's something wrong with me!  All in all, the best day.

St. Patty's Day.  Apparently Buenos Aires has one of the largest Irish populations outside of Ireland, i guess that's where all the red headed Porteños come from....? Keeley, Alanna, Anabel an I went to the Isenbeck beer festival at 1pm only to discover that the celebrations didn't start until 8pm, so we had no choice but to find the closest Irish pub and to start the festivities on our own! Shortly after our arrival, the place became flooded with Americans and the crazyness began.  I even ran into my roommate from home in the middle of this pub! At 7pm we headed over to the parade, which turned out to be about 5 people with bagpipes (which are scottish, not irish...).  Nothing too crazy, have to be honest I was expecting a little more from all the Irish Argentines! After the five person parade we decided to head back to the beer festival which was awesome! It was held in this open air events area and they had strung up hundreds of lights.  There were tons of different colored rooms with bars in each room and the best- a silent rave.  You walk in and they hand you a pair of headphones which have three to four different DJ stations.  Everyone is jamming out to their own music...the best part is when you take off your own headphones and you are standing in a completely silent room while everyone is dancing to their own rhythms and singing along to American songs that they don't know the words too! Epic.  

keeley and her headphones rocking out

On Sunday, Keeley, Alanna and I went to every single market in Buenos Aires while visiting all the areas we haven't had time to explore in the time we've been here: Recoleta, San Telmo, Boca, Puerto Madero.  Never have I been tempted to buy so many things! I did pick up a ring made with rhodocrosite which is a pinkish stone that is only found in Argentina. Apparently the Incas believed that rhodocrosite is the blood of their former rulers turned to stone, so sometimes its called Inca Rose. Nevertheless, very cool.  Can't believe we only have another week and half in Argentina, then all us multi-country kids head to Peru for the second half of our trip.  Keeley and I are off to Uruguay this weekend though for some sun, sand, and surf!