So this past weekend, ISA had an excursion of all of their Spring programs to Rosario. Picture 150+ students piled into 3 charter buses headed to a city a four hour bus ride away for St. Patrick's Day weekend. Needless to say, I had even debated just staying in the city, especially after my house mom advised me not to go.
Well, I am happy to say that I am very pleased I went- not only was it really cool to see a completely different city to Buenos Aires, but it was almost like ISA paid for my very own vacation. We didn't really have an itinerary, so for the most part all ISA did was provide transportation and the hotel.
I roomed with Kerrie, whom I spent the entire weekend with.
SATURDAY
After getting on the bus at 730 in the morning, I slept most of the bus ride to the city. I say most because a movie started playing at full volume on the bus, which even my headphones couldn't fully tune out. I do have to say though, it was cool watching an Argentine movie and seeing glimpses of the 15 (the bus I take to school every day) and neighborhoods (like Palermo) that I recognized.
We checked into the hotel, where it took Kerrie and I way too long to figure out how to get the lights on (how were we supposed to know that you needed to stick your card in a little slot by the door to work the electricity??) and headed back to the bus to take us to the Che monument.
Rosario in itself is a much more family-friendly city, it seemed. You could actually see horizon, and the city was situated right next to the river, full with people in the many parks. Apparently usually ISA goes to Rosario for its museums, but of course they were on strike the weekend we went so we had nothing to do but "free time in the city".
We were taken to an all-you-can-eat buffet, which as it sounds was at first the greatest thing ever, but then quickly turned into stomach aches and icky feelings. Maybe that's why my stomach's hurt this week.... Anyways. Two hours at this buffet was more than enough for me to vow never to eat food from a place like that again.
We then went to the Flag Monument, which is apparently the only in the country, and it was HUGE. The monument reminded me somewhat of the monuments in Washington DC, which gave me some sort of satisfaction that there was some merit to this excursion. <- I don't mean to sound so negative about it, because I had a wonderful weekend, but it was just amusing to have a weekend excursion where everything but 2-3 hours of the day was "free time."
After, we had lo-and-behold free time, where Kerrie and I wandered the markets by the river. I bought a ring for around 5 dollars and she bought a few souvenirs for boyfriend and sister. Because it was St. Patrick's we bought some beer to take back to the hotel for a night of celebration.
The entirety of ISA had been talking about going to a certain Irish pub, and because Kerrie and I didn't want to go where a hundred (literally) American students were, we researched and found a brewery a few blocks from the hotel. Before the brewery we stopped to get mint ice cream (in theme of the day) where the server flirted shamelessly with Kerrie and even gave her his number on a napkin... And this was after we explained we were leaving the next day and were not going out past dinner that night.
We went for a late dinner/beer, which ended up being green!!!!!! in celebration for the holiday. It was a great atmosphere- everyone knew each other, so inevitably we were approached several times asked where we were from, because we were the only people who didn't seem to have 10s of friends in the bar. A traveling group of costume-clad Irish-jig players/dancers came through the bar, and they played Irish music but with a Latin drum rhythm, which was amazing.
We ended up speaking to one of the performers for a while about studies, Buenos Aires, more than not just Kerrie and I practicing Spanish, and ended up getting free green beers because of it- woohoo!! and also a recommendation for something off the menu from the waitress that ended up being this lamb? stew in a bread bowl that was specially prepared for el Día del San Patricio. Soon enough it was 1am and we decided to call it a night (Abuela came back).
SUNDAY
Sunday morning we were woken up at 9 for breakfast and check out with the program, and ISA bussed us to a beach by the river. For two hours we laid out in the sun, where I read aloud to Kerrie since both of us weren't really feeling the brown river that day. After we took the optional bus back to the city (we had the option to stay for 2 more hours, but I was already feeling fried and wanted to see more of the markets) and browsed through antiques and almost got sold a puppy by a man on a bench... When in Argentina...
Afterwards we met in the park with other ISA-ers and clambered onto the bus back to Bs As. After a slight malfunction of busting a tire, we were finally home in the city. It felt like it was Kerrie's and my personal vacation from the city/school provided by ISA, so overall a great experience.
Thursday we're going to try and go to a zoo where you can apparently hold and play with lions/tigers/bears(oh my)/pumas/etc. so more on that to come!!
Besos :D
I really like your blog and the pictures. Keep 'em coming.
ReplyDeletexo,
Dad