Saturday, March 17th, 2012
While I totally failed to make it out for an evening of
debauchery, the three people I was planning on meeting up with more than made
up for my absence. So much so that they were actually absent when our bus to
Rosario was leaving. Whoops! Somehow they’d all dismantled their
alarms…Suddenly I was glad that I ended up staying home
As they trudged to Retiro to get on the next bus to Rosario,
we were well on our way. During the trip we watched El Secreto de Sus Ojos and Nueve
Reinas—both spectacular displays of Argentine cinema. The former is an
intense memoir of solving the rape/homicide case that defined the lives and
careers of all characters. While it is somewhat psychologically grueling, it’s
a must see. It was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars several years
ago and is highly regarded everywhere, especially in Argentina. The latter is a
movie I’d watched with my host family before and this too is a great showcase
of Argentina. Primarily because it’s focused upon thieves, scams, lunfardo and
of course, Ricardo Darín
(is there an Argentine movie he’s not
in?!).
After a short trip, we arrived in Rosario to our luxurious
(I’m being facetious) all you can eat lunch at an international buffet. I was
seriously convinced I was back in Korea, because we ate at the exact same kind
of place there and like always with buffets, you think there’s a lot of
delicious food, but really, there’s just infinite disappointing choices. I kept
my place to mostly vegetables but caved in to a crepe.
While waiting in line for a crepe, I recognized the girl in
front of me from when I was trying to register in a translation course with
Argentines (clearly to no avail) and decided to ask how she’d fared with it.
Being that the crepe line was long, this led to a full blown conversation where
we realized that we’d like to spend more time hanging out because we shared a
lot of the same desires as to what we wanted to do in Argentina, as well as the
same frustrations. And voila, a friend was made.
For most of my life, it seems that the most significant
people are those that I happen to begin friendships with haphazardly—a chance
trip to the dumpster at the same time, a conversation on the street corner of
San Juan and Defensa or the recognition that we both felt uncomfortable at our
first collegiate party…Sometimes you don’t realize it at the moment, or when
you are good friends you can barely remember what happened exactly that brought
you to where you are today, but you never know when that moment could be an
important moment. It’s strange how your life can change based on where you were
standing or what you happened to be doing at 11:38 pm on August 10th,
2010. I’ll never get over this idea.
But I digress…
We returned to check into our hotel and my darling Angela
was sitting in the lobby looking at me in that calm, confused, amused, almost
pissed off way she does. We haven’t been friends for that long, but already I’m
getting used to her expressions.
One quick shower later and we were back on the bus to head
to the national flag monument which happens to be the largest monument to a
flag in the world. I must say it rightfully earns this title. Photos will show
you what I lack the verbage to say…
Rosario also happens to be known for its ice cream (can we
just say that Argentina in general is known for beef, wine and now ice cream?).
So after we admired the flag monument we satisfied the urge, although I was
disappointed because the ice cream was a little less Argentine and a little
more U.S.-y (I can’t say American because everyone in this continent is also
American). We continued down Córdoba looking at all the stores and street
vendors. Nothing really struck my fancy until we came upon a Tango sextet doing
a life performance. It’s not that I love to tango or that I even like the
music, it’s just simply a lovely sound that I frequently hear echoing through
the streets of Argentina and this group was incredible. Olivia, Angela and I
shelled out $5 pesos each to buy the CD so that we could have a souvenir from
not just Rosario, but from Argentina in general.
Time kept passing and on our walk we encountered something
exquisite—a sudden park (Rosario is full of these). But not only was it a
beautiful park complete with several statues and a fountain, but it was covered
in origami butterflies. There was no explanation as to why they were there or
what they meant, but the total vision of all the folded butterflies was
spectacular. Granted I’m an origami fan, but can you really say you’ve stumbled
upon a park covered in it?
I gotta learn how to fold butterflies…
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