A Day with the Dead

On Sunday I went and toured the famous cemetery in my neighborhood (Cementerio de la Recoleta) with a few friends. I know that that may sound weird, to go to a cemetery (well not to my family, who apparently does it all the time), but this one was actually really cool. Some of the tombs were the sizes of mini houses and mini churches. There were some pretty ornate tombs as well. The cemetery felt like it was it’s own city. I thought all the isles needed to have street names or some kind of labels. I wish I could have gotten an aerial view of the cemetery. That would have been really cool too see it from above.

After the cemetery, we went to the Recoleta market. There was a live band playing reggae music. It was interesting to hear reggae music in Spanish, it was a nice little twist. The first time I went to the market, there was a guy selling hand made, ceramic mugs, plates, and candle holders that had a burned leaf design on the sides. I thought it was really cool, but didn’t buy it. Since then I have been thinking about his work non-stop, so I bought a candleholder this Sunday and can’t wait to use it!

On our way home, we had the pleasure of watching two mimes take over an entire intersection of a busy road. I’ve never seen a mime perform before, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching these two guys for about twenty minutes. They were pretty funny, and would single people out and interact with the cars, taxis, and buses passing by. Surprisingly, none of the cars honked at the two guys.

This week for my Spanish class our teacher is the same teacher as the one we had my first week (my favorite!), so it’s been going soooooooo well!

Usually I have been volunteering everyday, but made the decision to take Wednesdays off. Wednesdays are the birthday days. The kids are always wild and so much is going on all at once, and it was just too much to handle ha. Instead of volunteering, I’m going to be exploring Buenos Aires more. This Wednesday, my friend and I went to the Evita Museum. Evita was this incredible woman who did so much for Argentina (google her if you don’t know who she is). In school I never really learned about that many famous women, so it’s nice to see that a woman can do some pretty amazing things too. She helped the poor and played a big part in women’s rights to vote. She started out as an actress/model and turned into a role model the whole country could look up too. It was a small museum, but it was really interesting to learn more about her and all the wonderful things she did.

Wednesday night I watched an Argentine movie called El Secreto de Sus Ojos (The Secret in Their Eyes). It came out in 2009 and won an Oscar. It was really good! I would definitely recommend watching it (even to those who don’t like reading subtitles while watching movies cough cough Jason cough). It is a murder mystery that has a really interesting twist at the end.

Let me know if you’ve seen it or watch it!

Unitl Next Time,
Liz