We got on a bus early Saturday morning and drove to Gualeguaychú. Since Carnaval doesn't start until nighttime, the bus could take us to either the beach or a pool area where we would spend the day, and then the bus would pick us up to take us to Carnaval. We chose the pool because we had heard that the water at the beach isn't clean and it's not very good for swimming. (Gualeguaychú is on a river that's borders Argentina and Uruguay. My host parents explained to me that there are "papeleras," paper factories, in Uruguay next to the river that are contaminating the water and a lot of Argentines are upset about it. When we were there, we saw people with signs protesting the papeleras.) Anyway, we spent the entire day by the pool sunbathing and relaxing.
That night we were taken to the stadium for Carnaval. I really had no idea what to expect. At the Carnaval here, it was like a show where you have assigned seats and watch what's going on. It was kind of like being at a sports game because you have a seat but people are making tons of noise and you can leave the stadium to buy food/beer/souveniers. The "show" started at 11pm and did not end until 4am, and by "show," I mean a giant parade. It was basically one gigantic parade with over-the-top floats and people in outrageous costumes dancing. It was really fun and exciting for the first two or three hours, but after that it got a little old. They also played the same four songs on repeat which were super catchy and fun to sing along with/dance to, but after five hours of hearing the same songs over and over again, it got to be a little much. Plus, most of us had gotten 3-4 hours of sleep the night before, since we left so early, and by 3am were having trouble staying awake. However, it was definitely an experience and unlike anything I had ever seen. We got back to BA at 8am when I promptly went home and slept for the rest of the morning/early afternoon. Here are some pictures!
Of course, since my semester abroad can't be all about going off to Carnaval for a weekend and eating great steak, I thought I'd update a little bit on classes. There's not much to say yet since classes haven't really started. With the program I'm on, I can take classes at four different universities and each one starts classes at different times. Although we will be taking 4-5 classes, the program encourages you to register for as much as 15 classes so you have room to choose ones you like. Only one of the universities I want to take classes at has had registration so far and they start classes this week, so I'll have my first class on Thursday. The class is Latin American Contemporary Art and it's one of their classes meant for foreign students, but will still be in Spanish. The rest of the universities start class in a week or two and then I have a while to decide which of those classes I actually want to take. Realistically, I may not know my official schedule until 3-4 weeks from now.
The third part of this post is about movies. Today, I went to the movies with Michelle, a friend from my program, and we went to see "El Secreto de Sus Ojos," a popular Argentine film that I think is nominated for Best Foreign Film. In fact, as I type this post, I am watching the Oscars. The movie was a drama/thriller and I'm sure was really good, but to be honest, it was pretty difficult to understand what they wer saying. I was able to catch words/sentences here and there, but for the most part I figured out the plot using means other than listening to the words. Nevertheless, it was good practice for my comprehension and it was fun going to see a movie that's so popular here. As I said earlier, right now I'm watching the Oscars, or should I say, "Los Premios Oscar," and it's dubbed in Spanish. I assumed that the Oscars would be shown with Spanish subtitles, but they actually have a Spanish language track on top of the English. It's pretty funny seeing people like Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey onstage speaking Spanish. Honestly, I'm doing my best to tune out the Spanish and listen to the English underneath.
