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| El Puente de la Mujer |
Many of the groups learned today (or earlier this week) about mate, a very popular drink in Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. Mate is not just any herbal tea... It is a cultural tradition that is much more about socializing than it is about drinking tea! I learned very quickly today about all of the rituals that go along with drinking mate, all of which I did incorrectly. However, with much instruction from our wonderful teacher Cesar, we learned how one person "serves" the mate, how each person drinks the entire cup before passing it back to the server to refill with hot water, and how there are different meanings associated with with the position of the straw! We had no idea there was so much involved in drinking mate!
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| Las Abuelas marching in the Plaza de Mayo |
After class, we separated into our small groups to visit different places of the city. Some groups headed to the museum, others to parks, but our group decided to venture into the center of Buenos Aires. We first went to Puerto Madero, the newest district of the city, and walked across the Puente de la Mujer, designed by the famous Santiago Calatrava. We also visited the Plaza de Mayo (the historical and cultural center of the city) just in time to see the Abuelas de los Desaparecidos march around the plaza, which they do every Thursday to commemorate and ask for justice for the disappearance of their sons and grandsons in the Dirty War of Argentina.
Each group gets to tour these and many other important places in Buenos Aires on their own--look for news about places other groups have visited soon!
Hasta manana!
-Erin
You made me curious to go look up history on the Dirty War!
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