Woke up early to catch up on emailing and get all my homework done. Headed to school as usual which was fine. After school I tried to call my parents since my phone hasn't been working here, so I went to this payphone business but couldn't reach either of them. Headed over to Zack's and the gym and had a decent workout. All pretty much the usual things.
However today was the largest protest in the history of Argentina. I'm sure I have written somewhere about how people are so fed up with the current government, and today they took to the streets banging pots and pans, waving the flag, and singing and chanting to show it. I've tried to find out how many people came out for it but wasn't able to find a figure. Thousands and thousands and thousands though.
I left the gym around 8 and headed to the subway. At this time of day usually the subway is pretty empty or at least not crowded. Today though it was like trying to take it the other way at rush hour. Jammed pack. Everyone was headed towards Centro where I live for the protests, even though they had begun over an hour ago and already had thousands gathered. As we reached the last few stops on the line, you could feel the energy in the subway cars rising, and a buzz started to fill the air. When we got above ground the buzz became electric. And loud. All the streets were filled with people, young and old, rich and poor. Everyone had noise makers and pots and pans, and trumpets and it was overwhelming both visually and auditorily:
After taking all of it in for a few minutes I laced up the shoes, jumped off from my perch and took to the streets. I was able to buy a flag almost immediately from a street vendor and joined the masses who were slowly snaking from the obelisk to the Plaza de Mayo which is the plaza in front of Casa Rosada and the scene of every revolutionary moment/protest this country has ever had.
On the way I snapped this picture. It is my favorite of all the ones I have taken in this country:
I won't explain why this shot of the street vendor moves me but maybe you will understand when you look at it.
If not, hey thats what is all about. To each his own.
I was supposed meet Kitty and Zack at the theatre for the new James Bond which I am So Excited for! I ended walking all the way to Recoleta from the Obelisk because there were no free cabs. Since most of you haven't been to BA imagine being in New York and not being able to hail a single cab as you walk from Wall Street to Central Park. Their are a million cabs in this city but there were millions of people out and not a single open cab could be found. As soon as one would stop someone would hop in before the other people had finished getting out the other side!
On the way their I got a message from Kitty saying she wasn't going to be able to make it. However when I got there (given, ten minutes late since I walked) Zack wasn't to be seen either. I waited outside for 45 minutes for him. Turns out he bought a ticket and went into the theatre without Kitty or me, a thought that didn't occur to me since another showing started 30 minutes after the one we were schedule to see.
But it wasn't that bad. Directly in front of the theatre was a very small concert taking place on the Recoleta promenade. There were probably only 50 people gathered around these four musicians but they all were wearing their classic Led Zeppelin t-shirts and rocking out hard! The band was a Led cover band!! And they were absolutely phenomenal! I closed my eyes for a song and honestly couldn't tell the difference between this cover and the actual music which I have listened to countless times. They were so good!
Finally after about an hour the concert ended and Zack still wasn't here (or so I thought) so I headed towards my next plan for the night. I had to meet up with a girl from class who had big news to tell me and wanted to go to a bar or cafe. We picked a street corner to meet at and I set off walking. (I probably walked 15 miles today) I got there early and waited... and waited.. and waited. She never came haha. She went to the wrong corner, actually not just the wrong corner, the corner I specifically told her not to go to when she asked. And on top of this we all use wifi to send messages here which of course wasn't on this random corner so we had no way of communicating. Luckily this great guy came up to me and we started talking. Very very interesting man who is a community leader here and speaks zero english so I got to practice as I waited. He wants to meet up tomorrow to give me some guides of the city. Great guy.
I finally gave up and am on my way home when I get a patch of wifi and the txts roll in accusing me of not coming. So I resort to cabbing to her house. She wants to continue with the original plan so we grab another taxi towards Palermo. The cab driver goes in the complete opposite direction but of course she thinks I don't know what I'm talking about so we continue on... almost all the way back to my house. We get out and a minute later "I don't think this is Palermo... and I don't like any of the cafes here" so we grab another cab and backtrack all the way to where we started and then equally as far the opposite way to Palermo. Sit down at a nice outdoor bar and hear the news that I am now in way to bad of a mood to hear. Eventually leave and cab back to her place. After paying for all these unnecessary cabs and drinks I have enough money to get me within a mile of the street the busses run after we drop her off. So a mile walk later and 20 minutes of waiting when I get there I am finally on the bus towards my house.
Great start to the night with the gym and protests, but such a frustrating finish. So thankful for Led Zeppelin and that guy for saving tonight!
Love the blog bro!!!
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