Fun Weekend in Rosario

Last week and weekend were very busy for me. I started my week by going to the "La Paz School." This school is in a poorer neighborhood and is very crowded. The kids however were very cheery and enjoying themselves like young kids do. All of the kids I saw were under 7 years old, but I was told that the school has older students as well. It was fun to see all of these kids laughing and playing and having a good time. Then we were takend aside by one of the school teachers, she explained the situation that most if not all of these kids come from. She described how many had parents who were without jobs and their parents parents didn't have jobs either. She told us that many of the families are disfunctional at best, many kids didn't know their fathers. The kids grow up in a neighborhood where drugs and violence are everyday occurances and some of their families probably abuse drugs as well. It is not a nice situation for these kids. Yet despite all that these kids were happy and playing with their friends. These kids lives are much more dificult than they need to be at such a young age, they did nothing but were just born into a bad situation.

Now on to some more happy subjects. I started the weekend going to a friend of a friends house. It was alot of fun we had pizza and just hung out. This was very similar to a get together in the US and it was fun to relax and chat. So I got home around 2:30 or 3. Then got up at a decent time to get ready for my first professional soccer game. I know what your think, "nick i didnt know you played soccer." Well I dont but the team I watched play soccer did really good!


I went to a Newells Old Boys game. It was Amazing! The fans were die-hards. They were all decked out for the game and were very enthusiastic. They sing throughout the entire 90 minutes of play and when something exciting happens they get very loud. Newells won 3-0 too so that made the game even more fun. And it was really exciting everytime they scored because the crowd would just errupt! There was never really silence but it was like everyone took a breath right before the goal and used all of that breath to cheer right after the goal! It was very cool.

After the game I went home for a bit to try and rest before a big night out on the town. Saturday was my friend Devin's 21st birthday. We helped him celebrate it as it is celebrated in the US. We started the night around 11:30 at a bar/mini-market. It is an odd combination I know so let me explain a little. This store has tables, all kinds of drinks from soda to beer, water to liquor, juice to wine, so pretty much it had everything. They also had chips, and little snack foods. Really this store had just about everything. It was a nice little place, but very very busy! We had probably 15 people with us and there were alot more that were not with us. There wasn't enough seating in the store and so I stood most of the time. The shop was not only full, it was very loud as well which was a result of its size and the number of people crammed in there.

We ended up leaving the bar between 2:30 and 3:00 A.M. At this point we decided on what boliche we were going to go to. We ended up going to "Thomas's" which is a boliche that we have been to before. When we got there the place was packed, as it was the time before as well. We hung out there and did a little dancing. Of course we all had to do a tequila shot with devin for his 21st! This was probably the biggest shot in the world! Instead of having shot glasses at Thomas's they just go ahead and pour out what they think a shot is into a plastic cup. So either shot glasses are bigger in Argentina, the bar tender doesnt know how much a shot is, or the bar tender was just very generous. At any rate I had a great time at the boliche and we ended up leaving when they closed somewhere between 5:30 and 6:00 A.M.

The next day or the same day how ever you want to look at it, I got up at noon and went to the river. All the Simpson students at UCEL were invited to an Asado! It was DELICIOUS! At the Asado I tried something new. It is called morcilla and it is blood sausage. It actually had a very good flavor and I liked it. The texture of the morcilla threw me off a little bit though. It was smooth but kind of gritty at the same time, it looked kind of like refried beans and had a similar texture but with a little more grit. Thats about the best I can do to describe it. It wasn't bad though and it was something that I could have again in small quantities. I dont think its something that you eat in large amounts its more or less something to accompany the other meat.

After enjoying a relaxing asado, a couple of us headed out on a walk. We went down to a local market and shoped for a bit. It was alot of fun looking at all the neat hand made goods. Jim bought a porta-mate which is a bag to carry your mate, yerba, and water or juice in. It is a beautiful hand made leather bag with designs on it. I bought my first gift for family back home at the market as well but I wont go into alot of detail on it.

In all it was a very full and fun week in Rosario. I dont think I had any down time last week at all. It has been hard to keep up to date with emails and facebook and all those other things last week because I have been without internet since wednesday. But I am hoping that I will be getting this back soon. That being said I have to give a big thanks to Jim Palmieri also known as "Jota Pe" for letting me use the internet at his apartment! This has been a big help!

I'm very excited for this week as I hope to be wrapping up plans on a couple more trips around Argentina before my time here is through. I hope to still see Las Cataratas del Iguazu, these are some of the largest waterfalls in the entire world. The chain contains 275 falls and is 2.7 kilometers long! I also want to go to San Carlos de Bariloche also known as just Bariloche. This is one of the most famous cities in Argentina aside from Buenos Aires. It is a big resort town and is in a beautiful location against the Andes in Patagonia. The city is situated alongside a lake and is surrounded by mountains. The pictures from this city are absolutely beautiful and there is a very beautiful cathedral here as well. I encourage everyone to look at pictures of both these places as the pictures are just beautiful, and hopefully i can show you my pictures of these places when I get back!

I hope that all is well with all of my blog followers!

-Nick Wood