Happy belated Saint Patrick's Day to all and a special happy 13th birthday to my Australian shepherd puppy Lilly. Believe it or not, Saint Patrick's Day is a much bigger holiday in Argentina than one would have thought. Apparently it became a popular trend a few years back to party at Irish pubs on the weekends instead of going to the normal techno blasting dance clubs. As a result, a slew of pubs popped up all over the city and for whatever reason there is a high concentration of pubs in the barrio of Retiro. In celebration of the holiday, the city fenced off a 15 block section of the neighborhood for a huge block party open only to pedestrian traffic. Then entire area was surrounded by scary looking riot police but inside the gates there were 40,000 people dressed in green, throwing beer and confetti, singing fútbol songs, getting in fights and having a general good time. Lines to get in to the Irish pubs were hours in wait time so most people walked around the streets with open containers of beer, the police didn't mind at all. It was a very fun time!!
Because it was so incredibly crowded, you can imagine that finding a bathroom would be difficult and waiting in line would take forever. My friend Cat and I went on a mission. I lead the way to a hotel located in the block party and explained to a security guard in Spanish that we were guests at the hotel, we were in. The concierge apologized for the tightened security saying that a lot of women had been coming in asking to use the bathroom (ding ding!). We continued with the small chat and eventually got in the elevator as if we were going to our room. First up to the 5th floor then down to the basement, we used the staff bathroom and then walked out the front door of the hotel telling the concierge we would see him later. Mission accomplished.
Class this week was interesting. I'm trying 9 classes and will drop 4 to take the minimum 5 required by the university. Classes only meet once a week and of my 9 classes, I only had 3 this week. Today the university is closed for a national worker's holiday so there is a big meeting of people at Plaza de Mayo, I'm watching it on the news from the comfort of my living room.
In honor of our day off of school, two of my Dutch friends threw a house warming party last night at their apartment in the barrio of Palermo Hollywood. It was nice to see all the international kids and meet some locals. Around 2am the party moved to a nearby dance club called Ink, 25 of us stayed out dancing under the disco balls and fog machines till 5am.
That's all the news from Buenos Aires for now. I hope everyone reading this is happy and healthy.
Love,
Raquel
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