Viva la Revolución!

(L-R around the table: Niko, Tina, Laura, Matias, Ramiro's novia, novia of Tina's cousin, Tina's cousin, brother and fam of Matias' novia, Matias' novia, Ramiro, y yo)

So when Argentines decide to throw a fiesta, there's no holding back. Last Thursday was Ramiro my host-brother's bday, and it was a fiesta fit for the ages. No, no piñatas or anything, but I don't think I've ever seen that much beef on the grill at once. I got to the party late, as I had my UCA public econ lecture. It was another great session - I shared a mate during lecture with all of the other guys sitting near me, and successfully could not understand the extremely important idea brought up at the end of lecture. That part wasn't so great. But Thursday nights definitely are something to look forward to, even if we have to break out the popcorn and marshmellows since it ends so late.

I walked into the dining room to see a good fifteen people sitting around the table eating beef and, surprisingly, salad. No one was eating too much of it, but it was encouraging to see some green stuff around the table. Maybe there is hope to knock Argentina from it's 2nd place spot on the number of heart-problems list. As far as I know, the topic of conversation was yours truly just as I was walking in. They told me that it was somewhat ironic that I was absent due to studies when they thought that I don't study too much. I mean, I only have class four days a week and three of those days include 3 hours or less... I guess when you line that up next to Laura's full 5-day course load that doesn't look too good. I promise, we international relations people do get things done. It just takes time, many handshakes for the cameras and lots of superfluous talking.

Now imagine 15 outspoken Argentines in the same room with several bottles of wine, and you're starting to get the feel of my Thursday night. There was much laughing and arguing as always, with insults flying in between bites of beef. I spent a lot of time just trying to keep up. Eventually there was a great debate on how to pronounce my name. The 'j' sound doesn't translate too well, so really my name is Chake. Me llamo Chake! Me llamo Chake! I poked some fun at Ramiro's english until he pointed out my less-than-world-class spanish skills. Alright fine, you got me. The wine was flowing into the early hours until the fiesta started to wind down around 2am. Or so I thought. I guess in this country bringing a party to a close means 'let's open another bottle!' So about 5 of us pressed on until about 3:30am, and then decided to call it quits. All in all it was a great night- Feliz cumpleaños, Ramiro!

I would say that I have class tomorrow as usual at UBA, but students have successfully taken over my facultad and put some riot fencing in the door so absolutely no one can get in (http://bit.ly/8X9WiS - it's in spanish, but I'm sure google will lend a hand). They're protesting some sort of money issue, which seems kind of redundant since the school is free for everyone. My TA sent out an email saying that lecture would take the place of recitation on Tuesday, as if this were incredibly normal. I think, to be honest, it is. If students took over Penn though, I think Penn parents would put an end to it before the school does - 'I'm paying how much money for you to do what?!' So class is now indefinitely postponed. I've got my fingers crossed that they don't start a 21st century Red Terror; maybe they should hire us International Security students to defuse the situation. I'll get the talks about the possibility of multilateral talks started, after the photoshoot of course.