The parks in this city are easily some of my favorite places. The people you meet, the things you see; I know I've said it before, but if you want to get to know a city, go to the parks. Last Friday I met up with some friends to toss a frisbee around, and we did it in the only open space we could find in the park we went to- a hard-top volleyball court. We weren't bothered for at least an hour, but eventually some guys showed up wanting to use the court to play. We said fine; we were reasonably tired as it was. We got to chatting with these sub 6ft. volleyball players, and stayed to watch them play. Now volleyball is a generous definition of what we watched. What it really was was a method to figure out who buys the beer for the night. Guys were playing with cigarettes hanging out of their mouths and basically just throwing the ball back and forth over the net as opposed to hitting it. Add to the fact that each team tried to cheat the other in typical Argentine-sports-fashion, and you've got an extremely entertaining match. We were going to jump in and play but judging by how long the first game was taking we wouldn't have gotten into a game until midnight.
It's a good thing that I didn't play volleyball until midnight, as I had some very serious work to do the next afternoon. I found my way with some friends to the Gran Premio del Bicentenario, the grand daddy of Argentine horse races- the Kentucky Derby of Argentina, if you will. It wasn't as flashy or as much of a big-time event as its counterpart in the northern hemisphere, and no one dresses up pretty much at all, but it was still a great time. The hard-core betters reading their magazines that take a PhD to understand were out in force amongst a few thousand casual fans like us. We watched 5 races or so, and placed some bets of course. If you ever want to pick the 4th place horse in a race, drop me a note because I'm extremely good at it. I picked the 4th place horse 4 out of 5 times - needless to say I didn't come out ahead on the day. However, hearing the rapid-fire race announcer relaying the race combined with the intense, quasi-throw-your-program-at-the-track crowd cheering on their horses was pretty comical and made up for any lack of luck. Spanish is a passionate language, but that crowd took it to a whole other level.
It wound up being a tight race - although not a photo finish, but close enough to make it interesting. We had a great view of the awards area, and as soon as the winner crossed the finish line there was the owner jumping around as happy as can be. It was really pretty cool to see a major horse race - I definitely want to get to the Kentucky Derby eventually. We watched one more race after the awards ceremony in which about 50 trophies were handed out before calling it good.
That night I headed out to La Noche de los Museos with Laura and some of her friends. This is an event put on by the city that really every city should do- for one night, just about every museum in the city has free entry. As we're in Argentina, when I say for one night I mean until 3am (officially, but there were still lines out the door beyond 3). The buses provide free service as well for the night - all in all a great deal, and the city really took advantage of it.
After getting home as daylight started creeping across the sky, the next day saw me put the finishing touches on an essay (yes I do do work) before leaving to go watch Matias my host-brother perform in a play. It was a play targeting children, as it was a comedy based on the traditional prince-princess plot with the usual jester and evil magician. He and the other two actors got the crowd involved, and it was a great atmosphere and from what I could tell a hit. The theater itself was stark but still had a lot of character- it was a one-room place with a stage, walls covered with locals' art and open space filled with plastic chairs for seating. Not quite Carnegie, but no matter - a stage is a stage, and I (and the rest of the crowd) thought Matias did really well as good ol' Prince Charming. Next up for the future oscar-winner is a part in a movie (his first) with apparently a reasonably famous french actress. His career seems to be off to a good start!
As for my career picking the right horse, I'm in a serious slump and there's no end in sight. Jake Plummer took up handball - maybe I'll give volleyball a try.
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