La Plaza de Mayo, Cafe Tortoni, and my first Boliche

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The thursday after Tango club i had no class because the tango class took the place of my gay buenos aires class. i still however came to school with susana, hung out and did some research for Salta (we booked 2 nights at a hostel in Salta and 2 nights at hostel in Cafayate). Thursday afternoon we headed to the Plaza de Mayo for another CEA excursion (i love the CEA excursions because theyre already paid for, give me something to look forward to, and i always learn a lot about the city.) we met pamela, one of the directors, at the plaza to watch las madres (mothers) de la plaza de mayo march. it was really powerful to watch these aging women march around the plaza holding up pictures of their missing children. it gave me a lot of insight into the history of the country and the military dictatorship during the 1970s that resulted in the disappearance of 30,000 people. most of the kids were my age and were taken from their families and never seen again because they were assumed to be communists or associated with someone that could be a communist. its crazy that it was only 30 years ago. i cant believe that the mothers still march even when they know that they will probably never see their child again. i dont think that the mothers expect to see their kids again but instead damanding that the government admit what happened to them so that they can have some closure. i also think they march to raise awareness that the disaparecidos (disappeared) were real people, young kids, and also so that something like that will never happen agin.

After watching the mothers march we walked around a beautiful cathedral also in the plaza and then headed to Cafe Tortoni. Tortoni is a historic cafe from the 1860s that was once frequented by famous argentine artists and writers, like Jorge Luis Borges. Ive been dying to go so i was excited it was part of the trip. The inside was beautiful and i got some churros and a very chocolatey hot chocolate. mmmmm. Afterwards we headed home to hang out and get ready for my second night out in Buenos Aires.

my night was interesting, to say the least, i wouldn{t say it was awesome but it was an experience. we went to a bar/pub where i ordered a honey beer for 27 pesos ($6 you would think drinks here would be cheap but they{re not). it was nice to sit and talk with everyone but there were way too many people so when the bill finally came it was a nightmare. there were people that were sitting at the table that left when we got there (friends of friends or something like that). they left money but not enough so that when everyone paid for their drink we were shot $200 pesos ($50). we tried to explain what happened to the waiter but he was not having it. after trying to figure out the bill for 30 mins we decided to leave our money and bounce. lesson learned: don{t go to bars with massive groups of americans and pay for your drink at the bar. afterwards we wandered around looking for a boliche (club) called lost for hiphop night. we finally found it and after namedropping at the entrance got in for free. inside there was some kind of hip hop battle going on so it was really funny to watch ghetto argentines break dance (it would be like if a bunch of white kids in the states dressed ghetto and had a hip hop battle jajaja). i was kind of disappointed that we werent dancing but the battle ended at 230am (yes that late) and then the dancing starting. we started dancing and i was having fun until the guys started getting grabby. its not like they ask you if you want to dance or anything they literally just grab you and think thats ok. well, i wasn{t having it...plus i lost susana and the other girls and spent the next hour trying to find them. finally at 330am i decided to head home with my other roommate. i felt bad but i wanted to leave and susana made it home ok with the other girls. (she said she had fun but i think she had more to drink (the shots were US$5+)than i did and was better at fending off the agressive guys). I think ill have more fun if i go with a smaller group of people and just dance with a bunch of girls.

a lot of people go out all of the time here but i{m not a huge fan for many reasons. 1. its expensive, $6 drinks add up and i would rather spend my money traveling. 2. grabby guys, enough said. 3. the nightlife here goes til 6am and then i waste the whole next day sleeping that i could be enjoying the city. 4. i always have to take a cab back because its not safe to be out that late at night.

hopefully ill have some better nightlife experiences, but i really want to go out in Salta!

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