Folklórico, Familia, y Ferias

The past two days have been very light on orientation, so I've been out exploring the city and getting to know my host family better.

I mentioned in the last post that my host mom took me to the Ballet Folklorico last night. Many people focus only on the tango as the national dance of Argentina, but in reality there are many traditional dances that date long before the tango was born. The show also had two magicians and one very passionate singer (there was crying involved as he explained the themes of each song). After the show, though, I learned that the reason my host mom had wanted to go was that she used to coordinate the show but hadn't been reelected to be the leader, so she was comparing the quality of the shows (apparently there were unforgivable problems with the font size in the program).

This afternoon I had my introduction to the entirety of my extended host family at a bienvenidos lunch. I had already met two sisters, a cousin, and an aunt. Today I met a grandfather, grandmother, another aunt, and another cousin. I have one more cousin, a brother, and sister to meet until I've met the whole family. The whole family gets together for meals frequently and they are hilarious when they're together (that is, what I can understand). But my "grandfather" has a rule that you aren't allowed to eat one of anything, it has to always be two. This meant that as soon as I finished a roll he put another one on my plate, etc. I don't understand how the Argentines all stay so skinny!

Later in the afternoon I met up with some friends to explore La Feria de San Telmo. Every Sunday there is a street fair throughout the barrio. We didn't make it all the way through, but from what I could see, it must have been at least 30 blocks long, and packed with leather, scarves, and mate bowl vendors. From there we visited La Puente de la Mujer ("Women's Point"), which is a very modern looking bridge over El Rio de la Plata. The point is a representation of a couple dancing the tango. It was a beautiful evening walk!