Flag Day and so much more

When Thursday came around, it seemed everyone was fighting
exhaustion, but we all rallied to enjoy a busy day. It began with the
Flag Day celebration at Colegio del Salvador, which was an amazing
display of patriotism in which the students gathered in a large and
beautiful building in the front of the school, sang patriotic songs,
prayed, as we often do for every large gathering at BC High, and
listened to a speech from the leader of the school, after a long
procession of students proudly carrying Argentinian flags. In this
ceremony, we were also given a special mention in the speech, along
with the students visiting from Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles.
After this celebration, with time to spare, we headed to Starbucks to
enjoy some coffee, though it still did not compare to that of Dunkin
Donuts, and we proceeded to a community center in which senior
citizens were very excited to help teach us how to dance an
Argentinian style folklore dance. With them, we danced and clapped
along to music that was performed right in front of us by teachers
from the Colegio. This was quite a great experience, in which we were
able to perform community service and reflect the ideals that our
school values, and have fun while trying something new and different.
After THAT, we visited the Fondo Antiguo, an archive that holds some
of the oldest documents for the Jesuits. We learned of many very cool
devices that were brought in from Italy to help clean and refine
documents and books so that they may go into the archive, and learned
that this archive was owned by the Jesuits and holds books that are
centuries old, but is also a resource center for schools and people
seeking information. Later that evening, after a heated football match
between Uruguay and the UK, we returned to the school to meet with
other exchange students from Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. and
their host brothers so that we could get to know them better, and were
served a surplus of amazing Argentinian foods such as alfajores while
several musically talented students from Colegio del Salvador played
guitars and sang. The evening concluded, of course, with several
matches of fútbol outside of the cafeteria.
    The weekend was a long weekend due to Friday being Argentina's Flag
Day, and almost everyone went away to either their brother's farm,
beach house, or somewhere else outside of the city. This was a great
way to see the other parts of Argentina as some people had car rides
up to 6 hours long! Some of us were able to return in time to watch
the United States tie Portugal with an unfortunate last second goal by
Portugal at Mateo's house. This was a tough way to end a wonderful
weekend.
    We shook of the loss on Monday and went to classes in the morning
where we learned about the differences between the Castilian vos form
and they traditional tú form we were taught at BC High. Then we went
to classes with our host brothers and many of us were in a logic class
that included both the economic and political sections so there was
really no dull moment during that class. Some of us then went home or
waited around school for the tango lessons that were put off
originally due to the beginning of the World Cup. The lessons were
taught by a familiar face, as the woman who accompanied us to the
elderly home was the teacher. We relearned some stuff that she told us
at the elderly home but we also learned even more tango moves as well.
Everybody was a good sport and we had a great time.
    We continued going to classes early Tuesday morning where we watched
a movie that showed an exaggerated effects of the 2001 economic
collapse in Argentina. After this interesting movie we went to
Universidad Del Salvador where we had more breakfast with the students
of Colegio Del Salvador who were taking a tour there. We then went to
an auditorium where we learned about their study abroad programs and
the experiences of various students from Argentina, such as one that
attended Holy Cross for a semester, and those from the United States
that are studying at Salvador for a semester. After the very
interesting information session they gave us bags of Universidad de
Salvador stuff and we went back to the school. When we got back to
school we had lunch then played soccer until the boys finished their
written driving test, and we called it a day.