Don't cry for me Argentina

On Wednesday, our adventure in Iguazu truly began with an

adventure-packed day. It started with a trip to the falls, which from

our view along the land looked absolutely breathtaking. After a walk

around attempting to see every waterfall along the Argentinian side of

Iguazu, we jumped on what looked like a duckboat that took us through

the jungle that was contained within the Iguazu national park. We

learned many interesting facts about the plants and wildlife, and got

up close and personal with some coatis, little scavenging raccoon-like

animals that boldly approached people in search of food. From that

ride, we hopped on a real boat, and sped up the Iguazu River. In that

boat, we approached the falls, enjoyed the view, took some pictures,

and eventually got drenched while riding almost directly under one of

the waterfalls. Our adventure continued after everyone eagerly changed

out of their sodden clothing, and we took off in yet another bus into

the jungle, and partook in some adventurous activities including

repelling down a cliff and taking a long zip line ride through the

trees. To conclude this day, we all gathered outside the hotel by the

pool for ice cream to celebrate Will Elliott's birthday.

Thursday was again a very busy day as we began with another great

breakfast and took off in our van with Julio, our tour guide. Our

first stop was about an hour away from our hotel and it was the Wanda

Mines. Here we learned all about how diamonds formed and we were able

to enter into a mine and view diamonds still in the cave that have not

been taken out yet. After our tour we were able to go to the shop

where they sold all different types of jewelry and stones. We then

took another long bus ride to a matte factory where we saw the entire

process of how matte is made. This tour was extremely interesting as

we were literally were able to reach into some of the machines and

take out the leaves. There is really no middle on people's stance on

matte, it's either you love it and can't get enough of it, or you

can't even handle the smell at the factory. After this tour we made

our main stop of the day, the ruins of San Ignacio. First we visited a

small interesting museum where we began to get an idea of the

relations and the events that occurred here. Then we began our tour

with a wonderful tour guide who made everything he said very clear in

Spanish and was one of the best tours we had. We went to the various

large pieces of ruins that used to be the home of Guarani Indians and

Jesuits. This tour told us all about how the two cultures were able to

adjust to each other and the impact is has had up to today. One of the

most interesting things that I found was how the Guarani and Europeans

were able to communicate even though they spoke two completely

different languages. When the tour ended we were able to see many

artisan goods that were made by the Guarani. After about 30 minutes or

so we reentered the park in almost complete darkness to watch a light

show. This show put to life the things we had envisioned throughout

our day at the mission and was a beautiful sight. After the amazing

show we ended the long day with a 2 1/2 hour can ride just in time for

dinner.

On Friday, our Iguazu trip was ending, but we still enjoyed quite a

few more activities. After breakfast, we all visited a Guarani tribe.

With a tour guide who was a member of the tribe, we visited many

parts, learned of the several animal traps they have, and were even

treated to a music show by a group of tribe members, some very little,

who sang and played different instruments. After several pictures with

the musical gang, we had to, like in any other tourist attraction,

walk through the gift shop, where many of us bought some beautiful

hand-made jewelry or decorations. After that, we briefly visited the

tri-boarder where Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina meet. The view from

this border, defined by two large rivers, was great, as we could see

the skyline of a distant Paraguay city. Following this, our trip

concluded with a delay-free flight back to Buenos Aires. That evening,

we celebrated a combination of Fourth of July and Will's birthday

again with a cake topped with very patriotic red and blue sparklers.

After a weekend with some bad weather and a few illnesses we were all

glad to see each other feeling well on Monday, to start a final days

at Colegio Del Salvador. We began the day by having a meeting with

Jesus where we reflected on our experience and how we thought that we

could make the program better for the future. After the meeting we

made a quick breakfast run and began our closing ceremony. Very

touching things were said where anyone that wanted to say something

was able to do so, and almost everyone did with some Americans even

making stuff up on the spot in almost perfect Spanish. At the ceremony

we saw some amazing pictures of the trip and received our Colegio Del

Salvador gear. After this we went home and spent one final night with

our families. :(

Tuesday was the day we needed to say our goodbyes....not only to our

host families but all the Salvador teachers such as Fefo and Eugenia,

our friends from 5th year who we hung out with and grew close to, all

the little kids who would talk and play with us all day, and everyone

else that has made an impact on us during this trip. We began our day

by watching another all school ceremony for Independence Day where we

saw our wonderful host brothers having spots in the Honor Guard,

including Santi, Francisco, and Tano, who made an appearance

replacing Marcos who was on the DL. After this ceremony we had churros

and hot chocolate but not before hearing a wonderful speech by the

Director of the school who metaphorically compared the line for

churros and how many churros you take to the different types of people

in the government and the world. The churros were very good and we

were able to say goodbye to many people during this time but we made

our way to the auditorium to give a presentation to fourth year kids

(Juniors) on the United States and the trip to Boston. After this

presentation we went home from Salvador one last time. We used these

last few hours to go to lunch and talk to our families and then

returned to school. At school we took some final pictures and them had

to say goodbye to the boys and the people who have let us in to their

homes and treated them as one of their sons for a month. We then

boarded the bus and headed to the airport and back to Boston. After

about 5 minutes of quiet sadness we began hearing "Gooooooooool"

"Gooooooooooooool" "Goooooooool" "Gooooooooooooool" "Gooooooooooooool"

"Goooooooool" "Gooooool" as Germany scored 7 goals from the time we

left Salvador to the time we got to the airport. To add even more to

the want to stay in Buenos Aires we began thinking how unbelievable it

would be if Argentina made the final, but also sad as we left just 4

days earlier. After checking all our bags, getting our tickets, and

most importantly the Germany-Brazil game ended, we said goodbye to

Eugenia and Ms. Basin one last time and went through security. Our

flight took off right on time and one of the most beautiful sights in

the world was below us and the city of Buenos Aires, which is home to

about a third of Argentina's population was alive at 9 at night. The

lights went on forever, it was nothing like I had ever seen before and

was a beautiful way to leave Buenos Aires.

Thank you all for following along!

Arrival to Iguazu

On Friday, we all gathered in the cafeteria in the morning, but didn't have our usual time to ask for a cup of coffee, as we had a busy morning and afternoon ahead at San Miguel, a small place about an hour and fifteen minutes outside of Buenos Aires. There was a Jesuit school that needed some volunteer work done. When we arrived, we immediately were greeted by people eager to work with us on some renovations. Our volunteer work was quite laborious, as we had to dig a large hole about 20 centimeters deep all around so that the patio of the school could be widened. This took us about two and a half hours and the job was done. Later that evening at 8:30, following the big playoff win by the Colegio del Salvador basketball team, we all headed to Puerto Madero, where we sat in a fancy theater, enjoyed yet another delicious meal, and watched a tango show to live music. After this, we parted ways, but not before a collection of group pictures were taken in which we stood in front of the water and a beautiful view of the Buenos Aires skyline. After a weekend full of fun activities such as an adventure park full of obstacles, and paintball, which the Americans won, we finished watching The Mission. The movie gave a wonderful depiction of what the Iguazu area looked like and gave a very strong message about the spread of Catholicism in the New World. After this we took a walk to El Ateneo, a famous old theater that has been transformed into a wonderful bookstore. We walked around and looked at all the very organized sections and then had a little snack at the cafe before returning to school. When we got back to school we got split up into teams of two and taught different English classes in different grades. Some of the topics we taught about were the differences between American and British English and how to write an e-mail. We had one last meeting before we all headed home to pack up for Iguazu. Tuesday was a day filled with nervousness. It began by waking up and seeing that there was a heavy fog that surrounded all of Buenos Aires. When we got to the airport we boarded the plane but were stuck on the runway for an hour before they brought us back to the airport to see if the weather would clear. We waited for an hour  in the airport before seeing that we would be able to board again. This time the plane took off and we landed safely in Iguazu. But before we could depart from the airport we joined over 100 people by watching the final minutes of the Argentina-Switzerland game, which was won in extra time by Argentina. After this we made our way to our hotel where we found our rooms and made our way to the restaurant which had a giant projector projecting the USA game. After 120 minutes of watching Tim Howard have one of the best performance in World Cup history the United States was eliminated from the World Cup. But we didn't let it get us down as we spent the rest of the night playing different games at the hotel and looking forward to a very exciting trip to the falls on Wednesday.

Casa Rosada, Estancia, and World Cup

On Wednesday, we enjoyed another very eventful day at Colegio del
Salvador. It all started with a class on Argentinian history regarding
Rio de Plata, and when the country gained its independence from Spain
and became formally known as Argentina. The next point of discussion
was the Plaza de Mayo, a central place in Buenos Aires where people
often gathered for all different reasons. This was quite interesting,
and was followed by our very exciting city site visit to La Casa
Rosada, the workplace of the Argentinian president. We were welcomed
into the building around 10:30, not before making some friends outside
who, after asking where we were from, mistook Boston for Bosnia. After
a brief security check, we were treated to a very fun tour throughout
the whole building, seeing several different salons, balconies,
meeting rooms, and the patio. The Casa Rosada overlooked the Plaza de
Mayo, which we walked through briefly before entering. After we left
the Casa Rosada, we headed to a nearby museum that contained a rather
eclectic collection of historical artifacts and pieces of art from
Argentina. A highlight of this visit was the piece of art that we saw
that consisted of an entire room. There were paintings on the floor,
ceiling, and walls of people looking into the room to give the
illusion that we were in some sort of transparent bubble that people
were eager to look into. At noon, we headed back to the school, in
which many were already leaving for the big fútbol match between
Argentina and Nigeria which began at 1:00. So when we arrived to
school all 20 of us made our way over to Santiago
Rudolf's home to watch the exciting, seesaw battle between these two
teams in which Argentina narrowly escaped with the victory 3-2 to go
undefeated in the preliminary round, qualifying for the bracket with
flying colors. To add more to the celebratory atmosphere we celebrated
Jack A.'s birthday with cake and on that happy note, we all parted
ways.
Thursday was filled with excitement for various reasons. We started
off the day by beginning to watch the movie "The Mission", which tells
of how Jesuits brought Catholicism to the northern region of South
America, which we will be visiting next week. After we watched about a
third of the movie we took an hour and a half van ride to a ranch called Estancia
Santa Susana. We were immediately greeted with orange juice and
empanadas when we got out of the van and began to explore the ranch.
We first made our way over to the stable where all the horses were and
we took a twenty minute ride on them. Some people wanted to go much
faster but others were holding on for dear life at the speed we were
going. After this ride we made our way to the large dining hall that
was on the ranch and watched the beginning of the United States soccer
game, until we were called to lunch to have an asado. For some this
was their first asado, while others were veterans working on their
third or fourth asado. As lunch began to wind down so did the United
States game, so many of us huddled around the little tv that they had
hooked up just for the World Cup, but those that weren't concerned
with the game watched the beginning of an entertaining dance show.
Once we discovered that Portugal beat Ghana and the United States
passed through to the Round of 16 the rest of us sat down and watched
the rest of the very entertaining show. After dessert we watched about
50 horses run around while the trainers did various tricks with them,
such as putting a pen through a small hole while riding full speed.
After a very enjoyable day we returned back to school with a lot of
fun memories.

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.

So much to do

    
Everyone did different things with their host families this weekend and it ended with Argentina playing against Bosnia on Sunday night.
Although Argentina won the game by a score of 2-1, many people were
not happy with how the team played and a lack of domination that many
people expected.
    The new week started with a very interesting trip with the
Argentinian boys to the United States Embassy, where we learned a lot
about US relations with Argentina and how the embassy operates. The
amount of security was extremely high as we needed an escort for every
4 students. We also learned about one of the workers and how she
became involved in international affairs. She was born in Needham,
went to college at Wheaton, and got a job in banking. Then one day her
husband took the exam to become a diplomat, he passed, and has moved
to various places around the world ever since. We had lunch then
returned to our houses and most of us watched Portugal get destroyed
by Germany by a score of 4-0. After this we all got together at
Marcos's house to watch the United States-Ghana game. Some of us
didn't even arrive before Clint Dempsey scored the 5th fastest goal in
World Cup history, 30 seconds into the game. The game was pretty
average and comfortable until Ghana scored in the 82nd minute and all
of us thought that the US's World Cup chances were over. Then, John
Brooks scored in the 86th minute and chants of USA could probably be
heard in the entire building. The US was able to hold on and we all
had a fun night talking with our host family about the game.
    On Tuesday, we all got together around 10:00 and made our way to the
Colón Theatre, a theatre in Buenos Aires that is over a century old!
It is possibly the oldest theatre in Latin America. Upon arriving, we
received tickets to a tour, in which we entered several rooms with
breathtakingly beautiful and ornate architectural designs, though the
tour guide claimed that it was rather unadorned and simple. The
theatre, though over one hundred years old, looked as though it had
been opened just yesterday due to several amazing renovations
performed to preserve the building with rich history. Through the
tour, we learned of the construction of the theatre, and about the
influence of Italy and England in the design and materials that made
up the theatre, such as the large marble columns and the intricate
stone tiles on the floor. Following this tour, and several
poorly-executed attempts to get a good group picture, we sat down at a
café, where the cake that many enjoyed did not stop them from enjoying
the school lunch upon our arrival there about fifteen minutes later.
The rest of the day could be summed up pretty simply with one word:
soccer, or fútbol if we wanted to say it how the rest of the world
does. There was a solid hour or two of playing before we all called it
a day, as many are now determined to defeat the exchange students who
recently arrived from Los Angeles in a grudge match.
    Wednesday was one of the most exciting days so far as we went to La
Bombonera, the stadium of one of the greatest soccer teams in the
world, Boca Juniors. Before we went we had a class with Eugenia, a
teacher from Colegio del Salvador, about mate. Before this class we
were all kind of baffled by what the students did with this drink as
it is served in an antique looking cup. What they do is offer it to
each other and they all drink from the same straw. We learned all
about this practice and its origins in this class. It tastes much like
tea but you make it by placing herbs in a cup then continuously adding
water each time someone drinks from the straw. It may seem strange but
it is almost an ice breaking tool that people use to show friendship
and start a conversation. When the class ended Bobby, Sean, and Jack
O'Brien went to the kindergarten class and watched amazingly as over
100 kids lined up perfectly without talking and sang their songs. Then
the American boys led them in a prayer in English. After this we were
off to Boca. We arrived at the stadium and couldn't believe how big it
truly was. What I was most astounded by was how steep the seats were,
and there are bars to help ensure you don't go falling down. Before we
took our tour of the stadium we looked around the various stores and
streets that surrounded the stadium. Many people bought Boca
memorabilia, including jerseys, scarfs, hats, and various other
things. Our tour started in the bottom level of the field where many
people were taking out pieces of grass from the field and putting them
in bags. We tried our best to understand our tour guide speak Spanish,
as we are now very accustomed to the pace of the speakers. I was
impressed by how much of the main ideas we understood as the guide
also explained the same exact things in English after because La
Bombonera is such a famous stadium that people from all over the world
visit. There was a lot of freedom in where you could walk on the tour
and take pictures, including trying to climb the fence such as the
crazy fans do when Boca scores a goal and madness erupts as thousands
of people trample over each other to celebrate. We then went into the
locker room of the visiting team, but weren't allowed anywhere near
the highly guarded and sacred Boca locker room. After this amazing
tour we walked around the amazingly colorful neighborhood of Boca and had
lunch. The architecture was extremely interesting with various colors
on every buildings. We then returned to school with a little detour as
traffic was so backed up due to a strike; we decided to walk the rest
of the way. This has been an amazing week so far!

Greetings from Buenos Aires!

Hi everyone! We arrived in Buenos Aires on Tuesday morning, where we
were greeted by a couple students and a teacher from Colegio del
Salvador. We took a half hour bus ride to the school where our
brothers were waiting for us with a nice breakfast of medialunas, which
are very similar to croissants. We met Eugenia who is the teacher who
assists our exchange program. Then some of us met our host families,
while others went to one of the 3 soccer courts which are located in
the school. We played for about a half hour before the rest of the
families showed up and brought us to our houses. I think that every
house that we are staying in are apartments which are located within
walking distance of the school. Everyone did different things once
they got to their houses, some people slept for 5 hours, some had
lunch with their host families, while others, including myself, went
to Driver's Ed class back at the school. We each were able to go to bed
early and get ready for everything that is ahead of us.
    It rained all night and it continued into all day Wednesday, so our
trip to the Recoleta Cemetery needed to be rescheduled and instead we went
to different classes with our host brothers and met other kids in the
grade of about 50 kids. We learned about how the school system is
structured from 1st to 7th grade for primary school and 1st to 5th
year for secondary school. Also they need to chose which career path
they want to follow going into 4th year, try it out, then confirm
which profession they want in 5th year. The 3 types of paths are
politics, economics, or math and science. We each do our own thing for
this day for the most part as we attend various classes with our
brothers and play basketball or soccer during our breaks. This day was
very good for getting acquainted with the school and forming new
relationships with the new students that we met.
    On Thursday there was a big controversy due to the fact that we had tango lessons at the same time as the opening ceremony of the World Cup, which of course was not acceptable. So the boys begged Eugenia to reschedule the class and she did.  So
in the morning we went to a class with our host brothers and then went to
someone's house to watch the opening ceremony and game between Brazil
and Croatia. Brazil won the game after some controversy with a penalty
kick and a goal called off that was scored by Croatia. This game was
very fun to watch with the boys, but the big game is on Sunday when
Argentina plays Bosnia.
    On Friday morning, a brief power outage due to the last night's
rainstorms lead us to believe that our plans to tour the city may
again fall through, but by the beginning of the first class of the
day, the lights came back on, and by the end of the first class, Sra.
Basin greets us happily so that we may begin the tour of the old city.
We walk through the streets passing beautiful buildings, some built
over a century ago. We pass the ornate building in which the congress
works, much like our capital building in Washington, D.C. The tour
comes to a pause at Tortoni Cafe, where we enter and observe the menu
overwhelmingly filled with delicious food options, and sit down to a
meal at the 156-year-old cafe. After that exciting experience, we walk
through the Plaza de Mayo, where people eagerly sell their handmade
goods such as hats, toys, and scarves. From there, we enter the
grandiose city hall building, in which a tour guide greets us and
provides a fascinating lesson on Argentinian history and laws, and
showing us the library, the mayor and council meeting room, in which
local representatives discuss laws for Buenos Aires.  From there, the
group moves along to the beautiful cathedral in which Pope Francis had
once preached. Some pray the rosary, and others take pictures around
the statues and artwork of the cathedral. This concludes the tour, and
we head back to the school on the subway.
Stay tuned as we will update this blog more often as we continue!