I joined a swim team while I'm here! I've only been to a couple practices so far (they are on Monday and Thursday nights and I can only go to the Monday ones), but it's been pretty fun. Unfortunately, it's also reminding me how out of shape I am. It is amazing how after not having swam for 4 years, it feels like I never did at all. In any case, it's not a big deal, because the team is very relaxed and not super competitive. It's more just something fun to get to know some people and make new friends! Anyway, we had a competition on 31/8 (remember the date thing from the last post?) that I participated in. I didn't do terribly, but there is definitely some room for improvement. I should have a couple more competitions during the semester to improve my times! In addition, we got some pictures, so here they are for all of you to enjoy! :)
Some other stuff that I've been up to... On Thursday (5/9), I went on a field trip to a memorial park for the desaparecidos. It was a very interesting place to go, and reminded me a lot of the Vietnam memorial in D.C. Some more explanations of the memorial and what happened are with the pictures below:
This is the layout of the memorial. It is made to look like a fissure going into the river. The main reason for this is because many bodies of the desaparecidos were dumped into the river so that they would not be found.
This sign is a little hard to read, but it was at the beginning of the memorial. It reads:
La nomina de este monumento comprende a las víctimas del terrorismo de estado, detenidos, desaparecidos y asesinados y a los que murieron combatiendo por los mismos ideales de justicia y equidad.
Translated:
The list of people of this monument includes the victims of the terrorism of the government, the detained, the disappeared, and the assassinated and those who died fighting for these ideals of justice and equality.
When the last military coup took place in Argentina, there were many people who were kidnapped and tortured to obtain information. The government wanted to kill all those who were in opposition and used whatever means they needed to in order to obtain information about people who were against them.
In total during that military dictatorship, which lasted from 1976 until 1983, there were over 30,000 desaparecidos.
This monument had so many names commemorating those who were killed as a part of this horrible part of Argentina's history. There were men, women and children. There were pregnant women as well. The majority of the names on this wall were between the ages of 19-25. The youngest person I saw was 13 years old.
This was a monument in the river to commemorate those who had been dropped from planes into the river in order to get rid of the bodies. Many of the flights to do this were disguised as training flights and came from a nearby airport. Oftentimes, the victims were still alive when they were dropped (because it was easier to move them that way) and were attached to some kind of weight.
Since that last part was kind of heavy, I figured I would end with a little more artistic picture. Even behind these dark events, there is still light. Sometimes it might be harder to find, but it's always there.
On Friday (6/9), I attended a percussion class with about 6 other IES students. It was a really cool experience, and we got to learn some of the traditional Argentine percussion music! Here's some fun pictures from that!
When we finished our class, we could hear some music coming from another room in the building. When we asked what it was, we found this band. They were practicing and agreed to play a couple of songs for us! They were really good, and it was a neat mini concert!
Other than that, classes have been going pretty good. Creative Writing and Spanish are still my favorites (both with the same professor) and the others are doing good too. Also, last weekend, I discovered a burger place with one of the best burgers I have ever had! Oh and you get burger, fries, and a pint of beer for about $8! Here's a picture from there (more pictures to come, because I will definitely be going back!):
I'm still waiting on the pictures from the bike tour I went on, so those will come in a later post. On Thursday I leave with my friend Matt Stockamp to go down to San Carlos de Bariloche. We are flying down Thursday night, skiing for three days and flying back Monday night! I'm super excited for it, so watch out for a post about that coming soon!
Finally, I want to give a special thanks to everyone who has been sending me emails and their continued support. I'm glad you are all enjoying this blog!
This is the layout of the memorial. It is made to look like a fissure going into the river. The main reason for this is because many bodies of the desaparecidos were dumped into the river so that they would not be found.
This sign is a little hard to read, but it was at the beginning of the memorial. It reads:
La nomina de este monumento comprende a las víctimas del terrorismo de estado, detenidos, desaparecidos y asesinados y a los que murieron combatiendo por los mismos ideales de justicia y equidad.
Translated:
The list of people of this monument includes the victims of the terrorism of the government, the detained, the disappeared, and the assassinated and those who died fighting for these ideals of justice and equality.
When the last military coup took place in Argentina, there were many people who were kidnapped and tortured to obtain information. The government wanted to kill all those who were in opposition and used whatever means they needed to in order to obtain information about people who were against them.
In total during that military dictatorship, which lasted from 1976 until 1983, there were over 30,000 desaparecidos.
This monument had so many names commemorating those who were killed as a part of this horrible part of Argentina's history. There were men, women and children. There were pregnant women as well. The majority of the names on this wall were between the ages of 19-25. The youngest person I saw was 13 years old.
This was a monument in the river to commemorate those who had been dropped from planes into the river in order to get rid of the bodies. Many of the flights to do this were disguised as training flights and came from a nearby airport. Oftentimes, the victims were still alive when they were dropped (because it was easier to move them that way) and were attached to some kind of weight.
Since that last part was kind of heavy, I figured I would end with a little more artistic picture. Even behind these dark events, there is still light. Sometimes it might be harder to find, but it's always there.
On Friday (6/9), I attended a percussion class with about 6 other IES students. It was a really cool experience, and we got to learn some of the traditional Argentine percussion music! Here's some fun pictures from that!
When we finished our class, we could hear some music coming from another room in the building. When we asked what it was, we found this band. They were practicing and agreed to play a couple of songs for us! They were really good, and it was a neat mini concert!
Other than that, classes have been going pretty good. Creative Writing and Spanish are still my favorites (both with the same professor) and the others are doing good too. Also, last weekend, I discovered a burger place with one of the best burgers I have ever had! Oh and you get burger, fries, and a pint of beer for about $8! Here's a picture from there (more pictures to come, because I will definitely be going back!):
I'm still waiting on the pictures from the bike tour I went on, so those will come in a later post. On Thursday I leave with my friend Matt Stockamp to go down to San Carlos de Bariloche. We are flying down Thursday night, skiing for three days and flying back Monday night! I'm super excited for it, so watch out for a post about that coming soon!
Finally, I want to give a special thanks to everyone who has been sending me emails and their continued support. I'm glad you are all enjoying this blog!
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