VAMOS ARGENTINA!
I spent a lot of this week traveling, as it is the beginning of true winter break for many people. La Plata has emptied out quite a bit, and there are fewer people around than I’ve become accustomed to over the past eight weeks. Because of winter break, work has been slow this week, but the research continues to teach me something new every day. I never cease to be amazed by the many new topics and cases I read on a daily basis.
We went to Buenos Aires for the Copa America final, and it was an incredible experience. After the match ended, we RAN to the obelisk in the middle of Buenos Aires, and it quickly became packed with people, motorcycles, bands, flags, fireworks, food, music, and almost anything else you can imagine. I cannot quantify the number of people that filled the area, but there’s a picture below that captures a small fraction of the people who were there. The festivities didn’t die down until very late the next morning, when people finally decided to clear the streets in order to allow people driving to work to reach their destinations.
After that, I had my first experience with the Argentinian healthcare system, and all I can say is that it functions very differently than in the US. We went to Barrio Chino, ate way too much food, explored Buenos Aires some more, and then said bye to Xavier as he headed back to France after a year here. It was a wonderful goodbye, if not a little sad, but probably one of the most fun send-offs thus far.
