Coto: Land Of Glory

I am starting to realize how much of my time here (my weekends) are already occupied by several plans (between my parents visiting - which I am overly excited for, my half marathon and the preparation for that) I don't have as much time to travel as I had originally thought. I am already more than half-way through my trip. My Monday-Thursday mornings are way occupied by my classes and school work so my weekends I can do exploring and relax. The weeks fly by.

This week I started a book for leisure in Spanish which was recommended by my host mom. Its called 'Cronica de una muerte anunciada' by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a Colombian author famous for magical realism. While slowly reading it with my dictionary for the colloquialisms and details, I am able to enjoy it, which I think is a good sign of my learning of the language. I went to the Museum of Sculptures de Luis Perlotti, Museum of Natural Sciences and the Museum of Plastic Art this weekend. The sculpture museum was nothing too special, especially after the long journey getting there and almost getting smashed by the subway doors. The Natural Science Museum was amazing ... a huge display of fossils of dinosaurs that have been found in Argentina and other parts of South America. Also there were very big exhibits of all other kinds of wildlife, rocks and plants. I stopped in the Plastic Art Museum this morning in the middle of my run in my favorite park ... it had interesting wood sculptures and a very good photography exhibit.

I went to another free music show in the downtown theatre district. It was a relaxed environment like the kinda shows I am used to; the instruments and everything just set up in the atrium of the theatre instead of the stage of the auditorium. The band was called Tonolec, a mixture of electronic and indigenous music; http://www.myspace.com/tonolec. Probably one of my favorite music mixtures I have seen here.

I went to the best grocery store I have been to in my entire life. Reasons: two stories of grocery. escalator that is specialized to take carts on it and have them not slide down. Bread in the shape of turtles. A loaf of fruit bread the size of my kitchen table. Soooo much. I always get enjoyment of going to the grocery store; this one tops all. I was so excited and looked around forever. As for cultural experiences of the week: I witnessed a hazing right in front of my eyes. It is common in high school for the newbies of the incoming grades to get hazed by the upperclassmen. The upperclassmen gather whatever nasty food they can think of: flour, eggs, fish, oil, milk, etc. and find the victim walking home and just throw everything on them backpack and all. I had never known why there were just huge random piles of food all mixed together on the sidewalks reeking of nasty (its strange because I always see people washing and sweeping the sidewalks and they are fairly well kept except for when hazing happens) until now. After the victim walks home tarred and feathered, the hazing vomit is just left for the public to wonder and avoid.

And some graffiti to stay on the dinosaur theme:


Love.