I'm so cultured

Yesterday, my class took a field trip to San Isidrio. San Isidrio is a little neighborhood north of BsAs, where the wealthy retreat in the summer, reminiscent of Tigre but minus the boats. We took the train to get there, costing 30 cents USD and taking about half an hour.

When we arrived, we first walked to a cathedral, then to a small plaza with benches and a flower clock. We strolled around looking for my teacher's favorite empanada spot (second only to her Grandma's, she told me) only to find that it was closed. Thankfully, empanadas can be found on every corner in this country, so it wasn't too long until w

e stopped somewhere else.

After we ate, we went to Villa Ocampo, the home of the Ocampo family- most notably Victoria Ocampo- which is now a museum.

Victoria Ocampo was, according to wikipedia, "an Argentine intellectual," and according to me, a pretty cool lady. She was a very wealthy, independent woman who broke

many barriers for South American women in the 1930s. On our tour, we learned that she was involved in the magazine Sur, which both translated internationally renowned poets/authors of that era into Spanish and also published unknown Argentine authors. She sounded like an all-around classy lady, and her house was BEAUTIFUL. It was a mix of Italian, English, and Argentine styles, surrounded by trees and flowers.

It was funny, it was so quiet while we were there. Since I've been in the city, which is pretty regularly noise-filled, I now only notice absence of noise. I love living in BsAs, but it was nice to be in nature for the day!

After returning from the field trip, I met up with my friend Drew to go to El Teatro Colon (the famous colon theatre!). He is a music major and was interested in hearing a certain pianist, and I just like going new places and having new cultural experiences, so we went!

The colon theatre is gorgeous. It was different than any

other theatre I had ever been in, because it was completely vertical. It was as if the theatre was a giant hollow cylinder with only three rows of seats lining the wall of each floor. We sat at the very top of theatre, tickets were only $25 pesos (a little over 6 USD!). I enjoyed listening the music, especially when I could pick out the oboe- my former instrument- and I think I would like to return to see a ballet.

After the performance, some of my friends were headed to see the latest Twilight installment- Eclipse. Before I could protest, a ticket had been bought for me and I was headed to the movie theatre. This was funny to me because in the span of an hour, I went from a highly genteel activity to the absolute bottom of the cultural-food chain...pop culture. Anyhow, it was a pretty silly movie (plot= nonexistent) but now I will understand what people are talking about when they talk about twilight!