descontrol......daddaaayyy yankayyy style

descontrol. that's the name of my current favorite daddy yankee song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpoFBlH4wMI) and the only word to describe the past week here in buenos aires. basic translation, total chaos and out-of-control-ness. things have been slightly insane to say the least and i'm glad i somehow managed to make it through the entire week!!

the insanity started on tuesday morning when i arrived at la universidad de buenos aires (specifically at the department of social work where my anthropology class takes place). outside the jail-like fence that surrounds the building, i was greeted by a scene unlike anything i've ever experienced at georgetown, and will ever experience. desks had been removed from the classrooms and were arranged outside the building in small circles, hand-painted posters were plastered across every wall and fence, and gung-ho students were outside sipping maté in the nippiness. the doors were uncharacteristically closed. i was seriously confused and had to ask the group of students several times what. the. heck. was. going. on. basically, the student governments at the various different UBA buildings had overtaken the school and shut down classes in protest. apparently, these tomas or takeovers are relatively common at the university and happen every couple of years, one time lasting an entire twenty days. for the argentine students, this particular estudiantada was nothing new and the other students filing into the courtyard were far from shocked. thus, my surprised expression of utter perplexion definitely gave me away as a foreigner!!!

i kid you not, this was the scene inside la facultad de
ciencias sociales. we ACTUALLY conducted a class in the
middle of the hallway. pretty surreal. 

as i waited outside for other classmates to arrive, i chatted with several of the student officers in charge of the lockdown chatted to figure out what all the drama was about. they were friendly enough to offer me some maté, which always makes me feel included and welcomed!! after a stagnant thirty minutes, my anthropology professor finally showed up and conducted a short class in the hallway despite the lockdown just so we could go over midterm questions.


right now, the students are protesting the conditions of buildings and classrooms, rallying for a unified campus for the social sciences (which currently has three different buildings dispersed randomly throughout the city, very inconvenient for many students), and a dining hall. all legitimate requests i suppose, but the whole building-hostage-method aint really my thing. i guess having a day off from class is nice every now and then, but i do hope the schools open back up soon. who knows how long the protesting and negotiations will go on. i'm all about students being politically involved and actively participating in their academic realities, but at the same time, their methods seem unnecessarily extreme and selfish, as they create inconveniences for a whole web of people. additionally, even though they are rallying for better facilities and environments in the name of education, they end up taking away from our educational opportunities. perhaps only in the short term (a sort of two steps forward, one step back type of ideology) but nonetheless, the whole motives behind the estudiantada strike me as extremely paradoxical. rallying for better educational opportunities, yet sacrificing those same educational opportunities (at least in the short term) during the process doesn't quite add up. i guess UBA students just love doing things in a revolutionary style. i mean, let's not forget that the infamous che guevara was an UBA student himself. i guess they feel that same spirit in their blood!!

after our improvised "class", my friend hannah and i walked back to my apartment to decompress after the complete weirdness of the morning and get prepped for the argentina vs. spain soccer game. on sunday, i had spent the beautiful afternoon at the san telmo market in search of the perfect argentine jersey, eventually jumping on the lionel messi bandwagon and buying a standard #10 like, well, basically every other argentine alive. before the game, i went to a fun little previa (pregame) at my friend will's house along with some other georgetown and american students. no better way to start the afternoon than with empanadas and quilmes beer. since will lives a convenient five blocks from the stadium, we all walked over together and found our seats way up in the top section.
                    

the game ended up being a total and complete blowout, with argentina trumping the world champions 4-1. highlights can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cu-cISN08U. the goals were all pretty incredible, especially sergio agüero's header in the last minute of the game. the place was going wild!!! there is truly nothing like live soccer, especially with a bunch of argentine crazies. i can't wait to attend more games while i'm here, and will hopefully get to see the rivalry match between river plate (my host brother's main obsession in life) and boca juniors (diego maradona's team back in the day).  

fireworks after the win!! weeeee!!! 

i left the game in high spirits and in love. okay, exaggeration but i did develop several new crushes over the course of the game. for your eye candy enjoyment, i now present my new argentine obsessions. as i was explaining to my cousin jacqueline, after seeing the argentine national team, can anyone realllllyyyy blame me for abandoning america for the next few months?? like c'mon, get real people.

thursday night was probably the cherry topping off a ridiculously absurd and bizarre week here in buenos aires. several friends and i purchased tickets for a show called fuerza bruta that originated in argentina several years ago and currently features performances in multiple cities across the globe.
we REALLY didn't know what we were getting ourselves into. look at our innocent and clueless happy faces before the start of the show.

little did we know what was to come....... 

this completely strange and experimental performance was something that maybe i wouldn't be surprised to see in say, berlin, but buenos aires?? i definitely wasn't expecting the spectacle to come. basically, the one hour show was filled with experimental acrobatics and dancing, a musical mixture of african drumming and techno beats, a weird elevated slip and slide performance from the ceiling, and illusory stunts. it's kind of impossible to describe exactly what was going on and why, but the one thing i can say for sure is that fuerza bruta was surely entertaining to say the least.

perhaps the funnest part of the night was the ending....the show concluded with insane stunt where three actors jumped off a ledge and crashed through these cardboard boxes and started flying through the air (sound ridiculous?? yeah, it was). as if that wasn't enough, the staff then put on the rainworks, strobe lights, and some thumping techno music, inspiring a wet and crazy dance party. complete mosh pit. cheers to a great week!! i'm wiped and the weekend has barely even begun!!

my friend thomas pretty much sums up the moment  

me: the expression after your mind has been blown
and is still reeeeeling with confusion