Feeling Thankful Far From Home

Can you tell we were excited?

We started our second week in Buenos Aires with a bang! Or should I say a Bomba? On Monday night, Hernan took us to the Konex Cultural Center in the Palermo neighborhood to see an improvised percussion show by a group called Bomba de Tiempo. When we asked him about it beforehand, he said "Picture...a rave." This was more confusing rather than helpful when attempting to mentally prepare for the event, but all became clear when we got to the stage. The group performs at Konex every Monday, and the concert is always packed with the young people of Buenos Aires. When Bomba walked onstage in their red jumpsuits, the crowd screamed and a colorful video display began projecting images behind them. The group played alone and with guest artists who would sing while they accompanied with percussion. One of the last numbers was a crazy version of Dolly Parton's "Jolene" that was performed by a guest artist. Upon hearing a song we recognized, those of us who were at the front danced harder than we had the whole night! This video is from the first guest artist.

Our class in Argentina, as you know, is an interdisciplinary arts class which has allowed us to spend most of our class time on field trips than in the actual classroom! This week we visited the Evita Museum and the Museum of Latin American Art of Buenos Aires. I wasn't able to take photos in the Evita Museum, but it housed artifacts from her life, including many outfits from her famous wardrobe. Evita is a figure in Argentinian history that has become "mythologized" in both positive and negative ways. Some people worship her like a saint, and some vilify her as a sexually manipulative and hard woman who was hungry for power. The Evita Museum did a good job of deconstructing this mythology, and laying out the story of her life as "objectively" as possible. Of course, no institution can be completely void of bias, and the museum definitely highlighted her positive side. Still, it was a great opportunity to learn more about such a formative figure in Argentina's history who still holds the publics' fascination.

At MALBA, our professor Cecelia took us on a guided tour through the museum. The collection was donated by a private owner who made a point of acquiring representative examples of some of the best and most well known Latin American artists. The museum had a Frida Kahlo, several Diego Rivera paintings, and many more by artists I had never heard of. Cecelia showed us some of the most important paintings, and we discussed how different artists used their work to criticize politics and the state of society at the time. There were also exhibits by new artists, my favorite of which was Ernesto Soplo. His work uses textiles and encourages viewers to interact with the art. The piece pictured below allowed you to go inside and walk through a fabric "hallway" into a chamber at the end where you could reach your hand through the fabric to people outside. As we were leaving the museum, Cecelia told us that the artist had actually been in the gallery while we were there to observe how people were interacting with his work!

Experiencing the art of Ernesto Soplo.

1. Life imitates art - or at least Solveig does! 2. Elijah in "The Swimming Pool" by Leandro Erlich La Pileta. 3. Cecelia explains "Maifestación" by Antionio Berni.

At one of our favorite spots for drinks and empanadas.

While I am only taking two official classes this month, I do have a third unofficial one: tango! Every Wednesday evening, we make our way to La Virtura Tango for a group lesson. We have two amazing instructors, Roxy and Gabriel, who make tango look incredibly easy. While it is certainly more challenging than it looks, I am happy to report that I'm actually pretty competent at the moves we have learned so far! Dance has never been a natural skill for me, but tango is going surprisingly well. Our class is open to other students outside our group, and this week we were joined by six study abroad students from the University of Minnesota! It was one of those delightful small world moments, and we even ended up running into them after class when we were out getting drinks in the neighborhood. After tango, our tradition is to go out for tacos with Hernan at La Fabríca de Tacos (The Taco Factory) a few blocks away. It is a great time to eat together, something I have really missed from Tanzania. Then many of us will go out and explore the trendy neighborhood, finding different bars and fun rooftops on which to continue the night out. Below are some of my favorite photos from our tango nights out!

Speaking of nights out, on Thursday I decided to join Sam and Johnny at a popular jazz club called Thelonius to see one of the artists who performed with Bomba de Tiempo, Emine Pirhasan. When we arrived at the club, a woman at the entrance stopped us, and asked said we looked super familiar. When she asked if we had been to the club before we said no, but that we had seen the artist that Monday at Konex.

"That's it!" she replied excitedly. "You were the people dancing like crazy to Jolene!" We laughed - yep, that was definitely us. "Don't worry," she said. "There will be Dolly Parton tonight too," and opened the door.

It was amazing to hear her in a smaller venue where you could her the nuance of her voice and performance. The three of us were absolutely blown away! We heard lots of classic blues covers as well as some of her original music which was very Stevie Nix-esque and awesome. The club itself was red and dim and very a la the 1920's, which was right up my alley! Emine ended her show with "I Got My Mojo Workin'", a song that I grew up listening to with my dad which was a super fun way to end the night.

Thursday was also Thanksgiving! This was my first Thanksgiving away from home and for many of us, so it was a bit of an emotional day all around. We had a very fancy Thanksgiving lunch at The American Club where we ate surrounded by ex-pats as well as some Argentine politicians. Joel got introduced to the runner up in the most recent presidential election! The whole affair sparked some excellent conversations about how we should be celebrating Thanksgiving in a way that acknowledges the damage that the U.S. has done to Native American people while still upholding the good values of the holiday, like being with family and giving thanks. We are also still figuring out our place as Americans abroad, and if we should even be calling ourselves "American" in the first place. After all, Argentinians are American too. The fact that I am able to have complex conversations like these with my peers over a Thanksgiving meal is just one of the many things that I am grateful for this year.

Just one reason we all absolutely adore Sam Bailey

The next day we had a "friendsgiving" celebration in one of our hotel rooms that knocked the American Club out of the park. Everyone brought something to share with the group, and I was thoroughly impressed with some of the cooking people were able to do with just a microwave and kettle! Alexa and I made a lovely cheese plate, but some people cooked pasta, mashed potatoes, and green bean casserole. We drank wine, ate together, and went around the room to share what we were grateful for, a personal favorite Thanksgiving tradition. It goes without saying that everyone was crying by the time we made it around the circle, and there were many hugs after we finished. While it was truly challenging not to be with my own family on Thanksgiving, I am so grateful for my Global family and their constant support. Oh! And I nearly forgot to mention: Solveig cut her hair this week, and Clara pinned all her hair onto Sam's head into a wig for our friendsgiving celebration. Clearly, Sam has never looked cooler than he does in this photo.

1. Our group photo with Brennan photoshopped in (his parents were in town, so he spent the evening with them). 2. Me and Alexa with our cheese plate!

As I end this post on the topic of Thanksgiving, I have a lot to be thankful for this year. To start, I have spent more time abroad than stateside in the year 2019. My opportunities to travel, first to Europe, then Turkey, and now Global, have taught me so much and have honestly felt like a dream. I always planned on traveling in my life, but I don't think I ever thought I would see this much of the world. Every day on Global semester is a little surreal, because I know that I am living in the stories that I will spend the rest of my life telling. I am also so thankful for my family, who supports me through everything and has made it possible for me to have this incredible year. I can't wait to see you in just a few weeks!

As always, thanks for reading.

-GMH