Rosario

Rosario, Argentina is the birthplace of Che Guevara, whos image has come to symbolize revolution, Marxism and awesome dorm rooms tricked out with ´that beret guy´ worldwide. It is also the home of a friend of my former Kung Fu teacher Dustin. Dustin´s friend Jorge has been nice enough to let me stay with him and show me around Rosario. Staying with Jorge has allowed me to get an authentic Argentinian experience and learn some Spanish, albeit slowly. I arrived here on Saturday after a 4 hour bus trip from Buenos Aires and called Jorge hoping he received my email I sent just before I hopped on the bus. Luckily he did get my email and answered the phone and arranged to meet me at the bus terminal. During the conversation I realized that we had never seen each other, which might make it difficult to identify each other in a busy bus terminal. I said I was wearing a red shirt and carried a large black bag and he said he was wearing ´grey dress´. I hoped this was the language barrier and a cross dressing Argentinian in a horribly colored dress wasn´t going to arrive, although this would have made him much easier to spot. His English is much better than my Spanish, but he actually meant to say green jacket. As I was looking out for basically anyone in grey, with or without a dress, he was the one who found me and he said I was the fifth person he asked.

After we arrive at his place and I set my bag down, he offered me Mate. This is a type of tea drank from a gourd and a common South American tradition. We enjoyed several gourds of mate while talking in a mix of Spanish and English aided by a translator program on his computer. I learned that Jorge is a psycholgist at a local insitution and has lived in Rosario for several years. A little later his friend came and picked us up in his car covered in the decals of a local radio station he owned. The pounding dance music, which was the station´s specialty, became the unofficial soundtrack of the evening as we raced around Rosario looking for a restaurant. When they asked me where I wanted to eat I said ´something Argentinian´ and that they said that something was ´Asolo´, which is basically assorted grilled meats. As it was eleven in the evening this was when everyone else when to eat too so it was hard to find a restaurant. This allowed me to see a lot of Rosario which consisted of North, South and a large shanty town in between. We finally found a restaurant and for dinner we all shared a wine, salad, various types of sausages and I had I giant steak to myself which I could not finish.

Sunday Jorge and I went to the famous monument that honored the heros of Rosario which included the man who created the Argentinian flag. We then went and sat by the river and drank Mate and were surrounded by hunderds of people doing the same thing. Sunday evening Jorge and I decided to go to Batman with his friend. As Jorge kindly paid for dinner the night before I said I would buy the tickets and dinner after. One thing I have noticed about Argentina espcially outside of Buenos Aires is how cheap everything is. Tickets for the movie were $4 each and a large pizza and three beers were $13.

I mostly hung out today as it was raining in the morning, then I went for a walk in town. Tomorrow I think I will do some laundry, charge my camera battery and check out the local shopping mall as I have been told everything is on sale here. I know this is very unlike me, because as most of your know I hate shopping, but I think it will be more of a cultural experience than a shopping trip. Wendesday I think i will head to Cordoba which my Lonely Planet mentioned is called ´The Cultural Capital of the Americas´, quite the title, so I will be happy if the city is half what people say it is.