Ahhh, so the first week of classes has come and gone and I've definitely gained a lot of experience in the process. I'm starting to feel a little more comfortable with the city and everything in its realm (subte, colectivos, walking, homeless people, etc.). Anyway, here's a little recap of the last few days, mainly because those have been the really interesting ones.
Friday, I didn't have class until 6 so I went to the Japanese Garden and the Botanical Garden with a couple of my friends. Nothing too exciting, but the Botanical Gardens, like the Cemetery, is home to hundreds of well-fed, stray cats. Apparently people feed them there too, don't know what it is with people and their cats around here, but hey, to each his own…
Argentina, like a lot of Latin American countries, has a TON of Catholics, though I'm not too sure the majority of them are actually "practicing." Bs. As. Has this place called "Tierra Santa" which I found out about through my Lonely Planet Bs. As. City guide book. Here's a little bit of what the article, entitled "Praying for Kitsch," had to say,
"This religious theme park—'the world's first,' according to the literature—is roughly based on Jerusalem and is just 10 minutes from BA's bustling center… The extravaganza begins with a laser show depicting the creation of the world, and continues as you follow a path into Bethlehem… From here it's a 30 second walk to witness the 40ft-tall animatronic Jesus rise from the Calvary mound, open his eyes and finally turn his palms toward the emotional devoted below. And if you missed the show, don't fret: another resurrection is just around the corner…"
Naturally, there is NO WAY I could miss something like this! I gathered a couple of my friends and we made our pilgrimage (consisting of a 20 minute taxi ride) to Tierra Santa. This place is every bit as ridiculous as one could ever hope. The animatronic Jesus was intense, and half-way through his ascent, the "Alleluia" chorus began blaring from the park speakers. He pops out of a man-made hill and pivots and turns His hands, and looks up and down. Some of the people were actually visibly moved by the scene. The laser show, too, was pretty intense, with animatronic rhinos, giraffes, gorillas, lions, and a statue of both Adam and Eve that pop up front-center stage out of nowhere. The lasers during the show just add to the intensity. We seriously spent about 4 hours in this place. There's a mosque with fake worshippers, as well as a synagogue and a replica of the Wailing Wall. It's seriously HUGE, and filled with plaster-like-putt-putt-scenery-esque buildings, people, and animals. I don't even know if my descriptions can give this place any justice at all. The first half of the park is absolutely over the top, but the second part is more like a little Middle Eastern town, and has many scenes depicting Jesus in certain stories from the bible, as well as Arabic food cafes and miniature market. The second part was actually not too gaudy and I was able to reason that it might be kind of cool for little kids to see and learn about the Bible.
Unfortunately, I know NOTHING about the history of the park, whose idea it was, who funded it, nor what the Vatican might thing about something like this. I had a really hard time deciding how serious they were trying to be about the whole thing. I'm sure someone had the best of intentions, but there's a fine line between mockery and gravity; especially when you're dealing with animatronic Jesus' (yes, there was more than one moving Jesus robot).
Today, taking a little spin in the ironically opposite direction, I greeted my parents when they arrived at their hotel and we went to Mass at the Cathedral for el Domingo de Ramos. It's really good to see my parents, and I think this week is probably the best possible time they could've come; I'm starting to get more used to the city and how to maneuver it, AND it's Holy Week, so I don't have class Wed-Fri. Should be a pretty good week, and I'm definitely looking forward to showing them around, and hopefully going a few touristy places that haven't been checked off on my list. They also brought me TONS of Orbit gum, a luxury that I cannot find here. I'm freakin' pumped.
After Mass we went with a guided tour to the River Plate vs. Racing soccer game. The game wasn't very good and the style of play sucked, especially with all of the yellow cards and dives. The final was 0-0, but the atmosphere was definitely something that we needed to experience. The fans are all intense and cheer and jeer at the opposing team/fans, and it looks like a ton of fun to be in with all of those people, though its' probably not exactly safe. After that we went out to eat in Puerto Madero and had a really good steak and wine dinner. Delicious.
This week should be pretty eventful; class Monday and Tuesday, and then a day trip to Colonia, Uruguay on a high speed ferry with the family on Wednesday. On the agenda is lots of shopping for cheap leather and maybe even a tango dinner show, if we're lucky.
Here are a couple of links to some pics I recently uploaded on Facebook:
More misc. of Buenos Aires: Puerto Madero, my neighborhood, River game, Cathedral
1 comment:
HAMMA!!
Post a Comment