Oh hey look, an update! Aren't you proud?
Tandil
The Derechos Humanos (Human Rights) Concentration I'm in here took a trip to Tandil and it was AMAZING. And....adventurous, to say the least. Luti, the leader of the concentration, told us we would be having a nice "tranqui y relejado" (peaceful and relaxed) weekend in nature, strolling and biking through the sierras.
SHE LIED.
I swear it was exactly like climbing the Aggro Crag in Guts, except instead of falling glitter and big fake rocks we had to contend with rain and mountains of animal shit.
Pretty much as soon as we got to Tandil on Saturday it started POURING rain. This put a damper on our plans to go trekking, so we decided to move the trek to Sunday morning and go biking Sunday afternoon. That left all of Saturday afternoon free, so we went to our cabins (which were GORGEOUS, thank you IFSA) and were prepared to spend all day hanging out in front of the fire in relative leisure and warmth.
...Except we couldn't get the fire going well, the heat didn't work and then the power went out, plunging us into darkness. Obviously, we did the only thing a group of college kids could do in a situation like this: drink by cell phone light.
After that we went out to a restaurant in town for dinner. Not only did it have lights, but also the most amazing cheese and cold cuts I've ever had in my life. When they told us we'd be having quesos y fiambres for dinner (the specialties of Tandil) I was slightly worried, but turns out Tandileños have mastered these two simple dishes to a point I never knew was possible.
The next morning when we awoke the power was back on, the cabins were warm and the rain had stopped. All good omens that only served to lead me into a false sense of security.
We went hiking and the ascent was awesome, we saw lots of animals, heard some stories about the history of Tandil and generally got to feel pretty bad ass because it was MUCH more difficult than Luti made it sound but we were doing fine.
Then, the rain started again. We had to climb down the sierras on wet rocks and over newly rain-made streams all while avoiding the cow and horse droppings that seemed to always be in the unlikeliest of places (we all almost broke our necks climbing down some parts, but the animals not only made it safely, but felt so comfortable they had time to leisurely stop and take a shit).
It was a harrowing adventure but we all made it out, with only a few minor injuries. We all felt bad ass for completing such a difficult task and relished our victory...but then we remembered the day wasn't over yet. We still had to go mountain biking.
After a short lunch break (the only tranqui and relajado part of the day) we headed out to go biking. As I've missed biking terribly, I thought it was awesome and not too bad, but the others tell me it was a bitch and even more physically strenuous than the hiking, so idk. Either way doing it after we had just spent all day hiking was difficult, to say the least.
What's really strange about the trip though is that even though the individual parts (power going out, no heat, rain, having to do more exercise than I've done in months) sucked, we all unanimously agreed that the trip as a whole was AWESOME. No one complained or gave up on the hike or bike, the night w/o power actually ended up being really fun and generally everything was just made better by the spirit of fun and adventure everyone had. It was probably the funnest trip I have taken so far in this country and I highly recommend Tandil to anyone who travels to Argentina, even though it's not one of the typical tourist spots.
Marcha Del Orgullo
Argentine Pride was AMAZING. I've never been to a Pride in The States before so I can't really give a comparison, but I couldn't have asked for a better time.
One of my friends here does his internship at Comunidad Homosexual Argentina and while at a Trans festival with him a few weeks ago, a guy came up to me and asked if I'd like to march with a group of afro descendants in the parade. Not wanting to turn down an opportunity to finally meet other black people in this country, I readily agreed and it was the best decision ever. It was nice to not only be at Pride but really in Pride, and the other people in the group were really nice. Especially the leader of the group, Carlos, who is probably one of the coolest men on earth.
This years pride was focused on two things: celebrating the equal marriage law that got passed just a few months ago and continuing our fight for the Ley de Identidad y Genero, which would give trans people the right to have their preferred name and gender on their ID. I personally think we did both things pretty damn well.
The event started with a festival and fair in Plaza de Mayo (a really important and historic location right in front of Casa Rosada, the Argentine white house...except pink, where all the protests and stuff happen) which was tons of fun. I bought a crap load of rainbow stuff and was treated like a CELEBRITY. Argentines are legitimately amazed every time they see a black person, so to have a whole group of black people together was news worthy for them....like literally news worthy. We got interviewed by two different news channels and were constantly posing for pictures, sometimes with a group of ten or more people standing around snapping photos and asking to pose with us. It was interesting, to say the least, and I can't help but wonder how many people out there now have a picture of me and are telling all their friends about the black people they met.
Overall it felt really awesome to be supporting not only the LGBT community, but also the black community and increasing the visibility of the Afro-LGBT community so that in such a seemingly homogeneous country people don't lose sight of the fact that not only is the country diverse, but the LGBT community is diverse and everyone has to be included in the ongoing fight for equal rights.
Our organization had our own float (which are really just trucks in this country) and basically, like all the trucks in the parade, it was just a moving boliche (dance club). It was CRAZY, with our own DJ, fog machine, lights and more people then should be allowed on an open moving vehicle. Thousands of people marched/partied down the street along with the trucks from each organization, starting at Plaza de Mayo and going to Congreso, where we ended in front of the Congress building and partied some more (in the case of my truck) or had a slightly more tranqui time listening to some music and all hanging out in the plaza.
I only stayed at Congreso for about six seconds because I was RIDICULOUSLY tired from going out the night before and spending all day decorating floats/posing for pictures/maneuvering through crowds/dancing in a truck, but regardless it was really really fun. After this I'm definitely gonna be sure to go to more Pride Parades in the states and, if life permits it, I'd love to come back to Argentina again for pride. Like I said, I've never been to a pride in the US, so I can't compare, but I feel like, at least for me, there's something special about Pride here that can't be replicated anywhere else. If only just the extraordinary connection I feel towards the amazing LGBT community here.
That's pretty much all the interesting stuff that has happened in my life lately. I'm going to Mendoza this weekend so hopefully I can keep this blogging thing up for my last month here and tell you guys about it.
Besos!
