¡Feliz bicentenario!

Or in other words, happy bicentennial of Argentina! Today marks 2oo years of the country's independence from Spain and I have to say it's quite awesome to be here during the celebration! Last night we missed the first round of fireworks, but after dinner we went back to Plaza San Martín to watch the changing of the guard. It was so packed with people that we couldn't see very well, but it was an awesome experience to just be there. When most of us Americans hear the word patriotism and visualize being patriotic all we know are mental images of red, white and blue and Uncle Sam. However, last night was an extremely special experience; to be amidst a sea of white and sky blue and listen to everyone around me, from the old man to my right to the 4 year old boy on his father's shoulders in front of me, singing their national anthem gave me a new image of patriotism. Although I am a proud American, it was difficult to not catch the enthusiasm of nearly everyone around us! This morning we packed up our things and at noon we checked out of the hotel and I finally got to meet mi madre anfitriona (my host mom)! Zulema is one of the nicest women I have ever met; she has completely welcomed me into her home and continues to put up with my awful Spanish. She is an elderly woman who has three children and seven grandchildren, so I guess it would be more appropriate to call her mi abuela anfitriona. She showed me around her apartment and then made lunch and we began to get to know each other. I asked her how many international students she has hosted and her reply was too many to count. After I unpacked I told her I wanted to go on a walk and she gave me some general directions and I left to begin to acquaint myself with my new neighborhood. Her apartment is in an awesome location and is basically in the middle of downtown. I'm only about three or four blocks from Plaza Italia and Paseo Sobremonte, two very beautiful plazas that we saw during our tour yesterday, and only a little farther away from Plaza San Martín. I had a good time taking pictures and people watching. Although most of the stores are closed right now for the holiday, I wandered into some of the grocery stores to just look around. Once I made it to San Martín I had a lot of fun wandering around and looking at all of the street vendors. There was such a variety of stuff from clothing to accessories to movies - basically anything you can think of. Before leaving the plaza I was able to go inside the cathedral and walk around, and to say it was beautiful would be an understatement. I'm hoping to be able to go to mass there at least once while I'm here. I made my way back home, and around 6:00 Zulema made tea and we had our merienda. The meal schedule is a little different here; you have a light breakfast, lunch around 12:30 or 1:00, merienda, or tea time, around 6:00 and dinner between 9:00 and 10:00. We had our tea and pastries and sat in the living room and watched the Bicentennial celebration in Buenos Aires on the news. They said that there are about 3 million people there celebrating, and we were watching the president of Argentina (who, by the way, is an extremely beautiful woman if you have never seen her) welcome most of the heads of state of other Latin American countries to La casa rosaria, the Argentine equivalent to the White House. I couldn't have asked for a better home away from home and I'm looking forward to getting to know Zulema better over the next 5 weeks!