Skip to main content

Day 0: mensajes de la terminal

"Everyone passed the first punctuality test," exclaimed Profe. Levin, as the last of our entourage arrived in front of Tom Bradley at 8:29am. With our luggage in tow, we made our way to the Latam ticketing counter where we were immediately ushered to two agents who promptly printed out our boarding passes. I've heard that you shouldn't say "It's quiet" in a hospital emergency room for fear of opening the door to misfortune, and so I had a similar suspicion as we made our way through security without much rigmarole. "What a quiet Saturday at LAX," I noted, and indeed, we were fast to pass our bodies and bags through the security x-ray scanners. 

Happily, we're now seated at our gate, with a comfortable amount of time before we board our first flight. As spring turns to summer here, we'll travel through time and across space towards another autumn, winter rearing its frigid head in Argentina soon enough. 

And now, messages from the terminal (overheard at Gate 134):

"Could I quickly check something on my phone--I want to see when the Portugal/Spain game starts."

"Look what the cat dragged in."

"Do you want to split a pizza?"

"Uhhhhhhh......"

"Santi lost his shoe!"


At the gate!

Comments

Rcaragher said…
Looks like you're all settled in and comfy at LAX. From summer to winter in 14 hours- only to return to Pasadena days before the summer solstice. Also love the "Heard in the Panthers' Lair" comments.

Popular posts from this blog

Day 5: Los Porteños!

On Thursday, we started our day with a swift breakfast in the hotel and a short walk to the Casa Rosada--workplace of the Argentinian president--where we began a scavenger hunt that was organized by an Argentinian travel company that we have been working with so far on this trip.  As we split into groups (los carpinchos, los chocotortas, y los empanadas), we began to walk around the city and complete tasks along the way. These challenges often included talking to friendly strangers or organized actors and asking many questions regarding the daily lives of Argentinians. For example, we asked an actor (our previous tour guide Fernando) and other locals (pedestrians, workers, police officers, etc.) questions about Argentinian football. In turn they taught us facts like how fans of the team River Plate are called “Los millionarios” (the millionaires) because their home stadium, which is el estadio mas monumental of South America, is located in a wealthy neighborhood. In addition, we we...

Day 10: All Good Things

Tuesday, our last full day in Buenos Aires, was as packed as every other. After breakfast at the hotel buffet, we took the bus over to Palermo, where we embarked on a tour of street art and murals. We talked about the importance of street art to the culture of Buenos Aires, visiting murals ranging in subject from Frida Khalo to the LGBTQ community to soccer. It amazed us to see murals in many parts of the city, each symbolizing something different. Many of the murals wowed us with their intertwinement of 2D art with 3D art, incorporating aspects of the building’s architecture into the paintings. After the mural tour, we headed to another graffiti workshop, where we learned to paint a distinctive form of art central to Argentine culture. This style of art, called Fileteado, incorporates colorful components like borders to decorate parts of the city, including buses, signs, taxis, and trucks. At first, we attempted to mimic our maestro’s masterful paint strokes, but eventually diverged i...

Day 9: Day Trip to Colonia

Monday morning was wet and windy. We walked a short way to the ferry station where we caught a boat to Uruguay. Once on the boat, some of us chatted while others slept, and to our pleasant surprise, across the river, we found specks of blue and some sun. Profe. Levin crossed her fingers, hoping that the temperate conditions would hold for the day.  Colonia was founded in 1680 by the Portuguese, and for much of its history, the settlement has passed from one controlling power to another. In the 18th century, the Spanish and the Portuguese fought for its possession, and in the 19th century, Argentina and Brazil became its new claimants. Finally, in 1825, Uruguay, along with Colonia del Sacramento, gained its independence.  This history of hostilities had a hand in the settlement's design; the Portuguese surrounded the old peninsular town in a thick stone wall, whose battlements held cannons directed at whatever enemy the river might bring. We walked the cobble stone streets, whi...