Cowboys and Christmas

It's getting close to Christmas, and with that my return to the United States! I'm supposed to arrive on Christmas day so that will be exciting even if I do have to spend Christmas eve and morning on planes. I'm curious to see what it's like flying on Christmas Eve. Hopefully people will be cheerful and festive rather than grumpy. It's very strange to be buying presents and trying to get into the holiday spirit in 90 degree weather. When the sun shines on you the temperature seems to double. I feel sorry for Santa Claus if he has to wear his fur coat in Argentina...

I have realized how much I associate winter with Christmas. I have been missing twinkle lights, snowflakes, hot chocolate, cozy sweaters, fireplaces, and a nice chill in the air. I also miss the giant christmas decorations on top of Hardee's and the star on top of the children's hospital. (Feel free to send me pictures of yourselves doing festive things! Belated-Hanukkah festivities count too!) I am determined to be fully in the holiday spirit anyway. The other day I dedicated my entire afternoon to making the ultimate holiday music playlist (12 hours...) and to using what few resources I have to make decorations.

I didn't have tape but I ended up cutting snowflakes out of notebook paper and coloring them with sharpies. I also made a very pitiful but cute tree out of sticky notes and a brown paper bag. I bought some garland too so now my room is a little oasis of Christmas spirit.

this is supposed to be a tree and a present

I've currently finished 3 out of my 4 exams and have one more paper left to write. I finished class in late november and have already gotten confirmation that I passed my film class. I'm still waiting on my literature and history grades. My last exam is for my seminar on religion/international relations. My final paper for that class is 5 pages but I can write it in English if I want. I would say I'd write it in Spanish just for the practice, but it's going to be pretty philosophical and deals with two readings that are in English. I've had a lot of Spanish practice so I think I'm going to take my professor up on that offer. Why not make life a little easier before the holidays? After that I will be free to travel to southern Argentina and trek across glaciers and walk with penguins! I'm going on a trip to Patagonia (a huge region actually) on December 13th!

As for the cowboy part of this post, my friends and I recently went to visit a nearby town called San Antonio de Areco. It's a small town about two hours away and is known for gauchos, Argentina's version of cowboys. We visited on the day of their heritage festival so there was a huge parade throughout the town. Everyone was on horseback of course. I loved it and thought about all of my horse-loving friends and family the entire time!

Traditional attire for men involves a sort of neck scarf, special floppy hats, and other equestrian-friendly clothing. The women wear long skirts or dresses, as do the little girls. There were tiny kids perched on horseback too - probably as young as three! There were a few vendors selling handmade gifts but most people were crowded around watching the parade. After the parade there were supposed to be some demonstrations of horsemanship out in a field but we ended up wandering around the town and visiting an exhibition of local artisans instead before catching our bus back to Buenos Aires.

the littlest gaucho

father and daughter

there were couples of all ages 

On a side note, I cannot imagine actually riding a horse sidesaddle. How do you not immediately fall off? Congratulations to you if you have this skill! Some of the women in the parade rode sidesaddle but others chose not to. Either way, their skirts covered the entire top of the horse.

Notice that the saddle is more of a series of fluffy blankets with a girth & stirrups attached. This horse stuck his tongue out for the camera. ;)

These men were about to demonstrate their herding skills

herding horses through the parade

creepy bone chairs...?

break time for lunch 

At one point a few young gaucho boys came over to my friends and I (because we were obviously not from San Antonio de Areco) and asked where we were from. After a minute or two they invited us to ride one of the horses. I decided to go for it and they suggested I climb on the back of the horse with one of them. That seemed like a bad idea because that guy was also trying to hold onto another horse who did not like being close to his horse. As I predicted, it didn't go very well. His horse started walking in circles and made it nearly impossible to get on. I ended up riding my own very tall horse! Once they realized I was not completely unaware of how to ride a horse they let go of the reins and set me and my horse free. The saddle and stirrups were really different from what I'm used to but a horse is a horse so it ended up being fine. At what other point in my life will I be able to spontaneously ride a horse through a village in Argentina?

I highly recommend visiting the San Antonio de Areco heritage festival to anyone who likes horses! All in all, it's been a fun couple of months. I feel at ease in Buenos Aires and can focus on spending time with friends and exploring new parts of the city. I can tell I'm going to miss it when I leave but I'm also getting really excited to come home too. I will surely post a blog soon about my adventures in Patagonia!