I am back "home" in the hostel... feels like just yesterday that I left. I enjoyed a wonderful week in Buenos Aires and La Pampa, full of bar-b-qs, poolside sunbathing, christmas shopping (even here I am not immune), and fun filled outings. From Wednesday evening through Saturday night I stayed with Antonela and her wonderful family at their home in Santa Rosa, a city about the size of Boulder that is about 6 hours east of Buenos Aires. I was at her home two and a half years ago when I was living here for study abroad, so it was wonderul to see her parents again, and to spend Christmas with her extended family.
The traditions surrounding christmas here are just similar enough to be familiar, and just different enough to remind you that you are not in the US. On Christmas eve we enjoyed a "mesa fría" [literally 'cold table'] which consisted of a wide variety of cold salads- from beets and pineapple to tuna and mayo. Some of the combinations were new to me, and some were tried and true. Fortunately, being vegetarian, I was not pressured to try the tounge platter...
In many countries in South America, Santa comes at midnight. Dinners are thus timed either to finish right before he comes, or to start right after... The whole shebang happens in a matter of seconds- one of the adults appears saying they swear they just saw a fat man in a red suit run out the front door, and all the kids run into the living room to find their presents. It is not the usual mountain of gifts that you might see under an American tree- instead each person receives a couple of modest gifts, all of which say from "papa noel" even if your aunt hands you the bag and says "I bought this for you!" The modest gift giving is partially due to the fact that here people celebrate "Reyes Magos" or the day of the 3 kings. On the 6th of January kids leave out food for the three kings who pass by the houses and leave presents in the night.
The most surprisingly different tradition surrounding Christmas here, however, is that christmas eve is a big night out for the young folk. For days beforehand, Anto was texting with friends trying to figure out where we would be going out. You see, once the dinner plates are cleared, the sweet breads and toffees have all been eaten, and the presents are all opened, anyone aged 16 and older hits the town. The "kids" go out to clubs, bars, or enormous fields in the middle of nowhere (like we did). Not to be left out of the fiesta, the parents head out to make the rounds at friends' houses too.
The most impressive part of the whole night was probably the tremendous party we went to after dinner. Imagine going to a huge house with a couple acres of property around it, a DJ in the front yard, a DJ in the backyard, another DJ inside and about 2000 people dancing, drinking, and reuniting all over the place. Now imagine that almost every single one of those people either currently attends or graduated from one of the two high schools in your city! It is like a tremendous reunion of anyone age 16-30 who has decided to go out on christmas eve. We rolled up to the gates at about 3:45am (a very normal time to be arriving, mind you) and the place was packed. We stayed for about 2 hours and scooted out under cover of daylight, just before they shut off the speakers at 6am... The whole time I was there, I just kept thinking "I can't believe it's Christmas eve..."
It was a bit wierd, I must admit, to wake up Christmas morning to a more or less normal day, without the frenzy of present opening and the excitement of it all... Instead we ate a bar-b-q in which literally a whole small pig was roasted. It seemed like just another meat filled grill, until Antonela and her cousin started fighting over the tail of the pig and Anto won and I suddenly found myself watching her chomp away on a thuroughly roasted, very familiar looking corkskrew tail. Shortly thereafter the meat platter passed around again and I looked down to see the unmistakable jaw bone, teeth and all sitting there. Anto's dad cheered with excitment upon discovering it as I passed him the platter, and I just focused on my delicious salad and politely declined offers to try some of the "professionally cooked" piggy...
In all it was a great Christmas and I was greatful to be with Anto on such a family oriented holiday. Though I don't know if I would ever really be able to get used to the summer weather and Christmas eve party traditions, everything else was more or less christmas as usual!
I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful holiday season. On to New Years!!
cate
