National Holiday!

Yeah!  A day off from Spanish classes for a National Holiday!  Ask most Argentines and they have no idea why there is a holiday.  Turns out, it is the 200th anniversary of the first Constitutional Assembly.  The constitution granted freedom to anyone born to a slave family (in other words, if you were already a slave, tough luck, but at least your children could not be enslaved), as well as some other freedoms that were subsequently overturned in various disputes between the provinces and the federal government.  Still, it was apparently the first Constitution in South America.

Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo -
mothers of children who were "disappeared" during the military dictatorship 

Political banners on the Plaza

On the Plaza de Mayo in front of the Casa Rosada (equivalent to the the National Mall and White House respectively), hordes of people waited in long lines to get a commerative coin, see the new 100 peso note featuring Eva Peron, gather various other free publications, and to watch big groups carrying flags representing different political parties.  Turns out we had actually gotten a few of the new 100s in our last money pickup and given the suspicion over counterfeit 100s, we were relieved when a shopkeeper recognized the new bill and accepted it.

We have been taking Spanish classes at Academia Buenos Aires, a 15 min. walk from our apartment.  There were 5 other students in my class, two students from Holy Cross  in MA here for study abroad, an American who writes for the web and who had been studying Spanish for 15 weeks, a Brazilian voice therapist here to learn Spanish, and a British woman living in Germany who works as a German to English translator who needs to learn a third language to get licensed as an Interpreter.  We had a great teacher, a woman in her early 50s who is from B.A. and who had a great sense of humor and was well-versed in both teaching Spanish and in history. She does an excellent impression of the grand ladies of Recoleta and could have swooned when she found out that the British student's mom had gone to the same school as two of the Beatles.   4 hours of lessons from 9:30 - 1:30 pm, plus a three hour make up class one afternoon because of the national holiday.  Jake started out in one class, had one day of class where he was the only student, then was joined by two others at his level on the third day.  I think he felt that although his teacher was technically proficient, she didn't quite have the sense of humor to make 4 hours of classes fun.