Tigre, Tigre Burning Bright

There’s not much to report from the past week, mostly because I spent a good chunk of it sleeping because I was sick. I had a very swollen sore throat and fever, and as a result spent most of last week moping around and sleeping A LOT. Finally, last Friday I went to the doctor and was diagnosed with pharyngitis, which is basically strep throat I think (maybe not as bad?). I got antibiotics, took them Friday night before going to sleep, and woke up on Saturday CURED. Not even kidding, modern medicine is magic. That sentence may seem like a contradiction, but I beg to differ. It felt so good to have energy and be hungry again. So there—another crisis solved! It seems like every week has to have its crisis. Oh well. Life goes on, and is still great!

The other mildly bad news is that I found another live bedbug in my room on Friday night. I’m leaning towards moving out of my room all together and just staying in the bedbug-free dorm room for the remainder of my time here; I have to decide by tomorrow-ish. I have to decide whether I think their bedbug eradication methods are going to solve the problem or not...we’ll see.

The highlight of last week was the day trip I took on Sunday. My friend Sophia and I went to Tigre, a riverside town located 27 km outside Buenos Aires. It’s where the BA elites used to spend the summer, and it is gorgeous. Filled with Spanish colonial architecture and rowing clubs, Tigre, in all its sun-dappled glory, defines picturesque. It’s also incredibly easy to get to—for a mere 75 cents, we took the train there and back.

Sophia and I spent the majority of our afternoon exploring this giant market at the Puerta de Frutos (Fruit Port), where, not unsurprisingly, there was absolutely no fruit to be found, but a lot of tourist souvenirs, as well as vendors of any knick knack or homegood you can think of, including furniture, lamps, scented soap, curtains, children’s toys and furniture, dolls, jewelry...basically, you name it. We dined on amazing so-called hamburguesas completas which are incredibly misnamed. These were not merely complete hamburgers…these were death on a plate hamburgers. Apparently it’s an Argentinean tradition to not just put tomato and lettuce on a burger, but also cheese...and sliced ham. Sounds gross, and it is, as I said, like eating death, but it was also DELICIOUS. My first hamburger since Lent began, and it tasted so good.

Besides enjoying the culinary and commercial delights, the other activities were basking in the sunshine and taking a lovely boat tour through Tigre. As I said, Tigre is on a river, and outside the center of town, there are different strands of the river that act as roads. On each side of these strands of the river, Europeans and wealthy porteños built their summer retreats. These gorgeous houses and cabañas remain to today, and are SO BEAUTIFUL. My new life goal is to have a house in Tigre. Imagine the most exquisite, luxurious mixture of British and Spanish architecture and sensibilities. Tons of rowing and boating clubs and gardens, as well as wonderful mix of small cottages and huge fancy mansions. And each house is surrounded by tall trees and lush vegetation, and is accessible by a little brightly painted covered dock and boat house. I literally couldn’t stop smiling as I sat at the side of the boat, snapping pictures hte whole time, feeling the sun and breeze on my face, and oh-ing and aw-ing over these adorable houses and the families enjoying the water and sun. What a wonderful day!

I’m planning some other daytrips as well as one whole weekend away for my remaining 4 weekends (wow, time flies!).

That’s about all I have to update about for now regarding Buenos Aires activities. The only other thing I wanted to bring up has to do with this summer, long after I return to the states. This summer I’m going to be working as a camp counselor at a camp called Chinatown Adventure in Boston’s Chinatown. CHAD (the affectionate abbreviation hehe) is one of 12 community-based summer camps geared towards low-income kids which are offered by Harvard’s Phillips Brooks House Association’s Summe Urban Program. I’ll be in charge of a class of ten rising 5th graders, and will have to design and execute three hours of classroom time every weekday, with the help of a Junior Counselor. AH. Amazing, but scary.

As a CHAD counselor, I am also responsible for helping with the camp’s fundraising efforts. As a student-run nonprofic organization, we have to raise a lot of money to make these camps possible. It’s a really important endeavor, as these camps provide high-quality, safe, enriching programming (the mornings are spent doing academic work, the afternoons on field trips around Boston) to kids who wouldn’t otherwise be able to participate in a program like that.
If you donate online, PBHA has a donor who will match online credit card contributions. So if you give $25, it's like you gave $50.

Here's the secure website: www.pbha.org/donate.
When you donate, please enter “CHAD” in the -Specific Needs- box and your contribution will automatically be matched. Add my name in the section "in honor of" so I will be notified when your gift comes in.

I think this is going to be an absolutely incredible way to finish up my gap year—an amazing year that began with my learning in China, and is going to end with my teaching in Chinatown. I would truly appreciate any support you can give me and my future campers!

Peace!