After saying a sad goodbye to my host family, I boarded the
plane at Comodoro Rivadavia to head to Buenos Aires to start the next section
of my year abroad.
I had spent four months in Comodoro and it had shown me just
how much can happen and how much you can learn in four months! For anyone who wants to be challenged and
stretched in new ways then I can’t recommend living this type of experience
more.
Anyway, leaving Comodoro, I also left the idea of work and
teaching firmly in the back of my mind to think about the next 12 weeks of
travelling round Chile and Argentina; first though...Christmas.
Christmas
At the start of the programme, plans for Christmas in
Argentina had always been a topic on my mind.
I quickly clocked those other teachers that would be staying here for
the festivities and so Jess (from the US and also teaching English) and I found
ourselves planning together how to make Christmas the best we could.
Christmas is quite a different festival in Argentina to what
it is in Britain and the States. I
presumed that, being a Catholic country, Argentina would celebrate Christmas to
the same extent – if not more – than we do in our Western countries; I was very
wrong. I left Comodoro 10 days before
Christmas Day and Argentine friends still seemed rather unsure as to how they
would spend Christmas. This seemed a bit
odd to me - but maybe that is more because my family, me included, are super
organised!
At the start of December, Jess and I received an invitation
from the Argentine friend of a English-teaching-friend based in a town in
Buenos Aires Province. On December 23rd
we took the 8hour bus to General Villegas and were welcomed into her home by
her and her family with more warmth and generosity than we could have ever
expected. I felt incredibly lucky.
The parents, and two sons (8 and 18years) and daughter
(25years) lived in a rustic and homely bungalow that looked out onto a large
grassy garden with a swimming pool and tinkling wind chimes at the edge of the
town. I couldn’t have been in a place so
different to Comodoro! Green, flat campo stretching for miles, constant
background noises of birds and insects and, most of all, temperatures averaging
35˚C meaning I practically lived in my bikini that week!
Christmas Eve merges with Christmas Day
For me and Jess and our friends, Christmas Eve was spent in
the garden by the pool, chatting, sipping the cold fruity version of mate, terere ,and generally
relaxing in a way I hadn’t for what felt like years! Overall though, I felt very, very
un-Christmassy! The parents of the
family spent the majority of the day preparing an amazing assortment of cold foods
which were to be eaten that night.
It’s all about the grub...
At 11pm, Jess and I joined the family of five plus their
Aunty and gathered around the set red-clothed dining table.
The Christmas Dinner menu:
·
Torres del
Pancaque – literally a tower of pancakes separated by mayonnaise, cheese,
ham
·
Pionono –
a long sweet and savoury Swiss-roll filled with mayonnaise, cheese, tomato,
lettuce
·
chicken meat wrapped around eggs, olives a sweet dried fruit and then cooked slowly on
the parilla (BBQ)
·
hard boiled eggs stuffed with a home-made tuna
pate
·
mini pastry cups stuffed with home-made chicken
and pepper pate topped with an olive
It was all very tasty food but when I get back to the UK in
July, even though it will be summer, I will be cooking an English Christmas
dinner that’s for sure!
[From conversations with other Argentine’s it seems that a
big asado – a very meaty BBQ
typically cooked over an open fire – is more common and traditional for
Christmas dinner.]
The main course was over and some sweet foods were put out
for dessert: chocolate covered raisins, sugar-coated nuts, a sweet bread and
then at midnight we all held our classes of recently-popped Champagne, or
non-alcoholic equivalent, and wished each other ‘Feliz Navidad’, kissing each family member on the cheek - the
common Argentine greeting.
Papa Noel pays a visit
Soon after midnight the 8 year old was ripping open his
presents from Papa Noel, that had
magically appeared in the corner of the room in the 3 minutes that his auntie
had taken him out the room! The older
son and daughter also received a few presents but it appears that presents are
mainly for the young children of the family.
Completely surprised, Jess and I were presented with two
lovely wrapped parcels! We couldn’t quite
believe it having obviously expected a present-less Christmas! The family had given us each a bilingual book
all about the main sights along the Ruta
40 which runs the length of Argentina.
An amazingly thoughtful and generous gesture from people we had met only
the day before.
Partaaayyyy time
A mayor difference between an Argentine Christmas and a
British Christmas is that on Christmas Day early morning all the young people
go out to a big party! In Britain, I
couldn’t imagine a Christmas Day without the silent roads and an evening spent
inside, feeling stuffed and sleepy!
Anyhow, the meal, presents and group photos over, me, Jess,
the elder daughter and our friend headed to one of the big outdoor parties
happening in the centre of the town.
Arriving at 3:30am there were already quite a lot of people dancing and
chatting in front of the dj stage and for the next 2 hours South American pop
music, Cumbia and Reggaeton boomed from the speakers. We were quite obviously the foreigners
here! Without even the faintest tune of
popular European or American music, I expected to not know any of the
songs. To my surprise, I recognised a
lot of them, proving to myself how much I had been subconsciously learning the Argentine
popular culture!
People were still dancing as it got lighter and at 6am, with
the sun up, the dj called the party to a close.
Unashamed to say it, Jess (who doesn’t even like dancing and parties ,
poor girl) and I, were pretty happy to be heading home to bed. As much as I do like some of the popular
South American music and the spirit, dedication and confidence in the dancing
of the men and women, (British guys could definitely learn a thing or two!) I
very much miss going out to hear European music.
The rest of Christmas Day was spent sleeping, sun-bathing,
sweating, skyping the family in England and eating left-overs!
Not my typical Christmas, and not a particularly typical
‘christmassy’ one, but one I won’t forget quickly! A lovely invitation from a wonderful family
that shared their home and traditions with us at a time that is probably the
biggest celebration of the year in the UK.
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