Parque de la memoria

life starts like a flower..

With the sun shining bright overhead, it seemed like a good day for a field trip.  My classmates and I had the opportunity to visit Parque de la memoria on Tuesday, the 4th of December. The park is a monument to all the people who lost their lives as victims of the Dirty wars of Argentina. The ‘Dirty War’ took place from 1976 to 1983 under the rule of dictator, President of the time, General Jorge Rafael Videla. He along with two other leaders, the head of the navy and air force  took the country and made it theirs. Basically, the “Dirty War” happened because these three didn’t want anyone in the country to speak against the government and wanted full support. Therefore, they kidnapped, tortured and ultimately murdered all those who spoke, or supposedly spoke against them as well as all those they suspected. They held these victims in Clandestine Detention Centers. The main base being ESMA, in Buenos Aires. An estimated 30,000 people were ‘disappeared’ during this period of time.

Signs made in commemoration of the disappeared in Parque de la memoria

The park is located between the airport and the river. The very airport where ‘deathflights’ of the time took place and the very river where all those bodies were thrown after being drugged. I mean, it’s crazy to think about, but it’s true. At least a thousand people thrown in against their will, without having a say in the matter. And the saddest part is, what did those people really do, to deserve what faith threw at them?

An airplane landing into the airport from which deathflights once took off

It was an awesome experience going there! I loved the arrangement of the park, it was planned out so well.  I honestly felt like I didn’t even need a fancy camera or even have to edit pictures. The place was already too cool! Sure, it was a really warm day and I did feel a little drained but, hey man, you gotta deal with it sometime!

   

I guess it really depends on each individual to actually make an effort to put into perspective the events that have transpired and reflect on why the park was set up in the first place. It was very insightful. From the edges of the park where the river was, you could see the city of Buenos Aires. It was really cool because I had never seen a city from the water before and it was awesome to see the silhouette just there.

As I reflect on the day, I come to realize that everything in the past, is exactly what it is. It’s in the past. There’s really no use holding onto things you no longer have the hands to hold on to.Stop, reflect, and move on. You don’t want to forget, because that’s not the point of moving on. Look at the positive bits of it, because at the end of the day, no matter how much all those people were put through, death came upon them and freed them from their suffering. It lifted the pain and helped them move on from this life to the next.

It ends like it too..

Scavenger hunt.. sort of

Today I went on a scavenger hunt with my advisory group from school. We were given a number of places to visit and tasks to complete. The plan was for us to visit at least three places in three hours. We got to one. I have a perfectly good reason as to why we were unable to do a lot though. We had to plan everything within the three hours as well and the planning itself took forever!

The one place we did get to go to however, was Cortázar square in Palermo, Buenos Aires. Our task was to find a cool book store in the area (There are a lot of pretty badass book stores) and take a creative picture as evidence of us being there with a book written by the Boom writer, Julio Cortázar.

In the bookstore, we found a copy of fifty shades of grey but it was in spanish so it was called “Cincuenta sombras de grey”. :p

I don’t know why I added that in there but, after taking a picture with one of Cortázar’s books, we decided to explore the market in Palermo since we didn’t have enough time to go any place else.

with the book..

I ended up buying a friendship bracelet with my good friend Cash. His name’s not really Cash but his real name’s a pretty hard cookie to crack. It’s Gijs.

Yeah, you probably said it wrong.. unless you’re dutch.

Anyways, here’s a symbol of our friendship:

#rasta #friend #yay

Polo Day. YAY!

Today

MY GOD MAN, IT WAS PERFECT!

Yesterday, I went on a Polo excursion to Hurlingham Polo Club in Buenos Aires 😀 Pretty big historical site as far as I’m concerned.. I mean it’s where everything started. The first polo field in Argentina for heaven’s sake!!! Man, I learned so much about Polo today.

So.. The English were the first to bring the sport to Argentina. It worked really well here and the English were in awe of how much flat land they had. It all seemed perfect. Football was also introduced to the country about the same time. Although it’s not the most popular, it’s just one of those things that’s Argentina. It’s like the meat and the tango you know, what’s Argentina without those? Or what’s Argentina without Polo?

#Polohorse

Moving on.. one polo field is equivalent to the size of 6 football fields. THAT’S MASSIVE. With four players on each team, each player has about eight to twelve horses for a game! One hell of a demanding sport I’d say..

Here’s another picture that’s sort of relevant..

😀

There’s a Polo ball right there! I thought it’d be wayyy heavier. But it’s not. This one’s all beat up and stuff but I bet it’d be in better shape if it were new.

I’m not entirely sure if I’m remembering this correctly, but the second most important polo tournament is held at Hurlingham and it’s where all the pros come play. Intense stuff right there! Anyhoo, we got to see the trophy for that tournament and here it is! It even had a cute little polo man on the head of the trophy 😀

pretty hardcore. don’t you think?

As tiring as it was, today was a good day. It really was. All I’ve really taken away from this is Polo sounds awesome and like a lot of hard work. It seems like a really difficult sport and I should really start giving the players more credit. Maddd props to all them players out there.