Jan 03 2011
Elevator Man
A few details about Mar del Plata:
The traffic lights are very specific in that they not only go through the yellow light to get to the red light, they return to the yellow light again before going to the green. That is pretty cautious, I’d say! Also, there are barely any stop signs! So the pedestrians have it a bit harder!
Second fact, our hotel has an elevator man in each one. I spoke to one man tonight, and kindly asked him why he was there, and he said it is for security in order to prevent people from breaking the rules, such as urinating or smoking in the elevators. They sit on a high stool, have fancy keys, and press all the buttons for you! It’s quite interesting…
Before school began, we all wanted to have one last night out, and decided to try the strip which is mentioned all the time, called La Constitucion. We ended up going to a place, a club called Pepsi Gap, yes Pepsi Gap, and it was the most intriguing experience. We entered the place around 1:30 AM and saw that there was absolutely no one on the dance floor yet. Rather, there were a few groups sitting around facing the dance floor as if they were waiting for someone to call “time” so we could dance. Of course, my friend and i did not want to follow the norm and danced in front of everyone anyway! We felt all the eyes on us, and while it was awkward, it was exhilarating and quite exciting. Soon enough it was an hour and a half later, and the place was crowded and the dance floor was filled. It seemed as if everyone had a tacit understanding that it was only after 2:30 that they could dance in front of everyone else. Pretty loco!
Getting back to food, there is one awesome Mexican restaurant down the block from our hotel, called Pancho Villa. Although the service is terrible, since it took an hour or more to get our food, once the food did get there, it was very delicious! Also, they have exxxxtra hot sauce, finally, so i see myself eating there a lot and dragging my roommate, Swathi Mummini, with me! 🙂
We also had our first day of school today and it reminded me a lot of college back in New York. They are very strict in ensuring that we stay on track and not miss one day of class since we are trying to fit one year of Spanish in 16 days! Tomorrow, we find out which classes each one of us will be taking and our projects for the semester, so stay tuned… and i’ll be back!
