Forgive me Father for I have sinned, it has been 13 years since my last confession and it took me attending a religious themed park to realize this. What? Yes, Buenos Aires has a religious theme park and it’s called Tierra Santa or Holy Land; although, I can hardly call a place where mannequins re-enact the Nativity, Last Supper and Creation, and where a 40ft Jesus rises again from the Calvary mound a moving religious experience, I guess some do. I still don’t know how I feel about Tierra Santa, with its plastic mannequins depicting every scene from the Old Testament, employees in full Jerusalem era garb, over the top kitschness ( I created this word, I know), and ridiculous traditional dance shows where the dancers look like over-grown children who are slightly off and look at each other for guidance. I can say that the park is very informative on the Judea-Christian Religious beginnings, and it is probably a good place for a child to learn about the bible. As for the Lonely Plant quote, “most are visibly moved when the over-sized Jesus gazes upon them,” I doubt this is actually true, but, maybe. I wasn’t moved, only slightly disturbed, maybe that’s my Catholic upbringing and the sheer ridiculousness of the land. It was interesting though to see their rendition of Creation, where God created light, then land, then went straight to African animals and Man, I kept thinking what happened to the Dinosaurs? But you can’t show everything, right? I left feeling a bit off, like maybe it was a sin to attend this park, but I kept telling myself it was informational, which it was. I guess you can all look at the photos and decided for yourselves…..
Moving on to a brighter note, the Referee who got suspend for robbing the USA of a win can share his sins with the Referee from the Brazil and Ivory Coast game. That ref was horrible, and don’t get me wrong, I wanted Brazil to win, I was a bar with 150 Brazilians and 2 Brazilian friends, but he was horrible, two “Brazos de Dios” on Brazil and no call, you could even see him laughing with a player later in the game about the bad call, or red carding Kaká for no reason except acting on the half of Ivory Coast. Ugh! Who is paying the Referees to swing this World Cup? It was a fun game, and Brazil did win, and a Brazilian at another table told me my Spanish was really good (um, that’s making me think it’s bad, but hey I’m learning). The evening was spent at an Asado at my friend Nicole’s, oh how I love Chorizo and Chimichurri. Delicious evening.
Monday was “tranquillo,” I feel the Spanish version of this word sounds so much better than the English version “tranquil,” the Spanish version rolls off the tongue better and just sounds more relaxing. I went to VOS to film, but it was a holiday and only the teachers were working, so I hung out with Lucio and watched the Chile and Suiza (I like this Spanish word better too) game while writing blogs and happiness lists. I feel like it was a productive day, after school I walked down to the Mall (about 1 mile), and reminded myself why I hate shopping (I didn’t buy a thing), but I would love to come home and shop, wearing the same clothes constantly for 3 months wears on you, and I brought all my favorites, so I am really sick of them and want to donate them all, but then I would be naked and I don’t think anyone would hire me, or at least the companies that I would want to work for. Ugh, my dilemma, I am ready to work again though, I miss having an income, now I just need to keep thinking about what it is I want to do….Such is the question of my quarter life crisis. I went to dinner with my roommate Jessica, we spent an hour taking bus and subte all over town to 2 different sushi joints, which were closed, which is the norm in BsAs, I am getting used to things being closed, but I did get to see the neighborhood of Villa Crespo, briefly and I got to ride on the oldest subte line A, in the old cars, so the night worked out, we ended up eating just down the street from my house at my third favorite restaurant here, La Cholita. After a great beef kebab, corn empanada and a bottle of wine, we decided it was a good night.
* More Tierra Santa photos are posted in the link on my previous blog
No comments:
Post a Comment