DRAMA
One thing I do love is how big of a production Argentines make out of everything! In my french class there is a cd that goes along with the book, but of course since everyone just have illegal photocopies of the book nobody has the cd. Since we need to practice our phonetics we needed the cd, so one lady wanted to buy it and make copies for everyone. Up unto this point everyone was in agreement and all was well in the world. The problem we encountered, however, was how many students we actually had in the class. About 20 were on the register and five were absent. It took us fifteen minutes to discuss how many of those five were actually absent or had dropped the class. Everyone had an opinion and wanted to be heard, forgetting the fact that the difference in price we were actually talking about was 1 peso. After the fifteen minutes the teacher called a halt to the discussion, which was then picked up after class. I had to leave in hopes of not being rude and just laughing at the hysterics of it all.
PARO
The strike is back on! It has been modified, however, in hopes of keeping the people on the side of the farm workers. As far as I can tell, they are still stopping goods in the road, but only those destined for export and this is only supposed to last for 10 days, sort of as a show of strength sort of thing. I actually haven't read too much about it but will try to research it a bit and fill you in.
LEMONS EVERYWHERE
A pictures worth a thousand words so just gander at this pic of a truck that over-turned on an overpass and showered the road with citrusy goodness. I wish I could find video of the news reporting/cleanup as it was dramatic (see first top) and also so inefficient.
VOLCANO
One erupted far south of here in Chile, but the effects have made their way up to Buenos Aires. Although there has been no changes to the air quality and we haven't had any "ash rain" (see below) but apparently there is still some debris in the atmosphere. Some major airlines cancelled flights into Buenos Aires and problems, though less severe, could persist for months.
Below is a picture of a river side in a Chilean city and that's not snow, its ash. The same effects happened to some cities in southern Argentina.
The first few pictures from this site are of a lightning storm during the volcano and they are absolutely spectacular.
http://megagalerias.terra.cl/galerias/index.cfm?id_galeria=30734
