A Monumental Occasion in the Park

I was excited to see what waited on the other side of our long bus ride from Buenos Aires to Rosario. The weather was poor for the first time the whole trip as we sat on the second story of our double-decker bus gazing through the haze at the blurred vision of the fading capital of Argentina. We all tried to catch up on sleep as much as possible as we made our trip to Rosario wondering what it would be like. Finally, we arrived! Karie warned us about the taxi drivers from her experience the year before. (They had to take one taxi for each person to the hotel, and there were 14 people in the group.) This year we found two amazing taxi drivers that were willing for fit all seven of us in two taxis with our luggage. After we unfolded from our clown cars, we enjoyed a nice evening excited to me our host families the next day.

Soon enough, the time had arrived. We were all wisped away by nice ladies excited to be hosting us. My host mom’s name is Marilyn. Fortunately for me, she lives very close to the school. I can walk to class in three minutes. She is very good about gagging what level of help or instruction I need. This ability comes from experience gained from students she has hosted in the past. I make her 24^th! Once she knew I was situated in my room, she told me I should go out and see the city. Of course, she was right. The city of Rosario is beautiful. My house is on the main street, Cordoba. I walked down this street enjoying the beautiful Sunday afternoon.

At the end of Cordoba is a beautiful monument, which is the monument to the flag. I was not expecting it to be so big. I really enjoyed just walking around and taking in its magnificence. I did not have to talk. I did not have to listen. All I did was looked, and what I saw was beautiful. There are some attributes that translate through culture innately. Someone from a different culture cannot deny that the Great Wall of China is indeed “great” or the Grand Canyon is actually “Grand” by which they are named. That person may not personally like the object, but certain structures possess inherent greatness. This monument with an eternal flame and view of the river close by is one of them.

This river close by is the Paraná. This is one of the most important and largest river systems in South America. One of the reasons Rosario is such an important city is because of this Paraná River. It runs through Brazil then Rosario and connects to the Atlantic Ocean in Buenos Aires. This River is also the area with the highest wealth. The farther away from the river you get in Rosario, the poorer the neighborhoods get. Along this river are beautiful parks that are opportune for people watching. I did not need to say anything, but just sit and watch. My attention was drawn to the children. The qualities they possess are the same in all cultures. I saw a little girl that could barely walk holding onto her parents bobbing up and down to the music, people smiling and laughing enjoying the sun, and people playing; most of all, I saw the characteristics of people alike all around to world. So many attributes unify humans around the world. The world becomes a better place when we choice to be unified rather than pick out differences. By design, humans long for relationship. We are not in this world alone for a reason. We need to remember that and build relationships with each other to collectively make this global community a better place.

~Cain