Okay, despite my suboptimal shape and my increased weight, I survived the “Tandilia” race It was probably one of the toughest race I’ve ever participated to, but also one of the most beautiful ones. As I previously told, we had to run 11.111 km through the whole city from one end to the other, following a REALLY hilly track (at least ~250m altitude both up and downwards, with one steep ascent of 100m). Fortunately almost all the inhabitants were outside making an great atmosphere, which was very helpful to forget the pain and “enjoy” the sightseeing tour!

Out of 1500 participants I was able to finish 190th in the overall classification and 85th in my age-group with a time of 48:38 (4:25 per km). To give you a small idea of the extremely high level of this race: the winner needed 35:00 (3:10 per km) to accomplish the race, which is simply incredible regarding the difficulty of the track, and the first woman had a time of 41:15 (3:45 per km). But I was told that both of them were Olympic athletes in London ….

Apart from that everything is still going at the best. Until now I had really good results in my exams, and the very last one is on next Wednesday. However, I haven’t totally realized yet that my stay here in Tandil is almost over and I should start thinking about what to do and where to go next, but since I have always made good experiences with being spontaneous, why should I change that relaxing way of life?

So, well, I know that this has indeed nothing to do with all of the previous, but as I really liked this quote from José Hernández’ “El Gaucho Martín Fierro”, I’ll simply put it here without any further sense

Los hermanos sean unidos,
Porque esa es la ley primera;
Tengan unión verdadera
En cualquier tiempo que sea -
Porque si entre ellos pelean
Los devoran los de ajuera.

Just like this two nice little “chistes” or “bromas” about the – from an Argentine point of view – weird German or Chinese accent, that I also find very funny

¿Cómo se dice bus en aleman? “suban-empujen-estrujen-bajen”
¿Y cómo se dice 99 en chino? “cachi chien (casi cien)”

And since I have been often asked what kind of music is popular in Argentina, I’ll conclude this post with a small mix of youtube videos covering the most important and characterizing music types, that are rather distinct from what I was used to hear before my exchange semester

Let’s start with a classic Tango: Carlos Gardel’s “Por Una Cabeza” and Al Pacino dancing on this theme in “Scent of a Woman”, and also Paloma San Basilio with the famous song “No Llores Por Mí Argentina”:

Followed by some current and older top charts of Latin America’s rock and pop (Enrique Iglesias with “Donde Estan Corazon”, Karina’s “Corazon Mentiroso”, “Lejos De Ti” by Amaya Hermanos, Grupo 5 with “Te Vas”, Ricardo Arjona’s “Te Quiero”, “Chica Sexy” by Karicia, Tacabro with “Tacata”, Duo Dinámico’s “Resistiré”, “La Bolsa” by La Bersuit, Attaque 77 with “Arrancacorazones” and “Hacelo Por Mi”, Gusttavo Lima’s “Balada Boa” and all-time classic “De Musica Ligera” by Soda Estereo which you should of course know by heart):

Now we’re coming to the one and only sound you’ll ever here in a “boliche”: La Cumbia Argentina!
Starting with two rather funny songs about philosophy and mathematics by Los Wikipedia/Sin Codificar, then Nene Malo with “El Garrote” and “Si Te Agarro” by Maximo Y Su Champions Liga (one of the innumerable amount of cumbia covers), Rafaga’s “Mentiroso” and finally two top hits by Nene Malo (“Como Me Gusta La Noche” and “Bailan Rochas Y Chetas”):

Okay, the cumbia gets pretty annoying in the long run and the rhythm seems to be always the same. So I’ll conclude with another important music style in Latin America: Reggaeton!
Don Omar with “Ella Y Yo” and “Danza Kuduro”, King Africa and “Bomba”, Tapo and Raya with “Quitate El Top”, “La Pregunta” by J Alvarez, Daddy Yankee’s “Pasarela” and “Lovumba”, Daddy Yankee featuring J Alvarez with “El Amante” and finally “Actua” by J Alvarez featuring Don Omar and Daddy Yankee: