Fun facts

This picture is as we were leaving Baradero last week. Very pretty. Horacio and Silvia and I completed our very exciting task of report-writing and had a nice time of fellowship.

Fun facts:

1. Like in many countries, stoves here do not have pilot lights. So, I turn on the gas and then light the stove (or oven, but let's get serious, I haven't used the oven yet) with a match.
2. Easter Monday is a holiday here. We had this in Italy, too, when I was an exchange student, so I looked up the reason since nobody claims that anything historically happened on this day. It turns out that in the past people had over a week off, from Good Friday through the next week. That was shortened to a four-day weekend. In Italy it is celebrated by picnics. I climbed Mount Vesuvius on Easter Monday in 1989!
3. Most stores here still close for the siesta, from 1 pm-ish to 4 pm. Most stores are closed all day on Sundays, and in smaller towns and cities like Baradero they are closed on Saturday afternoons as well. In addition, since many are family-owned and exclusively employ family members, when the family goes on vacation the entire store is closed. The laundromat I now use was closed the two weeks after I arrived for the family's summer vacation.