Diamante: Lujosamente Natural

On Friday I visited the Diamante, the small town approximately one hour outside of Parana. Facundo and I took the El Indio bus there to visit his family, tour Diamante, and meet with Paula at the private English Institute where she teaches. Parana is a very small city compared to Buenos Aires, and Diamante is even smaller! The majority of Diamante is farm land. As I learned on Friday, aside from Parana, the province of Entre Rios is mostly rural. Looking out the window, the trip from Parana to Diamante sort of reminded me of going westward from Philadelphia to Central PA.

Facundos parents were vely welcoming to me. They offered me mate, complimented me on my castellano, and then invited me to a parilla (traditional Argentine barbeque) at their home out in the country during the weekend of Semana Santa (Easter)! His parents told me a lot about different Argentine dishes, but one that really stands out in my mind is pescado a la pizza or fish pizza. Now, this does not refer to a pizza with fish as a topping; rather, it refers to a fish, deboned, and cooked with tomatoe sauce and cheese on top!!! I cannot wait to try this!

Then, Facundos dad toured me around Diamante in his car, honking his horn and shouting ciao out his window the whole ride to every person on the street and monologing about the sites. I saw the port where ships come in daily with grain to be processed and stored in the nearby silos, the Argentine rodeo stadium, the view of the Parana river , and the soy farms and cow pastures. He taught me the name of every type of cow, according to age and sex. :-) Interestingly, Facundos dad also told me that soy is replacing beef as Argentinas big resource.

Afterward, I visited Paula at the English Institute in Diamante where she teaches primary and secondary school students. I was the guest in 3 classes, and all the students went crazy for me! They had never met an American before! They had a lot of questions for me about music and food in the USA, as well as more personal questions about my boyfriend.... 12 year olds are so nosey! They even asked me for my name so they could friend me on Facebook. I now have about ten new 12 year old Facebook friends! I felt really honored to be the first American and native English speaker they had ever met. After I left the classroom, the students told Paula about how pretty and fashionably dressed I was! Apparently, they were not expecting an American to be either of those things. They were also shocked and thrilled about how well they could understand me. I hope that our meeting inspired them to continue with their studies in English. I plan on going back to Diamante on Fridays to assist in Paulas classes.