Holiday. Celebrate.

Dan: What?! Another holiday? This country has more holidays than anyone can count. It seems that every month there is at least one day, sometimes more. One time with one of my classses, to practice saying dates, we counted all the days off we could expect in a year in Argentina. I think we came up with 12. But I think there are more than that, holidays that sneak up on everyone. I almost never know one is coming up until the week before. So there are maybe ten national, patriotic holidays; Independence, constitution, San Martin’s death day, Malvinas War, Flag, Labor (these are just the ones we’ve had in the past six months) and then there was a local holiday for the area’s patron saint. Everything is closed a couple days during Semana Santa. Students and teachers of course have the two-week mid-winter holiday, and I think a good 3 months in the summer/ Christmas holiday. But there are also occupation-specific holidays. My class of workers from Obras Sanitarias stayed home on Obras Sanitarias Day. Today I have no classes due to it being Teachers’ Day. I think next week there is a Students’ Day, but I don’t know what happens then. I suppose this would be a boon if I had a regular job which gave me some pay for those holidays. But as it is, I do at least get a chance to sleep in on a Tuesday. I also get to wish all my teacher friends around the world a happy Teachers’ Day. Sorry you don’t have the day off.