these are a few of my favorite things ... part 2

i forgot to mention public holidays!  now, working in a public library i got a fair amount of holidays off.  however, i often had to work the day after thanksgiving, the day after christmas, election day, etc.  but in argentina they sure know how to celebrate a holiday.  first off, everything closes.  EVERYTHING.  there is no office left open.  everyone has off for every holiday.  there's no, "oh, i don't get columbus day off."  not in argentina my dear blog readers!  dia de la raza is celebrated by all!

now, during our time in buenos aires the good president Christina decided that it was a travesty that there was no public holiday in november ... so she created a new holiday!  just so there could be a holiday every month!  (check out the calendar of national holidays, all of which must be kept oh-so-holy and work-free)

then, in march this year, there were two holidays that fell mid-week ... one on a thursday and one on a tuesday.  so it was decided that a feriada puente or "bridge holiday" would be instituted.  this means that if the holiday falls on a thursday, everyone gets off of work thursday and friday.  or if the holiday is on a tuesday, everyone gets off monday and tuesday.  which means that in march we had not one, but two  four-day weekends!  four days!  it may only be one day more, but a four-day weekend totally kicks a three-day weekend's ass.  ah, i remember those sad sad days in hell's library where i was excited by a two-day weekend.  lame.

the only problem with this is the productivity was at an all-time low during march ... everyone was coming off their summer holidays and you'd hear things like, "well because of the two bridge holidays this month, we probably won't get to that until April."  but really, who cares when you have two four-day weekends?

did i ever tell you about the time that the entire city shut down so that they could take the country-wide census all in one day? maybe next time ....