Graduation in Argentina

University graduation in Argentina

Probably you imagine now a fancy dinner with boys and girls in fancy clothes, bottles of wine and classical music.

Aha…

It was my 4th or 5th day in Argentina, when my friend Andrulo graduated. I was so grateful to him for his hospitality and happy for such a big moment in his life, that i dressed up nicely and bought flowers. And this was my first cultural embarrassment, that he has been reminding me ALL the time 🙂

Because graduation in Argentina is a different thing!
First of all it’s quite random timewise. People graduate, whenever they are done with their exams, projects and whatever that is missing. It is similar to Slovenian system, which is actually convenient, if you are busy with other projects and able to coordinate your studies, work and other things.
Second thing is age. You can meet 22-year-old graduates, 26 years, 30 years being in same groups.
Third thing is a procedure that truly shocks!

So it was 5 pm in the big room where a charismatic professor was naming people and saying results of the semester and giving notes (from 1 to 10, usually it would be 8,9). As the we were waiting long to start, i got bored and just took out my camera to interview Andrus:

And then after announcement we followed outside of the university where i was given some eggs and other random products.

And then the real graduation started – with throwing all the weird stinky leaky things. The graduated person could only accept all that and be thankful! So this is how it looks like:

And imagine now same process in winter, when it’s actually cold outside! Usually parents of the graduate have a cleaning role: they bring a lot of water, towels, new clothes and help the person to get nice and human again 🙂