Che, Palos, y Yankys

So this won't be too long of a post, but it was a pretty big deal. Today after Spanish class, while me, Jessie, Mark and Emily were sitting in a restaurant enjoying some lunch, something happened that I had never really expected to see. We were all on the second floor of the restaurant sitting at a table right next to the window. Emily glanced out the window, looking down at Avenida Corrientes and said "Hey look at that cop smoking a cigarette." Mark and Jessie began snickering, thinking that it was another one of Emily's funny observations and kind of poked fun at the fact that she thought a cop smoking a cigarette on a motorcycle was so weird. Within the next minute, the cop was joined by about five others, and at this point it actually seemed like a noteworthy sight. The next thing we know, there was a large procession of people walking down Corrientes. Nearly all of them were wearing bandanas, covering their faces. They held signs that said things like "Down with Israel" and "Get out Yankees". Most interesting of all was that nearly all of them were carrying wooden sticks, basically little clubs. As the procession continued, more anti-American posters and large flags bearing Che Guevara's face passed by us. The protesters were also chanting something we couldn't hear from inside. Needless to say, it made us feel a little bit uncomfortable. I had never seen anything like it in person before. Before we left the restaurant, we decided not to speak while we walked back down Calle Florida towards our Subte stops. The last thing we wanted, after seeing that, was for people around us to hear Emily's strong Virginia accent.