11 days left in this city

I've had a wonderful experience in Buenos Aires and generally dislike activities that reflect on the past, but I've found myself making lists about what I love about this city and why I should probably actually go back to the US.

Why I should stay here for the rest of my life:

-Fruit and veggie vendors on almost every street

-Excellent 24/7 public transportation

-Alfajores. Giant cookies filled with dulce de leche. This country is pretty addicted to sugar.

-The night life is probably unbeatable

-Fresh squeezed orange juice

-Politically active population

Why I should probably actually go back to the US:

-The food in Argentina... sucks. The diet appears to be salt, beef, potatoes, and more salt. Ok, their beef is good but 1) I don't eat much beef 2) It's apparently really expensive right now.

-'Free' gym at Whitman

- No commute, to get to class anyway

-Getting cat called by any male between the ages of 8 and 80 gets old

-Fresh air, PLEASE. This city is falsely named

-Dog poop on the sidewalks...

-Being able to do my own laundry would actually be a pleasure.

-Being able to get strong enough sunscreen and light enough makeup in the stores is difficult.

-Skim milk. One variety is sold here with 5.2 grams of fat in 200ml. Perhaps 3%?

I know I'm missing plenty of the thoughts that have gone through my mind on this subject. Take this as a sampling.

Uruguay!

I spent a long weekend in Uruguay, celebrating Thanksgiving with my entire program and then heading to the beach for a few days with friends.

The director of our program owns a B&B outside of Colonia, which is 50km across Río de la Plata from Buenos Aires. Our program of about 150 students met on Thursday morning at the ferry terminal in Buenos Aires for the boat ride to Colonia, where a Thanksgiving meal was awaiting us. We took the slow ferry so I enjoyed a long nap. Mario owns a gorgeous house with a lemon orchard and a pool. We enjoyed the 80 degree weather under a giant tent as we feasted on 10 turkeys and lots of veggies. The only thing that was missing were the massed potatoes. Sort of ironic since 'pure de papas' is a very common food in Argentina. They even had pumpkin pie!

I got all the dark meat that my heart desired!

We were then transported to Colonia and our hotels. Colonia is a World Heritage Site with gorgeous Portuguese and Spanish architecture. It felt nice to be out of the congestion of the city and to wander around the town. Two friends and I found a restaurant that had an antique car fashioned with a table and a bench. Still full from Thanksgiving dinner, we just got sangría.

Spanish and Portuguese style houses intermingled. All of the trees are in full bloom, too!

The costanera in Colonia! Buenos Aires is somewhere on the other side of the river.

On Saturday morning, 7 friends and I got on a bus to travel to Punta del Este, a beach town about 4 hours from Colonia. The days were relaxing with trips to the beach and cooking in the hostel. The town is definitely a resort occupied by Argentines and Brazilians during the summer. There weren't very many people at the beach, but it was also only in the 70's with wind.

The famous hand on Brava Beach in Punta del Este.

The sunset was gorgeous on the ferry ride back to Buenos Aires. All of it is thanks to the smog of BA though...

On Tuesday I finished another class by turning in a paper and giving a presentation. I have one more exam on the 10th, the day my parents arrive! I'm getting ready to be back in the US, but I'm excited to see some more of Argentina first.

Snowmen + Shorts?!

There's a fairly famous 'shopping' about 8 blocks from my house called Abasto. I went there today in search of some CDs that I'm going to analyze for a final paper. As I walked down the street in my sandals, shorts, and tank top, I couldn't help but stop and watch as some cranes installed a giant elf and a few oversized gifts above the entrance of the mall.

84 degree weather and elves just don't mix for me!

I ended up having to go closer to downtown to find one of the CDs that is from 2002. As much as I would love to say that I'm not embracing US culture (it is hard to escape here, to my defense), I went to Starbucks for a frap. My mind was blown a little more when I saw the holiday cups with snowmen, which I equate with peppermint lattes and hot chocolate.

I started laughing and felt obligated to explain to this elderly lady why I was laughing. To which she told me I spoke Spanish well.

I have my CDs, and this should at least be a fairly fun essay to write. It WILL be done by Wednesday. On Thursday I'm heading to Colonia, Uruguay to celebrate Thanksgiving as a group of Americans with my entire program. I'm then going to a beach town called Punta del Este for a few days with friends.

Salad=Salt

Major epiphany. Last weekend I went to Mendoza, which is a 13 hour bus ride from Buenos Aires. It's Argentina's wine country and across the Andes from Santiago, Chile. While on the bus, my friend and I were talking/complaining about Argentine food with an Argentine that we met on the bus.

Our major complain-- lack of flavor and way too much salt. And why the heck would anyone put SALT on his/her salad?

This Argentine just looked at us inquisitively. An ensalada (salad) is salada (salted); they come from the same root! I didn't quite want to believe this, since we (or at least I) never put salt on salads.

Merriam Webster origin of salt: Middle English salade, from Middle French, from Old Italian (northern dialects) salata, salada, from salar to salt, fromsal salt, from Latin.

Let's just say that I have started a list of things that I am 1) going to miss about Argentina 2) looking forward to in the US. Salted salads is most definitely not on the first list.

This post is a form of procrastination

But I did do some things of note this weekend.

Friday:

-I intended to work on a paper I have. That didn't happen.

-I watched the news as South American leaders such as Hugo Chavez arrived in Buenos Aires for Kirchner's wake.

-I went to Starbucks to work on my paper. I ended up talking for two hours in Spanish to an Argentine who spoke to me in English. She is planning a trip to the West Coast of the US.

-The employees had asked where I was from (guess my Argentine accent isn't perfect yet, ha), and it was fun to say from Seattle! They then asked me about Pike's Place.

-I went to see Red social (Social Network) with friends. It was really good, but I let hating all the characters. No one was too likable.

-Gwen and I then went to a house party that someone in my class was hosting. My first Argentine party! We then went to a boliche.

Saturday:

-After three hours of sleep, I met up with a guy from my program to hop on a bus for two hours to go to a zoo in Luján.

-We were able to pet lions and tigers. No bears though:( I had heard the animals were drugged, but from what I read online they are just very well fed and trained with domestic animals. And if they are in a bad mood, the visitors just can't enter the cages.

Just chilling with the tigers!

He bit me in the butt. I probably deserved it.

Los elefantes!

And of course, holding el leoncito!

-I then got 12 hours of sleep:)

Today:

-I went running. My calves were still sore from Thursday! I'll just have to make running a more regular activity.

-I came home and my host mom insisted that I'm her daughter for the next 6 weeks. Despite the program saying that I'm responsible for lunch, when I'm home for lunch, she'll cook and we'll eat together. I can't complain! We also spent a few hours drinking tea, looking through the book my mom made for me with pictures from my birth to high school graduation, and showing her a map of the US to explain where I live and where all my relatives live.

-I have spent the afternoon and evening eating cookie dough and thinking about writing my paper as well as skyping with my parents and Aunt Kappy.

The next few days will be full of Alfonsina Storni and feminist literary theory. My host mom is convinced that I'm smart and can whip it out quickly. We'll see:)

One down, three to go!

One of the universities where I have class ends ridiculously early. So today official marked the last day of Medicina Laboral! No more 8:30 class (although it was only once a week). I've had class at Whitman earlier than that, but it's a little different when I don't live 5 minutes from the classroom. There is technically a final, but you don't have to take the final if you do well enough on the midterm exams and other work in the class. I asked the professor, and he said I don't need to take the final. Awesome.

On the way home from class today on the way to the subway I passed la Casa Rosada where half the population has gathered to mourn Kirchner. No one seemed to like him before, but now that he's dead, he was the best thing that happened to Argentina. We were told to avoid big groups like this in fear of demonstrations turning violent, but I wasn't too concerned about this group getting rowdy.

La Casa Rosada y un montón de gente

I also when on my first city run! There's a park about 8 blocks away that's a giant circle. I saw 1400 meters marked on the sidewalk, so I take that it's a little less than a mile in diameter. The weather was so nice today- about 70 with a little wind.

Even with only 3 days of class this week, I'm feeling pretty tired at the moment. I've been watching Kirchner news but changed it to Latin music videos. I think I'll start planning our 3 week Argentina/Brazil adventure. I'm getting excited for my family to get here in 6 weeks! Where has the last 3 1/2 months gone?

A sad day for Argentina

I woke up this morning to the news the ex-president, and current president's husband, Nestor Kirchner died of a suspected heart attack this morning. He was thought to be a likely candidate for the 2011 presidential election and is known to have quite a bit of power in the current administration. From talking to my host mom and my friends about the reactions of their families, it sounds like most people accept that this could affect the political situation in the country substantially. No one seemed devastated by his passing though, meaning that most of the host families are generally against the Kirchners' politics.

Today was also the national census. The census is conducted on one day here, making it a national holiday where census workers come door to door. One person must be in each household, and they can't leave the house until their census is taken. ALL businesses were closed today, minus a few kiosks that seemed be opened illegally. It made for an eerie morning walking around the city where tourists, census workers, and police officers appeared to be the only people out.

I celebrated the national holiday by having a picnic in a park with friends. We spent almost all day there, and I managed to get a pretty significant sunburn on my back. I brought oatmeal raisin cookies, which my new host mom helped be make. I had gone to a store looking for the ingredients, but couldn't find things like brown sugar or baking soda. My host mom, Laura, went to the store with me yesterday evening and helped me find the ingredients and then helped me use the oven. The ovens here are gas and need to be lit with a lighter and don't have temperature gages. The cookies turned out pretty well considering my rather imprecise measurements in metric units and the oven.

I moved last Tuesday and am so much happier here. My new host mom is amazing. I was welcomed to the house with a few brand new towels (since I'm so tall I needed bigger towels:) and a non-stick pan after I had mentioned that I like to cook. She has been very talkative and interested in learning about me. I've also woken up to her making me breakfast multiple times and insisting on washing all my dishes. I still need to explore my new neighborhood and am debating my gym options, but am quite comfortable here!

Random fact

Oranges and other similar citrus fruit actually have seeds here. I am reminded of this after eating half a mandarina and spitting out 23 seeds. You can do the math to figure out how many seeds in total. I'm not sure where I stand on genetically modified food, but I can't say I mind the seedless citrus in the US.

Lazy day!

This week went by very quickly, thanks to Monday being a holiday and never having classes on Friday. Last night I went to a movie with some friends called La familia. You would never guess from the way that movie titles are changed between English and Spanish, but it was the movie And the Kids Were All Right. It was a very relaxing way to finish off the week. There was a shout out to Buenos Aires in the script, something about the beef being so fresh that the cows are still mooing on your plate. We all appreciated it. The movie was followed by a Quilmes, the national beer.

Today I ran errands. I was only partially successful.

- I managed to get 25 pesos in monedas at the bank!

- I bought some black sandals that I'd been shopping around for.

- I was not however able to find a copy of Respiración artificial by Ricardo Piglia that I need for class. Apparently it's about to be reprinted, but that just means no one has the old copy. Needless to say, I walked down a street that is known for it's 123920 bookstores and none of them had it. I'm not really looking forward to reading 200 pages on my computer screen...

- I also stopped by the program center looking for Kenna's package, but it still hasn't arrived:( PS You're all welcome to send me letters! I'll return the favor!

- I went to lunch with David, another Whitman student who is here, and his girlfriend who is visiting. We went to sushi, and I got the "Philadelfia" roll. I can't wait for some Ahola Sushi in Walla Walla.

Another topic: Las tomas a la UBA

Before coming to BsAs, everyone who had studied here told me that I needed to take a class at the Universidad de Buenos Aires. The huge, 300,000 students, public (aka free) university. For whatever reason I decided not to take classes there, but I am now incredibly thankful that I'm not. For most of the semester, the facultades of Filosofía y Letras and Ciencias Sociales have been closed due to student strikes. The students started the strikes in solidarity with high school student strikes, who were protesting the deteriorating states of their buildings and supplies and general lack of funding. Some university professors are holding public classes in the street, others have class in cafes, some are online, and others just aren't meeting. The program that I'm in has been forced to implement "Plan B" in order to ensure that people who were enrolled at UBA receive credit. The options include an independent study/20 page paper or a selection of newly created classes offered through our program. I'm just glad I don't have to worry about it!!

Other random things:

- I'm moving on Monday to a new house.

-It's 10:23 and we still haven't eaten dinner. This schedule is killing me, my body refuses to adapt.

-It's Mother's Day here on Sunday!

Over due post!!

Life has gotten busy! I've been in the middle of midterms here. I had three exams within a week of each other, and two papers to write. I wrote on of the papers about mining for my Medicina Laboral class. It's 10 pages long- the longest paper I've ever written. I guess that's how it goes when I don't write very many papers for the classes I take in the US. I still need to outline a paper about Alfonsi Storni and feminism (errr.... or where ever it goes once I start it) for this Thursday. I feel like I'm working a lot on my school work, but I've also gotten some rather disappointing grades back. I think I will just be reassessing my expectations are far as grades, reminding myself that I'm here to learn Spanish and can only try my best!

I've also decided I'm going to move host families. I'll move in about a week to the barrio Almagro. Nothing is entirely unbearable about my situation now, but I think I'll be more comfortable once I move. I'm excited to explore a part of the city that I would otherwise not know!

Last weekend I went to Rosario, which is the 3rd largest city in Argentina and about 4 hours northwest of BsAs. The trip was organized by the program so there were 100 of us traveling together. Not my favorite was to travel but it was still a 'free' trip to a beautiful city. It was a lot more calm than BsAs, but a little more than 24 hours felt like enough time to see what was there. We took a walking, bus, and boat tour of the city. There are pics on facebook, but I don't feel like uploading them here.

This weekend I've been staying with my friend Caroline and her brother in a hotel in Palmero (another barrio in BsAs). Caroline is from Brazil but went to my high school for a year and a half. She came to visit, so I've spent the weekend playing tourist. The last month has really started to feel like I'm actually living here and not just a tourist passing by. It's been nice to take a break from my life that has felt pretty hectic recently. Again, there are lots of pics on facebook from this weekend. We did quite a few things that I haven't done yet since getting here like walking around Puerto Madero, going to the Sunday San Telmo fería, visiting some shopping districts, and entering some churches with gorgeous architecture.

It's starting to get warm here and spring has certainly arrived. Considering that sweat is already dripping down my back in the subway when it's 70 degrees out, I'm not really looking forward to the results of 90 degrees and packing into a subway car like sardines.

Tomorrow is a 'holiday'. According to what I just looked up, Saturday through Monday are Día de las Americas. A different spin on Christopher Columbus.

Off to bed now! Between sleep last night and naps today, I might have gotten 5 hours of sleep total.

Frueza bruta

Sorry for not updating in a while but classes have started to get pretty busy. I had an art exam yesterday, and I have two exams this Thursday... followed by a 10 page paper and presentation due the next Thursday and another paper and presentation the next Thursday!

A few random things that I've done in the last week:

-Last Saturday I went to a rugby game. It was fairly interesting, but since I don't actually know the rules it got a little boring after an hour and a half.

-On Sunday night I went to a tango and a rock class. I think I got the basic steps down for tango by the end but it was a struggle. The idea of being guided by a male partner is not something that's very well engrained in me... thank goodness.

-On Wednesday I went to a field hockey practice with a team that is connected with one of the universities that I'm going to. Most of the players don't actually go there, but I guess they know the coach. They started practicing three weeks ago but I didn't hear about the team until last week. There were 3 other girls who from the US there, 2 of which played in the US and the other is someone who I play lacrosse with/again in Washington. She started playing with the field hockey team a few weeks ago and assured me that I can pick up on it. Let's just say using the stick to precisely control where the ball goes is pretty difficult. It's also worth mentioning that field hockey appears to be the only sport that girls play here. The national team just won the (what I believe were) world championships again Holand a few weeks ago.

-Last night I went to a show called Fuerza Bruta that had been recommended to me by other students. It consisted of people running across a wall while suspended by harnesses, dancing angrily on stage, and swimming/sliding in a huge 'pool' that was suspended from the ceiling. I'm not sure what I was supposed to get out of it other than brute force.

Off to study for my exams!!

Feliz día de...

Today is the first day of spring as well as Día del estudiante (Day of the Student). As a result, there are no classes.

I will celebrate by studying all day for the three exams that I have heading my way.

Tandil!

I went on a lovely trip with Cailey to Tandil this past weekend. Tandil is a city of about 100,000 five hours south of BsAs in the southern pampas. It's still in the province of Buenos Aires, but the pace of the city was much slower than the capital. I'll outline some highlights of the trip. I know if I keep writing long posts no one will read them (except for you mom).

Thursday:

-We left n the afternoon and traveled by omnibus (double decker buses that seem to be the popular way for Argentines to travel as well). We had the best seats in the house, the first two seats on the second deck.

-I awoke from a nap at about 10pm to the bus swerving into the left lane to pass a truck, at which point I decided to put my seatbelt on. The buses and trucks seem to have an advanced form of communicated through flashing their headlights. I'm sure this exists in the US too, but I just don't travel on two lane roads that often at night, I guess.

Friday:

-It was really rainy but Cailey and I walked the 15 blocks to the tourist office.

-We headed to Epoca de Queso to try out the picadas, which Tandil is known for. We ordered a $115 peso plate of cured meats and cheeses and beer. We were seated in a small side room with a fire, so we shredded our wet socks and shoes to dry them out. The picadas were excellent and we had enough for a picnic the next day. My smartwool socks got a little singed but the fire. At least I had mostly dry shoes and socks!!

- That night we went to a club. It was only $6 cover!! Much less than the $25-$40 for females (more for guys) that we pay in the city. We ended up leaving at 3 because the music was all Cumbia, not our favorite.

Saturday:

-We took a walk to an artisanal market in a park. We ate our leftover picadas there.

-The best value of the weekend: We went on a tour of cabalgatas, horse riding, for two hours, followed by the guide, Gabriel, singing and playing guitar, and us drinking mate. The view during the tour was gorgeous and it was nice to get out an experience some nature. I now remember that there are animals other dogs and cats in the world.

Sunday:

-We went to two sites that have huge rocks that are famous for the their size and precarious positioning. Both places had nice views for the city.

Monday:

-We went in search of some goods to bring back. We had tried licor de dulce de leche during our cabalgata tour and wanted some to bring back. Since getting back to the city, I've seen it in grocery stores, too, but I guess I payed the price for some artesian licor de dulce de leche. I also bough 25 pesos of cheese from Epoca de Queso. One was their basic variety and the other was a harder cheese with garlic. I made a delicious omelet for lunch today with the garlic cheese.

- We got back on the bus at noon. I napped a little, did homework, and enjoyed the view of the country side.

I slept in today because I didn't have any class, then took my laundry to the laundry mate and went to MALBA, an art museum (but I don't remember what letters stand for). I've been at a cafe, doing some reading for the last few hours and will head to the gym shortly.

FÚTBOL

In case you haven't heard the news, Argentina beat the World Cup campions Spain yesterday 4-1. I went with Cailey, and our seats were 8 rows behind and to the right of the goal were 4 of the 5 goals were scored. We got pretty lucky. However, we did not pay for our tickets together, so we were not assigned seats next to each other. We had to move around a few times during the first twenty minutes since we had taken other people's seats, but found seats next to each other during the middle of the first half. Lesson learned, there are not a lot of unoccupied seats at Argentine fútbol games.

To say the least, it was exciting to watch the game and observe how obsessed Argentines are with soccer. During the national anthem, everyone was adding some kind of sound affect to the lyrics. Cailey and I decided that would be entirely unpatriotic and taboo in the US. There were also many soccer chants sung that everyone else seemed to know. At the end of the game, there were fireworks. Excitement was minimal in the end since the game was not exactly neck in neck (the score was 3-0 at half time).

Here are some pics:

The national anthems and ceremony before the game.

Not a bad view.

After the second or third goal.

This weekend I'm heading out of the city for the first time! I'm going to a city of 100,000 in the Southern Pampas called Tandil. We haven't set our agenda, but the goal is to do some laid back activities. There are estancias near by where we can experience the life of a gaucho for the day. I'll update when we get back! We're leaving tomorrow (Thursday) and getting back Monday evening.

¡Chau chau BsAs!

The past week

Last weekend I ended up getting sick, resulting in a pretty low key week.

On Saturday I called the doctor that our program recommends. I experienced my first home visit by a doctor. I was mostly worried because I had a cough that felt pretty deep and thought I might have bronchitis. In the end, he wasn't very worried, but gave me a prescription for cough syrup, antibiotics, and a decongestant. I'm probably contributing to the problem of resistance to antibiotics, but a week later, I feel pretty darn good. The visit was $180 (pesos) and the meds were about $100. From that I can deduce that doctors here live a slightly different lifestyle than those in the US. Less than 50 dollars for a home visit on a Saturday is pretty cheap.

On Tuesday I went to the final competition for 'Tango Festival y Mundial,' a yearly international competition. I saw the tango escenario final, as opposed to tango salón, which was the night before. I have no idea what the difference is. The dancing was amazing, but after 20 dances, they all sort of blended together. Here's the performance of the couple that won:

On Thursday I had my first 'parcial' (midterm) in my medicina laboral class. Overall, I thought it went pretty darn well. In the afternoon I went to an art gallery in San Telmo. I'm doing a mini-presentation about the exhibit on Wednesday for my art class. It was titled 'inconsciente óptico' (Unconscious optics) and was a series of 5 or 6 videos. I made the powerpoint last night, before I went to a street called Baez that is relatively close to my house that has bars and restaurants.

Also of note, I bought my first umbrella yesterday. Despite the rain in the Northwest, an umbrella is usually more of a hassle than a necessity. But I decided I really needed one here since I have to wait for buses and walk a few blocks from the bus stops.

Today:

-Going to pick up my ticket for the Argentina v Spain game that is TUESDAY.

-Researching where Cailey and I want to travel next weekend. I think I have a 5 day weekend since I don't have classes on Fridays and I only have one class on Monday. I think I have a break of 2 1/2 for my Monday/Wednesday class during a mid-term exam period.

-Perhaps some window shopping/hanging out with friends as they shop

I really hope the weather clears up soon!!!

Hoy

As I was about to leave the house this morning, I got a call from Gwen, who was already at the university, telling me that class was cancelled. I only have one class on Wednesdays, but I had a few errands to run.

These errands mainly involved running around the city looking for la lectura (readings) for a few of my classes for the rest of the semester. Unlike Whitman, I cannot show-up to the bookstore with a few hundreds of dollars in cash and leave with everything that I'll have to read for the semester.

For my introducción al arte class, it's fairly simple to get my reading material. I go to the basement of the building to the copy center and tell them what I want copied. I've been buying a few weeks of reading at a time.

For medicina laboral, the notes are put online and there appears to be no further reading. I was having people from the class email me the notes because I didn't have a username or password. Good news- username has been obtained! I just went to a copy center a few blocks from my house to print out the notes for tomorrow's class.

I just found out the theme of my Castellano Mantenimiento class- Música popular urbana en una Argentina de fin de siglo. One third of the class will be devoted to studying Argentine music from the 1960's to present, while the rest of the class will be 1/3 grammar and 1/3 literature. On Tuesday, I shelled out 74 pesos at a copy center to buy a copy of all of the lyrics that we'll be studying this semester. And today I went to our program center where 2 GB of music was waiting for me to burn to CDs.

The class that is driving me up the wall is Argentina en palabras. This class has easily 80 pages of reading a week, but there is absolutely no centralized location where I can find the material. The material is either 1) available for free online 2) will be emailed 3) at the copy center in the basement of the building 4) in a box in the library 5) most easily obtained at a bookstore 6) or the location is still to be determined. I probably spent three hours today and have less than half of the readings in my possession. In any case, I have the 20 poems by Borges for tomorrow sitting in front of me.

Despite not having class, I have not managed to actually do any homework.

I must say I am truly enjoying my time here, and that you might be getting a skewed perspective- seeing how I just blogged about one of the many frustrations of living in a foreign country.

**********

Update on the recurring theme of monedas. I went to a bank today, handed the teller a 100 peso bill and asked for monedas. I have known that banks will give you 10 pesos in monedas, but banks are only open from 10-3pm. I was pleasantly surprised when she handed me 20 pesos in change. To celebrate, I rode the bus home.

The subte is generally faster than the colectivos and gets me within 10 blocks of where I want to go. The colectivos are less crowded, but require monedas and take longer. It was an hour long bus ride from UCA to my house this afternoon. I got a seat, but it was in the second row. Seat security in this zone is fairly close to zero. Every time an elderly person, expecting mother or mother with young children, or handicapped person gets on the bus, the people in the first few rows give up their seats. Today I just spent the hour debating if the lady or man who just got on the bus looked old enough for me to get up and give them my seat. The conclusion every time was no. Oh the moral dilemma of riding the bus (and the subway as well).

I just took a nice 45 minute nap, and now I'm on to reading some Borges.

Here are a few pics from my trip to the Japanese Garden and Boca this weekend:

Gwen and I making fishy faces in the Jardín japonés.

Emma, Bailee, Gwen, and I posing in the slightly overrated Jardín japonés.

On the street called Caminito in Boca. This is BsAs tourist heaven. Maradona (hand of god) is on the second story balcony.

With Renato and his cousin Santi in front of the Boca Junior stadium.

There's a she wolf in the closet...

Normally I would be happy to hear Shakira blasting in my neighborhood, but this is not the way I prefer to be woken up at 10:30 on a Saturday when I went to be bed at 6:30 am. Actually, this is probably a very good way to be woken up- I'm just opposed to the unreasonably early hour that my neighbor decided to turn the volume up.

In any case, this serves as a wonderful example of the music here. Pop music from the US is played constantly here, typically with a remixed, techno beat in the boliches (clubs). I am personally a fan of the 'bad' pop music that is replayed endlessly on the radio in the US. But I was very amused yesterday when I was siting in a small, independent cafe, taking a break from shopping and eating empanadas and cafe con leche for lunch at 5 yesterday, and Justin Bieber started playing. This cafe appeared to be owned an operated by men in their 60's and 70's. I think I'll just credit the music selection to streaming internet radio.

This just serves as one example, but I managed to get really excited whenever I here music that I know. This occurs pretty much everywhere, but especially at the gym, in stores, and in the boliches. The boliches that I have frequented also play reggaeton and cumbia. For those of you who care to know, I've met an Argentine amigo who has tried to teach me how to dance to this music here. It involves very fluid hips and small, quick steps. Let's just say I need a lot more practice, and Renato is a very patient man for bearing with me and multiple unsuccessful lessons.

Here are a few songs that I enjoy and seem to be popular in the clubs:




I spent Thursday night with Cailey and other friends, celebrating Cailey's 21st birthday. I went shopping yesterday and finally bought a pair of leather boots. Leather boots are worn by pretty much everyone here. I bought dark brown boots that hit mid-calf, and are fairly simple. I wore them out last night and they stretched a bit in the width with is what I needed. Last night we went to a bar called Sabbia. There was a group of Argentines celebrating a birthday, and we joined them in the festivities for a few hours. We had to insist that they speak Spanish a few times. In they end, we just practiced our Spanish and let them practice speaking English. I did learn one interesting thing though through an English explanation. The preface to the story- my Spanish professor at Whitman will occasionally say 'sí, sí,' which means 'yes, yes.' The explained his usage as being more or less equivalent to the common ticks for 'um' and 'like' in English. It appears I picked up on this and was affirming that I understood this guy by saying 'sí, sí.' He eventually starting laughing, explaining that it was my usage of 'sí, sí' that he found funny. Apparently this has a connotation of yes, I already know/get out of here/go to hell. I guess I'll have to work on my usage of that.

Today I'm going to a festival at the Japanese Garden, eating with friends, and meeting up with Renato. Tomorrow we're going to la Boca neighborhood where the famous colorfully painted houses are. There's also a tango show there. I should have some more pictures soon.

Off to the gym and then showering to cleans myself of the odor of smoke. This is a futile activity since the results will last 5 minutes tops.

Barrio chino

I live 2 blocks from BsAs's Chinatown. I walk through part of it twice a week going to and from Di Tella, but I haven't spent very much time actually looking around. I went on a little walk there today because I needed a break from homework.

Something about it was just a little too funny. It was as though I was in any Chinatown in the US. This feeling really should not have been too surprising since Chinatowns are more about China than the country they are in. I did find a source of skippy peanut butter, top roman, and hot sauce. I may have said this before, but the only spice used here is salt. Maybe some Italian seasoning is thrown in occasionally, but that's about it.

I bought some hot sauce in an oriental store. My decision about which hot sauce to buy was made solely on which I could buy and get the most monedas in change. One was $7.80 and the other was $11. If I got the $7.80 one, I would have payed with a ten and gotten a $2 in cash back and $0.20 back in monedas (coins). I ended up getting the $11 peso one, giving the cashier a 10 and a 2 peso bill. She promptly asked me if I had a one peso moneda (so that she could give me $2 in cash back, and save the precious coin in the register). I keep my monedas in a coin purse, but I pretended to fumble around in my wallet looking for a one peso moneda. In the end I scored a one moneda peso in return. I did the same thing later with $3.25 cookies, giving the cashier a $5 bill. I pretty much maximized my moneda acquisition with that one.

I will be spending the semester lying about whether or not I have coins. Perhaps this whole thing should have been prefaced with the fact that monedas are the only was to ride the bus here. I realized last night that I had less than 2 pesos in monedas and that's only enough for one bus ride.

Morcilla, chinchulines, y riñones

I think I can categorize my experiences of last night as being truly Argentine.

I woke up around 4 pm yesterday and joined Cailey at the gym. I went back home and ate 'lunch' around 6:30. Cailey and I took the subte to an upscale shopping mall in Palermo. I'm on the lookout for some leather boots, but this place was just a little more expensive than I'm willing to pay. I encountered the second Starbucks that I've seen in the city. The other one is on a pedestrian street called Florida that is very geared toward tourists, go figure.

We then made our way to a theater called Teatro del Perro (Theater of the Dog). The theater occupied a street corner, but there was absolutely no sign to identify the building from the outside. We arrived around 10:30 but were too early for the show. We found a restaurant where we could eat dinner, but they didn't have very much of what was listed on their menu actually available. After trying to order chorizo (sausage), the woman explained that they could put together a sampler plate of the cuts that were on the grill. We were sitting right in front of the grill and as I watched the man prepare the meats, I decided I had absolutely no desire to know what 'cuts' they were. When the food came I could identify the chorizo, blood sausage (morcilla), some very fatty chicken, something very tubular, and something that tasted like chicken. The very tubular 'meat' ended up being chinchulin (intestines) and the meat that tasted like chicken was in fact riñones (cow kidney). At least I've tried enough to know that I'll stick with only the chorizo in the future. We also had some very delicious pure de calabaza (pumpkin), which is a popular side dish.



We returned to the theater so watch the show. It was mainly featuring a tango band of 10-12 people, but a few couples put on their dancin' shoes and joined the show. The venue was a large room with a bar on one side and a dance floor covering the other half of the room. There were chairs lining the wall, but we sat on the floor in front of the band and the space left for the dancers. This was the first time that I've seen tango, but it was much less rigid than the stereotypical image of tango. It was incredibly fun to watch and well worth the 15 pesos it cost to enter.



Tomorrow is the day that the death of General José de San Martin is observed so I'm getting an extra long weekend. According to Wikipedia, San Martin helped liberate Argentina as well as Peru and Chile. I'm about to get ready for the day and go shopping in the leather district of BsAs.

¡Chau! Y feliz día del libertador José de San Martín!

Correo

Shout outs to Uncle Jeff, Haya, Mom, and the Pierce County Auditor's office for sending me mail here in Argentina! If you send me a letter, I'll return the favor.

My address here is-

Monica Paulson
Institute for Study Abroad
Av. Corrientes 880, 8°C
C1043AAV, C.A.B.A.
Argentina


I believe I'm off to get ready for my first tango show!

Yes I've been busy

Sorry it's been a while since the last update. I've realized that life is enough different here that it's impossible to convey everything. I'll just have to choose what you get to hear about.

Classes started two weeks ago. We have a month long period where we can try out classes to decide which classes we actually want to enroll in. This had lead to more hours of class and longer days than I'm accustomed to. I've decided on a Argentine Lit class at the Universidad Catolica Argentina, a class called 'Medicina Laboral' at the Universidad del Salvador, and an art class at Di Tella. I'll also be taking a Spanish class through the program. Each university has it's own feel, but I am missing out a tad by not taking classes at the Universidad of Buenos Aires, which is public, free to everyone, and has 300,000 students. The stories I've heard from other people include Marxist stickers on the back of all the chairs, the professors smoking during the whole class as well as bringing their children, and homeless people wondering the halls.

This Wednesday and Thursday I went to two plays. One was Tatuaje by Alfredo Arias. It was about Miguel de Molina and Eva Peron. The acting and singing was excellent, but I can't tell you much about the plot. I understood the individual scenes, but didn't understand how they all fit together.

Last night I saw Un dios salvaje, which was very easy to follow. It basically involved two couples united by a fight that involved their sons. The couples proceeded to get very drunk and fight- the perfect plot for foreign students who don't understand the subtle humor of language in Spanish. After each play, the director of our program took the 8-10 of us out to dinner. I had very delicious salmon salad and milanesa on Wednesday followed by flan with dulce de leche. Last night I had veggie ravioli with bolognesa sauce and dulce de leche ice cream. I'll need to watch how many 3 course meals I eat... so much food.

Today I had a busy day of errands. Going to the gym, grocery shopping, going to the photocopier at Di Tella to print the next month's worth of reading (they don't use books- just photocopies), finding the US embassy to mail my ballot for free, and going to BsAs Fashion Week.

I'm going to nap now and go out in a bit! Monday also happens to be a holiday- so I'll get a four day weekend.

One of the things I've decided I will just never understand...

WHY THE HECK CAN'T I DO MY OWN LAUNDRY?!?!?!

There are lavaderos (Laundromats) on every street, but they are valet service. The person there washes your clothes for you.

So last week, after being here for about a week and a half, I decided I needed to do laundry. The truth is, I just didn't bring that may clothes. I elected to not have my jeans or pj's washed to save $$, but I had a few articles that I didn't want in the dryer. I went to the lavadero, explained that I didn't want the articles in the specified bag put in the dryer, and was told I could return within 3 hours or by 7:20 that evening. I wasn't able to pick up my clothes until the next morning, but it cost 36 pesos. That's a little more than 10 bucks. The price was a little more than I expected since most things are cheaper here than in the US (but maybe I've just gotten used to free laundry at school). I figured I'd just bring my laundry to the lavadero this week and do it myself.

I lied, I actually can do my own laundry, but the price is the same, whether I do it myself or the owner does it. That just doesn't make sense to me. I've become accustomed to washing certain clothing in hot water, others by hand, some go in the dryer, some are hung; therefore, doing my own laundry is more convenient than explaining to someone else how I want my clothes washed. This also results in more small loads and more money.

I ended up doing my own laundry today with help of the owner as he explained how to operate the machines. I used 3 washers (totally could have fit it into two) and one dryer. The result being my room filled with half dry jeans and my bathroom crowded with damp shirts and underwear. It was 32 pesos, but at least I got all my clothes washed this time.



The remedy: Yesterday I bought a small tub, so I can hand wash the clothes that I don't want in the dryer. Today my jeans might have gotten the only bath they're getting in the next 6 months. I will bring the rest of my clothes to the lavadero for valet service when necessary, but will skip the dryer. That should run me about 16 pesos a week.

But why aren't there self-service laundry mats here?!

Let the classes begin.

The semester starts tomorrow at most the universities that I'm considering enrolling in. I've selected roughly 10 classes to try out during our month of 'shopping.' I'll take 3 or 4 of them in the end, along with the required Spanish class through the program. Many of the classes that I wish to try overlap in schedule or have little time between them but are far away from each other, so I'll just have to try my best to get to the classes that I can. This should be a very filled few weeks. With the exception of Fridays, which I have chosen to keep free.

I'm going to try out a few Spanish literature, Argentine history, art, phycology, and science classes. I should be able to finish Whitman's distribution requirements, as well as my Spanish minor and perhaps one class toward my major.

Tomorrow I have an art class at the university that is close to my house, and then a history class during the evening.

Updates to come!

Vacas gordas y dulce de leche

The last few days have been filled with preparations for enrolling in classes at the local universities. I have the choice between taking classes at the Universidad Cátolica Argentina (UCA), Universidad del Salvador (USAL), the Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA), Universidad Torcuato Di Tella (UTDT), or through the program center. We have a month long shopping period to try out different classes. I'll expand on this area when I actually know what I'm going to register for.

The US Embassy came to talk to us for an hour yesterday- the first/only activity in English. I guess they wanted to make sure we understood the message. The message generally involved not carrying your passport, using the buddy system, talking to your parents, don't use illegal drugs because you will be in Argentine prison for 4-5 years, never taking anything of any value to fútbol games, and just giving your stuff to anyone who tries to rob/mug you. It was all stuff I'd heard, but the ambassadors had some pretty sobering stories to illustrate their messages.

On to a happier note, I SAW THE FATTEST COWS EVER TODAY. The city is in the middle of their annual La Rural exposition. According to Lonely Planets, it is "the mother of all livestock fairs." We had three hours free during the middle of the day, so we went for lunch. I got a choripan, which is chorizo (sausage) on bread at it was delicious!! ¡Que rica! This being the only expression that I know to compliment food. After picking up food, we went on to look at some of the animals. The horse were beautiful and were of course accompanied by beautiful Argentine gauchos. But the cow where so fat. I was way to distracted by the cows to know if the people who were showing the cows were good looking or not. Cailey and I both bough tickets to return on Saturday. An hour and a half was not enough!






There was also a car show. The layout remind me a a monster truck show, only the trucks were slowly driving up very steep hills as well as driving onto seesaw type apparatuses and then tipping the seesaw. I don't quite picture the Argentine pampas being this terrain, but who am I to know.




I may not have mentioned this, but my host mother is a very good cook. We had polenta a few days ago, a chicken a veggie dish yesterday, and an onion and corn tart today. I was also exposed to dulce de leche, like carmel only better, today as desert with an apple. There is a popular sweet called Alfajores, which is a layered cookie with dulce de leche layers and covered in chocolate. An American called them Argentine Oreos. I thought I needed to bring a semester supply of peanut butter to Argentina (which I needed to do if I actually wanted to taste peanut butter for 6 months), but I might need to bring a lifetime supply of alfajores back to the US with me.

El gimnasio

Observations:

People don't wear shorts to the gym, especially not women.

The hole where one puts a lock on a locker is smaller here; therefore, my lock didn't work.

I sweat a lot more than Argentines. I sweat a lot more than most Americans, too.

El colectivo

On Saturday morning, I went and signed up for a gym membership. The gym I decided upon is only about $30 a month but I'm getting what I'm paying for I guess. The other gym I was considering is about 3 times more expensive. Treadmills and bicycles comprised most of the cardio equipment. There was one very old elliptical like machine, but either this gym hasn't bought equipment for years or ellipticals aren't as highly revered as they are in the US. While I was on this elliptical thing and a bike I watched a few episodes of Two and a Half Men with Spanish subtitles; there wasn't any sound anyway. The subtitles from English language shows is a pretty good way to pick up vocab.

Later that afternoon, I met up with two other people in my group to go to Caballito, another neighbor, so complete an assigned photo hunt project. We traveled via el colectivo, the bus. I have been taking the subte because it's faster and goes very close to where I've been needing to go for orientation. I had a good time wandering around Caballito and going to coffee. It's wonderful to know that right now we're just here to orient ourselves to the city and language, so wandering can be considered a productive activity. On our intended trip back to Belgrano, the neighborhood where we live, we apparently got on the 55 bus going in the wrong direction. After following the streets via the Guia-T, it was obvious we were going in the wrong direction. We asked the driver, but he said we could just stay on till the end of the line and then he's turn around. At least that's what we thought he said. About 20 minutes later, he told us to get off the bus and go across the street to the stop for the bus going in the other direction. Mmmm... maybe he needed his smoke break, we weren't really sure why the plan changed. In any case, we ended up in Matadores only about 15 km from the international airport around dusk. Pretty sure that's only of the places we were told to avoid. The neighborhood gets worst as you travel south and west. We just happened to end up in southwest Buenos Aires. We waited and waited for a bus, only to have the bus we needed blow by us. After asking a man at the stop why it didn't stop, we said the buses pay meter was broken. How he knew that, I haven't a clue. Transfers don't exist here, so we had to pay again, using our precious monedas. You have to pay for the buses using coins (the one peso piece is a coin), but the coins are scarce. Every time I buy something at the store, they ask if I have change to bring the difference between the cost and what I gave them closer. Doing this in the US tends to either a)confuse the cashier or b) annoy the people waiting in line. My strategy for collecting coins has been just lying and saying I don't have any. It was working pretty well, but I used 5 one peso pieces in the same day. The 3o minute trip turned into two hours, but I got a very nice tour part of town.

I went out to dinner with a group of students from my program. Saturday dinners aren't covered in our housing. We went to a place that has inexpensive steak. To celebrate this, I got chicken instead. The restaurant was busy and there was a girl who was about 10 wondering around our table, I'm sure just waiting for the loud, trusting Americans to make a mistake. The poverty and begging here present just like other big cities, but that subject is for another post.

I left with a friend Cailey, who lives about 8 blocks from me, around 12:30 to go to a bar and meet up with the people we had gone to dinner with. We took the colectivo again. The bus was so packed the dinner didn't make up pay. The diver drove past a group of 4 boys about my age waiting at a stop. We had been waiting for 30 minutes so they were angry when the driver just drove past them. A 5 block sprint/chasing of the bus followed. The bus eventually stopped to let someone off. The guys hopped on via the side door and were welcomed with cheers. There was an exchanging of word, followed by the guys getting off the bus. As was later explained, the driver told the guys to get off or he was getting off. Hopping on via the side door (rather than the front door) is illegal even if one just sprinted 300 meters on cobble stone streets.

After spending some time at the bar, we headed to a club. When we left at 6:30, we couldn't find a free tax. At least 50 passed but they all had people. I even tried calling but the companies didn't answer. Too many people going home at 7 am and not enough taxis! Cailey and I then found a bus that went to our neighborhood. I got home around 7:30 and slept till noon, with hour and a half this afternoon.

I went to the grocery store this afternoon, buying almost 100 pesos worth of food for lunches and other things like laundry detergent. I got a one peso coin in change though! I still need to find a reliable source of monedas nonetheless.

I don't need to be at orientation till 12 tomorrow, but I think I should get to sleep to make up for a few hours of sleep that were sacrificed over the weekend.