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.

At the rate we're going, we're going to spend the whole semester laughing at ourselves.

Today was full of adventures and mistakes along with the subsequent laughing at ourselves.

After a morning of academic orientation and a presentation about how to interact with the host families, we only had a short language evaluation and then we had the rest of the day to ourselves. After my short conversation that I believe will be used to place me in my Spanish class, I went to a bakery and bought una tarta for lunch. Apparently their system involves taking a number when you enter and waiting for it to be called to order. Let's just say we didn't catch onto this for a few minutes, but we eventually got our food. I got una tarta de espinacas (spinach) but couldn't finish it because I was a little full of coffee.

The time/portions/food of the meals in Buenos Aires of course is a different from what I'm accustomed to. They eat a light breakfast of cafe con leche (which I haven't actually had, but I generally don't want coffee with breakfast) and toast or a croissant. The idea of eating a friend egg for breakfast is silly. I've been eating cereal with a banana. Apparently bananas are the only fruit or vegetable imported in Argentina. They grow the rest. Lunch is usually around 1. I've had a tarta, pasta, and chicken sandwich so far. A light snack with tea or coffee around 6 is apparently popular, but I have yet to partake. Dinner is eaten late. At least after 8, but my family eats later. I've been so busy moving around the city that I haven't had time to be hungry. Lunch at 1, tea at 7 or 8, and dinner at 9:30 have been perfectly fine with me. My host mom said that they don't eat as much beef as the average Argentine-- which Lonely Plants says is 70 kg a year, twice the average American. This is all fine with me because I can't say that I care for beef. But since I'm here, I guess I should take advantage and give it a try.

Back to today--> The men are known to be more forward than an American is accustomed to. However, I was not exactly expecting to need to be on my guard while I was in the IFSA building, waiting outside a door for my oral exam/quiz. The door man was walking around the building and stopped to talk to me. He asked me how my trip here was, for how long I'd be here, etc. Then he told me about a 'bolich' (club) called Shampú, like Shampoo. Before I knew it I my head was nodding, in affirmation that I understood what he was saying, as he asked me if I wanted to come with him and that he'd call me later. I guess I'll have to change my head nod or else I'll be saying yes to all sorts of things. Let's just say he had a good a decade on me, and I won't be leaving the building without a wink anytime soon. Don't worry, he doesn't have my phone number anyway.


There's plenty more to say, but the family is home now, and I'm going out to my first bar tonight!

CAN'T SLEEP

I'm clearly way too excited about this semester to sleep. Everything is rushing through my head-- from trying to remember new words to figuring out how to say certain things.

Alas, I forgot to document a few important Argentine firsts.

1) I tried my first bites of Argentine beef as well as regular sausage and blood sausage. The beef was just plan chewy, the sausage was excellent, and I can't say I'm a fan of the blood sausage.

2) I saw my first protest this evening. I can't tell you where I was of what it was for because I don't know the answer to either question. I'd guess it was involving gay marriage, which was signed into law last week. Argentines are much more politically active in the sense of actually taking action than Americans, from what I understand. But I guess that would have to be the case considering some of the stuff that's gone down in the last half century.

Woo, this will be a short night, but that just means I can take advantage of our earlier release by partaking in another tradition- una siesta.

Los primeros días

I don't even know where to start!

I landed at the airport yesterday around 10am. Customs was extremely smooth with the only question asked being in what manner would I like to pay my U$S 140 reciprocity fee-- not even an explanation of my stay in Argentina. I had some trouble connecting with the coordinators of the program who were supposed to be standing outside of customs with a bright yellow sign. So I read for an hour until I saw a group of students who appeared to be American, at which point I found the coordinators standing behind the group of people waiting outside of customs with the yellow sign set down on top of a box. Hmmm...

The program gave us vouchers for the radio taxis that they had ordered to shuttle us all to our host families. I got to experience driving in the city, which appears to be a generally horribly idea. The seat belts hardly functioned, with our taxi driver rear ending another car during the voyage into Buenos Aires. There was a stalled car ahead, which didn't move when the light turned green. The driver just got out of his car, examined it (no visible damage), and wished the driver a good day. Not the reaction I was expecting.

Upon arriving at my house, I was greeted by my host mom and their dog. I talked with my host mom, unpacked, and tried to nap, which was surprisingly a failure considering that I only had 3 hours of sleep the night before. I then took a shower. I have my own bathroom (with my very own bidet), but the whole bathroom is the shower. I'll have to perfect the art of not flooding the whole house. My host sisters, Mariela 32 and Patricia 24, returned home in time for dinner slightly after 9. The events of the day work on a slightly different time table than in the US, but I've adjusted fine to the late dinning hour just fine so far.

To my surprise and pleasure, my host mom described that she doesn't cook with much beef (in response to my housing application that said that I don't eat much beef at home), and they eat a lot of vegetables. A dinner of soup, zapallito (of course the Italian influenced Spanish word for zucchini) quiche like tart, and salad of carrots, celery, and tomato proved this to be true.

I slept very well, after joining the family in watching silly Argentina entertainment tv show.

This morning my host mom accompanied me to the IFSA (Institute for Study Abroad) office via colectivo, the city bus. The public transportation here is excellent. I'd guess there are over 100 bus routes within the city, 6 subway lines, as well as buses and trains that leave Buenos Aires for other parts of the country.

Today was the first day of our month long orientation. It went very well considering that the people who work for IFSA are 1) very humorous 2) speak more slowly 3) tone down their porteño accent. I'm not going to lie, it very difficult for my to understand the Spanish here. It is heavily influence my Italian and not anything like what I've heard before, but I know know it will just take a little time.

Orientation went well, topics including:

- how to use the "Guia't'"- the guide public transportation, aka the most important thing other than my passport. The title is a joke, which I don't understand yet and need another explanation.

- a warning not to do drugs, but not to do drugs in las calles (streets), los boliches (clubs), la cocina (kitchen), but el baño (bathroom) is fine because there's lots of air

--------------------ooooh, time for dinner--------------------------

- stories of past students, including a case of brownies "muy lindos" (very rich), dropped dough, and "un perro stoned"

-as well as more serious things

David, from Whitman too, another girl, and I went to a grill for lunch. I got a pasta dish because we all just ordered things to try and to share. For a drink (wine, soda, or carbonated water), the entree, and dessert it was less than $4o, which is about U$S 11-12. Not bad but still more than a typical lunch on my budget will be. We also did some comparison shopping for cell phones.

I took the "subt" (subway) home with two other students who live within blocks of me. The subway might be more convenient because it's faster, and I can buy a card for multiple trips. On the colectivos you have to pay in exact change and coins are hard to come by and highly valued for that reason. Both are only $1.10-$1.25 a trip (U$S 0.30).

We just ate dinner (@~10:30) followed by some very bad but entertaining tv.

I can tell that even a day here had made a difference. For one, writing this in English was took quite a bit effort not to write more random word in Spanish, and I was able to understand and converse much more easily tonight than last night.

Bed time; gotta be awake in 6 1/2 hours for an early day of orientation.

¡Buenas noches!

And I'm off!

The first response from several people, most notably my dentist, when I told them that I am spending the upcoming semester in Buenos Aires was that I should most definitely take note that the toilets flush in the opposite direction in the Southern Hemisphere. After flushing half a dozen toilets, I finally figured out that the toilets in North America flush counterclockwise—or at least they appeared to. It’s a more difficult task than one might think to catch which direction the draining water flows. Once I actually get on firm ground, I’ll try to verify this clockwise business. Although we are south of the equator, the quick flushing technology of airplane toilets would hardly allow me to observe.

My travel between San Francisco and Houston went off without a glitch, with the exception of running into the metal detector—which apparently causes them to go off. I was slightly dismayed to be flying into an airport named after George Bush, but I have managed to live having only spent 20 minutes in the actual airport walking from one end to the other. I was 18 gates away from my gate when I heard a boarding call for all passengers on my flight to Buenos Aires. My blood pressure rose as I hurriedly walked through the terminal only to enter a half full plane that subsequently filled over the next 45 minutes.

The overhead monitor indicates that we’re flying over Río Branco, Brazil, three and a half hours from Buenos Aires. I slept a good portion of the way between Houston and Panama and again until slightly north of the equator. I felt compelled to be awake for the crossing of the equator, to which was met with little (no) fanfare or turbulence for that matter.

I’ll be landing shortly before 10 am local time on Monday, July 19 (4 hours ahead of the West Coast and 1 hour ahead of the East Coast). I apparently be met by staff from my program and then be transported to my host family. I’ll be living with Patricia who has two daughters, 23 and 32, living at home as well as my first pet (if you don’t count the from, Dr. Evil, who I adopted from my 4^th grade class), a white French poodle. Buenos Aires is split into 46 barrios, but according to my homestay form, my barrio is “null.” From what I gather, they live northwest of the city center between the barrios of …. two neighborhood that are escaping my memory.

I will attempt to sleep for the next 3 hours. But here is the beginnings of that blog that I promised so many of you!

¡Besos!

Update: I have arrived to my host family and the toilets do in fact flush clockwise.