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.