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!