This is SO WEIRD. I have 10 days left in Buenos Aires and 18 left in Argentina. Time is flying by so quickly and I can't stop it!!
Since it started becoming close to the end, I've been out and about in the city more and more and am getting less and less sleep. I just can't justify staying in and sleeping when I could be going out and exploring the city, meeting people, going to different bars / clubs, etc since I have so little time left. I've done a lot recently in terms of going to see everything in Buenos Aires that I have on my to do list but haven't yet got around to doing. It's definitely weird trying to plan out what my last days are going to be like; as of yesterday (sunday) I had alaready planned out what I was doing during the day most days this week and what I was doing at night from Wednesday to Saturday. I can't believe I have to start packing all my stuff in a week so that I'm all ready for when I get back from Patagonia to leave the country.
Besides from freaking out about leaving so soon, the past couple weeks have been really great. I've had a lot of finals in school so far, which I think have gone pretty well! I get back some of my grades this week so hopefully I'm right about that one. I have two oral presentations this week (and its the last week of classes!!) and then next week I have two papers due right before I leave on my trip. In one of my classes I found out I got really good grades on our first two assignments, but then found out that neither one of those grades actually counts. For a lot of classes here, the midterm grade is only so you can find out if you pass or not in order to take the final, and the final grade is the only grade for the entire class. I really don't like this system because it literally puts the entire weight of the class on just the final and all the midterms I've done well in basically mean nothing.
The weather here has gotten really nice!! It's in the 80's every day and sunny, and it's a really pleasant environment when it's so nice out! I've been laying out on my terrace and am getting a nice tan to return to the cold ass weather with. My two friends and I went on a bike ride the other day through the ecological reserve here, which was really nice and relaxing. I've been visiting more museums, famous streets and buildings, fairs, etc and have now almost completed everything on my to-do list.
I went to Creamfields Buenos Aires the other weekend, which was really fun! Creamfields is a worldwide electronic/house music festival, and they had 4 stages with tons of artists. David Guetta was the main artist to play, and when he was about to go on we got really close to the stage. Once he started, the crowd went so crazy that me and the girls I was with literally got lifted off our feet and taken it whatever direction the crowd was going. We couldn't move and it was really scary because we were literally sideways at some points. If someone had fallen down, they definitely would have gotten trampled by the crowd and died. We managed to fight our way out of there, which took a lot of time, and hung out around the outside of the crowd. In the craziness, me and 2 other girls each lost one of our shoes. We were all wearing sneakers, and it was so insane that they were taken off by the crowd craziness and there was no way we could go back to get them. We had to hop around the rest of the festival (for 5 more hours) without our shoes. At least I don't have to take them back to the US with me! Still overall a really fun night.
I'll probably only have one more blog post before I leave for my trip and then for back home. Craziness.
Que sé yo?
D
Monday, November 21, 2011
Monday, November 7, 2011
Day 129: Ocupada!
Since my last post, everything has gotten more hectic! My dad and grandmom came to visit, which was really fun! They rented an apartment for the week and we did all of the usual touristy things, and it was really good to see them. We went on the Buenos Aires bus tour, which was my first time doing it, and it was really cool to learn things about the city I've been living in for the past 4 months that I didn't know. We went to the rose garden which was completely bloomed and absolutely gorgeous.. I want to move there. Although last week I didn't go to a single class any day. Oops. Oh well, I haven't missed much class before that and I'm abroad so it's not the end of the world. It's weird thinking about the fact that they've came and left, because I remember telling people that they would be my last visit after Phil and my mom, and it felt like so far away. Now I have a month and two days until I go back to the U.S., which is soooo weird! I don't know where the time went.
It's going to be a really busy month and two days. All of my classes are actually starting to get legit; this week I have a presentation Wednesday and a test Friday. Next week I have two tests, and then the week after that is the last week of classes where I have papers and tests all week. My weekends are also getting really busy - this weekend I have a concert, next weekend we're going to the beach, and the weekend after that is my last weekend in Buenos Aires before I go to Patagonia for 10ish days. SO WEIRD.
Halloween was last weekend, which turned out to be as I expected. We went to a club where about 20% of the people were dressed up (including me!), 10% knew it was halloween, and the other 70% were completely confused about why everyone was in costume. We saw sporadic groups of kids or teenagers in costumes but no one trick or treated in the streets. I also picked up my visa last weekend! I thought it would be a card or something but it was two pieces of paper stapled together. How unexciting.
Andrea and I went to Punta del Este, Uruguay this weekend to go to the beach! It was really pretty, the entire town was really small and cute and quiet, which was a nice break from Buenos Aires. Since it was a really touristy area (more in the summer aka January and February), it was sooo expenisve! Eating at restaurants cost so much and the cabs were ridiculously expensive. To get there, we took an hour long ferry ride and then two 2-hour bus rides, which wasn't too bad. Our hostel ended up being a house owned by a young guy, his wife and their kid, which was really cool! We pretty much stayed in a Uruguayan homestay for the weekend. The people who owned the hostel were really nice and made us dinner one night, gave us alcohol to drink and were smoking weed nonstop all weekend. Very typical family haha.
We went to the beach both days and laid out, which was so relaxing. The hostel was a little far from the beach so we ended up hitchhiking back both days. (Don't worry family, hitchhiking is really safe in Punta del Este. I made it back both times!) We also went to the casino there which apparently was a really big deal and was actually the tiniest thing ever compared to the casinos in Vegas. But we won money both days! We went out on Friday night to a bar where the drinks were super expensive and made lots of friends. I told all the guys I talked to that I was from Italy so that they wouldn't speak to me in English (everyone there knew english) and it backfired when two different guys said things to me in Italian that I obviously didn't understand. Guess I'll have to do my research next time. But overall, a really fun time in Punta del Este!
Yesterday we went to Colonia from Punta del Este (through Montevideo, which seemed pretty nice!), and it was gorgeous. Colonia is a really old town and was full of cobblestones and old bridges and lighthouses. It had a lot of historic buildings and an artisan market, and the whole town was right on the water, just like Punta del Este. It was a really nice town and I could have definitely stayed there for longer.
Uruguay in general was a lot more like the U.S. / Europe than Buenos Aires is. In Punta del Este there were bowling alleys and go kart places, which don't usually exist in South America. Also, the buses we took had WiFi, which they haven't gotten around to doing in Buenos Aires yet. All of the buildings were really modern and the streets were really clean. Also all of the Uruguayan guys were really cute. Just saying.
Anyway, I guess I should start some of my jillion things to do instead of procrastinating by writing this blog post. Update soon!
Mira vos
D
It's going to be a really busy month and two days. All of my classes are actually starting to get legit; this week I have a presentation Wednesday and a test Friday. Next week I have two tests, and then the week after that is the last week of classes where I have papers and tests all week. My weekends are also getting really busy - this weekend I have a concert, next weekend we're going to the beach, and the weekend after that is my last weekend in Buenos Aires before I go to Patagonia for 10ish days. SO WEIRD.
Halloween was last weekend, which turned out to be as I expected. We went to a club where about 20% of the people were dressed up (including me!), 10% knew it was halloween, and the other 70% were completely confused about why everyone was in costume. We saw sporadic groups of kids or teenagers in costumes but no one trick or treated in the streets. I also picked up my visa last weekend! I thought it would be a card or something but it was two pieces of paper stapled together. How unexciting.
Andrea and I went to Punta del Este, Uruguay this weekend to go to the beach! It was really pretty, the entire town was really small and cute and quiet, which was a nice break from Buenos Aires. Since it was a really touristy area (more in the summer aka January and February), it was sooo expenisve! Eating at restaurants cost so much and the cabs were ridiculously expensive. To get there, we took an hour long ferry ride and then two 2-hour bus rides, which wasn't too bad. Our hostel ended up being a house owned by a young guy, his wife and their kid, which was really cool! We pretty much stayed in a Uruguayan homestay for the weekend. The people who owned the hostel were really nice and made us dinner one night, gave us alcohol to drink and were smoking weed nonstop all weekend. Very typical family haha.
We went to the beach both days and laid out, which was so relaxing. The hostel was a little far from the beach so we ended up hitchhiking back both days. (Don't worry family, hitchhiking is really safe in Punta del Este. I made it back both times!) We also went to the casino there which apparently was a really big deal and was actually the tiniest thing ever compared to the casinos in Vegas. But we won money both days! We went out on Friday night to a bar where the drinks were super expensive and made lots of friends. I told all the guys I talked to that I was from Italy so that they wouldn't speak to me in English (everyone there knew english) and it backfired when two different guys said things to me in Italian that I obviously didn't understand. Guess I'll have to do my research next time. But overall, a really fun time in Punta del Este!
Yesterday we went to Colonia from Punta del Este (through Montevideo, which seemed pretty nice!), and it was gorgeous. Colonia is a really old town and was full of cobblestones and old bridges and lighthouses. It had a lot of historic buildings and an artisan market, and the whole town was right on the water, just like Punta del Este. It was a really nice town and I could have definitely stayed there for longer.
Uruguay in general was a lot more like the U.S. / Europe than Buenos Aires is. In Punta del Este there were bowling alleys and go kart places, which don't usually exist in South America. Also, the buses we took had WiFi, which they haven't gotten around to doing in Buenos Aires yet. All of the buildings were really modern and the streets were really clean. Also all of the Uruguayan guys were really cute. Just saying.
Anyway, I guess I should start some of my jillion things to do instead of procrastinating by writing this blog post. Update soon!
Mira vos
D
Monday, October 24, 2011
Day 115: Springtime!
The weather is starting to get beautiful in the city! While fall is falling in the US, spring is springing in Buenos Aires (so corny, I know). I really love springtime here, because it means that everyone is outside all the time. People crowd all of the parks, outdoor markets, plazas, streets, benches, everywhere. It's refreshing to see people relaxing all over the place and enjoying the outdoors at any time during any day of the week, because at home its such a different experience. The majority of people in the US don't appreciate the outdoors like the people here do, and are always in a rush to get somewhere. People in the US never have time to stop and relax for a cup of coffee or tea, but you never see people here walking around with a coffee cup in hand. Maybe it's because they get more breaks from work or just have more unemployed, but it's nice to see.
Yesterday were national elections for president of the nation, and our current president Cristina won for re-election (surprise, surprise). There was a huge parade in the plaza that I pass every day on my way to school, but I didn't attend because sometimes they get dangerous. Elections here are really cool because everyone in the entire country has to vote. If they don't, they don't get a stamp in their ID booklets (kind of like a passport but for everyone living in Argentina), and therefore can't do other things such as use credit cards or take out loans. Also, everything closes down the day before elections. At 8pm the night before, they stop selling alcohol, and you can't get alcohol all day sunday either. This totally sucks for us because Saturday nights no bars or clubs are open and we can't go out. I went with my host mom Sunday morning to vote and it was interesting to see how they actually do it. The people get notified about which school they have to go to, and once there they have to find their name on a list which tells them where they go to vote. Once they go to that specific room, they wait in line for someone to take their ID booklet, which they stamp while they go into a private part of the room to write their votes. They then put the piece of paper in a cardboard box outside of the room and get their ID book back. I couldn't imagine having to count all of the votes in the entire country of Argentina by hand, but tons of people have to do it.
On Friday in class we went to a villa, which is like a slum, for a field trip to see what they were like. It was interesting because the villa was completely fenced in and guarded by people at the gates. Apparently that part of the villa is confined to people who use paco - a residue of cocaine that is addicting, very cheap, and very common among the villas in most countries of south america. We went into the regular part of the villa, and it was different than I thought it would be. Many of the houses were well-structured and a couple stories high, whereas I thought they would be one story slums made of tin and other cheap materials. The streets of the villa weren´t paved, but were very clean (cleaner than Buenos Aires), because the government gives the children that live there money for cleaning up the streets. Also, all of the buildings had running water, electricity, bathrooms, were clean and well-kept, and many had televisions. We were shown around the main buildings of the villa - the kitchen area where they fed the 1,500 inhabitants of the villa, which also served as a school where they taught kindergarten to the young kids, which the government doens´t require. The kids go to kindergarten there and then take buses to go to elementary school after that (which is required). She showed us the library, which was REALLY nice, they had tons of books (all organized on shelves by category), and had cute tables and chairs for kids to read. She also showed us their doctor´s office, which I was really surprised by - it looked like any other office with a waiting room, different doctor´s rooms with tables and materials, an office area, etc. The villa even had their own pasta making room, where they had all of the machines needed to make their own noodles. I was really surprised at how nice the villa was for being a villa.
Everything with classes is still going really well! All of my midterms are over, so now begins the wait until finals (of course, there is work in between, but it´s all a joke). One thing I´ve noticed about the teachers here is that they are very relaxed about everything. The one teacher that hasn´t returned our midterms that we took 4 weeks ago is still in no rush to do so, and last class he told us if we wanted to know the grade that we could email him. I emailed him after class on Tuesday, and still haven´t gotten an answer (it´s monday). I´m sure today in class he´ll make up an excuse for why he didn´t bring the midterms or didn´t answer any emails. They really could care less about any of our concerns.
The weird thing that has started to happen is getting ready to go back to school in the US. I register for next semester´s classes in a couple of weeks, and it´s really weird trying to get in the mindset of taking real classes. I know I´m completely screwed for when I get back and have to deal with actual classwork because I haven´t done any in so long now. I´ve also planned out every semester until I graduate, and it´s weird knowing that it seems far away but I know it´ll come sooner than anything.
As the weather is getting nicer, it´s becoming more and more annoying to deal with the people here that will do anything for money. We have the usual homeless people who sit on the sidewalk and hold out a cup for money, but that´s not the annoying part. When you´re sitting outside a restaurant eating, people will come up to you and ask you for money or to buy something they made. On the subway and on the buses people make announcements asking for money, will try to sell you things, or will play drums or other instruments and then ask for money after the show. It gets really annoying to deal with, although it is really sad, and I can only say no so many times before I get annoyed.
My dad and my grandmom are coming on Friday, and I´m really excited to see them! I remember back in September when I would talk about all my visitors and my dad´s visit seemed so far away (since it´s the last one).. now it´s almost here. What´s even weirder is that when they leave, I have less than a month in Buenos Aires and just over a month til I get back to the United States. Speaking of which, I should probably get started on planning my trip to Patagonia before I leave...
I still can´t believe that the end is so near. I´ve had to make lists of things I still need to buy before I leave, Christmas presents for when I get back for others, and things I want to see or do before I leave. Since we´re planning on going on two more trips before the end of classes around Thanksgiving, I only have two free weekends left here. Trying to fit everything in in a small amount of time is super hard, and the end crept up on me so quickly! Time to get busy...
Hasta luego!
D
Yesterday were national elections for president of the nation, and our current president Cristina won for re-election (surprise, surprise). There was a huge parade in the plaza that I pass every day on my way to school, but I didn't attend because sometimes they get dangerous. Elections here are really cool because everyone in the entire country has to vote. If they don't, they don't get a stamp in their ID booklets (kind of like a passport but for everyone living in Argentina), and therefore can't do other things such as use credit cards or take out loans. Also, everything closes down the day before elections. At 8pm the night before, they stop selling alcohol, and you can't get alcohol all day sunday either. This totally sucks for us because Saturday nights no bars or clubs are open and we can't go out. I went with my host mom Sunday morning to vote and it was interesting to see how they actually do it. The people get notified about which school they have to go to, and once there they have to find their name on a list which tells them where they go to vote. Once they go to that specific room, they wait in line for someone to take their ID booklet, which they stamp while they go into a private part of the room to write their votes. They then put the piece of paper in a cardboard box outside of the room and get their ID book back. I couldn't imagine having to count all of the votes in the entire country of Argentina by hand, but tons of people have to do it.
On Friday in class we went to a villa, which is like a slum, for a field trip to see what they were like. It was interesting because the villa was completely fenced in and guarded by people at the gates. Apparently that part of the villa is confined to people who use paco - a residue of cocaine that is addicting, very cheap, and very common among the villas in most countries of south america. We went into the regular part of the villa, and it was different than I thought it would be. Many of the houses were well-structured and a couple stories high, whereas I thought they would be one story slums made of tin and other cheap materials. The streets of the villa weren´t paved, but were very clean (cleaner than Buenos Aires), because the government gives the children that live there money for cleaning up the streets. Also, all of the buildings had running water, electricity, bathrooms, were clean and well-kept, and many had televisions. We were shown around the main buildings of the villa - the kitchen area where they fed the 1,500 inhabitants of the villa, which also served as a school where they taught kindergarten to the young kids, which the government doens´t require. The kids go to kindergarten there and then take buses to go to elementary school after that (which is required). She showed us the library, which was REALLY nice, they had tons of books (all organized on shelves by category), and had cute tables and chairs for kids to read. She also showed us their doctor´s office, which I was really surprised by - it looked like any other office with a waiting room, different doctor´s rooms with tables and materials, an office area, etc. The villa even had their own pasta making room, where they had all of the machines needed to make their own noodles. I was really surprised at how nice the villa was for being a villa.
Everything with classes is still going really well! All of my midterms are over, so now begins the wait until finals (of course, there is work in between, but it´s all a joke). One thing I´ve noticed about the teachers here is that they are very relaxed about everything. The one teacher that hasn´t returned our midterms that we took 4 weeks ago is still in no rush to do so, and last class he told us if we wanted to know the grade that we could email him. I emailed him after class on Tuesday, and still haven´t gotten an answer (it´s monday). I´m sure today in class he´ll make up an excuse for why he didn´t bring the midterms or didn´t answer any emails. They really could care less about any of our concerns.
The weird thing that has started to happen is getting ready to go back to school in the US. I register for next semester´s classes in a couple of weeks, and it´s really weird trying to get in the mindset of taking real classes. I know I´m completely screwed for when I get back and have to deal with actual classwork because I haven´t done any in so long now. I´ve also planned out every semester until I graduate, and it´s weird knowing that it seems far away but I know it´ll come sooner than anything.
As the weather is getting nicer, it´s becoming more and more annoying to deal with the people here that will do anything for money. We have the usual homeless people who sit on the sidewalk and hold out a cup for money, but that´s not the annoying part. When you´re sitting outside a restaurant eating, people will come up to you and ask you for money or to buy something they made. On the subway and on the buses people make announcements asking for money, will try to sell you things, or will play drums or other instruments and then ask for money after the show. It gets really annoying to deal with, although it is really sad, and I can only say no so many times before I get annoyed.
My dad and my grandmom are coming on Friday, and I´m really excited to see them! I remember back in September when I would talk about all my visitors and my dad´s visit seemed so far away (since it´s the last one).. now it´s almost here. What´s even weirder is that when they leave, I have less than a month in Buenos Aires and just over a month til I get back to the United States. Speaking of which, I should probably get started on planning my trip to Patagonia before I leave...
I still can´t believe that the end is so near. I´ve had to make lists of things I still need to buy before I leave, Christmas presents for when I get back for others, and things I want to see or do before I leave. Since we´re planning on going on two more trips before the end of classes around Thanksgiving, I only have two free weekends left here. Trying to fit everything in in a small amount of time is super hard, and the end crept up on me so quickly! Time to get busy...
Hasta luego!
D
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Day 107: Real Argentine experiences
The past couple weeks have been absolutely amazing. I'm loving life here more and more and becoming more and more depressed about how the end seems to be so near. I now have less than two months left, and the countdown on my phone of when I'll be home seems to be going by faster and faster. I now have a limited amount of weekends left, and still have a lot more trips and things I want to accomplish before I leave. It's super stressful trying to fit everything in while at the same time trying to keep my sanity. I've been living the past 3+ months of my life in vacation world - all I do is go to class, don't do any homework, don't study, eat lots of good food, sightsee around the city, go out the majority of the nights of the week, and then take trips around Argentina in my spare time. It's going to be a total culture shock to me in January when I have to go back to school for real classes, an internship, 3 jobs to recover all the money I've spent here, and deal with everything else such as recruitment. I'm trying to savor every minute left of my abroad experience - go out more often, stay out later, sleep less, go more places around the city, spend more time off my computer. It's how I should live my life all the time, but nowadays it's too easy to get sidetracked with material things. Alright, I'm done my philosophical rant.. I told you the eminent end of this trip is making me crazy!
So my mom and my brother were here last week, which was really fun! We did lots of tourist-y things (I've now been to the zoo where you touch the lions and tigers 3 times) and they really liked Buenos Aires. It was a good amount of time for them to be here because they got to see everything they wanted to see when they were here. It was nice seeing people from home again, although every time I see people from the US it makes me miss home more and more. My dad and grandmom are coming in less than two weeks! Very excited to see them but it's bittersweet - after they leave I have less than a month left in Buenos Aires.
Besides that, I've been keeping pretty busy. I go out all the time and am trying to go to as many new bars and clubs as possible because I am too much a creature of habit and like going to the same ones all the time. Last night we went out to the club and, like real Argentines, stayed there until after 6am. The sun had rose and there were still hundreds of people at the club dancing. It was a really weird but awesome experience that I will definitely be doing again.
Today is mother's day in Argentina, and my host mom had over her mother and two of her siblings for lunch. Her son cooked an asado, which is like a bbq and made TONS of meat (anyone remember vegetarian Danielle? She doesn't exist anymore). We ate probably the biggest lunch I've ever eaten and talked about lots of different things about Argentina. Afterwards we had dessert and tea, then drank mate (the typical Argentinian drink that I talked about in some previous post). It was a really cool experience because an asado is very Argentine and I loved being able to have one with an Argentine family :)
Yesterday I went to Tigre, which is a town about an hour away from Buenos Aires. The town was soo pretty because it was situated right on a river. It was really different then bsas.. it was super clean and well taken care of. We walked around a huge outdoor market and looked at artisan crafts (per usual) and got lunch. Then we went to the mate museum, then on a boat tour around four different rivers in the area. It was really pretty and a nice break from the huge city life that I'm used to.
On my way there I encountered another Argentine experience, although this one less exciting. I was on the subway headed towards the train station in Buenos Aires, and someone tried to rob me. I was listening to my music from my iphone (which was in my purse), when the subway car came to the station. As we were waiting for the doors to open, I felt a tugging on the wire to my headphones and spun around. A man behind me was pulling on the wire of my headphones (I suppose to try and get my phone out of my zippered bag, which makes no sense). He stopped when I turned around and whistled to himself while he averted his gaze to pretend he wasn't touching my headphones. I was super freaked out and as soon as the doors opened I went into the subway train and walked about 4 cars down to get as far away from him as possible. I was scared the rest of the ride because I wasn't sure if he would try to find me and hold a gun/knife to me to give him my bag. Thankfully, nothing of the sort happened but it was definitely a scary experience. I will definitely be more alert from now on because I'm petrified of someone taking my stuff or robbing me. Putting this on the things I'm not going to miss when I return to the U.S.
School is still going about the same. I got my spanish midterm back and got an A- on that also, so I'm happy about that. My other midterm I'm still waiting to hear back on, and then my last midterm is this Wednesday. It's weird having to deal with midterms since the entire rest of the semester I haven't done any work. I honestly forget how to do real schoolwork and it's going to kick me in the behind when I get back to school.
This weekend we are planning to go to Punta del Este, Uruguay to play on the beach for the weekend! It's supposed to rain this weekend so we might have to postpone it to sometime in November, but I'm missing the beach so much. The weather is getting really nice here and I'm excited for it to get even nicer by the time I leave.
Seems like that's it for now! I'll update soon again because I like having a lot less to write in one sitting :)
So my mom and my brother were here last week, which was really fun! We did lots of tourist-y things (I've now been to the zoo where you touch the lions and tigers 3 times) and they really liked Buenos Aires. It was a good amount of time for them to be here because they got to see everything they wanted to see when they were here. It was nice seeing people from home again, although every time I see people from the US it makes me miss home more and more. My dad and grandmom are coming in less than two weeks! Very excited to see them but it's bittersweet - after they leave I have less than a month left in Buenos Aires.
Besides that, I've been keeping pretty busy. I go out all the time and am trying to go to as many new bars and clubs as possible because I am too much a creature of habit and like going to the same ones all the time. Last night we went out to the club and, like real Argentines, stayed there until after 6am. The sun had rose and there were still hundreds of people at the club dancing. It was a really weird but awesome experience that I will definitely be doing again.
Today is mother's day in Argentina, and my host mom had over her mother and two of her siblings for lunch. Her son cooked an asado, which is like a bbq and made TONS of meat (anyone remember vegetarian Danielle? She doesn't exist anymore). We ate probably the biggest lunch I've ever eaten and talked about lots of different things about Argentina. Afterwards we had dessert and tea, then drank mate (the typical Argentinian drink that I talked about in some previous post). It was a really cool experience because an asado is very Argentine and I loved being able to have one with an Argentine family :)
Yesterday I went to Tigre, which is a town about an hour away from Buenos Aires. The town was soo pretty because it was situated right on a river. It was really different then bsas.. it was super clean and well taken care of. We walked around a huge outdoor market and looked at artisan crafts (per usual) and got lunch. Then we went to the mate museum, then on a boat tour around four different rivers in the area. It was really pretty and a nice break from the huge city life that I'm used to.
On my way there I encountered another Argentine experience, although this one less exciting. I was on the subway headed towards the train station in Buenos Aires, and someone tried to rob me. I was listening to my music from my iphone (which was in my purse), when the subway car came to the station. As we were waiting for the doors to open, I felt a tugging on the wire to my headphones and spun around. A man behind me was pulling on the wire of my headphones (I suppose to try and get my phone out of my zippered bag, which makes no sense). He stopped when I turned around and whistled to himself while he averted his gaze to pretend he wasn't touching my headphones. I was super freaked out and as soon as the doors opened I went into the subway train and walked about 4 cars down to get as far away from him as possible. I was scared the rest of the ride because I wasn't sure if he would try to find me and hold a gun/knife to me to give him my bag. Thankfully, nothing of the sort happened but it was definitely a scary experience. I will definitely be more alert from now on because I'm petrified of someone taking my stuff or robbing me. Putting this on the things I'm not going to miss when I return to the U.S.
School is still going about the same. I got my spanish midterm back and got an A- on that also, so I'm happy about that. My other midterm I'm still waiting to hear back on, and then my last midterm is this Wednesday. It's weird having to deal with midterms since the entire rest of the semester I haven't done any work. I honestly forget how to do real schoolwork and it's going to kick me in the behind when I get back to school.
This weekend we are planning to go to Punta del Este, Uruguay to play on the beach for the weekend! It's supposed to rain this weekend so we might have to postpone it to sometime in November, but I'm missing the beach so much. The weather is getting really nice here and I'm excited for it to get even nicer by the time I leave.
Seems like that's it for now! I'll update soon again because I like having a lot less to write in one sitting :)
Monday, October 3, 2011
Day 94: more adventures!
It's been less than 20 days since my last post, but I feel like so much has happened!
I just got back this morning from a trip to Córdoba, the second largest city in Argentina (after, of course, Buenos Aires). For the first two weeks in October, they hold a celebration of Germany's Oktoberfest in a German villa (town) about two hours outside of Córdoba. Oktoberfest in Villa General Belgrano is the biggest celebration of the holiday after Germany's, so of course I wanted to go! We took a nine hour bus ride overnight to the city of Córdoba and arrived at 5am, which was pretty great. At least we got to nap for a couple of hours before we left for a 2 hour bus ride to the Villa. We got to Oktoberfest before it opened and were one of the first people there, so we explored the town a little and then finally went inside the park. We were one of the first people all day to get beer (at 12 noon) and started celebrating :). The whole day definitely turned out different than I had expected, I was visualizing more of a sloppy frat party for Oktoberfest but it was a very relaxed and fun day. There were a lot more families and elderly than I thought, although many of them were partying just as hard alongside of the younger groups. There were about 15 different German beer venders selling all types of beer, with German food venders and a stage where the entire day was filled with different speakers from around the world and song and dances native to their country. We continued drinking all day and met TONS of people from Argentina, who were obsessed with us because we looked foreign (Michelle is black and I'm blonde). They were mostly obsessed with Michelle and kept telling her how much they loved her and her skin color, it was actually the best entertainment of the day. We were there for 10 hours and didn't go 5 minutes without new people yelling to us, coming up to us, or taking pictures / videos of us because black people don't exist in most parts of Argentina. It ended up being a really fun day, and now we have tons of new friends.
The next day we went exploring around the city of Córdoba. The worker at the hostel told us there wasn't much to do in the city, which we found really weird. We went and walked around a plaza, then headed down to a park. The city was a lot like Buenos Aires, except a lot smaller and quieter. The park we went to was HUGE and we got completely lost in it and ended up walking super far to get back where we started. It was also an ugly park - there wasn't much grass but all dirt and the water of the lake was green. We found entertainment all day by counting the amount of people that hollered at us (which ended up being 47 by the end of the day). After the park we went to the bus terminal and took a bus to Alta Gracia, about 45 minutes south of the city. Alta Gracia was a really small town, but very cute, and had a Jesuit ranch which we went to see. Che Guevarra also used to live there, and we went to the museum in his house. When we got back to the city, we went to a huge fair and looked at artisan crafts from Córdoba, which were pretty different from those in Buenos Aires.
The overnight bus rides there and back were pretty comical. On the way there, the driver turned the air conditioning up really high while we were sleeping, so we woke up at 2 in the morning absolutely freezing. On the way back, while we were sleeping the bus driver turned the heat up really high, and we woke up at 4am sweating. You'd think between the two they would be able to find a happy medium.
In the past two weeks, things have gone really well. My boyfriend was here visiting, and it was really good to see him. We rented an apartment for the week and did some basic exploring around Buenos Aires (and may or may not have gone to the same steak restaurant twice in the same week). I was really sad to see him leave but am now going to be home in about two months, so its not too bad.
On Wednesday when he was here, it was a holiday in all of Argentina, dia del estudiante (student's day) where all schools are closed. All of the students on this day go to parks and lay in the grass with friends, drink a lot of beer/wine/alcohol, smoke weed, play/listen to music, and relax. It was really interesting to see and be a part of the holiday because there were tons of schoolkids everywhere drinking and hanging out in the park.
On Friday I had my first midterm, and it went pretty well! We got it back this past friday and I got an A-, so definitely not complaining! I had another midterm the following Tuesday, so hopefully tomorrow I will get that one back too. In that midterm I thought I did really well (better than the Friday one) so hopefully that's a good grade as well. This Thursday I have another midterm in my Spanish class, and two Wednesdays after that is my last midterm in my Migrations class. In class on Wednesday we were asking her about what would be on the midterm and she ended up giving us the questions that it was going to ask, so all I really have to do for that one is prepare for those questions and hopefully I'll be set!
Last week I signed up for the Buenos Aires bikeshare, which is kind of the same thing in the big cities in the states where you can rent bikes to ride somewhere and return them to any of the bikeshare locations. Here, however, it's free to sign up and to ride bikes places, whereas in DC and other cities it costs money. I'm really excited because the weather is getting nicer and I can start riding a bike to school!
On Friday, my mom and my brother are coming to visit! I'm really excited to see them :)
In a completely unrelated note, my inner sociologist has begun to kick in and start analyzing all the societal things that are different or the same from the U.S. For one, I find it interesting that all of the social groups are the same in every country. On dia del estudiante I was people watching the tons of students that were everywhere and realized that they have the same cliques here as we do in the U.S., such as punk kids, skater kids, preppy kids, dorky kids.. I found it really interesting because I figured those were American groups.
It's also interesting to me to analyze the way that guys here act if they want to talk to a girl. At all of the clubs that we go to, guys are very pushy. Instead of coming up to you and talking to you, many of them will literally just grab you and pull you towards them to get you to talk to them. It's also very common here that a guy will introduce himself to you and then try to make out with you after not saying anything else. It's really surprising that they act like this because in the US this would be totally unheard of.
Similar to this, people in general are very open with how they address people. A good example of this is when we were at Oktoberfest and people would come up to Michelle and I and ask us where we were from, without saying anything else. People here are really blunt and will say exactly what they are thinking.. if they have to address someone on the heavier side they will call them "gordita" (little fatty) clearly in a joking manner but definitely too seriously for comfort.
I can't believe I've now been here for three months and only have two months left! I feel like I still have so much that I want to do and the time is going by so quickly. I definitely wish I was here for longer so I could do all of the things that I want to do before I have to go back to the states. But regardless, I've had such a good experience so far and am really grateful that I even had this opportunity :)
Next update hopefully soon!
Dale
D
I just got back this morning from a trip to Córdoba, the second largest city in Argentina (after, of course, Buenos Aires). For the first two weeks in October, they hold a celebration of Germany's Oktoberfest in a German villa (town) about two hours outside of Córdoba. Oktoberfest in Villa General Belgrano is the biggest celebration of the holiday after Germany's, so of course I wanted to go! We took a nine hour bus ride overnight to the city of Córdoba and arrived at 5am, which was pretty great. At least we got to nap for a couple of hours before we left for a 2 hour bus ride to the Villa. We got to Oktoberfest before it opened and were one of the first people there, so we explored the town a little and then finally went inside the park. We were one of the first people all day to get beer (at 12 noon) and started celebrating :). The whole day definitely turned out different than I had expected, I was visualizing more of a sloppy frat party for Oktoberfest but it was a very relaxed and fun day. There were a lot more families and elderly than I thought, although many of them were partying just as hard alongside of the younger groups. There were about 15 different German beer venders selling all types of beer, with German food venders and a stage where the entire day was filled with different speakers from around the world and song and dances native to their country. We continued drinking all day and met TONS of people from Argentina, who were obsessed with us because we looked foreign (Michelle is black and I'm blonde). They were mostly obsessed with Michelle and kept telling her how much they loved her and her skin color, it was actually the best entertainment of the day. We were there for 10 hours and didn't go 5 minutes without new people yelling to us, coming up to us, or taking pictures / videos of us because black people don't exist in most parts of Argentina. It ended up being a really fun day, and now we have tons of new friends.
The next day we went exploring around the city of Córdoba. The worker at the hostel told us there wasn't much to do in the city, which we found really weird. We went and walked around a plaza, then headed down to a park. The city was a lot like Buenos Aires, except a lot smaller and quieter. The park we went to was HUGE and we got completely lost in it and ended up walking super far to get back where we started. It was also an ugly park - there wasn't much grass but all dirt and the water of the lake was green. We found entertainment all day by counting the amount of people that hollered at us (which ended up being 47 by the end of the day). After the park we went to the bus terminal and took a bus to Alta Gracia, about 45 minutes south of the city. Alta Gracia was a really small town, but very cute, and had a Jesuit ranch which we went to see. Che Guevarra also used to live there, and we went to the museum in his house. When we got back to the city, we went to a huge fair and looked at artisan crafts from Córdoba, which were pretty different from those in Buenos Aires.
The overnight bus rides there and back were pretty comical. On the way there, the driver turned the air conditioning up really high while we were sleeping, so we woke up at 2 in the morning absolutely freezing. On the way back, while we were sleeping the bus driver turned the heat up really high, and we woke up at 4am sweating. You'd think between the two they would be able to find a happy medium.
In the past two weeks, things have gone really well. My boyfriend was here visiting, and it was really good to see him. We rented an apartment for the week and did some basic exploring around Buenos Aires (and may or may not have gone to the same steak restaurant twice in the same week). I was really sad to see him leave but am now going to be home in about two months, so its not too bad.
On Wednesday when he was here, it was a holiday in all of Argentina, dia del estudiante (student's day) where all schools are closed. All of the students on this day go to parks and lay in the grass with friends, drink a lot of beer/wine/alcohol, smoke weed, play/listen to music, and relax. It was really interesting to see and be a part of the holiday because there were tons of schoolkids everywhere drinking and hanging out in the park.
On Friday I had my first midterm, and it went pretty well! We got it back this past friday and I got an A-, so definitely not complaining! I had another midterm the following Tuesday, so hopefully tomorrow I will get that one back too. In that midterm I thought I did really well (better than the Friday one) so hopefully that's a good grade as well. This Thursday I have another midterm in my Spanish class, and two Wednesdays after that is my last midterm in my Migrations class. In class on Wednesday we were asking her about what would be on the midterm and she ended up giving us the questions that it was going to ask, so all I really have to do for that one is prepare for those questions and hopefully I'll be set!
Last week I signed up for the Buenos Aires bikeshare, which is kind of the same thing in the big cities in the states where you can rent bikes to ride somewhere and return them to any of the bikeshare locations. Here, however, it's free to sign up and to ride bikes places, whereas in DC and other cities it costs money. I'm really excited because the weather is getting nicer and I can start riding a bike to school!
On Friday, my mom and my brother are coming to visit! I'm really excited to see them :)
In a completely unrelated note, my inner sociologist has begun to kick in and start analyzing all the societal things that are different or the same from the U.S. For one, I find it interesting that all of the social groups are the same in every country. On dia del estudiante I was people watching the tons of students that were everywhere and realized that they have the same cliques here as we do in the U.S., such as punk kids, skater kids, preppy kids, dorky kids.. I found it really interesting because I figured those were American groups.
It's also interesting to me to analyze the way that guys here act if they want to talk to a girl. At all of the clubs that we go to, guys are very pushy. Instead of coming up to you and talking to you, many of them will literally just grab you and pull you towards them to get you to talk to them. It's also very common here that a guy will introduce himself to you and then try to make out with you after not saying anything else. It's really surprising that they act like this because in the US this would be totally unheard of.
Similar to this, people in general are very open with how they address people. A good example of this is when we were at Oktoberfest and people would come up to Michelle and I and ask us where we were from, without saying anything else. People here are really blunt and will say exactly what they are thinking.. if they have to address someone on the heavier side they will call them "gordita" (little fatty) clearly in a joking manner but definitely too seriously for comfort.
I can't believe I've now been here for three months and only have two months left! I feel like I still have so much that I want to do and the time is going by so quickly. I definitely wish I was here for longer so I could do all of the things that I want to do before I have to go back to the states. But regardless, I've had such a good experience so far and am really grateful that I even had this opportunity :)
Next update hopefully soon!
Dale
D
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Day 76: Almost halfway done?!
Next week marks the halfway mark of my study abroad experience, where the hell did the time go?! I feel like I just got here last week but I've already been here for over two months!
Yesterday I got back from a trip to Salta, which was really amazing! Each way the bus was 22 hours, and that definitely sucked, but once we were there it was awesome. Salta is in the northwest of Buenos Aires, and the buses drove through literally the middle of nowhere to get there. For miles and miles all you could see was grass and trees. The little towns that we did pass through on our way were very Latin American; they were small, with unpaved roads, shanty houses, and barefoot children running around. We stayed in the town of Salta, which was really cute. There was a park and on Tuesday they had a big fair there with rides and carnival games, people selling cotton candy and popcorn as well as lots of other foods and toys. Our hostel was pretty nice, really cheap but nicer than many I have stayed in. Everything was outside because Salta has really nice weather (it was 80's during the day, and it's winter here).
The first night we first booked our trips for the next three days, then went to a museum. In the museum they had the preserved bodies of three children sacrificed on the top of a mountain from the Incan culture hundreds of years ago. It was really creepy but cool to see one of the children in the museum! We then walked around the main plaza of Salta and got a sense of the life in the community, which seemed really cool. We happened to be there during a religious holiday, and since we were in a rural community everyone was religious. There were huge masses of people walking from their towns over 200 kilometers away to go to Salta for the celebrations.
The next day we woke up at 6:30 (woof) and left around 7:30 on our first adventure with our tour guide, Luis, who ended up being our tour guide / driver for all three adventures. We drove a long route around the Salta / Jujuy area and saw a lot of the scenery, which reminded me a lot of Arizona: lots of gorgeous mountains. We went to el cierro de siete colores (the hill of seven colors) and to the Salt flats, which were sooo cool! The stark white of the miles and miles of salt was beautiful against the mountainous backdrop all around the flats. On our way back we passed a pink mountain, which I thought was really cool! We had also seen mountains with blue, purple, and yellow colors and Luis explained to us that the placement of the sun and the oxidation of the rock was what made them different colors.
The next day we went to Cafayate, which was a little town dotted with wineries (yumm). On the way there we drove through the mountains and a lot of very curvy roads to get to the destination, again with the most beautiful views I have ever seen. The majority of the pictures I took could definitely be postcards or pictures in a travel magazine or calendar. We got to tour two wineries and have wine tastings at each of them, which reminded me a lot of my trip to Mendoza. On our way back, we stopped at a huge lake that was absolutely breathtaking because of all the huge mountains in the background.
Our last day in Salta was spent on a trip to Cachi, another small town in the middle of mountains. In this trip we also drove through curvy roads in the mountains, but then at a certain point we were in flatlands as we went through a national park that was filled with cacti. This trip was also really cool because all of the mountains we saw were really pretty colors - turquoise, orange, red, green, etc. After our trip to Cachi we went on the Teleferico in Salta, which was like a ski lift taking you up to the top of a mountain so that you could look at the entire city and outskirts that make up Salta. The end of our trip was sitting on a ledge at the top of the hill and watching the sun set over the mountains and the city - a perfect way to relax after all the traveling and sightseeing we had done.
Our bus ride back was a disaster - we took a lesser well known company because they were the only ones who had a bus later than 3pm on tuesday, and soon found out that they didn't serve us any meals on the 22 hour bus ride back to Buenos Aires. We all were really sick of being in cars / buses since that was what our entire trip consisted of - and the lack of food made it a lot worse. We finally made it back to Buenos Aires Wednesday night.
---
Other than that, things have been really good! All my classes are going smoothly - we have only had readings in most of my classes as homework, so it hasn't been to hard. Next week and the couple weeks after that midterms begin, so I will update with how hard or easy those were.
In my class a couple weeks ago, we went on a field trip to a women's shelter, which was really interesting to see. It was a small but substantial space where homeless women with children could come and sleep and eat so they didn't have to sleep on the streets. It was a little depressing to learn about, because the shelter is funded by the government and the woman who volunteered there explained that many months the government wouldn't give them the money that they needed, so the 5 volunteers would have to pay out of pocket to make everything work. We have another field trip tomorrow, and I'm pretty sure it's to another shelter, so I'll have to see how that one is in comparison!
The night life here has stayed pretty much the same, although since it's getting a lot nicer out I've noticed a lot more people out and about into the wee hours of the morning. The weather has drastically improved, and I've noticed that the people here love being outside when it is nice out. There are tons of parks and fairs around Buenos Aires during the weekend that are packed with people hanging out with friends, drinking mate (the traditional Argentinian drink - like a biter tea), playing sports or music, and smoking weed (which is legal here). I really love the lifestyle that people live here - they don't live around their work schedules and really enjoy life and being around people that they love, something that I think we in the United States forget to do a lot of times. Our culture is more busy and hectic, while they enjoy the simple things like sharing tea with friends or enjoying a nice day laying in the grass. Definitely a characteristic I will take with me for the rest of my life.
In other news, my boyfriend comes in 34 hours (but who's counting?)! I'm really excited for him to be here and to be able to show someone the life that I've been living for two and a half months! We rented an apartment for a decent price for the week, so that will be really nice to be able to have our own place to relax. 20 days after he comes, my mom, and brother will be here! 20 days after that, my dad and grandmom will be here. I actually can't wait to see everyone, I never realized how much I miss them until their visits are in sight!
Another thing that I've done in my spare time (unvoluntarily) was to go through the visa process to get a student visa. Although it's not needed to get one to be in Argentina (you can stay in the country on a tourist visa for 90 days, all you have to do is leave the country and re-enter after that to start the 90 days over again), we all have to get one to have our credits transfer for our classes. The first thing I had to do for the visa process was to get a background check. This cost around USD $13 and was very easy, I went to the office, paid, and they asked me a couple questions about my parents and fingerprinted me. Then I only had to come back after 24 hours to get the sheet saying that I'm not a crazy mass murderer in Argentina. Next was the actual visa application at the Migrations office, which was also very easy. I spent all of 45 minutes at the migrations office. When I first got there I was taken to a counter where a man processed my passport and fingerprinted me, then sent to another counter where a woman looked through my passport. I then had to pay around USD $75, got a paper and was told to come back in 20 days for my visa. I was really surprised at how easy this was because everything is disorganized in Argentina, yet the visa process was very fast and organized. The funniest part about this to me was the fact that one of the workers in the Migrations office was flirting with me while I was waiting in line, and tried to hook me up with one of the other workers at the office even though I politely told him I had a boyfriend in the states. He didn't hesitate to yell across the office to the other worker that I was "single" in essence because a boyfriend in the states didn't count. The entire time I just thought of how rare that was and how in the U.S. someone would have to die for that to happen. People here are very friendly and happy, and apparently love messing with foreigners.
Going along the same subject, people here are VERY flirty. It is not uncommon to walk three blocks and have five different cars honk at you, roll down the window and stare as they slowly drive by, or have people on the street call you beautiful or something similar. Argentinians are also OBSESSED with PDA, everywhere you walk you will see people making out in the streets, parks, stores, malls, hospitals, schools, everywhere. It's also funny because it's not always just the young people that do it, even the middle aged married couple with kids is commonly seen sticking each others tongues down their throats in public places. Definitely something I will not miss when I return to the states. Ew!
As for my knee, it's getting better! All the walking I did in Salta definitely did not help it, but I've been resting a lot since then. Hopefully I can just stick with my self physical therapy and won't have to get an MRI. My next task is to figure out if I can start running anytime soon - eating all this amazing food (mostly pasta and meat) without being able to exercise as I normally do is not doing me any favors in terms of staying the same weight.
I've also noticed that mail here is very sketchy. My mom sent me two packages three weeks apart from each other - both arrived on the same day. I've gotten some letters after only a week, and some that were sent 3 weeks ago that I still haven't received. I have a package on its way for over a month that has yet to get here. I'm learning it's better if people just don't send me anything - I know you all love me but I'd hate for your stuff to get lost in the mail, haha.
Hopefully my next update will be soon, but as usual it probably won't.
Por que no?
D
Yesterday I got back from a trip to Salta, which was really amazing! Each way the bus was 22 hours, and that definitely sucked, but once we were there it was awesome. Salta is in the northwest of Buenos Aires, and the buses drove through literally the middle of nowhere to get there. For miles and miles all you could see was grass and trees. The little towns that we did pass through on our way were very Latin American; they were small, with unpaved roads, shanty houses, and barefoot children running around. We stayed in the town of Salta, which was really cute. There was a park and on Tuesday they had a big fair there with rides and carnival games, people selling cotton candy and popcorn as well as lots of other foods and toys. Our hostel was pretty nice, really cheap but nicer than many I have stayed in. Everything was outside because Salta has really nice weather (it was 80's during the day, and it's winter here).
The first night we first booked our trips for the next three days, then went to a museum. In the museum they had the preserved bodies of three children sacrificed on the top of a mountain from the Incan culture hundreds of years ago. It was really creepy but cool to see one of the children in the museum! We then walked around the main plaza of Salta and got a sense of the life in the community, which seemed really cool. We happened to be there during a religious holiday, and since we were in a rural community everyone was religious. There were huge masses of people walking from their towns over 200 kilometers away to go to Salta for the celebrations.
The next day we woke up at 6:30 (woof) and left around 7:30 on our first adventure with our tour guide, Luis, who ended up being our tour guide / driver for all three adventures. We drove a long route around the Salta / Jujuy area and saw a lot of the scenery, which reminded me a lot of Arizona: lots of gorgeous mountains. We went to el cierro de siete colores (the hill of seven colors) and to the Salt flats, which were sooo cool! The stark white of the miles and miles of salt was beautiful against the mountainous backdrop all around the flats. On our way back we passed a pink mountain, which I thought was really cool! We had also seen mountains with blue, purple, and yellow colors and Luis explained to us that the placement of the sun and the oxidation of the rock was what made them different colors.
The next day we went to Cafayate, which was a little town dotted with wineries (yumm). On the way there we drove through the mountains and a lot of very curvy roads to get to the destination, again with the most beautiful views I have ever seen. The majority of the pictures I took could definitely be postcards or pictures in a travel magazine or calendar. We got to tour two wineries and have wine tastings at each of them, which reminded me a lot of my trip to Mendoza. On our way back, we stopped at a huge lake that was absolutely breathtaking because of all the huge mountains in the background.
Our last day in Salta was spent on a trip to Cachi, another small town in the middle of mountains. In this trip we also drove through curvy roads in the mountains, but then at a certain point we were in flatlands as we went through a national park that was filled with cacti. This trip was also really cool because all of the mountains we saw were really pretty colors - turquoise, orange, red, green, etc. After our trip to Cachi we went on the Teleferico in Salta, which was like a ski lift taking you up to the top of a mountain so that you could look at the entire city and outskirts that make up Salta. The end of our trip was sitting on a ledge at the top of the hill and watching the sun set over the mountains and the city - a perfect way to relax after all the traveling and sightseeing we had done.
Our bus ride back was a disaster - we took a lesser well known company because they were the only ones who had a bus later than 3pm on tuesday, and soon found out that they didn't serve us any meals on the 22 hour bus ride back to Buenos Aires. We all were really sick of being in cars / buses since that was what our entire trip consisted of - and the lack of food made it a lot worse. We finally made it back to Buenos Aires Wednesday night.
---
Other than that, things have been really good! All my classes are going smoothly - we have only had readings in most of my classes as homework, so it hasn't been to hard. Next week and the couple weeks after that midterms begin, so I will update with how hard or easy those were.
In my class a couple weeks ago, we went on a field trip to a women's shelter, which was really interesting to see. It was a small but substantial space where homeless women with children could come and sleep and eat so they didn't have to sleep on the streets. It was a little depressing to learn about, because the shelter is funded by the government and the woman who volunteered there explained that many months the government wouldn't give them the money that they needed, so the 5 volunteers would have to pay out of pocket to make everything work. We have another field trip tomorrow, and I'm pretty sure it's to another shelter, so I'll have to see how that one is in comparison!
The night life here has stayed pretty much the same, although since it's getting a lot nicer out I've noticed a lot more people out and about into the wee hours of the morning. The weather has drastically improved, and I've noticed that the people here love being outside when it is nice out. There are tons of parks and fairs around Buenos Aires during the weekend that are packed with people hanging out with friends, drinking mate (the traditional Argentinian drink - like a biter tea), playing sports or music, and smoking weed (which is legal here). I really love the lifestyle that people live here - they don't live around their work schedules and really enjoy life and being around people that they love, something that I think we in the United States forget to do a lot of times. Our culture is more busy and hectic, while they enjoy the simple things like sharing tea with friends or enjoying a nice day laying in the grass. Definitely a characteristic I will take with me for the rest of my life.
In other news, my boyfriend comes in 34 hours (but who's counting?)! I'm really excited for him to be here and to be able to show someone the life that I've been living for two and a half months! We rented an apartment for a decent price for the week, so that will be really nice to be able to have our own place to relax. 20 days after he comes, my mom, and brother will be here! 20 days after that, my dad and grandmom will be here. I actually can't wait to see everyone, I never realized how much I miss them until their visits are in sight!
Another thing that I've done in my spare time (unvoluntarily) was to go through the visa process to get a student visa. Although it's not needed to get one to be in Argentina (you can stay in the country on a tourist visa for 90 days, all you have to do is leave the country and re-enter after that to start the 90 days over again), we all have to get one to have our credits transfer for our classes. The first thing I had to do for the visa process was to get a background check. This cost around USD $13 and was very easy, I went to the office, paid, and they asked me a couple questions about my parents and fingerprinted me. Then I only had to come back after 24 hours to get the sheet saying that I'm not a crazy mass murderer in Argentina. Next was the actual visa application at the Migrations office, which was also very easy. I spent all of 45 minutes at the migrations office. When I first got there I was taken to a counter where a man processed my passport and fingerprinted me, then sent to another counter where a woman looked through my passport. I then had to pay around USD $75, got a paper and was told to come back in 20 days for my visa. I was really surprised at how easy this was because everything is disorganized in Argentina, yet the visa process was very fast and organized. The funniest part about this to me was the fact that one of the workers in the Migrations office was flirting with me while I was waiting in line, and tried to hook me up with one of the other workers at the office even though I politely told him I had a boyfriend in the states. He didn't hesitate to yell across the office to the other worker that I was "single" in essence because a boyfriend in the states didn't count. The entire time I just thought of how rare that was and how in the U.S. someone would have to die for that to happen. People here are very friendly and happy, and apparently love messing with foreigners.
Going along the same subject, people here are VERY flirty. It is not uncommon to walk three blocks and have five different cars honk at you, roll down the window and stare as they slowly drive by, or have people on the street call you beautiful or something similar. Argentinians are also OBSESSED with PDA, everywhere you walk you will see people making out in the streets, parks, stores, malls, hospitals, schools, everywhere. It's also funny because it's not always just the young people that do it, even the middle aged married couple with kids is commonly seen sticking each others tongues down their throats in public places. Definitely something I will not miss when I return to the states. Ew!
As for my knee, it's getting better! All the walking I did in Salta definitely did not help it, but I've been resting a lot since then. Hopefully I can just stick with my self physical therapy and won't have to get an MRI. My next task is to figure out if I can start running anytime soon - eating all this amazing food (mostly pasta and meat) without being able to exercise as I normally do is not doing me any favors in terms of staying the same weight.
I've also noticed that mail here is very sketchy. My mom sent me two packages three weeks apart from each other - both arrived on the same day. I've gotten some letters after only a week, and some that were sent 3 weeks ago that I still haven't received. I have a package on its way for over a month that has yet to get here. I'm learning it's better if people just don't send me anything - I know you all love me but I'd hate for your stuff to get lost in the mail, haha.
Hopefully my next update will be soon, but as usual it probably won't.
Por que no?
D
Friday, August 26, 2011
Day 56: Classes have begun
I'm getting bad at updating this again... I've just been too busy! A lot has happened since my last blog post.
My knee is not completely better, but getting there. It is less painful for me to do everyday things, but I've been trying not to walk a lot so I don't irritate it. Going up and down steps are the worst. I was going to get an MRI but decided that I'm going to try and do some self physical therapy for it and see if it gets better through that. If it doesn't feel better in another two weeks, I'll go back for the MRI. It's so hard to have a knee problem in Buenos Aires because all they do here is walk everywhere! Of course this couldn't happen to me when I was in the US and had a car.
Classes began almost three weeks ago! Time really does fly by fast here. All my classes seem really good. I'm in a really easy spanish class which is sometimes painful because we go over things that I learned in 8th and 9th grade. It will be an easy A, so that's all I'm focusing on. One of my classes seems really hard, the professor assigned us 400 pages of reading in Spanish for the third class this past wednesday, and no one in my class did it. I'm still in summer / abroad exploring mode, so it's really hard to actually sit down and do real homework. One of my classes has a field trip today to a cemetery, so I'm excited to see what that is like! In another one of my classes, the professor assigned reading in English, which I thought was odd because not everyone in the class is fluent in English. In most of my classes there are people from all over the world (and by that, I mean mostly Europe), and some don't speak very good English. I was surprised that he assigned this in English because it would be like if he assigned a reading in French to me, I would have no idea how to begin to read it. I've noticed its very difficult to pay attention in class for the full 3 hours, because you have to really pay attention since they're all in Spanish. Thank goodness I only have to go to each class once a week!
My Spanish is definitely improving, as I have to use it more and more often every day. I watch a lot of movies / tv in Spanish in my spare time so I can practice listening to the language, and read newspapers every morning with breakfast to practice reading. I've started thinking in Spanish too, which is really interesting! I started a dictionary for myself that I put in any new words that I come across and their definitions so I can expand my vocabulary. Every time we go out, we also make everyone talk to us in Spanish so we can practice. We went to a house party last weekend that a lot of natives were at, so that was really good practice! I need to stop speaking English soon, it's just so hard when everyone around you is from the US and speaking English also.
Other than that, things have been good! I've done a little more exploring and sightseeing around Buenos Aires. One cool thing I did was go to a zoo about an hour and a half away from the city that you could hold, pet, and feed lions and tigers! (I'm sure most of you have seen the facebook album by now, but if you haven't, definitely go check it out!) I also went to a cool bookstore that used to be an old theater. It was huugee and had books on every balcony level, and the stage was a coffee shop. I also went out to dinner recently with some friends to a parrilla (kind of like a bbq/grill place) and got a steak, which was soooo good (especially paired with mashed potatoes and a bottle of red wine)! Besides that, I've done a lot of walking around fairs where they sell artisan crafts, and the main streets where there are tons of shops. I love the style here and want to buy so many clothes! It's taken a lot of self control not to blow all of my money on clothes.
The weather is getting nicer here, slowly but surely. When the sun is out it's nice, but when it's windy or cloudy it gets really cold. It's still in the 50's here, which is weird for Buenos Aires at this time of year. Spring starts September 22nd, so hopefully it will be a lot nicer by then! I am getting really sick of the cold, it makes it so impossible to go out and do anything. I can't wait until it's nice (by then it will be cold in the US, ha!) so I can travel more and be outside and go to beaches and stuff around here! They have tons of parks in the city that I'd love to hang out at if it was actually warm! A couple friends and I went to a park recently to play soccer and hang out, but it got cold after like half an hour. I just want it to be nice so I can lay on the grass with friends or with a book :)
This past weekend killed my sleep schedule. We went out thursday, friday, saturday, and sunday, and were out each night until after 5. Since we had nothing urgent to do the next morning every day, we would sleep until 1 and then start the day. This proved to be a big problem for me because when I had to start going to class, I couldn't fall asleep until after 3 in the morning. The night life here is awesome, but definitely a lot to get used to because they start their nights so late!
I've also started to notice some things here that are really different than the US. For one, since a good number of people here are very catholic, I've noticed that each time a catholic is on the bus and the bus passes a church, they do the sign of the cross on their bodies. I thought it was interesting / funny since there are tons of churches here and in one bus ride you can see someone do it 10 times. Another thing is that most places you buy things at don't have change for $100 peso bills (which is only $25 USD). Sometimes they won't even have change for $50's. I don't really know why this is so because it's really not that much money, but it's a really big hassle to carry around 100's because you have to make sure you find a place that can exchange them. Also, the laundromats here are full service, which is great! You drop all of your clothes off and pick them up the next day folded and organized for you! So nice to not really have to worry about hanging around the house to wait for my laundry to be done. Another thing I've noticed is that everything American is "cool" here and also really expensive since it is all imported. I miss the food in America and always try to buy oreo's and lay's when I go to the food store, but they're so expensive! I also miss peanut butter, which they don't have here. I really want to get someone to bring me a couple bagels when they come and visit because they have Philadelphia cream cheese here but no bagels! So weird.
Lately, I've really started missing my family and friends. It's even more difficult since my mom and dad aren't just a phone call away anymore, its a bigger ordeal to try and find a time when skyping them can work. I keep having daydreams to where I'm back in the US and with my family, boyfriend, or in my apartment in the spring that I'm renting with my friends. I've been skyping friends a lot recently because everyone is just starting to get back to school, and it's really weird that I'm not there with them! My boyfriend is coming down to visit me in three weeks, and I'm soooo excited to see him and have part of the US here! My mom, stepdad, and brother are also going to visit me in October, and my dad and grandmom in November, so I'm really excited to see all of them too! I feel like time will fly by so fast once I have everyone's visits to look forward to.
I think that's it for now! I'll try to update more often as things come to me.
Obvio,
D
My knee is not completely better, but getting there. It is less painful for me to do everyday things, but I've been trying not to walk a lot so I don't irritate it. Going up and down steps are the worst. I was going to get an MRI but decided that I'm going to try and do some self physical therapy for it and see if it gets better through that. If it doesn't feel better in another two weeks, I'll go back for the MRI. It's so hard to have a knee problem in Buenos Aires because all they do here is walk everywhere! Of course this couldn't happen to me when I was in the US and had a car.
Classes began almost three weeks ago! Time really does fly by fast here. All my classes seem really good. I'm in a really easy spanish class which is sometimes painful because we go over things that I learned in 8th and 9th grade. It will be an easy A, so that's all I'm focusing on. One of my classes seems really hard, the professor assigned us 400 pages of reading in Spanish for the third class this past wednesday, and no one in my class did it. I'm still in summer / abroad exploring mode, so it's really hard to actually sit down and do real homework. One of my classes has a field trip today to a cemetery, so I'm excited to see what that is like! In another one of my classes, the professor assigned reading in English, which I thought was odd because not everyone in the class is fluent in English. In most of my classes there are people from all over the world (and by that, I mean mostly Europe), and some don't speak very good English. I was surprised that he assigned this in English because it would be like if he assigned a reading in French to me, I would have no idea how to begin to read it. I've noticed its very difficult to pay attention in class for the full 3 hours, because you have to really pay attention since they're all in Spanish. Thank goodness I only have to go to each class once a week!
My Spanish is definitely improving, as I have to use it more and more often every day. I watch a lot of movies / tv in Spanish in my spare time so I can practice listening to the language, and read newspapers every morning with breakfast to practice reading. I've started thinking in Spanish too, which is really interesting! I started a dictionary for myself that I put in any new words that I come across and their definitions so I can expand my vocabulary. Every time we go out, we also make everyone talk to us in Spanish so we can practice. We went to a house party last weekend that a lot of natives were at, so that was really good practice! I need to stop speaking English soon, it's just so hard when everyone around you is from the US and speaking English also.
Other than that, things have been good! I've done a little more exploring and sightseeing around Buenos Aires. One cool thing I did was go to a zoo about an hour and a half away from the city that you could hold, pet, and feed lions and tigers! (I'm sure most of you have seen the facebook album by now, but if you haven't, definitely go check it out!) I also went to a cool bookstore that used to be an old theater. It was huugee and had books on every balcony level, and the stage was a coffee shop. I also went out to dinner recently with some friends to a parrilla (kind of like a bbq/grill place) and got a steak, which was soooo good (especially paired with mashed potatoes and a bottle of red wine)! Besides that, I've done a lot of walking around fairs where they sell artisan crafts, and the main streets where there are tons of shops. I love the style here and want to buy so many clothes! It's taken a lot of self control not to blow all of my money on clothes.
The weather is getting nicer here, slowly but surely. When the sun is out it's nice, but when it's windy or cloudy it gets really cold. It's still in the 50's here, which is weird for Buenos Aires at this time of year. Spring starts September 22nd, so hopefully it will be a lot nicer by then! I am getting really sick of the cold, it makes it so impossible to go out and do anything. I can't wait until it's nice (by then it will be cold in the US, ha!) so I can travel more and be outside and go to beaches and stuff around here! They have tons of parks in the city that I'd love to hang out at if it was actually warm! A couple friends and I went to a park recently to play soccer and hang out, but it got cold after like half an hour. I just want it to be nice so I can lay on the grass with friends or with a book :)
This past weekend killed my sleep schedule. We went out thursday, friday, saturday, and sunday, and were out each night until after 5. Since we had nothing urgent to do the next morning every day, we would sleep until 1 and then start the day. This proved to be a big problem for me because when I had to start going to class, I couldn't fall asleep until after 3 in the morning. The night life here is awesome, but definitely a lot to get used to because they start their nights so late!
I've also started to notice some things here that are really different than the US. For one, since a good number of people here are very catholic, I've noticed that each time a catholic is on the bus and the bus passes a church, they do the sign of the cross on their bodies. I thought it was interesting / funny since there are tons of churches here and in one bus ride you can see someone do it 10 times. Another thing is that most places you buy things at don't have change for $100 peso bills (which is only $25 USD). Sometimes they won't even have change for $50's. I don't really know why this is so because it's really not that much money, but it's a really big hassle to carry around 100's because you have to make sure you find a place that can exchange them. Also, the laundromats here are full service, which is great! You drop all of your clothes off and pick them up the next day folded and organized for you! So nice to not really have to worry about hanging around the house to wait for my laundry to be done. Another thing I've noticed is that everything American is "cool" here and also really expensive since it is all imported. I miss the food in America and always try to buy oreo's and lay's when I go to the food store, but they're so expensive! I also miss peanut butter, which they don't have here. I really want to get someone to bring me a couple bagels when they come and visit because they have Philadelphia cream cheese here but no bagels! So weird.
Lately, I've really started missing my family and friends. It's even more difficult since my mom and dad aren't just a phone call away anymore, its a bigger ordeal to try and find a time when skyping them can work. I keep having daydreams to where I'm back in the US and with my family, boyfriend, or in my apartment in the spring that I'm renting with my friends. I've been skyping friends a lot recently because everyone is just starting to get back to school, and it's really weird that I'm not there with them! My boyfriend is coming down to visit me in three weeks, and I'm soooo excited to see him and have part of the US here! My mom, stepdad, and brother are also going to visit me in October, and my dad and grandmom in November, so I'm really excited to see all of them too! I feel like time will fly by so fast once I have everyone's visits to look forward to.
I think that's it for now! I'll try to update more often as things come to me.
Obvio,
D
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