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
Monday, October 24, 2011
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
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