Sunday, September 26, 2010

"Sieze the Day, boys! Make your lives extraordinary!"

I've been trying really hard in the past week to really do everything I can to fill my time here in Argentina. I don't want to miss out on anything and risk the chance of never seeing it again.
I'll just go through the week, as always:
Monday - I went to my classes, which were pretty barren, because we had Tuesday off of school for the First Day of Spring/Student's Day!
Tuesday - We had wanted to go to the Lújan zoo, but a bunch of people ended up not wanting to go that day, and instead wanting to do what all other Argentine students would be doing... sitting in parks drinking beer/coke/mate (mah-tay). So I slept in, like any normal college student would do, and then I called up my friends. Jen and I decided that we would go to our favorite pizza place and then meet up with Michelle and Roxanne at this park later on. When we got to the park, there was a giant concert! I had no idea that it was going to be there, but it was. I missed the first two bands, but I got to hear the last one, so it was fun.
Wednesday - I had my Spanish midterm, and I'm exactly sure how it went. I studied with Jen for it, and I had already been asking the professor a ton of questions and doing my homework with my Argentine friend (he can't explain concepts, but he knows when things are right and wrong), so I thought I would do well. The test wasn't hard, but it wasn't the type of test I had been expecting, which threw me off a little bit.

There was nothing eventful about going to school on Thursday. But I did get 3 midterms back - I got two 6s and a 7. To me, a 6 feels like failing, but here, it's a straight up B (3.0) and a 7 is like a 3.5. So without much effort, lenient grading on the part of the teachers, and a strange grading scale, I am now confident that with my P/F I will not destroy my GPA at USC and have to beg my mother and father to make up for my lost scholarship. Holla!


Our cute little sampler
On Thursday night Jen and Sydney and I decided to go out. We were going to "celebrate the end of midterms" (actually, this was the reason we came up with while we were out). We went to this brewery that I had read about that's really close to my house. The meal was pretty expensive, which is why we're calling it a celebratory meal, and it was annoying because Sydney is vegan, and they were kind of rude to us about her special dietary requests. Anyway, we did this beer sampler and then shared a pitcher of the beer we all agreed on. I didn't really like it that much, but I didn't like any of the ones that Jen or Sydney also had in common, so I just went for it. After dinner we went to a bar in Plaza Serrano and met some Brazilians, and then we went to a club that was actually kind of lame (I'm really not a fan of most clubs). So, all in all, it was a pretty good night.

On Friday we had been planning to this bus tour that is Hop On, Hop Off, but we woke up too late and didn't want it to not be worth the money. Instead we went to the Japanese Garden and got lunch and walked around for a little while. It was so beautiful, but it isn't very "peaceful" because it's in the center of the city, not far from a huge avenue, so you can see the really tall buildings and hear all the cars while you're walking around inside. Also, they have coy fish that are so big, they're creepy. They had like bites out of them, probably because they fight for food with the other fish, and they started like following us around. So if you leaned out to look over the pond water, they would be there looking at you with their overly large mouths...
Jardín Japones
After the Gardens, we all went our own ways so that we could get ready to go to Tango and onto our respective nightly plans. Normally our nightly plans are the same, but this time I had a date! I went to Tango and learned a new move. I was getting a bit frustrated with the one instructor because she makes it out like it's our fault that there aren't enough men who want to learn tango and it's horrible that she has to have people switching partners. The other instructor, however, told me that I was "muy bien" and I was so happy!
My date went well too. It's funny because we went to a restaurant that I'd been to before, but he had wanted to surprise me with somewhere that has typical Argentine food. Oh well! We also got ice cream, and I out-ate him which I'm not sure is something I should brag about, but I'm pretty much a champion at eating, so I will.
Yesterday I woke up, and I got together with Jen for pizza, again, at our favorite place. They now have our order memorized down to who drinks the Coke and who drinks the Light Coke. Embarrassing or good customer service? After that we had planned on going to a park to lay out and read/do homework, but it was a little bit chillier than we had originally thought, so we tried to go find a movie to see. We went to two theaters and didn't see anything that we wanted to spend money on, so we just went home with plans to meet up later for my nerd-fest. Last night, Jupiter was really close and the Planetarium normally has telescopes set up on weekends for people to use, and they were doing a special thing for Jupiter. I wanted to go and a girl from school, named Abby, said she wanted to go too. When we completed our walk to the Planetarium, and took in the immense line, we decided it wasn't worth it to wait that long and we would go eat instead and just go to the Planetarium for a show some other time. There were literally 1,000+ people in line to use one of like 3 telescopes. I'm sad I missed it, but I also saw Jupiter without a telescope because it's was that close (I say it was that close because it is not physically possible to see a single star in Capital Federal, but I could definitely see this one...). On our walk back to civilization (aka through a park) we realized a bondiola place was open, and we went there to eat instead. It was so delicious and cheap! The owner of the bondiola place was really nice to us, and I'll definitely go back to eat there some other time. After we ate we played on see-saws for a few minutes, and then just walked into the main roads to take our buses home.
I stayed up really late, even though I didn't have to, watching my favorite songs on youtube with Spanish subtitles. It all started thanks to my friend Matias deciding that he liked the Taylor Swift that I played for him the other day, and wanting to know what all the words were. After that I started watching Taylor, Carrie Underwood, John Mayer, etc. It was awesome and I feel like I learned a lot, but it's also a lesson in how there's this gap in translations. You can really lose quite a lot from reading a translation of something than reading the actual thing...

Today we had, again, planned on doing the bus tour, but no one could do it, except me and Sydney, so we decided to wait it out for more people and instead we went back to the Feria de San Telmo and walked around. Sydney bought some things, I wish I bought some things, and we surprisingly found our friend Cameron in the throngs of people. We spent a lot of time there, and I loved it. San Telmo is such a beautiful part of the city, but it's really not safe to wander too far from the area of the Feria (if you're not Argentine). But after being there for a little bit we decided to walk to Plaza de Mayo and sit in the sun. While we were sitting and just talking I decided that I should just take the tour of the Casa Rosada like I'd been wanting to do, and we actually got in the last tour of the day! The building is really pretty and ornate inside, but I don't think it's as impressive as our Capitol building is. It also feels much, much smaller than our federal government buildings, but I'm not sure how they compare in size...

From Plaza de Mayo to the Obelisk
Now I'm just about to call my Mom, eat some dinner, and sleep a good night's sleep before the week starts all over again...

Monday, September 20, 2010

I'm making a list...

Hi everyone! I hope you're all doing well.

This week has been strange, to say the least. I just had almost all my midterms (my most difficult one - I think - will be on Wednesday). They went well, which is good because I was not feeling it and barely studied. Our tango presentation went well; during the class our "professor" (he's really only a dance teacher) was being very critical of everyone's presentations, but at the end of the class he told us he liked ours and wanted to keep it. So, I'm taking that as a good sign. My second one was Social & Political Change. It took me 25 minutes. It was simple: 4 questions and the one that was worth half of the test, I know I got right. So I'm not overly concerned. Then I had my Latin American Cultural Studies test. We really didn't have to study for this one because she told us there wasn't much we could prepare. It was 2 short (20 lines) writings comparing the things that we've done in class.
On Thursday I had my presentation in my Gender class. I think it went alright. I didn't finish putting it all together until the night before, but it's not like a presentation that we have to really prepare for. It's on a reading and you have to summarize it for the class and talk about what it argues and how it relates to what we're learning. Mine was really interesting; it was about Mexico City during the Mexican Revolution and how sexual promiscuity and syphilis were huge problems that the government was facing, and by looking into these problems, the government was able to gain access into homes and family lives. You know me, nerdy.

Anyway, I was in quite a strange mood for the last half of the week, but fortunately for me I have some really awesome friends back in the United States who never mind hearing me out and have helped me out of my funk somewhat. I was just really frustrated because there are so many things I've wanted to do and see, and I thought that all my friends were on the same page with doing them this weekend, and when we weren't I was thrown back. Then I was starting to wonder if I was even spending my time here correctly. Should I be more concerned with my in-the-classroom education here (clearly, it's not that important to me if I didn't even study for my midterms...) or should I even be worrying about seeing everything? What's more important in study abroad: seeing everything or just living day-to-day and seeing where it brings me?

Anyway, I tried to stick my mood aside and have some fun. On Thursday night we went to this bar that has boardgames. I was thinking it would be so much fun to go and play, but the majority of games are (of course) in Spanish and aren't the same games at I grew up with. But the atmosphere of the place was really good, and everyone had fun, so I'm sure we'll go back. On Friday I finally picked up my real visa, and let me tell you ... all that money and time for two pieces of printed paper! Nothing cool for your passport, not even like a notarized bump on it. Just a stamp and a signature. Whatever, it gives me special permission to travel for a cheaper price (and stay in the country for 6 months, and get my transcripts from the Universidad, etc.), so I guess I shouldn't complain too much. After that, Jen and I met up with her roommate Roxanne and we got lunch. We didn't picnic like I had thought we were going to do, but that's okay. I was starving and when I got my food, all I wanted to do was eat - there was no time for waiting. I left them and went home to run a little bit before I had to get ready and go to Tango class.
Maria (Jen's "Mom") and her BFF/tango instructor.
Tango was really good on Friday! There were a lot of people at our class and Roxanne invited a girl and her friend from her classes at the Universidad. During the class I might not have learned many new moves (well, one), but I got a lot of practice on getting my arms right. I danced with the female instructor who is probably like 5 feet, with heels. And when I have my heels on, I tower over her. She complained to me about my arms being too lose, and that I need to keep them tighter so she can signal moves to me better. Then I danced with Jen's mom, who told me that I was pushing too much on her arms (apparently, I have a problem with trying to lead when I'm supposed to be led - who would have ever guessed?!).  But then when I danced with the male instructor (who models on the side, did I mention that before? He's absolutely gorgeous), he told me that he could tell I've been practice and that my arms were really good! (It's important to keep your chests like parallel or something, and mentioned that I'd done a good job.) After that we ate dinner at the milonga - it's vegetarian. Cheap, but it wasn't that good. And I ate ice cream before going home. At home I stayed up really late making a list of all the things I wanted to do and see in the city before I go home. Now I'll have a way to measure my successes of being touristy.

On Saturday I finally got the Arab food I had been craving with a few friends, and then we went to the grocery store to get some things because we had plans to go to dinner at my Argentine friend's house! He had told his parents about us, and they wanted to have us over for dinner. Jen and Roxanne baked chocolate chip cookies and brownies, and I brought over peanut butter (which none of them have ever tried) and Oreos. We stayed at the dinner table talking for 4 hours! It was so sweet, and they've told us that we're always welcome - all we have to do is call Matias and tell him we're coming!, and now that it's getting to be nice every day, they're going to cook asado (Argentine BBQ) for us one night. It was so amazing that in just a few months I've made friends from this country and even their families want to get to know us. Also, their house is really cool because they live in the top floor (Matias, his little brother Nico, his Mom and Dad) and then his Uncle and Grandmother live on the lower floor, so his Uncle came up and hung out with us too. It really was a good time.
After that we intended to go to this club that's supposed to be one of the best in Buenos Aires, and after waiting, and waiting, and waiting ... they closed the doors and weren't going to allow ANYONE else in for the rest of the night.  It was our second time trying to go too, so .. third time will be the charm?! Instead we just went to a bar and sat around and talked.
Roxanne and her bondiola.

Today (Sunday) none of us woke up into well into the afternoon. So we all gathered to walk to Parque 3 de Febrero and get this sandwich called a bondiola that Michelle and Roxanne had been talking about. After walking for FOREVER (I hadn't eaten yet and it was 4 when we met up, 5 when we got our food), we arrived. At first I was hesitant to try the bondiola, but I figured I'd give it a whirl. It was amazing! We all got "bondiolas completas" which is a pork sandwich with an egg (completa in Argentina always signifies an egg on it, for reasons unbeknownst to me) and ham (jam - haha) on it. Then you can add your own toppings. I added a sauce that kind of resembled Italian dressing, lettuce, tomato, and cucumber. It was deeee-licious! We've decided it will become our Sunday tradition. AND it was so beautiful out today, and we sat and ate in the park, so it was essentially the picnic that I had been looking for on Friday. Things always have a way of working themselves out... After that we each ate a giagantic container of ice cream, and we went our respective ways.

This weekend wasn't everything I had planned on it being, but I guess sometimes we can't plan things and we just have to be open to them happening. I think that's actually the answer to all my questioning about my time here: I should attempt to do everything, and if it doesn't work out exactly like I wanted, it'll work out in some way or another.

Side note: Running. I stopped running after high school and have restarted here. It's not an every day thing, especially on days that I don't wake up until mid-afternoon, but the other day I ran about the same mile time that I had been running during high school when I was in-season running. I was so excited! So we'll see if I can keep it up and get either a) faster or b) go farther. But really, it's a nice way to see the areas around my apartment here.

I hope you all have a great week! Tuesday is the first day of Spring and we don't have school! :)
We intend to go to the most dangerous zoo in the world, where you can pet the tigers and ride camels and elephants! This one really better work out because I really, really, really want my picture with a tiger cub!

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Guest Blog Entry

Hi everyone!
I just thought I'd share this link with you quickly; I was asked to write a guest-blog piece for the CEA Study Abroad blog, and my piece was published the other day.

If you read it, I hope you enjoy it. And make sure you take a look at all the other cool things CEA posts on their blog, there's a lot of great information in there!

http://www.ceastudyabroadblog.com/2010/09/meeting-argentina-through-wide-eyes.html

Monday, September 13, 2010

It's finally beginning to feel like Spring!

Well, first, I’ll have to congratulate my Gamecocks on a fantastic victory over the University of Georgia yesterday! I watched the game on TV at an American sport bar called The Alamo. It’s actually only about 10 blocks from my house, so the fact that I forgot my cellphone and had to walk all the way home and back wasn’t too much of an issue. The bar was cool; it was being worked by a bunch of recent college graduates from the USA who needed jobs and loved Argentina when they studied here. Maybe I’ll be back in 2 years, because at least it’s a job…
Anyway, GO GAMECOCKS! I was a little homesick when they would pan to views of Columbia or the Horseshoe, or just showing the student section, but it wasn’t an overwhelming homesickness because I was enjoying where I was too. It was such a beautiful day, and when it’s nice out my mood and love for the city definitely increase.

When I was walking to and from The Alamo on Saturday, I passed by this beautiful park that has the biggest tree. I really want to climb it, and I think on Friday Jen and I are going to buy some food (Arab, yum!) and walk there for a little picnic, as long as the weather is as nice as it’s supposed to be… We also plan on making next weekend a “touristy Buenos Aires” weekend and going out in a large group and just hitting up a lot of tourist spots. I feel like I haven’t done so many things that I was so interested in doing and seeing because I wanted to be more than just a tourist here. But really, I’m going to give in – tourists and travelers alike should see some of the things that Buenos Aires has to offer, and I’m not ashamed to go all out next weekend.

I have finally started carrying my camera on me again. After a theft or two, I think I started getting overly cautious about things, and then I realized that in my day to day type interactions with people (riding the bus to school and home), I don’t feel in danger and I should carry my camera with me so that I can continue to document this trip for myself, friends, and family. Now my goal is: at least a picture a day! That means only like 83 more pictures to take though… Jen told me today that we’ve officially passed our halfway mark, which absolutely blows my mind.

Jen and I have started planning our latest adventure. This time we’re looking into going to Uruguay for a long weekend – it’s only an hour ferry ride away from here! I think we’re going to go the last weekend of September, so it should be a lot fun (and it will keep my mind off the fact that my friends and family get to enjoy the Durham Fair without me!). There’s a town called Colonia del Sacramento that is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, so we’d take a ferry there after classes on Thursday, spend the night, explore during the day, and then take a bus to Montevideo and stay there for two nights. It kind of sounds like Montevideo is a lot like Buenos Aires, but much, much smaller. So hopefully our plans work out, and I’ll let you know my perception when I get back.

Until the next time, I’ll be studying! I have to present my Tango midterm on Tuesday, and then I have two exams on Wednesday (Political and Social Change and Latin American Cultural Studies), and, to round out the week, I’ll be making a presentation in my Gender in Latin America class on Thursday. I already can’t wait for next weekend – I have high expectations that it will be amazing, especially after this upcoming week!

Monday, September 6, 2010

Don't for a Minute Change the Place You're In.

It's strange. I remember finding out I was accepted to CEA's program and starting the countdown of days until I arrived in Argentina. And now, I'm here. It's ending the first week in September, and my countdown is 90 days until I leave and go home.

I've been talking with Jen a lot because she was trying to decide what she could do to make it possible to stay longer here, like an extra semester. She absolutely loves it here, and has since Day 1. I, on the other hand, haven't. I haven't loved every day, and I don't absolutely love it now, but that doesn't mean I don't like it. Like I said, I'm in my routine, and I'm finally comfortable here. I know my way around the areas of this massive city that I need to know, and I feel fine in those areas. What I love is out of the city. And I can't wait to go again, hopefully soon.
With that all being said, every day, especially this weekend it seemed, I'm loving Buenos Aires more. It's strange that it took until half way through my stay here to appreciate it as much as I am, but I think it's a lot of different things adding up into one.
My Spanish, especially spoken, has vastly improved. I can hold conversations with people, especially those who know to speak slower and don't make me feel like an idiot. And I like having English as a cloak when I need to tell someone something without everyone else understanding.
I have a great group of friends, and it seems it only gets bigger and bigger as the time goes on here. There are of course those people who I see at school, but don't really hang out with much, but there are more and more people who I keep in constant contact with so that we can plan whatever we want at the drop of a hat.
I finally have friends who are Argentine. A big part of me choosing this program was to meet Argentinians and be friends with them. Although it's only one or two people, I've made headway.
I also finally, through friends and families, have been given experience that I wouldn't have been given if I had just been here as a tourist and not a student/traveler.

I never would have started taking tango lessons unless I had my friends and their homestay families to push me into it. Also, my family and friends at home who pushed me into taking the tango class at school was beneficial. But I've come to love dancing the tango, even though I know I'm nowhere near good, but I think I'm getting to be reasonably proficient. Last night I went went with Jen, Sydney, Jen's homestay mother (Maria) and Maria's friend to a milonga. I brought my dance shoes, but didn't dance, and that was absolutely fine. The place was incredible! It was actually someone's house, and they had turned it into a milonga like people used to do back in the origins of the dance. I loved the place, it's was beautiful, and there really aren't words to describe it. There were some really old people there, actually, we were definitely the youngest people there, but at least 10 or 15 years. But they had experience, they were impressive. There were times that instead of watching the woman's part, which I normally do because it's the more sultry (which I, sadly, haven't picked up yet) part, but these guys! Whoa! They blew my mind - I found myself watching the men over the women because they could just move.
Nothing will touch the milonga. I really want to go back with my camera, which, for fear of being robbed/lack of space in some purses, I have stopped carrying. This place was not a tourist spot. It was simply Argentine, and I loved it.

It's things like going to that milonga with friends and people who know/are learning (still, after 10 years, Maria considers herself "intermediate") tango that are making this experience absolutely incredible.

There are a lot of people who enjoy the life in clubs, and I'm not saying that they're doing this entire semester wrong, because to each his own. But I would rather watch a milonga like this, or take a tango lesson, any day.
It's like I'm actually starting to understand what Argentina is really about and not just what a normal tourist or traveler would see - this is more about being a student and immersing myself here. And really, there are only 90 days left until I leave, so I'm hoping that these next 90 days are as incredible as the past few have been and then I get to see and experience (and eat) as much as I can handle so that I return to the United States full with a new appreciation for the Porteño way of lie, and a love for this amazingly beautiful country.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

On Routines

Wow. It's September. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with myself in just a few short months when I'm saying "wow, it's December," and then I pack up my things and go home.
All my friends are back at their respective schools now, which makes it a lot easier to talk to some of them because I know they'll be around at night, like I usually am. It's also weird because they're all just getting their feet in the water, and my first midterm is next week. Then they come crashing down on me, but that'll be alright.
It's really strange though, when I try to talk to my friends about what's going on in my life, and I just shrug. I feel guilty not having something incredible to share every day, but it's true. Right now, I'm in a routine, and there's not much else to say about it. I wake up every morning (at 8:15 or 10:15), and I hit snooze a bunch of times. Then I go to school until 5:30, and I come home after a little while, and I sit on my computer and talk to my Dad or Mom, my friends, or my favorite older brother until it's time to eat - generally around 11, which is even a little bit late for other Porteños, I think, but maybe my friend's families just eat early because they're accommodating their students? I'll never really know, I guess. And then I panic because it's already midnight and I haven't started my homework yet. Then I look at my homework and I generally decide it's not worth doing. Especially because in-between each of my classes, I have an hour and a half gap. So, I just do homework then because it's not really enough time to go out and do something productive, but it's too long to just sit around and waste time.

Lately I've been working a lot on my Spanish, which you would think comes with the territory... but it's much easier to practice a language when you're speaking with someone who speaks only that language and just enough English to get the gist of things across to you, if need be. It's actually a lot of fun trying to figure things out, and when I do it successfully, I feel really good about myself. When I don't, well, I guess I don't really know that I don't get it across that well and my Argentine friends probably just think a bunch of crazy things about me.

The past few days have had miserable weather with lots of rain and strong wind. It's probably like being in South Carolina with Hurricane Earl passing by, but not quite as intense, although it makes me think of that.

Now that I realize how lame my routine sounds, I'm going to try and break it up a little bit. I really feel like I've barely explored the city I'm in because I just keep thinking that some other weekend will be a lot nicer and I'll be able to do things then, yet I haven't. This weekend's forecast looks decent enough, so maybe I'll drag my butt down to Puerto Madero, the most recently developed part of the city, and see La Puente de la Mujer (Bridge of Woman), which is designed by my favorite architect, Santiago Calatrava (sorry that it's not you, Daddy. You're my real favorite person with an architecture degree!)

Until next time, try and stay nice and dry, all you East Coasters, and enjoy your time, everyone who isn't anywhere near Hurricane Earl. I'm sending my love home!