Friday August 29, 2008
Before I knew it, day one was gone and Saturday was here! Friday was fun, but we kept the night pretty mellow. We tried to find somewhere fun to go out to, but after a few tries, we kept finding all the wrong kinds of places (too expensive, too young of a crowd, too creepy or just not the right atmosphere). It was eventually 2 AM, and we had to meet the rest of our group around 10 or 11 at the hotel we were going to stay in, so we headed to bed.
Saturday was interesting! We went to the hotel and saw all the fresh faces of our group as they just arrived in the city. I had only briefly met most of these people once, at the orientation about two weeks prior. Pretty much, none of us really knew each other. I had all these first impressions and judgments about everyone. Those would all eventually disappear as time progressed and we all spent more time together. As we arrived, we met with our program coordinator, Pilar, for E.C.E.L.A. (Escuelas y Centros de Español en Latina America), the school through which we would be studying. We piled onto the charter bus after checking into our interesting rooms (Beau’s and mine was classified a “queen-double” but really was a queen and a bed that was smaller than a t
win! haha) and then began a tour of all the neighborhoods: Recoleta is where most of us would be living and where the school was. It reminded me a little of uptown Manhattan as it was charming with trees and Victorian architecture and the nicest looking neighborhood (relative to the rest of Buenos Aires-don’t get me wrong, it’s definitely not exactly the same, b
ut similar). El Microcentro was hectic and nuts with drivers and McDonalds's, and tons of advertisements. Impressions of Piccadilly Circus and Times Square were definitely noticeable in the area. Puerto Madero was home to an embarcadero and ports for ships. Right across the water (the Rio de la Plata) from here was Uruguay. San Telmo and La Boca were the most interesting neighborhoods. They were more rustic areas, San Telmo reminding me of crammed little neighborhoods of Rome and La Boca reminding of ran down and bright colored “barrios” of Tijuana. These places had the most culture in the city, a lot of Tango shows, café’s, Italian and Spanish immigrants and were also the more dangerous parts to the city. It probably would have been good to know this yesterday when Ryan, Beau and I were strolling through San Telmo close to sunset, the most dangerous part of the day to be in these parts of town!
After the tour we had a crazy huge lunch that was included in the program. It was kind of like a buffet style with multiple stations of different kinds of food (like a sauté station with someone making pastas, a beef cutting station, a desert stop, a cold finger-food area with some pretty funky foods, etc.). For the first time, I ate cow tongue! Lengue, as it’s called in Spani
sh, is very popular here. It is served cold and marinated in juices. As I chewed it felt like I was eating my own tongue, yet it kind of reminded me of roast beef. Then we had a toast to the group and to Danielle’s birthday, Professor Steve Bouscaren’s daughter that is on the trip. By night time, we went to a dinner, all 28 of us, and took over some pizza place close to our hotel. After, we ended up at some crazy night club called Pachá where half of us got denied e
ntrance, and the other half got charged AR$60 (pesos), which is about US$20, just to get in! Everywhere we go people know we are American and we seem to get charged crazy prices. It was fun though, right on the Rio de la Plata and there were three dance floors with all sorts of people everywhere. This was our introduction to the Buenos Aires night life. We arrived at 1:30 AM and the dance floor was dead and the music was slow. As time went on, around 3AM, people were piling in more and more and the music got faster and faster. Oh, Porteños. . . .
The next morning, bright and early at what was supposed to be 10 AM (I was woke up by telephone in our room at 10:40AM) we met our host families! I dragged my bag downstairs and saw everyone else sitting with sun glasses on and drinking coffee. Half of t
he group was missing, probably still sleeping. Pilar pulled me over to the reception desk to meet Maria Silvia Grimoldi, the lady I would be living with for the next two months. She greeted me with a “Ciao” and faced her cheek to me. I was starting to get used to kissing even the strangest of women, and sometimes even guys, on the cheek to greet hello. Talk about culture shock: I am finally beginning to losen up and not send off such awkward body language when greeting someone with a simple kiss. I guess its hard for us from the U.S. as we so value our personal space. Anyway, Maria Silvia and I exchanged a few words in Spanish and she expressed relief that I could speak Spanish. Oh, how she would eventually learn that this is not the case. . . We took a cab to her home on Junin in Recoleta. We asked each other some basic questions to get to know one another, and then she asked me “¿Donde fuiste anoche? (Where did you go last night?)” I laughed, as it must have been obvious that our first night here had just ended just a few hours ago. “Una discoteca, Pacha.” Then she corrected me, “Pachá,” pointing her finger out when she got to the last “a” to tell me the accent was at the end. I laughed that she even knew what it was, being 63 and all. She laughed too, telling me that she knows more than one would guess. We arrived home, to her beautiful apartment, and walked upstairs to the third floor. It reminds me a little of my home that I grew up in back in Ohio: lots of antiques and older furniture. The space also felt like my grandma’s house as it was tidy and well maintained. It was cozy, but definitely foreign. We sat and talked, and at this point she realized how terrible my Spanish was. “En mi casa, hablamos solamente en español. ¿Entiendes?” Yes, I understood: only spanish for the next two months. We both then realized how interesting the next two months would be, and how much my Spanish would improve! She told me she lives alone here in Recoleta, where she has her whole life. She was una viuda (a widow) and her husband died 14 years ago. She has two kids, Marcelo who lives close by with his girlfriend and another, Martín, who lives in Ushuaia, the city at the very bottom tip of South America. It is considered the most Southern populated city in the world.
The next day was my first day of class. The classes I have here are rad because they are small and more personal. In my Spanish class, for example, there are only 8 people including me, and our teacher also does not speak any English. We are only allowed to communicate in Spanish. After a week, I can already see the improvement, but it is definitely a struggle! My Anthropology class, “Cultures of Latin America,” is also awesome. There’s a focus on South America and a lot of discussion about contemporary issues is discussed. While we are in a foreign big city having the time of our lives, it is cool to be grounded with some real issues and to pay attention to the history and contemporary context of Buenos Aires citizens and other Argentineans, and especially understand that the Argentina that is today, was not the same even just a few hundred years ago when the natives lived here. That class is taught by an amazing professor that I have had in the past as well, Dr. Stephen Bouscaren. One of the more interesting classes I have is “History of the Americas II,” taught by “Monica” from Peru. She is hilarious! She is this little Peruvian woman with a big presence and apparently she also teaches salsa and ‘other’ forms of dancing. . . Most of the class is spent laughing, but I already have learned quite a bit about the colonization of South America and the mess of revolutionary wars that have torn this place apart over the past few hundred years. On Fridays we have the “Argentine Life and Culture” class. Every week a new person comes and teaches us about some aspect of Argentine culture. Lecture is then accompanied by a field trip. This week, we learned about the immigrants of Argentina, and then visited “El Hotel de los Inmigrantes.” This is equivalent to Ellis
Island in the States. Their history is actually a lot like ours, having been colonized by Europe, fighting a revolutionary war, then having a time period where a large number of immigrants relocated here and transformed Buenos Aires and Argentina to the diverse population of European descent that is today. Similar to my own homelands history, it is disturbing to note that today, only 3% of the entire Argentine population is of native descent, and over 97% being of European descent. This number was drastically different just 150 years prior.
My schedule isn’t bad either:
Lunes: Español 8:15AM-10:30AM
Martes: Español 8:15AM-10:30AM
Anthropology 11:05-1PM
History 2:15-4:55
Miércoles: Español 8:15AM-10:30AM
Jueves: Español 8:15AM-10:30AM
Anthropology 11:05-1PM
History 2:15-4:55
Viernes: Argentine Life & Culture 10AM-3PM
Sábado: ¡Disponible! (free!)
Domingo: ¡Disposible!
So as you can see, Lunes y Miércoles (Monday and Wedneday) I am done with class at 10:30. This is a lot of time to do some exploring in the city! This week we found a place called “Azucar” that offers Salsa classes for AR$10 per class (a little over US$3)! There is also some pretty interesting volunteering around the city, cool yoga classes in spanish and some dirt cheap shopping around different neighborhoods. And of course, a million interesting places to go out to! I am definitely going to try out Tango classes and start taking weekend trips to some gorgeous locations outside of this congested city. The population of this country is so unevenly disbursed, with 1/3 of its people living in or around the capital city of Buenos Aires and the rest spread thin around the 8th biggest country in the world. There mountains in Cordoba, the beach on Mar del Plata, wine country in Mendoza, the amazing Patagonia, the wonderous Iguazu Falls, the southern glaciers and mountains of Ushuaia and Tierra Del Fuego. . . and so much more!
My first week here has been a blast! Besides all of this, I also have gotten pretty sick from all of the pollution (Buenos Aires my ass! More like Aires Negros-its disturbing how dirty this place is. Black smoke constantly blows from all of the buses, taxis and old cars and there is trash everywhere) and all of the meat and no greens in my diet, (plus the alcohol), my immune system has taken a blow! Although I am for sure not complaining about the awesome and cheap empanadas that have become a major staple in my diet. I definitely appreciate my healthy lifestyle and environment back in California way more now. I miss yoga, cycling (Brian, all that hard work and training is already gone!), the beach, açaí bowls and the ocean for sure (I’m land locked and most of the weather has been cloudy, cold and rainy here due to the winter season). Yet, I look forward to adjusting and living in a big city with so much to do! Between school, new friends, all the exploring of the city and getting used to the completely different lifestyle, I am stoked for the rest.
It has officially been a week since my arrival in Buenos Aires! What a week it has been. . .
 |
| The Crew: Study Abroad Group |
Saturday was interesting! We went to the hotel and saw all the fresh faces of our group as they just arrived in the city. I had only briefly met most of these people once, at the orientation about two weeks prior. Pretty much, none of us really knew each other. I had all these first impressions and judgments about everyone. Those would all eventually disappear as time progressed and we all spent more time together. As we arrived, we met with our program coordinator, Pilar, for E.C.E.L.A. (Escuelas y Centros de Español en Latina America), the school through which we would be studying. We piled onto the charter bus after checking into our interesting rooms (Beau’s and mine was classified a “queen-double” but really was a queen and a bed that was smaller than a t
win! haha) and then began a tour of all the neighborhoods: Recoleta is where most of us would be living and where the school was. It reminded me a little of uptown Manhattan as it was charming with trees and Victorian architecture and the nicest looking neighborhood (relative to the rest of Buenos Aires-don’t get me wrong, it’s definitely not exactly the same, b
ut similar). El Microcentro was hectic and nuts with drivers and McDonalds's, and tons of advertisements. Impressions of Piccadilly Circus and Times Square were definitely noticeable in the area. Puerto Madero was home to an embarcadero and ports for ships. Right across the water (the Rio de la Plata) from here was Uruguay. San Telmo and La Boca were the most interesting neighborhoods. They were more rustic areas, San Telmo reminding me of crammed little neighborhoods of Rome and La Boca reminding of ran down and bright colored “barrios” of Tijuana. These places had the most culture in the city, a lot of Tango shows, café’s, Italian and Spanish immigrants and were also the more dangerous parts to the city. It probably would have been good to know this yesterday when Ryan, Beau and I were strolling through San Telmo close to sunset, the most dangerous part of the day to be in these parts of town!After the tour we had a crazy huge lunch that was included in the program. It was kind of like a buffet style with multiple stations of different kinds of food (like a sauté station with someone making pastas, a beef cutting station, a desert stop, a cold finger-food area with some pretty funky foods, etc.). For the first time, I ate cow tongue! Lengue, as it’s called in Spani
sh, is very popular here. It is served cold and marinated in juices. As I chewed it felt like I was eating my own tongue, yet it kind of reminded me of roast beef. Then we had a toast to the group and to Danielle’s birthday, Professor Steve Bouscaren’s daughter that is on the trip. By night time, we went to a dinner, all 28 of us, and took over some pizza place close to our hotel. After, we ended up at some crazy night club called Pachá where half of us got denied e
ntrance, and the other half got charged AR$60 (pesos), which is about US$20, just to get in! Everywhere we go people know we are American and we seem to get charged crazy prices. It was fun though, right on the Rio de la Plata and there were three dance floors with all sorts of people everywhere. This was our introduction to the Buenos Aires night life. We arrived at 1:30 AM and the dance floor was dead and the music was slow. As time went on, around 3AM, people were piling in more and more and the music got faster and faster. Oh, Porteños. . . .
The next morning, bright and early at what was supposed to be 10 AM (I was woke up by telephone in our room at 10:40AM) we met our host families! I dragged my bag downstairs and saw everyone else sitting with sun glasses on and drinking coffee. Half of t
he group was missing, probably still sleeping. Pilar pulled me over to the reception desk to meet Maria Silvia Grimoldi, the lady I would be living with for the next two months. She greeted me with a “Ciao” and faced her cheek to me. I was starting to get used to kissing even the strangest of women, and sometimes even guys, on the cheek to greet hello. Talk about culture shock: I am finally beginning to losen up and not send off such awkward body language when greeting someone with a simple kiss. I guess its hard for us from the U.S. as we so value our personal space. Anyway, Maria Silvia and I exchanged a few words in Spanish and she expressed relief that I could speak Spanish. Oh, how she would eventually learn that this is not the case. . . We took a cab to her home on Junin in Recoleta. We asked each other some basic questions to get to know one another, and then she asked me “¿Donde fuiste anoche? (Where did you go last night?)” I laughed, as it must have been obvious that our first night here had just ended just a few hours ago. “Una discoteca, Pacha.” Then she corrected me, “Pachá,” pointing her finger out when she got to the last “a” to tell me the accent was at the end. I laughed that she even knew what it was, being 63 and all. She laughed too, telling me that she knows more than one would guess. We arrived home, to her beautiful apartment, and walked upstairs to the third floor. It reminds me a little of my home that I grew up in back in Ohio: lots of antiques and older furniture. The space also felt like my grandma’s house as it was tidy and well maintained. It was cozy, but definitely foreign. We sat and talked, and at this point she realized how terrible my Spanish was. “En mi casa, hablamos solamente en español. ¿Entiendes?” Yes, I understood: only spanish for the next two months. We both then realized how interesting the next two months would be, and how much my Spanish would improve! She told me she lives alone here in Recoleta, where she has her whole life. She was una viuda (a widow) and her husband died 14 years ago. She has two kids, Marcelo who lives close by with his girlfriend and another, Martín, who lives in Ushuaia, the city at the very bottom tip of South America. It is considered the most Southern populated city in the world.
The next day was my first day of class. The classes I have here are rad because they are small and more personal. In my Spanish class, for example, there are only 8 people including me, and our teacher also does not speak any English. We are only allowed to communicate in Spanish. After a week, I can already see the improvement, but it is definitely a struggle! My Anthropology class, “Cultures of Latin America,” is also awesome. There’s a focus on South America and a lot of discussion about contemporary issues is discussed. While we are in a foreign big city having the time of our lives, it is cool to be grounded with some real issues and to pay attention to the history and contemporary context of Buenos Aires citizens and other Argentineans, and especially understand that the Argentina that is today, was not the same even just a few hundred years ago when the natives lived here. That class is taught by an amazing professor that I have had in the past as well, Dr. Stephen Bouscaren. One of the more interesting classes I have is “History of the Americas II,” taught by “Monica” from Peru. She is hilarious! She is this little Peruvian woman with a big presence and apparently she also teaches salsa and ‘other’ forms of dancing. . . Most of the class is spent laughing, but I already have learned quite a bit about the colonization of South America and the mess of revolutionary wars that have torn this place apart over the past few hundred years. On Fridays we have the “Argentine Life and Culture” class. Every week a new person comes and teaches us about some aspect of Argentine culture. Lecture is then accompanied by a field trip. This week, we learned about the immigrants of Argentina, and then visited “El Hotel de los Inmigrantes.” This is equivalent to Ellis
Island in the States. Their history is actually a lot like ours, having been colonized by Europe, fighting a revolutionary war, then having a time period where a large number of immigrants relocated here and transformed Buenos Aires and Argentina to the diverse population of European descent that is today. Similar to my own homelands history, it is disturbing to note that today, only 3% of the entire Argentine population is of native descent, and over 97% being of European descent. This number was drastically different just 150 years prior. |
El Hotel de los Inmigrantes
|
My schedule isn’t bad either:
Lunes: Español 8:15AM-10:30AM
Martes: Español 8:15AM-10:30AM
Anthropology 11:05-1PM
History 2:15-4:55
Miércoles: Español 8:15AM-10:30AM
Jueves: Español 8:15AM-10:30AM
Anthropology 11:05-1PM
History 2:15-4:55
Viernes: Argentine Life & Culture 10AM-3PM
Sábado: ¡Disponible! (free!)
Domingo: ¡Disposible!
So as you can see, Lunes y Miércoles (Monday and Wedneday) I am done with class at 10:30. This is a lot of time to do some exploring in the city! This week we found a place called “Azucar” that offers Salsa classes for AR$10 per class (a little over US$3)! There is also some pretty interesting volunteering around the city, cool yoga classes in spanish and some dirt cheap shopping around different neighborhoods. And of course, a million interesting places to go out to! I am definitely going to try out Tango classes and start taking weekend trips to some gorgeous locations outside of this congested city. The population of this country is so unevenly disbursed, with 1/3 of its people living in or around the capital city of Buenos Aires and the rest spread thin around the 8th biggest country in the world. There mountains in Cordoba, the beach on Mar del Plata, wine country in Mendoza, the amazing Patagonia, the wonderous Iguazu Falls, the southern glaciers and mountains of Ushuaia and Tierra Del Fuego. . . and so much more!
My first week here has been a blast! Besides all of this, I also have gotten pretty sick from all of the pollution (Buenos Aires my ass! More like Aires Negros-its disturbing how dirty this place is. Black smoke constantly blows from all of the buses, taxis and old cars and there is trash everywhere) and all of the meat and no greens in my diet, (plus the alcohol), my immune system has taken a blow! Although I am for sure not complaining about the awesome and cheap empanadas that have become a major staple in my diet. I definitely appreciate my healthy lifestyle and environment back in California way more now. I miss yoga, cycling (Brian, all that hard work and training is already gone!), the beach, açaí bowls and the ocean for sure (I’m land locked and most of the weather has been cloudy, cold and rainy here due to the winter season). Yet, I look forward to adjusting and living in a big city with so much to do! Between school, new friends, all the exploring of the city and getting used to the completely different lifestyle, I am stoked for the rest.
No comments:
Post a Comment