Sunday, September 28, 2008
Jujuy
Sept 25-sept 28. Jujuy, (Who-who-ee) Argentina.
Jueves: started off early meeting at the domestic airport all 60 of us (only half of our program). We flew into San Salvador de jujuy, then got on a bus and drove to Tilcara. We arrived and many of us were a bit hungry since it was about 3pm and no one had eaten lunch. We arrived to a merienda (which turned out to be the same as our breakfast for the next couple days. Media lunas, tea, coffee, hot chocolate, bananas, apples, oranges, toasts, jam, dulce de leche, crackers and bread). We all inhaled the snack, and then listened to a presentation about what we were going to be seeing. We checked into our rooms and then went to explore the town. We walked around the tiny town and enjoyed the silence. We almost got lost on the way back but luckily we found some other flacsitos and made our way back for dinner (bread, salad, mashed potatoes, milonesa, flan). It was my friends birthday so we sang her happy birthday and ate cake. We had an impromptu birthday party with a bit of music and dancing in the restaurant the hotel. Then the birthday girl and I walked into town to try and find something to do (it was her 21st birthday), but we couldn’t find a bar to save our lives. We ended up just chatting about the cultural differences, one of our favorite subjects. Came back and my bed was “crumby” literally. EWW!
Viernes: We visited the Pucará de tilcara, a bunch of ancient ruins. It also included a pyramid constructed by some architects that thought that they should include something that looked neat even though it wasn’t historically accurate. The pack with the pyramid is a bit of a slap in the face to the local people. We are at a restaurant (all the locals did a second take when we walked through the door) with live traditional music. The food was okay, although my meat turned out to be mostly bone and fat. We spent the afternoon shopping around the tiny town (now our group looks like it has been eaten by llamas since now everyone has sweaters, hats, mittens, and all else.) I treated myself to a local ice cream and a local afajor. We returned to tilicara only to have a couple minutes before meeting up with some friends to hike the mountain. (the only reason I went was because they told us that they were going to get llama afterwards). Now our hotel was surrounded by mountains but there was one that had a cross on it and had a welcome to tilicara sign. We started up…but couldn’t find a way to get up to the mountain. We ended up climbing through the indigenous community, the cemetery; peoples back yards and then hiking straight up the rocky mountain. Rocks were sliding under my feet, and I thought that this would be something probably end up with me rolling town the hill hitting a house, through the cemetery then the indigenous community. Luckily it turned out okay, I was a bit out of breath when I reached the top the huge cross. We took a couple pictures, some of which I will include, and then hurried down since it was a bit dark and walking down the (or sliding) down the hill in the dark would be less than fun. We found the path on the way down which made it a whole lot easier. We reached the town and chatted a while since it was still too early for dinner. We then found a locals place (filled with argentine men watching the futbol game) we went in and split a litre of beer for 6 pesos or 2 dollars! It was an experience. We headed to find some llama. We went to a restaurant with hardly anyone in it and plastic chairs and table cloths, a real simple place. After dinner we walked home and went to bed early since we were going to get up early again for a busy day.
Sabado: This day was the busiest, and most fun. We rode the bus for a long time to the salt flats which were everyones favorite part of the trip. Its just a vast sea of salt. On the ground are geometrical shapes since that is the shape of the salt crystal. They harvest the salt and sell it. We got to run around, take pictures, and sample the salt. Some of the pictures are included. We then went to another small town Purmamarca, and looked at the hill of seven colors and ate lunch and I walked around the street fair. Loaded the bus and went back to tilicara. We had a bit of free time before dinner which turned out to be a huge asado. Salad, tamales (cheese and meat) and then every kind of meat you could want, and French fries, then strawberries and cream. Yum. Then we all headed into town to watch some folk dancing. It was fun although our group was a bit more rowdie than I would have liked. On the way home, we joined a group of argentines to do some more dancing. I said I was from the states and they said “bill Clinton!” stopped for an ice cream on the way back then hit the sack.
Domingo: low key, we woke up (early), ate breakfast (my usual hot chocolate, bread, dulce de leche, bananas) and bussed it three hours to salta to catch our plane. When we arrived we found out that it was delayed. We had a nice picnic lunch of a huge ham and cheese sandwich and 4 empanadas. It was very satisfying. Then we waited around in the scorching hot weather and finally got on our plane. We arrived in BsAs (with a couple of bouts of scary turbulence) 3-4 hours late. Shared a cab home and had a low key night unpacking and relaxing before the week begins.
Jueves: started off early meeting at the domestic airport all 60 of us (only half of our program). We flew into San Salvador de jujuy, then got on a bus and drove to Tilcara. We arrived and many of us were a bit hungry since it was about 3pm and no one had eaten lunch. We arrived to a merienda (which turned out to be the same as our breakfast for the next couple days. Media lunas, tea, coffee, hot chocolate, bananas, apples, oranges, toasts, jam, dulce de leche, crackers and bread). We all inhaled the snack, and then listened to a presentation about what we were going to be seeing. We checked into our rooms and then went to explore the town. We walked around the tiny town and enjoyed the silence. We almost got lost on the way back but luckily we found some other flacsitos and made our way back for dinner (bread, salad, mashed potatoes, milonesa, flan). It was my friends birthday so we sang her happy birthday and ate cake. We had an impromptu birthday party with a bit of music and dancing in the restaurant the hotel. Then the birthday girl and I walked into town to try and find something to do (it was her 21st birthday), but we couldn’t find a bar to save our lives. We ended up just chatting about the cultural differences, one of our favorite subjects. Came back and my bed was “crumby” literally. EWW!
Viernes: We visited the Pucará de tilcara, a bunch of ancient ruins. It also included a pyramid constructed by some architects that thought that they should include something that looked neat even though it wasn’t historically accurate. The pack with the pyramid is a bit of a slap in the face to the local people. We are at a restaurant (all the locals did a second take when we walked through the door) with live traditional music. The food was okay, although my meat turned out to be mostly bone and fat. We spent the afternoon shopping around the tiny town (now our group looks like it has been eaten by llamas since now everyone has sweaters, hats, mittens, and all else.) I treated myself to a local ice cream and a local afajor. We returned to tilicara only to have a couple minutes before meeting up with some friends to hike the mountain. (the only reason I went was because they told us that they were going to get llama afterwards). Now our hotel was surrounded by mountains but there was one that had a cross on it and had a welcome to tilicara sign. We started up…but couldn’t find a way to get up to the mountain. We ended up climbing through the indigenous community, the cemetery; peoples back yards and then hiking straight up the rocky mountain. Rocks were sliding under my feet, and I thought that this would be something probably end up with me rolling town the hill hitting a house, through the cemetery then the indigenous community. Luckily it turned out okay, I was a bit out of breath when I reached the top the huge cross. We took a couple pictures, some of which I will include, and then hurried down since it was a bit dark and walking down the (or sliding) down the hill in the dark would be less than fun. We found the path on the way down which made it a whole lot easier. We reached the town and chatted a while since it was still too early for dinner. We then found a locals place (filled with argentine men watching the futbol game) we went in and split a litre of beer for 6 pesos or 2 dollars! It was an experience. We headed to find some llama. We went to a restaurant with hardly anyone in it and plastic chairs and table cloths, a real simple place. After dinner we walked home and went to bed early since we were going to get up early again for a busy day.
Sabado: This day was the busiest, and most fun. We rode the bus for a long time to the salt flats which were everyones favorite part of the trip. Its just a vast sea of salt. On the ground are geometrical shapes since that is the shape of the salt crystal. They harvest the salt and sell it. We got to run around, take pictures, and sample the salt. Some of the pictures are included. We then went to another small town Purmamarca, and looked at the hill of seven colors and ate lunch and I walked around the street fair. Loaded the bus and went back to tilicara. We had a bit of free time before dinner which turned out to be a huge asado. Salad, tamales (cheese and meat) and then every kind of meat you could want, and French fries, then strawberries and cream. Yum. Then we all headed into town to watch some folk dancing. It was fun although our group was a bit more rowdie than I would have liked. On the way home, we joined a group of argentines to do some more dancing. I said I was from the states and they said “bill Clinton!” stopped for an ice cream on the way back then hit the sack.
Domingo: low key, we woke up (early), ate breakfast (my usual hot chocolate, bread, dulce de leche, bananas) and bussed it three hours to salta to catch our plane. When we arrived we found out that it was delayed. We had a nice picnic lunch of a huge ham and cheese sandwich and 4 empanadas. It was very satisfying. Then we waited around in the scorching hot weather and finally got on our plane. We arrived in BsAs (with a couple of bouts of scary turbulence) 3-4 hours late. Shared a cab home and had a low key night unpacking and relaxing before the week begins.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
September 24, 2008
Got up early (what happened to my easy schedule where I could live the argentine life of staying up late and sleeping in late?). Ate breakfast and walked over to flacso to meet the remises to go to casa del nino. Unfortunately, they came 2 hours late, and we ended up not going since we would have had about 30 minutes actually there (due to the transportation time) before we would have had to come home. A free Wednesday was something I hadn’t experienced in a while. I puttered around checking my email and such, then a friend from Georgetown and I went to this bookstore that is in an old theatre and did some homework. After that we ate at this natural restaurant, which had a lot of English speakers. But I had a spinach salad which was delicious! We tried to go to a museum and a library both of which were closed, so instead we walked to our Spanish class. After Spanish I met another friend and we went to coffee (again café con leche y media lunas I am getting to be quite the expert). And then meandered through the city. I came home and packed and answered some emails and did some errands for my trip to JUJUY (pronounced who-who-ee). I am very excited to venture to northern Argentina to see the more “traditional argentine life.” The only bad thing about the trip so far is that my memory card on my camera broke! Ahhh! Right before a trip where I want to take tons of pictures of the salt flats and all the neat stuff I am going to see. Luckily, stefy loaned me her memory card. But what timing. Boo! Also she helped me write an email to the kids that I talked to yesterday (I passed around my notebook and I got like 15 email addresses) argentine friends here I come. off to eat dinner. Hasta lunes!
September 23
Busy busy day. I started out the day very early (I feel like all my entries start like this). I took the colectivo to a high school. I got there way too early so I did a bit of walking around. I ended up waiting at what I thought was the school I was supposed to be at (turned out I found out about 10 min before I was supposed to be there the actual school was across the street and down the block.) I met another flacsita, and we got ready to do the actividad de intercambio with the seniors. I was a bit nervous since I didn’t really know what it entailed, but I got even more nervous when we were sat down on separate benches and the seniors sat on the ground, and grilled us. It was really fun, I got to practice my Spanish, and my public speaking. Although I will say I am glad I didn’t know what the format would be so I didn’t have time to worry about it. They asked some hard questions (hard to answer in english) some of the themes were September 11th, the war, bush, cheerleaders, university, the typical schedule, and many more. It was nice because I had a person (roche a flacso staff member who is basically my age which is funny since he is one of the people running things) to help me when I didn’t understand and such. The great part was that I am doing my final paper on los FLOGGERS, a youth urban tribe of Buenos aires, and I got so much information about los floggers from people who know them the best. I even got an interview with a flogger—but the best part about that was that I hardly had to work since the kids asked many of the questions! After the intercambio I took the bus back home and quick brought my laundry to the laundry mat, and got lunch (empanadas) then headed to class. After Spanish class I went to my service class, and I ventured to a book store and bought a book on youth cibercultures (edited by the teacher of my class at the UBA) after that I headed home to pick up my laundry. I had an urge (that never goes away) for a typical argentine snack at any time of the day, a café con leche and 3 media lunas. I walked around to try and find semi cheap ones and a nice café. I like to find the more “argentine” cafes (or bares here) rather than the chains or ones with lots of English speakers—I like those whole in the wall, chip in your cup, cheaper ones, they have a bit more character. I read a bit of my book over my snack and then came home to work on my final paper for my service class. It is not going to well, mostly because my theme is a bit odd. I am commenting on how casa del Niño fulfills maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Late dinner as usual then to bed early since I had a busy long day and was in for another today.
Got up early (what happened to my easy schedule where I could live the argentine life of staying up late and sleeping in late?). Ate breakfast and walked over to flacso to meet the remises to go to casa del nino. Unfortunately, they came 2 hours late, and we ended up not going since we would have had about 30 minutes actually there (due to the transportation time) before we would have had to come home. A free Wednesday was something I hadn’t experienced in a while. I puttered around checking my email and such, then a friend from Georgetown and I went to this bookstore that is in an old theatre and did some homework. After that we ate at this natural restaurant, which had a lot of English speakers. But I had a spinach salad which was delicious! We tried to go to a museum and a library both of which were closed, so instead we walked to our Spanish class. After Spanish I met another friend and we went to coffee (again café con leche y media lunas I am getting to be quite the expert). And then meandered through the city. I came home and packed and answered some emails and did some errands for my trip to JUJUY (pronounced who-who-ee). I am very excited to venture to northern Argentina to see the more “traditional argentine life.” The only bad thing about the trip so far is that my memory card on my camera broke! Ahhh! Right before a trip where I want to take tons of pictures of the salt flats and all the neat stuff I am going to see. Luckily, stefy loaned me her memory card. But what timing. Boo! Also she helped me write an email to the kids that I talked to yesterday (I passed around my notebook and I got like 15 email addresses) argentine friends here I come. off to eat dinner. Hasta lunes!
September 23
Busy busy day. I started out the day very early (I feel like all my entries start like this). I took the colectivo to a high school. I got there way too early so I did a bit of walking around. I ended up waiting at what I thought was the school I was supposed to be at (turned out I found out about 10 min before I was supposed to be there the actual school was across the street and down the block.) I met another flacsita, and we got ready to do the actividad de intercambio with the seniors. I was a bit nervous since I didn’t really know what it entailed, but I got even more nervous when we were sat down on separate benches and the seniors sat on the ground, and grilled us. It was really fun, I got to practice my Spanish, and my public speaking. Although I will say I am glad I didn’t know what the format would be so I didn’t have time to worry about it. They asked some hard questions (hard to answer in english) some of the themes were September 11th, the war, bush, cheerleaders, university, the typical schedule, and many more. It was nice because I had a person (roche a flacso staff member who is basically my age which is funny since he is one of the people running things) to help me when I didn’t understand and such. The great part was that I am doing my final paper on los FLOGGERS, a youth urban tribe of Buenos aires, and I got so much information about los floggers from people who know them the best. I even got an interview with a flogger—but the best part about that was that I hardly had to work since the kids asked many of the questions! After the intercambio I took the bus back home and quick brought my laundry to the laundry mat, and got lunch (empanadas) then headed to class. After Spanish class I went to my service class, and I ventured to a book store and bought a book on youth cibercultures (edited by the teacher of my class at the UBA) after that I headed home to pick up my laundry. I had an urge (that never goes away) for a typical argentine snack at any time of the day, a café con leche and 3 media lunas. I walked around to try and find semi cheap ones and a nice café. I like to find the more “argentine” cafes (or bares here) rather than the chains or ones with lots of English speakers—I like those whole in the wall, chip in your cup, cheaper ones, they have a bit more character. I read a bit of my book over my snack and then came home to work on my final paper for my service class. It is not going to well, mostly because my theme is a bit odd. I am commenting on how casa del Niño fulfills maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Late dinner as usual then to bed early since I had a busy long day and was in for another today.
Monday, September 22, 2008
fotos
the eternal flame...
Olivia and I at the monumento.
the monument at night.
the first ice cream.
the third ice cream...
the monumento del bandera (flag). this monument entombs the person who designed the argentine flag. it is pretty grandiose. and a popular hang out spot.
Olivia and I at the monumento.
the monument at night.
the first ice cream.
the third ice cream...
the monumento del bandera (flag). this monument entombs the person who designed the argentine flag. it is pretty grandiose. and a popular hang out spot.
Rosario, Argentina
Sept 19-Sept 22: Rosario, Argentina
This weekend I went to visit one of my friends in Rosario. Rosario is about a 4 hour bus ride from Buenos Aires. I boarded the bus at 9 am and arrived at 1 to a smiling welcoming committee of OLIVIA! We took a taxi to my hostel (which turned out to be pretty nice, even though I was a bit worried). I had booked cheapest room (a co-ed shared dorm with 10 other people yikes!) my first roommate I met was a 50 or something year old Brazilian man (he was a plant biologist and a bit odd). Luckily more people came so I didn’t just have to share a room with him. We unloaded my stuff and then we walked over to and ate lunch at the place that all the students who are in Olivia’s program eat. I met some fellow UOers and we skipped out on the dessert there only to eat some fantastic ice cream. We started out splitting a 3 scoop dish, and then we got another one to split. We made our way back to Olivia’s homestays apartment and then she headed out to cello practice. I was on my own. I visited the flag monument, which was really cool. I got to go up to the top of it and view the whole city and river. I walked to a café and spent a good amount of time enjoying my café con leche y medialunas while perusing my argentina book and the local newspaper. (I love the café culture here, no one would ever tell you to give up your table even if you are done eating). I headed back to my hostel to do some journaling, and met Rob from Holland. We started chatting, which was a little hard due to the fact there was LOUD rock music and the sounds of a tattoo needle going right next to us---oh hostels you never know what you will get. This has been the first time one has changed into a tattoo parlor. Then I went over to olivia’s homestay for dinner. Her family is a single older woman named Emilce. It was a great dinner, and it was fun to see that I could communicate pretty well, and even add to the conversation. After dinner we went looking for something to do, and ended up at a restaurant with a massive ice cream sundae. We ventured back to the hostel and after we were ready to call it a night we ended up going out for drinks with Rob. (it was nice to walk around at night with a HUGE –something like 6’7’ guy and it was funny how no one gave us any trouble, looks or remarks). After visiting the monument at night—which was so cool! It was lit up all blue we all went home and got a couple hours of shut eye before waking up for a full day on Saturday.
Hostel breakfast consisted of media lunas, cereal, tea, coffee and jam, and dulce de leche. After a breakfast like that (only of carbs and sugar) I felt myself dragging a bit, after we hit the shopping drag, a pedestrian street called Cordoba. We both were on a mission. Buy boots. Boots here are the shoe of choice and I have felt a bit frumpy in my nike athletic shoes since I have arrived. Now that the boot season is almost over everything is on sale, and that is when we swoop in. After a long time, Olivia found her perfect pair of suede boots for 100 pesos (33 dollars). And I was still looking. We ate lunch at a little café off the beaten road, and then returned to our mission. I found my pair a little while later for 99 pesos! Seeing as we had accomplished our mission, we returned to her apartment where we had a bit of time to chill out before the big night. We went to a place called brownies, where we enjoyed a nice coffee/media lunas and a particularly good conversation. After that we had to find some real food, which ended up being 2 empanadas and a yogurt at a cafeteria type place. We were scheduled to go out with olivias host moms younger friend but it ended up being that we were just introduced to her and her friends at the place we went to. We then headed over to another bar, which is where the hostel people were supposedly hanging out. We didn’t end up finding them, but we did find another person from olivias program and all chatted (unfortunately most of our chatting was in English since rob doesn’t know spanish). I broke my record and we got back at about 5.30am. Slept for a couple hours then got up to finish off the weekend strong. Sunday we went down to the river and walked around the fair, we ate a true argentine lunch of a chorpan, its like a spicy sausage sandwich and then we split up for siestas and reconvened to get coffee at our new favorite place, brownies. After coffee we headed back to olivias home stay where we ate dinner, which was pizza with cheese and eggs.
Overall the weekend was a very good one. It was nice to get out of the hustle and bustle of Buenos Aires, and get to connect with someone who knows me, and I know her. That alone takes a lot of the stress off. Good food, good company, and some odd experiences that will make for some good stories.
Today I arrived home around 1, and then read an email that said I had a tutoring session at 4. Yikes! I hurried to prepare and then went and returned and now am having to prepare for my intercambio session tomorrow with a high school. I have a busy 2 days until Thursday, when I take off for Northern Argentina, Jujuy! Then I am really going to have to get to work on my papers, and my homework because all this traveling and enjoying myself will not translate into two well written papers.
!Una gracias especial para Olivia por esta fin de semana fantástica!
This weekend I went to visit one of my friends in Rosario. Rosario is about a 4 hour bus ride from Buenos Aires. I boarded the bus at 9 am and arrived at 1 to a smiling welcoming committee of OLIVIA! We took a taxi to my hostel (which turned out to be pretty nice, even though I was a bit worried). I had booked cheapest room (a co-ed shared dorm with 10 other people yikes!) my first roommate I met was a 50 or something year old Brazilian man (he was a plant biologist and a bit odd). Luckily more people came so I didn’t just have to share a room with him. We unloaded my stuff and then we walked over to and ate lunch at the place that all the students who are in Olivia’s program eat. I met some fellow UOers and we skipped out on the dessert there only to eat some fantastic ice cream. We started out splitting a 3 scoop dish, and then we got another one to split. We made our way back to Olivia’s homestays apartment and then she headed out to cello practice. I was on my own. I visited the flag monument, which was really cool. I got to go up to the top of it and view the whole city and river. I walked to a café and spent a good amount of time enjoying my café con leche y medialunas while perusing my argentina book and the local newspaper. (I love the café culture here, no one would ever tell you to give up your table even if you are done eating). I headed back to my hostel to do some journaling, and met Rob from Holland. We started chatting, which was a little hard due to the fact there was LOUD rock music and the sounds of a tattoo needle going right next to us---oh hostels you never know what you will get. This has been the first time one has changed into a tattoo parlor. Then I went over to olivia’s homestay for dinner. Her family is a single older woman named Emilce. It was a great dinner, and it was fun to see that I could communicate pretty well, and even add to the conversation. After dinner we went looking for something to do, and ended up at a restaurant with a massive ice cream sundae. We ventured back to the hostel and after we were ready to call it a night we ended up going out for drinks with Rob. (it was nice to walk around at night with a HUGE –something like 6’7’ guy and it was funny how no one gave us any trouble, looks or remarks). After visiting the monument at night—which was so cool! It was lit up all blue we all went home and got a couple hours of shut eye before waking up for a full day on Saturday.
Hostel breakfast consisted of media lunas, cereal, tea, coffee and jam, and dulce de leche. After a breakfast like that (only of carbs and sugar) I felt myself dragging a bit, after we hit the shopping drag, a pedestrian street called Cordoba. We both were on a mission. Buy boots. Boots here are the shoe of choice and I have felt a bit frumpy in my nike athletic shoes since I have arrived. Now that the boot season is almost over everything is on sale, and that is when we swoop in. After a long time, Olivia found her perfect pair of suede boots for 100 pesos (33 dollars). And I was still looking. We ate lunch at a little café off the beaten road, and then returned to our mission. I found my pair a little while later for 99 pesos! Seeing as we had accomplished our mission, we returned to her apartment where we had a bit of time to chill out before the big night. We went to a place called brownies, where we enjoyed a nice coffee/media lunas and a particularly good conversation. After that we had to find some real food, which ended up being 2 empanadas and a yogurt at a cafeteria type place. We were scheduled to go out with olivias host moms younger friend but it ended up being that we were just introduced to her and her friends at the place we went to. We then headed over to another bar, which is where the hostel people were supposedly hanging out. We didn’t end up finding them, but we did find another person from olivias program and all chatted (unfortunately most of our chatting was in English since rob doesn’t know spanish). I broke my record and we got back at about 5.30am. Slept for a couple hours then got up to finish off the weekend strong. Sunday we went down to the river and walked around the fair, we ate a true argentine lunch of a chorpan, its like a spicy sausage sandwich and then we split up for siestas and reconvened to get coffee at our new favorite place, brownies. After coffee we headed back to olivias home stay where we ate dinner, which was pizza with cheese and eggs.
Overall the weekend was a very good one. It was nice to get out of the hustle and bustle of Buenos Aires, and get to connect with someone who knows me, and I know her. That alone takes a lot of the stress off. Good food, good company, and some odd experiences that will make for some good stories.
Today I arrived home around 1, and then read an email that said I had a tutoring session at 4. Yikes! I hurried to prepare and then went and returned and now am having to prepare for my intercambio session tomorrow with a high school. I have a busy 2 days until Thursday, when I take off for Northern Argentina, Jujuy! Then I am really going to have to get to work on my papers, and my homework because all this traveling and enjoying myself will not translate into two well written papers.
!Una gracias especial para Olivia por esta fin de semana fantástica!
Thursday, September 18, 2008
September 18:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! (I forgot to tell you on the phone but my host family sends saludos, felicidades and lots of besos!—direct quote from my host mom)
Started the day off with a happy birthday call to the birthday girl in Portland Oregon. Then I headed to class, hoping that there would be class. I chatted (my goal or challenge is to make small talk with anyone I can) with some girls before my class who were saying how frustrating the system is with the strikes and everything. They were laughing that my first impression of the school was a very bad one. I actually understood a lot of it. I also said hello to the girl I talked to when we were waiting for the class that never started…she seems nice so I hope I get to talk to her more. I had class, which was long…and impossible to understand. I almost drifted off several times. It was even harder since the professor speaks softly. I asked him for some good recommendations for books that relate to the floggers and he said oh…this is a good book I wrote about the floggers. Ha. I guess he is kind of a big deal in the youth tribe scene. I then rode the bus to my Spanish class, which I arrived late to since one of my classes ends at 2 and the other one starts at 2. this class wasn’t as hard, since I had a roll of cookies to keep myself entertained and happy. I took the subte to FLACSO where I put up some posters about my host sisters event (the oldest one works for the ministry of trabajo and she is organizing a seminar/conference thing about globalization or something). I chatted with some other flacsitos about the pilgrimage to Lujan, a small religious city outside of Buenos aires. I think I am going to participate. It is the first weekend in oct. and we walk 18 km o 18 hours approximately to the town. It should be quite an experience. I also got an email from UO about summer internships. AHHH summer internships! Occasionally I find myself thinking, oh what am I going to do when I get back, what are my summer plans, what are my after school plans…but then I have to remind myself that I am here, and only for a limited amount of time, so I should try and not plan things for when I get back. As much as I tell myself this, I am a planner, there is no getting around it. So far some ideas for summer: internship w/ the state department, volunteer with heifer project (run the educational programs on their farms), internship with mercy corps, or world affairs council of Oregon, go to spain, or just find a high paying job and work. so far I am liking the heifer idea the best. I was going to go to tango tonight and try out my new shoes but I was in such a BLAH mood, I decided to stay home. I also was a bit nervous about being sick or dead tired for my trip tomorrow morning. I have been going going going all week, which is okay when you go to bed at 11 each night, but here I do not do that. I am going to Rosario, Argentina tomorrow. I will be visiting a friend from UO who is studying down there. It seems like a really neat city, comparatively I think it is the Querétaro of Argentina where Buenos Aires is the Mexico City (DF). Also Che was born there. I am planning on going to his birth house and soaking up a bit of the revolutionary spirit. I probably won’t write until Monday or Tuesday. And then I take off on Thursday for Northern Argentina, Jujuy with my program (which also should be very fun). Hopefully I won’t speak barely any English, which is super hard to do when you are surrounded by English speakers.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! (I forgot to tell you on the phone but my host family sends saludos, felicidades and lots of besos!—direct quote from my host mom)
Started the day off with a happy birthday call to the birthday girl in Portland Oregon. Then I headed to class, hoping that there would be class. I chatted (my goal or challenge is to make small talk with anyone I can) with some girls before my class who were saying how frustrating the system is with the strikes and everything. They were laughing that my first impression of the school was a very bad one. I actually understood a lot of it. I also said hello to the girl I talked to when we were waiting for the class that never started…she seems nice so I hope I get to talk to her more. I had class, which was long…and impossible to understand. I almost drifted off several times. It was even harder since the professor speaks softly. I asked him for some good recommendations for books that relate to the floggers and he said oh…this is a good book I wrote about the floggers. Ha. I guess he is kind of a big deal in the youth tribe scene. I then rode the bus to my Spanish class, which I arrived late to since one of my classes ends at 2 and the other one starts at 2. this class wasn’t as hard, since I had a roll of cookies to keep myself entertained and happy. I took the subte to FLACSO where I put up some posters about my host sisters event (the oldest one works for the ministry of trabajo and she is organizing a seminar/conference thing about globalization or something). I chatted with some other flacsitos about the pilgrimage to Lujan, a small religious city outside of Buenos aires. I think I am going to participate. It is the first weekend in oct. and we walk 18 km o 18 hours approximately to the town. It should be quite an experience. I also got an email from UO about summer internships. AHHH summer internships! Occasionally I find myself thinking, oh what am I going to do when I get back, what are my summer plans, what are my after school plans…but then I have to remind myself that I am here, and only for a limited amount of time, so I should try and not plan things for when I get back. As much as I tell myself this, I am a planner, there is no getting around it. So far some ideas for summer: internship w/ the state department, volunteer with heifer project (run the educational programs on their farms), internship with mercy corps, or world affairs council of Oregon, go to spain, or just find a high paying job and work. so far I am liking the heifer idea the best. I was going to go to tango tonight and try out my new shoes but I was in such a BLAH mood, I decided to stay home. I also was a bit nervous about being sick or dead tired for my trip tomorrow morning. I have been going going going all week, which is okay when you go to bed at 11 each night, but here I do not do that. I am going to Rosario, Argentina tomorrow. I will be visiting a friend from UO who is studying down there. It seems like a really neat city, comparatively I think it is the Querétaro of Argentina where Buenos Aires is the Mexico City (DF). Also Che was born there. I am planning on going to his birth house and soaking up a bit of the revolutionary spirit. I probably won’t write until Monday or Tuesday. And then I take off on Thursday for Northern Argentina, Jujuy with my program (which also should be very fun). Hopefully I won’t speak barely any English, which is super hard to do when you are surrounded by English speakers.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Sept 17:
Early departure for Florenica Varela the town where casa del nino is located. Got there and had coffee and tea and then started our class. we made brownies today, but the recipe was from the back of the condensed milk can (?) so they were a bit strange. Condensed milk, nesquick, eggs, vanilla, and oil. Odd, but the kids liked them. I also have made friends with one of the mujeres that works in the kitchen, she is fairly old and has no front teeth, but she loves our desserts. she wants the recipe for the condensed milk brownies. We “taught” the kids about following a recipe, and measuring, and how to cook cleanly. Then we played a couple games like the human knot and “wham.” I had to help the remise (cab) driver get us back to our school. And then I took a long walk over to my Spanish class since it was a beautiful day (and even more enjoyable since I got an ice cream on the way). I think if I ever get robbed in this town it will be because I am not totally aware since I am enjoying some food thing too much. This makes me super aware when I am concentrating on eating my ice cream… In Spanish I presented an article about how the Italians are getting mad at each other for using English words. And then I lead the debate about whether it is a good thing or a bad thing. After Spanish I grabbed coffee and a couple media lunas with some friends from FLACSO and then rode the bus home to a full house. I drank mate with my sister, her boyfriend, and some other friend with a tiny baby. And I watched the news with had a special on my urban tribe the floggers!
Sept 16: Same old same old. My Tuesdays are as follows: Wake up (banana, yogurt and cereal for breakfast). Head to flacso to meet with my taller de cocina partner. We plan menu and shop for the goods. Then head to Spanish class, and run to the subte for my servicio class. after servicio walk home, try to do some homework and finally eat dinner. Then head to bed early since I have to wake up super early on Wednesdays (7am) for casa del Niño.
Early departure for Florenica Varela the town where casa del nino is located. Got there and had coffee and tea and then started our class. we made brownies today, but the recipe was from the back of the condensed milk can (?) so they were a bit strange. Condensed milk, nesquick, eggs, vanilla, and oil. Odd, but the kids liked them. I also have made friends with one of the mujeres that works in the kitchen, she is fairly old and has no front teeth, but she loves our desserts. she wants the recipe for the condensed milk brownies. We “taught” the kids about following a recipe, and measuring, and how to cook cleanly. Then we played a couple games like the human knot and “wham.” I had to help the remise (cab) driver get us back to our school. And then I took a long walk over to my Spanish class since it was a beautiful day (and even more enjoyable since I got an ice cream on the way). I think if I ever get robbed in this town it will be because I am not totally aware since I am enjoying some food thing too much. This makes me super aware when I am concentrating on eating my ice cream… In Spanish I presented an article about how the Italians are getting mad at each other for using English words. And then I lead the debate about whether it is a good thing or a bad thing. After Spanish I grabbed coffee and a couple media lunas with some friends from FLACSO and then rode the bus home to a full house. I drank mate with my sister, her boyfriend, and some other friend with a tiny baby. And I watched the news with had a special on my urban tribe the floggers!
Sept 16: Same old same old. My Tuesdays are as follows: Wake up (banana, yogurt and cereal for breakfast). Head to flacso to meet with my taller de cocina partner. We plan menu and shop for the goods. Then head to Spanish class, and run to the subte for my servicio class. after servicio walk home, try to do some homework and finally eat dinner. Then head to bed early since I have to wake up super early on Wednesdays (7am) for casa del Niño.
Monday, September 15, 2008
a productive day
September 15
Today was a busy day. Got up and ate breakfast, rode the bus to the omnibus station, which my host sister told me is a dangerous part of town—who knew? Yikes. I bought my ticket for rosario then hopped on the subte to head to belgrano. I made my way through a couple different trains and ended up right where I wanted. I walked to the cooking school and registered for a modern argentine cooking class. Yippy. The lady told me to pick up my chef coat on the first day. . I then got a ice cream cone (banana and dulce de leche and dulce de leche granazado—this means with chocolate chunks). I rode the subte back to FLACSO where I printed out my assignments and registered for my hostel. I then headed out to get lunch before I went to my tutoring session. My lunch was a bit of a bust. I didn’t have that much time, and I didn’t really feel like anything in particular. I ended up getting empanadas (which were the worst I have had) and a cereal bar and some “artisan” marshmallows. I had a good tutoring session, I am really glad I took advantage of this service. She is so knowledgeable. I think I am going to focus on the floggers for my final paper. They are an urban tribe focused around the website fotolog.com, which is a site almost like facebook, but focused around pictures. I then did more errends, got more money (since I spent so much today! ahh) and went grocery shopping and picked up my laundry. My last stop was the bakery where I bought myself a little cake. (stay tuned for the picture) I came home and had some cake and mate, and started my reading for tomorrow. I am now writing this blog, and not doing my reading, but I think I will work a bit on my outline for my tribus paper then go back to my reading.
I was going to go to a school tomorrow to do a language exchange, but I was the only one who signed up so it got postponed until next week. I am crossing things off my list, like the cooking class. Now I just need to figure out what I am going to do for developing my tango skills, and book a couple more trips and excursions. I cant believe I have been here for almost 2 months. Loco.
September 14
I made breakfast today! I got up early and made dutch babies for the family. Unfortunately they did rise as expected and the oven burned them a bit. But they were still good. Spent the rest of the day sitting on the edge of my bed (the place where I get wireless) writing my paper for my service learning class, and procrastinating. I planned out my Monday and decided about buses and classes.
Today was a busy day. Got up and ate breakfast, rode the bus to the omnibus station, which my host sister told me is a dangerous part of town—who knew? Yikes. I bought my ticket for rosario then hopped on the subte to head to belgrano. I made my way through a couple different trains and ended up right where I wanted. I walked to the cooking school and registered for a modern argentine cooking class. Yippy. The lady told me to pick up my chef coat on the first day. . I then got a ice cream cone (banana and dulce de leche and dulce de leche granazado—this means with chocolate chunks). I rode the subte back to FLACSO where I printed out my assignments and registered for my hostel. I then headed out to get lunch before I went to my tutoring session. My lunch was a bit of a bust. I didn’t have that much time, and I didn’t really feel like anything in particular. I ended up getting empanadas (which were the worst I have had) and a cereal bar and some “artisan” marshmallows. I had a good tutoring session, I am really glad I took advantage of this service. She is so knowledgeable. I think I am going to focus on the floggers for my final paper. They are an urban tribe focused around the website fotolog.com, which is a site almost like facebook, but focused around pictures. I then did more errends, got more money (since I spent so much today! ahh) and went grocery shopping and picked up my laundry. My last stop was the bakery where I bought myself a little cake. (stay tuned for the picture) I came home and had some cake and mate, and started my reading for tomorrow. I am now writing this blog, and not doing my reading, but I think I will work a bit on my outline for my tribus paper then go back to my reading.
I was going to go to a school tomorrow to do a language exchange, but I was the only one who signed up so it got postponed until next week. I am crossing things off my list, like the cooking class. Now I just need to figure out what I am going to do for developing my tango skills, and book a couple more trips and excursions. I cant believe I have been here for almost 2 months. Loco.
September 14
I made breakfast today! I got up early and made dutch babies for the family. Unfortunately they did rise as expected and the oven burned them a bit. But they were still good. Spent the rest of the day sitting on the edge of my bed (the place where I get wireless) writing my paper for my service learning class, and procrastinating. I planned out my Monday and decided about buses and classes.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
desayuno yankee
Sept 13 continued:
I went to the wine and bodegas (not sure what this translates as) expo last night. It was about 10.00 and you got your own glass and went around tasting wine. I went with two girls I didn’t know very well from my program and got to know them well while chatting over our samples. I had two favorites. One was the dulce de leche stand (not wine) and the other was this orangeish looking wine that was very very sweet. I liked the white wines better, but maybe with food I would appreciate a more full bodied red malbach (sp). They are famous for their malbach (sp) here. I caught the last subway home and ate pizza with the host family before trying to get my life in order here. Between trying to do school, cooking classes (teach and take), tango lessons, be a tourist, and travel I am getting a little overwhelmed. So far my getting my plans down haven’t really helped. But here’s some new activities that I am going to look into or do. A modern argentine cooking class. Something with tango lessons haven’t decided whether I am going to spring for the private lessons or just go dancing a lot? I am also planning a trip to rosario this coming weekend to visit a friend from UO who is studying there. She took tango at UO with me so we should be able to use our skills if we can find a milonga there.
Ps. Another thing that I witnessed on Baliando por un sueno. The theme was disco and a couple painted themselves “black” for their performance. Politically correct? I think not.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
zapatos de tango
Sept 13
Ha low key night actually means get invited to go out with both my host sisters and a friend from Uruguay (who talks a mile a minute nonstop). She also knew a bit of English so she would speak Spanish to the girls then turn to me and say things like you English talk talk. (since we were at a bar with lots of English speakers). We went to two places, the first was in an old mansion, but we were in the bar area which was pretty small luckily we got a couple stools. But my good old American space bubble was constantly being invaded—due to the massive amounts of people. Then we came home and let stefy change (she had just been working and met us there). And then we headed out again for a different bar, named the shamrock, how argentine. In this bar we all had drinks (my pick was a dulce de leche milkshake! Yahoo!) And then ventured down stairs to follow the girl from Uruguay. So here’s the thing: its fun to go out and socialize. But when you don’t really have the necessary communication skills to understand (the lights and music do not add to the comprehension abilities) it’s a bit tough. Also it being 4 in the morning doesn’t help my Spanish skills. When we went down to the dancing part of the bar it was nearly impossible. I just tried to stand there and look as comfortable as possible (people blowing smoke in my face, and men sneakily inching closer). In these sorts of places (boliches) I feel like I have to have my guard up even higher than usual, but that doesn’t make for a very fun companion. Overall it is quite an experience to go to a boliche and it is interesting to just observe everything. The guys making their “moves” and the girls either agreeing or avoiding. I kind of want to do a paper on the relationship between a man and a woman at a boliche, since it is odd. The women seem like they have all the power yet none at all. I could go on and on but ill just leave you with a thesis. Off to go buy tango shoes with florencia!
And I bought some! I will post pictures later!
September 12
Last night I went out to a tango place. It was really fun. Its this club restaurant place that teaches classes everyday. We came for the tango class but if I would have come earlier we could have also attended the salsa and milonga class. I saw my friend from UO and her family and her friend and we pulled up a table next to them. We watched the teachers perform and then took our class. After the class it opened up to a open dancing area. I danced a couple and then we all went our separate ways. They caught a cab to go to a different biloche, and I waited for the bus to take me home. Luckily the bus came, you never know here (the buses “supposedly” run all night). I made it home to a nice note from my host sister asking if I met any cute argentine boys. Talked to the family on skype while I ate my dinner and then went to bed. Got up this morning and ate my usual yogurt, with frosted flakes and bananas in it. And headed to my Spanish class. I had planned to go to the wine festival since here it is the week of wine, but my plan went up in smoke. I was thinking of going alone, but it also goes on tomorrow so I think I will have a low key night tonight and go tomorrow and maybe get someone else to come.
Ha low key night actually means get invited to go out with both my host sisters and a friend from Uruguay (who talks a mile a minute nonstop). She also knew a bit of English so she would speak Spanish to the girls then turn to me and say things like you English talk talk. (since we were at a bar with lots of English speakers). We went to two places, the first was in an old mansion, but we were in the bar area which was pretty small luckily we got a couple stools. But my good old American space bubble was constantly being invaded—due to the massive amounts of people. Then we came home and let stefy change (she had just been working and met us there). And then we headed out again for a different bar, named the shamrock, how argentine. In this bar we all had drinks (my pick was a dulce de leche milkshake! Yahoo!) And then ventured down stairs to follow the girl from Uruguay. So here’s the thing: its fun to go out and socialize. But when you don’t really have the necessary communication skills to understand (the lights and music do not add to the comprehension abilities) it’s a bit tough. Also it being 4 in the morning doesn’t help my Spanish skills. When we went down to the dancing part of the bar it was nearly impossible. I just tried to stand there and look as comfortable as possible (people blowing smoke in my face, and men sneakily inching closer). In these sorts of places (boliches) I feel like I have to have my guard up even higher than usual, but that doesn’t make for a very fun companion. Overall it is quite an experience to go to a boliche and it is interesting to just observe everything. The guys making their “moves” and the girls either agreeing or avoiding. I kind of want to do a paper on the relationship between a man and a woman at a boliche, since it is odd. The women seem like they have all the power yet none at all. I could go on and on but ill just leave you with a thesis. Off to go buy tango shoes with florencia!
And I bought some! I will post pictures later!
September 12
Last night I went out to a tango place. It was really fun. Its this club restaurant place that teaches classes everyday. We came for the tango class but if I would have come earlier we could have also attended the salsa and milonga class. I saw my friend from UO and her family and her friend and we pulled up a table next to them. We watched the teachers perform and then took our class. After the class it opened up to a open dancing area. I danced a couple and then we all went our separate ways. They caught a cab to go to a different biloche, and I waited for the bus to take me home. Luckily the bus came, you never know here (the buses “supposedly” run all night). I made it home to a nice note from my host sister asking if I met any cute argentine boys. Talked to the family on skype while I ate my dinner and then went to bed. Got up this morning and ate my usual yogurt, with frosted flakes and bananas in it. And headed to my Spanish class. I had planned to go to the wine festival since here it is the week of wine, but my plan went up in smoke. I was thinking of going alone, but it also goes on tomorrow so I think I will have a low key night tonight and go tomorrow and maybe get someone else to come.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Sept 11
Wednesday and Thursdays are my busy days. I woke up and went to my class at the UBA, which again I was greeted with some che looking like guy who tried to explain why there were no classes. This guy was not as patient and nice as the last one so he found some girl who started talking to me in English. I waited around for 30 minutes and made friends with a girl in my class with a name that sounded like malaria. I think it might be the Spanish version of Mallory. I then left with the same feeling of what am I going to do with myself for the couple hours I have in between my class and now. I took the bus downtown and made a circle of a couple blocks around the building where my Spanish class was to be held. I found a nice little café and got a coffee and some media lunas. I reviewed my Spanish and then headed back over to try and catch my friend who I ended up missing anyways. I did a bit more waiting/Spanish review and then attended my class which wasn’t as painfully long as usual. We did these situations that we had to say what we thought probably happened. I rode the bus home—and it ended up breaking down luckily I was fairly close so I got off and walked to my next destination. The tango shoe shop. I tried on a couple pairs of shoes and told them I would be back tomorrow with some money…I need some time to think over my purchases… ha. I also really don’t know what to look for in a “good” tango shoe. Anyways hopefully I can consult my tangura sister and she will advise me. I did some emailing and hostel checking at FLACSO and then walked home. Next on my list is to do some homework and drink some tea and head out around 9.30 for a tango class. sweet! The only bad thing is that usually things are right around the time I eat dinner…so I miss my dinner and family time. I will have to figure out something that is a compromise. Hasta luego!
Wednesday and Thursdays are my busy days. I woke up and went to my class at the UBA, which again I was greeted with some che looking like guy who tried to explain why there were no classes. This guy was not as patient and nice as the last one so he found some girl who started talking to me in English. I waited around for 30 minutes and made friends with a girl in my class with a name that sounded like malaria. I think it might be the Spanish version of Mallory. I then left with the same feeling of what am I going to do with myself for the couple hours I have in between my class and now. I took the bus downtown and made a circle of a couple blocks around the building where my Spanish class was to be held. I found a nice little café and got a coffee and some media lunas. I reviewed my Spanish and then headed back over to try and catch my friend who I ended up missing anyways. I did a bit more waiting/Spanish review and then attended my class which wasn’t as painfully long as usual. We did these situations that we had to say what we thought probably happened. I rode the bus home—and it ended up breaking down luckily I was fairly close so I got off and walked to my next destination. The tango shoe shop. I tried on a couple pairs of shoes and told them I would be back tomorrow with some money…I need some time to think over my purchases… ha. I also really don’t know what to look for in a “good” tango shoe. Anyways hopefully I can consult my tangura sister and she will advise me. I did some emailing and hostel checking at FLACSO and then walked home. Next on my list is to do some homework and drink some tea and head out around 9.30 for a tango class. sweet! The only bad thing is that usually things are right around the time I eat dinner…so I miss my dinner and family time. I will have to figure out something that is a compromise. Hasta luego!
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
large update! whooop!
September 10, 2008
Yesterday was a “bad” day. I put that in quotations because it wasn’t really a bad day. I just couldn’t handle it. It’s a lot of ups and downs here, or they are much more pronounced. I woke up semi early to go get some stuff settled for my “taller de cocina.” Luckily I ended up finding a friend from FLACSO who wanted to help out. This took a lot of the pressure off me, and she is cool. Her mom does kitchen consultations and teaches people how to cook healthily on a budget (future possible job?? I think so!) We negotiated our budget from our program…30 pesos per week. It should be interesting. We only spent 20 on this weeks recipe meringue kisses. Walked to my Spanish class with a friend, and then attended my Spanish class (half heartedly). Treated myself to some good old street candied peanuts (a good source of protein right?) Took the subte to my other class and then walked home. When I got home took a bit of time to get back into a good state of mind, and did a bit of journaling. After that things were better, except for the waiting around for food. This may be part of the reason, my blood sugar gets low in between lunch and dinner…at about the time of my class (2-4). But this also might not have anything to do with it. I waited around for dinner…and asked my host sister the tango dancer about good places to buy shoes. She also told me about a great teacher who teaches private lessons. They are about 30 dollars an hour so I am not sure I will take her up on that offer but it is tempting if I am serious about getting to be a better tango dancer. Hopefully she will come with me to get some “beginner” shoes…and then I think if I really get good I’ll treat myself to some nice fancy “sandals.”
The real today:
Woke up exceptionally early (7.15) and headed to the Casa Del Niño. I was a bit worried since things had gone a bit differently than I had expected last week, and we were to actually do a recipe this week with the kids. We were also a bit scattered since we had just prepared yesterday. We had a short name game, and then a short history of chocolate (which we used in the meringue) and then jumped right in. I got to supervise the girls group, which turned out to be the easier group. I just kid of let them go, and the boys were cracking eggs all over the place, and we actually had to start over since they put the yokes in. I think the boys favorite part was cutting up the chocolate with the huge knige and saying it looked like bird poop. But everything went off without any big problems (other than one of our batches didn’t turn out, and so therefore we had a chocolate, sugar, egg, vanilla batter for our dessert after lunch. Odd, and not exactly healthy. Then we went out and played outside with the kids for a while. I loved having something to actually do, or supervise rather than just “play time.” I taught one girl the “cut the pickle” although I didn’t know how to say pickle in Spanish so I just did the hand motions. We arrived back to FLACSO without any problems (unlike last week).
September 8, 2008
It looks like a beautiful day outside. Too bad I woke up at 12.11. I still can’t really get used to waking up so late everyday. It feels like such a waste to me. But on the other hand I cannot handle getting up at 8 everyday when I am going to sleep at like 3. I ate breakfast and then got to work. I made my schedule for this week and cleared off my desk for IDEAL studying/working area. (but unfortunately I have to sit on a corner of my bed to get internet, so this is where I have ended up). I made a detailed list of what needs to be accomplished and started checking things off. The problem right now is that I am in the introductory stages of everything. I should start my papers, but I am still looking for themes. Once I get my themes nailed down (one is very close) and start outlining and more focused research I think I will feel a bit more productive. I have a couple more hours to work, and then I am off to buy food for my lunch and then off to FLACSO to have a meeting about our trips as a group. We are headed to Jujuy and Tigre (boo I have already been there!). I am really looking forward to northern Argentina jujuy because it is a more traditional way of life, other than the internationality that seems to be BsAs.
Sept. 7
An update on yesterday because I didn’t write was that I got up ate breakfast with my family and then started “studying.” This didn’t last for very long, because I decided to give myself a break and go to the sidewalk fair. I meandered around the booths and ended up actually buying something! Yahoo! I hounds tooth print scarf for 15 pesos or 5 dollars. I also ate lunch at the fair (street food is a joy for me here). A bread thing filled with ham egg and cheese. I am not sure I will be getting this again, but it was good to try it. A churro and a bag of freshly made candy coated peanuts. I came back and intended on doing more studying but my family came back and we watched a movie and drank tea, then I tried to do more studying which was interrupted by dinner and anther movie. So needless to say my studying yesterday was not very productive.
Yesterday was a “bad” day. I put that in quotations because it wasn’t really a bad day. I just couldn’t handle it. It’s a lot of ups and downs here, or they are much more pronounced. I woke up semi early to go get some stuff settled for my “taller de cocina.” Luckily I ended up finding a friend from FLACSO who wanted to help out. This took a lot of the pressure off me, and she is cool. Her mom does kitchen consultations and teaches people how to cook healthily on a budget (future possible job?? I think so!) We negotiated our budget from our program…30 pesos per week. It should be interesting. We only spent 20 on this weeks recipe meringue kisses. Walked to my Spanish class with a friend, and then attended my Spanish class (half heartedly). Treated myself to some good old street candied peanuts (a good source of protein right?) Took the subte to my other class and then walked home. When I got home took a bit of time to get back into a good state of mind, and did a bit of journaling. After that things were better, except for the waiting around for food. This may be part of the reason, my blood sugar gets low in between lunch and dinner…at about the time of my class (2-4). But this also might not have anything to do with it. I waited around for dinner…and asked my host sister the tango dancer about good places to buy shoes. She also told me about a great teacher who teaches private lessons. They are about 30 dollars an hour so I am not sure I will take her up on that offer but it is tempting if I am serious about getting to be a better tango dancer. Hopefully she will come with me to get some “beginner” shoes…and then I think if I really get good I’ll treat myself to some nice fancy “sandals.”
The real today:
Woke up exceptionally early (7.15) and headed to the Casa Del Niño. I was a bit worried since things had gone a bit differently than I had expected last week, and we were to actually do a recipe this week with the kids. We were also a bit scattered since we had just prepared yesterday. We had a short name game, and then a short history of chocolate (which we used in the meringue) and then jumped right in. I got to supervise the girls group, which turned out to be the easier group. I just kid of let them go, and the boys were cracking eggs all over the place, and we actually had to start over since they put the yokes in. I think the boys favorite part was cutting up the chocolate with the huge knige and saying it looked like bird poop. But everything went off without any big problems (other than one of our batches didn’t turn out, and so therefore we had a chocolate, sugar, egg, vanilla batter for our dessert after lunch. Odd, and not exactly healthy. Then we went out and played outside with the kids for a while. I loved having something to actually do, or supervise rather than just “play time.” I taught one girl the “cut the pickle” although I didn’t know how to say pickle in Spanish so I just did the hand motions. We arrived back to FLACSO without any problems (unlike last week).
September 8, 2008
It looks like a beautiful day outside. Too bad I woke up at 12.11. I still can’t really get used to waking up so late everyday. It feels like such a waste to me. But on the other hand I cannot handle getting up at 8 everyday when I am going to sleep at like 3. I ate breakfast and then got to work. I made my schedule for this week and cleared off my desk for IDEAL studying/working area. (but unfortunately I have to sit on a corner of my bed to get internet, so this is where I have ended up). I made a detailed list of what needs to be accomplished and started checking things off. The problem right now is that I am in the introductory stages of everything. I should start my papers, but I am still looking for themes. Once I get my themes nailed down (one is very close) and start outlining and more focused research I think I will feel a bit more productive. I have a couple more hours to work, and then I am off to buy food for my lunch and then off to FLACSO to have a meeting about our trips as a group. We are headed to Jujuy and Tigre (boo I have already been there!). I am really looking forward to northern Argentina jujuy because it is a more traditional way of life, other than the internationality that seems to be BsAs.
Sept. 7
An update on yesterday because I didn’t write was that I got up ate breakfast with my family and then started “studying.” This didn’t last for very long, because I decided to give myself a break and go to the sidewalk fair. I meandered around the booths and ended up actually buying something! Yahoo! I hounds tooth print scarf for 15 pesos or 5 dollars. I also ate lunch at the fair (street food is a joy for me here). A bread thing filled with ham egg and cheese. I am not sure I will be getting this again, but it was good to try it. A churro and a bag of freshly made candy coated peanuts. I came back and intended on doing more studying but my family came back and we watched a movie and drank tea, then I tried to do more studying which was interrupted by dinner and anther movie. So needless to say my studying yesterday was not very productive.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
goths and los bicis
Sept 6th
I woke up to the usual bustling around in the kitchen (right outside my door) and spent the first couple of hours translating my syllabuses for UO. They need the syllabuses of all classes that aren’t Spanish classes to approve the credit. Unfortunately, both my syllabuses were pretty lengthy, and I took a lot of time trying to translate them. They are pretty bad English/translation. But at least that is one thing off my list. I then did some research with the help of my host sister. One of my classes is focusing on urban youth tribes. I am not sure what exactly I want my theme to be. But today, on the recommendation of my host family we went out looking for the gothicos o emos. As coincidence would have it we went to the same place that I accompanied my friend for her ear piercing. It should be a very interesting/fun/nerve racking project. I will have to do interviews and such. This is scary when I know the language, but when you are taking to someone who has star pupils or even white pupils it makes things a bit more difficult (on top of the language barrier). My host sister asked a couple store owners about the tribus juveniles. One of the gothic ladies kind of scoffed at us, but gave us a flier with a website that had gothic history and dress code and such. As I said…this will be an interesting project. I came home and worked more on my syllabi. I drank some mate and headed out around 8 to go to an international music festival. This was an experience. (but what isn’t here). There were all sorts of indi/rock/rappy bands playing in 3-4 separate areas. We watched a couple. Some were better than others. One of the ladies had the biggest hair I have seen. Another act was all pipes, pans and clapping and stomping. This one was really cool and full of energy. The one my friend wanted to see (bicicletas) was pretty good as well. The main singer was bald and looked a bit on the older side. When he took of his hat his head was so hot it had a big cloud of steam coming off of it the whole time. I came home and ate my dinner (which had been saved for me at my request), and my flan with dulce de leche. I have been teaching my host sister about facebook, so I gave her a lesson tonight and we finished off the night (or morning) with tetris.
I woke up to the usual bustling around in the kitchen (right outside my door) and spent the first couple of hours translating my syllabuses for UO. They need the syllabuses of all classes that aren’t Spanish classes to approve the credit. Unfortunately, both my syllabuses were pretty lengthy, and I took a lot of time trying to translate them. They are pretty bad English/translation. But at least that is one thing off my list. I then did some research with the help of my host sister. One of my classes is focusing on urban youth tribes. I am not sure what exactly I want my theme to be. But today, on the recommendation of my host family we went out looking for the gothicos o emos. As coincidence would have it we went to the same place that I accompanied my friend for her ear piercing. It should be a very interesting/fun/nerve racking project. I will have to do interviews and such. This is scary when I know the language, but when you are taking to someone who has star pupils or even white pupils it makes things a bit more difficult (on top of the language barrier). My host sister asked a couple store owners about the tribus juveniles. One of the gothic ladies kind of scoffed at us, but gave us a flier with a website that had gothic history and dress code and such. As I said…this will be an interesting project. I came home and worked more on my syllabi. I drank some mate and headed out around 8 to go to an international music festival. This was an experience. (but what isn’t here). There were all sorts of indi/rock/rappy bands playing in 3-4 separate areas. We watched a couple. Some were better than others. One of the ladies had the biggest hair I have seen. Another act was all pipes, pans and clapping and stomping. This one was really cool and full of energy. The one my friend wanted to see (bicicletas) was pretty good as well. The main singer was bald and looked a bit on the older side. When he took of his hat his head was so hot it had a big cloud of steam coming off of it the whole time. I came home and ate my dinner (which had been saved for me at my request), and my flan with dulce de leche. I have been teaching my host sister about facebook, so I gave her a lesson tonight and we finished off the night (or morning) with tetris.
tangoing into friday
Sept 5
Last night was super fun. I went out to cena with two Georgetown girls at my favorite restaurant here. They both ordered the argentine stew-ish thing, which turned out to be a bust…it had something like octopus in it and who knows what else. I stayed on the safe side with a stew including potatoes, beef and onions. Delicious. We split a dulce de leche empanada and I got a brownie with ice cream and honey…this really is turning into a food blog. We took the colectivo to this neat bar place in an old church. There we took a tango lesson. It was so fun! I got to use some of my tango skills, but I really don’t know how much the background helped (other than my confidence in my tango abilities). I think I may need to invest in some tango shoes if I want to keep dancing. I wore flats last night which was the wrong choice, but now I know. We had a bit of an adventure getting home, waited for the bus for a long long time, then ended up splitting a taxi home.
This morning I woke up and did my homework then headed to Spanish class. In my Spanish class someone mentioned the subte in the summer…I cringe at the thought of high temperatures, insane amounts of people cooking in a metal tube. I resolved to go to the tango museum after my class and that is just what I did. As museums go, it didn’t really have much information, just a lot of stuff (CDs, Books, Pictures). But that’s another thing I can say I have done, and experienced here.
I came home and have tried to work on homework, and look for my theme for my paper, and such. But none of those things have really happened. I watched the news a bit to look for topics, and then got distracted drank a tea and ate an alfajor. I then helped my host sister with facebook and she taught me how to correctly say “foto” since I apparently do it wrong. I have lots of work, including translating my syllabuses. Boo. But I stopped for a break to eat some membrillo y queso with my family… it is like fig compote I think. It was okay, but not what I would call a delicious treat. I have included some pictures I took of the centro of Buenos Aires. The plaza del mayo has a rich history. This is where the mothers of the plaza del mayo protested (and still protest each Thursday) the deaths of innocent people during the dictatorship. The plaza also is the home to many other protests (if you haven’t already gathered Argentineans are quite good at exercising their rights).
Last night was super fun. I went out to cena with two Georgetown girls at my favorite restaurant here. They both ordered the argentine stew-ish thing, which turned out to be a bust…it had something like octopus in it and who knows what else. I stayed on the safe side with a stew including potatoes, beef and onions. Delicious. We split a dulce de leche empanada and I got a brownie with ice cream and honey…this really is turning into a food blog. We took the colectivo to this neat bar place in an old church. There we took a tango lesson. It was so fun! I got to use some of my tango skills, but I really don’t know how much the background helped (other than my confidence in my tango abilities). I think I may need to invest in some tango shoes if I want to keep dancing. I wore flats last night which was the wrong choice, but now I know. We had a bit of an adventure getting home, waited for the bus for a long long time, then ended up splitting a taxi home.
This morning I woke up and did my homework then headed to Spanish class. In my Spanish class someone mentioned the subte in the summer…I cringe at the thought of high temperatures, insane amounts of people cooking in a metal tube. I resolved to go to the tango museum after my class and that is just what I did. As museums go, it didn’t really have much information, just a lot of stuff (CDs, Books, Pictures). But that’s another thing I can say I have done, and experienced here.
I came home and have tried to work on homework, and look for my theme for my paper, and such. But none of those things have really happened. I watched the news a bit to look for topics, and then got distracted drank a tea and ate an alfajor. I then helped my host sister with facebook and she taught me how to correctly say “foto” since I apparently do it wrong. I have lots of work, including translating my syllabuses. Boo. But I stopped for a break to eat some membrillo y queso with my family… it is like fig compote I think. It was okay, but not what I would call a delicious treat. I have included some pictures I took of the centro of Buenos Aires. The plaza del mayo has a rich history. This is where the mothers of the plaza del mayo protested (and still protest each Thursday) the deaths of innocent people during the dictatorship. The plaza also is the home to many other protests (if you haven’t already gathered Argentineans are quite good at exercising their rights).
Thursday, September 4, 2008
class in the street?
September 4, 2008
This day was a good one for the blog. Lots of cultural experiences. I got up and headed to my class. Unfortunately, when I walked up to the building there were desks and chairs all over the place (on the sidewalk). I went into the building and tried to walk up the stairs but that was blocked with a stack of desks/chairs/debris and a student. I asked him about the situation and he explained that there were no classes, or at least no one could get up stairs to go to classes. Meanwhile the place was bussing with poster making, and chatting…I quizzed him a bit more and he explained that yesterday a roof fell off of the bathroom or something, and they were protesting for a better building. He said that classes are not necessarily cancelled, if the professors come (which some don’t since they are protesting higher salaries) then you have your class outside or in the street. I left a bit befuddled…since it was such a sight to be seen. I sat down and was at a loss of what to do with myself. I had planned on a hectic busy day rushing across the city, but this was not it. I waited around a bit, but then decided that I wasn’t going to wait for a class that wasn’t going to happen, or was going to happen in the street. It is hard enough to concentrate on the Spanish when I am in the front row in a classroom. I made my way down town via subte and wanted to go to the tango museum. Unfortunately that was closed so I found a nice little café (which was empty) and enjoyed the special, a café con leche, 3 media lunas and a small glass of orange juice (all for 2 dollars). I read a bit and watched the parade/protest walk by. There are so many protests/parades/demonstrations here. I then asked the owner about a good museum and headed over to the casa rosada (the argentine white house). I finally found the museum and read everything, half heartedly in spanish and then even more half heartedly in english. I made my way to my Spanish class. After Spanish I headed to FLACSO to get some info for my tango lesson tonight and then quick hurried to my tutoria. I was a bit nervous about this but my tutor seems awesome. She walked me through the paper, and I got to bounce around some ideas and practice my malo espanol. I am less worried about the class in many aspects, but more worried since I have to pick a theme, and interview people. The question is whether I should focus on youth in
On a side note, my English has been going down hill since I have started this blog. If you take note of any grammatical mistakes or odd sentence structures, forgive me.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
casa del nino y una dia llena.
Sept 3
Today was long. I woke up early 7.15 and didn’t have breakfast in my box in the fridge. This may have been partly my own fault, but it is kind of weird living with a host family and saying things hey I’m out of breakfast food will you buy some for me. So I ate a roll (and bought myself a yogurt on the way to school). Also the bathroom was occupied the whole time I was getting ready, so no bathroom break before heading off to the place where I was to meet the remise (taxi) that was going to take all of us to the Casa del Niño. We arrived with no problems. We chatted over some coffee and waited to get “oriented” after a tour and taking inventory on what each of us wanted to do we got introduced to each age group. The kids are just full of energy…and they talk a mile a minute. We had our pick of age groups and I walked into the 7-9 group. I made friends with a lot of kids, but it was hard to understand many of them. They all enjoyed telling me who they were related too. Most of the kids have siblings or cousins in the casa as well. I didn’t really know what was going on, and what they were doing so we just hung out for a bit. Then it was recess time. Everyone ran out to the backyard and I enjoyed a couple hours of running around, sliding down slides, playing checkers, and other activities. I also took a mighty hard fall when playing tag… and now my hands are all scraped. We ate lunch and then left. Our remise on the ride home was interesting. I first got in and slammed the door. The guy gave this big sigh and gave me a mean look. I remembered a conversation that I had with one of my host fathers friends, saying that when he visited the states the thing that surprised him the most was that everyone slammed the car doors (of really nice cars). I felt a bit bad about slamming the car door, but it wasn’t a very nice car and it was kind of mean of him to sigh and glare. The drive is a long one anyway but we encountered a fair amount of traffic and construction. The girl who was with my had class at 1.15 and at 1.15 we were driving the wrong way from where we were supposed to be going, and the car was breaking down. It was so odd. The guy wouldn’t listen to us and kept asking bus drivers and other cabs. I finally just jumped out (since my class was at 2 and it was now a bit after 1.30). Jumped on the subte and got there in plenty of time. Had a long class working on the subjunctive. After the class I hurried to the place where I was supposed to get tutored (for my class at the UBA), I hadn’t had time to check my email before hand so I just showed up. I didn’t know if there actually was one today, but I figured better to be there and not have one than not go and have one. I tried to explain this to the guy there and left very confused. Checked my email at FLACSO and brainstormed some memories. Had my first experience mailing something on my way home…it was surprisingly easy but a bit more spendy than I would have liked. Now I am sitting here on my bed…wondering how I am going to get through my day tomorrow which is equally as busy. I still have homework to do and so I better get to it.Tuesday, September 2, 2008
tuesday
Sept 2
Today was my Monday, since I don’t have class on the real Monday. I woke up and ate yogurt for breakfast. Then made my way over to my language class. I was early as usual so I caught up on some reading for the class right after. I have Spanish from 2-4 and a service learning class from 4.30-6. I was a bit stressed since that is a tight connection when dealing with public transportation, but being my super speedy self, I turned on my airport walk and jetted to the subte. As I stuck in my ticket the subte pulled up, I got on and was across the city in 15 minutes flat. Oh yeah. I had a bit of time to spare so I bought an ice cream and arrived a bit early to my class. The class was okay. We spent a majority of the time on legistics, about who is working where and when they are going. I am working at Casa del Nino. It is a safe house/community center about an hour away from
September 1, 2008
Happy September! My host mom arrived home from
Monday, September 1, 2008
the boat trip around the delta.
the delta. and men walking on water.
chocolate covered stawberries
candy apples!
a better view of the flower.
the church next to recoleta cemetery.
the law school of UBA and if you can look closely you can see the silver flower on the left hand side. this flower opens and closes based on the sun.
The Chocolate chip cookies we made. Yum
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