TIGRE

Aug 31
I woke up semi early today to head to the train station and go to tigre or the delta. I met a friend from UO at the train station and we tried to meet up with another girl which we ended up doing in Tigre. We got off the train (which we and a majority of the people on it had to stand the whole time which was about 45 min-1 hour) and headed for the boat trips. We got a two hour boat trip, half of which we spend on the bottom deck sipping on café cortados. We got off the boat and looked around a bit for restaurants. None of the heaping piles of grilled innards enticed us so we headed to the other main attraction. The fair. I suggested we just some of the fair food…and that is just what we did. Each of us had something “substantial” (I had a hotdog, someone had a crepe, and someone else had a hamburger and fries). Then we went wild. Walking around the fair the other girls ate chocolate covered strawberries, and I opted for A HUGE thing of cotton candy. My camera was acting up so the picture didn’t save, but I think one of the other girls got a photo that I will post when I get it. We then got alfajores, and to finish off the day candy apples. It was a day of sweets sweets and more sweets. We headed home on the train, and were so sugared up we could hardly stand still. It was a nice day of fun, and now I come home to Buenos Aires…big busy Buenos Aires.

catch up

Aug 29
Leisurely got up and headed to flacso to check my mail. Also ate a raisin flavored yogurt for breakfast...que raro. (how weird). I chatted with some people then a friend and I headed to a café to chat over a café con leche y 3 media lunas. We witnessed 2 protests or parades. Then I attended class and rushed back to flacso to meet another friend (also to time myself because I have 30 minutes to get from the language class to a flacso class, it took me a bit over 30 minutes). I met up with my amiga and we headed to a place to get her some piercings. She pierced her ears two more times and then we went to a café as recommended by my lonely planet book. We chatted and then went our separate ways and now I am here. Waiting for dinner. Stefy has a friend over and I have been listening and occasionally adding to the conversation...its a start!

The media luna (small sweet croissants) count for today was 7. I need to find a way to cut down on things like this…ha.

Aug. 28
I skipped a day because it was so busy. I got up and had class at 11-2. I talked to the professor and he told me that I could write my final paper in English. I got every excited, but after I checked with my advisor here, my excitement was squashed. After that class I had to run to the bus and take it to another class that started at 2. I am enjoying my Spanish class (even though I am struggling a bit, since this is why I am not very good at Spanish, the grammatical part). I then came home and had a second to gather my thoughts and headed to the national museum of bellas artes. I met my friend from UO and we walked around the extensive art museum. Some of our favorites were the modern art pieces that we both agreed we could have made ourselves. Had a couple minutes of quite at the kitchen table before the storm came in. Everyone came to our house (Armando, stefy, gaston, jime, florencia, her boyfriend). This was a lot of people for the amount of space. I got help with my homework, and we waited for the dinner to cook. I also got a chance to skype with mom and nat, and my family here got to jump in as well. That was a funny experience. Two lives, cultures, and language collide. I ended up going to bed very late again after a wild tetris tournament with the gals.

spanish confusion

Aug 27^th

I attended a conference on service learning today at the facultad de derecho—the law school. It was an interesting conference, but I couldn’t understand a lot of it. It rained all day, which was a bit of a bummer when I had to walk to my classes and such. I came home after the conference for a quick lunch break, and to warm up with some mate. I then headed to my Spanish class. I arrived early and chatted with the 3 other south Korean students who were there. We chatted for quite some time, because our teacher was not there. In fact our teacher never showed up, but later we found out that we were in the wrong room. So I missed my second day of Spanish class because I was in a different room. AHHH. I then headed to the oldest café in Buenos aires to meet a UO friend for coffee. She was an hour late to due the buses and the rain, so I had a lot of time to just stand. The café wasn’t all it cracked up to be, but I am glad I went to say I experienced the same thing as so many others before me. It was next to the tango museum which I think I will check out some day after class. I was going to go to a tango show with my oldest host sister but she called and said she couldn’t. I ventured home and did some grocery shopping, and drank some more mate, answered some emails, and chatted with my host sister who is now cooking dinner. I just got very tired, maybe because I woke up a bit earlier than usual 9am. But it would seem that I drank enough mate to caffeinate me for life. Hasta luego.

Aug 26

Had my first Spanish class today. I was excited to see some new people in the class (which only has about 9 people). There is an older woman from Germany, a 30 year old from Slovakia and 3 South Koreans, and 3 people from the US (all from program). It should be a lively group. We have class for 2 hours each day (except Monday). I went out to coffee with the two flacso girls after. We shared stories about Buenos Aires, and our adventures. Now I am home alone (which is bad since I eat more cookies that way), my host mom went to Uruguay on Friday since her aunt fell and broke her hip and she doesn’t know when she will return home, my host dad is working, and my host sister is meeting up with her ex boyfriend. It is extremely hard to even start to build a rapport with people, without knowing how to say things. After these past couple weeks I am more appreciative of being able to communicate with people. But I am surprised also by how much I can portray without words.

But on second thought (after the day has gone on) there a lot that I cannot communicate without knowing the language.

read

Aug 25

Read all day. And I am still not even half way done. This may be a long term. I also had a delicious breakfast of yogurt and bananas, and 3 pastries, and a very tasty lunch of a salami and cheese sandwich and an alfajor. Early afternoon, I made myself mate (which ended up burning my mouth) and had a couple cookies with that. When my host sister came home we made CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES! Unfortunately, their oven is very hot, and all of them are a bit burned on the bottom, but still delicious. After eating about 5 cookies, I am still craving them. Tomorrow…more reading.

Aug 24
Again woke up late (3pm) since I went out dancing with my host sister. Boy, was that an experience. I would call it more like a very interesting cultural lesson. First off, people of all ages go to the argentine version of a club (yes natalie. i did go "clubbin'" ha). We got there at 1.30 and didn’t end up inside until 2am…and it was almost empty. By the time we left 5 am things were picking up. The men here are a bit more aggressive than the typical American man. And the typical reaction to this persistence is also different. One girl in our group (we were celebrating her friends birthday), was approached by a guy while we were dancing in a circle. He proceeded to whisper in her ear, rub her back, grab her hand, ect. Watching this take place, my immediate reaction was to take his hands off her and say something assertive about how she is not interested. This was not her reaction…she just inched away and was a lot less confrontational. This may also be an overall cultural theme, physical touch is more accepted or common. As an American, the typical greeting is not a kiss, and physical contact is reserved for family, friends or loved ones. Here it is for everyone. The beso (kiss on the cheek) is the typical greeting. I am still getting used to this one. But better get used to it fast, since it is considered rude not to kiss while meeting someone or saying goodbye. Anyways, this way of asking people to dance is not really considered that invasive here (compared to my view). It might also have to do with the machismoism. I will finish by saying that it was a surely an interesting experience.
Today I ventured to a southern part of the city to take a tango class. I got off the subway and was actually a bit worried. I didn’t see any foreigners, and it didn’t appear to be a very nice part of Buenos Aires. I found my way to the community center and waited around a bit. The class began and I relearned the basico, (the basic step) and practiced. It was fun, but the boy girl ratio was not in my favor. I left after I got a couple dances in, and ventured back quickly since it was now dark.
I did some grocery shopping: 1 pack of cookies, 100 grams of salami and 100 grams of cheese, ½ a kilo of mate and 2 alfajores (typical argentine dessert dulce de leche cookie sandwich). All of which cost me 15 pesos (or roughly 5 dollars). Yum. I got a lesson on mate and how to drink it and clean it and prepare it, and then I got to drink out of my gourd. Yum. I had myself a nice snack of mate and cookies and watched a bit of tv with my host dad. I tried out my phone card and got a well needed chat in. Ate dinner, chatted with my host sisters and played a tetris tournament. Now I should be trying to make a dent in my huge stack of reading but I am writing this blog instead. Off to do the reading.

pictures: argentina in a nutshell: tango and mate

Tango festival: impromtu milonga
other side. The woman in the red shirt was really good.
Audrey and mate.
an action shot (insisted on by my host dad)
my host sister preparing the mate.