Casa de cambia

Last weekend was fun but nothing super interesting to blog about. I'm afraid I'm already starting to get into a routine of going out. Can't let that happen. Luckily I'm about to change it up a lot.
I'll start with Wednesday. Actually earlier than that, Monday I have class until late, but, Tuesday after class got out at 10, I went out to a lomo (sandwich) place for dinner and chatting in Spanish and that was fun. I had French fries with scrambled eggs on top. It was amazing. And then I got home and the family was like where were you and stop opening the doors so loudly. I obviously fail spectacularly at opening doors correctly in the house here, they have yelled at me 5 times in the last week alone.
Wednesday after school I went downtown with Michelle intending to go to a theater production (since I had to for homework). And she was like sure I'll go with you which was great because it ended up being a part of town I didn't need to be alone in at 9pm. But when we got to the theatre it was sold out so we just went to the park and ate ice cream!
After my one class on Thursday (so great) I went downtown again to get into the theatre this time and i nearly didnt make it in. I was the last one they let in and I had gotten there an hour and a half before it started. But, I saw the theater production, which was awful (like the worst play I've seen in my life), but I can write a paper about how bad it was no problem.

Today, I finished packing for my weekend in Iguazu, and then went to exchange some dollars for pesos in the most sketchy place. So I met with this old woman, Francesca I think, 'selling plants' from a little kiosk thing and she directed me to this shop on the other side of the street with a super faded sign (to the point I couldn't read it). So I walk in and it looks abandoned, or like it should be for rent, but then behind a door I saw some shadowy figures moving around, and one of them opened the door so I walk right in like I'm supposed to be there and I knew what I was doing. And the guy was just like what are you doing. And I was like changing dollars? And he gave me a debatably creepy smilie and said sure, follow me. They had definitely tried to make the offices look like offices when you go to the bank but they were just a little too empty. But everything went fine. They took my dollars, gave me an excellent exchange rate. So I went back to the house and ate lunch, grabbed my bag, and left. I was proud of myself for taking the bus to the airport. It required a change of busses and a bus I had never taken before but I made it in plenty of time.
I did fail with Movistar and the phone but I'm still working on that and as soon as I get Internet I'm sure I can figure it out. So I'm writing this on the airplane which is
actually not a bad airplane, I was expecting something alot more rickety.

But now I'm in iguazu with the fam! Excited for this weekend!

El campo

My week took off after my slow Thursday morning at migrations.
First, Thursday night, we went downtown to the Spanish conversation weekly party on a hostel rooftop which is a great place to practice Spanish. Both locals and foreigners go so you never know who your going to end up talking to at that place. And then after, we were going to go to a boliche, but the line was to long so we hung out in a bar and talked some more Spanish.

We took a picture with a large sign that said "Soy Gay, Y Que?" if you cant read the caption. Though Dalila didn't read the sign before taking a picture with it. I was just proud that this catholic country is promoting gay awareness.
In case you need a translation "Im gay, and what?"

I slept in Friday, did some homework, and then went out again. I went to the Centro with Dalila, and we had a girls afternoon since it was Day of the Woman. We went shopping, talked to some strangers, signed a petition that I still have no clue what it was for, went to a modern art museum with some very modern art, watched a rally, and then went to a concert in a park. I was going to have a picnic dinner but then I decided chocolate and yogurt was a better option. It probably wasn't. After the concert in the park, which turned out to be classical, we went downtown. I'm not quite sure to where I thought I was following Tomas, but we ended up at this rooftop party with several people I had met before, and that was cool. Then, Dalila and Michelle and I went to a boliche since we were sad we had missed it the night before. And of course we had to stay the whole time because the buses don't even start running again until 5am.

Modern Art

So there we were, at the bus stop, at 5:30am, waiting for the bus. Michelle had caught her bus but Dalila and I were still waiting when a bunch of boys came over to the same stop. And they really wanted to have a conversation with us. Long story short, they had just been dancing Tralala (I still don't believe that's a real dance), they were drunk, they really wanted our numbers, and the only name I understood out of all of them was Pikachu, and I don't think that's really what his name was. But I made it home safely and Dalila made it home safely.

Slept in again Saturday, finished my homework, and left to go out with Ryan and some of his friends. Went to a party and then a boliche. That boliche was a struggle for me, I thought it was a gay boliche but it turned out it was just a boliche for everyone, which kind of translates to 'everything goes'. I don't understand their culture here, usually I just think they are trying to trick me because I'm a foreigner, but I never know. But what I do know is I dont go to a club to have in depth conversations on the dance floor. Everyone here wants to have a conversation while dancing, in Spanish, with the loud music and being constantly jostled. It was a struggle, but I definitely had fun. And I found myself, at the same bus stop again at 5:30am, waiting for the bus. But this time, it was pouring down rain. What is it with this country and raining from 5-7am on Sunday mornings.

Sunday I did not sleep in, I got up at 9:30 (3 hours of sleep), and went to the country side with some friends and locals. It was amazing. Since everything takes a bit longer in this country, we got to where we were going at 3:30pm, but that's cool. The journey was part of the adventure. After picking up lunch for Dalila and myself at the grocery store on my way to the train stop, we took the 2 hour train ride into the country.

The views were incredible but I just couldn't stay awake, so I took a nap. Then the ride to the house in the countryside consisted of riding in the back of a pickup for 30 minutes on dirt roads to this house in the absolute middle of nowhere. That house was the only thing there for miles. In the countryside, we split our lunch for 2, 11 ways after a mis-communication between the locals (at least it wasn't my lack of Spanish ability), played in the stream, played in the grass, hiked to the river, hiked back, and cooked dinner. Cooking dinner was an adventure for me. We are in this house that is a couple decades old and the Argentine kitchens are a bit different to begin with, I was very glad I was not in charge of cooking. I did much better at chopping. But they guys built a fire for the grill outside, and the girls cooked in the kitchen, it was such an authentic experience haha. But dinner was excellent, and then the stars... that may have been the most stars I've ever seen in my life. The milky way was so bright and it was really cool to see a different set of stars and learn some of the constellations they know here. And then the ride back in the back of the truck was really pretty on the way back too, we could see the stars, but it was a little cold, and I was wearing a lot of clothing  by that point. The bus ride back was only 40 minutes, I dont know why the train was so slow, but I was glad to be back, just a bit after midnight to get a good night sleep.

Our ride in the back of the truck

Fede not falling in the stream

My demonstration of bad form

View from the middle of the river

Me not riding a horse (though horseback riding class is tomorrow)

The adorable out-door table

The view

The boys grilling in a traditional grill

I slept nearly 12 hours solid, and in Spanish class on Monday she asked me if I was feeling ok, that I looked really tired. I did really know how to respond, especially since I had 3 more classes to make it through after that. 6 hours of class in Spanish is intense. Tuesday went a bit better, mostly because it started with the best class - RITMOS (dance class), but after History and double Lit & Film I was re-thinking the better part. While I have 6 hours of class solid on Monday, I have 6 hours of class spread out over 11 hours on Tuesday. But today, Wednesday, is nice: 2 classes, early afternoon, then I go home for a snack, nap, dinner, and then to write this blog post.

I think I may be down to 1 blog post a week, I have definitely found things to keep myself busy in this country!

semestre semana 1 y migraciones 2

I made it through my first week of school! Yes, I know its only Thursday - I already love not having Friday classes. Now for a quick run down of my predictions for classes based on the first ones. 

Espanol Avanzado 1 - shouldn't be too difficult, I just have to show improvement over the semester

Literatura Introducion - not too worried yet, though this class will be a very abstract class (very different from what I'm used too) "In what way can literature be a form of knowing reality?" 

Marketing - i have no clue what to expect, other than I expect to struggle. I didn't understand the assignment due Monday and I cant figure out which Marketing book by Kotler she wants - he wrote like 5, and then there a many editions of all of them. 

Ritmos - love dance class. its the best. also hilarious. and sometimes like zumba.

Historia - if he didn't give us a 10 minute break in the middle of the hour and a half class we would never make it. never. i think we will learn a lot though. at the very least he will tell us a lot, whether or not we learn is another story.

Cultura Popular - yah i dropped that class, I didn't need it, and if I cant live here for 5 months and not learn any culture, I've failed at the most basic level already.

Literatura y Cine - what a first class. I may as well tell the whole story about this one: 

So I was sitting outside the building on a bench, talking to my grandparents (in English  on the phone using the campus wifi. I had reasonable length conversation with them and then I said "I'm going to have to go, my next class is Literature and Film and I'm kind of worried about it. Its for native Spanish speakers in their 7th semester." As soon as i finish saying that, the person sitting on the bench next to me turns and says in English "I'm your teacher so watch what you say, its my first class too, so don't be nervous." I didn't know how to respond, so i just smiled, nodded, and kept talking to the grandparents. 

So then, i get to class and there's like a total of 8 of us in the class. Class starts and the professor starts talking and ... wow. In Spanish  to begin with, it takes more words to say the same thing as in English  but she used a lot more words than needed to explain. Luckily, i did benefit from that because when I didn't understand the first time, she said the same thing again 3 different ways. We read some poetry, talked about some books, and did some creativity activities. Then, after the break in the middle of the 3 hour class, she rolled out a large white poster piece of paper, handed us all paint brushes and ink, and then the directions were to write words. Just words, wherever the brush took you. I was like YES! this is an activity I can do. The idea was for the class to go back to their roots, but for me I'm still at my roots in Spanish so I was excelling at this activity. And then after we had filled the page with words, we had to connect them. It didn't matter if it made sense, we just had to make connections. 

To me, after mainly science classes at university, these activities were very far out of the norm. Everyone else in the class went along with it though so maybe it's normal for this country. So when class let out at 10 pm, we all walked to the bus stop together (I was glad I didn't have to walk alone in the dark) and I don't know if it was I didn't understand the undertones of their sentences, but they were just like no big deal, we just spent an hour and a half on the floor of a classroom painting words. I like having a class like that, but I would not survive university if all my classes were like that. 

But other than that special class, the others are pretty normal boring so far. The most excitement after that was today I went back to migraciones. That place ... I got there at 10:45 with Christina and we thought we just had to turn a piece of paper in and leave, because the last time we went one of our papers wasn't signed correctly with the proper stamp. But no, of course not - this is Argentina. So we take a number, wait our turn - 11:30, I hand in my paper and hes like thanks, you can take a seat now and wait. At 12, he calls me up and hands me back my papers and says great, you can come back in 12 to 15 days for your visa. But Christina's paper wasn't with mine anymore. I wait with her until nearly 1 when I leave to make it back in time for class. So 3 hours in the migraciones office for them to look at a piece of paper and then give it back. What is this country. But its cool, you never know what you will see in that office. Today in the 3 hours I was there I saw 3 boobs (different women) pulled out to feed the baby, a nun, and a baby sling for the back (which we creepily took pictures of) (what else were we going to do stuck in the migrations office?). 

She had the infant wrapped in a very pretty blanket.

And so that my only picture is not of a stranger. For breakfast, Betty got me yogurt in a bag. Its basically like a large bag of that drinkable yogurt. Which I then pour on my cereal instead of milk!

Yogurisimo!

Things I eat a lot of in this country: yogurt and peaches. I average 2 cups of yogurt and 3 peaches a day. 

Buenos Aries

Well my week definitely picked up in pace. Classes went well, nothing too exciting. I passed my test Thursday and then we were off to Buenos Aries. What an adventure that was. I have tons of pictures, and I will try to put a few of the better ones in this post.

And did I mention it was a doubledecker

And we were on the top deck

So Thursday night, we all make it to the bus station for our 10:54 departure for an 8 hour overnight bus ride to Buenos Aries. I felt very sorry for the other people on that bus, we were super excited and therefore a little loud. Like obnoxious US loud. But before too long we did quiet down and go to sleep. I actually slept quite well in those bed seats, they leaned back really far. So when I woke up at 8:30 am and looked out my window to see the slums I was a little worried. First, weren't we supposed to arrive at 7, and second, why were we driving though alternating container yards and slum housing areas. Well, it turns out we apparently had some issues on the ride that luckily I slept though: I heard that at one point we just pulled over on the side of the road and stopped for a while, and at another point we backed up on the highway because we had missed the turn. Oh well, when in Argentina... At least I got a few extra hours of sleep, and I for sure needed them.

Trains and containers

We had missed our first tour so we go eat breakfast in the park. And not just any park, this park had people blow whistles if you strayed from the path at all. It was a meticulously kept park, very pretty.

Took a bus tour of the city

Saw the ocean

Went to a market, ate lunch, visited some historical sites and important cultural points of the city

Dinner at an asado buffet - so much food (and wine)

Saturday was another long day: We visited Tigre, took a boat ride around the delta where people live on islands in the delta of this river which has the widest mouth in the world. And so boats are their main method of transportation- what a different way of life!

Lunch at a Casino buffet, what?! But it was really good, especially the chocolate in a cup, whatever that desert was.

Sunday: more museums, cultural artisan walks, parks, and buildings! And of course, the long bus ride back, which this time was only 8 hours, so walked to the bus stop at 6 am to go home for a short nap from 7 to 10 before classes started today. I had my first 3 classes of the semester: Spanish Language, Literature, and Marketing. Tomorrow I have some new ones too: Dance, History, Culture, and Literature and Film.

Casa Rosada

Very frigidity guards

Plaza de Mayo 

Nothing like a walk home at 7 am watching the sunrise