it’s better.

This week my big event was my Culture and language of Politics midterm. I spent 8 hours in a café on Sunday and Tuesday studying and many additional hours Monday and Wednesday as well. The staff at my studying café must think I’m crazy because I literally spent about 24 hours there in the past 4 days. After freaking out for a week, the midterm was pretty easy- very simple. However, I’m still worried because according to my program director the way of testing and grading in this country is very different and American students usually have a rough time adapting to the new means of assessment. Soooo, I think I did well in an American way. Hmmm

Monday night Walter and I met a few people at a bar in San Telmo for someone’s birthday. The second we got out of the cab I heard some great salsa music playing and followed the music to a bar nearby. There was a live Colombian salsa group playing and they were awesome!! I ended up staying there and listening to the whole show. It was probably one of my most enjoyable nights here- I was so happy and kept thinking about how much everyone at home would love the show. I’m definitely going to try and find out where they play so I can go see them more often.

This weekend Whitney, Ellen, Mark and I are going to Mendoza until Tuesday morning. Exciting!!

Convencidos de caducidad
por tantas nobles certidumbres del polvo,
nos demoramos y bajamos la voz
entre las lentas filas de panteones,
cuya retórica de sombra y de mármol
promete o prefigura la deseable
dignidad de haber muerto.
Bellos son los sepulcros,
el desnudo latín y las trabadas fechas fatales,
la conjunción del mármol y de la flor
y las plazuelas con frescura de patio
y los muchos ayeres de a historia
hoy detenida y única.
Equivocamos esa paz con la muerte
y creemos anhelar nuestro fin
y anhelamos el sueño y la indiferencia.
Vibrante en las espadas y en la pasión
y dormida en la hiedra,
sólo la vida existe.
El espacio y el tiempo son normas suyas,
son instrumentos mágicos del alma,
y cuando ésta se apague,
se apagarán con ella el espacio, el tiempo y la muerte,
como al cesar la luz
caduca el simulacro de los espejos
que ya la tarde fue apagando.
Sombra benigna de los árboles,
viento con pájaros que sobre las ramas ondea,
alma que se dispersa entre otras almas,
fuera un milagro que alguna vez dejaran de ser,
milagro incomprensible,
aunque su imaginaria repetición
infame con horror nuestros días.
Estas cosas pensé en la Recoleta,
en el lugar de mi ceniza.

OK quick recap of #2-4 The Tango World Championship. So cool. About an hour before the final show of the 2 week event Geb called me to tell me that his friend has 2 extra (and free) tickets. How lucky is that!? So apparently the even started with hundreds and hundreds of couples and on the final night about 20 were left. Each couple danced once which took about an hour or so and then there was a full tango concert while the judges did their deliberation thing. There was an orchestra and a few good singers. The couples were all just unbelievable. Surprisingly they were from all over the world- including Japan and Australia. A couple from Argentina ended up winning though and then they had a final dance number. It was so weird to see and entire sports stadium with screaming, cheering tango fans. It was one of those times when I knew I wasn’t understanding how big of a deal what I was seeing truly was. Apparently the tango singers were really famous…

Argentina vs Brazil

What a mess. A good mess and a bad mess all in one. From the very beginning things were not organized. There were problems with our tickets (real tickets that turned out to be fake tickets which were returned for actual real tickets). The bus to Rosario was supposed to leave at 10am and didn’t leave until 12:30. I got there bright and early at 9:30 because I didn’t want to be late after waking up at 7 which is the Argentine equivalent of bedtime. I was so paranoid that I was going to be robbed that I put my keys, money, phone and ID in my bra and didn’t even wear a jacket. Adam and I slept the whole way there in a van that smelled like pot with 4 guys from Jamaica, two British people one Canadian and a couple from California. We slept most of the way there, got something quick to eat and then headed to the stadium so make sure we got in okay and everything. We had tickets in a section called “popular” which basically means its standing room only where all of the crazy, passionate fans watch the game from. We were standing and waiting for the game to start for 2 hours and in that time I learned basically all of the cheers by heart because the fans were just relentless with the cheering even when there weren’t any players on the field. The game itself feels like a huge blur. Half the time I was fighting for a spot to stand, keeping myself afloat among the throng of people, and trying my best to get some sort of view of the field. I have to say that if you want to really watch a soccer game stay at home. However, the energy and emotion running through the crowd was well worth the multiple threats on my life during the 4 hours we were in the stadium. At one point everyone in the whole stadium was jumping and singing this one song and you could feel the concrete stadium shaking. It was ridiculous. We didn’t get back to Buenos Aires until 5:30 that morning officially making this the longest day trip of my life and I ended up sleeping until 5pm that afternoon.

Córdoba

Every semester the Middlebury program arranges a series of “cultural” outings. Our first one was to the city of Cordoba. Midd paid for our hotel there and the plane tickets there and back as well as our breakfast (which was included with the hotel). We arrived on Friday morning and after checking into the hotel went on a tour of a University there where Middlebury is planning on opening another program. After that we did a series of tours around the city of churches, a mate museum (pretty boring) and a fair. The next day we went on a hike for the day with the whole group, our directors and a tour guide. That was actually really fun because it was so different from what we do all the time in Buenos Aires and we were able to spend a lot of time with each other speaking Spanish and what not. Sunday we went to Ariel’s family’s house for an Asado. By “we” I mean me, Whitney, Adam, Mark, and Ellen. It was really, really nice of them to have us over like that. We spent about an hour eating and another two hours just talking and sitting in the sun. Sunday was a national holiday celebrating students so we went to this giant fair for students that ended up being so boring. We ran out of things to do after an hour and ended up just killing the day in a restaurant. Overall it was a good trip, mainly because of the bonding and hiking.

1) General impressions of Buenos Aires/ school/ and life in general thus far

2) El Mundial de Tango 2009

3) The Argentina vs Brazil futbol game

4) Trip to Cordoba

Let’s Start with #1… I love Buenos Aires. I know I’ve probably said something along those lines already but this time it’s different (I swear!). It’s not so much that I’m having a good time here- although I am- but now I feel as though I’ve gotten to the point where I feel really, really comfortable in my environment. Before I was always timid about going to do errands or everyday things because of the language barrier but with more time this has gone away and everyday tasks here have become more like those at home. Obviously this speaks tons about how much my Spanish has improved here. Everyday I find myself speaking with more fluidity and with less thought behind each sentence that comes out of my mouth. It’s a really great feeling to be able to walk away from a conversation with a person I’ve just meet and feel as though I was able to hold my own in the conversation. Being able to carry on interesting and thought provoking conversations with people here is so rewarding because It makes me feel like I’m actually part of the community and more than just an American student visiting for a few months. I’d have to say that the best part of my experience here thus far has been my host family. I love family dinners with them because they’re essentially 45 minutes of laughing, yelling, teasing, joking and (how could I forget?!) good food. The other day my host mom introduced me to her friend and her “hija Norteamericana” and then gave me a big hug and it made me feel so happy. My host dad is always asking me about my life and school and has made an active effort to get to know all of my friends to the point where he has his own nicknames for them and my friends will actually ask to come over to my apartment so that they can “talk to my family.” I feel really lucky. Last night my host Dad’s best friend Angel came to the apartment to see me- not my host dad- because he bought me a book he wants me to read that has to do with a conversation we had the other night about capitalism. He wrote a really nice little note to me on the inside cover and signed and dated it. It was really nice.

On the school front things are generally going well also. My “Cultura y Lenguage Politico” class is by far my favorite. The readings are all really interesting and the teacher is great and very aware that there are “extranjeras” in the class so she always asks us if we need any help with a topic after class. My other class “Globalización, Teoría Social y Sociedad” is good too. I think the only reasons I don’t like it as much as my other class are all psychological. Like, for instance, it meets at night so the classroom is sort of dark and I get sleepy, plus I’m more of a morning person. Also, unlike the other class, I don’t have another abroad student with me and it’s a much bigger class so it’s more intimidating. Aside from those factors, which have nothing to do with the material itself, the class is great. Both courses focus on different theoretical perspectives of political science, which is essentially my minor at Middlebury so not only do I enjoy the material but my credits will also transfer perfectly. Score.

On another note, after thinking a lot about it I’ve decided to go back to Middlebury for the spring semester instead of staying here the whole year. It was a really hard decision to make because I’m enjoying my time here so much but I think that it really is the better thing to do. My studies here in Argentina are great as far as how much better my Spanish is getting and the cultural aspects of spending so much time in another country. The University of Buenos Aires is a great school- but it’s not Middlebury. Little by little I began to realize that my time here as been spent socializing and exploring the city- not studying. School here takes up about 20% of my time. That being said, these four years I have at Middlebury are just that, only 4 years. Do I want to spend ¼ of that time clubbing in Buenos Aires? Honestly, I don’t. I like my stressful life in Vermont because I’m learning so, so much. My advisor at Middlebury made a good point by saying that if it’s academics that I feel I’m missing out on during my time here, I can always return to Buenos Aires when that is no longer a factor (i.e. during the summer or after I graduate). After weighing all the pros and cons of staying here or leaving and really thinking about what I want out of my years enrolled at Middlebury, I feel really comfortable with my decision.

That’s about all that’s fit to print on life here. Points 2, 3, and 4 will come soon. Sorry again for the long delay. It won’t happen again (probably…)

The starting point was this bar called Goya. At first the entrance looks a bit sketchy but it turned out to be a really nice place with different types of areas to sit, a full menu if you wanted it, music and well made drinks. Although the “package” had lead us to believe that we were getting appetizers and a drink there, we didn’t so I bought a Margarita (my favorite) and it was unbelievable. The bus turned out to be this trolley on wheels and the alcohol they serves was more like cheap Gatorade with cheap vodka mixed in. I definitely did not have any of that. The club, Kika, was fun but not a place any of us are planning to return to. I also lost my cell on the way home that night. Probably in the cab… probably.

The next night we all ate at La Dorita, a restaurant in Palermo, which was fantastic. After Nellie, Whitney and I met up with three guys Nellie knows distantly (don’t quite remember the connection), which was fun but I was exhausted from the night before and we left “early.”

Monday was a busy day because I was trying out two more classes. The first was unbearable and such a waste of time. It ended up being about sexuality and gender theory with all of these huge feminists and intolerably outspoken people. The second one met from 5-9 and it seems like it’s going to be really great. It’s called Globalizacion teoria social y sociedad. It’s a bigger class than my Cultura y Lenguage class but it’s good because it’s a different experience. For the first time I’m experiencing classes with TA’s, which is fine because they’re both very smart but I still don’t think I would like having TA’s at Middlebury. I love my professors too much.

Tuesday my Spanish class was cancelled because Liria (the professor) was sick.

Wednesdays I don’t have any class so Walter and I decided to go to El Tigre since it was a gorgeous day and its supposed to be a really nice place. It wasn’t. Maybe because it was winter, or maybe because when we hear “nice town on the water” we just have higher expectations. The amusement park was closed, there were no nice restaurants (there went our plans to have a really nice sit- down lunch- and I was starving!), there was essentially nothing to do so we ate at some local hangout and went back home. Biggest disappointment since I’ve gotten here.  On the way home we decided to walk around Palermo in a attempt to salvage the day and I got an outfit for my birthday J

Thursday was another gorgeous day so after class (9-1) I came back home, grabbed some reading and laid in the park by my house for a good 4 hours. It was fantastic. Sunbathing in the middle of winter.

Friday I had my internship interview (get more into that later). I was sleeping and woken up by good old Juan, the Middlebury Internship Coordinator, with instructions to be at such and such address by 11:30 that very day for my interview. It was 10. Yes, I made it on time. Barely.

Friday night was unbelievable. Oscar and Ute took me out to dinner for my birthday at a great place in Puerto Madero. We had a table right by the window so you could see the water and reflection of the city lights- it was really beautiful. The restaurant served Italian style plates so we split two dishes that were really great and then they ordered me this chocolate dessert that was unbelievable. I ate the whole thing in about a minute.  We didn’t leave the restaurant until 11:45 and I got gifts from everyone in Brooklyn via Oscar mail, which was a really nice surprise.

After I left Oscar and Ute I walked over to the Puerto Madero bridge (my favorite spot in the city) where I was meeting Nellie and Whitney. All of a sudden I get a hysterical call from Nellie yelling at me to “run to Hooters!” and I was so confused but I started running anyway. In the distance I could see a light and as I got closer I saw Whitney, Nellie and Adam on a bench along the water with a birthday cake. It was so perfect! I was so happy being with great friends, in Buenos Aires on my 20^th birthday. After that great meal I really didn’t think I could have any cake but Whitney went to go see if any restaurant would let us sit and eat it. Sure enough the only place that would allow us in was Hooters. I never thought I would eat my 20^th birthday cake at Hooters, but it was so fun. We ordered a pitcher of Sangria and ate about half the cake between the 3 of us. All of a sudden the Hooter’s girls all came out with pom-poms and started singing Happy Birthday to me in front of the whole restaurant- I was dying. As if that wasn’t enough they then brought out a hula-hoop and made me hula-hoop with the girls despite the fact that I was wearing a dress. It was what porteños call “un quilombo.”

Soon after that whole fiasco we left, went to Walter’s to drop off the presents and cake and headed over to a local bar, The Shamrock, for some dancing. We had a great time and ended the night with orange juice in front of a fountain on Rodriguez Peña at 5 in the morning. Great night.

The next day Nellie, Whitney and I sunbathed on Whitney’s roof and just had a girly time chatting and trying to express ourselves in Spanish. It was really fun and after we headed out to get our nails done. Of course by the time I finished it was 8pm and I had only an hour to shower and get ready before everyone arrived at my apartment, everyone meaning Whitney, Nellie, Adam, Alec, Walter, Mike, Ben and I. After a few glasses of wine and schmoozing with my host parents we headed out to Palermo for dinner at Meridiano 58. The food was excellent and we had a really nice time. After we couldn’t really decide where we wanted to go so we split up into two groups and after a few bars I was exhausted. Granted, I still got home around 4 in the morning- an early night in Buenos Aires.

That was last week. More about this week when it’s over, which, I’m sure, will be too soon.

On Thursday night I had Mike, Whitney, and Nellie over to the apartment before we went out. My host parents are really cool about having people over. The place we went to is called The Shamrock and it’s only about 6 blocks away from where I live. When we got there a bunch of kids from Mike’s program were there and more of our friends from the Midd program were there too. The place was pretty cool because the main floor is like a laid- back “Irish” pub with good American music but if you go downstairs and past a few heavy black curtains you walk right into a club. It’s a very strange mix of environments for one place to carry off successfully, but it worked.

Friday night Nellie made reservations for 8 of us for dinner at a place in Palermo called Acabar. The place itself was very cool. It was filled with all types of eclectic patterns and posters- very busy but in an entertaining way. The food wasn’t great but it’s not the type of place you go to for the food, especially since most people go there to have a few drinks and hang out with friends over a board game. The restaurant offers a huge selection of games to play and we tried playing Taboo, which proved to be very difficult because all of the words were in Spanish and we had to think of way to describe them- in Spanish.  Needless to say that only lasted a few rounds. After Acabar we walked a few blocks to Carnal where we headed up to the rooftop terrace to enjoy the warm night. Upstairs there was a series of couches and tables with good jazz music playing. After stalking a few people we were able to grab a table and order some drinks. It was a really nice time just talking to everyone and enjoying the warm weather and relaxing music. Afterward we thought about going to the club across the street but eventually decided to call it a good night and go home.

Saturday during the day was paper day. Nellie, Alec, Adam Walter and I met at El Ateneo, an old theatre-turned-bookstore that I absolutely fell in love with. The café was pretty expensive though and they didn’t have many outlets for our computers so we ended up moving to a different place not too far from my house. Saturday night Adam came over before we went out and the two of us spent a good hour and a half talking and drinking with my host dad, Herman. Adam now thinks he’s the coolest guy, and he basically is. After we went to Crobar which was fun but not nearly as cool as it’s hyped up to be. We got in for free, which automatically made it worth our while, and the music especially in the beginning of the night was pretty good. We ended up leaving at about 5:30 am- early by Porteño standards.

Monday was a national holiday so nothing was open and Walter and I spent the day consciously doing absolutely nothing (movie, sitting, eating, tv show, sitting, walking, eating- literally). Tuesday (the 18^th) I had my first Spanish writing class called “Cuaderno.” The teacher seems really fun and I think I’m going to learn a lot from her. At the beginning of class she had each of us say our name and what school we’re from then kissed us each hello. It was pretty funny. Basically all the kids in the program are going to be divided into 3 different classes (small classes- Midd style) that will meet for an hour and a half each every Tuesday afternoon. Every week we have one assigned writing assignment of 300- 400 words and a short blog post (yes, blogs are now invading South America too). I’m excited for this class because I need serious help with my Spanish writing and she seems like she can help me out a lot.

Afterward I had about 3 hours to kill before my first UBA class started so I walked down Corrientes and explored a few bookstores. I ended up buying Marquez’s novel La Hojarasca, which one the Nobel Prize in 1982. We’ll see how that goes. When I got to the school it was very intimidating. The building literally looks like a factory spilling with students and fliers and protests about this and that. There was loud music playing, people smoking in the halls and classes going on. In other words, nothing like Middlebury. After finally finding where my classroom was I sat and waited for the teacher who was 40 minutes late. Buy hey, that’s UBA! I was able to understand more and more as the class went on, which is a good sign, but not enough to make me feel very sure of myself going into a whole semester of political science- in Spanish. The class ended a half hour early, turning a 3-hour class into a 2-hour one. Great!

Wednesday I sat in a café and did the Spanish assignment and handed it in so I don’t have to worry about that come Saturday when it’s due. That’s about the most productive thing I did all day, being that I spent the rest of the afternoon satisfying my Californication fix with 4 episodes of the first season. Great show.

Today I had my first “real” class at UBA since I actually think I’m going to sign up for it. I was ten minutes late because I took the subway to the school and it was a mess. This class is completely different from the first one I took. There are 30 kids (I counted) and the teacher is a soft-spoken guy who cracks a lot of jokes- most of which I don’t get. He gave us a break after an hour and I found out that two other girls in the class are also exchange students from the U.S. so that was a huge relief! After class we spoke to the teacher and he gave us his personal email address so that we can contact him if we need anything (like an explanation of the lecture) and told us where to get the class reading. The reading for next week’s class is 8 pages long. 8 pages long. That’s like 1/16 the amount of pages we have to read per hour per class at Midd. I actually laughed when I was handed the packet.

After class I bought notebooks and schools supplies I’m going to need, got coffee with Geb and then went to El Ateneo to start the class’ reading and just peruse through the bookstore. I just got back from the gym and already have messages about parties this weekend….

And the routine begins as it continues.

Constancy to an ideal object

Since all that beat about in Nature’s range,
Or veer or vanish; why should’st thou remain
The only constant in a world of change,
O yearning Thought! that liv’st but in the brain?
Call to the Hours, that in the distance play,
The faery people of the future day–
Fond Thought! not one of all that shining swarm
Will breathe on _thee_ with life-enkindling breath,
Till when, like strangers shelt’ring from a storm,
Hope and Despair meet in the porch of Death!
Yet still thou haunt’st me; and though well I see,
She is not thou, and only thou art she,
Still, still as though some dear _embodied_ Good,
Some _living_ Love before my eyes there stood
With answering look a ready ear to lend,
I mourn to thee and say–”Ah! loveliest friend!
That this the meed of all my toils might be,
To have a home, an English home, and thee!”
Vain repetition! Home and Thou are one.
The peacefull’st cot, the moon shall shine upon,
Lulled by the thrush and wakened by the lark,
Without thee were but a becalmed bark,
Whose helmsman on an ocean waste and wide
Sits mute and pale his mouldering helm beside.

And art thou nothing? Such thou art, as when
The woodman winding westward up the glen
At wintry dawn, where o’er the sheep-track’s maze
The viewless snow-mist weaves a glist’ning haze,
Sees full before him, gliding without tread,
An image with a glory round its head;
The enamoured rustic worships its fair hues,
Nor knows he makes the shadow, he pursues!
Once again the nine of us are soaked after shower #2 at Iguazu Falls. The routine starts again: rush back, get dry, change, eat, hop on the bus just in time. We got back at 10:30 this morning and after feeling like I had just sat around and ate for 18 hours (because I had) I went to the gym, showered and am finally taking an afternoon to do nothing. This is my first lazy afternoon since I’ve gotten here and I can already tell that I’m going to have to make it a point to put things on hold for a few hours every now and then just to have some time to relax. But that’s life here. It’s unlike life at Middlebury (that can be a whole other post). It’s unlike my scheduled life in New York. It’s unlike my easy going time in DC. Buenos Aires is busy, spontaneous, it keeps me up late, it’s in a whole other language, and most importantly it’s completely different from anything else I’ve experienced before. So far, very good.
Until next time, <3

Our room and hotel are really nice. We have a suite on the 8th floor that overlooks the pool area. Mom unpacked and I know I should too but I´m doubtful that I´ll be able to get everything I have back in the luggage so that it fits. It´s a small miracle that I was able to fit everything in such little space to begin with. We tried getting me a phone but the closest store had lost power from the storm and closed for the day so we´ll have to venture elsewhere later or just wait until tomorrow.

Leaving New York wasn´t as sad as I thought it would be. I was the most upset when saying goodbye to family and friends but on the plane I realized that I left my room and house without the usual glance over the shoulder or ceremonious goodbye that I do everytime I leave for long periods of time. Coming to Argentina is something I feel very comfortable about and at ease with, which I definitely couldn´t say about leaving for college. I keep thinking I´m going to smack into a wall of fear but the more time passes the more I think it´s just not going to happen. Maybe I´m just not afraid.

I can say for sure that I´m extremely excited to be here. Orientation starts on Thursday, which gives me one whole day to go around the city. I feel like I owe this next year of my life as much as I can give. I don´t want to waste it, or let it down. I don´t want to let the year itself down, as if it were a person giving me a gift or looking upon me with high expectations. I do wish I were moving into my apartment sooner just so that I could get the hang of things sooner rather than later but in the spectrum of the year, a few days isn´t really going to make much of a difference.

It´s also raining in New York right now. I can picture Ari bumming it on her couch watching a movie with Mugsly, the rain beating overhead. If I close my eyes I hear the rain too, I´m next to them on the couch. Under a different cloud thousands of miles away, sure, but safe from the rain all the same.

And so the year begins…