The End

I'm writing this as I'm on the ferry heading to Montevideo, Uruguay. My program ended on Saturday the 10th ad now I'm into my two weeks of traveling with my friend Molly before going home on the 24th. I wanted to write this last blog post while all my final memories/thoughts/feelings about my semester are still fresh in my mind.

It felt very strange on Saturday night after a bunch of my friends had left for the airport to go home and I was moved out of my host family. It was just strange still being in Buenos Aires but without the people I'm used to and my "home." I still had some friends in BA that are staying after to travel so we went to dinner together and drowned our sadness in meat (at La Cabrera, the amazing parilla I went to and blogged about in one of my first posts. This may or may not was my fourth time there...) It really felt like the end of a chapter and the beginning of a new one. Cheesy, but true.

I honestly feel like I didn't fully adjust to living here until the last six weeks. A lot of people say this is why it's better to go abroad for a full year instead of a semester. I'm still happy with my decision to go for a semester, as I feel very ready to go home and get back to normal life. Nonetheless, I will miss my life in BA a lot. It's pretty incredible that my typical weeks here consisted of going out to fun restaurants, concerts, fairs, traveling on weekends, hanging out and talking with friends in cafes on lazy weekend afternoons and going out till 6am (only on occasion, of course.) Not a bad life at all.

Also, I realized that by the time I come home, I will have taken 11 trips. Here's a recap, in chronological order:

1. Gualeguaychu (for Carnaval)
2. Patagonia (amazing glaciers, the most gorgeous scenery I've ever seen)
3. Iguazu Falls (WATERFALLS. trip with the parents :)
4. Colonia, Uruguay (cute old town, World Heritage site, IFSA trip)
5. Mendoza (wine-tasting and paragliding)
6. Salta/Jujuy (salt flats, adorable little towns with llamas and alpaca products)
7. Rosario (cute city, other IFSA trip)
8. Cordoba (second largest city in Argentina, last hurrah trip with friends)
9. San Antonio de Areco (cute gaucho town near BA, went with my friend India overnight a few days after the program ended)
10. Montevideo, Uruguay (where I am now! With Molly, a friend from home AND Tufts)
11. Cusco, Peru (Machu Picchu)

On a more serious, introspective note, the end of the semester has made me reflect on myself and how I've changed in the past few months. I feel like I gained a lot from the experience that I didn't expect. What I expected and hoped to gain was an improvement in my Spanish. I feel like I have accomplished this, but just as if not more importantly, I feel like I've grown a lot as a person. Sounds stupid, but I feel like I am significantly more independent than I was when I left. Makes sense that living in a foreign country and having to figure things out for yourself will do that to you. I also feel like I've learned to take advantage of opportunities and not let fun things pass by and to live in the moment. If someone asked me to check out a cool fair or go to a concert, I almost always went because I thought "Why not? I'm only in BA once. 'Hay que aprovechar.'" (You have to take advantage.)

It's been an incredible semester, especially the past two months after really settling in, but I'm also very much looking forward to coming home. With my friends being home, it feels like our time in Buenos Aires is done and I should be home too.

But first things first: Uruguay and Peru.

Home July 25 :)


Me, India, Charlotte in Cordoba


Erika, me, India in Rosario

School's out!

Today I had my last class of the semester/turned in my final paper/did my final oral presentation and am now officially done! It feels sooo good knowing that I can just relax and try to have as much fun as I can for the rest of my time in Buenos Aires. I'll use my classes as my excuse for not having blogged in a whole month...I'm sorry!

Here are some highlights from the past month:

1. THE WORLD CUP

I've never been much of a sports fan but I have to say I have officially been converted into a world cup fanatic! It's probably because everyone here is obsessed with the world cup and with the Argentine team. It's really amazing seeing how much spirit literally EVERYONE has. I even know lots of people who have had classes canceled if they conflicted with an Argentina game. This weekend, I went with some friends to Plaza San Martin to watch the game against Mexico (which we won 3-1). They show all the games in Plaza San Martin on a giant screen and there are tons of people all decked out in their Argentine colors and it's very exciting. After the game, everyone was SO excited and gathered in a different Plaza in front of the Obelisco, a giant monument, and had a giant party in the street. It's really incredible to see how much spirit the country has and it made me realize there isn't really an equivalent thing in the States.







As of right now, Argentina has made it into the quarter-finals! Very exciting! Their next game is against Germany on Saturday, July 3rd at 3:30 Argentina time (11:30 west coast time) and I highly encourage everyone to watch. I will be!! Some things to look out for:

Lionel Messi - pretty much the star of the team and considered to be one of, if not the best player, in the whole world cup. He is a god. Watch a game and you will understand.
Gonzalo Higuain - another amazing player and has scored the most goals out of anyone during World Cup 2010, across all the teams. He's also REALLY good-looking.
Diego Maradona - coach and ex-super star soccer player. He's pretty crazy and has been in and out of drug problems/other scandals but is very entertaining.
The world cup song!! I'm obsessed:

World Cup song

2. ROSARIO

A few weekends ago I went on another small trip with my program to the city of Rosario.
Rosario is the third largest city on Argentina after Buenos Aires and Córdoba. (I'm planning a trip to Córdoba for next week with my friends before they go home.) Rosario was a lot of fun and it's always nice to go on a trip where everything is already planned for you! We took a walking tour of the city and had some nice meals with our program and hung out a lot at the hotel. It wasn't anything super exciting but really nice to hang out with friends and see something other than Buenos Aires.

3. Trip planning

So my program ends on July 10 but I am not coming home until July 24 because I'm traveling! Plans are still somewhat loose but I'm planning to go to Uruguay and Peru (Machu Picchu!) from July 14-23 with my Tufts/Bay Area friend Molly that was studying abroad in Santiago, Chile this semester. Then on the 24th I come home from Buenos Aires.

Also, songs in Spanish that I am now obsessed with/my friends sing all the time and are played everywhere:

Colgando en tus manos

Mi niña bonita

That's all for now!

El Norte

The weekend after Mendoza was a long weekend in Argentina because Tuesday, May 25th was the 200th anniversary of the revolution that led to Argentina's independence. My friends and I took advantage by going to the north! We went to the small city of Salta and then to the province of Jujuy. The whole trip was absolutely gorgeous and a really nice break from busy, loud city life.

On Friday afternoon we flew into Salta. We checked into our hostel, walked around the town and had a relaxing dinner that ended up lasting about three hours. We were planning to take a bus to Jujuy the next day but we ran into some other IFSA students at our hostel who told us it's much prettier and not much more expensive to take a taxi. Apparently the buses go on a newer road which just looks like a highway, but the taxis still go on the old road. So with five of us piled into a taxi, we made our way to Jujuy. It took about 2 and a half hours and was quite cramped in the taxi but the ride was beautiful. It was so green and lush that we felt like we were in Avatar. We stopped at one point to take pictures, which included an Avatar-inspired photo shoot.



In Jujuy we stayed in the little town of Tilcara, an adorable indigenous town with a stunning view of the mountains. Our hostel was really cute and also had an incredible view. Our first night there, we met some Argentines who were also staying at our hostel. They were planning on cooking dinner at the hostel and they invited us to eat with them, so we ended up eating a home-cooked dinner with a big group of Argentines at the hostel. Afterwards, we went to a cafe to hear live music which was awesome.

The next day, we took a bus to Purmamarca, another small town similar to Tilcara. Since llamas are a big deal there, there were a lot of people selling alpaca sweaters and other knit items. We had a lot fun shopping and looking around. One of the main attractions in the area are the salinas grandes, or the salt flats. It looks like a giant desert except the ground is pure salt. It's really an incredible sight to see, especially with the white salt of the ground in contrast with the blue sky. The strange and stunning landscape makes it a great place to take fun photos! And that's just what everyone does when they go. Here are some highlights from our photo shoot:







And my personal favorite

Wine and paragliding - not at the same time

The past two weekends I've gone on trips, the first being to Mendoza. Mendoza is basically the Napa of Argentina, known for wine and pretty scenery. I went to Mendoza with my friend Charlotte from the program. A bunch of our other friends had already gone to Mendoza a different weekend so they recommended a bunch of stuff for us to do, including renting bikes to ride to the different vineyards and go wine tasting. We were really excited for our bikes and wine adventure but sadly, the weather was pretty bad (cloudy, cold and rainy) and the bike company was not renting out bikes. However, at the bike rental place, we met up with some other students that had also wanted to ride bikes and wine taste so we decided to join forces with them and walk/take taxis together to the different wineries. (Also, it just so happens that they were all Stanford students. Small world.) By the time we got to the first winery, our group had grown to 13 people after some Canadians joined us, as well as an Irish girl and a Swedish girl. Here we all are at a winery!



Another activity our friends had recommended to us is paragliding, or "parapente" in Spanish. Parapente is where you're attached to a big parachute and you run off the side of a mountain and then float leisurely down. I promise it sounds a lot more intense and scary than it actually is. Although the weather wasn't that great, it was still a gorgeous view. We were only in the air for about ten minutes, but I actually started to feel pretty dizzy while floating down, so the short time was fine with me.


View from the top


Getting ready to go!


Woohoo!

Beth - 1 Argentina - 1

Although I've been here three months now, I still find myself frustrated by the language barrier all the time. Even though this is to be expected, I find myself still feeling very self-conscious about my speaking and frustrated that I can't understand more than I do. However, in the past couple weeks, I've had a couple experiences that made me quite proud of my attempt to get by in Spanish.

First of all, I had my first exam in a real Argentine class with other Argentine students and I passed! Not only did I pass, but I did really well! It was my Psychology class at Universidad de Salvador. Since there were a lot of people that didn't pass, I was pretty surprised at my grade, but hey, I'm not complaining.

Also, this past week I went to the doctor because I had a swollen lymph node in my neck. It didn't hurt and I had no other symptoms, it was just very swollen. I was really nervous to go to the doctor and have to navigate my appointment in Spanish, but I managed! (And in case you're wondering, she gave me antibiotics and ibuprofen and it is definitely getting better.)

I'd say these two things make the score Beth - 1 Argentina - 1, in the game of Beth living in Argentina.

My trip to Uruguay (or how I found the site for my Latin American wedding)

Last weekend I went to Uruguay on a trip organized by IFSA. We went to the little historic town of Colonia, across the river from Buenos Aires. Although we had a lot of fun exploring the town (we even rented motorbikes to drive around town), the highlight of the trip by far was going to Mario's house outside of Colonia. Mario is the program director for IFSA in Argentina and owns a house/bed & breakfast near Colonia with his partner, Sergio. The place is called "La Casa de los Limoneros" which means House of Lemon Trees and it certainly was. The property was full of rows and rows of beautiful lemon trees, among gorgeous flowers, a pool and some very happy dogs. When we got there, the staff that works at his house had prepared an amazing barbeque lunch for us. The whole scene was so idyllic it felt surreal. It reminded me of how I felt living in Annecy in the French Alps last summer. After we ate, Mario led a group on a walk to and down the beach, in case the day wasn't perfect enough.

Yanqui Blanca

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I've had some difficulties with people being able to say/understand my name here, particularly with the women who work at the "lavadero," the place where I go to get my laundry done. Now when I go to the lavadero, I just use my middle name, Clara, because that they can understand...or so I thought. However, when I went to pick up my laundry a few days ago, I saw that my laundry bag was not labeled Clara, but rather "Yanqui Blanca." For those who don't know, "Yanqui" is pronounced like Yankee and is a slang word for Americans, (kind of like "gringo" is for a White person) and "Blanca" means White girl. Therefore, I now know that instead of knowing me as Clara, the laundry women know me as the White American girl. In the ongoing battle of Beth assimilating into Argentine culture, this means Argentina-1 Beth-0.

Waterfalls and Run for Water

The past two weeks have been lovely, since my parents were visiting! We had a lot of fun doing touristy things around BA, like going to a tango show and taking a tour of the different neighborhoods of the city. One of the highlights of their visit though was our trip to Iguazú Falls. The waterfalls were absolutely incredible!








We took some walks around different points of the falls and also took a boat ride that takes you right up next to them. We got SOAKED so it reminded me of a water ride...except it's real life.

We were there for a full weekend, which some say is too long there, but it actually worked out great because it made our trip super relaxed and gave us time to see the falls and hang out around the hotel.

The other highlight of the past week was today I ran 6K in the Buenos Aires Run for Water, or as they call it Maratón del Agua.




Run for Water is a 6K race in lots of cities around the world that raises money/awareness for places that don't have easy access to clean water. My friend India and I ran the race together and it was so much fun! India had done a bunch of races like this before but this was my first one so it was very exciting for me. There were probably about 8,000 people there so it was a huge event. The running aspect was definitely challenging, but I hardly walked at all and I ended up with a better time than I expected so I'm happy. Here we are before the race looking all official with our numbers.

Project Glacier

This week I was in Patagonia! For those who don't know, Patagonia is basically home of glaciers, hiking or "trekking" as they call it here, animals and lots of other outdoorsy stuff. It's also absolutely gorgeous everywhere you look. I went with two girls from my program, Charlotte and Lindsey. We got there on Tuesday around noon and went to our hotel in El Calafate, the main town in Patagonia. Since our plan was to go to the Perito Moreno glacier the next day (the main glacier/tourist attraction around there), we decided to take it easy Tuesday and hung out around Calafate. We were all really enjoying being out of the city and breathing in the fresh, clean Patagonia air.

Wednesday morning we got up to hit the glacier bright and early. It's an hour drive from Calafate to the glacier. When we paid for the hotel, it included transportation to and from the glacier so we had a car come pick us up. We stopped at one point to get out and take pictures because it was just so beautiful.


When we got there, we decided to take a boat ride that takes you up close to it. The boat ride was full of tourists but it was still incredible. I was amazed at how blue the glacier was. I guess I didn't know what to expect but it was full of all different shades of blue.


After the boat ride, our car took us to the "balconies," a series of stairs you can walk on that take you to different views of the glaciers. I'm pretty sure this wasn't still Perito Moreno glacier, but a bunch of different glaciers.


The next day, we decided to go horseback riding! I hadn't really been horseback riding before so I was a little nervous...ok, a lot nervous. But overall it was really fun and SO beautiful.




Anyway, that was my trip to Patagonia in a nutshell. It was really nice to get out of the city for a few days and be in such gorgeous scenery. Now, as I'm sure everyone that's reading this blog knows, my parents arrive today! They will be here today, Monday the 5th, through the 17th. I'm so excited!

Cultural differences

Having been here for over a month, certain cultural differences have really started to stand out. For example:

-Tap water is never given in restaurants, even though for the most part tap water is safe to drink here. When we (American friends and myself) ask for tap water in restaurants, the waiter either gives us a dirty look and reluctantly gives it to us, or they tell us they don't have that.

-Mate, basically the national beverage of Argentina. It's a very strong kind of tea that is a huge part of Argentine culture. It's traditionally served with a group and comes with a set of rules for how to serve it, as well as very specific Mate equipment, such as a special mate cup/straw, for serving. From what I've seen, Argentines drink Mate all the time and often bring it with them places, complete with a thermos for hot water and the fancy cup/straw. It's pretty amusing seeing people on the subway juggling their mate equipment. Also, if you go to the beach or a park in the middle of the day, literally every group of people will be drinking mate. I don't think there's really an equivalent custom in the States. Here's what it looks like:

-You don't tip in taxis.

-When greeting someone, everyone gives kisses on the cheek (or more like touching your cheek to someone else's and making a kissy noise). For example, if someone is meeting up with their group of friends, that person will go around and kiss everyone in the group. Although this is sort of time consuming, I think it's a really nice cultural norm because it's an obvious and friendly way of acknowledging and greeting everyone on the group.

-Pedestrians do not have the right of way. Cars never yield for pedestrians. Ever.

-Traffic lanes might as well not exist.

-People go to the gym but they don't really work up a sweat. They walk on the treadmill or do some light weight-lifting. This is a little more true for girls, but also applies to most guys. When I go to the gym and do my usual routine (which naturally makes me sweaty, as going to the gym should), I can't help but feel awkward when I leave after working up a sweat.

Anyway, this past week was a lot of fun and I think I've figured out what classes I'm going to take. They are:

-Taller de Radio at UBA (Radio Workshop - It's in the Communications school and I think we make our own radio shows in groups)
-My mandatory Spanish class through my program, but I'm in the section focused on theater in Argentina.
-Sociedad y Estado de Argentina (Argentine Society and State), an optional class through my program.
-Psicología de la Interacción Social y los Pequeños Grupos (Psychology of Social Interaction and Small Groups) at USAL.

Other highlights of the week included:

-We have another girl that's living with my family! She's Venezuelan and is going to be here for two months working. She's 24 and is super friendly. It's really nice having someone my age to talk to in Spanish and to hang out with. We went to the movies the other day and she came out to dinner with my friends on Saturday.

-I tried out for the choir at USAL and I think I got in! I say I think because at the end of the audition she told me that I can start next week, but at the same time, I'm supposed to have an interview with the coordinator of the music program. I'm not really sure what that's about, but from what I can tell, I can join! I think that would be really fun and hopefully a good way to meet Argentines.

-On Saturday, I went back to El Tigre, the cute river town about an hour away from BA. We went kayaking!

-On Sunday, after a delicious brunch of savory and sweet pancakes at a famous pancake place, my friends and I went to Tierra Santa - a Bible-themed theme park. Yes, that's correct. Kitchy is really the only way to describe it. There weren't any rides but they had shows and lots of exhibits depicting Bible scenes with figures. The shows included some that were just fun music and dancing, but then there was one about the birth of Jesus. They also have a giant Jesus statue that gets raised up every half an hour that's supposed to represent the resurrection. The whole experience was bizarre but pretty funny at the same time.

Since this week is Semana Santa, it's a long weekend and I'm going to Patagonia tomorrow! I'm super excited because from all the pictures I've seen it looks absolutely gorgeous. There are a lot of glaciers there and you can go walk on them and do "ice-trekking," which makes me sound super outdoorsy and hardcore. Yep, that's me...

PS. I wanted to upload a picture of mate and some pics of Tierra Santa but for some reason, Blogspot is being weird and it's not working. Hopefully I can put some up later.

One-month anniversary

Happy one-month anniversary of being in Argentina! A part of me can't believe it's already been a month, but I also feel like I've been here for a year. During the first couple weeks, we did so much in a day, that each day felt like four days. I'm glad that things now are starting to be a little more relaxed since our days are filled with way less orientation and more just figuring out classes and getting into a rhythm here.

This past week, I intended to try out a bunch of new classes. (Notice how I say intended.) Although I did successfully go to two new Argentine classes this week, I intended to try two additional ones at UBA, the gigantic public university. However, both times I went to an UBA class, the other students and I (Argentine students included), ended up waiting outside the classroom for an hour before someone came and told us that the class does not begin until the following week, (whereas it says online that these classes were supposed to begin this week). Needless to say, I was pretty confused/frustrated/angry. At first, I thought that maybe I just missed the memo because I'm foreign, but that clearly wasn't the case since there were plenty of Argentine students there, too. I was confused about how a university can run on such complete and total lack of communication and angry that I had just wasted hours of my day (one of the buildings I went to took about an hour on public transportation for me to get to). Oh well, I just kept telling myself to go with the flow. That seems to be the name of the game around here.

Anyway, of the two classes I went to that did actually take place, one I liked and one not so much. The one I liked was a psychology class at Salvador (one of the private universities we can take classes at), called Psicología de la Interacción Social y los Pequeños Grupos (Psychology of Social Interaction and Small Groups). I was relieved to find out that another girl on my program, Emily, is in the class, too, so we were able to try and figure out what was going on together. The class had about 50 people in it and during the break Emily and I talked to some Argentine students who seemed friendly. The professor seemed nice and interesting and didn't have too difficult of an accent (a crucial factor in my decision-making). Nevertheless, I still had a hard time understanding what he was saying a lot of the time but I'm hoping my comprehension will improve over time.

On a more fun note, I had a great weekend! On Thursday night, I went to see the play Agosto (August Osage County), which I had seen in the states a few months ago. I absolutely loved the play when I saw it in the states, so I was really excited to see that it was playing here. I got a group of friends to go and we all had a really good time. Although it definitely helped having known the story already, I was surprised at how much of the Spanish I could understand, especially when they spoke on the slow side.



On Friday night, I went to El Teatro Ciego (Blind Theater), where you sit in total darkness and listen to a play happening around you. It was cool at first, but after realizing how much more difficult it was to understand Spanish without seeing faces, I zoned out for a lot of it. Afterward, we went to another famous parrilla called La Brigada. We got the special fixed menu for tourists where they just bring out a bunch of stuff for you to try, including mollejas (sweetbreads a.k.a. glands), another odd intestinal part, and two different cuts of meat. We were all very adventurous. In all the guidebooks, it says that at La Brigada the meat is so tender that you can cut it with a spoon, and this was in fact true. See below.



Although the meat was good at La Brigada, I think so far, in the competition for best parrilla, La Cabrera beat out La Brigada, (see earlier post for La Cabrera).

Me llamo Clara

Since coming to Argentina, I've increasingly realized that it's very difficult to understand/say my name. You would think that being only one syllable and four simple letters, Beth wouldn't be that hard of a name to understand. However, most of the time when I need to give my name for something, whether it be when I call for a taxi or take my laundry in, my name winds up sounding like Betrhgrgfgnfjvg. Even when I tried to spell it out to the woman at the laundry place, she still did not understand. However, when I said she could instead use my middle name, Clara, she instantly preferred that. It turns out Clara is a very common name here. (My host-mom's mother name is Clara, as we well as the academic coordinator of my program.) Thus, I decided that the women who work at the laundry place will know me as Clara.

This past week was really nice overall because classes have only begun at one of our universities. I'm only trying one class there, so this week I only had one class, Latin American Contemporary Art. Overall, I liked it but the university is really far from where I am, so it's inconvenient to get to. Although I liked the professor, I didn't like the environment of the school that much. I thought it felt like a high school. (This is the Universidad Católica Argentina). We'll see how my classes go next week. Hopefully, I'll like them as much or better. Although I only had one class this week, it's been really stressful trying to figure out which other classes I want to take, when/where each one meets and what each university requires of their foreign students. Some universities require a Spanish exam to enroll in certain courses, but it's not always clear which ones do/how you go about taking the test. A bunch of us went to UBA (Universidad Buenos Aires) on Tuesday to take their Spanish test, and I passed! This means I'm allowed to enroll in classes there.

In between figuring out classes, I did some fun things in and around the city. For example, I went to the zoo! I went with three other girls on my program and it was so much fun walking around and looking at the animals. One major difference about the Buenos Aires Zoo compared to zoos in the U.S. is there were animals just walking around with the people, not in any sort of enclosed area. Granted, these weren't animals like lions or tigers (which they did have, but those were not walking with the people), but rather these really really cute creatures that look like half-deer-half-bunny, or as I like to call them, bunny-deers. Here's a picture of a mother and baby bunny-deer.







On Saturday, I went to El Tigre, an adorable town on a river about 50 minutes from Buenos Aires. I went with my friend from the program, Charlotte, and we had a lot of fun walking around the town. We didn't actually leave Buenos Aires until the late afternoon, so we only had a couple hours there before it got dark, but we both really want to go back since it's super easy and cheap to get there. They also offer boat rides and bikes to rent, which we both want to do next time.



This next week is going to be pretty hectic because classes begin at UBA and USAL (Universidad de Salvador), as well as the classes with IFSA, my program. Since we are all starting out by trying way more classes than we intend on taking, it's going to be a bit insane running around trying to get to eight or nine classes in one week, not to mention in a city where I haven't totally figured out the public transportation yet. It's going to be an adventure!

Carnaval, clases y el cine

This weekend, a group of us decided at the last minute that we wanted to go to Carnaval, since it was the last weekend it was going on. Although Carnaval in Argentina is not nearly as big as it is in Brazil, Argentina does have its own big Carnaval celebration in Gualeguaychú (say that five times fast), a town three hours away from Buenos Aires. The trip overall was super fun but exhausting at the same time.

We got on a bus early Saturday morning and drove to Gualeguaychú. Since Carnaval doesn't start until nighttime, the bus could take us to either the beach or a pool area where we would spend the day, and then the bus would pick us up to take us to Carnaval. We chose the pool because we had heard that the water at the beach isn't clean and it's not very good for swimming. (Gualeguaychú is on a river that's borders Argentina and Uruguay. My host parents explained to me that there are "papeleras," paper factories, in Uruguay next to the river that are contaminating the water and a lot of Argentines are upset about it. When we were there, we saw people with signs protesting the papeleras.) Anyway, we spent the entire day by the pool sunbathing and relaxing.

That night we were taken to the stadium for Carnaval. I really had no idea what to expect. At the Carnaval here, it was like a show where you have assigned seats and watch what's going on. It was kind of like being at a sports game because you have a seat but people are making tons of noise and you can leave the stadium to buy food/beer/souveniers. The "show" started at 11pm and did not end until 4am, and by "show," I mean a giant parade. It was basically one gigantic parade with over-the-top floats and people in outrageous costumes dancing. It was really fun and exciting for the first two or three hours, but after that it got a little old. They also played the same four songs on repeat which were super catchy and fun to sing along with/dance to, but after five hours of hearing the same songs over and over again, it got to be a little much. Plus, most of us had gotten 3-4 hours of sleep the night before, since we left so early, and by 3am were having trouble staying awake. However, it was definitely an experience and unlike anything I had ever seen. We got back to BA at 8am when I promptly went home and slept for the rest of the morning/early afternoon. Here are some pictures!








Of course, since my semester abroad can't be all about going off to Carnaval for a weekend and eating great steak, I thought I'd update a little bit on classes. There's not much to say yet since classes haven't really started. With the program I'm on, I can take classes at four different universities and each one starts classes at different times. Although we will be taking 4-5 classes, the program encourages you to register for as much as 15 classes so you have room to choose ones you like. Only one of the universities I want to take classes at has had registration so far and they start classes this week, so I'll have my first class on Thursday. The class is Latin American Contemporary Art and it's one of their classes meant for foreign students, but will still be in Spanish. The rest of the universities start class in a week or two and then I have a while to decide which of those classes I actually want to take. Realistically, I may not know my official schedule until 3-4 weeks from now.

The third part of this post is about movies. Today, I went to the movies with Michelle, a friend from my program, and we went to see "El Secreto de Sus Ojos," a popular Argentine film that I think is nominated for Best Foreign Film. In fact, as I type this post, I am watching the Oscars. The movie was a drama/thriller and I'm sure was really good, but to be honest, it was pretty difficult to understand what they wer saying. I was able to catch words/sentences here and there, but for the most part I figured out the plot using means other than listening to the words. Nevertheless, it was good practice for my comprehension and it was fun going to see a movie that's so popular here. As I said earlier, right now I'm watching the Oscars, or should I say, "Los Premios Oscar," and it's dubbed in Spanish. I assumed that the Oscars would be shown with Spanish subtitles, but they actually have a Spanish language track on top of the English. It's pretty funny seeing people like Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey onstage speaking Spanish. Honestly, I'm doing my best to tune out the Spanish and listen to the English underneath.

The first week...and some steak

The first week of orientation is now over and a lot has happened over the past week. Overall, the week has mainly consisted of me trying to navigate the city between buses/subway/taxis, sitting through orientation all day and getting used to hearing/speaking Spanish all the time. (At orientation, they speak to us only in Spanish and I only speak Spanish with my family.) Orientation has so far been pretty helpful and it's an easy to way to meet other people on the program. They've talked to us about the different neighborhoods or "barrios" in the city, how to get around, Argentine culture and registering for classes. There are four universities we can take classes at and they all don't start until mid-March so we have a while before classes pick up.

One major highlight of my experience so far was going to La Cabrera restaurante, one of the best "parillas" (Argentine steakhouses) in Buenos Aires. A friend from my program read about it and got together a group of us to go. We met at the restaurant at 9:00 (which is when most restaurants open for dinner, so 9:00 here is like the equivalent of 5:00 in the states for eating dinner) and were told there was an hour wait. We were waiting outside among 30 or so other people also waiting for a coveted table. They even gave out free champagne and chorizo to have while you wait. Well, one hour slowly turned into an hour and a half...and then two...then two and a half. Yes, we waited for two and a half hours to get into a restaurant. Originally we had a group of five, but two people got tired of waiting around the 90-minute mark and went somewhere else, so in the end it was only the real die-hard steak-lovers. Thankfully, I am extremely happy to report that it was more than worth the wait. It truly was unlike any other steak I have ever had. We shared a cut of meat called lomo, with one serving being more than enough for two people. As if amazing to-die-for meat isn't fun enough, they bring a whole bunch of fun side dishes to try! There were probably about 10 different sides they brought, including pumpkin mashed potatoes with raisins which was my favorite. By the time we left the restaurant, it was past 1am. All in all, it was definitely a meal to remember.

Here's a list of other highlights from the week:
-Getting a cell phone with my host-dad Toto
-Discovering the beautiful gigantic park two blocks away from my apartment, perfect for jogging or just hanging out. (That's one thing I like a lot about BA - all the parks throughout the city.)
-Successfully taking the subway (or subte, it's called here) to and from orientation all by myself (Learning to use the bus system is another story...)

¡Bienvenidos a Buenos Aires!

Well, here I am in Buenos Aires! I'm very excited to be sitting in my room in my family's apartment with working internet. Success!

After we arrived at the airport, the IFSA staff greeted us and whisked us away in taxis to our host families. They gave us a packet with an orientation schedule and a slip of paper with our host family's address on it to give to the taxi driver. There's no orientation activities until tomorrow morning, which I think is good so we can just rest and get settled in our houses today. My taxi driver was really nice! We were talking in Spanish and that's when it hit me that I'm in Argentina and will have to be speaking Spanish all the time. I have to say it was difficult understanding him, but when he spoke slowly and in short sentences I could do ok.

When I arrived at the apartment, my host parents, Haydee and Toto, greeted me warmly with hugs and kisses on the cheek. The apartment is very cute. The living room and the balconies are filled with plants and flowers, a hobby of my host mom's. Both of them seem to really want me to feel at home and have shown me around the apartment. It's sometimes hard to understand them but I can usually get the gist of what they're saying. I'm also trying to get used to speaking Spanish again. I find that I stumble a lot over my words when I try to speak, so it comes out not sounding very fluid. I'm hoping this will improve as I get more used to speaking it all the time.

Unfortunately, the weather is one thing that is not so great. It's really really humid (remember, it's summer here) and there have been huge thunderstorms throughout the day. Luckily my flight wasn't affected and my plan for the day anyway is to shower, unpack and rest. Tomorrow, orientation starts. Bye for now!

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go...

It's the night before I leave for Buenos Aires and I can't believe it's finally time for me to go! After a fun, relaxing, looong 2-month winter break, I never thought the day would actually come for me to leave. (Since Argentina is in the Southern Hemisphere, it's their summer vacation now, which means their semester does not start until March). Even though I've gone through stages of being nervous, excited, and terrified to start my semester abroad, now, more than anything I'm just feeling anxious to get going and jump right in.

I'm really excited to start practicing my Spanish, meet the other students on my program and move in with my host family. From exchanging a few emails with them, my family seems very warm and welcoming. I'll do my best to update this blog with exciting adventures of steak, tango and leather goods, (all big deals in Argentina).

After a week of scrambling to run errands, a long day of packing and a wonderful last dinner out with my family, I'm finally ready to go to sleep before the big day.

¡Buenas Noches!