La Hora de Despedida

First of all, I want to apologize for neglecting my blog the past 1.5 months. They were crazy, hectic, and incredibly fun - I finished up my classes (including some adventures with oral finals), spent a week in Uruguay on the beach with 8 friends, toured my parents around the city for a week, and spent 5 days in the national park Torres del Paine in Chile (Patagonia).

I figured that I needed to close out the blog on my last afternoon here in Buenos Aires, not just for you guys, but also as something to look back on when I get back to the states and further on down the road. I am about to head out for the airport, and tomorrow afternoon I will be in baggage claim at SFO (if nothing goes wrong, knock on wood). And even though my flight's only 4 hours away, it hasn't quite sunk in yet that I'll be leaving my house here, my family, my friends, and the entire routine that I've created in this city.

Recently, my friends here have been reflecting a lot on our time here, how we've changed, and what a roller coaster ride its been. And yet every time I try to put the experience into words it just sounds cliché and incomplete, so I'll leave just one last, short note, appropriately in Spanish:


Buenos Aires, me has presentado desafíos enormes estos últimos cinco meses, pero en conquestarlos he aprendido mucho sobre mi mismo y he tenido experiencias lindas, divertidas e inolvidables. La gente y los lugares que conocí acá van a tener un lugar especial en mi corazón por lo largo de mi vida. Buenos Aires, seguro que nos vemos pronto.

22. Buffets. You know that pesky health-code regulation that doesn't let you reuse your plates in buffets - well that doesn't exist in Argentina! This was a pleasant discovery since I'm generally annoyed at having to keep using different plates; however, it also meant that even if you wanted a clean plate for a second helping you couldn't really get one...

23. 8.5 x 11. Now here's one that has continually surprised me - paper is a different size in Argentina. Its taller than our paper, and I have no idea why. It makes it slightly frustrating when you're printing an essay from Word and the margins just don't quite work right when printed on the taller paper.

24. "Your midterm is a public document". One of my professors reminded me of that today - I haven't gotten a good explanation on this, but I've been told that any test or paper written in the public university is considered a public document. This parallels the idea of public grades...

25. How'd you do?! We all know those pesky kids in class who ask you how you did on a paper or a test just to see if they did better. Well here you don't even need to ask! In some classes grades are emailed out to the class, posted on the wall, or the best yet, read out-loud as if it was roll-call (which is what happened in one of my classes). I always took for granted how secretive we are about grades in the states, and how private we generally like to keep that information. Its very normal here for people to ask what you got on an assignment - don't think I'll ever get used to that one.

Springtime in Buenos Aires

Too much time has passed to give a more in depth entry of the past few weeks, but I'll summarize some of the high points.

Last Sunday was Mother's Day in Argentina (during their spring) so 17 family members came over for lunch (read: an entire afternoon spent eating). I think I've met every possible family member, and have all of their names down, so family gatherings are much more enjoyable now. They're all extremely nice and understanding when I'm not always super talkative (like at a lunch table of 18 relatives). We ate delicious paella and choripan and I tried blood sausage for the first time ever (not as horrible as I was expecting, but not my favorite food ever...). I even finally got a picture of my host family (only 2 of the 4 kids live with us in the house).

Its finally springtime here in Buenos Aires!! (sorry for all for all of you suffering through the snow up north). I forgot to write about Dia de la Primavera, but it coincided with Dia del Estudiantes (now there's a good holiday!) so we spent the day picnicking in the park and soaking up one of the first days of sunshine. I had been eagerly awaiting springtime since the best way to see Buenos Aires is just to wander around the streets, which will be so much more pleasant now!

We took advantage of our particularly warm day to travel a little bit up north of the city. Originally we planned on going back up to Tigre for the afternoon (I posted about Tigre before), but we got off a couple of stations early on the train to go to a lunch place my friend had read about. Its famous for its nachos, and it was incredible. Then, our waitress told us about a place called "Peru Beach" so we decided to skip out on Tigre and just stay where we were (a barrio called San Isidro) and walk over to the beach.

The beach was really just a beach bar, a lawn and a deck overlooking the edge of the river. But it was such a nice day out and there were lots of people sunbathing and others kite-surfing and wind-surfing so we decided to stay and enjoy daquiris overlooking the water.

This past Wednesday was also a beautiful, sunny day so my friend and I decided to go to the rose gardens in Palermo, which are in the middle of an entire section of Buenos Aires dedicated to parks and lakes. This might be my favorite area of Buenos Aires just because its so much more relaxing than in the middle of all of the buildings and there's a different type of garden for any interest. The rose garden has been my favorite so far, but there are still a few I haven't ventured to yet.

I've also spent a few more Saturdays outside of the city with Un Techo para mi Pais, and I'd say that now I know the barrio pretty well and even know some families that live there. This past Saturday we spent all day with one family, eating lunch and playing games in their brand-new house. I even taught them all how to play ninja! (They wanted to learn a game from the states and I couldn't think of anything else...). They were the sweetest - its incredible how willing they are to invite you into their homes and to spend the day with their family.

Aside from wandering the city in my free-time, spending time with my host family and friends, and classes, I've unfortunately been studying more recently since we're in the last 3 weeks of the semester, which is always hectic with final papers and projects. Last night I finished up a one-week take-home midterm essay that was 6 pages, single-spaced, 11 point font on the rise of Juan Peron to the presidency. It was the hardest assignment I've had here so far, but overall I think it went well and I'm just glad to have it over with! Just 2 more papers, 1 oral defense, 1 oral midterm, and 1 final left until the end of the semester and I can enjoy the rest of the time here without schoolwork!

This weekend my friend from high school is coming into town (she's studying in Santiago, Chile) and its a good friend's 22nd birthday, so I'm sure I'll have a lot to share next week!

Mendoza - The Napa of Argentina

First of all, sorry about becoming worse and worse about keeping up with the blogging! Its a lazy Sunday (election day, so everything's closed) so I'll be catching up with a string of posts this afternoon.

I'll start off with my weekend trip to Mendoza (the Napa Valley of Argentina, right along the Chilean border at the base of the Andes)!! We had a Monday off for Columbus day at the beginning of October so we decided to take the extra time to do a 4-day trip. Side Note: For the longest time we couldn't figure out what our holiday Monday was for, until someone's professor pointed out to them that Columbus discovered all of the Americas - sometimes you don't realize how US centered you are until you leave...

After another lovely 14 hour overnight bus ride (although with worse movies this time!) we arrived in the city of Mendoza, the capital of the province of Mendoza. Our first full day in the city was overcast and rainy, which my host mom tells me never happens in Mendoza (such seems to be our luck on trips) so we spent it in the Termas (hot springs) nestled a little ways up into the Andes. The series of pools ranged from 65 degrees up to 110 degrees (we spent as much time as possible in the 110 pool). The springs were also complete with 2 waterslides, only one of which was warm enough to go on that day.

We kicked off the second day with paragliding!!! I had never even thought about going paragliding before coming to Argentina, but then I was talking to an Argentine friend who said that paragliding was on his bucket list and I realized it might be kind of fun. Turns out Mendoza is a really popular spot to go paragliding because of the Andes, so we decided to give it a shot! I have to say, it was one of the most incredible experiences - everyone should go!!!

It was a tandem paraglide, so I had an instructor sitting right behind me who did all the steering - I just sat back and relaxed in my comfy chair. Leading up to the flight I was terrified at the prospect of running off of a cliff, but you'd be surprised, it wasn't too bad! Once the instructor pulls your parachute up above you, he tells you to slowly start walking towards the edge of the cliff and then begin to run until before you know it you're just kicking the air.

It was a 30 minute flight circling above the mountains, looking at the snow-caps on the Chilean side and seeing an aerial view of the city of Mendoza on the other side. Since I didn't have any air-sickness (which apparently is very common) we even did some acrobatic figure 8's at the end of the flight! My instructor took a video of our flight too.

Then we spent the afternoon horseback riding at the base of the Andes along a river. Now, I realize that I've already mentioned my fear of horses once in this blog, so it doesn't need to be restated, but I'll just say that I think I might be done with horses forever after this experience...

I agreed to go because a friend of mine really really wanted to do it, and its a very common activity in Mendoza. After the first hour or so I was finally feeling comfortable on a horse again! Trotting through waist high rivers, weaving alongside vineyards, and looking up at the snow-capped mountains - I was glad I had agreed to go. We stopped for a brief photo-op and I was so content that I was finally enjoying horseback riding again!

Our guide put my friend and I's horses next to each other to take a picture of the two of us. I don't really remember what happened, but the next thing I know her horse snapped at mine and they started to fight. My horse bolted forward while hers bucked up, throwing her off the end. Then her horse proceeded to chase mine into a barbed wire fence of the vineyard. I grabbed on to a wooden post to make sure not to fall off either. I couldn't look behind me to see what was going on, but all I could hear was the 10 year old girl in our group screaming and everyone asking if my friend as alright.

After a few minutes of our guide calming down my friend's horse, she got back on it (!!! - later she told me that she really did it because she didn't want the little girl with us to be scared). At this point I was really shaken as well and dying to get off of my horse, but everything went smoothly for another hour or so. Then before a river crossing my friend's horse goes down onto its knees and as soon as she jumped off he began to roll around on his back. At this point the guide switched horses with my friend and I counted down the minutes until we got back to the camp...Fortunately, no one was hurt at all and I managed to stay on my horse for all 3 hours. It turned out that my friend's horse had a parasite in its stomach and thats why it was acting up. I'm not thoroughly convinced that I'm just not meant to ride horses...

The next day was our typical wine country day - a biking tour of the vineyards! We had heard of Mr. Hugo from some Georgetown students who studied abroad in BA last year so we headed out. Mr. Hugo himself greets you at his home with a glass of wine, a map with recommendations of good wineries, and a bike. Trust me, there is no better way to do winery tours than biking (I know some of you had concerns about the safety - but no one was hurt in the process)!

Our first winery was only a few years old - very large and very modern. We had a brief tour and then a personal tasting in a very shwanky underground tasting room. Then we biked on over to the oldest vineyard in the area that is run by an Italian family. There we had a delicious lunch, another tour of the winery, and yet another tasting (and I picked up a bottle of dessert wine to bring home for Christmas). To take a break from the wine, we biked up to an olive oil and liquor tasting where we all picked up a few more gifts. Then we had one last wine tasting and a tour of a wine-making museum before biking back to Mr. Hugos, where we were of course greeted with more wine...

It was a perfectly balanced weekend of relaxation and adventure, with just a "little" bit of wine thrown in. All of the photos are in an album on facebook!

Jujuyyyy

Two weekends ago we traveled up to the northern-most province of Argentina (Jujuy) for a trip with our program. We went with UBA (the public university) so we spent part of the time learning about the history of the indigenous populations living there.

Driving from the capital out to the tiny towns where we stayed was a lot like driving through central California - rolling, golden hills. As we moved farther north the mountains turned to shades of green, red, and brown and made for some gorgeous hikes.

Our second day there we drove a few hours out to the Salinas Grandes - or the giant salt flats. I can't really describe the flats and the pictures dont do them justice, but try imagining as far as you can see in every direction as simply flat and white. Spotted along the flats are also little, bright-blue pools of water used to better remove the salt for sale.

We also spent a lot of time in the various towns at their ferias picking up some Christmas gifts - get excited! The food was also a highlight of the trip with empanadas, tamales (!), and a delicious asado. One night we even ate llama, a delicacy in the province! I can see the disgusted look on all of your faces, but it was surprisingly good!

Our last night there we went to a local bar for a night of music and dancing. 30 gringos filled up the place pretty quickly, but the 10 or so locals who stayed despite our presence taught us some traditional dances which quickly broke down into a massive congo line - great way to finish up the trip!

Its been over a month since I've updated you on some of the cultural norms of Buenos Aires! Its definitely getting harder to pick them out since everything is becoming more normal now, but there are still a couple...

19. Stand to the right, stand to the left. I guess I've gotten used to DC where everyone is on their way to work and hustling up the escalators, or the airport where there are millions of signs noting that the right is for standing and the left for walking. Here, there is no such general norm, you can stand wherever you like, and in fact its really rare to see people walking up the escalators.

20. Coats and sweaters. At first I thought the Argentines were just a little wimpy when it came to the winter months, bundling up like it was 0 degrees out. But no, I think maybe there's a problem with weather.com here? For example, today the high was 75 degrees and sunny - a perfect spring day! The woman next to me on the bus was wearing a turtleneck sweater and her wool peacoat over that. I'm really curious at what temperature the portenos will start to take off their coats.

21. Dog walking - don't try this at home. Sure, in the US anyone can be a dog walker, in Buenos Aires it takes real talent and practice! A typical dog walker will have 10-15 full-size dogs going down the sidewalk. Even 2 and a half months in I'm shocked every time I see a dog walker (which is usually about once a day). Just to give you an idea of what I'm talking about:

Catch-Up

Well I've been absolutely horrible at updating for the past 2 weeks! Now that I'm just in the rhythm of school and life here I keep forgetting to let you guys know whats going on. So I'll give you a quick recap and then I'll write more in depth about some of the more interesting things I've done.

I took my first parcial (midterm) at the public university! In my section of the class I'm the only foreign student, so needless to say I was a little terrified. It was 3 short in-class essays on Argentine history from 1810 until 1930. I was a little shaky on the facts (of course) and didn't write nearly as much as all of the Argentine students, but my professor told me on Monday that I passed! I haven't gotten my actual number grade yet, which you wouldn't think would matter since I'm pass/fail, but it actually affects how many tests I have to take, etc. But I'm getting my grade tomorrow so a whole other round of nervousness will begin!

I also went to my first Madres de la Plaza de Mayo protest - only took me 2 months to finally go. Every Thursday afternoon a group of about fifty members of Madres de la Plaza de Mayo, the human rights organization founded by the mothers of the disappeared youth during the military dictatorship at the end of the 70s, walk around the plaza with signs. Also, all the names of the 30,000 disappeared are read out loud (not each one every single week, but in rotation over a span of a couple of weeks). For anyone that has any interest in history or human rights I really recommend reading a book or even some articles about Argentina in the past few decades - its really fascinating. I'm absolutely in love with Argentine history and its incredible because you can talk to so many people here who lived through it. For example, my host mom had just started university when the military dictatorship started.

I also got to experience 9/11 in a foreign country, which was really interesting. The news stations covered all of the memorial services and I felt like I could have been back in the states the amount of times old footage was played. My host family and Argentine friends would ask questions about what happened and what it means to us, but I was always surprised by the one question they would always ask. Everyone wanted to know what I thought of conspiracy theories. According to my host mom, a lot of the movies shown here about 9/11 and the news stories have to do with conspiracy theories, and it seems to be the general consensus in Argentina that it was a conspiracy. At dinner my host mom even told me that she had read that it wasn't a plane that crashed by the Pentagon but instead a missile because they never found the remains from the plane. It took quite a few tries, but I think I convinced her that what she had heard was in fact wrong.

Thats all I can think of for right now - but I will be writing a blog post about my trip this past weekend to Jujuy, the northernmost province of Argentina (bordering Bolivia) and look out for a blog post next week about my trip this coming weekend to Mendoza (the Napa of Argentina).