Don't Cry for Me Argentina!

Hello again! Its been a few days since I've updated, but we're doing more orientation sessions now, so I don't have as many interesting things to share, but don't worry there are some!

I guess I'll start off by explaining a bit how courses will work here. Our main area (where we have orientation and where are coordinators have offices) is called FLACSO, or the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales. FLACSO is one branch of a project started by UNESCO several decades ago to promote higher education in South America, Africa, and Asia. Even though several of the schools have closed now, the center in Buenos Aires is a well-respected graduate school for international and Latin American studies. We're the only undergraduate students, and we take our Spanish classes with their professors and are allowed to take one of their seminars as well, which are on a wide variety of subjects. My other two classes will come from Universidad de Buenos Aires, the predominant public university in Argentina (350,000 students!) and the Universidad Catolica de Argentina, a private university that is much smaller. We've just begun the process of enrolling in courses, so I will be sure to let you know which ones I sign up for and which ones I stick with after shopping period. Some classes begin next week, but all of the ones I'll be taking begin in 2 weeks and then we have another 2 weeks to make sure the schedules work and we can understand the professors (only slightly important). Phew, enough about classes.

We started off the week with our oral exams to place us in Spanish levels. Getting to FLASCO was my first time on the colectivo, or the bus. The subte, subway, is very easy and readable on our maps, so I generally like to take it exclusively, but my host mom really wanted me to learn to take the colectivos. The only problem is that I have no idea where anything is in this city, so I had no idea where to get off the colectivo and from there where to walk (the bus stops aren't marked on our guides, only the 10 block square that they stop in). So naturally I was a little late for my exam, which wasn't exactly the best starting off point. There were many other stumbles with my interviewer, but all that doesn't matter. After our exams we explored the parks around our barrio and got caught in a thunderstorm.

Yesterday, after a morning full of orientation sessions we headed out for Cementario de Ricoleta (famous because Evita Peron is buried there). I didn't know much about the cemetery before, so I naively assumed it was just like any other cemetery in the US. Instead, each family has a personally designed tomb that can reach up to 30 feet high with marble statues and fountains. Inside you can see the coffins of each family member. I could wander around the corridors for hours, it was simply incredible. Also, we had no idea before we arrived that we had chosen to go on the anniversary of Evita's death! Her tomb was lined with newspaper photos, signs expressing gratitude, and large flower bouquets. Many porteños were there to pay their respects.

(Unfortunately, I somehow left my memory card in my computer when I left in the morning, so I had to steal some photos from my friend from the cemetery).

That night we went to our first every tango class! The host sister of another girl in the program is a professional tango dancer and also teaches classes for beginners. We learned all the basic steps (note: this does not mean that we can actually do the steps well), and got a lot of practice time with a bar full of porteños watching us butcher their national dance. Oh well, tomorrow night we have another class with our program - in no time we'll be showing off in the tango clubs!

Today was another orientation day, which included the beginning of our visa process. I'm not sure where exactly we were or what we were doing, but I think we established residency. Still haven't gotten quite used to this concept (for example, I haven't figured out if we can get the resident prices at museums).

Also, since its winter vacations my host brother and sister are out traveling, so each night I have dinner with just my host mother. This is actually a lot better for me because Argentines are much easier to understand when they're speaking slowly to you instead of quickly with each other. Last night I was telling her that many houses in the US use cloth napkins instead of paper napkins, and tonight she told me that she went out to buy cloth and sew her own napkins! Tonight we moved to another important cultural discussion - prom. Hollywood has taken over Buenos Aires, and all the programs on tv (other than telenovelas) are the same ones we watch but with subtitles. She had seen programs with proms and wanted to know if it really was as dramatic as they made it out to me. Don't worry, I reassured her that it was. I even taught her the word "prama"!

Tomorrow we start enrolling in courses and have our tango class!

Ciao!