The past two days have been my worst two days in Argentina. I am so glad that today is finally coming to an end. Yesterday I was able to sleep in because I did not have class. I had to meet with the group at 12 to have lunch so I was going to head out around 11:45. Unfortunately it was forecasted to rain & I didn't have room in my bags to pack rain boots. Before I left for Argentina I was debating over whether or not I should bring my rainboots. One article said that it doesn't rain often, but when it rains it floods. After asking another student who went on this trip last year, I decided against bringing my rain boots...bad idea.When I left the apartment it started monsooning. I'm talking pouring down rain, hail and really hard winds. Even though I had my umbrella I was completely soaked and when I tried to cross the street the water filled my boots. I called Luciano, but he said that we were required to come so I went back home and put a change of clothes into my backpack and headed back to UP. Of course when I came back outside it had stopped raining.When I finally got there everyone was soaked from head to toe, so I didn't feel so bad. One of the houses that another student lives in was flooded. Marcela warned us that in the future if it rains we should just stay inside and wait until it stops. Like the article, Marcela said that it doesn't rain here often but when it does it floods and they can often be dangerous floods. About a month ago it flooded really bad and a large portion of people that live in the villa miserias were killed (it was similar to Hurricane Katrina).
I finally made it to lunch. Before we ate lunch I started feeling lightheaded but I figured that it was just from not eating a lot this morning. We ate tartas and watched videos about the activities that we will be doing next week. Then it was time for my class. All of a sudden my stomach was aching very badly and I was having a hard time concentrating in class. To make a long story short...remember that restaurant that I ate in yesterday? Well I ended up getting food poisoning. Marcela brought me and another student who ate at the same restaurant to the hospital to get some medicine. The doctor was really nice and it was very easy to understand her Spanish. It was really frustrating though because it is so hard to formulate sentences in another language when you are sick and delirious. Afterward we went to the pharmacy to get some medicine and unfortunately I became the sickest that I had been all day. If you've ever seen the movie Bridesmaids I was living out the scene where they were trying on dresses after they had ate at the Brasilian restaurant. :( When I came home Claudia made me some tea and gave me some napkins "in case I needed to cry." She was so motherly. She even tucked me in to bed.
I spent my day indoors for the majority of the day, recuperating from yesterday. The medicine made me feel so much better and the rest was just what I needed. I'm so thankful for Marcela, Claudia and the other students in the program. Everyone was really helpful in making sure that I was okay. It turns out that 3 out of the 4 students that went to the restaurant ended up with food poisoning. I will NEVER eat there again. I was so bored all day, just laying in my bed so Kassidy and I walked around a little bit when she came home. Tomorrow should be a much better day as I head to Garrahan for my second day at my internship. For now, I'm off to bed.
Besos y Abrazos,
Jackie
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Monday, May 27, 2013
Y empiezan las clases
Hola a Todos:
Apologies for not blogging last night. Today was our first day of class and I wanted to get to bed early. Even though I didn't blog, I still didn't end up going to sleep on time. Smh. But let's back track:
Ayer:
Yesterday was family day. In the past, students in our program never had the opportunity to have a day to really bond with their families so our program director set up this day specifically so that we could eat a big meal as a family and possibly participate in some kind of Argentine activity and bond with our family. A group of us went out again Saturday night. [Random Side Note (SN): While we were out, one of my friends on my trip told me that his mother had found my blog & really loved it! How she found it is beyond me, but I'm so glad so many people are enjoying it. If you're reading, Hey Peter's Mom!! Thanks for reading :) ] We are still trying to get in tune with Argentine time, so we stayed out until 4:30 and did not get to bed until about 5. When we woke up the next morning our host sister Sofi said 4:30 is early to come home. We are making baby steps.
Kassidy and I were worried that if we slept in too late we would mess up Claudia's plans for family day. We set our alarm for 10:45 and dragged ourselves out of bed. Claudia told us to go back to bed. She wouldn't be making lunch until 1 and Argentine teens usually sleep until one on Sunday after they've stayed out all of Saturday night. Needless to say we were relieved. Claudia made us baked chicken with a mix of potatoes, a type of squash native to Argentina that is similar to the sweet potato, and onions. We also had toast. It was delicious!
Claudia decided to take us back to Recoleta to the feria. Kassidy was not feeling well so
she stayed home, but Claudia, Sofi and I hopped onto a bus to head to Recoleta. It was like a giant flee market. They had a lot of clothing, souvenir-like items, and lots of mates all for really good prices. I bought something which will remain anonymous because I know the person who I bought it for is reading. La feria is located in a giant park. There were many families with children spread out on the grass watching a puppet show in one section of the park and a live band was playing music in another section. Think Central Park but smaller. Once again as we walked through the flee market, Claudia pointed out all the things she liked and said, "Ay que linda...que preciosa!" She is so precious! Haha! Sofi said that everything she likes is ugly. lol!
After we walked through the feria, Claudia took me into the church next to the Recoleta Cementary que se llama Nuestra Señora del Pilar Basilica. It was so beautiful on the inside. Claudia explained to me that the inside of the church was made of wood and painted with gold paint. All the work was done by Indigenas. Inside I could hear monks singing and people were praying.
After the church, Sophie had to return home to study. Claudia and I stayed and went to eat medialunas and coffee at a cafe. We walked around an area containing the Recoleta mall before we finally found a cafe. I had a cappuchino con tres medialunas that were filled with chocolate. Claudia had some sort of pastry that had a raspberry filling. She gave me half of it. It was delicious. When we were done we waited about a 1/2 an hour for Claudia's friends to come meet us. We had a good conversation about my family, hair (I had shown Claudia and Sophie pictures of my family and they saw the ever changing styles of my hair lol) and life in general. Claudia's friends finally came and talked with Claudia for about 45 minutes before we all headed back to the apartment. It was harder to follow their conversation because they spoke normal Spanish (not the slow Spanish that is spoken to non-native Spanish speakers ), but I caught the main ideas. One friend, who did not tell me her name,was complaining that her daughter was upset because they had to put her dog down. She couldn't understand why her daughter was so traumatized. lol! The other friend, name Patrizia, told us about a concert that she attended which consisted of local teen musicians. I stopped paying attention because I was just so exhausted from the past couple of days. My schedule is really thrown off.
When we came back I went with Kassidy to find a hair straightener. After walking up and down Santa Fe several times we finally came across an appliance store. It was strange that we were buying a straightener from a store that also store dishwashers and flat screen tvs. The process of buying the straightener was bizarre as well. First a man took her information down and wrote the product number of the flat iron that she wanted. Then we went to another counter to pay for the flat iron. After we paid we received a receipt which we took to another counter. The man behind the counter than took the receipt and went up an elevator to get the straightener When he came back down he opened the box to show us that all the parts and directions were in the box and put the flat iron in a bag. I guess that this process is to prevent the store from being robbed as it opens up to a congested area. This lengthy process would have been nice if we were buying some fancy appliance that had a lot of parts, but it was so unnecessary for just a flat iron. After buying the flat iron we headed to a pizzeria for dinner. The pizza here is delicious as so many Italians live in Buenos Aires. We shared a fugazza pizza which had olive oil, onions, parmesan cheese and oregano. Restaurants in Buenos Aires are weird in that you always pay for water. They serve the water in wine glasses and all the waiters have a very fancy way of pouring it as if they are serving you expensive wine. Also, it is not uncommon to not tip the waiter. Claudia told me that this is because waiters in Buenos Aires are not paid such a small wage like waiters in the US do. On the way home we stopped to buy bottled water, since we don't drink a lot of it at home. Then it was time for bed as I had to wake up at 5:45 for my internship
Hoy
This morning started off a tad bit rocky. Last night I set two alarms: one for 5:45 and one for 6. We had to meet Luciano at 6:55 at the bus stop. Neither of my alarms went off this morning. Thank God I didn't sleep through the night and I kept waking up to check my phone. I was apprehensive about having to walk the streets of Buenos Aires alone when it was still dark outside. I woke up at 6:30, had a small heart attack and ran through the apartment to get ready. Luckily I had all of my stuff laid out and I was out of the house by 6:45. I even got to the bus stop early. Megan, Luciano and I rode the bus together. It wasn't as long as they had originally made it out to be, maybe a 15 minute ride in total & Luciano was being silly the entire time which made it enjoyable...even at 7 am.
When we arrived at Garrahan Hospital, we met up with Marcela, Enrique and two other students. We had a hard time finding Dr. Bes' office, but in our journey to find his office we received an unofficial tour of the hospital. As we walked along a corridor we could look down into a large waiting room. There were about 400 people waiting...mothers and fathers (many of them indigenous) holding their children. Garrahan is a pediatric hospital. It is public and provides free healthcare. Claudia says that it is one of the best in the country. It offers state of the art technology and caters to children with grave illnesses. The inside of the hospital was very different from modern hospitals. This hospital lacked the sterile feel that is characteristic of most hospitals in the United States.
Dr. Bes was an older gentleman with a broken arm. He chewed Luciano out for bringing us "late" even though we were there early and he had not given proper directions for coming to his office (Argentines seem to adhere to the stereotype that Latinos are disorganized and late smh.). However, he was nice to us students and was easy to understand. After meeting with Dr. Bes we attended a CPR class that was taught by nurses. There were what appeared to be medical students (The University of Buenos Aires has a medical school located in the hospital) who were also taking the class. The CPR class was annoying to me as all the nurses felt the need to "help" us obviously American students and kept asking us if "entiendes español" (do you understand Spanish?) For what reason would we be in a Spanish speaking hospital in a Spanish internship in a Spanish CPR class if we didn't understand Spanish? *rolls eyes* I guess I was just cranky because it was 8 am.
After the CPR class we were done with our internship for the day. We headed back to find the bus stop. At first we thought we were a little lost and we had to run to catch the bus, but in the end we ended up on the right bus and got to see a part of the city that we had never seen before. (SN: Gas a gas station near my internship was 8.71 pesos per gallon, a little over $1 a gallon)
When we came back to Palermo (my barrio) we grabbed lunch at a local cafe. I had a Cesar salad (Which was nasty because unlike the fake Cesar salads in America, it was a classic Cesar salad with anchovies in the dressing) and an empanada. This random lady and her daughter who were walking outside the restaurant came inside to ask how if we were American and how we liked studying here. The mother was Argentine and the daughter was American. They live in Virginia. How they were able to simply look in the restaurant without hearing us speaking in English and know that we were American was beyond me!
Finally we came to UP for class. I was not looking forward to my class because it' s a lit class and I absolutely hate lit...especially in a language that is not my native language. But my teacher is excellent and did a really good job of explaining the words and concepts that we did not understand. When class was over I came back to my apartment and passed out! I was so exhausted from running on 5 hours of sleep or less. Now we're waiting on dinner.
Make sure to check back through some of my old posts. I am going to post pictures, relevant to my old posts.
Apologies for not blogging last night. Today was our first day of class and I wanted to get to bed early. Even though I didn't blog, I still didn't end up going to sleep on time. Smh. But let's back track:
Ayer:
Yesterday was family day. In the past, students in our program never had the opportunity to have a day to really bond with their families so our program director set up this day specifically so that we could eat a big meal as a family and possibly participate in some kind of Argentine activity and bond with our family. A group of us went out again Saturday night. [Random Side Note (SN): While we were out, one of my friends on my trip told me that his mother had found my blog & really loved it! How she found it is beyond me, but I'm so glad so many people are enjoying it. If you're reading, Hey Peter's Mom!! Thanks for reading :) ] We are still trying to get in tune with Argentine time, so we stayed out until 4:30 and did not get to bed until about 5. When we woke up the next morning our host sister Sofi said 4:30 is early to come home. We are making baby steps.
 |
| Sofi y yo |
Claudia decided to take us back to Recoleta to the feria. Kassidy was not feeling well so
After we walked through the feria, Claudia took me into the church next to the Recoleta Cementary que se llama Nuestra Señora del Pilar Basilica. It was so beautiful on the inside. Claudia explained to me that the inside of the church was made of wood and painted with gold paint. All the work was done by Indigenas. Inside I could hear monks singing and people were praying.  |
| Nuestra Senora del Pilar Basilica (Bare with me I don't know how to rotate pictures yet) |
When we came back I went with Kassidy to find a hair straightener. After walking up and down Santa Fe several times we finally came across an appliance store. It was strange that we were buying a straightener from a store that also store dishwashers and flat screen tvs. The process of buying the straightener was bizarre as well. First a man took her information down and wrote the product number of the flat iron that she wanted. Then we went to another counter to pay for the flat iron. After we paid we received a receipt which we took to another counter. The man behind the counter than took the receipt and went up an elevator to get the straightener When he came back down he opened the box to show us that all the parts and directions were in the box and put the flat iron in a bag. I guess that this process is to prevent the store from being robbed as it opens up to a congested area. This lengthy process would have been nice if we were buying some fancy appliance that had a lot of parts, but it was so unnecessary for just a flat iron. After buying the flat iron we headed to a pizzeria for dinner. The pizza here is delicious as so many Italians live in Buenos Aires. We shared a fugazza pizza which had olive oil, onions, parmesan cheese and oregano. Restaurants in Buenos Aires are weird in that you always pay for water. They serve the water in wine glasses and all the waiters have a very fancy way of pouring it as if they are serving you expensive wine. Also, it is not uncommon to not tip the waiter. Claudia told me that this is because waiters in Buenos Aires are not paid such a small wage like waiters in the US do. On the way home we stopped to buy bottled water, since we don't drink a lot of it at home. Then it was time for bed as I had to wake up at 5:45 for my internship
Hoy
This morning started off a tad bit rocky. Last night I set two alarms: one for 5:45 and one for 6. We had to meet Luciano at 6:55 at the bus stop. Neither of my alarms went off this morning. Thank God I didn't sleep through the night and I kept waking up to check my phone. I was apprehensive about having to walk the streets of Buenos Aires alone when it was still dark outside. I woke up at 6:30, had a small heart attack and ran through the apartment to get ready. Luckily I had all of my stuff laid out and I was out of the house by 6:45. I even got to the bus stop early. Megan, Luciano and I rode the bus together. It wasn't as long as they had originally made it out to be, maybe a 15 minute ride in total & Luciano was being silly the entire time which made it enjoyable...even at 7 am.
When we arrived at Garrahan Hospital, we met up with Marcela, Enrique and two other students. We had a hard time finding Dr. Bes' office, but in our journey to find his office we received an unofficial tour of the hospital. As we walked along a corridor we could look down into a large waiting room. There were about 400 people waiting...mothers and fathers (many of them indigenous) holding their children. Garrahan is a pediatric hospital. It is public and provides free healthcare. Claudia says that it is one of the best in the country. It offers state of the art technology and caters to children with grave illnesses. The inside of the hospital was very different from modern hospitals. This hospital lacked the sterile feel that is characteristic of most hospitals in the United States.
Dr. Bes was an older gentleman with a broken arm. He chewed Luciano out for bringing us "late" even though we were there early and he had not given proper directions for coming to his office (Argentines seem to adhere to the stereotype that Latinos are disorganized and late smh.). However, he was nice to us students and was easy to understand. After meeting with Dr. Bes we attended a CPR class that was taught by nurses. There were what appeared to be medical students (The University of Buenos Aires has a medical school located in the hospital) who were also taking the class. The CPR class was annoying to me as all the nurses felt the need to "help" us obviously American students and kept asking us if "entiendes español" (do you understand Spanish?) For what reason would we be in a Spanish speaking hospital in a Spanish internship in a Spanish CPR class if we didn't understand Spanish? *rolls eyes* I guess I was just cranky because it was 8 am.
After the CPR class we were done with our internship for the day. We headed back to find the bus stop. At first we thought we were a little lost and we had to run to catch the bus, but in the end we ended up on the right bus and got to see a part of the city that we had never seen before. (SN: Gas a gas station near my internship was 8.71 pesos per gallon, a little over $1 a gallon)
When we came back to Palermo (my barrio) we grabbed lunch at a local cafe. I had a Cesar salad (Which was nasty because unlike the fake Cesar salads in America, it was a classic Cesar salad with anchovies in the dressing) and an empanada. This random lady and her daughter who were walking outside the restaurant came inside to ask how if we were American and how we liked studying here. The mother was Argentine and the daughter was American. They live in Virginia. How they were able to simply look in the restaurant without hearing us speaking in English and know that we were American was beyond me!
Finally we came to UP for class. I was not looking forward to my class because it' s a lit class and I absolutely hate lit...especially in a language that is not my native language. But my teacher is excellent and did a really good job of explaining the words and concepts that we did not understand. When class was over I came back to my apartment and passed out! I was so exhausted from running on 5 hours of sleep or less. Now we're waiting on dinner.
Make sure to check back through some of my old posts. I am going to post pictures, relevant to my old posts.
Saturday, May 25, 2013
When I Die Bury Me Inside the Recoleta Cemetery
Che Amigos y Familia!
Today was such a busy day...so much jam packed into one day. But before I can tell you about today's events, I have to start with last night. So let's rewind:
Ayer
In Buenos Aires, it is safe to take radiotaxis at night. Radiotaxis are just like normal taxis except for you have a number that you call to reserve the taxi in advance. Kassidy and I took the radio taxi for a 15 minute ride to Plaza Serrano. Plaza Serrano kind of reminds me of the boardwalk in Myrtle Beach minus the water. There are a bunch of bars and restaurants all located next to each other with plenty of places to sit outside when the weather is more favorable. When we arrived we met the rest of our group at a restaurant/bar which I cannot remember the name of. Throughout the night we walked back and forth to several bars. It was really hard to decide where to go because our group is somewhat segregated by sex and each sex had different motives. All the girls just wanted to dance and all the boys wanted to buy beer. Whenever we would go to a bar, the boys would be like "we'll be right back we're going to check the drink specials." & if they weren't what the guys wanted to pay, then we would leave. LOL! We went into several bars before everyone decided that it was time to find a club. We tried to go to a club called Kika, but when the bouncers heard our American accents they tried to rip us off and charge us 80 pesos (about $10) to enter (it is usually 30 pesos). $10 was not bad for a cover. I'm used to paying that (or more) to get into parties/clubs in America and could care less about buying alcohol. But most of the students on the trip were only used to bars in downtown Athens that are free to enter & they did not want to pay the cover. Oh well! Tonight a smaller group of us will try to go to Kika again...hopefully for a cheaper cover fee. We ended up going into a smaller club for about 10 minutes.
I was really surprised that all of the clubs in Argentina play Reggaeton (Puerto Rican rap). It's super popular down here & I was not expecting that. The clubs played a lot of the songs that I have on my iPod. None of the girls in my group knew how to dance to the reggaeton beat. Haha! They also played a lot of American music...top 40 and 80's music is really popular here as well.
I definitely jinxed myself when I said that I had not had a problem with catcalls in my last post. Today they came in full force. Here men are not afraid to express that they are attracted to you. They'll whistle, make kissing noises at you like you're a dog, and purse their lips at you. I even heard the infamous expression "Hola morocha" (morocha=morena) numerous times. One man started singing the song "La negrita que me vuelve loca con su voz (the black girl that drives me crazy with her voice)" every time I walked by. Needless to say that was very awkward...especially considering that we walked past him three times and he sang it EVERY time.
Last night was very interesting to say the least. We returned home at 2, which is very early in Argentina. Most clubs in Argentina don't begin to fill up until 2 or 3 and people return home at 6. I guess that is something us shankis (Argentine slang for American. This is not an insult) will have to get used to.
Hoy
We did sooo much today. Today we had our city tour (pronounced "see-tee-too-or in Argentina). It began with lunch at a restaurant called La Payuca. It was delicious and there was SO MUCH food. Our meal began with three different types of salads served with bottled water that was poured into wine glasses. Our next course was an appetizer, I had an empanada. Next, was our main course. I had matambrito de cerdo, a pork dish consisting of a cut of meat from the pig's stomach. It tasted very similar to a grilled pork chop. (I am noticing that Argentines do not cut the fat off their meat & much of their meat tends to be fatty.) It was delicious. Next we had dessert. I had a chocolate mousse. By the end of our meal, I had the itis (black people talk for when you get tired after you eat lol) and my body was yelling at me for running on 5 hours of sleep. But we had to keep on pushing. It was time for our see-tee-too-or.
Our city tour began in el sur de Buenos Aires. As we drove through Once, a commercial area that contained a mall and many shops, I noticed that the European presence is not as strong. There were many indigenas (Spanish for natives) as well as other minority groups. I saw many African vendors selling things along the streets and also many Asian vendors as well.
We then began to enter the distrito federal. This is where the capitol building is located. In Argentina they have a female president and she lives in la casa rosada ("the pink house"). How's that for girl power? *flips hair* As I mentioned in my last post, el 25 de mayo represents a celebration of Argentine Independence. As we approached La Plaza de Mayo, there were many people in the streets waving flags. We got off the bus and walked around for a little while. There were soooo many people. Bus filled with people from other parts of Argentina came to celebrate and participate in the festivities. Vendors lined the streets selling hamburguesas and chimi pan ( hot dogs). Men with miniature ponies and llamas were selling rides for los nenes (children). In the center of La Plaza de Mayo, men and women spoke into microphones. They were practically screaming and if you did not understand Spanish you would have thought that they were protesting rather than celebrating. The people here are so passionate for their country and have a very strong sense of patriotism. Claudia explained to me that this is because Argentina has been ruled under dictatorships several times and during those periods celebrations such as this would have never been allowed. Thus, the people here are so appreciative of the fact that they have a democratic government.Very different from Americans who take advantage of the fact that we are a democratic country with so many rights. Rather than celebrating the true meaning of the 4th of July we inebriate ourselves and eat until we can't move.
After we walked around La Plaza de Mayo, we headed to the barrio of San Telmo. Here is where La Univesidad de Buenos Aires, the school that Sophie goes to, is located. Next, we headed to La Boca, where one of Buenos Aires' popular soccer teams La Boca Players is located. La Boca is also known for its colorful buildings. As I have mentioned before there is a large Italian presence here in Buenos Aires. There were many Italian immigrants who came to La Boca. Because the immigrants were poor and could not afford professional painters, they would paint their houses in whatever color paint they could find. This resulted in a very colorful neighborhood. Today La Boca is very poor and dangerous, but there is an area of about 5 blocks that is world renowned and safe for tourists. We got off the bus once again and walked around. There were artisans selling paintings and tango dancers posing for pictures for a small friends. My friends and I all bought oil paintings for our rooms for $170 (about $20 US dollars).
After La Boca, we hopped on the bus once again headed back towards the city proper. We had to pass through La Villa Miserias (the slums) on the way. It was a very sad sight to see. Everything looked very poor. There were houses made of aluminum and stray dogs running everywhere. Many of the people who lived here were indigenas. What surprised me the most was that there were often cars parked outside of the slums and the clothing of the people that lived in the villas wore were not rags. Such a shame to see the original inhabitants of an area living in the worst conditions.
After La Boca we drove through Puerto Madero, the upscale and modern part of Buenos Aires facing the river. It reminded me of Wall Street in New York. Puerto Madero is very expensive because like Wall Street it is the business section of Buenos Aires. After Puerto Madero we reached Recoleta. Recoleta is even more similar to New York. It had many hilly, picturesque parks that look very similar to Central Park. There are also many great shops, collectively known as SOHO (just like NY). Finally we arrived at Recoleta Cemetary, a cemetary filled with mausoleums where aristocrats and members of high society rest. Recoleta Cemetary is probably the most beautiful thing that I have seen in Buenos Aires thus far. My pictures could not even capture half of the beauty of the cemetary. The mausoleums were humongous and the insides looked like decorated foyers. One of the most famous mausoleums in Recoleta is that of Evita Perron, the adored wife of Argentine president Juan Perron. We learned about the controversy behind her death and burial. Many of her enemies did not want her to be buried in Recoleta and she was buried in two other places before she was finally laid to rest in Recoleta. I had been looking forward to Recoleta all day. I charged my camera the night before. However, because Recoleta was the last stop on our tour and I had been taking pictures all day, of course my camera died as soon as we got to Evita's grave. This ALWAYS happens to me...ALWAYS. Luckily Kassidy snapped one of me.
By the time the tour was over I was exhausted and cranky. In Argentina, you don't eat dinner until 9 and around 5, you have a small snack and coffee or tea. Kassidy, Aki and I stopped at a cafeteria to have cappucinos and muffins. I'm really having a hard time getting used to this, especially considering the fact that Argentines do not drink as much water throughout the day. If I had drank water throughout the day, I would have felt more full by 5. I'll have to stop by the grocery store tomorrow to buy a water bottle. When we got back to the apartment I was ready to pass out. I was sad that we did not get to spend a lot of time at Recoleta. But to my surprise, tomorrow is family day with our host family & Claudia told us that we will be spending the day at la feria in Recoleta :D
Kassidy and I are going out once again tonight. Hopefully we will get into Kika...sin problemas. I have pictures so if you're friends with me on facebook, be on the lookout for them! I will also go back and add them to this post!
Ciao Ciao,
Jackie
Today was such a busy day...so much jam packed into one day. But before I can tell you about today's events, I have to start with last night. So let's rewind:
Ayer
In Buenos Aires, it is safe to take radiotaxis at night. Radiotaxis are just like normal taxis except for you have a number that you call to reserve the taxi in advance. Kassidy and I took the radio taxi for a 15 minute ride to Plaza Serrano. Plaza Serrano kind of reminds me of the boardwalk in Myrtle Beach minus the water. There are a bunch of bars and restaurants all located next to each other with plenty of places to sit outside when the weather is more favorable. When we arrived we met the rest of our group at a restaurant/bar which I cannot remember the name of. Throughout the night we walked back and forth to several bars. It was really hard to decide where to go because our group is somewhat segregated by sex and each sex had different motives. All the girls just wanted to dance and all the boys wanted to buy beer. Whenever we would go to a bar, the boys would be like "we'll be right back we're going to check the drink specials." & if they weren't what the guys wanted to pay, then we would leave. LOL! We went into several bars before everyone decided that it was time to find a club. We tried to go to a club called Kika, but when the bouncers heard our American accents they tried to rip us off and charge us 80 pesos (about $10) to enter (it is usually 30 pesos). $10 was not bad for a cover. I'm used to paying that (or more) to get into parties/clubs in America and could care less about buying alcohol. But most of the students on the trip were only used to bars in downtown Athens that are free to enter & they did not want to pay the cover. Oh well! Tonight a smaller group of us will try to go to Kika again...hopefully for a cheaper cover fee. We ended up going into a smaller club for about 10 minutes.
I was really surprised that all of the clubs in Argentina play Reggaeton (Puerto Rican rap). It's super popular down here & I was not expecting that. The clubs played a lot of the songs that I have on my iPod. None of the girls in my group knew how to dance to the reggaeton beat. Haha! They also played a lot of American music...top 40 and 80's music is really popular here as well.
I definitely jinxed myself when I said that I had not had a problem with catcalls in my last post. Today they came in full force. Here men are not afraid to express that they are attracted to you. They'll whistle, make kissing noises at you like you're a dog, and purse their lips at you. I even heard the infamous expression "Hola morocha" (morocha=morena) numerous times. One man started singing the song "La negrita que me vuelve loca con su voz (the black girl that drives me crazy with her voice)" every time I walked by. Needless to say that was very awkward...especially considering that we walked past him three times and he sang it EVERY time.
Last night was very interesting to say the least. We returned home at 2, which is very early in Argentina. Most clubs in Argentina don't begin to fill up until 2 or 3 and people return home at 6. I guess that is something us shankis (Argentine slang for American. This is not an insult) will have to get used to.
Hoy
We did sooo much today. Today we had our city tour (pronounced "see-tee-too-or in Argentina). It began with lunch at a restaurant called La Payuca. It was delicious and there was SO MUCH food. Our meal began with three different types of salads served with bottled water that was poured into wine glasses. Our next course was an appetizer, I had an empanada. Next, was our main course. I had matambrito de cerdo, a pork dish consisting of a cut of meat from the pig's stomach. It tasted very similar to a grilled pork chop. (I am noticing that Argentines do not cut the fat off their meat & much of their meat tends to be fatty.) It was delicious. Next we had dessert. I had a chocolate mousse. By the end of our meal, I had the itis (black people talk for when you get tired after you eat lol) and my body was yelling at me for running on 5 hours of sleep. But we had to keep on pushing. It was time for our see-tee-too-or.
Our city tour began in el sur de Buenos Aires. As we drove through Once, a commercial area that contained a mall and many shops, I noticed that the European presence is not as strong. There were many indigenas (Spanish for natives) as well as other minority groups. I saw many African vendors selling things along the streets and also many Asian vendors as well.
We then began to enter the distrito federal. This is where the capitol building is located. In Argentina they have a female president and she lives in la casa rosada ("the pink house"). How's that for girl power? *flips hair* As I mentioned in my last post, el 25 de mayo represents a celebration of Argentine Independence. As we approached La Plaza de Mayo, there were many people in the streets waving flags. We got off the bus and walked around for a little while. There were soooo many people. Bus filled with people from other parts of Argentina came to celebrate and participate in the festivities. Vendors lined the streets selling hamburguesas and chimi pan ( hot dogs). Men with miniature ponies and llamas were selling rides for los nenes (children). In the center of La Plaza de Mayo, men and women spoke into microphones. They were practically screaming and if you did not understand Spanish you would have thought that they were protesting rather than celebrating. The people here are so passionate for their country and have a very strong sense of patriotism. Claudia explained to me that this is because Argentina has been ruled under dictatorships several times and during those periods celebrations such as this would have never been allowed. Thus, the people here are so appreciative of the fact that they have a democratic government.Very different from Americans who take advantage of the fact that we are a democratic country with so many rights. Rather than celebrating the true meaning of the 4th of July we inebriate ourselves and eat until we can't move.
After we walked around La Plaza de Mayo, we headed to the barrio of San Telmo. Here is where La Univesidad de Buenos Aires, the school that Sophie goes to, is located. Next, we headed to La Boca, where one of Buenos Aires' popular soccer teams La Boca Players is located. La Boca is also known for its colorful buildings. As I have mentioned before there is a large Italian presence here in Buenos Aires. There were many Italian immigrants who came to La Boca. Because the immigrants were poor and could not afford professional painters, they would paint their houses in whatever color paint they could find. This resulted in a very colorful neighborhood. Today La Boca is very poor and dangerous, but there is an area of about 5 blocks that is world renowned and safe for tourists. We got off the bus once again and walked around. There were artisans selling paintings and tango dancers posing for pictures for a small friends. My friends and I all bought oil paintings for our rooms for $170 (about $20 US dollars).
After La Boca, we hopped on the bus once again headed back towards the city proper. We had to pass through La Villa Miserias (the slums) on the way. It was a very sad sight to see. Everything looked very poor. There were houses made of aluminum and stray dogs running everywhere. Many of the people who lived here were indigenas. What surprised me the most was that there were often cars parked outside of the slums and the clothing of the people that lived in the villas wore were not rags. Such a shame to see the original inhabitants of an area living in the worst conditions.
After La Boca we drove through Puerto Madero, the upscale and modern part of Buenos Aires facing the river. It reminded me of Wall Street in New York. Puerto Madero is very expensive because like Wall Street it is the business section of Buenos Aires. After Puerto Madero we reached Recoleta. Recoleta is even more similar to New York. It had many hilly, picturesque parks that look very similar to Central Park. There are also many great shops, collectively known as SOHO (just like NY). Finally we arrived at Recoleta Cemetary, a cemetary filled with mausoleums where aristocrats and members of high society rest. Recoleta Cemetary is probably the most beautiful thing that I have seen in Buenos Aires thus far. My pictures could not even capture half of the beauty of the cemetary. The mausoleums were humongous and the insides looked like decorated foyers. One of the most famous mausoleums in Recoleta is that of Evita Perron, the adored wife of Argentine president Juan Perron. We learned about the controversy behind her death and burial. Many of her enemies did not want her to be buried in Recoleta and she was buried in two other places before she was finally laid to rest in Recoleta. I had been looking forward to Recoleta all day. I charged my camera the night before. However, because Recoleta was the last stop on our tour and I had been taking pictures all day, of course my camera died as soon as we got to Evita's grave. This ALWAYS happens to me...ALWAYS. Luckily Kassidy snapped one of me.
By the time the tour was over I was exhausted and cranky. In Argentina, you don't eat dinner until 9 and around 5, you have a small snack and coffee or tea. Kassidy, Aki and I stopped at a cafeteria to have cappucinos and muffins. I'm really having a hard time getting used to this, especially considering the fact that Argentines do not drink as much water throughout the day. If I had drank water throughout the day, I would have felt more full by 5. I'll have to stop by the grocery store tomorrow to buy a water bottle. When we got back to the apartment I was ready to pass out. I was sad that we did not get to spend a lot of time at Recoleta. But to my surprise, tomorrow is family day with our host family & Claudia told us that we will be spending the day at la feria in Recoleta :D
Kassidy and I are going out once again tonight. Hopefully we will get into Kika...sin problemas. I have pictures so if you're friends with me on facebook, be on the lookout for them! I will also go back and add them to this post!
Ciao Ciao,
Jackie
Friday, May 24, 2013
Che Boluda
Hello Family & Friends,
Today was less of an exciting day than yesterday. This morning the group met at Alto Palermo in order to go to a clinic where they would receive yellow fever vaccinations (we will be visiting Iguazu Falls in the future). I however, did not have to go because I received my vaccination in the US. I slept in today. I woke up and ate breakfast with Claudia. We had a great conversation about the different Latinos ethnicities in the United States. I told her how you were likely to encounter Mexicans in the South, DRs & PRs in the North and Cubans in Miami. She wanted to know what were the motives behind each ethnic group's location in the United States. We also talked about different dialects. It was funny listening to Claudia trying to pronounce words like Spaniards. Even though she is a native Spanish speaker it was really hard for her to pronounce words that begin with s as "th", which is common in the Spanish dialect. Claudia once again praised my Spanish and told me that she has had students in the past that couldn't understand anything that she said. I don't think she's lying anymore.
After that I walked to Alto Palermo mall to meet the rest of my group. Although I only had to walk a couple of blocks to meet my friends, I was a little apprehensive because it was my first time walking alone in Buenos Aires. As I was leaving the apartment all of the neighbors spoke to me. Everyone seems really friendly here. Walking down the street was kind of crazy. Here it is not uncommon to see dogwalkers walking 5-7 dogs at a time. Dogs randomly start barking when you walk past too. Haha! I walked past a light post that literally had twelve dogs of all different sizes tied to it. As I approached the dogs, a lady with a dog was also walking on the opposite side. All of the dogs began barking. I'm barely ever afraid of dogs, but that was startling!
Kassidy, Aki and I ate lunch in the Alto Palermo mall. As we were heading to the food court, a group of college aged guys in gray suits overheard us talking. Their teacher told us they were from USC (I'm not sure which one) and they were in Argentina on a business trip. We enthusiastically told them we were from UGA and received no response from any of the students. LOL! We ate at a restaurant that had all sorts of chicken. I was nervous at first because this was my first time interacting with someone outside of the program. The cashier was really friendly and told me she liked my hair (everyone is mesmerized by my foreign hairstyle here). The other cashier asked me where I was from and told me that my Spanish was great. I guess my Spanish is much better than I expected. We still had an hour before our orientation so we walked around the mall once again. El 23 y 24 de Mayo are Argentina's Independence Days. Tonight we are going out to a club to celebrate and we had no idea what to wear. We asked a worker in one of the stores to show us how ladies dress when we go out. She was really helpful and showed us different styles. Once again, everything here is so European. The clothing, the people...everything. Here casual shoes with platforms are really popular. I would probably fall and bust my behind if I wore them. Every store we go into has them.
After the mall we came to the University of Palermo (UP) for orientation. We learned a little about the history of Argentina and the classes that we would be taking. One interesting thing that we learned and that I've noticed is that cursing in Argentina is not as much of a taboo in the United States. Che Boluda, the title of this post, means "hey bitch." It's used very commonly here. I've also heard my host mother say "puta madre" several times when speaking on the phone. I would NEVER say that, but I guess it is not as offensive here. I'm still having a hard time getting used to the Argentine dialect. Argentines use vos instead of tu to refer to you. Whenever my host mother refers to me as vos, I look around as if someone named vos is standing in the room before I remember that vos means tu here. I'm rambiling...back to orientation. Next, we took a tour of UP. UP is very similar to Georgia State. There are many buildings along one road. Most of the classes are located in the same building so hopefully I won't get lost.
I'll spare you from reading more about orientation. It was long and boring. Afterwards I came back to the apartment alone. Several times I thought that I had passed the apartment, but I hadn't gone far enough. When I finally reached the main entrance to the apartment two men were standing outside of the door. This worried me because my host mother had warned us not to let anyone in and to make sure the door locked behind after we came in. To make things worse I was struggling with the key to get into the building. One of the men approached me and tried to help me. When I gave him a death glare, he pulled out his key to show me that he also lived there. I think he may have been a landlord because he had a large key ring with several rings. He turned out to be an angel in disguise because I would have been standing out there like a fool had he not helped me. I had even more trouble getting into my apartment. It turned out that I just had to push the key a little harder and I finally made it in.
When Kassidy came home we went walking around Palermo. We walked in and out of several drug stores hoping to find something to store our laundry in...no luck. We'll have to ask Claudia for where to find laundry bags. At one store an Asian woman helped Kassidy with her purchases. Her accent was very thick and made it very hard to understand her Spanish. After we left, we walked down some of the other streets. Argentines are just like Southerners (if not worse) when it comes to staring. Everyone stares, especially at me because I am Black and we are a rarity here. It honestly just makes me crack up. I wanna be like "hey girl hey!" or strike a pose. The men are the worse. They just stare at us in awe like we're two goddesses. LOL! I've been warned about both the stares and catcalls. So far there have been no cat calls but I'm preparing for the worse.
When we came home, Claudia had bought us the famous empanadas that everyone raves about. These were not too foreign to me as Puerto Ricans eat empanadas (we call them pastelillos) & I LOVE Jamaican beef patties. They were delicious!!! I will be eating lots and lots of these.
We are now heading out! Sophie came home with a friend and told us that they were heading to the same place. I am becoming increasingly annoyed at the fact that I still haven't been able to take any pictures. Tomorrow we take a city tour of Argentina, so I'm assuming that I'll be able to take pictures then (as we'll be in a more touristy part of town). For now I'm off. This will be an interesting experience!
Besos y abrazos,
Jackie
Today was less of an exciting day than yesterday. This morning the group met at Alto Palermo in order to go to a clinic where they would receive yellow fever vaccinations (we will be visiting Iguazu Falls in the future). I however, did not have to go because I received my vaccination in the US. I slept in today. I woke up and ate breakfast with Claudia. We had a great conversation about the different Latinos ethnicities in the United States. I told her how you were likely to encounter Mexicans in the South, DRs & PRs in the North and Cubans in Miami. She wanted to know what were the motives behind each ethnic group's location in the United States. We also talked about different dialects. It was funny listening to Claudia trying to pronounce words like Spaniards. Even though she is a native Spanish speaker it was really hard for her to pronounce words that begin with s as "th", which is common in the Spanish dialect. Claudia once again praised my Spanish and told me that she has had students in the past that couldn't understand anything that she said. I don't think she's lying anymore.
After that I walked to Alto Palermo mall to meet the rest of my group. Although I only had to walk a couple of blocks to meet my friends, I was a little apprehensive because it was my first time walking alone in Buenos Aires. As I was leaving the apartment all of the neighbors spoke to me. Everyone seems really friendly here. Walking down the street was kind of crazy. Here it is not uncommon to see dogwalkers walking 5-7 dogs at a time. Dogs randomly start barking when you walk past too. Haha! I walked past a light post that literally had twelve dogs of all different sizes tied to it. As I approached the dogs, a lady with a dog was also walking on the opposite side. All of the dogs began barking. I'm barely ever afraid of dogs, but that was startling!
Kassidy, Aki and I ate lunch in the Alto Palermo mall. As we were heading to the food court, a group of college aged guys in gray suits overheard us talking. Their teacher told us they were from USC (I'm not sure which one) and they were in Argentina on a business trip. We enthusiastically told them we were from UGA and received no response from any of the students. LOL! We ate at a restaurant that had all sorts of chicken. I was nervous at first because this was my first time interacting with someone outside of the program. The cashier was really friendly and told me she liked my hair (everyone is mesmerized by my foreign hairstyle here). The other cashier asked me where I was from and told me that my Spanish was great. I guess my Spanish is much better than I expected. We still had an hour before our orientation so we walked around the mall once again. El 23 y 24 de Mayo are Argentina's Independence Days. Tonight we are going out to a club to celebrate and we had no idea what to wear. We asked a worker in one of the stores to show us how ladies dress when we go out. She was really helpful and showed us different styles. Once again, everything here is so European. The clothing, the people...everything. Here casual shoes with platforms are really popular. I would probably fall and bust my behind if I wore them. Every store we go into has them.
After the mall we came to the University of Palermo (UP) for orientation. We learned a little about the history of Argentina and the classes that we would be taking. One interesting thing that we learned and that I've noticed is that cursing in Argentina is not as much of a taboo in the United States. Che Boluda, the title of this post, means "hey bitch." It's used very commonly here. I've also heard my host mother say "puta madre" several times when speaking on the phone. I would NEVER say that, but I guess it is not as offensive here. I'm still having a hard time getting used to the Argentine dialect. Argentines use vos instead of tu to refer to you. Whenever my host mother refers to me as vos, I look around as if someone named vos is standing in the room before I remember that vos means tu here. I'm rambiling...back to orientation. Next, we took a tour of UP. UP is very similar to Georgia State. There are many buildings along one road. Most of the classes are located in the same building so hopefully I won't get lost.
I'll spare you from reading more about orientation. It was long and boring. Afterwards I came back to the apartment alone. Several times I thought that I had passed the apartment, but I hadn't gone far enough. When I finally reached the main entrance to the apartment two men were standing outside of the door. This worried me because my host mother had warned us not to let anyone in and to make sure the door locked behind after we came in. To make things worse I was struggling with the key to get into the building. One of the men approached me and tried to help me. When I gave him a death glare, he pulled out his key to show me that he also lived there. I think he may have been a landlord because he had a large key ring with several rings. He turned out to be an angel in disguise because I would have been standing out there like a fool had he not helped me. I had even more trouble getting into my apartment. It turned out that I just had to push the key a little harder and I finally made it in.
When Kassidy came home we went walking around Palermo. We walked in and out of several drug stores hoping to find something to store our laundry in...no luck. We'll have to ask Claudia for where to find laundry bags. At one store an Asian woman helped Kassidy with her purchases. Her accent was very thick and made it very hard to understand her Spanish. After we left, we walked down some of the other streets. Argentines are just like Southerners (if not worse) when it comes to staring. Everyone stares, especially at me because I am Black and we are a rarity here. It honestly just makes me crack up. I wanna be like "hey girl hey!" or strike a pose. The men are the worse. They just stare at us in awe like we're two goddesses. LOL! I've been warned about both the stares and catcalls. So far there have been no cat calls but I'm preparing for the worse.
When we came home, Claudia had bought us the famous empanadas that everyone raves about. These were not too foreign to me as Puerto Ricans eat empanadas (we call them pastelillos) & I LOVE Jamaican beef patties. They were delicious!!! I will be eating lots and lots of these.
We are now heading out! Sophie came home with a friend and told us that they were heading to the same place. I am becoming increasingly annoyed at the fact that I still haven't been able to take any pictures. Tomorrow we take a city tour of Argentina, so I'm assuming that I'll be able to take pictures then (as we'll be in a more touristy part of town). For now I'm off. This will be an interesting experience!
Besos y abrazos,
Jackie
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Day 1: I made it!!
¡Buenos días mi familia y mis amigos! I am currently sitting in my new room, typing away on my iPhone as I await the arrival of my host sister, who will help me with my converter for my laptop. My first day in Argentina was a long one, but an excellent one at that. My flight was a little bumpy to say the least. Due to a mechanical malfunction in the plane, we did not take off until nearly two hours after the departure time. We also could not land immediately as a result of dense fog covering the runway. Nevertheless, after over 11 hours of drifting in and out of sleep I made it safely to Argentina and for that I am thankful.
When we arrived at Ezeiza International Airport we were greeted by Marcela and Luciano, our local program coordinators. We split up into two groups and my group boarded a private bus with Marcela and our teaching assistant Enrique. As we entered the outskirts of the city, Marcela pointed out La Villa Miseria, the slums of Buenos Aires. They looked like dilapidated buildings. In certain areas you could see men doing construction at the tops of the buildings. Marcela explained that it is illegal to live in the villas, but people move in as squatters and illegally reconstruct the buildings. Next to the villas were government housing projects which looked very similar to those in the Bronx (**Note: my parents are originally from New York. New York is the only city comparable in size to Buenos Aires where I have spent a lot of time. Thus, I will be making many comparisons to New York throughout this blog).
As we continued we entered el sur (the southern part of the city), which is the poorer part of Buenos Aires. The city proper of Buenos Aires is located in el sur. As traffic became more dense, I began to realize how different drivers are here from those in NYC. The drivers honk their horns often and create their own lanes, but they do not drive quite as aggressively as in New York. However, the drivers in Buenos Aires have absolutely no respect for pedestrians. Yield is not an expression that exists here. Cars do not stop to allow passengers to cross, even when the cross sign indicates that it is safe to walk. This worries me as I will be walking everywhere. At one intersection in el sur, a girl stood in front of the cars at a red light juggling pins. She then walked from car to car collecting tips. I found this to be very peculiar.
We then reached el norte, the richer part of Buenos Aires where all the students will be staying. My apartment is located in the barrio (neighborhood) of Palermo. My roommate Kassidy and I were the first to be dropped off. We were greeted by a middle aged woman by the name of Claudia, who will be our host mother. We used a key to enter the main door of an apartment complex, then the three of us and our four gigantic pieces of luggage somehow managed to squeeze into a closet sized elevator. The elevators are interesting here as they have two wrought iron doors that must be closed in order for the elevator to function. We came up one flight of stairs to Claudia's apartment. Claudia's apartment is very nice. It's a modest apartment with a large living room and kitchen, three bedrooms, and a patio that is located in the middle of the apartment complex. The patio is different from American patios in that it is located in the center of the apartment and is surrounded by other apartments, rather than facing the road like most American apartments. If you look up you can see the sky and other people's patios, but you can't really see outdoors. The shower has a window that also opens up to the patio, which made taking a shower an awkward experience.
Speaking Spanish came a lot easier than expected. Claudia was very helpful in explaining things and making sure that Kassidy and I understood. She also continues to complement our Spanish skills, so as to boost our confidence (or at least that's what I think). Her Porteño (Porteño=the people of Buenos Aires) accent is not too hard to understand, but sometimes I do get confused. Because of the large population of Italian descendants here in Buenos Aires, Porteño Spanish is very similar to Italian. Many Spanish words are pronounced similarly if not exactly the same as the Italian pronunciation. We also met our host mother's daughter Sophie and Sophie's half brother, Franscisco (who does not live here). Sophie is my age and is also very friendly and helpful with my Spanish. When we first arrived, Claudia made us lunch. We ate casseroles, which were cut into thick slices like pizza. One had ham, cheese and peppers and the other had carrots and zucchini. It was surprisingly good!
After lunch, Claudia took us to what she called the "shopping" (prounced "ch-oh-ping" haha"). In reality it was the Alto Palermo mall. The mall was an upscale mall with a combination of European and American stores. The large European influence on Buenos Aires' culture was evident at this mall and was reflected in the facial features of many of the people shopping there. We window shopped and went into a couple of stores. Claudia was so excited to point out her favorite things. One thing that I found strange about the mall was that they had make up counters with brands that we would normally find at drugstores in America. Instead of Mac counters they had Maybelline and Covergirl make up counters. Another hilarious thing happened while we were shopping in a luxury shoe store. All of the cashiers were dressed nicely and women were spending 800 pesos (about $160) on nice shoes. Meanwhile, the store was playing unedited Wiz Khalifa songs. Kassidy and I were cracking up and had to explain to our confused host mother that the music was unedited.
After shopping at the mall, we headed over to La Universidad de Palermo, where we will be taking classes, to meet Marcla and exchange our dollars for pesos. The college is less than three blocks from my host family's house so I would say we lucked out. We quickly realized we were more fortunate than some of the others in our group as some of our friends told us that their host parents had not fed them or quickly left the house after the host students arrived. I was really thankful for Claudia for being so helpful and fun. On the way back from La universidad, Claudia stopped at a bakery and bought a dozen media lunas, crescent shaped pastries drizzled with a buttery-sugary-honey coating. When we came home, the media lunas were served with tea and milk as a snack that Argentines eat around 5 pm. Claudia also brought out water crackers and spread dulce de leche, a spread made of caramelized sweetened milk onto the crackers. I tried to control myself and only eat one media luna, but Claudia kept serving me cracker after cracker covered in dulce de leche. So much for that! After we drank our tea, Claudia asked us if we had ever had mate, a traditional Argentine drink originally made by the Gauchos. It consisted of a gourd shaped mug that was filled with yerba mate leaves. Hot water was then poured into the mug until a mountain of leaves remained at the top. The water is then sipped from a pipe-like straw that is rounded at the bottom like a spoon. One mate mug is shared by all in a similar manner to how one hookah pipe may be shared by multiple people. We sipped and sipped until the water was completely gone. The mug was then refilled with water. Mate is a stimulant similar to caffeine. At first, from the way that Claudia described it we thought mate was a drug, but Claudia reassured us that it was just a drink. To me the mate tasted like spinach mixed with herbs. Claudia described the mate as being amargo, or bitter. It was an odd taste, but also very addicting. Claudia left for work around 6 and returned at 9. She made entraña (a type of beef) which was served with tomatoes seasoned with olive oil, oregano and basil.
I did not take any pictures today, but they will be coming in full force soon. For now I am exhausted. It has been a very long day and I am so excited to sleep.
Besos y abrazos,
Jackie
When we arrived at Ezeiza International Airport we were greeted by Marcela and Luciano, our local program coordinators. We split up into two groups and my group boarded a private bus with Marcela and our teaching assistant Enrique. As we entered the outskirts of the city, Marcela pointed out La Villa Miseria, the slums of Buenos Aires. They looked like dilapidated buildings. In certain areas you could see men doing construction at the tops of the buildings. Marcela explained that it is illegal to live in the villas, but people move in as squatters and illegally reconstruct the buildings. Next to the villas were government housing projects which looked very similar to those in the Bronx (**Note: my parents are originally from New York. New York is the only city comparable in size to Buenos Aires where I have spent a lot of time. Thus, I will be making many comparisons to New York throughout this blog).
As we continued we entered el sur (the southern part of the city), which is the poorer part of Buenos Aires. The city proper of Buenos Aires is located in el sur. As traffic became more dense, I began to realize how different drivers are here from those in NYC. The drivers honk their horns often and create their own lanes, but they do not drive quite as aggressively as in New York. However, the drivers in Buenos Aires have absolutely no respect for pedestrians. Yield is not an expression that exists here. Cars do not stop to allow passengers to cross, even when the cross sign indicates that it is safe to walk. This worries me as I will be walking everywhere. At one intersection in el sur, a girl stood in front of the cars at a red light juggling pins. She then walked from car to car collecting tips. I found this to be very peculiar.
We then reached el norte, the richer part of Buenos Aires where all the students will be staying. My apartment is located in the barrio (neighborhood) of Palermo. My roommate Kassidy and I were the first to be dropped off. We were greeted by a middle aged woman by the name of Claudia, who will be our host mother. We used a key to enter the main door of an apartment complex, then the three of us and our four gigantic pieces of luggage somehow managed to squeeze into a closet sized elevator. The elevators are interesting here as they have two wrought iron doors that must be closed in order for the elevator to function. We came up one flight of stairs to Claudia's apartment. Claudia's apartment is very nice. It's a modest apartment with a large living room and kitchen, three bedrooms, and a patio that is located in the middle of the apartment complex. The patio is different from American patios in that it is located in the center of the apartment and is surrounded by other apartments, rather than facing the road like most American apartments. If you look up you can see the sky and other people's patios, but you can't really see outdoors. The shower has a window that also opens up to the patio, which made taking a shower an awkward experience.
Speaking Spanish came a lot easier than expected. Claudia was very helpful in explaining things and making sure that Kassidy and I understood. She also continues to complement our Spanish skills, so as to boost our confidence (or at least that's what I think). Her Porteño (Porteño=the people of Buenos Aires) accent is not too hard to understand, but sometimes I do get confused. Because of the large population of Italian descendants here in Buenos Aires, Porteño Spanish is very similar to Italian. Many Spanish words are pronounced similarly if not exactly the same as the Italian pronunciation. We also met our host mother's daughter Sophie and Sophie's half brother, Franscisco (who does not live here). Sophie is my age and is also very friendly and helpful with my Spanish. When we first arrived, Claudia made us lunch. We ate casseroles, which were cut into thick slices like pizza. One had ham, cheese and peppers and the other had carrots and zucchini. It was surprisingly good!
After lunch, Claudia took us to what she called the "shopping" (prounced "ch-oh-ping" haha"). In reality it was the Alto Palermo mall. The mall was an upscale mall with a combination of European and American stores. The large European influence on Buenos Aires' culture was evident at this mall and was reflected in the facial features of many of the people shopping there. We window shopped and went into a couple of stores. Claudia was so excited to point out her favorite things. One thing that I found strange about the mall was that they had make up counters with brands that we would normally find at drugstores in America. Instead of Mac counters they had Maybelline and Covergirl make up counters. Another hilarious thing happened while we were shopping in a luxury shoe store. All of the cashiers were dressed nicely and women were spending 800 pesos (about $160) on nice shoes. Meanwhile, the store was playing unedited Wiz Khalifa songs. Kassidy and I were cracking up and had to explain to our confused host mother that the music was unedited.
 |
| A mate mug similar to the one we drank from |
I did not take any pictures today, but they will be coming in full force soon. For now I am exhausted. It has been a very long day and I am so excited to sleep.
Besos y abrazos,
Jackie
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