Teatro Colon y un Buen Martes

Hola! So today we're starting to learn the past conditional in Spanish, which is the first thing so far that I haven't seen before this trip. Exciting/nerve racking since our final is on Thursday? Our program consists of three sections, of which I started in Intermedio 2 (advanced) and will progress through Advanzo and then finally Proficiente. It'll definitely be an experience taking a class of all things I've never seen before.

So after class, some members of ISA toured the Teatro Colon, over a hundred years old and one of the first theaters to fully optimize acoustic sounds. The tour consisted of the lower areas where costumes and stained glass windows entertained our eyes, and the theater itself, massive and glorious and just absolutely wonderful. I definitely have to come back for a performance, even if it's for the standing-room-only cheap seats (which can run from anywhere between 10 pesos and 400 pesos which is 2 to 100 USD... hope its closer to the 10 pesos). There's a ballet, Carmen in April which I will most likely be looking into.

The tour was concluded with all of us sitting in the lower area of the Teatro, where our tour guide encouraged anyone capable of musical talent to sing. Bentley, one of the girls in our group has an amazing voice and sang some indie song I of course have never heard of, but none of the less was cool to listen to, especially in such a massive theater. Then everyone sang Wagon Wheel, which may be the greatest song ever.

After the tour, Jess and I went to Plaza Italia, where she found this textile shop that agreed to make/tailor her her very own dress. For like the equivalent of 30 bucks. Needless to say I will be returning. And buying a one-of-a-kind Argentine dress. The guy that worked there, whose name I think was Eureo? Ureo? I dunno but he was absolutely precioso. Definitely my Buenos Aires crush. Hands down. He was well mannered, happy, and spoke perfectly good English. He probably was early 20s (I have no idea he could have been 30 the people here all look so young) and offered to not only help me with my next dress but give Jess and I a more local-perspective city tour! We exchanged numbers and will most likely head to La Boca this weekend or next.

I'm so excited because it's been very difficult to make friends with locals in the city. On one hand, there are the typical portenos, where eye contact practically means you're down for just about anything, and on the other there's the fact that we usually travel in packs of like 20 Americans, making it difficult to branch out. Anyways, this Eureo seemed like an absolute doll, and because he has a business to run (family owned, we met his mom) Jess and I trust that we can venture out with him during the day. Worst case scenario we're taking the first bus/taxi back home. No Taken scenarios, I promise (which btw is a great movie). We'll see if we even follow through with it.. I still have to hit up Henry's high school exchange friend Marcos and a Berkeley Argentine Belen.

After the shop where we made new friends (woohoo!) Jess and I walked past home and into the downtown Palermo where we stopped at Limbo, a cute bar/restaurant for dinner. I ordered a lemon daiquiri and caesar salad, and she had a strawberry smoothie and ham/cheese sandwich, which sounds meager but keep in mind it's argentina, where her sandwich might have taken a loaf of bread to make b.c it was so much. Anyways, a great drink and huge salad later, we got the bill which told us our meal was 20 USD each. I love this city. Now we're just hanging out the two of us (my house mom is still stuck in a flood in the country) in the kitchen, listening to Argentine music playlists on www.8tracks.com and sipping on some 10USD Captain.

More to come later- attached I have some artzy pics from the theater. Besos!

 outside teatro colon

 these tiles were all hand placed on the floor

 laura, christy, and i inside the theater

one of the hallways in the theater

Fourteen Member Habitacion... Pinamar!

1/30

So I haven't updated in a while, but it's because I've been so busy!! Last Monday I went with around 10 of the ISA students to La Bomba del Tiempo, a 17 man percussion group. I have yet to find good pictures of it from Facebook friends, but once they're uploaded I'll post em here! (Scratch that I found one) It was such a phenomenal experience- music blasting and the bass pounding while hundreds of Argentines were jumping up and down outside underneath some cool ex-oil factory.. I'm definitely going back sometime soon, the whole experience was probably around 15 USD.

The rest of my week was devoted to resting up for Pinamar, a beach town 5 hours south bus ride from the city. Basically the BEST WEEKEND EVER.

So Thursday:

We got out of class and immediately went to a bank to pull out some dinero in case of emergency, stocked up on some bottles of wine, and loaded up on the Micro, or two story luxury bus that would take us to Pinamar. The excitement for the upcoming weekend quickly escalated once we realized the 14 of us practically had the upstairs cabin to ourselves.

After snacking on some provided treats and listening to some Levels remixes, I quickly fell into a comfortable nap in order to get my last bit of shut eye before a sleepless weekend. Upon arrival, the hostel- Hostel Pinamar was located ON the beach. Like the front door was in sand. We all clambered out and were given the key to our 14-person dorm style room.

There were 6 bunk beds and two singles in the back, which I snatched one of right away in order to appease my abuela tendencies of sleep, naps, and more sleep. We then immediately headed out to the beach, where we stayed until around 2am (some people stayed up til sunrise) just enjoying each others company and loving the surreality of the entire experience.

Friday:

We woke up just in time for breakfast (served 8-10AM), consisting of toasted bread rolls, butter, jam, and coffee or mate. After relaxing in the morning, we all donned our swim suits and headed out for LA PLAYA. All of one minute later, we were laying out the 14 of us on the beach sunning and sleeping during the lazy day.

I read some of my Harry Potter y Caliz del Fuego, and jumped in the ocean at my first opportunity. Just sort of a side note: we debated going to Mar de Plata, a famous beach city another 30min-1hr south of Pinamar, known for it's summer parties and crowds (think Florida for Spring Break, but even more so); but were SO relieved to have chosen the more tranquil, beautiful Pinamar. We were the tourists in a tourist city, where all of the people present were local Argentines enjoying their summer vacation.

After sunburns and sand storms started to bother us, we retired to the room for a group nap session. A few hours later (20 minute snooze turned into a 3 hour slumber), we decided to have a group dinner where we all pitched in and cooked a delicious meal of pasta, sausage, and grilled veggies. I've been starting to cook more and more here for myself, and I'm loving it! (Mom and Dad- hopefully I'll be bringing back some good meals for us).

That night, we decided to again trek to the beach, where around 3am it got a little chilly so we headed back to the hostel. I had the full intention of going back to my bed, but after meeting some portenos (local Argentine guys) we all talked to them for around half an hour and decided to head out to a boliche. Fun fact of the night- one of them actually knows who Bryan is since he was weirdly obsessed with college football.  Reaching the boliche, they then decided to tell us we needed our IDs, so we decided to just go back to the beach instead. We encountered another group of Argentine guys by a campfire, who after a few minutes of testing the waters, completely opened up to me about Argentine life/cultural dynamics between guys and girls in the city. They were a little apprehensive at first, assuming that I was just in Argentina "to party and drink lots," but after I assured them I wanted to see museums, parks, and learn the Castellano language, they were a lot friendlier.

And so went my first all nighter(!!!) where we watched the sun peek out of the sky on the beach. Highlight of the weekend was walking back to the hostel and hearing Levels play out of a beach boliche at around 5.30 in the morning. All of this was helped by lots of mate, which I sipped on throughout the whole dinner.

Saturday:

Saturday I woke up absolutely dead, only able to spend about 2 hours at the beach where the sun and exhaustion had be back in my bed before I knew it. Lots of group napping and resting later, the group again had a joint/family dinner of an "American Breakfast," consisting of scrambled eggs and tomatoes, toast, mimosas, and potatoes with bell peppers and onions.

After a good meal and better conversation, me and Christy retired back to our beds until around 1am. Venturing out to the boliches, we realized that everything was going to be a 50+ pesos fee, which in the end just wasn't worth it. We went (again) to the beach, where we encountered the same beach boliche that was playing music so early the morning before.

Six of us went into the club, where there was strictly Argentine music and rhythmic dancing, and a huge young crowd who all seemed to know each other. Definitely one of the more true Argentine cultural experiences of my trip, it felt like we were invited to someone's summer party versus a random bar dance floor. I retired back to the room at around 4.30am, wanting some sleep before having to get home the next day.

Sunday:

A lazy Sunday, we woke up and checked out by 11am, heading out one last time to the beach. I finally got a SUPER PANCHO!!!!! which are these giant (I mean giant) hot dogs that have papas fritas as a topping layer for less than 4 bucks. We then hopped on the Plusmar Micro bus back to the city, where I slept for half the time and read some more HP.

I was so excited to return home to someone cooking me a meal, that I was a bit sad when I realized our house mom had left for the country that day/night. Jess and I cooked our own pasta, and had an unexpected guest of her nephew staying at the house with some friends. My only discomfort with that whole situation was that he pointed us the items in the fridge in which Gabriela left us food for the weekend, but then proceeded to eat the empanadas we were saving for lunch the next day. Also, I'm convinced he used my soap. So now I have to buy a soap plastic box/container (all of 1USD but still) so no one else uses any more of my toiletries in the house.

All in all it was an AMAZING weekend of getting closer with friends, experiencing a new place, and loving the beach. Hopefully I got tan..

 LA BOMBA

 view once we reached the main beach from our hostel

 bomb dinner.

 the whole group minus becca and i at dinner in the hostel

 lazy saturday

just a cool shot i took on the bus ride back to the city.. ciao!

1/21

Boliches, Colectivos, y Museos

Hey everyone! I realize it's been a while since I updated (like a week), but only because I haven't had much to write about. Post-Tigre I got back in the swing of my first full week of school, returning back to 5 hour class days and enjoying learning Spanish. I've finally (I think) caught up on sleep, so I'm now open to more adventures and walking around the city.

For two of the afternoons this week, I found a cafe called Cafe Martinez, which is basically the Starbucks chain of Argentina right next to the bus stop by my school. I brought my Harry Potter y Caliz del Fuego (4th HP book in Spanish) and just sat for two hours sipping on some 10 peso te and enjoying my environment. It's weird/really cool getting used to having so much down time here. We finish class at 2:30 in the afternoon and my only real obligation (if any) is to be home by around 9pm for dinner and be up the next day at 8am for school.

I finally mastered some of the buses between my apartment, school, and Recoleta (where there is an awesome Plaza for market shopping). In fact, Thursday was the first time I rode a fully packed bus, and it was PACKED. I had nothing to hold onto standing up, but since everyone was shoulder to shoulder/butt to butt I was held in place by the masses of people. Luckily, Berkeley's AC Transit and SF's BART has kind of acclimated me to public transportation.

On Wednesday, Jessica and I checked out the outlet shops of Av. Cordoba in Palermo, where we each got some Argentine piece of clothing. I bought a really cool striped shirt (kind of looks like the American flag- woohoo!) from JULIEN, that even has "hecho en Argentina" on the back of it. She got a tshirt and a crop top, and we both looked meticulously through 2 blocks worth of stores. Most of the stuff was surprisingly similarly priced to the states, if not more so.


I finally met my house brother, Ignacio (called "Nacho") and he is absolutely adorable. He looks like an actual 12 year old version of Justin Bieber. He's sixteen but that's beside the point. We also have a surprise guest in our house grandmother. She's 78 years old and looks to be about 60. I don't know what it is here but every elderly lady I've met looks about 15 years younger. Even my house mom looks to be in her 40s and instead is reaching her late 50s. For dinner, our house abuela taught Jess and I how to make empanadas, a signature cheap meal from Argentina. I hope I can find the right dough back in the states because it's super easy to cook and SO GOOD to eat. I have further surprise guests in my room. My ceiling holds about 100-200 of these little green critters that after research, are simple flying bugs that don't bite people (thank goodness.) It's been almost unbearably hot, but it's become a norm to sit around in my own sweat in the afternoons. At least it's the norm for everyone else here, too.

Last night, after taking a nap from 545-8pm and again from 1030-12am, my housemate and I decided to check out the boliches. I had to keep reminding myself that it was the culture here, but it was sure an experience to not head out from my apartment until 130am. We went to Crobar, a night club for young locals as well as tourists, meeting up with some of the other ISA students, and ended up staying until around 5am.

Surprisingly I woke up around 11, did some lounging around, and headed to the supermarket to get some goods for the week. I had my first chorizo today for lunch (DELICIOSO) coming back from the supermercado. My housemate and I agreed to cook on Sundays for lunches during the week in order to save pesos and work on our cooking skills. I got some ravioli with steak and spinach along with some sauce/spices, as well as vegetables to cook as a side.

After the market, we went to the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, or the National Fine Art Museum, where luckily some of rooms were air conditioned. After studying works such as from Goya, Monet, and my favorite time period, the Renaissance, we found ourselves exhausted and satisfied with a great weekend (and it's only Saturday!!).

We wandered through Plaza Francia in Recoleta, where little markets flourish with tourists, locals, and arts and crafts (cue me buying everyone's souvenirs/bday presents soon). Jessica bought a pair of 10 peso earrings, but I merely looked everything over as to get a price gage for when we go next time. We both want to save a whole day for the market, and since tomorrow's the end of the Chinese New Year, we're going to go another day.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have stuff to update about Chinatown- it's supposed to be a great festival here, and I'll be updating more frequent as I hopefully do more interesting stuff!!! Besos!

 Night out with some of the ISA students (2 on the left are from Berkeley)

 Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes

 View from the cafeteria of my school of the city

 Universidad del Belgrano (more pics on my facebook)

In a Palermo park outside of the National Fine Arts Museum.

El Tigre

1/ 15

Easily the best day in Argentina to date, yesterday the ISA group and another group from Maryland took the train to El Tigre, The forty minute standing-room only for some of us whizzed by as I shared an ipod and conversation with two of the ISA students.

Upon arrival, the sun and excitement fueled my energy for the day. We walked from the train station to a massive transportation boat (think a boat in the Jungle Cruise ride at Disneyland but bigger) and took said boat for 45 minutes down the beautiful river to a small beach area where sand, sun, and lush greens surrounded the area.

I never thought I'd go swimming, since our advisor described the place as "chocolate water that you definitely shouldn't drink," but hey, it's me, and I ended up jumping off of decks and lazing around the river with most of the ISA group. After drying off, we laid out in the sun and I kept having to remind myself that it was January. This trip continually feels like it's just a weeklong summer vacation, and I think the reality of school, routine, and cultural immersion will eventually help.

After getting lunch at the beach shack and sharing an awesome beach day, we were only halfway done with the excursion. The boat took us back around to a marketplace area, where we were allotted an hour for shopping and wandering the plaza. I set off with Laura (she's a Laura Kelly, I'm a Kelly Laura), and after perusing a few little tent shops, I ended up buying a mate cup/straw, a necklace, and starfish earrings, all for around 60 pesos (25 bucks). We then went on a bus, where it was luckily air conditioned, since the awesome day in the sun was soon turning into an extreme sunburn.

We stopped at some restaurant along the river? I couldn't tell because it seemed like the ocean to me (dumb Kelly moments), where we could see the entire city of Buenos Aires across the water. After croissant/cookie snacks and hot chocolate where you stirred the chocolate into the hot milk, we hung around the park area overlooking the water. I don't know if it was being able to speak English the whole day, interacting with everyone in the program, being outside all day, and experiencing El Tigre, but I was finally so at ease and relaxed with the idea of living in a new city for a duration of four months.

We returned back to the city by bus, and Jess and I hopped on the subway home. I really need to get the bus system down, because the subway is a peso more expensive every trip (while that seems super minimal, it will add up). My house mother was away to her vacation home, and with her permission, I had a few friends over for some drinks and conversation before we headed out to the bars for another student's birthday. After many failed attempts at getting onto the bus towards the club, we all split a taxi and ended up only paying 5 pesos each.

The Shamrock bar was a relaxed place, but unfortunately we infested it as the proper Americans we are with loud English and taking up all of the tables. The bouncer ended up not letting some of the students in, since already there were about 30 of us in there. It's frustrating in a place where we live with mothers, and the whole group can't wind down all together in one place since anywhere it's hard to get a group of 30 in.

Because our friends were denied and the night was continuing, we set out in pursuit of another location. After probably around an hour of figuring out where we were going and finally getting on a bus to get there, we ended up back in Plaza Cerrano near my apartment in Palermo. The waiting around hit me hard, and I struggled to keep my eyes open as time ticked on.

We managed to find a good table at a bar, and around 12 of us sat around with good conversation for a few hours. Finally, at 445am, I hurt I was so tired, and luckily a guy in our group was able to walk me the 10 blocks or so back to my house. It seems ridiculous that I was out until 5am, but on our way back the streets were surprisingly crowded (think equivalent to a night in NYC at 2 am on a Saturday in the summer I guess?). Today I was kind of frustrated, since I slept all the way until 2pm in order to catch up on all the sleep I'd been lacking.

Jess and I lazed around an empty apartment, having similar pasta for lunch and watching a movie or two independently. I love that the sundays here are so close to what Sundays are like back home, and I can just unwind after a buys week in my own space and at my own time. I tried doing my nails today, but I definitely wasted 7 pesos (like not even a dollar) on the absolute worst nail clippers I've ever tried. The clip part wasn't sharp enough, so after much strain I ended up simply bending the metal of the nailclipper than actually cutting my nails. I'll have to grab one at the farmacity tomorrow. I'm probably heading to bed earlier tonight (its 845pm now) after dinner and will update as soon as I can!

Also- Photos!

 El Tigre

 At the beach we stopped/swam at

 Me and the city :)

 My roomie and I

The whole park/riverocean/city

It's the Little Things

1/15

I'll be posting a follow up on El Tigre shortly, I just wanted to quickly make a post about how much small interactions in my day can bring me so much joy. Yesterday on the way home on the Subte from Belgrano, a little Argentine girl kept looking up and smiling at me. She was wearing glasses and was with her mom who was reading her a Disney fairy story (which are really popular among the kids items in farmacitys and stores). In a city where so far eye contact let alone smiles have been rare, it just put the cherry on top of an amazing day.

The first time Jess and I took the bus, I asked a lady with a baby if she wanted to sit down. After sitting, she began asking me about myself, including where I was from (since my Spanish accent is still muy gringa). I lied and said I was Canadian just because it was like the third day and I was still paranoid about the general public "discovering" I was American and she went off about all the wonderful things about Canada, and later how once I figure out the bus system, it'll get easier and beneficial to get around the city.

My favorite example- the second day of class, Jess and I got separated on the subway, and while she was lost looking for our apartment, she saw the homeless man and flower shop that are two blocks away from our address. Because she was so relieved on seeing the two markers, she promptly bought the street man a flower and found her way to our apartment. Two days ago, on our way home, the homeless man came up to us with a toothy grin and handed her a flower in return, afterwards, just walking on his way towards his bed/house? (he has a tv.. it's just located on the sidewalk. I'll try and get a picture of it tomorrow.) It was such a genuinely happy/feel good moment that both Jess and I couldn't stop beaming on our way home.

Last night, we were getting lost looking for a bus to take us to a bar, and an older couple passed us in the crosswalk of one of the streets. Christy tried asking them for directions, and the wife ended up knowing some English. They were very polite and kind, and interactions with strangers like these make me happy that in the anonymity of a huge city, genuine interactions aren't lost. I'm really going to try and continue to ask people for directions or which buses to take, since that seems the safest/easiest way to approaching strangers in the city during the weekday.

Huelgas, Tormentas, y Tango

1/12

I haven't had much to update with, so I probably won't be writing every day just cause "I went to class and went home" could get pretty tedious...

Wednesday morning we were up at the crack of dawn in order to complete the first step in obtaining our student visas. I met up with a couple girls on my street to all take the subway together, and after arriving at the Catedral station (where the Plaza de Mayo is located) it began to rain. Summer rain might be one of my favorite things- the night before (Tuesday night) I had been woken up by thunder and decided to investigate on our patio. My house mom and I talked for a bit while watching the storm, and I decided another goal is to get caught in the rain AFTER attending un boliche or bar. Could be fun.

We ran into our ISA staff member Paula, who informed us that there was a strike (huelga) and the office was closed for the day. These appointments run weeks in advance, so I'm a little worried about when we'll be able to get another one... Así es la vida. We stopped in a cafe for breakfast, but the prices steered us instead towards a market where I grabbed a breakfast bar and headed to school.

Classes are engaging and fun since most of the time we are simply conversing in Spanish in small groups. Very few times is the teacher simply straight lecturing. The exercises are hard because my vocabulary is still somewhat limited, but it's enough to get by.

After class, I returned to the Movistar store since my phone hadn't been working or activated at all. They told me to, yet again (the second time) return back 24 hours later. Bueno. After a fail of getting my phone to work I decided to splurge on myself and enter a cute looking tienda on mi calle. I bought a skirt/dress (can be worn both ways) for 90 pesos, equaling around 20 bucks. I returned to my apartment, where my house mom and I ended up talking for about 2 hours about everything going on so far.

I'm not going to sugarcoat my blog with everything is so wonderful (although most of it is), because I am experiencing some culture shock. It's hard adjusting to big city life, let alone a big city that is entirely a different language and culture than what I'm used to. I don't think I expected so much crime and corruption here, although I figure in a few weeks I'll be comfortable with the language and the lifestyle. It's definitely a sink or swim mentality, and hopefully my anxiety verges less towards paranoia and more towards simply keeping myself safe.

I'm glad I discussed this with my house mom, since she agreed that I still had around 2 or 3 weeks until I could be immersed fully. She also took the time and helped me with my accent immensely. She explained how not only Americans stand out with their behavior, but their accents as well. By listening to music and watching Argentine television, I should have a solid base for the Argentinean Castellano by the end of the month.

I fell into a deep sleep (I'm pretty sure I'm still jet lagged) and woke up with just enough energy for dinner. After, I talked/skyped with some people back home (my mom and Bryan) and got to be asleep by 1am.

Today I still felt pretty tired (I need to either sleep more [not really possible] or invest in mate) and headed off to school. After waiting 20 minutes for the bus, it finally came, along with a very nice older woman who talked to me about her daughter who was studying in Canada. It was a refreshing break from not making eye contact on the streets (which apparently you definitely shouldn't do).

I returned again to the Movistar store, where they finally just made me pay and extra 20 pesos for a different SIM card, and activated it while I was watching. I am so fed up with the phone system here; I tried calling a cab tonight, and it took me to an automated voice message which is too fast for me to understand but definitely mentioned returning to Movistar and asking for assistance. It's about to become my regular lunch spot I swear. I'm going to wait for my house mom to return from her country home to help me after the weekend with the automated message and possibly if I have to return to it, the store.

This afternoon I got a quick nap in before the ISA program got to attend a tango lesson! For free! (Included in my program). It was a lot easier to pick up than I thought it would be and it's always a good time with the other students due to their positive and outgoing energy. After the lesson (started at 6 ended at 8) I went out with some of the girls in search of an Argentinean steak restaurant. Upon realizing no tenemos suficiente de pesos, we went to a Mexican restaurant where my housemate and I split some delicious enchiladas. I keep forgetting to bring my camera out with me, so hopefully I'll get around to taking more pictures soon. In the meantime, I'll wait for my peers to upload their pics, and steal from them for my blog.

After dinner, we were invited to a set of Australian students' apartment, including drinks, music, and conversation. I had gone out today with the intention of making it to a boliche, but I hit a wall of exhaustion and knew I wouldn't last past 1 in the morning without being miserable. I decided to write in the blog now (1220am) right before I go to bed, since I dunno when I'll have time before El Tigre (Saturday). I feel like a grandma here not being able to last the night til 5 in the morning, but I'm trying to adapt myself and adjust as soon as possible!! (I'm sure my family back home is comfortable knowing I'm home by 1 or 2 every night I've gone out).

I need to sleep though... Especially since I quit the night early, I should probably take advantage of it and catch up on rest. Buenas noches!

Primer día en la Universidad

1/9

Hola! Last night I took it easy and got a solid 7.5 hours of sleep in order to rest for the beginning of the week. This morning we were up at 8 to get to the Universidad del Belgrano for our placement exam- already I am feeling way more comfortable taking the Subte (think the Tube in London, more crowded and MUCH hotter than BART).

Highlight of the day was being mistaken for Argentine in the Starbucks next to the University. I had them fooled until I brought out my American gift card and they simply looked as me like, "?Como?" I explained la tarjeta es de America and they complemented me on my ability to blend in after learning I was from California.

Once we got to the University, we met up with all the students, including some from Australia and were given our exam. The test was hard to recall all the things I've learned in the past few years, but I placed well and am in Intermedio Dos, which is the program's most intensive placement with Elisa and Christy. They said it's the American equivalent to advanced, but the only real requirement was knowing the subjunctive and conditional, which we reviewed in Spanish 2 at Cal so we'll see how I actually hold up....

I bought a cell phone (company: Movistar, phone: Nokia) with a prepaid plan in order to stay in contact with the other students, my house mother, ISA, and the radio taxis. In order to buy a phone, we have to take our passports, which makes me extremely nervous carrying around since apparently they're worth $2000 on the black market. We learned we'll have to carry not only our passport but 600 pesos to get our visas soon enough, which really freaks me out since theft is commonplace here. Luckily there are enough of us in similar areas to perhaps use public transportation together.

It's 10PM here and I just had a delicious meal of a sort of hot dog, spinach, and tomato omelette (sounds so random/poss gross but tasted so good!) and seasoned potatoes. Last night she made some Soy/Tofu patty thing that made my stummy hurt; luckily for Argentine culture it is customary that if you do not like the meal, you tell your madre so she doesn't cook it again. Phew.

After the test today Elisa, Christy, and I stopped in a Cafe for lunch where we encountered some more students and further planned some excursions to places such as Uruguay and Patagonia. The city is so hot that it feels like you're constantly in an oven, so we quickly retreated to the ISA offices where air conditioning and dim lights welcomed us with open arms. We went back to the University and got another orientation (it's really nice they divide all of them up- makes things easier to remember) and afterwards Jessica and I returned home.

Most of us students wanted to check out La Bomba, a percussion group that is famous for Monday night entertainment, but with getting out of the orientation so late, we decided to go next week. In about an hour or so I'll be heading out to meet everyone else at an Irish pub (go figure), Sullivan's, where hopefully we'll only stay out til 2 or 3am. I still feel ridiculous considering anything past 1030 an early night but- when in Buenos Aires...

Last minute update: mi madre showed me how to make yerba mate and is letting me use one of her mate cups- it's a more concentrated caffeine/more natural then coffee. And is cheaper!! Will definitely be adding this to my morning routine- kind of understand how they can go out so much here now...

Also I attached pictures of my first meal and the ISA group in La Boca :)

Besos a todos y voy a escribir manana!

 ISA! My housemate's the one with pink hair front row to the left- I'm in the second row to the right

La cena que supo tan bien!

Explorar la Ciudad

1/8

Sunny, hot, and feels like the afternoon in Buenos Aires with a time of 7pm. Yesterday I arrived at the airport in the mid-morning, greeted by the ISA staff and other students. There are six of us Berkeley students in the program, and along with us as the most represented college is a group from Boulder (none of them knew any of the Boulder/Poly crowd). Everyone seems super pumped and energetic, which fits in nicely with the liveliness of the city. We waited around the airport for everyone to land, and then were taken by bus (had nicer seats than the business class ones on my flight) to the university, where our house mothers would pick us up. It may be a match made in heaven, since my house mother was late/the last one to pick my housemate and I up.

My house mother, Gabriela, is very nice, a little cooky, and eager to help me learn the language. She wants to practice English, so she tries to speak to me in English, and I try and answer in Spanish. We have deemed the language of our apartment "Spanglish." I have yet to meet my house brother, Ignacio (called Nacho) for he is at their family's vacation home in the country (it's currently summer so the city has been pretty empty). I have a housemate named Jessica who attends Missouri State University and also lives in Missouri. She's artsy and sweet, super into photography. She makes good company for the rides on the Subte, or subway, and I'm excited for when we can converse to each other in Spanish as to not stand out as tourists.

I have taken back up the language easier than I thought I would, even telling some creep on the subway to "Déjame solo!" and he backed right off. We then met at the university, where I made plans to meet up with three of the Berkeley girls for drinks and possibly disco. I was so tired, that by the time I had taken my "nap" from 730-945pm, I wasn't sure I could even last through dinner (which is served at 1030pm). We went to a bar in the charming area of Palermo called Sugar, and much to my amusement and surprise, they were playing a collection of old American music including 80's jams and Smash Mouth, along with televising the Lions/Saints game.


After a drink... (14 pesos during happy hour; roughly 5 bucks- which excuse the side track.. but I'm pretty sure my house mom has had like crazy party students because she advised me to buy a handle for myself cause it's cheaper and then she told us all the girls put it in water bottles so they can take it into the clubs. The buying alcohol for my house to have during dinner to save money on bars sounds great- the sneaking it into discos not so much.) ...we walked around the streets of Palermo- after much anxiety of yesterday (using the subway for the first time, being told by everyone that if you're American you're a target for theft and mugging, and not having any clue where I was), I began to finally relax and enjoy myself. The vodka soda probably helped. We arrived at the intended club, Kika, however at 130am after 3 hours of restless sleep on a plane, we ended up just walking home. We decided regresar una otra noche to partake in the dancing till six am and rolling up at the university still going from the night before (which is apparently the norm for college students on occasion).


The next morning (today) Jessica and I woke up, where I by myself lit a gas stove and old school mixed some grounds for a shot of espresso. (The emphasis is for my parents). We took to the subway and headed to the ISA office for a longer orientation and a tour around the city. After a couple hours of them telling us basically by being American tourists, we are targets and our lives are in danger, they put us on a bus and so we began our tour.


Going around the entirety of Buenos Aires- Cemetario de Recolato, La Boca, Plaze de Mayo, Calle de Florida, Puerto Madero, etc. was just what I needed to completely ready me for this adventure. Everywhere has a different feel to it, and while some places aren't safe (to get to La Boca, which is one of the worst neighborhoods crime-wise in Argentina, we passed some real favelas, or shanty towns), every minute I'm here I am starting to feel more comfortable. I even walked home alone from the subway today!


It is now 730 and I am ready for a much-needed siesta. Dinner will be served early (9pm) since we have nothing to do on Sunday nights but rest. 

Attached I put a picture of my room (pretty huge) and pictures of the cemetary and La Boca. I'll upload to Facebook probably at the end of the week. Besos a todos!

Mi habitación

 Cementerio de la Recoleta

La Boca

Ansiedad de Viajes

1/6

Buenos Noches! With a ten hour flight from Dallas to Argentina, I figure I would start my blog with a greeting/introduction to my trip. They don't have WiFi with American Air, so I'm just writing this now and will post it as soon as I have internet access! I'll be in Buenos Aires from Saturday, January 7th (tomorrow) to May 11th (when I fly back home, arriving May 12th). The time difference is 5 hours ahead, which shouldn't be too hard to adjust to. Or impossible. I have no idea.

It's hard to believe this morning I was zipping up my suitcases in Pasadena. Both parents drove me to the airport, practically holding my hand all the way to the security checkpoint. Half of me felt like it was kindergarten all over again and all I wanted to do was run back and cancel the trip and demand my parents to take me home. As for the other half? Who wouldn't want to spend four months of summer in beautiful Argentina, exploring South America, and developing a fluency of the Spanish language.

I got through security fine, although I still have yet to fully catch my breath through all the logistical anxieties (cue puffing my inhaler). The flight from LAX to Dallas was shorter than expected; however, not without the background melodies of a newborn's shrieks a couple rows ahead of me. I finished Freakonomics, which I highly recommend to anyone who hasn't read it (thanks Papa for letting me borrow it).

Lucky for me, I was greeted in Dallas by a fellow DG, Elisa, who is doing the same program (ISA Intensive Spanish Program) and has the same Spanish proficiency that I do, so hopefully we'll be put in the same classes. We caught up a bit, planned some ideal excursions this semester (Patagonia, Santiago to visit some Stanford friends, wine festival at the end of February, Carnaval) and had our last American meal together- BBQ pork sandwiches and potato salad. After an hour flight delay, I'm avoiding the in-flight dinner because I'm hoping to adapt my body ASAP to Argentinean time (it is currently 12 AM there and they still haven't served dinner on the plane.. so I'm glad I spent the extra 5 bucks).

I had a mini anxiety issue (no surprise) when boarding the plane... My dad paid a few extra dollars to get me a window seat; however, upon arrival to my seat in the plane, an Argentinean couple was seated in my spot. After an awkward encounter from them of, "Well aren't you traveling alone?" I gave up (didn't want to be causing a scene) and sat in the woman's seat in the aisle of the row next to my original window seat. I thought beginning my trip with some good karma would come in my favor; however when trying to fit my carry-on into the overhead compartment, an Argentinean man began yelling at me not to break his laptop and that my bag was "way too big for this sort of a flight." Bueno. I guess they aren't kidding with the culture shock of anti-Americanism. Or I should say anti-American college girl who thinks she owns the plane. Luckily a man who sounded very much from Texas helped me out and I was left alone with my bag nicely stored in the compartment next to me (thank you southern hospitality). Finally, I caught a break with an empty seat next to mine for some sleeping room (the aisle actually comes in handy with leg room and bathroom breaks), and I'm going to try and catch some shut-eye before landing in BA tomorrow morning. One last thing- I'm pretty sure the same screaming baby is on this flight.. Goodnight!