I just had the most amazing weekend ever in the Misiones province, and I'll get to that in the next post, but I figured I'd make a quick entry on things going on outside of the excursion.
Last week I'd reached sort of a mid-way slump, preoccupied with missing home and friends and realizing I wasn't even halfway with this adventure. That mixed with an inability to skype much with people back home made a bit of a rut for the week after such a fantastic weekend. My mood was also hindered due to frustration with my teacher and the disorganization and lack of productivity in class.
My professor simply belongs in Berkeley. She has an impeccable education, is super left-wing, expects us to learn most of the course on our own, and loves the students that drift off on unimportant tangents with her (think the annoying kid in class that just needs to shut up and go to office hours). I thought I was being sort of whiny in my thoughts/complaints to family, so I addressed some of my concerns to her yesterday about feeling unprepared for our final this Friday since we don't get to covering most of the topics in class. When I mentioned the unruliness of the class, she responded with "I am not a fascist. I do not believe in controlling my students."
Wait what.
So I repeated in English how it's difficult to learn when there isn't much order, and she simply replied with "I don't believe in executing authority in the classroom. If you want things to be organized, it's your responsibility to discipline your classmates." I don't want to get political in this blog but I'll let you soak that one up and maybe understand how much I'm looking forward to the next course with a different professor.
Regardless, last week during the rut my housemate Jessica and I decided to take a day off of class (we get 2 a month) and just sleep in, veg in the park, and shop at the Palermo mall. It was the perfect pick me up at the base of my slump. It's weird that in the mall, clothes were SO much more expensive than the random boutiques on the street- almost the opposite of America. The park was the same park we'd been to before, we just picnicked there this time and has the greatest lazy afternoon.
This week we're stuck in 6 hour days to make up for the amount of vacations we're getting, which also makes things difficult since we get out so late, and I'm so tired to even try and accomplish anything after class. Tonight Jess and I are meeting two other girls at Benihana for dinner to get out of the house. I know, I know, I should be trying out Argentina restaurants the few times I go out... But I have been CRAVING sea food and sushi since Jess dislikes it and asked our housemom not to cook it. Also the happy hour is pretty cheap.
A very sad thing happened which makes being in our house right now very uncomfortable. Our house abuela's friend's daughter (so basically a family friend) was traveling in Uruguay and died in car accident. Our house has kind of become the center for family and friends, and they all mourn in the living room. I feel terrible because I don't want to interrupt or cause any disturbance to their mourning, but it's hard when you have to pass the living room to enter my bedroom every day. There's a definite gloom to the house right now and regardless we want to give them their space and eat out tonight, hopefully giving our house mom a break. I'll be looking up what's the proper gift for condolences in Argentina (what flowers, food, etc) to give them before my Patagonia trip NEXT WEEK!!!
Next post to come soon on IGUAZU FALLS.
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