Sunday, June 27, 2010

Un viaje a las sierras


Saturday ended up being great from start to finish! After breakfast I headed to Patio Olmos to meet up with the group at 10:30. We met, walked the few blocks to the little regional bus station, paid our 18 pesos for our tickets, and got on the bus to head to Carlos Paz. Carlos Paz is a smaller city outside of Córdoba in the sierras, so the bus ride was only a little less than an hour long. When we got there we went to the tourist information building, picked up a map, and then headed off in the direction of the sierras. There was apparently a famous, big, white cross thing on top of one of them, and they had aerosillas (basically a ski lift) that could take you up there; however, we had gone on this little trip because we all wanted to hike, so instead we set off down the trail that would take us to the top. It was a lot of fun! The day was overcast and colder than most days have been here, and at first it seemed like it was kind of going to be miserable. But only a few minutes into the hike we realized that the weather was actually perfect. Also, the city is situated right next to a big lake and the views on the way up were awesome! Being outdoors and doing something active was a lot of fun, and the fact that we were hiking up a hill/mountain (I don’t really know how to describe the sierras…they’re kind of in between) in the Sierras de Córdoba just made the day even better. On the way up we kept passing little white monuments with a cross and a roman numeral carved into them. We didn’t know how many there were when we started, but there ended up being fourteen and I am guessing that they stood for the stations of the cross. Once we finally reached the top the huge white cross towered above us. It was built in 1934, but other than that I didn’t really read what its purpose was. We were more excited about just reaching the top! We stayed up there for a little bit taking in the view of the sierras, the city, and the lake around us until we decided to head back down. Once we got to the bottom we turned in the direction of town and headed towards the main street to find a place for lunch. We found a restaurant that looked good to everyone and went in and sat down to order. Luckily we were just in time for the USA world cup game, and we were able to relax, hang out, and watch the first half while we ate our pizza. During entretiempo (half time) we decided to leave so we could go see the other main parts of the city before we had to head back to Córdoba. First we went to an alfajore factory and taste-tested some of their homemade products. Then, on the way to the city center, we stopped by some gift shops and hung around the entrances of some of the restaurants to catch parts of the second half of the game. One of the things Carlos Paz is famous for is their huge Cuckoo Clock, so we made reaching that our goal before we headed back to the bus station. We finally made it and, even though we read the sign next to it, we still aren’t really sure exactly why it’s there. But after that we went back and got on the bus and arrived back in Córdoba around 6:45. The whole time that I’ve been here I’ve been wanting to go to the weekend artisan fair here called Paseo de las Artes, but the first weekend I had no idea where it was and I’ve been gone every weekend since. So when we got back I headed over to that part of town and had a blast! There were so many interesting things for sale; I definitely could have looked around for hours. Also, I’m kind of glad that I hadn’t been able to go until the end. Now that I’ve been here for five weeks I had a really good time talking to all of the people who I bought things from. Everyone I met wanted to know where I was from, how long I was here, what I was studying, how I liked Córdoba, if I had traveled around Argentina at all…the list went on and on. A few weeks ago I know that I would have frozen up if I would’ve been asked questions like this, but last night it was extremely enjoyable just visiting with everyone! I hung around until the vendors started packing up and then I started to make my way back to the apartment. I had had a long, wonderful day and was really glad that my last weekend in this place that I’ve called home for almost six weeks now was turning out to be so awesome!

"Mi madre says NO!"


Friday started out quite normal and ended with a cultural experience I had not been expecting! In 318 we had a big ten-minute oral presentation that counted as our fourth and final test grade and I stayed up really late Thursday night preparing for it. All of my preparation paid off though when, despite having to go first, I still did much better than my last big oral presentation! After class I came home, took a little siesta, and went to get pesos to go back to the stores that I had been at the night before. As promised, I went back to the store owned by my new friend and bought the things that I had fallen in love with. We chatted again for a while about when I was leaving and my trip back home, and she even took the time to specially box up my stuff so it won’t get messed up in the airplane. I said good-bye and started to head back home not sure of what I was going to do that night when I got a text message from Mary, one of the other girls in the group, asking me if I wanted to go to the opera. I replied with sure, why not! So I went home and got ready and at 9:15 I met a group of girls from our program outside of the big (and beautiful) Teatro del Libertador in the middle of town to see the Argentine opera called “Lin Calel.” They had told me not to buy a ticket because they already had one for me, so I just assumed that they had been by earlier and bought them all together. However, when I met up with them I found out that Mary’s host mom had had a ticket for a box seat! So not only did I get to go to my first opera while I was Argentina, I got to watch it from awesome seats! We only encountered a small difficulty at the door when the man taking the tickets told us that the ticket only admitted four people into the theater; however, Mary was quite persistent and replied con mucho fuerte, "Mi madre says NO!" Although this response became the joke of the night among the five of us, she got the point across to the man and everything worked out fine. When we got there the box definitely had a chair for each of the five of us, and it was fun feeling like we were in our own little area. The opera itself was really cool; the story was about an Incan princess, Lin Calel, and her arranged marriage that she didn’t want. In the end she ended up with the man she was in love with and was queen of all the Andes. Some of the stuff that happened in between we weren’t too clear on, but overall we could understand what was going on. I guess even if you know the language operas are sometimes difficult to understand because of the way they’re sung, so the words were projected up above the stage. This definitely helped us follow along even though it was another night of Spanish speed-reading. But it was definitely a good time and something that I’m extremely glad I got to experience! The singing was pretty, the costumes were awesome, and there was a lot of cool stage choreography. Also, if you are reading this and would like to hear it, remember to ask me next time we see each other about our favorite line from the opera; we’ve all been randomly busting it out since we left the theater Friday night. J The opera ended around 11:00 and we all decided to walk to Caseratto to get helado. I got my first cono doble, which are probably the most ridiculous things I’ve ever seen. It’s a little difficult to describe, but I got a picture so if anyone would like to see this Argentine favorite don’t worry! We sat at the ice cream place and just hung out and talked for over an hour and it was so much fun! We talked about our host families, random cultural differences that we have noticed here, and anything else that would randomly come up. As we were about to leave the girls mentioned that they were thinking about going to go to a smaller town a little outside of Córdoba called Carlos Paz Saturday morning and invited me to go with them. I decided to take them up on it and went home to get a little bit of sleep before I had to wake up for our spontaneous adventure.

Lemon Champ and Local Friends

After getting back from Buenos Aires the week flew by! Tuesday night after the game was dedicated to school since we had our 312L “mid-term” (yes, our mid-term was exactly one week before our final…our professor is a little disorganized) on Wednesday morning. But the test went well, and I celebrated after class on Wednesday with a very popular Argentine dessert that is pretty much now my favorite: Lemon Champ (pronounced “shomp”). I was told by my Kiwi friends in Buenos Aires to try it, and when I mentioned it to Vicky she told me that it’s a very common dessert here and she couldn’t believe I hadn’t yet heard of it. Basically it’s just a coke float, but instead of vanilla ice cream it’s lemon sherbet, and instead of using coke you use champagne. After hearing about this on Saturday I decided that I would go experience this piece of Argentine culture after my test, so Wednesday afternoon I went to the popular ice cream place among the American students called Casseratto and ordered my first Lemon Champ. I have to say, it didn’t disappoint! I’m glad it’s rather easy to replicate…I’m definitely bringing this idea back to the states with me! After all of the craziness from Buenos Aires and then immediately jumping back into school mode, it was nice to have a relaxing night on Wednesday. Thursday we didn’t have our normal classes, but we still had to go to Casa Verde for about the same amount of time to take the UT Study Abroad Examination. Before we all came to Argentina we took this same exam at UT sometime in April, and it has sections on reading, listening, grammar, vocabulary, writing, and speaking. Then, after being here for nearly the entire amount of time, they make you take it again. It’s purely for statistics and to see how well your Spanish has progressed. It was extremely daunting when I took it at UT; it was very difficult and I left the testing room feeling like I was going to die here because I didn’t know Spanish. This time, however, wasn’t nearly as bad. I know that I didn’t do anywhere near wonderful on it, but it was overall much easier and a lot less stressful. It was good to know that in just a few short months my Spanish has apparently improved that much! After the test I went home and got ready for tango class, which was supposed to be at 5:30 (like usual), but when I got there they told me that they had cancelled the 5:30 class and were just having the 7:00 one. The tango place is located in the area of town near where they have the Paseo de las Artes (the local artisan fair) on the weekends, and the area has lots of cool shops. So, to pass the time, a guy named Ben and I decided to go shopping at some of the stores nearby. Quite a few of the shops were antique stores, some were stores filled with “typical” Argentine items, and others were stores with handmade items of every kind. We were enjoying just looking at everything (I didn’t have any pesos) when we came across a store that we both fell in love with. All of the items in it were just cool; honestly, I don’t know how else to put it. They weren’t “typical” Argentine items; instead, all of them were colorful and just made in interesting, abstract ways. However, the thing that really sold us on this particular store was the woman working there. She was extremely nice, and she put up with our not-so-wonderful Spanish and talked to us for a long time. We talked about where we were from, what we were doing here, and places that we’ve visited in Argentina. She told us that she and her best friend had made everything in the store, and she pointed out the things that she had made and the ones her friend had. It was a great experience; we all want to practice our Spanish and meet people, and it’s so wonderful when somebody is willing to take the time and have the patience to talk with us. I felt really bad that I didn’t have any money, but I promised the woman that I would return because I had fallen in love with some of her work. Ben and I left the store in an awesome mood, and talked about how cool it was that we now have the capability to hold actual conversations. In the end, this is why we’re working everyday to learn the language. Although it’s usually the main focus, in the end the grades we get are not important. What’s important is being able to use what we’ve learned to talk with and get to know people and learn about their lives, and that’s exactly what we’re starting to discover that we’re becoming capable of doing.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

El tercer partido

Our bus arrived in Córdoba a little before 6:30 in the morning, so by the time I caught a cab and got back home I had just enough time for a short nap, to eat breakfast, check my email, and then head to the university. After having the long weekend class wasn’t bad at all, and it was kind of nice getting back into a routine. I had been emailing with Vicky about hanging out for the next World Cup game, and we had decided to meet in Casa Verde after my class to decide what to do. So, when I walked out of 318, Vicky and Carlos were both waiting for me. They took me to lunch at a pizza place in downtown that is apparently one of the most popular in all of Córdoba, and after eating there I definitely know why! You could order pizza by the “fourths,” and so we each chose a different type and then shared. The kind I ordered was the same type that I had had in Buenos Aires and I already knew I loved it! It’s called Napolitana and it has big slices of tomato, oregano, and one whole olive per slice. I also tried some of the type that Vicky ordered which, although it looked strange, I ended up really liking it as well! From what I could tell it had thin pieces of ham covered by cheese and some sort of vegetable that I didn’t recognized and drizzled with a pink sauce. The vegetable-whatever tasted kind of like artichoke, and when I asked her what it was she said they were palomitas and came from palm trees (??). Then I asked her about the sauce and didn’t recognize the name of it either, and she told me it was like a mixture of ketchup and mayonnaise (again, ??). However, even though it wasn’t like anything I’d ever seen back at home, it was really good! This is why I love that she took me out; I never would have considered ordering it, but with her I get the full Argentine experience and am encouraged to try new things that otherwise I wouldn’t. The game started at 3:30, so we left straight from lunch to go to one of Vicky’s friend’s houses to watch it. Her friend lives in a little suburb of Córdoba (apparently near where Vicky’s house is), so it was about a twenty minute or so drive out there. Again, it was fun to be with her because if I didn’t know her I never would’ve seen this part of the city! Once we got to Luicita’s house Carlos dropped us off (he wasn’t too excited about watching the game with a group of girls) and we went inside. The house was extremely nice! Vicky had told me that Luicita’s family was well-off and she wasn’t exaggerating! Vicky is friends with a group of eight girls that she always talks about (they’ve all been best friends since high school), and they hang out together all of the time. She calls them “the nine,” and after hearing so much about them it was really cool to get to meet some of them! Five of “the nine” were there yesterday, and it was fun to just listen to their conversations. Being typical girls, even once the game came on they just had it playing in the background and didn’t pay much attention to it. They talked about everything they could think of, brought out some mate (tea for me), and Luicita actually started fixing one of the girls dred locks (which I discovered in Spanish are called rastas). Towards the end when Argentina started scoring we all started paying more attention, and I got to listen to the girls critique the players’ physiques. I learned many different phrases to describe good-looking men, and it was funny to listen to them talk about how they wanted to marry the two players who made the goals. If you aren’t aware, Argentina ended up beating Greece 2-0 and it was fun being with Argentine fans to celebrate. The game ended a little after 5:00 and Vicky had class at 6:00 (her 4:00 class had been cancelled for the game, of course), so we had to leave quickly and Carlos picked us up. We drove back into the city and they dropped me off a few blocks away from my apartment and it was fun to walk the remainder of the way home through all of the crazy festivities! People of all ages were cheering and honking horns and blowing on coronetas. The city was once again in complete celebration! When I got up to my floor of the apartment building I was met with extreme excitement from Hugo and Zulema, who had been watching it together. I unfortunately had to study for my 312 midterm and wasn’t able to spend more time amidst the celebration, but I definitely heard it from my ninth-floor window well into the night. ¡Vamos, Vamos Argentina!

Día de la Bandera


Monday was the Argentine holiday Día de la Bandera, or flag day, so we didn’t have classes and got to stay in Buenos Aires for a third day. Actually the holiday is June 20 (which was Sunday), but they moved it to Monday so people could have the day off. We thought that was kind of funny, but we weren’t complaining! After our fun-filled night of tango we opted for a relaxed Monday morning and ate breakfast at the hostel, packed, and were ready even a little bit before the check-out time. After that we caught the bus over to La Boca, the cool, colorful neighborhood that is famous in Buenos Aires. I haven’t been able to get an answer yet so I don’t know the correct story behind all of the colors, but it’s so cool! We really enjoyed just walking through the main tourist streets and looking at all of the artisan booths. La boca is known for it’s art and for being the birthplace of tango, and we definitely saw both of those in our short time there! The art displayed and for sale was all beautiful and amazing, and there were tango dancers all over in the street. Most of them wanted you to take a picture with them (for a small fee, of course), but some of them were just dancing and it was really fun to watch. I loved walking around and looking at everything and could’ve stayed there all day, but after a couple of hours we decided to make our way over the Puerto Madero, another neighborhood. It was a little after noon but none of us were hungry, so we decided to walk instead of take a taxi so by the time we got there we would be ready to look for a place to have lunch. I was glad we walked because we walked right by the Boca Juniors fútbol stadium! Boca Juniors is one of the two major soccer teams in Buenos Aires, and is coached by Maradona (the current coach for Argentina’s World Cup team). Since I had had to do my report in 318 on Argentine soccer I knew all about this, so it was really exciting to see it! After half an hour or so we arrived in Puerto Madero and could immediately sense the difference between the two neighborhoods. As La Boca (except for the main two tourist roads) is known for being a very poor neighborhood, Puerto Madero is known for being home to a higher class of residents and has recently been renovated. It was nice to see the architecture and the modern styles mixed with old warehouse looks, but other than that there wasn’t much to do there. We had planned on eating, but it was an expensive area already and all of the restaurants had upped the prices even more for Día de la Bandera, so we decided to go back to San Telmo and find somewhere to eat. Puerto Madero is right next to San Telmo so the walk wasn’t bad at all, and we found a nice little café and ordered the best pizza ever! After lunch we walked back to the hostel to hang out until we needed to leave for the bus station. Pretty much everywhere, excluding some grocery stores, kioscos, and a few restaurants, was closed for the holiday so there wasn’t much else that we could do. After hanging out for a while we got our bags and walked to the subway station. We left early because we had planned on getting coffee and hanging out for a little while at a famous old café in the train station (which is right next to the bus station). From the looks of the place through the windows this would have been a great idea, except for the fact that it, too, was closed for the holiday. We were rather disappointed but there was nothing we could do about it, so we decided to head on to the bus station to see if there was anything there. Although not as classy and definitely not as cool, we found a little coffee place in the bus station and ordered café con leches and some pastries and hung out and talked and worked on homework until it was time to go get on our bus. Despite the horror stories I had heard about navigating the Buenos Aires bus station, we found our bus very easily and departed for Córdoba right at 9:35pm. After our long, exciting weekend I was exhausted and easily passed out for the entire ride back to Córdoba. The trip had been wonderful, but it was unfortunately time to go back to “real life”…aka class.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Un día de turismo, una noche de tango


I got to start my second day in Buenos Aires with a treat: mass at the Catedral Metropolitana! I woke up and walked over to Plaza de Mayo and found a pew. Before mass started I was looking around and something immediately caught my eye; a girl a few pews in front of me was wearing a Texas A&M sweatshirt! I wanted to talk to her after mass but I wasn’t able to catch her before she left. But as usual, mass was gorgeous and I was really glad that I had had the opportunity to go. Afterwards I walked back to the hostel and the other girls were almost ready. We left a little before 1:00 and took the subway to Recoleta and went to MALBA, Museo de Arte Latinamericano de Buenos Aires, which is the really famous modern art museum in Argentina. Although I’m not a huge art person it was still very interesting and had a lot of cool things to look at. Afterwards, even though they weren’t exactly close, we opted to walk through Recoleta in the direction of the famous Cemetario de la Recoleta. We were definitely in a nicer part of town and it was a lot of fun just taking in all of the architecture, the beautiful plazas, and the various monuments on the way. We had heard that the cemetery was really cool but I honestly had no idea what to expect. However when we got there I immediately knew what people had been talking about! The graves aren’t underground; instead, all of the tombs are above ground and elegantly formed out of various types of stone. The place is like a maze, and the family plots are packed side-by-side and rise way about your head. Some of them have glass in the doors and you can actually see the coffins and other random things that have been buried with the people! The cemetery is of course for wealthy and famous people, and although we weren’t familiar with most of the names there were some that I actually recognized. Evita Peron is buried there and we looked for her family’s plot for a while, but we eventually gave up. The whole place is extremely unique and it’s difficult to fully express what it’s like to visit there; therefore, we all agreed that we would tell people that it’s the one thing you absolutely can’t miss if you ever get a chance to visit Buenos Aires! After we left the cemetery we went on another walk to find a famous bookstore. Although it wasn’t marked on any of the tourist maps that we had been given, it was a place in Rachel’s tourist book that we all wanted to go see. It used to be a big theater that has now been converted into a bookstore and, now that I have had the privilege to go there, I can say that it is just as awesome as it looked in the book! It still has all of the original architecture complete with the huge velvet curtain, the painted ceiling, and the gold accents. The traditional theater décor contrasted against the rows of bookshelves was really cool! The theater box seats that encircle the perimeter have been converted into little reading nooks, and if we would’ve had more time I think we could’ve spent much more time in there! After that last stop on the other side of town we got back on the metro and headed back to San Telmo to spend a little time in the famous San Telmo antique and artisan market. Every weekend the streets are shut down to cars and converted into a big market where locals set up booths all over the place. It was a lot of fun to look around and enjoy the atmosphere. After a little over an hour we went back to the hostel in time to make our bus that would take us to our tango-filled night. We had been told that if there is one thing that you have to do in Buenos Aires it’s to experience tango, so we reserved a special package deal through our hostel. The bus came and picked us up and took us across town to a famous tango place called Sabor a Tango. We met some other American students on the bus, one from Minnesota and one actually from Dallas, and had fun getting to know them and comparing our studying experiences. Then, once we got to the place, they first took us downstairs for an hour lesson. Although we’ve been taking tango lessons in Córdoba we still had a lot of fun! In Córdoba, since we are going every week, it is focused more on us doing the steps correctly and fully learning all of the basics. However, in Buenos Aires, it was a class for tourists so we just had fun! Rachel, Lara, and I were some of the only girls who didn’t come as a couple and we all were randomly paired with the few single men in the group. My partner was from South Africa and his name was John and he had to have been at least sixty years old. He was super nice and we had a great time! After the lesson we went back upstairs to the big, elegant theater where they had our dinner tables set up. The three of us girls enjoyed our five-star meal and being treated like royalty! The food was great (I ordered steak since I figured I couldn’t go wrong with that here in Argentina) and we all had a great time. After dinner the show started, and we were entertained for over an hour with awesome traditional tango dancing to live music, singing, and an act by some gauchos. The entire night was wonderful and we were really glad that we had decided to go! After the show the bus dropped us off back at our hostel and, after such an amazing day, we were ready to go to bed.

Buenos Aires Day 1


Besides the fact that it’s so much colder than Córdoba, our first day in Buenos Aires was awesome! We pulled up at the bus station a little after 7:30 Saturday morning and took a taxi to our hostel in San Telmo. Rachel had been awesome about doing her research and our hostel was great! We checked in and looked at all of the activities that they offered, signed up for a tour that afternoon, and then headed out to go see the city. We were only about six blocks away from the famous Café Tortoni, so we decided to head there for breakfast. The café was established in 1858 and is the oldest café in South America. It’s very elegant and decorated in an early 1900s style. We ordered café con leches and medialunas and enjoyed the atmosphere. Afterwards we set off for Plaza de Mayo. Just the walk down Avenida de Mayo (the road that connects Casa Rosada and their main congress building) was amazing; all of the old architecture is awesome to look at! Once we got to the plaza it was really exciting to get to see all of the famous and important buildings. I got to see the big white building in real life (which I learned used to be the old Spanish government headquarters and is called the Cabildo) that had been the surface of the big bicentenario light show that I watched on TV the first week I was here. Then, before we went into the plaza, we crossed the street to go into the Catedral Metropolitana, which is the main national cathedral. Of course every inch of the church’s interior was like it’s own piece of art! The ceiling contained hundreds of beautiful paintings and the floor was put together with mosaic tiles that formed little flowers. The cathedral also houses the tomb of General San Martín, so as weird as that kind of is we got to see it. After the cathedral we headed into the plaza. Even though the Madres only march on Thursdays, we got to see the monument that they walk around and see their posters (the Madres are a group of elderly women who lost children during the political unrest in Argentina around the 1970s who now march around a monument in Plaza de Mayo every Thursday in their memory). We then went to get a better view of Casa Rosada (Argentina’s “white house”), and after taking pictures we went closer and found out that we could actually go inside. We went in and looked around and got photo ops with the guards there. We then headed the other direction on Avenida de Mayo to go see the Congress building. After hearing about all of these places it was really cool to think that I was actually there seeing them in real life! Our next tourist destination was Avenida 9 de Julio, the widest road in the world. Although I never counted exactly, it has at least ten lanes going in each direction! We successfully crossed and walked by a few more important buildings, grabbed some empanadas for lunch, and then headed back to Café Tortoni to meet up with our tour group. Since we figured that we could probably conduct most of the general city tour ourselves, we opted for the “Tigre Tour.” This tour took us up to the northern part of the city to the suburb called Tigre where we got to ride a boat on the Paraná River. They told us that the area of town we were in had originally been where wealthy Porteños (people from Buenos Aires) had their summer and weekend homes, but is now inhabited year-round. The area was very nice and had a calm atmosphere. The boat had a nice little café and we all ordered café con leche and enjoyed the laid-back feel after our morning on-the-go. I met a group of three girls who were from New Zealand and we had a lot of fun talking. I told them that I had been to New Zealand a couple of years ago so we talked about their home for a while. Then, since they had been in Buenos Aires for almost a week, we talked about things to do around the city and what had been their favorite. I know that I’m supposed to be practicing my Spanish, but it was still fun to meet new people from a different country! After the boat ride we got off at a different dock and took a train to another small suburb called San Isidro where we stopped at a little artisan market in the train station for half an hour. Then we met back up and took the bus back to the city. At the start of the tour the bus stopped at about a million places to pick people up, but at the end there were only three options of places to get off. Therefore, the three of us girls got the opportunity to figure out the Buenos Aires metro system in order to get back to San Telmo. We had already decided to use it the next morning, so it was good to get familiar with it. It was all very simple and we made it back with no problems. Once back at the hostel we got ready for dinner and then went out to a place recommended in Rachel’s tour book. The food was of course good and we enjoyed each other’s company and practicing ordering in Spanish. After dinner we headed back and hung out downstairs at the hostel for a while and met people from many different countries and compared trips. It was a lot of fun, and overall it couldn’t have been a better day!

Algunas diferencias culturas


Friday was quite a calm, relaxing day. A group of UT students took a weekend trip to Iguazú, and since there was only one plane that they could take they didn’t have much of a choice but to leave on Friday morning. Therefore, after the craziness of my quiz and test on Thursday, classes were rather calm due to the lack of attendance. My 318 class was actually quite interesting; there were only three of us there so we just kind of talked the entire period. Although I just refer to it as “318,” the name of the class is actually Spanish Conversation and Composition with a focus on Latin American culture. Therefore, all of the topics that we talk and write about have to do with the lifestyle surrounding us. Friday we were learning some new vocabulary and Profe Ingrid was trying to explain to us the meaning of the word piropeador, which we finally came to the conclusion translates to “flirty.” The explanation led to a discussion about how Latin men (including those in South and Central America, Spain, and Italy) respond to seeing women in the street; for example, they whistle, make kissing noises, call out compliments, etc. Our professor informed us that the women in these countries consider this a major compliment. She continued this lesson on cultural differences by even saying, “Especially the men who work on construction sites…they’re so polite! Every woman who walks by, even if she’s ugly, they tell her how beautiful she is. Every time I walk by them I hold my head high and smile big.” We then told her that the construction workers in the U.S., seeing as many of them are immigrants from these countries, do the same thing and American women consider it offensive. She was really surprised and said, “No, no, no! They’re so polite!” I found this extremely interesting since this is exactly the kind of thing I’m studying: how a lack of understanding between cultures can cause unnecessary conflicts. So girls, I’m not saying don’t be careful when you are walking on the street, I just thought it was some interesting food for thought that I’d share. Anyways, since my bus for Buenos Aires didn’t leave until late at night I had brought money with me Friday morning and after class I went on a hunt for the wonderful street artist that I had stumbled across the Thursday before. I had been all over downtown the week before, so I couldn’t remember which street he had been set up on; therefore, I had to walk around for a while but I was determined to find him! Finally, from a distance I saw the crowd his work had drawn, and as I walked up I saw that I had for sure found my guy. With his crazy hair and beard and once again dressed in paint-stained clothing, he was working diligently while the crowd looked on. He finished, and as everyone clapped and he set it to the side to dry I asked him if I could look at the other paintings. He said of course, and I sifted through the awesome (what I would consider) spray-paint masterpieces until I found one that I fell in love with. Even though he had already started another painting, when I pulled out my money to pay he dropped everything he was doing and focused all of his attention on me. I got the feeling that although the man provided entertainment for many people every day, not many people were willing to buy any of his work; therefore, what I thought was going to be a two second interaction turned into a fifteen-minute conversation. He asked me where I was from and I gave my usual reply of los Estados Unidos, and then he asked me which state and I replied, “Texas,” (also, for those of you back home, it’s not Tejas…Texas is correct – this was something I kept getting wrong) and he started telling me all about how George Bush’s dad owned oil in Texas. It was kind of an awkward thing to respond to, so I agreed with him but then assured him that most people in Texas do not own oil. It is always interesting that that’s one of the first things people in other countries relate with our state. Then he told me that he used to live in Brazil and he was able to sell his paintings for more, but then he moved to Córdoba, which he called la capital de pobreza (the capital of poverty), and he had to lower his prices. Even though I didn’t really know what to say it was interesting listening to his take on things. Anyways, during the rest of our conversation the man told me about places that I needed to visit near Córdoba and he was very nice. It was a pretty cool experience; although I had to ask him to repeat what he said many times, it was a cool feeling to be able to have a complete conversation with a random vendor on the streets of a foreign city. I headed home with my new treasure and napped and packed for the weekend before dinner, and afterwards I took a taxi to the bus station. There, I met up with Rachel and Lara and we successfully found our bus and headed off for our weekend in Buenos Aires.

Friday, June 18, 2010

¡Vamos, vamos Argentina!


Thursday was crazy-wonderful and completely filled with awesome cultural experiences! The excitement had already started before I even left my house for the university; for those of you who don’t know, Argentina played their second World Cup game against South Korea at 8:30am. I have to say, when it comes to being sports fans Argentineans beat Americans hands down! I have never seen anything like yesterday morning; the entire town shut down for the game! When I left the apartment at 8:30 (Zulema had had the pregame show on since before I woke up) the city was completely dead. Whereas usually when I leave in the mornings the streets are full with cars and the sidewalks are full of people, yesterday the streets and sidewalks resembled a ghost town. When the bus pulled up and I walked on I was once again surprised; I usually fight for standing room, but yesterday I had to decide between at least 15 open seats. I had heard rumors of how things were for the games, but to actually witness and experience it was amazing! I was noting how strange campus was since it was so empty (all of the Argentinean students’ classes had been cancelled) when I walked up to Casa Verde and heard from the direction of downtown a huge eruption of cheers, what sounded like fireworks or canons firing, and horns: Argentina had made a goal! When I got to my classroom upstairs we were all feeling a little sorry for ourselves since the city was shut down and near a state of celebration and we had a quiz and a test to take. However, Profe Miriam walked in, passed out our quizzes, and told us that when we finished we could go to a classroom downstairs and watch the rest of the game! It was really exciting to watch, and a few of us had dressed for the occasion in hats and jerseys and scarves (I was sporting my Messi jersey!) in order to show support for the team that we couldn’t help but adopt as our favorite while we’re here. I unfortunately didn’t get to focus solely on watching the game since I had to prepare for my written exam in my second class, so I am excited that the next game on Tuesday doesn’t start until I’m completely done for the day. Argentina won of course, and my walk home was extremely interesting as well. Córdoba was completely opposite from the last time I had seen it, and people were out and about all over the city to celebrate! I can safely say that 85% of the people, young and old alike, that I passed wore some sort of item in support of their team. Whether it was a jersey, a high school girl incorporating a scarf into her school uniform, or a flag worn as a cape, people found some way to display their support. I passed people with their faces painted, people blowing white and light blue horns in celebration, and others had even set up celebration barbecues randomly in the plazas and along the streets. I can try to explain it as best as I can, but it’s hard to grasp the feeling in the air until you experience it yourself. I was talking last night about how I would assume that American football is our country’s most popular sport, but at the same time I have never seen the level of support that I saw here yesterday! Once I got home I had a couple of hours to work on homework a little bit before leaving for our second tango class. We had had to skip it last week since we were leaving for Salta, but we picked it back up yesterday and have one more class left next week. It was once again really fun, and I’m still very proud of all of the boys for being so invested in learning! We went over the steps that we learned last time and then learned a few new ones, and by the end of the class we were all dancing in circles around the room as the second group showed up. After it was over I walked to Plaza San Martín and met Vicky in front of the cathedral. We had been talking since our first meeting about going to a theater production together, and at the end of our meeting on Wednesday we decided that we didn’t want to wait a whole week to see each other again and it was about time we stopped putting it off! However, I keep leaving her on the weekends so Thursday was our only option. She looked up shows and times and there was only one showing on Thursday, but we decided to just go because we didn’t really care what we saw, we just thought it sounded like fun! The theater that we went to is located on the perimeter of the plaza, and we got there an hour early to get a good spot in line. One of Vicky’s friends from high school who also has taken English courses, Eugenia (pronounced eh-oo-hen-ee-a), met up with us and she was a lot of fun! She was really cute and full of energy, and although the three of us had to wait in line for an hour the time passed quickly because we visited the whole time. We talked about the game that morning, Vicky and Eugenia caught up on life (Eugenia is an architecture major, so they don’t get to see each other as often as they’d like), and they taught me various words and phrases in Spanish related to theater. We were the first ones in line, so when the doors opened we were able to claim front row seats. We knew that the play was put on by a traveling Italian theater company, and while we were waiting for it to start Vicky and Eugenia were reading the program and found out that the whole play was going to be in Italian with a Spanish translation in the background. I don’t think I could’ve asked for a more cultural experience; I got to see and read a play in two languages different from my native one! The play was called “Dissonorata,” and was about a woman and her struggles throughout the earlier part of her life during the years around World War II. The production was very interesting, and only had two men: one played instruments for background music and the other was dressed as an elderly woman and sat in the middle of the stage and recalled moments earlier in “her” life. Since there wasn’t really action and I was going to have to speed-read in Spanish I was a little worried that I wouldn’t understand any of it. However, when it finished I was very proud of myself. I definitely didn’t catch every single word and some of what happened was a little fuzzy, but I totally understood the majority of what happened and was able to follow the entire storyline! Also it was fun because I recognized two of the words that Vicky and Ángel had taught me at lunch the day before. I know this is something that I never would have been able to do before I arrived to Córdoba, and since I sometimes feel like my Spanish is still horrible it’s good to have some things that help me realize that, even though I still have a long ways to go, I am improving. The play ended around 11:00 and Vicky’s boyfriend, Carlos, picked us up and drove me home. He was very nice and after hearing so much about him it was fun to finally get to meet him! I had had a great day and a wonderful evening, and even though I was super tired when I finally got home last night I was so thankful for everything that I got to take part in yesterday.

Highlights of My New, Everyday Argentine Life

Since I arrived back in Córdoba Monday morning my week has been pretty uneventful and has mainly revolved around school. Monday our classes were cancelled since we were all required to go on the trip, and Tuesday was kind of a buzz kill after the excitement of the weekend. Wednesday was a little more eventful; after my classes I met up with Vicky for our weekly lunch. She brought one of her classmates, Ángel, with her because he is studying English as well and wanted to meet me. The three of us had a good time sitting at a café on campus and visiting in a mixture of English and Spanish. It’s hard for me to force myself to speak in Spanish around them since their English is so good, but once I got going it was really fun. It’s interesting because in our classes we are taught the official form of the language. Therefore, sometimes I would say words that were technically correct, but Vicky and Ángel would kind of laugh and then proceed to tell me that nobody actually uses those words and using them makes you sound arrogant. Then they would tell me the more common ones and I would do my best to commit them to memory. At the same time, they would sometimes say words that aren’t very common in English and I would do the same for them. It was a really cool learning experience; I feel like that is exactly what the Speaking Partner program was designed to do! We talked until they had to go to class and the three hours passed by quickly. In times when I am frustrated with my classes, start to miss home, or start to wonder if the money I’m spending is really worth it, it’s moments like Wednesday afternoon that make me remember why I’m here. There is no way that I could have ever had an experience like that in any type of class; I am learning so much more than the technical aspects of the language, and I realized that these daily lessons are going to be the difference between my academic knowledge of Spanish and me actually being able to use it to carry on conversations and get to know people. The whole afternoon was very nice, and after Vicky had to leave I walked back home. I started doing homework and Zulema was getting ready for her Folklore dance class. Usually, because of her class, we just have empanada Wednesdays, but she told me that Hugo was coming over so she started preparing dinner super early. Then, when she left, she put me in charge of finishing everything. I am usually nervous about messing things up when given directions in English; having been given directions in Spanish AND the fact that I had to use a stove that requires being manually lit by a little lighter was nerve wracking beyond belief. But after a minimal amount of difficulties I succeeded, and when Zulema came back everything was almost ready. I’m not really sure how this happened, but somehow everyone was here and ready to eat at the same time, and we had a nice little family dinner set-up of Zulema, Hugo, Sergio, and myself. As it’s usually just Zulema and I at nights, it was really fun to have a crowd and talk about things. After dinner I had to return to work and study for my test and quiz the following day, but it wasn't as bad after the wonderful day filled with great company.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

El asado de sus vidas


Sunday morning we were given the opportunity to sleep in, but I got up early and walked to the main plaza to go to mass at the cathedral at 8:00. The walk was so nice; the world seemed so peaceful and quiet that early in the morning, and the only people I passed on the way were cute old women heading the same direction as me. Mass was, of course, gorgeous. Going to church here in Argentina has such a different feeling to it than going to church back home: not necessarily better or worse, just different. The architecture of the churches is awe inspiring, and it takes complete concentration for me to figure out what they are saying. You would assume that that would lead to me paying less attention to what is going on, but the truth is actually the contrary. When I sat in my pew I was the only occupant, but by the time mass started I was situated between a very old woman and man, both of whom were adorable. I’m pretty sure I picked up on what the readings were about, and I was proud of myself because I have started to remember some of the Spanish responses. After mass I walked back to our hotel and hung out in the lobby as everyone began to appear for breakfast. Around 10:00 we loaded the bus and headed for El Bordo de las Lanzas Ranch. The ranch was about thirty minutes outside of Salta, and on the way they told us that it’s one of the oldest ranches in the area. It has been passed down through the family for many generations, and has historically been very successful in its agricultural production. They sometimes host weddings out there and people can pay (an extremely high price) to stay out at the ranch house, but what they do for the UT students every year is a special thing that they only do for us because we’re associated with the university. When we arrived we got off of the bus and Augustine, the son who currently manages the property, told us a brief history of the place. After that we were set free to just hang out all day and do whatever we wanted to. The grounds were beautiful! The Spanish-style ranch house was huge and surrounded by orange trees and gardens and flowers of every color. We all set our things down in one of the bedrooms and the first group of us set off to go ride the horses. The horses were waiting for us in the corral along with a few of the people who worked on the ranch who were dressed in traditional gaucho attire. My horse’s name was Mara and she had a baby who was allowed to come with us and was extremely cute! We rode down a path near some of the sugar cane fields and got to watch them using the machines to harvest it. We then rode to a previously harvested field and got to ride around it for a while. It was so much fun! After we returned to the corral the next group mounted the horses and our group went back to the house to wait for lunch. They were serving drinks so I got a glass of wine and was just sitting on the porch enjoying visiting, looking at the grounds, and trying some fresh sugar cane when Roxana (the program director) asked if a couple of us wanted a tour of the asado (Argentine barbecue). Of course I said yes; I had been hearing about this barbecue since Roxana had visited UT and I had met her in November! She walked us over to where the men were preparing the asado and you can’t believe the quantity of meat they had waiting to be cooked! Roxana pointed out the difference in the style of the Argentine barbecue in comparison to a normal American one. The men had built the fire far to the side of the meat, not underneath it. In order to cook it, once the fire got hot enough she explained that they would use the glowing embers and shovel little quantities at a time underneath the meat. Also, the only seasoning they used was a special type of salt that they showed us. It was extremely course and the granules were very large; apparently, this allows most of it to cook off so that the majority of it is not infused into the meat. Anyways, the whole explanation and “tour” was very interesting, and I kind of couldn’t believe that I enjoyed it so much. After a little more time the empanadas were ready and we all enjoyed our appetizer. Then, finally, after much anticipation it was time for us to experience what we had been told would be “el asado de nuestras vidas” (the barbecue of our lives)! Although I think many of us had been a little skeptical, it only took minutes for us to see what everyone had been talking about. The salad spread alone was one of the most beautifully extensive ones that I’ve ever seen (at least definitely since arriving in Argentina), and the steak was wonderful! Considering that I’m sure that everyone who is reading this knows my eating habits, I am assuming that you understand the weight behind those words. Even more, just when we thought it couldn’t get any better, the kitchen maids formed a dessert parade and carried all of the dessert dishes out to the table. I don’t even know what everything was, but it wasn’t flan and it was all outstanding! After the meal I’m pretty sure none of us ever wanted to see food again, and we all enjoyed lazily lounging around in the sun and visiting. After a couple of hours Augustine’s wife rounded everyone up and told us that “the kids were going to put on a dance show.” Not knowing what to expect, we all sat on the porch and waited for the show to begin. I am certain that this was one of the best surprises of the weekend! The “kids” were a group of children who take Folklore dance lessons; although I’m not sure when they arrived or where they came from, they were not only adorable, but amazing dancers! Although Argentina is known for Tango, we were told that it is mainly popular in the regions near Buenos Aires. Folklore is much more common in the area of the country that we were in, and being able to watch the kids was a wonderful cultural experience. After their final dance they came back and it was announced that each was going to choose a partner from the crowd to dance with them. I was one of the fortunate “chosen ones,” and I got to dance with Gustavo who couldn’t have been older than 9 and was super cute! We all had such a fun time dancing with them, and at the end of the one song I think we all would have been game for round two! After the performance we were served meriendas of tea, coffee, and freshly baked banana bread, orange bread, and regular bread. At 6:00 they unfortunately made us put an end to our wonderful day, and we were all forced to say good-bye to the ranch and load the bus to head back to Salta. Once there, we made a quick stop at the hotel to pick up our luggage and then started the long drive back to Córdoba that officially ended our wonderful weekend.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Please Forgive Me Llama Lovers...


Saturday morning we all received our wake-up calls at 7:00 and got on the bus an hour later. We took off in the direction of Pumamarca, a small town further north and in the “state” of Jujuy. I will safely say that the majority of our group slept for most of the two-and-a-half hour drive, and I definitely joined in after reading up a little bit in my friend Rachel’s Buenos Aires travel guide. About twenty minutes outside of Pumamarca, our tour guide, Mercedes, woke us up to start telling us about the landscape. The mountains were pretty, but in a completely different way than the mountains last weekend in Mendoza. The explanation I keep giving people that I’ve talked to is that when you think of Mendoza mountains think more Colorado; when you think of Salta mountains, think more Arizona and New Mexico. Both types are beautiful, but each is a unique type of beautiful. About five minutes outside of the town we stopped to observe and take pictures of the famous Mountains of Painter's Colors. They were so beautiful! Layers of every shade of purple, red, orange, yellow, and green dominated the skyline; I am very glad that Susana had lent me her camera because I don’t think I could ever sufficiently explain with words how pretty these mountains are! After we took pictures we continued on our way into Pumamarca to prepare to go hiking around the mountains near the town. Pumamarca was a very cute little pueblo with little adobe-like buildings lining the few, small streets as well as numerous artisans set up around the main city square offering colorful, handmade blankets, scarves, mate cups, llama and alpaca sweaters, and much more. We browsed a little before setting off, and then followed the guide down a path leading outside of the town. We were able to walk among many of the mountain formations and observe the colorful landmarks from different, and even more magnificent, viewpoints. The landscape was dotted with colorful dirt hills and mountains lining the horizon, as well as huge cacti and desert shrubbery scattered in every direction. Despite the fact that we had been hearing since before we left Texas to prepare for the extreme cold in the mountains near Salta, this fictional freezing weather was non-existent when we were there. All dressed in jeans and long-sleeved shirts, our entire group was burning up while walking around. However, I don’t think we were complaining too much since we are all missing summer weather right now! A little ways into the hike we came across a huge red dirt/rock hill and decided to climb it. After the extremely easy path that we’d been following, the rock gave us a fun challenge as well as a magnificent view once we reached the top! Everyone had a good time on this little unexpected adventure, and we all made sure to have photo shoots before descending back to the ground to join the ones who stayed behind. We continued on and the landscape continued to amaze us. Once we reached Pumamarca again we had a few minutes to shop before hopping back in the bus to drive the half hour to another, even smaller pueblo called Tilcara where they were expecting us for lunch. On the bus Mercedes was talking to us about the significance and importance of the llama to the area of South America that we were in, and she finished her explanation with, “And today you are all going to get to try this animal for lunch!” That is correct everyone…our entire group ate LLAMA for lunch! When we arrived in Tilcara I honestly felt like we were in the middle of nowhere and surrounded by desert. The bus couldn’t fit comfortably in the small, narrow roads of the town so we all unloaded and walked the remaining few blocks to our restaurant. On our way the silence of the town was suddenly broken by a parade of cars continually blasting their horns and waving Argentina flags out of the windows: Argentina had won their first fútbol match of this year’s World Cup! It’s amazing how this sport bonds together the people of this country; even in a remote pueblo where signs of extreme poverty were nearly everywhere you turned, people were going over the top to celebrate their country’s victory. It was a really cool site to witness, and I can’t wait to see the excitement escalate over the next few weeks! Our restaurant was extremely cozy and gave the feeling of being served in someone’s home. The llama was actually very good, but the best part of the meal came just as we were all finishing. A band that consisted of men playing popular indigenous instruments appeared from the kitchen and we all had a private concert within the restaurant! They played instruments such as the guitar, the wind pipes, a huge drum, and a special indigenous type of horn that had to have been at least six feet long but, other than that, is nearly indescribable. The music was great, and I even had a wonderful surprise when they played one of my favorite songs of all time, Imagine by John Lennon. Sadly the performance eventually had to come to an end and we all left the restaurant and headed toward the other end of the town to visit an archaeological sight. We ascended the hill called Pucará, and at the top, among what seemed like a forest of huge cacti, we were able to wander in and among reconstructed Indian dwellings. By the time we arrived back at the bottom of the hill and walked back to the bus we were all quite exhausted, but we had one more stop a little ways down the road before we officially headed back to Salta. It was another place to stop and have a better view of another beautiful mountain range; however, Mercedes warned us before we got there that when we got off of the bus we would be greeted by a group of women and children who would offer us necklaces as a gift along with a slip of paper that had their address. These people live in a cooperative settlement and give every visitor a handmade necklace for free, their only hope being that when the visitors return to wherever they’re from that they’ll return the kindness by using the address to send them something, such as clothes or pencils, to help them out. Mercedes couldn’t have been more correct, and when we stepped off of the bus we were adorned with necklaces made of what looks like yarn and peanuts and each handed a slip of paper with an address scribbled on it. Also, the women and children offered to sell us some of their homemade products from their co-op, including jams, canned fruits and vegetables, and freshly baked bread. After visiting with the people for a while we all got back on the bus and returned to Salta. I fell asleep pretty quickly and was out until the sound of Fabio walking up the stairs and calling out, “Ok chicos, here comes Uncle Fabio with alfajores!” woke me up about twenty minutes outside of the city. Once back we had about an hour to shower and change before meeting back in the lobby to head to the same restaurant we had gone to the night before for dinner. The day before José (our extracurricular program director) had made reservations for those who wanted at a place called La Peña, which is a sort of restaurant/bar where they put on a nightly show. So, after dinner, everyone who had signed up and paid headed over to the other side of Salta to witness some Folklore singing, dancing, and even a ventriloquist! With a lively atmosphere and one drink gratis included in our admission fee, we all enjoyed ourselves for a few hours before heading out to experience the Salta nightlife. When we all finally returned to the hotel for bed there was no denying that it had been a great, memorable day!

Just Say, “Fabio, I Need to Send a Fax”


Thursday night at 9:30 kicked off our weekend adventure to the northwest region of Argentina. This trip was the one organized by the program office, so all forty of the UT students met up at Patio Olmos to board the two-story bus that would soon become a sort of “home away from home” for us for the whole weekend. Once we were all loaded we set off on the eleven-hour trip to Salta. I’m not exactly sure how it all worked, but I think the bus company provided us with a tour guide whose name was Fabio. This man was hilarious, but not because he was trying to be, just because he was somewhat ridiculous. He was a middle-aged man who spoke some English, but he would get words mixed up or say phrases incorrectly. The quote of the trip generated within the first few minutes of the bus ride. Fabio got on the microphone to welcomed us and to explain the rules of the bus. He told us that the bathroom was located on the “bottom” and was only to be used for “the liquids.” Then he proceeded to tell us that if we “needed to do the second” (not number two, the second…) then we needed to tell him so they could pull the bus over somewhere. He told us that we didn’t need to tell him any details, all we had to do was say, “Fabio, I need to send a fax,” and he would find us a place to send the fax and, if necessary, even provide us with paper for that fax. I know this blog entry cannot do this incident any justice and is probably not that funny to most of you reading it; however, believe me when I say that I don’t think any of us on that bus will ever forget that moment! After that Fabio passed out some alfajores (wonderful Argentine cookies that are pretty much made of dulce de leche sandwiched between two cookies), turned on a movie, and the rest of the drive was rather uneventful. We finally arrived at our hotel in Salta around 9:30 to drop off our bags, eat breakfast, and (most importantly) catch as much as we could of the first World Cup game! After breakfast we divided into two groups, Spanish and English, and all set off for a city tour of Salta. The city is very pretty! Being in the northwest it has a rich gaucho (Argentine cowboy) heritage, so in addition to the expected elaborate and beautiful statues and fountains, the main city square had horses lined up with men dressed in traditional gaucho gear for photo opportunities. Furthermore, a big holiday is coming up soon honoring the famous gaucho Güemes, so the plaza was festively decorated and we were able to see a small gaucho parade and a performance by the state (of Salta) military band. Also located in the main plaza was the cathedral that, like nearly all of the churches I’ve seen here, was absolutely gorgeous! The next stop on our tour was another very pretty Catholic church; although it was closed and we didn’t get to go inside, just the exterior of the church was beautiful, and painted a striking red and ornamented with gold details. Our final stop was in front of yet another church, but this one was much more simple. Our guide told us that it was originally built as an ordinary church but, many years ago, was converted into a nunnery. This nunnery is apparently very well known, and a distinct characteristic of it is that once the women go in they never come back out. After hearing this piece of information we were then interested to hear that it has one of the longest waiting lists of girls and women who want to live there! Outside of the nunnery some local artisans had set up blankets displaying their goods, and we had fun looking at all of the items they had for sale before once again getting on the bus. We were running late, so we just drove by the famous Güemes monument and then headed to a town about fifteen minutes outside of Salta for lunch. The place that we ate was beautiful; it was situated right next to a river with a wonderful view of some of the heavily wooded, green foothills of the Andes. After our typical Argentine lunch of beef milanesa, we enjoyed getting to explore and walk along, in, and around the river before it was time to head back into the city. The next stop was back in Salta at the Teleférico, or cable cars, that we were able to ride up to the top of Mt. San Bernardo. The view of Salta from the top of the mountain was amazing! Also, a series of waterfalls and religious monuments had been constructed at the top, and we enjoyed walking around and taking in the views. After about thirty minutes we went back to the base and set off for our last event of the day: the Museo Antroplógico de Alta Montaña, or MAAM. This anthropological museum was really cool! It is located near the cathedral in the main plaza and, although it is quite small, it is home to some really interesting archaeological finds from the mountains near the Salta region. The main exhibit is of some indigenous children that they found within the last ten years or so. I need to check up on my facts, but from what I gathered these kids (two girls and a boy, all under the age of eleven or so) were offered up as a sacrifice on top of a mountain, froze to death, and then were buried. Since they froze, they were pretty much naturally mummified; therefore, when the archaeologists found them somewhat recently, their bodies were more or less still intact. The three of them rotate between MAAM, a museum in Buenos Aires, and internationally to museums around the world. On Saturday we got to see the little boy and it was super cool! He kind of looked like a doll, and it was really weird to think that he was an actual human. After the museum we went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner, and around 9:00 we headed to the restaurant. It was really nice and we were served lasagna, which was a nice change of pace from the usual hunk of meat with a side of potatoes that we’re all used to expecting. We were warned that we were going to have to be on the bus by 8:00 the next morning, so I heeded the warnings of the program directors and went back to the hotel after dinner and got ready for bed.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

A Small Speedbump in my Argentina Bliss

I apologize for the lack of posts this week. Since I got back Monday morning my life here has either been quite boring or upsetting, with the former not giving me anything to write about and the latter not motivating me to write at all. On top of my normal class work I had two oral presentations, a debate, and some quizzes. I still like my classes and feel like I am learning a lot, but at the same time I am extremely glad that this was another four-day school week! However, after having such a wonderful weekend and feeling as if Sunday was the best day of my trip, I feel that it was almost inevitable that something would happen to ruin my Argentina bliss. Tuesday was quite a bummer; my purse was stolen out of the Program Office in Casa Verde. As had pretty much become the usual routine, after class Caroline and I left our stuff in the office while we went running in Parque Sarmiento. The program directors assured us that somebody is always in there and that our stuff would be safe. Many students do this, and on Tuesday specifically there were at least five of us with our belongings in there. However, when Caroline and I returned my purse was gone. Thankfully I’m quite careful and don’t carry much cash, my iPhone, my passport, or my debit card with me; therefore, all I really lost was about $140 pesos ($35 USD), my driver’s license, Zulema’s house keys, and my camera. The last two were obviously the biggest problem, and it’s been no fun dealing with replacing those. The police were called and I was forced to stay on campus forever, but once we discovered my purse was gone I had no hope of ever seeing it again; if the U.S. police couldn’t recover my purse that was stolen out of my car last summer, I didn’t have much faith in the UNC police. The nice thing is that the program directors feel really bad and are doing all they can to replace my stuff. Susana (second-in-command of the program) called Zulema for me and explained what happened and told her that they’d pay for her to have her locks replaced. Also, she wants to compensate me for my camera. I talked to her today and she said that she is communicating with the UT program directors to see if it is ok with them to give me money to replace it; therefore, if I don’t receive anything it is purely the fault of Americans. So in the end it really isn’t that bad, and I am extremely aware that it could be much worse. So besides school, talking to police, and replacing my stuff I really haven’t been up to much this week. Today after my classes I had quite a bit of time, so I decided to walk around. I needed a new purse before tonight, and I was determined to find an extremely cheap one. It actually ended up being a very much needed, enjoyable afternoon. After my little streak of bad luck, walking around today reminded me how much I really do love it here. I walked along the pedestrian streets near the plaza and browsed the items that the vendors were selling. Amongst the scarves and hats and movies and Messi jerseys (futbol craze is already rampant here – I can’t even imagine what it’s going to be like on Saturday) I stumbled across an artist and was immediately mesmerized by his work. Although I’m not an art expert, I thought his paintings were beyond wonderful. Additionally, my respect for his talent increased exponentially when I joined the crowd that was watching him in action. Quite obviously homeless, he created his artwork solely with spray paint, newspaper, and his hands. I wish I would’ve had a camera and I would have videoed some of his techniques; his style was truly unique, and taking the time to watch him work made my afternoon. If I would have had more pesos I am quite sure that I would have bought one of the paintings! My afternoon around town ended with me finding a purse at a vendor near Patio Olmos. It only cost me $35 (less than $9USD), so I felt like my shopping adventure was a success! I returned home and showered, napped, and then packed for the trip this weekend. I am about to leave to go meet up with the group for our big excursion to Salta that was organized through the program and won’t be back until Monday. I will take many mental notes and Susana said she’s going to lend me her camera, so hopefully when I get back Monday morning I will have plenty of stories and pictures to once again share with everyone!