True Study Abroad Experiences

Last Monday I turned 20. It was quite a pleasant birthday. I got to do some reflection and I surprised myself with how much fun I could have by myself on my birthday.

On my actually birthday I didn't do a lot. I had class late and had class the next day. Sumanya got me a huge bouquet of flowers, which was really nice. I was actually about to leave the house and go buy myself some when she came in with them. Carmen also got me a gift! It was a mug with flowers on it. I love it because 1) it reminds me of her and 2) because when I move off campus next year, I'll have something to put in my cupboards! I also got my birthday cards on my actually birthday! I ended up going out for a little bit with Diana, Lauren, and Laura.

Then Wednesday night I had a HUGE dinner with my host mom, Sumanya (the roomie), Cyd, Brent, and Julianna. Cyd brought me flowers and Julianna gave me these beautiful turquoise blue and silver earrings. We had so much fun making the food! We made homemade hummus with red pepper, carrots, and toasted tortillas for dipping. Brent made a killer guacamole dip and marinated some chicken in this great lime/cilantro mix. We cooked up veggies, the chicken, and some rice and had killer fajitas. The woman above us (Elisa-longtime friend of Carmen's) made this AMAZING chimichurri sauce. It was one of the spiciest things that I've had in a loonng time. Then Carmen made me the biggest punch bowl of chocolate mousse that you've ever done seen. FABULOUS. I also learned that Argentina doesn't call "tortilla" a tortilla, they call them "rapiditas," or "little fast ones."

After dinner we youngens went out to a bar and played pool. It was a lot of fun. I also realized how little time left I have here. And I remember sitting around thinking "I'm not ready to leave" in that moment. I do miss the States, my friends, family, real school (ha, never thought I'd say that), certain teachers (*coughdrtatecough*), etc. But I do love it here. There's so much to do, so much to see. I feel like I'm running out of time. I also know that there are people who have lived here their entire lives and still don't know everything about this city. I love the freedom I have in going anywhere, at anytime I want. It's a complicated emotion, on the same page of living 2 lives at once.

Buenos Aires has themed months. Last month was an international film festival, this month is a huge book fair!! Basically all the book stores around Buenos Aires get together and set up these huge stands where they sell thousands and thousands of books. I went last Friday and I have to go back. It's so big it's hard to navigate and it's easy to loose hours and hours in there. I want to buy an Argentine cook book. The other day I also went to the botanical gardens with Julianna and Sumanya. We walked around looking at statues and trees.. and then we started taking pictures with everything. There are some comical ones up on my photo site.

As of yesterday I only have 3 more months left in my study abroad experience. And it was quite a little "anniversary," if you will. I went to Colonia, Uruguay with my group. It was a lot of fun. Because I went with my mom and sister, I sat on the beach all day long with Brent, Lauren, Miranda, and Diana. We just chilled out. I wore sunscreen. It was a beautiful day. Some other people joined us and we sat on the beach with snacks and talked and played the guitar. It was such a classical American college movie scene. Only on a beach in Uruguay.

Then I came home around 11pm and decided to go out for a few hours. I met up with Lauren, Diana, and 2 other friends. We went half way downtown to meet up with some other friends. Lauren, Diana, and I decided to leave early; we wanted to wake up reasonable early today and be good students.

We left, looking for a bus station. We walked a block too far, turned around and started walking back. We were a block away from a busy intersection with 5 or 10 other people on the street. I noticed this guy walking behind us really fast, and I thought "we're going to get robbed... no.. stop being paranoid." Suddenly he was between Diana and I. I thought I heard him say "permiso," or "excuse me," but instead of continuing on he stopped in front of Diana. He grabbed her purse, and before we had time to react and reach back for it, he was brandishing a short, sharp blade. He asked for my money and then noticed my cell phone. I made a move to get my phone, but suddenly he was in my pocket. I remember thinking "how do i say "i can get it for you" in Spanish?" Then he left.

I only lost 20 pesos ($8) and my cell phone (which is actually Carmen's, but I'm going to replace it). Diana lost her camera, phone, some money, and her house keys. Lauren didn't loose anything because 1) she was a little bit ahead of us and 2) she didn't have anything on her. Diana ended up staying over at my house for the evening, seeing as her host mom wasn't in the house for the evening and she didn't have any way to get into her apartment. We told Carmen about what happened in the morning. I'm glad we waited to tell her until the morning because she didn't let go of me for 5 minutes. But other than looking like she was going to die from fright she really didn't yell at me or lecture me too much. She did ask me why I didn't punch him in the stomach, but I'll just use the language barrier as an excuse. She was more amazing then I expected about Diana. She offered her food, a shower, and the phone. I didn't think that Carmen would be upset to have her stay the night, but the rest was a really unexpected blessing.

I am fine. Just a little shocked, angry, and pissed that I *sort of* knew it was happening, and I didn't do anything about it. I feel sort of violated that he went into my pocket. And also like "why didn't I punch him in the gut when he was so close to me?" (Oh, yeah, that knife, now I remember). I feel worse for Diana because she lost her camera. I think part of the reason I'm not completely pissed is that I didn't think I'd make it out of Buenos Aires without being robbed/pick-pocketed. I'm just glad it was what it was--not my camera, iPod, computer, or jewelry. The other day I was sitting in ISA and out of 15 people only 3 (including myself) could raise their hands when asked "Who hasn't been robbed?" It's not that Buenos Aires is super dangerous or the only place where this type of thing happens. As all Argentines like to remind you; "It can happen en todos lados, everywhere."

So in the coming week, I'll be watching my back like a paranoid tourist (tee hee), buying a new phone, buying an Argentine cook book, and planning my exciting adventures at the end of the semester... more details to come!

Also (big news): Shakira might be coming to Buenos Aires... and giving a FREE CONCERT!!!! She'd be coming along with several other artists, including Maná (a personal favorite), Miguel Bose, and other big name artists. I think she'll be giving it around the Oblesik on the 9th of July Ave., the largest in the world. Basically they'll just set up a stage and hundreds of thousands of people will come and stand around, blocking traffic and singing; an Argentine MusicMidTown if you will. I am very excited!

An Update from Down Here

My mom and sister came to visit me!! hooray! It was very nice to have them here. I got to show them empanadas, Malbec, and my barrio of Belgrano. We went to Colonia, Uruguay which is just across the river an hour in a fast boat. The ferry boat looked like a cruise ship on the inside. It was very exciting! Colonia is a beautiful, quiet, riverside historical district city that was an amazing and much needed break from the air, noise, and bustle of Buenos Aires. We also went to Club Virtua and had dinner, learned how to tango, and watched a little show. Lindsay and I went to the movies, saw an English movie with Spanish subtitles (hey, it counts as cultural, ok??). We saw all the fairs. We ate lots of helado, or amazing Buenos Airean ice cream. They stayed in an apartment close to Carmen's, which was nice, even though I ended up living with them for the week.

I received my father's package--finally. It was quite an adventure. First I received a notice to go to the local post office. I went and waited about 20 minutes to receive a sealed envelope. And as much as I love a good treasure hunt, I didn't like what that envelope told me. I opened it and found out that I would have to go down to Retiro, which was almost on the other side of town. Retiro is the side of town where people leave Buenos Aires by bus or ferry. It's dirty, dangerous, and really annoying to get to. I was also mad because the lovely Argentine mail service makes you pay for everyday that you don't come and collect your mail. The next day I set out on my adventure of Retiro. I got to the post office before it opened at 10am. Good thing I did there was a line already. I waited 10 minutes to be waited on and then I waited another 3 hours before I got my package. Luckily I knew that there was at least peanut butter in it, so it didn't matter how hungry I was, I was going to have some food!! In the end, it was worth the wait, I got a HUGE jar of peanut butter, granola bars, mac and cheese (Dad, seriously...), and Ramen (again... what? Well I plan on using it while I'm traveling). And I didn't have to pay a fee for having not collected my box for 4 days. So it was all good.

To answer Becky's question (btw: I can't believe you read my blog! how exciting! Why can't I read your's?) about the Dirty War children trials: No, it really isn't big news. I think maybe I saw a mid-newspaper headline, but BBC news had more about what was going on then the Argentine news. They were too busy covering the campo strikes. The other thing is that there is a good majority of the population that believe the Dirty War and the desaparecidos didn't happen, much like the Holocaust. So to report it brings up lots of bad feelings and political issues. As I'm sure I've said before, the government still hasn't punished many of the main supporters of the military government that committed these horrible crimes. It's just another sad example of corruption in Argentina.

Another interesting thing about the BBC news; they didn't really start reporting about the campo strikes until about a month in. But they did have headlines about the Dirty War children investigations and also about the massive, suffocating blanket of smoke that is covering Buenos Aires. The smoke is from the farmers up north burning their fields. Over 50,000 hectares, or 123,552 acres have been burned thus far. From as far north as Rosario (4 hours by bus) all the way down to Montevideo, Uruguay has been covered in this horrible, smelling, suffocating, irritating cloud of smoke. It really hasn't been very pleasant. At first the news was even reporting that the smoke was full of carbon monoxide and that it was from burning trash. We were all going to die. But now there's a big debate between, suprise, suprise, the government and the country side. The country side says that they were only burning the land to farm (and some whispering of it being a show of rebellion). And Cristina is yelling that the country side has the power to stop it, so why don't they?? (Have I mentioned that she really hasn't down a lot with negotiating with the farmers?)

But whatever the reason the smoke is still here. Vendors are selling medical nose and mouth masks, the kind you see people with TB or in a flu-infected area of Asia wearing. Normally the mornings are better than the evenings. But whatever wind it is that stops blowing by mid-day then lets all the smoke just descend. Carmen can't stop crying because it irritates her eyes. At the end of the day, I have to take out my contacts because they are so dry. What's worse is that my throat is starting to hurt, but luckily my lungs haven't given out. I just get cranky and have a big headache. But life in the big BA goes onward.

Last night I went to one of the most quintessintial Argentine events in all history of Argentine--un partido de FUTBOL!!!! Or, for those that don't read Spanish, a soccer game. I went to a River del Plata game, which is one of the 2 big teams here in Argentina. The other (and archnemisis [we're talking Michigain and Ohio, UGA and Tech, and the Seminoles and Gators all rolled into one multiplied with Argentine passion]) is La Boca.

But I went to a River game. I wore red and got all excited. It was awesome. I went with Sumanya, Brent, and some other friends of Sumanya. One of them is a guy from Peru, who was the other team that we (River) was playing. We kept making fun of him for having to sit in the River side and also because we were kicking some serious butt. Getting into the stadium was really interesting. First we stood in one line for 30 minutes to find out that we were in a line to buy tickets when we already had them, so then we ran half way around the stadium. It just made everything more exciting.

We sat in the section called "popular," which means the cheap, general admission tickets. It's also the most raucous, and depending on the game, can be dangerous. It also smells like weed. The seats were dirty and uncomfortable, but everything was so much fun. The stadium was about 3 levels high, and the real fans were sitting on the railing of the balconies, just one good (or disappointing) play from falling off. There were homemade signs and flags everywhere. We also noticed right away that there wasn't a scoreboard. I don't know why, or how everyone knew exactly was going on, but hey--it sure made me pay attention better! There were televisions hanging from the balcony above where we were seated, but we were in front of them so therefore we couldn't see them.

Probably the best part of the game was listening to the River fans chant. Futbol chants are very important in a game. And kids learn them when they are young. One of the girl's down here said that one night at a family dinner, she heard one of the husbands singing his 5 month old baby to sleep with River chants instead of lullabies. I didn't understand alot of what they were singing, but I understood the context, and a few "choice" words. One of the guys we were with made the astute observation that they don't sell beer or any kindaof liquor inside of the stadiums, which is interesting considering they sell beer and liquor everywhere. Typical futbol food, therefore, is a coke and a pancho or the Argentine name for an American hot dog. General they put salsa golf (Mayo and Ketchup mixed) on top with little french fry crispies. The other day I had my first pancho, but I was with Sumanya and Julian, whose from Mexico. So he brought his Mexican spices and we spiced those puppies down. My lips continued to tingle pleasantly after I was done eating.

I've really missed spicy food. I mean Argentine food is very good and tasty, but it doesn't have the zip that other cultures have.

To answer my sister's comment: No, the schools in El Tigre weren't on boats, they were on one of the little islands. You had to take a boat to get to the school.

In other news: my Google browser has set itself to German... too bad I'm not taking that until next semester. I can change my language to Spanish or English, but the search still comes up in German... oh well. So goes the crazy life down here.

that was a good run

I had a really nice run today and I just wanted to share. Because it was dusky, I ran my "blocks." I don't like to run too far when it's getting dark, just for safety reasons. When it is atardecer, or dusk, I normally run two blocks down, walk a block over, then run up two blocks, walk a block over, run two blocks down, etc until I've run about 5 or 6 blocks, and then all the way back again. And because it's turning fall here, the air is nice and crisp. I also had mate before I went on my run so I had some extra energy from that. It was just nice.

The campesinos have agreed to lift their blockages for 30 days to see if the government actually fulfills their part of the deal agreed on between the two parties. If not fulfills the deal, at least continues talks to arrive at some type of agreement.

My hardest class has to be "Argentina; An Open Society Transforming," first because every time the teacher opens her mouth I have wonder what language she's speaking, because it sure isn't English but it doesn't sound much like Spanish either, and secondly because of the material. We talk a lot about how the society of Argentina is, what sectors there are, and how they affect each other. But there's an extensive amount of material-themed vocabulary that I don't understand. So why does this relate to the campesinos? The professor made several interesting points in class (and I actually understood what she was saying!!):

One: Tuesday, the entire downtown sector of Buenos Aires was essentially shut down because supporters of the government were having a rally to show their support for the reforms that are making the campesinos so made. My professor, however, pointed out that there are a good number of people that the government actually bussed in from outer provinces and paid them to come protest. You read that correctly. If the government didn't pay them, they offered the "option" of being able to go to work or go protest. If the person declined protesting over working, the government official would basically shrug their shoulders and say "well, if that's what you want to do, but who knows if you're going to have a job tomorrow if you don't go..." Now, there are a fair amount of people that were out there protesting voluntarily, but there was also a good percentage that were bussed in.

Two: I have always heard that a stereotype of Americans is that they aren't political enough and don't know anything about their own government. But I was surprised to come to Argentina and find them so political active... in ever country but their own. Yes, you do have a general few that are protesting, but out of a city of (including outer areas) 13 million, it's only a few thousand protesting. The point that my professor brought up was "Why would Argentineans have any reason to be politically active? Most of us lived 15 years of our lives under a dictatorship where we were strongly discouraged (read killed and disappeared) from protesting or taking political action. Then after the dictatorship, we had corrupt presidents and governments one after the other constantly. What are we to do?" I suppose any outsider might say "Well you keep trying! You keep voting in uncorrupted governments! You don't give up!" But I think it's the same sentiment of those Americans who don't vote because they feel it doesn't count via the Electoral College.

I think Argentines are such interesting people. I'm not sure if I've said this before, so I'll say it again:

Before I came to Argentina, two things I had heard that Argentines were very prideful and that they liked to talk all the misery of the world for themselves because of their corrupt governments. My initial responses were: well everyone can be prideful and everyone's government is corrupt, therefore it can't be that bad.

I got here: I was wrong about the extent of the corruption in their government. The people don't have any trust in it, and nothing can really be done because their constitution doesn't have the checks and balances that ours does. Note: I recognize that our government is corrupt/could use some work, but I do believe that because of our checks and balances written in our Constitution, a lot of corruption that could have been, hasn't been able to occur.

I think this loss of hope is where Argentineans pride comes to play. Argentina is such a beautiful, resourceful country that has seen some amazing times. At one point she and her people were better off than many countries in Western Europe. What a hard fall on pride when Argentina's governments started turning her sour. I think for a lot of Argentineans, they have been ingrained and raised to know how wonderful their country can be, and not to feel shame, but they are shamed to see how their country is now--so they appear super prideful to overcompensate.

So am I still starving you might ask? Well, this past Friday, the president asked the strikers to stop the strike so that they could all start talking. They are still in discussion, though I'm not sure that the routes have been cleared. The people protesting in the streets has stopped. I am really hoping that the blockades will end soon.

This past Sunday I took a day trip with my program to a place called El Tigre. It is a delta area about 30 km north of Buenos Aires, therefore making it a perfect day trip. We got on a train that runs the upper parameter of Buenos Aires and her barrios. We rode for about 30 minutes and then we desembarked. We were in this pretty little town with wide canals. We hopped into a lancha, or boat, and we started to tour the town. That's right, you can only really tour the town via boats. Most of the people actually live on little sediment islands. So instead of having a car, these people have boats.

The houses were very pretty and old. I saw a lot in the early 1900s English and German style. I was surprised at how old they were, and that they hadn't been swept away by some natural force. Apparently they don't have hurricanes in this area. I did notice that some houses were on stilts, but only certain areas. This stilting is because the area does get flooding at times. Apparently when a South Eastern wind blows, it creates a blockage with the main river route, so the water from the other rivers pools up and creates floods.

The people of Tigre do everything via water. There is a super market boat that comes around and let's people do their shopping. They have a elementary and high school (they don't have middle school here). There are also churches and parks for the people.

My group stopped off at this little area that had food and a little, little beach. We hung out there for several hours, just chilling. It was very pretty. I played Frisbee. It was so much fun. Then we left and headed to a place called "Puerto de Frutos" or Fruit Port where they used to sell all the fresh fruit and vegetables, but now is just a huge artesian fair. I bought a wooden mate cup for 3 pesos.

They also had waffles there. This would be the first time I've seen waffles since I've left the States. But they weren't really waffles. I mean they did have your average plain waffle shape, but what everyone was really eating were waffles on a stick. They would take a banana or a stick of cheese wrapped in ham (oh. yeah. that's Argentina for you) and then dip it in batter and cook it. After that, they'd dip it in chocolate or dulce de leche, depending on your preference. It was pretty interesting to see them. One of the girls from my program who goes to OSU (GO BUCKEYES!) says that it reminded her of the Ohio State Fair where they fry anything you could possible want to eat fried.

Then we continued on. We stopped by this really chill spot and watched the sun go down as people wind surfed and something else that's hard to explain, but if you look at my pictures you'll see. They had a live DJ and almost every imaginable outdoor sport there was available.

Overall it was a wonderful day and I didn't get sunburned! Reapplication is key.

I also gave a presentation for my history class Monday. I thought that it went pretty well. But what I was really pleased to hear was people coming up to me after class, and in other classes, telling me what a good job I had done. One person even said that I should be the teacher! It was just really nice to hear that. I mean, yeah public speaking does come pretty easily to me, but having to do it in front of 50 people in another language is just another step to it all.

My sister and mom come this Saturday. I am so excited! I can't wait to show them around Buenos Aires!! So hurry up and get here!