ACordes

Hello all!
I hope that this blog is working out well for everyone and you are able to check on it. For me, it is easier to update this when I have the time instead of writing lengthy, encrypted emails that make absolutely no sense! I’ve also uploaded some pictures onto this website, but I don’t have much space for them. If you want to see more pictures, either check out my facebook images (for all you college kids) or my SnapFish site (link below).

So I’m into my third week and I can’t believe it. Classes started yesterday and I’m excited for them. I’m a nerd though and I’ve always enjoyed school, so its no surprise that I’m enjoying classes here. One of my classes, Argentine Literature and the Formation of a National Identity is going to be intense, but the professor seems to be really passionate about the subject and is very approachable. The class is taught entirely in Spanish and it is my first class that I’ve taken in Spanish that isn’t solely grammar. We should be reading a bunch of Borges (yeah!!) and other interesting literature about everything from the gauchos, to Sra Eva Perón, to the desaparecidos. My other class taught entirely in Spanish is called Cultural Icons as Global Commodities. Yeah..i have no idea what it is about either. hahaha but it fits my minor requirement so I’m signed up! It starts today, but unfortunately our professor is sick and there won’t be class. How sad. I have a totally free day today. HAHA!! yeeehaw. I have no idea what I’m going to do with myself besides laundry, update my blog, upload pictures, and do my one worksheet of homework. Maybe I’ll head over to Avenida Corrientes and go book shopping…this street is basically my new best friend because it is a street lined up and down with book stores. Librerias. YES PLEASE!! It’s too bad books are so heavy. I want to buy one of everything, and not only am I on a financial budget, but I’m on a space and weight limit for my suitcases. There are so many cool books and children’s games that would be fun to bring back to use in my Spanish classes that I teach. We’ll see what I can come up with.

I’m sure you all are wondering if i will ever reveal the details about night life here! Honestly, I just forgot to write about them. All of the ‘bariloches’ or ‘discos’ that I have been to here have been so much fun. The first weekend, we partied like real Argentines and went to a disco called Katx, I think, and didn’t get in a cab to go home until 5:30. I think that the word Katx is slang for something bad. But I have no idea. Either way, it was really fun. A younger crowd, but that’s what made it so much fun I think. I have some really cute and outgoing friends, so it was easy to meet locals. They all wanted to dance with us and it was so fun! BOYS/MEN/HOMBRES in this country like to dance. Unheard of. I know like four people at home that will admit they like to dance. And the dancing here is different too. It involves a lot of jumping (yes, it felt really good on my calves and my feet in heels…) and holding hands and twirling. None of this crazy hip-hop/rapper grinding stuff. Ick. The next night we ended up hanging out at the apartment of a local that we met at the club and had a lot of fun just relaxing and trying to understand each other. It is funny to see what the Argentines think of when they think of America. Julia Roberts, Desperate Housewives, Hollywood, American Pie, and Bush are among the things we talked about the most.

This past weekend was fun too. Friday was a night spent with my American friends here: Steve from Washington D.C, Kate from Spokane, WA (attends University of Puget Sound – UPS har har), Bri from Seattle, WA, and Alan from Costa Rica/Los Angeles. Cool friends, but I miss you guys at home more than you know! We’re all still feeling each other out here…its just different than it is at college. Because we all know that we’ll basically be friends for four months, then hopefully keep in touch on line, but its just hard building a friendship that you know right off the bat is temporary. At least for me. Because I tend to want to get to know people very personally right away. I’m keeping more distance here than I’m used to, but it’s working out fine. Saturday night was my very first experience at a gay club…and let me tell you, it was so much fun!! The first thing I did when I got home from the club (6:30 am. eek!!) was write down as many songs as I could remember that were played. (side note to the Garch – it was basically the entire sweet buttz soundtrack. no joke) Here is a sampling of what was played:
Grease (The one that I want), Flashdance, Crazy little thing called love, Shakira hips dont lie, Pump it, Footloose, Material Girl, Vogue, Jitterbug, I will survive, if you wanna know if he loves you so its in his kissssss (that's where it is! oh yeah!) hahaa.

Pretty freaking sweet. And there were a lot of straight guys there. I guess they figure girls go because it’s a gay club and they just want to have fun thinking that they won’t be hit on all night long…so sure enough, the straight guys go anyway and hit on the only 10 girls there are in the entire club. Forward. Very very forward these boys are. Not to worry. My Spanish really pulls through for me when I say – No, Adios, Chau, no gracias, adios adios, and NO. hahaha. Some of the American girls that I go out with are really bothered by the forwardness of the men here. But I’ve just come to realize that it is just embedded in their culture. To begin with, there is no sense of personal space. None. If you bump into someone on the street I quickly apologize, saying permiso or perdon, but they just keep walking. Its not rude, they just don’t really care that you bumped into them. Aint no thang. They’re just used to being close together and its no big deal that people brush shoulders. If I’m sitting on one side of a bench, people have come and sat right next to me with a whole other side of the bench open. What we find uncomfortable and awkward in the states isn’t quite so uncomfortable or awkward here. And everyone kisses here. One kiss on the right cheek. Everyone. Children and parents, strangers and new acquaintances, girls and girls, boys and boys (!!! calm down guys, not that big of a deal). When I met my host mom’s grandson the other day (he’s five and adorable. yeah…I said it) and he gave me the sweetest little kiss on the cheek. So, the point I’m trying to make here, is that instead of getting offended and uncomfortable about the forwardness of the boys I simply change the topic and use it as an excuse to practice my Spanish ( I do know more than no and adios  ) with a cute Argentine. Not to mention, who can blame them! From the TV that they see here about American women, we certainly are represented as easy. Shows like Sex and the City are entertaining to watch at home, but when other countries watch the show we don’t realize that they are representing us as American women. Like I said earlier, a lot of what Argentines (and many countries, I would assume) use to view the U.S. is CNN, international diplomacy, and Hollywood/music. So that means Bush and Britney Spears. Hahaha. That’s like exactly who I am. A stretch-marked once upon a time Mousekateer with a Texas accent and really good ideas for American education……….Needless to say, what we portray as our image is not even close to who we really are. It has been a very interesting challenge for me to communicate to quite a few people.

Something else that has been on my mind for a while is how surprised I am at how kind people are to me as a foreigner. No matter how much they may despise Bush, well mainly his foreign policy, they still are very patient with my broken Spanish. It really makes me think about how we treat foreigners in the US. I feel like sometimes I can be quick to joke about an accent or be impatient with someone who doesn’t speak English well and now I’m really feeling what it is like to be that person struggling. Its just not cool to be rude to foreigners! Only a handful of people have tried to take advantage of our poor Spanish skills (prices of things/change/etc) and it is so hurtful. What a humble lesson it has been to be on the other side of the communication battle.

Okay well I’ve done my fair share of rambling. I will sign off for now. Don’t forget to check out the pictures on SnapFish and leave a comment or two on the blog! It would be nice to know if people are actually reading this confounded thing. And feel free to pass the link on to people who I missed in the email list. I typed a few addresses wrong and I still have to go back and fix those. I hate the IWU email server. Grrrrrrr…
Anyway, good luck to everyone who’s packing and getting ready to move back to school. Travel safely, pack light (haha, not) and let me know how things are going!

ALSO! This is really important. DO NOT SEND ME PACKAGES. Not that I was expecting anyone to do so, but I pretty much cannot receive them. Argentine customs as far as mail goes are really strong and all packages are stopped at the airport. I would have to pay a taxi to get to the airport, hire a customs official, a translator, and then pay a bunch of taxes. This goes for things like clothes, gum, candy, food, electronics, etc. Letters are always welcome  but they do take 3-6 weeks to get here. So don’t send any in November would be my suggestion. Thanks guys! Hope you’ve having fun keeping up with me.

Besitos y abrazos,
Amandita

To view my photos: Go to Snapfish.com and type in: buenosaires@gmail.com as the email and amanda as the password.

P.S. Please send me school/home/office addresses so that I can start sending YOU postcards!! 

Thursday afternoon the IES crew took our whole group to San Pedro, a city in the BA province about three hours away from the city. It was a lovely area and our hotel looked out over a cliff onto the water. They took us to an incredible dinner in an old houseboat on the water and we had ourselves an INCREDIBLE asado: the Argentine of amazing BBQ. We had chorizo, steak, ribs, chicken, salad, wine, bread, adn yes...french fries. Go figure! Haha. Before dinner we played in a volleyball tournament against a local team and were completely obliterated. But then we mixed up the teams and really had some fun. On Friday, we walked around and took pictures and had a delicious pizza for lunch. Individual pizzas were only 5.50 pesos...about 2.25 dollars! The exchange rate is really in our favor here...1 USD to 3 pesos!

We headed home around 4:00 and had a chill night last night. By chill i mean we had dinner around 9:30, then i took a nap and then we met at 12:00 to go to an Irish pub called the Shamrock. The line was wrapped around the block to get in so we said forget that and hopped around to some other places and just chatted the night away. Today on the agenda is a trip to the Recoleta Feria, a craft fair that happens every saturday and sunday here in my neighborhood about 5 blocks from my house. Mom, i wish you were here to come with me!!!! You would love it!!!

I'm having an amazing time here so far, but I must admit the language barrier can be a constant headache. I love the language and i'm working really hard to understand everything, but there are many times where i just want to scream because i have so much to say and am lacking the means to express it. I'm working through it though and i have some good friends here that are definitley in the same boat as me. I'm starting to get my first cold too...sniffle sniffle. haha all of the late nights and adjusting to the food and water is finally catching up with me. Well I must be going, its a beautiful day and I'm headed to the fair!

Chau,
Amanda

Things are a-ok here! This week has been calm compared to the weekend...which was pretty insane. We met quite a few locals who were wonderful letting us practice spanish with them. The language barrier is difficult, and makes this trip a constant workout. I finally had to take a break the other day and watch a few episodes of Gray´s Anatomy on my laptop. My Argentine mom is still cooking wonderfully, but i feel bad not having much to talk to her about. Its really frustrating not being able to communicate as frequently and passionatly as I do in English. I´m still waiting to wake up one day and be fluent...

Signing off for now,
Chau,
Amandita

p.s. we are working on plans to go skiing in the andes next weekend! hooray!!

Okay. So to continue with my entry below...

Friday night was basically the best night so far. I had my very first TANGO lesson, and it was soo much fun. My partner was so much fun, and he was actually pretty good. We were showin up the whole class. I can wait to come home and bust it out at a party at school. Hahaha maaaaybe IWU isn't quite ready for that...but halfway through the class we were all kind of looking around at each other and we were like, holy crap. We are taking a free tango lesson. We are taking a free tango lesson IN BUENOS AIRES ARGENTINA. Crap.

Today we took a brif tour of the city. It is HUGE and there is so much to see. There are several important barrios or neighborhoods. I am living in one on the north side called Recoleta. It is near other barrios like Palermo, Palermo Viejo. But today, we spent more time on the south side - especially in one of the coolest places on the earth: LA BOCA! For those of you soccer fans, you probably would have keeled over with happiness today in La Boca. Not only did we have the most amaaaaaazing meal at a restaurant called "Carlitos", but we were eating across the street from the Boca Juniors soccer stadium. We walked down a few more streets and ran into the streets that make it into about every single book about B.A. - the one with all the colors! I cant remember the name of the intersection/plaza right now but it was so cool. We only had 10 minutes to walk around, but we will definitley be back. I need to take a picture with this guy who holds toursit girls in tango poses for pictures...all he asks for is a tip! And he is waaaaaaaaaaaaay too adorable for us to not go back. That picture will be worth a hundred thousand memories...

We then went to Plaza de Mayo in the San Telmo barrio. We saw their president's place of work: La Casa Rosada. We have a white house, they have a pink one. It's all good. It is also the place where the Madres de los desaparecidos march every Thursday.

Then we left to head back to Recoleta and went the Recoleta Cemetary. This was a really cool trip, but we didnt have much time. I will certainly make it back there on a sunny day for some really cool pictures. It is a labrynth of mosoleums of the wealthy people of b.a.

Okay I have tons more to report but i have to go inside now. Its getting really cold sitting outside on this porch!! Nothing like a Chicago winter of course...but its cold!!

Chau, hasta luego.
~a

As incredibly cliche as it sounds, I don't even know where to begin to describe life so far down here. It's 8:00 pm and I'm sitting on our back patio, surrounded by old vines, trees, rose bushes, and half-planted teracotta pots. Looking up I can see the balconies of all of the rest of the people in the building that live above me, and the other three buildings surrounding ours. There is a light on four floors up and someone is playing the piano - I'm completely overwhelmed by the beauty and friendliness of the city, and I am quickly falling deeply in love.

This past week we have all gotten a quick taste of almost all parts of the city. We've seen the Obelisk, a huge white monument that resembles (or we copied...) the Washington Monument in D.C.. It is only a few blocks from my house, and marks the center of Avenida 9 de julio - the largest Avenue in the world...as the portenos like to brag.

History factod!: El 9 de julio (the 9th of July) is the independence day for the Argentine people when they separated from the rule of the Spanish.

My host mom is wonderful. Her name is Ana Maria and she is a fabulous cook. I have tasted something new every meal, and really gotten in to the swing of eating at such strange hours (10 pm for dinner!). There are three, count them, three shoe stores on my block, not to mention an adorable little cafe with desserts in the window that look divine! The coffee here is great too...and by great I mean that is one thing that I already know I will REALLY miss. Coffee here does not exist in grande or venti portions - there is absolutley no such thing. Even if there was, no one would buy it because the coffee is so rich to begin with. Here, the sizes are small, smaller, and espresso shot. But it is delicious nonetheless.

To be continued...(i need to start another message because I'm running out of space!)