Better Late than Never!

Alright, so I've already been in Buenos Aires for an entire month and I've only now started my promised blog, but I'm considering it a good sign that I've been so occupied with my new life here that I haven't had time to document it. It's going to be impossible to write about everything that's happened so far, but I'll try to do a quick summary of the basics.

LIVING AND SLEEPING: I selected a homestay as opposed to living in a student residence hall, which has definitely been a good choice. My "host family" is actually a 25 year-old actress named Catalina (Cata for short) who runs her own theatre studio with two other people and is just generally extremely active in the arts community here in Buenos Aires, which is perfect for me. My first night here she took me over to a friend's apartment in Palermo (the hip, artsy neighborhood) to have sushi with a bunch of her friends. They're all actors or playwrights or photographers. It's pretty cool. A couple weeks later I started watching this Argentine sit-com called Ciega a citas and there was one actress in it who looked super familiar to me but I couldn't place what other movies or show I'd seen her in. I mentioned to Cata that I'd started watching the show and she goes "Oh! I love that show! Maria's in it. You know, my friend that you had sushi with your first night here." I've come to get used to little revelations like this around Cata.

She and I get along really well. She's extremely busy with her work so I have a lot of independence here, which suits me just fine. I get to do a lot of my own cooking and I can definitely make my own schedule, so that's been great. We live in a really cute apartment in Almagro, a neighborhood that's pretty chill and quiet, but centrally located so that it's only a short subway or bus ride to get to pretty much any important place in Buenos Aires. This is a picture from the balcony of our apartment.



SCHOOL: Haha oh yeah...that. I kind of forgot that I was going to have to go to school and...like...do homework and stuff here. Let's just say I'm still adjusting to that whole thing. The way it works with CIEE (my exchange program) is that we have the option of studying at 4 different universities/institutes in Buenos Aires. The least terrifying option is FLACSO, the home-base for our program where they offer classes in Spanish exclusively for American CIEE students. I'm taking one class there on Bodies, Gender, and Sexuality in Argentina, which is super interesting. I'm also taking an advanced Spanish Grammar class there and a service-learning seminar through which I'm now volunteering twice a week at an Argentine NGO that promotes HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention through publications, conferences, political advocacy. It's really interesting and perfect for my Health and Society major. The next option is a private Catholic university but I couldn't find any courses there that interested me. Then there's IUNA (the art school). I'm taking an acting class there, which is utterly terrifying due to the whole Spanish thing but I think it'll be really good for me in the long run. I've only had one class so far (all of the universities start at different times) but everyone was really nice and supportive, so that was somewhat reassuring. Then there's UBA (Universidad de Buenos Aires). It's the huge public university and also one of the most prestigious and rigorous universities in the country. It's terrifying. I'm currently trying to decide between a course on population and reproductive strategies in Argentina or one on the mental health system of Argentina. Both are extremely intimidating and require massive amounts of heavy readings and final exams and/or papers. We'll see how all that goes...

DAILY LIFE: After a month I'm now finally starting to get the hang of life in Buenos Aires. Everything is very fast paced. The porteños (the term of people from Buenos Aires) all live a very busy, non-stop lifestyle. And this doesn't stop when the sun goes down. It's pretty normal to eat dinner at 10 or 11 PM (I've sat down to dinner as late as 12:30) and then hit the town until the sun comes up. I was kind of tired last night so I turned in at a modest 3:30 AM. At the moment I still have more American friends than porteño friends. I've become really close with a group of CIEE students. We've had fun in the last month exploring the city and figuring our way around the public transportation system. To the right are some of the prime players in this group. I'm also excited to meet more porteños. I feel like that's really going to be the key to feeling more integrated into life here and really becoming fluent in Spanish. The thing is, it's a lot harder than you'd think to make legitimate friends with people who speak a different language. My Spanish is definitely pretty good, but being able to keep up with an established group of friends when they're chattering away in Argentine slang is definitely not easy. I've made some headway, though. Cata is definitely a useful in, and I love hanging out with her and talking with her about life when she's around, but she's often at work. One of Cata's friends, Caro, was living with us for the first two weeks that I was here and she and I get along really well too. Caro's also great at recommending fun things to do in Buenos Aires. I also have a couple "pen pals"from the Spanish class that I took at Beloit last semester and I've met up with one of them here and should be meeting the other one on Sunday, so that's a good connection to have too. I'm also going to start taking tango lessons this Tuesday, so that should also provide some social connections.

TRAVEL: Oh man. There are so many cool places to travel to around here. I have to budget my time and...you know...my budget so it's not going to be possible to trek around South America the whole time I'm here, but I've definitely got some exciting prospects. I went to Uruguay this past weekend with Emily and Natalee, two of my CIEE friends. We went to Colonia, a small historic town right across the bay from Buenos Aires (about an hour long boat ride). It was so peaceful and beautiful. Exactly what I needed after three weeks of non-stop urban bustle in Buenos Aires. Below are some highlight shots from the trip.

One of the most incredible sunsets I've ever seen.

We just stumbled across this beautiful old car with flowers growing out of it

One of the guys who ran the hostel we stayed in recommended this hidden lake to us. So beautiful.

Next week is La Semana Santa, which means we have several days off so a group of us from CIEE are planning a trip to Mendoza in western Argentina. It's the province where all of the famous Argentine wine is made and it's supposed to be absolutely gorgeous. We're taking a 14 hour bus to get there and then staying in hostels. I'm incredibly excited. Now I just have to take care of all of my homework before then...

I think that suffices as a pretty sufficient summary of my last month in Argentina. I'm going to try to keep up with this blog more regularly so that my posts aren't 20 pages long each.

¡Hasta luego!