Looking forward

Every day I wake up and am super excited for whatever the day will bring. It seems like just when I think things here cannot get any better, they do!

I've settled in and have a hit list of places that I visit every week. Fruit salads at Madeleine's, Heinekens at Casa Bar, ham and cheese empanadas at Gourmet, pitchers at El Alamo, coffee at Piacere, Sunday afternoons on the grass at Recoleta, laps at Floralis Generica, Caesar salads at Amelia's, white girl dance moves in Plaza Serrano, 2 OJ's at the Ollero station kiosko every morning and on and on!

School is going well. I like my classes, well, I actually loathe tango on Tuesdays. Tuesday is theory day, Thursday is dance day. Tango theory is incredibly boring and it doesn't help that I have a hard time understanding the teacher. And the view from the classroom is amazing so it takes all I have just to face the front.

I really like my cine latinoamericano class. We watch a variety of movies then have discussions. It'd be nice if I could get over my timidness, but it's coming along. Also in this class there is an unbelievable span of Spanish abilities. There are a couple of kids who never bothered to learn the Spanish alphabet or what sound an 'n' with a tilde makes. Then there are 3 Mexicanas who should be taking classes with Argentines but passed on that option. It's frustrating at times for those of us who fall in the middle but at least I know that '-cion' is pronounced see-own and not shun!

Arte argentino is a little snoozy, but I am actually learning a lot and it's easy to apply since this city is covered in statues and neat architecture. It's a lecture class but we have projects every few weeks that send us all over town researching museums and works of art. Not bad!

And, believe it or not, my grammatica class is enjoyable. It's a little daunting at times, but I always leave feeling like my brain has turned to jell-o from thinking so hard! And it's an interesting atmosphere. The class consists of 3 Americans, 3 Germans, 2 Italians and 1 French girl. So, we have to speak Spanish! Even though (of course)the Europeans speak English as well, some of them go deer-in-headlights if you throw in English. It's like you can see their wheels processing 3 languages at once.


Yesterday I bought my ticket for the Argentina v. Spain match. I'm so excited for this game I can hardly stand it! That's River Plate Stadium and my beautiful city in the photo! Not only have I never been to a pro or even semi-pro futbol match, but my first match is between the best teams in the world. Messi, Mascherano and Tevez are on the Argentina line-up and I'm hoping Villa will be playing for Spain. Viva Argentinaaaa! I have 8 days to learn the national anthem and some futbol chants. I've already chosen my outfit and will be doing extra homework all week so I can skip class that day! Libertad, libertad, libertad!

I've also been running since I arrived. I haven't done it consistently until this week, but now I have a running partner and tomorrow we're registering for the Belgrano 4K! I'm super excited for this too! Running here is so much fun. Not only is the scenery completely different, but there are hundreds of parks and paths that cut through the city and there are people running from the crack of dawn until dinner time (10 p.m.!). And in this futbol country, everyone runs. Marathons, ultra marathons, mini marathons, half marathons, 10 k's, 4 k's, 13 k's...everyone runs!


I was awarded a grant from Auburn this week and I made money at my family's annual yardsale. This extra money makes it possible for me to start planning a trip! I'm looking into Iguazu Falls, Mendoza and Cordoba. Iguazu Falls looks amazing but it's a 20+ hour bus ride and I'm not sure who I would go with. Mendoza also sounds really nice but it's a long bus ride and I think I would end up spending more than I should. Cordoba would be cool because it's the educational center of Argentina and the second largest city. I also potentially have a free place to stay there but it's another big city and my lungs need fresh air!

Okay, time for homework. Reading 15 pages of my cine book is going to take hours! I'd read it on the subte but then I wouldn't be able to people watch!

Besitos y abrazitos!

Estoy enamorada

Welcome to my first blog post from a coffee shop. < Insert jokes and namecalling here. > But it's perfect. I have an hour to kill before class, I'm situated in the corner with my medialunas, pasta frola bites, shot of water (no, really, they serve shots of water w/ coffee)and a bowl of coffee. Yes, a bowl of coffee.

This past weekend was the first time I really felt like I was HERE. Totally, all the way here. Cabeza, cuerpo, corazon. Friday morning the group went to the immigration office. And, of course, immigration offices are hell no matter where you are. I ended up at the window of the guy who was feeling particularly- to put it vaguely- snarky. With such a large group (15 or so) it was obvious that the Americans had entered the building. So, this guy decides to speak Spanglish to me. But, I head into every social situation with the mindset that I don't know a damn word of English so his Spanglish threw me for a loop and from there he branded me as an idiot and finished the process like we were playing Pictionary. For you Spanish speakers out there, he told me 'toma un seat.' But I was not expecting 'seat' so I just looked at him confused trying to figure out what I was supposed to be taking. So he stood up, rolled his eyes, sat down in his chair and said 'A seat! Me entiendes now?' Jesus. Pick a language. But whatever, he's still working his miserable job in public administration and I am now an official resident de la Republica de Argentina!

Friday night, I went to a cookout with some new Argentine friends. It was a lot of fun to be in that setting with those people. Just me, just them, just having fun and me beaming in my newfound niche.

Saturday I slept in then met my girlfriends for a coffee date. Friday tends to be our big night out so we're beginning to find ourselves at the same cafe, at the same table every Saturday afternoon catching up. Even though I see Kelsie and Katherine nearly every day, so many new and funny things happen every day that 6 hours apart makes for an hour of entertainment over coffee and medialunas. I look forward to Saturday coffee dates with these girls as much as I look forward to getting dressed up and dancing on the weekends.

Saturday night we went to our friend's apartment near Palermo to have a few beers and see where we the night took us. What was going to be beers, some cereal and a cab ride to our favorite little bar turned into a three course meal and us all falling asleep watching 'Life: Jungles'.

Sunday I met with Kelsie for coffee, worked on our project for a bit, hit up the park for a nice run, enjoyed pizza with my family and met Katherine to finish our project. My family and I eat pizza from del Pilar every Sunday night. I don't want to think about life without del Pilar pizza. So good. So, so, so good. And Francisco (the 5 month old- and only- grandbaby) was there too. I think Luz, her husband, Fran and Diego spent all day with Lili celebrating 'dia del nino' (day of the baby)- one of many Argentine holidays.

I love going for runs here. The air pollution here is horrific despite the city's name. But I get to run in El Parque de las Naciones Unidades (United Nations Park). There's a large track around the perimeter and it's always filled with people kicking soccer balls, making out- very, very passionately, drinking yerba mate and making funny pictures with the Floralis Generica.

This is the park...

http://www.intertechargentina.com.ar/html/images/floralis2.jpg

Esta semana pasada, enamoraba con vida otra vez. Entonces, la sola cosa que quiero decir es que mi vida aca es increible. Despertaba cada dia con los sentimientos que no quiero salir nunca. Esto ciudad es mi sueno, mi corazon y no hay bastante horas en el dia para disfrutarla.

Hola, me llamo Asian.

Day 15!

Since my arrival, I've been trying to delete the word 'weird' from my vocabulary. It's very easy to say things are weird when what I mean is that they are just not what I am used to.

I'm finally getting my bearings! I know the subte system, I can direct taxis and tell them when I know they're trying to rip me off, I haven't forgotten to close both elevator doors since my first day in my apartment, I'm not confused when people go for the cheek kisses (but only on one side, Mel!), and I feel like the metric system is beginning to make a little more sense!

Mom does that 'mom thing' even though I'm 8,000 miles away. The last few times she has called have been when I'm dog tired, hacking up a lung and suffering a 10 hour migraine (note: never drink Quilmes beer unless it's free or you've spontaneously combusted and it's the nearest liquid). Somehow she just knows when I'm operating below 70%. But it's important to understand that moving to another country is more than adjusting. It's a process, an evolution if you will.

So, here are some things that are prolonging the process.

Weather. Weather in Buenos Aires is as erratic as spring weather in Alabama. Two days ago it reached almost 70 and I had to carry my pea coat all day and stuff my scarf in my purse. Last night it hit about 40. Today, at 6 p.m., it stopped raining for the first time in at least 14 hours. If our apartment were on the first floor, I'm convinced we would have floated to Patagonia by now.

Language. Argentines don't speak Spanish. They speak Castellano. It's a beautiful blend of Spanish language and Italian inflection with a major pronunciation difference that I can't explain in words because it doesn't have a letter. The other night at tango and salsa lessons, my heart skipped a beat when I heard our salsa instructors speak the Spanish of the Caribbean. I understood everything they said. I went from freezing cold in South America to almost feeling a frosty Medalla in my hand and sand between my toes.

Time. Lili doesn't leave for work until at least 10 every morning and doesn't return until at least 7. We eat dinner at 10 every night (sometimes later) and no one even thinks about heading to the discos and bars until at least midnight. I don't have class until 1 every day and I never have class on Friday. Mix all that in with the copious amounts of free time I have already and my body clock is just now adjusting. Also, I have 2 windows in my room but one looks into the hallway and the other one looks into the 'courtyard' of my building. But the building has 10 floors and I'm on the 3rd floor so I never get sunlight in my room so my brain thinks it's night time all the time.

But I am madly, hopelessly, completely, unbelievably in love with Buenos Aires. Life here is a beautiful challenge. I've been explaining to friends back home that I'm having to learn some of the seemingly most basic parts of life. For example, where in the hell does one go to buy sliced cheese in this city?! I've clearly been taking Kraft singles (okay, Kroger brand) for granted for the last 22 years.

School started this week. Luckily they didn't take attendance this week. I spent one whole school day with a migraine (I swear Natty Light is better than Quilmes.) and then one day I missed my turn and ended up near a highway at least 6 blocks away from my school. But the classes I made it to were fun. Riding the subte to school and sitting in a classroom in a high rise is surreal. How am I supposed to fully concentrate on the history of tango when there is an incredible view of the city behind me and my professor is the epitome of suave?!

My family here is wonderful. The apartment always smells like cinnamon and Lili cranks what I assume to be like NPR (86 opera, sub tango) night and day. Diego works a lot but he's super cute (he has a little purse for his yerba mate for Pete's sake) and, like everyone else in Argentina, is extremely helpful. They like me too from what I can tell. Then again they've told me that their last exchange student was a nightmare. They've told me stories of this girl being passed out in front of the elevator and peeing on herself, losing her keys (major no-no when one of your 2 house keys is the one that lets you into the building), wearing 'layers of make-up' and laughing like Fran Drescher. Lili doesn't speak English but she knows the Fran Drescher laugh. Obviously, an annoying laugh is understood universally.

Side note: people here don't call me Elena even though it is a direct translation and popular Spanish name. They call me Ellen, Asian (that's my name with the Castellano accent, no joke!), Hellen, Helena, Ellie and very rarely Elena. Weird, huh? No, not weird. Just different.

Ciao!

Ocho de diez

Today is day 5. It still hasn't really sunk in that I am in South America. Then again with so much to do and see, I don't have time for dwelling!

So, here's the run down on the ARG thus far.

1. It's cold. And apparently the weather here is making its way to mainstream American news. A friend's Mom called her today and said she saw on CNN that Argentina is having the coldest winter in 10 years. It's not the coldest weather I've ever been in, but it's also been raining for three days. Luckily, walking everywhere keeps me warm!

2. We have a really good group! I wasn't sure how it would go with kids of all different backgrounds and cultures from all over the U.S. but we gel well! So far, a girl from Virginia (but goes to school in Tennessee) is my mejor amiga. Her name is Katherine and we just click! I think it has something to do with us both being Southern girls. With classmates from California, Illinois, Idaho, Texas, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Alaska and Ohio it's easy to see differences in people from all regions of the States.

3. Apparently, my look doesn't scream gringa. The other night at the bar I had two guys ask where I was from and I told them to guess. Their first guess was England. Then Canada. I told them to guess the state and they went through about 10 before I told them. Also, an Argentine asked me for directions yesterday and one asked me the time today.

4. I have spoken more Spanish in the last 5 days than in my whole life. Actually, I spoke more Spanish our first night out than I have in my life. And as my Spanish improves, my English gets awkward. A few nights ago we were at a bar and our space was getting crowded so I found some American friends and got a table. I had two Americans on my right and two Argentines on my left. The Argentines wanted to talk, talk, talk and when I would turn to talk to the Americans I totally went blank. And when I clicked back into English mode, I couldn't eliminate tambien, pero, yo, ti, para, por, pero, y, puedo, cual, que, como, de, es, verdad, serio, bueno, malo, linda, dime, dame, quien, donde, cuando and more!

(Mom- those words are also, but, I, you, for, but, and, can, which, what, that, how, why, of, is, true, seriously, good, bad, pretty, tell me, give me, who, where and when.)

5. My host family is wonderful. It's me, a lady and her son. The son is 23 and works for el Minesterio de Trabajo y Seguridad Social. The mother is a social for el Minesterio de Educacion. The apartment is HUGE. It runs the whole length of the building, has 12 foot ceilings and at least 4 bedrooms. I have a TV, a desk, a chair, a twin bed, a night stand and 2 windows in my room. It's right in Recoleta on one of the avenues. Avenues here are truly avenues. They're wide and they are the only streets with traffic running both ways. And because the traffic goes both ways, the avenues are hopping! Also, my host mother doesn't speak any English but we have no trouble communicating. There is no language barrier. Just a language bump here and there. And my mother, brother and his girlfriend said my Spanish is wonderful. WOOOP WOOP! Que bueno!

6. Argentines are as beautiful as I thought they would be. And their accent is beautiful once you get used to it. And to all you Spanish speakers reading this, I've already adopted the zh sound for my double l's and I'm sure it will seep into my y's before too long. When in Argentina...

7. I'm on a mission to learn as many -erias as possible. In Spanish, a store that sells a particular thing ends in -eria. In English, a cafeteria is a place that has food. Here, it's a place that has coffee- cafe + teria = cafeteria. So far I have seen zapateria, fruteria, verduleria, ferreteria, tintoteria, vidreria, maquineria, carneceria, and a lot more that I just can't remember.

8. Dogs. EVERYWHERE. And most of them are pure bred. Never in my life had I seen one of those dogs with wrinkly skin. A shar-pei I think. But here I've seen two. There are lots of bischon frises, golden retrievers, German shepherds, beagles and dachsunds. Side note: Argentines call daschunds (sp?) salchichas which is Spanish for sausage! Get it? And the dogs wear clothes. But it's not like they're dressing them up, they all just wear the blanket-type things on their backs that have holes for their front legs. Kinda like a horse blanket. And I've seen a few with rain jackets. But it makes sense here. It's cold, it's rainy and the water dripping off the awnings of buildings is miserable. And all the dogs are well-behaved. I've seen several without leashes. They stick by their owners and if the owner goes into the store, the dog sits at the door and some stick just their heads in the doors and wait. And go figure, the only dog that I have heard bark was a beagle. I swear.

8. The streets are one way unless it's an avenue. But the subway system is UK style. So that's pretty damn confusing! If you're walking down the street and want to continue in the same direction, you have to use the subte station across the street.

That's all for now. I hoped to make it to 10 things but it's time to go meet Katherine and our other friend Kelsie!

Ciao!

6 Days of Summer

I've been so busy that I didn't realize that not everyone even had an idea that I would be moving to Argentina for the fall. I initially held back because I wanted to save the potential embarrassment if I didn't get accepted or the finances didn't fall right. But we're 6 days from departure and it's now safe to broadcast to the world!

I decided to study abroad because I believe immersion is the only way to learn a language and that learning another language is the only way to have the career I want. Let's 86 the flowery language and lay this out on the table: Despite the grimy pay, journalism is competitive and I am not trying to wait tables until I'm 40.

In the last couple of months I have done so much paperwork, studied so much Spanish and made so many to-do lists. But it's so close I can almost feel the landing gears untucking and screeching the pavement at EZE Int'l!

(Ha. The airport is EZE.)

I found out yesterday about my host family. Lidia (Lili) Galarraga is 55 and works for the Ministry of Education. Her apartment is in the Recoleta neighborhood and is about 25 minutes from campus. There is another student living with her named Diego. He's 23 and studies labor relations. I'm not sure if he's another exchange student or her son.

I also learned that another kid from my group is living in the same building on a different floor and several more classmates live within a few blocks. This should be helpful and fun!

Still have lots to do but I'm off to the pool to enjoy my last 6 days of summer! Literally.

Ciao!

-Elena

Una semana

The clock has rolled past midnight which means I leave for Argentina one week from today. Although I am excited, nerves are starting to mix in but I'm staying focused through this last week!

I'm taking this week off to visit with family, finish up paperwork and pack. I cleaned out tons of things a few months ago and I'm really glad now that it's time to pack five months of clothes while also packing boxes so my stuff can be moved out my house in Auburn.

I'm going to try my best to update this blog with pictures and updates from Buenos Aires. I believe this is the easiest and most effective way to stay in touch and give you all a glimpse into mi otoño argentino- my argentine autumn!

For starters, here is a list of a few things I'm especially looking forward to in Argentina!

1. Spanish immersion- This is, for lack of a better word, the most intimidating part of my experience. It's not the distance from home- 4,987 miles- that scares me. It's not being able to fluently communicate with the people who are soon to be my neighbors. I'm looking forward to it though- necessity breeds fluency!

2. Knowing that I could pick out a different neighborhood or shopping area each day and never make it to half of them! I got a taste of this wonderful feeling in South Korea and can't wait to make it a part of day to day life!

3. Study sessions at El Ateneo. Watch the video below! My dream is to be able to grab my backpack, fill up on coffee or maté and crash in a balcony for study time! Fingers crossed!



4. My first glimpse of El Obelisco. This monument dominates photographs of Buenos Aires and I am anticipating a few skipped heart beats as I turn the corner and see it for the first time. Also, they covered El Obelisco with a giant red 'condom' to celebrate world AIDS day. Something like that would never fly in Los Estados (The States) but it's a great example of why I'm anxious to delve into new ways of thinking and living!

5. Time with my host family. I found out this week the name of my family and where they live. I hope to integrate myself into my family so that I can genuinely learn Argentina and maybe teach them a few things about my culture also!

That's it for now. I'll update soon!

Abrazos!