School Begins... Sort Of.

Classes finally began in Argentina last week. However, the whole country then promptly began Semana Santa vacation on Thursday, and so it wasn't really the beginning. This past week was really the first full week of classes, which for me, is still not a full week as I only have classes from Tuesday through Thursday, quite a brilliant schedule if you ask me. But I will get around to classes in a bit.

Semana Santa is a huge vacation time here. Almost everyone leaves the city for the last big hurrah of summer. I couldn’t miss this opportunity to do more traveling so a friend of mine from Columbia, Stephanie, and I went to Uruguay. Yes, again. I can’t believe that I have been in Argentina for just over a month and already visited Uruguay twice. This time however we went to a small beach town called La Paloma. It is about a four-hour bus ride from the capital, Montevideo. We left early Wednesday morning, deciding to take an extra day off of school and really make the most of the holiday. Lat Wednesday night after many transfers from bus to ferry to bus to other bus, we finally arrived at our hostel which was a convenient five minute walk from the bus station. After dropping off our stuff and chatting with the owner at the front desk, she recommended that we walk down the block, around the corner and to the main street to find a restaurant. We found an adorable restaurant that was in a brightly colored, thatch-roof house and had one of the best meals of the whole trip.

The next day we slept in a little bit and moseyed to the beach around ten o’clock after coffee and biscuits at the hostel. Being a super tiny town, we realized that everything was within twenty minutes maximum walking distance, and this particular beach was a super short five minute jaunt. I am pleased to say that the rest of the day involved laying in the sun, reading in the sun, eating a leisurely lunch, savoring sumptuous ice cream, more laying in the sun and a delicious dinner courteous of chef Stephanie. I could give you a play by play of every day, but the rest of the days followed much the same pattern with slight variations. One day we walked to a nearby town, Costa Azul, which had more of surf vibe to check out their beach. Sometimes we ate ice cream after dinner and not lunch (But no, there was not a day we did not eat ice cream. Not even the day that it was cloudy and chilly and we didn't lay on the beach. Even that day we ate ice cream.) On Easter Sunday we ate a chocolate huevo de Pascuas and made pancakes. The cold and windy day we visited the faro, which means lighthouse and were nearly blow away by the wind. The whole time was very relaxing and exactly what I think beach vacations should be. I feel so lucky to have been able to travel like that while I am down here, because when I return to the US and then frighteningly, graduate shortly thereafter, who knows when I will have the time or money to relax in a beach town in South America for five days.

Classes resumed again on Tuesday and while they are not quite in full swing yet, are getting there. As of right now I am taking four classes, all at different schools, which has made figuring out of schedule a bit trying. But I think I finally have it all in order and am quite pleased with how everything seems to be settling into place. On Tuesdays I have two three hour classes. The first is called El Nuevo Cine Argentino en el Contexto Latinoamericano, or The New Argentine Cinema in the Latin American Context. It is a class through the program I am on, CIEE and at our host university, FLACSO. It is with all other American students and so, not terribly difficult. The teacher is really nice, very smart, but approaches the material knowing that we are foreigners, without being patronizing, which is also nice. In the afternoon on Tuesdays I go to my Taller de Oralidad, which is a required Spanish language course. The particular one I chose focuses on improving speaking in formal contexts. So far it is not very demanding, and hopefully will help me improve my speaking ability, which is not quite as good as my comprehension, reading or auditory. It is at a school associated with the public university, UBA, or la Universidad de Buenos Aires,  but being a Spanish class, all the students are foreigners. 

On Wednesdays I have my most difficult class. Before even considering the topic, one must consider that the course is at UBA, the aforementioned public university. Classes at UBA are a universe away from Columbia and further, if that's possible (perhaps I will learn if Borges thinks so in my class!) from Colorado Academy. To understand UBA a bit, one first has to understand the Argentine university system. When people go to college here they enroll in a carrera, which is a specialized track and then only take classes within that track. So there's Philosophy and Literature, Political Science, Psychology, Art History, etc. Which means that everyone is really specialized and knows a lot about a little. Also, UBA is also an entirely public university. Any Argentine can take classes totally for free. So there are tons of students, not a lot of funds, and everything is unorganized, crowded, and rundown. After coming from schools that have so much available for their students it is interesting to go somewhere basically all the school gives you is knowledge. Granted that is a lot, but there's no other means of supporting that knowledge. No computer labs, no libraries, sometimes not even enough chairs for all the students. Puán, the name of the building where all of the Philosophy and Literature classes are (called Filo y Letras for short), is plastered with banners and flyers and graffiti. There are stands, inside and outside of the building, selling school supplies, books, jewelry, coffee, and empanadas, just to name a few. Classes are sometimes interrupted (professor permitting) by strangers making announcements for their own particular causes, people smoke in the hallways, and there's more legitimate support for Socialism than I have ever seen. It's a bit of what the Argentines would call a quilombo, a disaster or chaos. 

It is really interesting and puts everything is perspective. UBA can't claim the best athletics department or housing or library. All they can offer are classes, and a room, sometimes adequate, in which to learn. If the students haven't been lured there by all the extras and perks that University life has in the US, they are really just there for the knowledge. To be in a room full of students who are all there because they want to learn is actually a new experience for me. Perhaps I am romanticizing the whole thing a bit much. Of course having a college degree is an asset when it comes to finding a job, and not everyone can afford to go to a private university, but there is definitely a different level of engagement in classes that I don't think I have really seen in most of my previous classes. I could probably muse on UBA for many more paragraphs, and I'm sure there will be many more experiences to come, so I will move on. 

Getting back to what began this whole digression, my Wednesday class. The class is about the role of philosophy in the literature of Jorge Luis Borges, probably Argentina's most famous writer ever. The class is exactly how everyone told me classes would be at UBA. I visited a few other UBA classes during the shopping period to try them out and they were smaller and less chaotic. In the art history class there was even a screen and a functioning slide projector. But Juegos Filosóficos y Enigmas Cientificas en la Literatura de Borges is a whole different ball game. Class started thirty minutes late. There were too many people to fit into the room and so people sat on the ground, stood in the hallway, listening wherever they could. Two groups of students tried to make announcements in the middle of class. We had a twenty minute break. The list goes on. I was joking with a friend after class that if you start with 100% comprehension in a class, I lost 25% automatically because the teacher was speaking a foreign language, but then lost another 25% because it was a philosophy class I probably wouldn't have been able to follow what he was saying even were he to have been speaking English. I'm sure that comprehension will go up as the semester continues, but is definitely going to be a challenge in so many ways. 

My final class has, surprise surprise, actually not started yet. I am taking a six hour studio Drawing class on Thursdays at IUNA, Instituto Universitario Nacional de Arte. It is a higher level class, more of a project based, personal approach and pace type class. That's what I am expecting anyway, so we will see. I did visit the building where it will be however to sign up for the class and it bears more than one resemblance to Prentis Hall, Columbia's building on 125th dedicated to Sculpture and studios for grad students. I actually felt sort of at home already. The building is in La Boca which is unfortunately a bit of a trek from my apartment. But I will have more to say about this class when it begins next week!

While classes beginning and vacationing in Uruguay were the biggest adventures in my life of late, every day is punctuated by tiny happenings as well. On Friday I tried mate, the popular tea, for the first time while waiting at Immigrations to finalize the visa process. Buying school supplies was more exciting than usual because everything the options are so different and because the man in the store clearly found it unexplainable that we wouldn't know exactly what we wanted. And then I bought a fountain pen at the grocery store! I laid in the park and read about Borges and Harold Blooms ideas on the idea of the precursor. I sat at a restaurant near Puán, the UBA building, and was pleasantly surprised to receive a small glass of fresh orange juice, a glass of water with a pitcher to refill, and three small cookies that came with the café con leche that I ordered, and all for only 6 pesos, or about 2 dollars. I bought the complete works of Borges in four anthologies for under 100 US dollars. So you don't get too jealous, I also pass the time like a normal person - doing laundry, going to the gym, riding on public transportation, getting lost, and waiting in lines.

On a final note though, here are some pictures from La Paloma. 

Town sign on the walk back from Costa Azul

Bahía Grande, closest to the hostel

Near the faro, great for afternoon napping

Costa Azul

The faro

View from the faro of Bahía Grande in foreground and Costa Azul in the background

One night after ice cream

Last morning at Bahía Grande

Stephanie and Me

What There Is (and Isn't)

Well to be sure, as evidenced above, there is lots of foliage, and of all types. It is so wonderful to be walking down the street and see vines and bushes and trees and flowers. I especially love seeing the balconies of apartment buildings just filled with plants. It's quite different from New York. There, nobody can keep twenty plants on their balcony because 1) they don't have a balcony (but almost everyone here has some sort of balcony and 2) the plants would never make it through the frigid winter. Which brings me to my point. While I absolutely love it here, I am beginning to miss things from New York. This was to be expected, and honestly it's not a problem, it's just that the things I am missing are sort of weird. So here it goes.

These are some of the things that I am missing:

• The Subway. The buses here are crazy, and the subte is limited.
• Gummi candy. As many of you know, I could probably live off of Haribo gummi bears, but they don't really have gummi candy here. It's mostly chocolate and dulce de leche things, and the gummi candy they do have is no good, no good at all.
  
• Coffee. Just a regular cup of drip coffee. You can really only get espresso, or espresso with milk, and heaven forbid you should want an iced coffee. I hear that there are two places to go in town. Two, and that's it.
  
• American Apparel. I know it's silly, but I love their clothing, and while there are places similar here, nothing is quite the same.
  
• Lettuce. The lettuce here is really sub par in my opinion, and it's really hard to get just a "normal" salad here. Salad means tomatoes, carrots, sometimes lettuce and that's it. 
  
• Spicy food. Yep, you have heard true about the lack of comida picante acá. No hay. There's good flavor, but sometimes it all blends together. I mean, you don't even get pepper at your table, heaven forbid some Cholula or Tabasco.
  

These are some of the things that I am not missing (because they are here too!):

• Art Museums. This weekend I went to MALBA (Museo de Arte Latinoamericano Buenos Aires) and really enjoyed it. It's a beautiful new, modern building in a posh part of Buenos Aires that felt exactly like the Upper West Side. Their current exhibition called Autopsia de lo invisble featured a couple of new artists and some great thought-provoking art, including some flashy bling-bling bracelets made of gold, diamonds and shards of glass "from the car of homes of the victims or agressors of violent deaths related to illegal drug trafficking." Needless to say, this stuff was pretty heavy. Then we checked out the permanent collection, saw a Frida (!! very exciting, she was surrounded), as well as a number of switch activated light pieces, which were pretty cool. I also saw a few pieces by an Argentine artist named Léon Ferrari. I had seen a few of his pieces and the MoMA before I left at a show called New Perspectives on Latin American Art. It was really cool to go to right before I left and get a sense of some of the art history down here. I had discovered this guy who I really liked and then to see some more of his work, some pieces that were definitely more experimental and controversial (in my opinion), really expanded and complicated my understanding of his work on a whole. Anyway, below is the facade and the main hall of MALBA. It's a tiny museum, but I really liked it.
  

• Circus. Yep, I am not missing circus here in the BsAs (as they like to abbreviate Buenos Aires here), even though I did miss it in New York. There it was a chichi activity that I really couldn't afford to do very often, if at all. But here, while it is still a chichi activity, the exchange rate is totally in my favor and I can go to classes! I found a place in the Palermo neighborhood and I am going to classes for an hour and a half, twice a week. It is sort of like circus camp at Colorado Academy jammed into one day. We do calisthenics, tumbling, juggling, rolling globe, rola-bola, fabric, trapeze, hoop, and so much more! It really is so fun. I am learning a bunch of new, and mostly useless, Spanish circus vocabulary and doing things that I have never done, even at CA. It is great to see how other people approach circus, their different tricks, and routines. I have been taking notes in case I even return to teaching circus. One of the coolest parts for me though is interacting with the teachers and all the other students in Spanish. Most of the time, so far anyway, I am surrounded by other Americans, and unfortunately we speak English. But there are no other Americans in my circus class, and while I clearly am the foreigner, struggling to communicate, everyone is very nice and patient with me. Maybe I will even make some friends for outside of the classroom. Who knows. 

 

• Cultural Activities. Buenos Aires is just like New York in that there is something to do, all the time. My best, and most recent, example of this was my Monday evening activity. There is a cultural center here called Konex (what an idea! go to a cultural center for cultural activities!) where they seem to host many different events. It is a couple of industrial buildings, hollowed out, and also with a big open space, much like a yard, but with less grass and more concrete. Some of the cultural events must be circus ones because I saw a triple trapeze and a flying trapeze rig as well, which of course excited me. They also seem to be putting on a Spanish language version of Rent at the end of this month, which I am definitely going to try to go to. This Monday evening however I was at a concert for a band called La Bomba del Tiempo, a percussion group whose performances are basically entirely improvisational. There are probably fifteen men in the group and it was really neat to see how they all worked together. The concert was quite the place to be, absolutely jam packed with all of the cool, young people in Buenos Aires, who apparently spilled out and congregated in the street when they were no longer allowed in. For a while I thought I missed hipsters and the Brooklyn vibe, but I totally found it here at Konex. It's a different hipster, because after all the New York hipster is a world apart from other hipsters, but these BsAs kids were definitely hipsters. Konex also reminded me of what the vibe might have been like at the McCarren Park Pool Parties this summer. I personally did not attend, but I can imagine, and I imagine that it would have been like La Bomba del Tiempo at Konex. Also, this is a regular event, every Monday evening, so I hope to return, and have another young, cool, cultural evening.

"I see a hill!"

I have returned to Argentina. From where you say? That nearby country, Uruguay! I feel like I am becoming quite the world traveler, receiving oodles of salida and entrada stamps in my previously barren passport. This past weekend I took a trip to Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. Legend has it that when Magellan's ship happened upon this new land, someone shouted "Monte vide eu" which in Portuguese translates to, "I see a hill." Another story involves the Spaniards, roman numerals and latin which I didn't quite follow as my traveling companion read aloud from the guide book. Whatever the actually story of how the town got its name, I am so glad I went to visit this city, that apparently has the highest quality of life of all the cities in Latin America. I found it quiet, laid-back and slightly crumbling. 

To get to Uruguay from Buenos Aires is actually quite easy. There are many ferries across the Río del la Plata each day. The Buquebus ferry was very nice, very speedy, and overly air-conditioned. It was spitting rain when we arrived in Montevideo but luckily it cleared up later that afternoon. We dropped off our bags at the hostel, that was filled with many international youths as all hostels across the world are, and then headed out to explore the streets of Montevideo. We spent most of our time in the ciudad vieja, so my impressions of the city are probably a bit different than had I spent a week getting to know all the different neighborhoods. 

Walking around, one can still feel the European influence in the architecture, but the buildings have not been maintained as well as in Buenos Aires. There are many statues on many corners, commemorating past war heroes, political leaders, and the such. One of my traveling companions told me this interesting tidbit of information, that I have to confirm, but thought I would share anyway: if the horse in a statue has one hoof off the ground, the man received wounds in battle; if the horse has two hoofs off the ground, the man actually died in battle; and if all four hoofs are on the ground, then the man died of natural causes. We don't know what it means if three hoofs are off the ground, and we didn't see any statues like that, but I did have fun the rest of the weekend checking out the hoof position of all the statues we saw.  Apparently José Gervasio Artigas, the Uruguayan liberator pictured below, received wounds in battle, but did not die from them. After a quick Google check, José does not seem to have died in battle, but the connection between raised hoofs in statues and battle wounds seems to be a myth. 

We wandered through the old city passing mostly tourists on the streets. The city felt very deserted. We had read in the guide books that Montevideo feels like a ghost town, but being the capital of Uruguay, and with a population over a million, I wasn't ready to believe it till I saw it. The books were right this time though. Perhaps because it was a weekend, perhaps because we were in a certain neighborhood, but whatever the cause, more often than not, we would turn down a street and see only two or three other people around. It was very peaceful, but also, sometimes a bit eerie.

Strolling along the coastline on Saturday afternoon, we watched the people fish, chat, relax, and of course, drink the ever present maté. This is an herbal drink that is very popular in Argentina as well. Everyone drinks it out a very particular cup, and a metal spoon. It is a social activity sometimes, with people sitting around, passing around the maté cup. While I have yet to try any maté, it seems to popular with people of ages, and walks of life. While maté is surely popular in Buenos Aires, it really is ubiquitous in Uruguay. They all have their little thermos of maté tucked in the nook of their elbow, and a cup in the other hand, sipping as they go about their day.

Sunday we went to Playa Ramírez, a twenty minute walk from our hostel, and pictured below. Unfortunately, the sky did indeed look like this all day. Nonetheless, we got burned anyway, tricked into thinking cloud=no sun damage. I never seem to learn this lesson no matter how many times it has happened to me. It was still a nice day, and I felt so lucky to just be able to sit on the beach all day, with literally, not a care in the world. 

We took the last buquebus back to Buenos Aires late on Sunday night. I still can't believe that I was actually in Uruguay this weekend, but it happened and I have some great memories from the small time I was there. I ate some good food, soaked up the sun, and even learned a little military history (almost)! 

La Primera Semana

Hoy es miércoles, and tomorrow will be the end of my first week in Buenos Aires. I really can't believe that I get to spend another five months in this beautiful city. I have to keep reminding myself that I don't have to see everything immediately; there will be time to see the city and enjoy it quietly.

After a lazy last day in New York and the most expensive taxi of my life to get to Newark Airport, I flew to Houston, where the plane picked up the other lucky travelers on their way to Buenos Aires. There were a number of other American students from my program (CIEE-FLACSO) on the plane and we all awkwardly stood around, discussing whether or not we over packed. On the flight I sat next to a guy who had recently finished his mandatory conscription in the Israeli army and was headed to South America to travel with his friends for six months. We chatted about his travel plans, and my study plans. After an uneventful flight, we landed at Ezeiza International Airport. A charter bus took a large group of CIEE students, or Flacsitos as we are called, to the hotel were we stayed for two nights until everyone moved into their respective housing. That evening the entire group went to eat at a very nice restaurant in the Puerto Madero neighborhood. I felt bad for the other patrons, having to share the restaurant with a group of 120 American students, but the food was quite good and accompanied by, of course, local Argentine wine. 

The next day we began our orientation by meeting the staff, taking a test to gauge our proficiency in Spanish, and learning how to use the colectivos. In Buenos Aires there are a few subway lines (it is called the subte) but the main mode of public transportation are the buses. There are over 500 different bus lines! The stops are not always clearly marked, sometimes distinguished by "that tree over there," and the buses only take correct change, which I am learning, is hard to come by in Buenos Aires. Everyone wants to keep theircentavos for themselves. The orientation activities were for the most part helpful and sometimes redundant - like most orientation activities. That evening I ventured out with some newly made friends to a Greek restaurant in the Palermo neighborhood, where we watched heel slapping dancers and broke plates on the ground. It was a true tourist experience. After the waiter tried to give us menus in English and I spied two other tables of Americans, I decided to try and avoid restaurants recommended by the guide book.

The next day everyone split into small groups and we took walking tours of a small area in Buenos Aires. My group visited Puerto Madero, the newest, and some say most expensive, area of town. The neighborhood has only recently become a restoration project for the city, beginning in 1989. The area was the original location of a new canal, at the end of the 19th century. Madero's design however was obsolete by the time the project was finished and Buenos Aires had to build another port, this time by Huergo. Madero's canal is now recognizable because of Santiago Calatrava's Puente de Mujer, built in 2001.

 

Later we visited the ecological reserve on the edge of the water. During the last regime of military dictators in the late 1970's and early 1980's the land was created to expand the city, but when nothing was immediately done with it, flora and fauna began moving in, and in 1986 a group of ecologists convinced the government to turn it into a reserve. While it might not be considered a spectacularly beautiful destination (my host family says they haven't been there in six years) I found it charming in its simplicity. There were no enormous tropical plants, and the river is brown from the sediment, but seeing modern glassy skyscrapers rising from behind the slightly rundown Costanera Sur, was spectacular in its own right.  

That afternoon I moved in with my host family, a young married couple, in the Recoleta neighborhood. Leo, the husband owns his own business, and Soledad, the wife, is studying Marketing. I am their fifth student, so they know the drill, which I think really helps. We eat dinner together most nights, and watch Argentine talk shows. The shows are like US Weekly, but every night, and on TV - I can't wait until I know all of the local personalities enough to enjoy the gossip. Soledad tries to explain all of the slang to me, but they all talk so fast, it's usually pretty hard to keep up. I think if one day I can understand RSM (that's the TV show), I will be very proud of my Spanish abilities. Anyway, my room at the apartment is really nice. I have a window facing the street with lots of light and a little desk where I can sit and study or use the computer, like I am right now. It is great to be living with two people who know the city so well, because they are so eager to help and answer all my questions. At the same time, we all have our separate lives and routines and they respect that. I have plenty of personal space, but I am not completely isolated. I feel really lucky to have such a great living situation.

But back to my Argentine adventures! On Sunday, the day after our caminata por Puerto Madero I wandered around Buenos Aires by myself for a good four or five hours. I walked in a few circles since my internal compass hasn't adjusted to this new city yet, but I think I am getting better. I took the subway a few times and ran into the famous Recolta Cemetary where many famous Argentines are buried, including Evita herself. Even though it was a Sunday and the entrance was crowded with tourists, it was easy to get lost and wander in solitude. Each tomb has its own personality and I think I could go a hundred times and find a new corner to explore. 

I can only hope that every weekend here I am so good about getting out and exploring the city! There is so much to see, I know that no matter how much I see, when it is time to leave in July, there will still be places that I didn't get around to visiting. I just hope those places are few and far between. 

This week so far has been filled with more orientation sessions reviewing program rules, the housing system, and other such information. We have just begun to learn about the registration process at the different universities where we can enroll and will begin registering at the beginning of next week. Most classes will begin the following week, and some even after that, so we all still have lots of free time on our hands. I have plans to go to Uruguay this weekend, which is just across the river and see Montevideo and Colonia. Hopefully the next post will involve lots of pictures of the beach!