Ha venido Santa Rosa

For those of you who don't speak Spanish, the title of this post says "Santa Rosa has come". Santa Rosa is the name porteños have given to an annual weather front that comes through around the end of winter. Every year towards the end of august it gets really hot, it was in the 80s this weekend. Then around August 31 (Día de Santa Rosa) it starts to rain and get really cold and windy. It was pouring rain and cold when I walked from the subway to class this morning but then it cleared up and really wasn't that bad. Argentines are very superstitious though and many people won't ride the buses today because they are sure they will crash (as far as I know none did...) I took advantage of this superstition and had a very non-crowded bus ride during rush hour when it would normally be packed. 

This weekend I enjoyed the brief warm weather by going to the park by my house at least once a day. I went with the intentions of doing homework each time but mostly I just people watch. I love going there because it is always packed with people, soccer games, and random street vendors and performers. On saturday when I was there I heard drums so I went to investigate. I found this drum line performing and there was a fitness center there leading a giant coordinated dance work-out with like 100 people participating. It was so cool to watch. 

Saturday night I went to the youth service at the church I've been going to. I ended up going by myself because the other girls I usually go with were busy. It was so great to get to meet many people my own age there and I went out to eat with about 20 of them afterwards. Despite having to answer the same questions many many times, I had a great time hanging out with them and hopefully made some porteño friends! 

Tengo que estudiar acá?

Classes have officially started here...

I still haven't figured out my schedule completely because my art class (painting or photography) doesn't start for another 2 weeks... Other than that, I am taking a grammar class, a spanish listening/conversation class, 2 lit classes, and a non-credit nature painting class. My lit class at flacso is mainly focused on the city and we go on lots of fieldtrips to different places that were important to certain authors. Our first trip is next week and we have to bring our cameras and take pictures while we walk around the city. My other lit class is at IUNA, the art school. The atmosphere there is really relaxed and people are constantly playing music or dancing in the courtyard. In my classroom there were probably 20 desks for 40 students...My painting class is great. It's on the top floor of an old theatre with beautiful natural light (great for painting!) I didn't understand a lot of what my professor said but she basically set up a still life and said "paint it", which I understood, art is pretty universal. I also tried out a psychology class at UBA which is the public school here. That was an interesting experience! The building is completely unfinished with handmade posters covering every inch of the walls. The classroom had murals all over the walls and desks that were falling apart. The class was so interesting but there's no way I could pass it. 

In general, classes here are fairly similar to classes at home except for a few differences. The biggest one of course is that everything's in spanish! haha. Lots of stuff goes over my head but I think that it's getting better...It's not unusual for a professor to arrive 20-30 minutes late to class and students walk in super late too and sometimes just leave to get food. In lots of classes there is a 10 minute break usually so that the professor can go smoke (if they don't just smoke in the class). We don't have any textbooks just huge photocopied readings that we have to buy from photocopy kioscs. 

Other than trying out classes I haven't really done anything too interesting...This morning i went to finish my visa process which was surprisingly easy. It only took an hour and a half even though they told us to prepare to be there for several hours. Sunday after church, Kerri, Chelsea and I went to recoleta to see the famous cemetery and fair. 

The weather here is getting so nice. Today it was 75 and beautiful. Because it was so nice and my class this afternoon was relatively close to me, I decided to walk. While I walked there I was thinking about how funny it was that a 30 minute walk now seems close to me even though at hope the farthest walk is maybe 7 minutes. Walking to class also seemed like an exciting novelty because I always have to take a subway or bus to get there. 

Well...I should probably get back to the reading I am avoiding doing. Off to a good start...

Bariloche!

Right now my host mom is blasting music and singing along as loud as possible. Including opera. I love her! 

Anyway, Yesterday I came back from a wonderful week in Bariloche with 11 other flacsitos. 

Last tuesday we set off on a 2o+ hour bus ride which was actually way better than you might think. Our seats were basically beds and we were given 3 fairly good meals and many movies to watch. I actually think I liked it better than flying because it was more comfortable and we got to see the beautiful Argentine countryside and mountains. 

When we arrived we stepped of the bus into freezing cold rain/sleet (Happy birthday to me!) We settled into out hostel which was right on one of the most beautiful lakes I have ever seen. The hostel owner, Iñaki was a really cool and helpful guy who lived there with his wife and 21 day old daughter. 

Thursday morning we woke up early enough to see the sunrise over the lake. Then Iñaki drove us himself to Carro Catedral, the nearby ski resort. The best way I can think to describe my skiing experience was that it was very latin american. So many of the runs were closed for really no reason and in order to get to the base of the mountain you had to take a chair lift down. It was still so fun though and now I can say that I've skied in the Andes!  

After skiing some of us (encouraged by Jessie) decided to jump into the lake. It actually wasn't as cold as you might think. If it wasn't for my feet (which were completely numb) I might have been able to stay in there for a while. 

Because of bad weather and kind of expensive prices, most of us decided to only ski one day. We spent the rest of our time relaxing, reading, playing tons of card games, and eating great food (Including delicious mexican food and a giant asado made for us by the hostel workers) One day we basically hopped on a random bus which according to katie would take us to a lake. She was right. When we got off the bus we saw this...

We spent a few hours walking around the lake and hiking up to a "mirador" (viewpoint). On our walk/slide back down it started snowing so hard. I had to keep reminding myself that it was the middle of August. 

The trip definitely ended too soon and all of us wanted to stay longer but we had to come back for our classes which started today. 

The only class I had to go today was a 2 hour grammar class which went really well. It's kind of weird being back in classes already but it's nice to start settling down into a schedule. After class I successfully bought art supplies in spanish (well really all i did was hand them a sheet of paper with everything i needed on it...) 

Gauchos Galore

Hello from Buenos Aires! We spent the weekend in what I refer to as "Cowboy land" and are just starting up classes this week. 

Friday morning we met early to leave for San Antonio de Areco, a small town about 2 hours outside of the city. We spent our first day there playing some orientation games outside and learning more about Argentine culture. We also ate tons of good food and I got to try Maté for the first time. Maté is a super traditional drink here that's really important to them. It tastes pretty much like tea, so I liked it. It's served in a small hallowed out gourd (also called a maté which makes it confusing). There are lots of rules to drinking it like you are not allowed to say thank you because that means you are done drinking it and you have to drink the whole thing the first time it is handed to you. We were the last people to sign up for a hotel room so we tried to sign up 3 people for a 2 person room. When we got to the hotel we found out they had moved us into a really nice suite. When we met up with the people staying in the other hostels we found out that some of them didn't even have running water and our hotel had a spa and some rooms had Jacuzzis. That night a bunch of people from the program including all of the staff went to a bar where they was a live band playing. They played a bunch of old English music (lots of Beatles) which was pretty funny. 

The next morning Kerri and I went for a walk through town and collected quite a few stray dogs who then proceeded to follow us to the estancia, which is like a ranch outside of town. We spent the morning there relaxing, playing games, and going for horseback rides. Then they brought us out food (including the best empeñadas i've had!). Right after we finished that food they brought us inside for more food; salad, potatoes, asado (basically grilled steak) and gelato. After lunch they had a folk dance show for us and taught us how to dance a little. Then they had a gaucho show. Activities included them trying to spear this tiny ring while galloping past it, musical chairs on horses, a game of Pato (pretty much quidditch), "tubing" behind a horse on a cowhide, a random sack race and tug-of-war. Then we drove back to Buenos Aires and got back just in time for dinner. The whole weekend was a nice time to relax, enjoy nice weather, and get out of the city for a little bit. Check out my facebook if you want to see pictures. 

Sunday morning Niki, Kerri, and I plus 2 other girls from the program went to a church that they found online. As soon as I walked in I was so happy and comfortable! It was just so nice to be with other believers and see a little bit of the church here in Argentina. I could understand most of the songs but didn't catch a lot of what the pastor said. Afterwards so many people came up to us to introduce themselves and tell us about small groups of young people that meet throughout the week. We gave our numbers and emails to lots of people and hopefully that will be a great place to meet some other young people. After lunch at a nice spanish-style restaurant, I spent the evening running errands and hanging out with my family.

Today we unsuccessfully tried to go to our first class at la UCA. When we got there we had to find our classroom on a big list of all the classes but our schedule didn't match up with the list. We tried to go to the classroom where we thought it was but once the class started we quickly realized we were in the wrong class! We're going to try to go tomorrow and hopefully it will all work out... Instead of going to class Kerri and I went to register for our classes at the Rojas center. Through the program we can take 1 class there for free. I was trying to sign up for a photography class but they were all full. I ended up signing up for what is basically a painting class with a focus on nature. Then we went to FLACSO where we mostly tried to figure out our trip to Bariloche tomorrow! I will be spending the next week (including my birthday!) there skiing in the Andes and exploring the town. I can't really think of a better way to be spending my birthday! 

Los peligros de la vida de la ciudad

Today we saw la UCA (the Catholic University where we can take classes) for the first time. It is 4 big, beautiful buildings right along the river and feels enough like Hope to make me feel at home. After a boring, and mainly pointless orientation session we walked to Plaza de Mayo and had coffee and tea at Gran Cafe Tortoni. It was founded in 1858 and is one of the oldest cafes in the city. Lots of famous writers used to go there to work. 

When we went to get on the subway to take us back to FLACSO a man and woman got on right with us and kind of trapped me in a corner. It's not at all weird for people to stand very close to you on the subway but they were keeping me right by the door instead of walking further into the train which I thought was strange. I tried to look at the woman to see what was going on but she was avoiding eye contact. She had a coat in her arms that was blocking my view of my purse. Luckily I quickly realized what was going on and pushed her out of the way (although I wish I had punched her). The two got off right away and left. When I looked at my purse the zipper was undone and my wallet was half-way pulled out. Thankfully I realized just in time that I was being robbed and nothing was stolen! I would have lost about $75 and my phone. Needless to say, I was really flustered and mad but it was a good reminder that I have to be careful here! 

Parques, Tambores, y Clases.

I'm sitting and watching TV with my host mom and dad in our dining/living room.  Earlier my mom and I watched Scrubs together but now we're watching some movie in spanish and I have no idea what's happening... 

I haven't really done anything that exciting since I last posted. Saturday morning I didn't have anything to do so I went for a walk with my camera through my neighborhood. I walked through the 2 parks by my house and got some strange looks because I was a tourist with a nice camera in a very non-touristy part of town. Here are some pictures of my neighborhood. 

My street- Senillosa

Parque Rivadavia

Sunday morning Kerri and I tried to go to this international church that I found out about through my church. We thought we know where it was but when we got there, there was no church... Later we found out that the address had a second part that meant it wasn't even in the city. It wasn't a complete waste though because when we got off the subway we came up right into Plaza de Mayo (I had no idea that's where we were going to be) so we got to walk around a little and take pictures of the Casa Rosada (The "Pink House" which is like the White House). This is the only picture I have so far that has me in it. 

Then we went to San Telmo for this huge fair they have every sunday. There was so much to look at and listen to. We spent most of the afternoon there. It was such a nice day so we went and got ice cream and sat on Kerri's patio in the sun. 

Monday we got to go into the FLACSO building for the first time to learn about registration. It was nice to finally be in our own building. We haven't been able to meet in there yet because of Gripe A (Swine Flu). That night we went to see La Bomba de Tiempo, a really cool drum line that performs every monday night.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrKm5xUQtNo&feature=related

Yesterday Kerri, Niki and I met at a park by Niki's house to hang out and play cards before we had to be at FLACSO to register for our classes at UBA, the public university in Buenos Aires. Afterwards I bunch of us went to go get Freddo, the best ice cream here (at least that i've had so far...) Registering for classes has been a complicated and overwhelming process. I had to figure out which classes I thought I would like, which classes I need for credit, what credit will actually transfer, and what classes will fit into my schedule. We have a 2 week "shopping period" where we can try out classes and drop them if we don't like them. I'm planning on taking 2 spanish classes and a lit class at FLACSO, 1 lit class at the private university, and a painting class at the art school. I'm also going to a psych class for a week because I want to see a psych class in the self-proclaimed psychology capitol of the world. 

Bueno, es todo!