Hey everybody! Disclaimer: This is a little outdated. I wrote this post over a week ago and just never got around to publishing it. Enjoy!
Last Saturday: Emily and I took advantage of the “Internacional Festival de Cine Something or Another”. I’m too lazy to look up the name, but there is a huge International Film Festival in Buenos Aires. On a 75 degree (complete guess seeing how the world lives in Celcius here..) beautiful Saturday, we sat in an alley between two buildings on folding chairs and watched a move in French with Spanish subtitles about two little girls from China on a big screen outdoors in the open air for free!
Then, we went to a cute cheap pizza place. The pizza actually had sauce! I felt a little at home J Then, we went to La Feria de Libros en Plaza Italia. This is a huge used book sale outside on the sidewalk. Also, there are little artisan stands all over with hand-crafted odds & ends. Lots of fun!
Sunday: I had the urge to do Yoga. Therefore, I googled, “where can I do Yoga in BsAs”. I walked 25 blocks (one-way) to a park by myself to take a free yoga class. At first, I saw an older man with a group of about 40 elderly people doing some form of possibly Yoga-ish moves. They looked like they were trying to be fish swimming through make-believe water if that gives you an image at all. I joined for approximately 6 minutes, laughing at myself the whole time. Then, across the park I saw a group of younger people, only 30s and 40s who were doing what I actually recognized as Yoga! I thoroughly enjoyed this hour. However, even though there were maybe forty people in the class, for some reason the instructor kept singling me out to correct me! I’m not exactly sure if it was because he thought my Spanish was worse than it is, or if my Spanish really is that bad and instead of being upside-down, I was supposed to have my foot behind my head.
After Yoga, I went running around the lake. This is possibly my favorite place in the city. It is like an escape from the city. Escapes are what I need. I am not a city girl. That is one of the biggest things I have learned from being here. Just not meant for me! Cow please. In other words, I really enjoy having this park to go to in order to run around the lake, under the palm trees, and watch the evil geese scout out their prey. The only down fall is that I spend an hour and a half walking each time just to get to and from the place I like to run.
Hence: why I don't run very frequently. I made a light joke one night after dinner about how I'm gaining weight. My host mom told me that I should run more and eat less for breakfast.... HA! Nelly (host grandma) has had over 50 students stay with her over the years and she said she has never had a student leave WITHOUT gaining at least 10-12 lbs. Awesome. Why break the trend!?! :) You only live once.
Sunday: I went to La Feria en Recoleta. Recoleta is one of my favorite barrios (there are 48 official barrios of BsAs I think). This one is really nice and clean. The fair environment is great. Live music. Guys dancing in the park. Puppet show in the park for kids and Karen. Filled with people sitting in the grass. Then the fair itself is hundreds of artisans sellign their hand-made what-nots on blankets and booths. Lots of fun stuff to see!
Walking back through the park, everything was covered in white. Loads of paper and trash. I was told there had been a riot due to the election in Peru because there are so many Peruvians here in BsAs. I had seen the mass of people from a distance earlier in teh day. Later a woman also waiting for the colectivo tried to explain to me why the park and streets were torn apart – usually it was a pretty area. I don’t think I understood her completely, but that’s the gist of what I got.
During the week, I am starting to get in a routine. It is less of a “vacation” or an "oh my gosh I'm in Argentina!" time of of trying new things each day. Instead, it's more of just “this is the city that I live in” sort of mindset. Most students here travel almost every weekend and I don’t. There’s a long story behind this, but it’s turning out to be alright. I'm getting to know the city better than most I think. Things that used to seem so unfamiliar to me are now becoming just part of everyday life. Now, I don't even think twice about taking the subway, finding which colectivos take me to other barrios, planning trips for myself, purchasing things in Spanish, asking strangers for directions, bringing my laundry a block over to the laundry place each week, eating empanadas every day for lunch, drinking mate all the time, hailing colectivos, hailing taxis, having my university be a 17 story building instead of spread across a campus, and taking my old-fashioned elevator with the manual-gated door up to my apartment on the 6th floor where I live each day.
People keep asking me how my classes are. I feel like that’s an impossible question. The whole semester is based off of a midterm and final. That’s it. My classes with other international students I’m sure I’ll do fine in, but my classes with Argentines, I’m a little worried. I just have NO idea what to expect! I think one of my professors will hold me to just about the same bar as everyone else which is terrifying. Most of the argentines have no idea what goes on half the time! On the other hand, one of my other professors always addresses me in English. I think she thinks I’m dumber than I am. That's totally fine by me.
Last week: I’d say probably even a worse week in my life than when Megan ran over and killed my best friend/pet Lily while I was in the car on my eleventh Birthday. Haha yeah, I’m pretty sure this past week tops that on the “no me gusta” scale. But it's okay now and I'm just glad it's over and everything's fine!!! **Disclaimer: The next paragraph will be a complaining rant that is unnecessary to read but is written so I may remember and later look back and laugh at my awesome Argentine luck.
Getting my visa just became the death of me. Exaggeration. I am not dead. However, I am still visa-less. Because of being robbed and having to get a new passport, I am doing the process weeks after everyone else already went together – therefore I am in this alone. The process requires: taking two subte trains for 45 minutes to the busy part of Retiro (these couple blocks near where the place is located make up the transportation capital of Argentina, the exact place I was robbed) and then walk over the train tracks to a somewhat sketch part where the Migrations Office is located. We were required to bring a bundle of useless paperwork including professional photos, stuff signed by the University, my police report, passport, copies of all my documentations, background check, etc. and 300 pesos cash. (every piece of paper of value to me in life plus cash). A great situation.
It didn’t help that I was probably overly sensitive, paranoid, and scared to do so, just because I haven’t been back there since the robbery. I am SO grateful that my lovely friend Janelle offered to wake up at 6 a.m. to accompany me the first time I went last week! That was really really nice of her.
However: Since my passport number is new and the Argentine government hates me, I was forced to go on a wild goose chase across the city for a week. I had to take the subway back home, make another copy of my police report, then by myself go back to the U.S Embassy for the 3rd time, stay a couple hours to have them write me a letter to say that my passport is legit, have the man at the Embassy laugh at me and say that the other man at Migrations was wrong and just hates me and I didn't need a letter because a replacement passport should be enough! Phew, run-on sentence! Anyways, so I leave the Embassy and go back to Retiro by myself now and wander around looking for a building that I didn’t even know the name of to ask for them to legalize the letter from the Embassy that I really didn’t need in the first place. Of course, I get there at 1:50 pm and the place had closed at 1:30 pm. OF COURSE. So then I take the subte home and at 7 the next morning go back to Retiro by myself for the 3rd time this week and find the mysterious building where they legalize stuff (which is a process I truly don’t understand. Anyone can bring any form to be legalized? Then what’s the point of legalizing it! The man who puts the stamp on it has no proof where you obtained the document anyways! How do they know what they’re legalizing! Is it just a way to get your money?) Well, after whipping out my lovely intermediate Spanish-speaking skills to explain what I needed, I waited in 3 different lines, taking numbers, filling out form, going to the bank to pay yet again, and waiting some more. Then once I had finally obtained it (!) I went back to the Migrations Office in Retiro to submit all the important papers of my life. Praise the Lord I don’t have to go back again!!! …. Until next week. Can’t wait! :
In other words, I was so busy with this, that I was forced to skip class and sadly, didn’t have time to make my plans to Uraguay pull through. My friends are now going, but I just couldn’t swing it last week enough to buy tickets. Besides, the irreliable postal system likes to deny my ability to have a debit card.
Friday night was La Noche Internacional at the University. Surprisingly, it was actually a lot of fun! This University is just crawling with students from all over. Each country had a different table. There were tons of different foods, costumes, singing, and dancing! They had the loud music, strobe light, live band type of atmosphere. I have to admit though, it was my first time being at a place where it’s okay to be drinking and dancing in the school building with your professors!
Saturday: I went to the “yoga class” again. This time, it wasn’t so much a yoga class. I’m not really sure what it was and I’m not really sure if I was invited to join them. However, I exchanged back massages with a woman with a tennis ball for an hour! It was a group of eight adults in their 50s. I walked by a couple hours later and they were still sitting in a circle... It was bizarre. Tranquil but bizarre. I'm not really sure why I sat down with them and I'm kind of wondering what they thought of my brief company..
Then, I went to church. I officially know half of the Hail Mary.
Sunday: Iglesia. Then, I took the bus for an hour to the barrio Mataderos. La Feria en Mataderos is another city feria where the artisans sell absolutely everything. This one in particular shows a totally different culture than most of the rest of BsAs. This is where the biggest slaughter-houses used to be. They still ship cows through this part of the city, I guess. (Argentina is known for it's cattle - if you didn't know!) There was a small museum there which showed a lot of the history and culture of the gaucho lifestyle. These are the "cowboys" of Argentina. So much violence and killing! After seeing many actual photos of the slaughtering, I was in no mood to eat meat. Instead, I had an icecream cone filled with dulce de leche instead of icecream. BEST invention EVER.
So that's the next summary of what I've been up to here. Honestly, the homesickness comes in waves. Not only do I miss the people, places, ranch dressing, peanut butter, and cheddar cheese, but I think more than anything I just miss the security of what is familiar. Yet at the same time, I realize that learning how to live in a huge city is good for me and that everyone should step outside of their comfort zone and challenge themselves to learn.
Thanks for reading and have a wonderful Easter!
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