So I have not updated since Easter. WHOOPSIE DAISIES! Now there is so much to say, I apologize again for the length. If you have a life, feel free to go live it. If not and you’re sitting on facebook or stumbleupon, feel free to read on - - -enjoy!
After spraining my ankle, I was told to “take it easy” for a while. Unfortunately, my personality .doesn‘t allow myself to do that without anxiety. I can never sit still. True, I opted to not run a marathon afterwards (I didn’t do that when I felt fine either), but I didn’t exactly sit on my butt with my foot in the air. I started doing stuff. This blog post will summarize my month of doing stuff.
Ankle: Living in a city this huge when you can’t walk is a challenge. Lie. It’s impossible. Transportation is impossible. I couldn’t take the subway because it requires going down a flight of stairs to enter and up a flight to exit. I tried taking colectivos a few times, but in order to get off you have to jump down about 2 feet. This jump is no problem to any normal person, but for me, clearly I forgot my foot was the size of Texas and I leaped off in a hurry as the colectivo started to take off again. Let’s just say I didn’t help the healing process. So, eventually I gave in and sat on my couch eating dulce de leche. J It’s a rough life we live.
It’s autumn here, it has been for the past month. I find it rather odd and mis-fitting to watch the leaves turn yellow, then orange, and fall to the ground. Fall here lacks pumpkins, apple cider, doughnuts, and Halloween. It’s just a weird/unexplainable feeling. I’m walking, crunching on the leaves, underneath a palm tree. Bizarre!
Nelly, my host Grandma who lives next door on my floor (we have dinner at her apartment every night) went to Australia for 3 weeks. During this time, I spent more time getting to know Silvia (my host mom) and her daughters which was great. I am feeling more and more comfortable living here and I love it.
I spend less time trying to cram in as much as I can. Now, it’s more of just living here like a normal person, rather than a tourist. I’m just living in the city and getting to know people of the city, rather than just getting to know the city itself. Enjoying spending time with my host family too! And I could be wrong, but I feel like my Spanish is getting much better. :D
My random Observations:
· Water is so expensive! I’m used to it being free at restaurants in the U.S. Here, ordering water at restaurants is often more expensive than beer. And it’s never from a pitcher. Or bottled water. It’s in the green glass bottles. Gosh sometimes I just want a swig, don’t get all fancy on me now!
· Carbonated water. Is sick. But they drink it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve made that mistake. I’ll be parched and dying of thirst so I go to a kiosko or supermarcado to buy a big nice cold fresh bottle of nature’s finest. Then, the bubbles hit and start eating my esophagus. I’m not a fan.
· PDA (Public Display of Affection) is brought to a whole new level here. No one cares. Make-out sha-bangs goin on all over.
· I have a confession. I am often SO tempted to eat off people’s plates while walking on the sidewalk by cafes or restaurants that have outdoor seating. For example, people will order a café con leche and it is served with a cookie. They drink their coffee but leave the cookie and leave. Then I come along and you have NO idea how hard it is to resist the temptation to eat their left-over cookie… I mean I know that it’s 100% socially unacceptable to eat leftovers off the plates of strangers, but at the same time, this city is HUGE. Nobody knows me. Nobody will ever see me again. You know what; I probably won’t even get caught if I’m quick enough! Yes. These thoughts punch each other in my mind every day while I walk down Cabildo on my way to class.
· True fact: I bet if you totaled it up, there are more square feet of dog poop in this city than grass.
· Going to the doctor is freakishly more common here. After I sprained my ankle, of course I wasn’t going to go to the doctor. It was a sprain. I wasn’t dying. However my host family, history professor, friends here, people at church…everyone told me that I’m an idiot for not going to the hospital. Now, I realize that hospitals here are free!!! (Public Universities too). Crazy.
· I’m getting better at using Celcius and kilos. I am definitely coming home with a few extra kilos cushioning my belly.
· Dogs. There’s a ridiculously unreal amount of dogs in this city. Streets are flooding with them. Both strays and with owners. But dog-walkers= a concept that I just don’t understand. Each dog-walker has sometimes over 10 dogs to one walker! What kind of ratio is that! There’s hardly enough room for the dogs to fit just standing within leash span, let alone walk or move! I LOVE dogs, but that’s a job I don’t think I could ever do. They fight with the stray dogs, pee on your feet, run,… it’s all a bit overwhelming to me. I get stressed out watching.
· One thing I have definitely taken note of here is how it seems everyone values family so much. It seems like it's moreso than in the states. When meeting someone new, that is always one of the first questions they ask me – If I have any siblings. Also, for example, Silvia lives right next door (practically with) her mom. Her daughters are older and don’t live here, but they come over maybe 5 nights out of the week to visit and have dinner or just mate or tea or coffee during the day. Her brother and niece come over and join us for dinner often as well. I have been blessed with a family here that is really close (and really welcoming). I am guessing that part of this reason that families here are so close is because most "kids" live at home until they are much older. In the U.S., most kids move out at 18 to go to college because the University is a campus rather than a building of classes. Just different.
· Once in a while people finally mistake me for an Argentine! People always talk to me, assuming I’m from here. If I stay silent for a while they don’t even know!...until I utter a sound haha. However do do feel pretty cool when people who are from here ask me for directions and I actually know how to give them!
Things I’ve been up to:
After a looooooooong and horrible process, I FINALLY HAVE MY STUDENT VISA!!!!!!!!!!!! That means that eventually I can come home J and go to Spain J.
I have joined 2 groups at a Catholic Church here, San Benito, which is about a 30 minute walk away. One group is called Grupo Universitarios and the other is Jovenes en Accion [young people in action]. I am so blessed and have met some really great and fun people!
Uruguay!!!!!!!!!!! Oh yea, I went to Uruguay. It was only a one-day trip, but it was superb and wonderful and an escape from the busy city which was exactly what I needed. Transportation round trip cost $50 U.S!! Awesome. We took Boquebus – a bus on the water. I don’t remember exactly, but it was maybe a 3 hour trip across the Rio de La Plata. Paranoid that of course there wouldn’t be a bathroom on the boat, I made sure to go ahead of time. HA! I entered the boat to find that it literally had a mall!, shops, food, live music, etc. So yes, it had a bathroom. I loved getting to see the city of Buenos Aires from a distance too as we were pulling away. Enormous. Our destination was Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay. It is a quaint and historical little pueblo right on the water. A perfect day spent on the little quiet streets. I went to play at a park in the morning [which was the coolest park of my life with play things that don’t exist in the U.S! there was a giant maze, Mario-like tunnels, and these construction barrels to run through! Actually, I can guarantee that this park would fail any safety regulations test. Still fun!] Then, I ran down to the beach to put my feet in the river- Ocean water! That was a moment I remember just trying to absorb and wishing I had a camera here. [I was reminded how huge and small the world is at the same time and how crazy it is that God controls it all!] There were a couple small artisan street fairs with hand-made crafts. Then, we climbed to the top of a light house with an incredible view of the pueblo and the water. The whole day, I felt a little at home. It was a small town and autumn so with yellow leaves – I felt like I was in Mount Pleasant with a Latin American twist.
Friends from Peru – This month, I have hung out a few times with a group of 3 friends from Peru that I have met here. They don’t know a single word of English. They are the friends who invited me to their place for lunch on Easter! Then, two of them had Birthdays the same week, so I was invited over again for more Peruvian food and cake! Then, another time for a pijamada (sleepover!) with a few other friends from here as well. We played Charadas (charades) and watched movies and ate cake! One of the girls (who is 27, mind you) brought paint and a brush for the face of whoever fell asleep first. I seriously haven’t done that in like 6 years, but I was loving it =D
Then, there are the many people I have met from the Catholic Church. A couple girls have invited me over for mate and I went to a surprise Birthday party too. Everyone is super friendly and welcoming.
Last Sunday, I spent the day with another girl I met there. We walked with her dog to a BEAUTIFUL park (Bosque de Palermo) to sit on a blanket and drink mate talking. Then we walked through the city for a few hours to a part I had never been. Then, at her apartment she insisted that I try on her wedding dress! So much fun. However, I’m not gonna lie, when looked in the mirror, the thought of myself married terrified me! Haha. But I spent the whole day with this friend – she knows not a single word of English.
Cine!!! Since I have been here, I have gone to the movies 3 times. It is only 20 pesos (5 bucks). All cartoons in Spanish. First I saw Hop. It started at 11pm. We were literally the only 3 people in the theatre. At first I figured it was because all the kids who would normally see a movie such as Hop were in bed. Then I remembered that I am in Argentina and they are probably all at home eating dinner still. The movie was fabulous. In English, the movie might have sucked, but from what I got of the jokes, it was a hoot. The best part was being the only ones and getting to dance up on the stage in front of the screen during the credits. I think we gave the guy up in the projection window a show. Then, I saw Rio. That was cool to see, just because it takes place here in South America. After going to the Carnival in Gualyguachu I could relate a tiny bit, even though the movie had the real deal Carnival from Brasil. Today, I just saw Winnie the Pooh en Castellano [Castellano is the dialect of Spanish spoken here in Argentina]. I had invited a friend from here to join and she brought a guy friend as well. When she found out we were seeing Winnie the Pooh, she said she wanted to kill me. I thought it was a joy.
I’ve seen a little bit more of the night life. I went to Plaza Serrano with some friends – a little plaza surrounded with a bunch of bars and cute lights and such. I think there’s something wrong with me; I enjoyed the peanuts that they serve probably more than my drink.
Mini Concerts: One night I went with 2 girls from my University to a tiny little hole-in-the-wall place (bar) with seating for about 8 people, yet 2 live bands. People were packed in this tiny little room and there was art all over the walls. Really cool place. And people were sitting up on the roof drinking too.
General thoughts of my life here:
Living in the city is getting SO MUCH easier. Many prayers have been answered. Not only is my Spanish a lot better, but I know how to get around the city alone to wherever I might need to go. That makes life SO much less stressful. I know there’s still a million things that I still don’t know and I do wrong, but not gonna lie, sometimes I just look in the mirror and give myself a pat on the back. I came here having zero knowledge of how to live in an enormous city and I’m managing pretty alright. Each day has its own challenges and adventures. Literally. As much as I miss the cornfields some days, I wonder if once I return, if I will be soon bored of life there and will miss the challenges. With each challenge each day, I learn loads.
As much as I love my friends here who are also exchange students, I am so blessed to have Porteno friends (from BsAs). I get to practice my Spanish and see how people really live here, learning more about the culture. I like how so many people here are so proud of their city/country. The first half of my time here was spent getting to know the city. Now, it’s more getting to know people in their normal, everyday life. For example, I love even little things like the man who does maintenance in the building who sings in the stairwell while taking out the trash. Or the lady at the laundry place who knows me because for the first 2 months I made her think that she lost the match of every single pair of socks I have. And then there’s the friendly old ladies at the gym. I feel like the city isn’t quite so big anymore. I mean, it’s still huge, but I’m so much less overwhelmed.
Being in awkward situations. I’m learning to not have anxiety and to not make a big deal dwelling over little things – mistakes. If I wasn't an expert at looking stupid before, I sure am pro now! When I am confused and have no idea what's going on, I've learned to embrace it.
These weeks are seriously FLYING by! I only have 2 MONTHS LEFT HERE IN ARGENTINA! I probably wouldn't notice how fast these weeks just fly, but I am obliged to give that credit to Rebecca Black. It's serioulsy how I keep tabs on the number of weeks that pass, I take note of the rush of facebook statuses screaming her name every seven days...
I have learned that EVERYTHING in life is based on perspective. This can be taken a million different ways and I’m starting to learn all of them. Anything that you think is “normal” or “socially acceptable” may only be true where you currently are and who you’re with. Going to different places, your views on what is “normal” may change 180 degrees. Same with Attitude. It’s all about perspective. The world will be exactly how you want to see it. It all just depends on what you’re comparing it to. For example, when I feel like I’m having a bad day, I compare it to the man who sleeps outside our building every night on the sidewalk. Then I am reminded how blessed I am again.
“Travel often. Getting lost will help you find yourself.”
Okay, and I am stopping. I have yet to write about this past week which has been ABSOLUTELY AMAZING and I have done crazy awesome things. I will save those fun stories for my next entry because I have no time or energy to write about it now, so….
TUNE IN NEXT TIME TO HEAR LARRY SING……………. “Don’t cry for me Argentina…” =D
Wow. If you actually read all that, you must reeeally love me! ;) Thanks.
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