New word of the day: "robado"

At some point, all good things come to an end.  In this case, it was time passed during which I hadn't been robbed.  Unfortunately, Monday night my wallet and camera were victims of what I personally believe is "the curse of 2010."  Considering I began the current year by being robbed on the train back to school, I'm actually not too shocked that something like this happened.  Sure, we'd been told all the horror stories of people getting phones stolen from pockets on the subway, wallets from unzipped purses on the bus, even Ipods snatched by motorists while walking on the street.  But I just always thought that happened to stupid, oblivious people.  I thought that I was a master traveler, able to conduct myself appropriately in public and not have "TOURIST" plastered on my forehead.  Clearly, I was wrong, either about the typical robbery victim, or the perception I have about my travel savviness.  Or both.  I certainly misjudged what sort of travel mishaps I would encounter down here, as I did not bring any extra ATM cards with me or traveler's checks, and therefore currently have AR$ 92.90 to my name (that's about $23.00).  Thankfully my parents are already on top of it and have another debit card on it's way, but who knows exactly how long that will take.  Add on the fact that I have a bit of a looming deadline in the form of paying for my student visa by Monday, and one could say that I'm just a tad anxious right now. 

But aside from losing my wallet and camera, the show that I was at this fateful Monday night was freaking awesome!  It's called "La Bomba," and it's a huge percussion band that plays in a warehouse on the outskirts of Recoleta.  It reminded me a lot of the countless street musicians that I've seen playing, and attracts a wide range of people as it audience; there were businessmen in suits, college students in flannel, and hippies of all ages dancing everywhere.  Plus, my senora, Cecilia, told me to go to it, and I've found that anything Cecilia tells me to do, I should do.  That's how I got to go to the free "tango show" at the Planetarium on Sunday - although in reality it was more like a star show set to live tango music, though equally as enjoyable.  

After the tango show, I went wandering around the park that was across the street - I think it was Plaza Holanda - where, I kid you not, 75% of the people there were on some form of wheeled transportation contraption.  I'm talking about bikes, unicycles, skateboards with 4 wheels, skateboards with 2 wheels, individual skateboards for each foot, bike-carriages, and the most popular and most enjoyable for me to watch, rollerblades.  And by far the best part of all these people was that none of them had really mastered how to operate on wheels.  Add eating an amazing choripan (sandwich of chorizo (sausage) on bread (pan) with whatever toppings you want) and it was by and large an excellent way to spend a free Sunday.

And speaking of tango, I went to my first tango class last night! 4 hours of dancing + 4 inch heels = painful blisters.  Aside from the shoes, the class was really a lot of fun - it's about 50% porteñas, 30% IES chicas, and 20% IES hombres, meaning lots of dance partners for the boys in the class.  Our teacher is a stoutly old man with an absolutely fabulous bushy mustache and the grace of a ballerina.  He makes tango look so natural, like it's simply another way of walking around.  We learned the basic box-step pattern, which can then be taken and embellished with a variety of extra moves that usually the man decides on and which the girl must follow to the best of her abilities.  I figured I would just learn the basic steps in my first class, but lo and behold, by the end of those four hours I was sashay-ing around and kicking my feet between my dancer partners' legs.  However, I'm terrified to think of what else I am possibly expected to learn after that class.  And, we have a recital at the end of the semester - with the other Argentine dancers, all of whom look as though they've been dancing tango their whole lives.  I at least have a number of friends with me in the class to share in the pain and embarrassment that inevitably will ensue.  

Until I get my new debit card, I will be rather limited to my extracurricular activities, but I actually see this as more of a friendly challenge: can one go out on the weekends where nightlife revolves around the bar and dance club scene and NOT spend any money?  We shall just have to see...

Adventures outside of Buenos Aires

This past weekend was a four-day weekend, thanks to no class on Fridays and "National Student's Day" on Monday.  So, to celebrate our student-ness in Buenos Aires, we decided to leave the city, and take our first of many adventures outside of Bs. As.  This weekend, we went to northeastern Argentina, to Puerto Iguazú, and saw the absolutely magnificent Iguazú Falls.

This trip marked the first of many exciting occasions for me.  It was the first time I rode in a bus longer than 12 hours straight.  It was also the first time I was on a bus with seats that reclined to about 150 degrees, had blankets and pillows, and included free movies, food, wine, and champagne.  Add to the fact that on our way up there my friend Sadie and I were sitting in the last row ("in the kitchen!?!?" as she so excitedly proclaimed when she got onto the bus) behind a lovely group of generous international spanish students with ample amounts of just about every type of beverage possible, and it would be suffice to say that our trip was quite pleasant.

Now, I've been saying "we" in the collective sense because, as it turns out, just about our entire program decided to make this 18-hour voyage to Iguazú.  However, when I say "we" stayed in Hostel Bambu, I mean only myself and Sadie.  The rest of our group stayed at the Hostel Inn, which, while not located conveniently three blocks away from the bus station like us, made up for it's distance with a rather entertaining (and nude) Brazilian dance show preformed by its own staff.  Next time, "we" will definitely do more research into future hostel accommodations, as well as actually listen to where people tell us to go.

But the bus trip and hostel stay were mere blips on the radar map of awesomeness of this trip.  The overwhelmingly most memorable part was the Falls.   Las Cataratas de Iguazú are located in the Northeastern corner of Argentina, and are fed by the Iguazú River.  The falls can be seen from both an Argentina side and a Brazilian side, though I've been told that the Argentine side is far superior.  Also, in terms of amount of water, width of falls, and height, they're currently ranked about an overall second or third place, and were a candidate to become one of the Seven New Wonders of the World.  And in all serious, they are a Wonder.  Standing next to even the smallest waterfall, you can't help but feel humbled and awed at how amazing nature can be.  Then try standing next to "La Garganta del Diablo," the largest series of falls in Iguazú.  I could have stood staring at the gushing water for hours, trying to answer one simple question: Where does all this water come from?

However, I did not stand for hours (only one), because we had so much to do in our short time there.  Iguazú has tons of hiking trails that lead you to what seems like hundreds of hidden waterfalls.  So the first day we were there (right off our bus ride in fact), we wandered around and took over a hundred pictures of falling water.  And you know what we did the next day? The exact same thing.  The second day we were there, the weather was gorgeous, and so we decided to be brave and take the infamous boat ride that puts you directly under the falls.  Seriously.  Not like, 100 feet away from them so you can feel the spray on your face. No, under the pounding water, so you get soaked head-to-toe but are left feeling like you were just reborn. Okay, maybe not that intense, but still, it was pretty awesome.

This trip was by far a much better alternative to spending the weekend hanging around the city, because I already feel like I've learned a lot about traveling around this country.  I know that buses are my friends.  I know that hostels are by and large not death traps, and some are even nicer than hotels I've stayed in.  I know that I need to thoroughly research the area I'm traveling to so I know exactly what there is to do and how much time it takes.  And I've learned that even if it's fun going with a huge group of people, the trip will be a lot less stressful and much more authentic if attempted with less people.  While it was nice to see familiar faces during the trip, I think I had more fun meeting the new, international people on the bus on the way up (who we did actually end up seeing again at the Hostel Inn later in the trip).  Plus, when traveling with that many people, it's hard to encourage everyone to speak Spanish, and I know that if I want to seriously improve, I need to speak it as often as possible, even if I sound like a 3-year-old. Which I have been told. Multiple times...

P.S. Here's a link to my photos on Facebook - I'll try to remember to include this as often as possible, for all of you who still don't have one (aka Dennis)...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2055514&id=1086630168

La semana número uno...

As time goes on and I get more used to this idea of blogging, hopefully I'll have more of a structure to my posts, but unfortunately you will have to endure the subsequent rambling as I try to sum up everything I've experienced in the past week...

To start off with, my arrival in Buenos Aires was not exactly as peaceful and stress-free as I had hoped it would be.  Let's just say that "20:00" does not mean "10:00 PM" but rather "8:00 PM," and that from now on I will always be that anal traveler who double and triple-checks the itinerary.  After some swift finagling by my mother, we were able to find me another flight that left JFK at 10:15 at night, and after some quick goodbyes and a forced picture or two in front of security, I crossed into the land of no return and went to find my gate.  On the actual flight, I was surrounded by what I'm guessing was a group of Argentine high schoolers on a class trip to New York, and as I sat there listening to them jabbering away in my ear, I thought to myself, "I'm. So. Screwed."

 After the 10-hour plane flight, I arrived in Ezeiza International Airport, located the IES group of students, and was whisked away in a taxi and dropped off in front of the apartment building that would house me for the next four months.  It was with great trepidation that I buzzed apartment 9H, and was faced with my first culture shock experience as I attempted to operate the elevator, which is somewhat like a moving closet with two doors and that I could barely squeeze my suitcase and myself in to. However, any uncertainties I was feeling were quickly erased when I met my lovely señora, Cecilia.  I'm still learning about her, but so far what I've been able to gather is that she is from a family of 6, has many nieces and nephews who she treats as her own grandchildren (I'm still not sure if she has any herself), and who has been housing exchange students for the past 5-ish years.  And, most importantly, she does NOT speak English - or at least prefers not to.  Which was actually good news to hear, as one of my goals for this trip is to become fluent, and being forced to speak Spanish whenever at home will certainly help.  

After unpacking, Cecillia set up a little play-date for me with three other IES girls who are staying with her friends that live nearby, and after getting coffee we wandered around the city for a couple of hours.  One thing that I've noticed is that on the weekends, especially Sunday, the city is essentially empty.  Everything is closed, there are very few cars on the street, and the city is relatively quiet.  Coming from living in a city where most of the street activity occurs on the weekends, it's a very new feeling for me, but one I'm sure I will enjoy thoroughly as time passes. 

Our orientation officially began on Monday morning at 9:30 AM (which I woke up an hour late for because I forgot to change the time on my clock - Buenos Aires is one hour behind the East Coast), and was held in the Museo Histórico Nacional in San Telmo, a barrio (or neighborhood) of Buenos Aires.  All in all, there are about 30 barrios in Buenos Aires, and San Telmo is one of the oldest and most historic ones, populated mostly with historical bars and tango studios, as well as old mansions that used to belong to powerful families.  I'm living in Retiro, which is one of the most affluent parts of the city, right next to Plaza San Martín, and luckily within walking distance of my school.  Anyways, after our day at the museum where we met the IES organizers (and I got to eat my first empañada!) the rest of our week of orientation included Spanish classes (mostly covering colloquial phrases and unique grammar) in the mornings, followed by tours of the various universities of Buenos Aires that we can take other classes at.  I plan on taking an art history class at la Universidad del Museo Social de Argentina (UMSA), a tango class at Instituto Universitario Nacional del Arte, and the rest of my classes at IES. 

Today I actually went to my first class at UMSA, and it was quite an interesting experience.  First of al, the structure of higher education in Argentina, and I think most of the world, is that once you graduate from high school, you go straight into studying exactly what you want to "major" in - if you want to be a lawyer, you go to law school, if you want to be a doctor, you go to medical school, etc.  None of this "General Curriculum Requirements" nonsense that we have in the U.S.  Therefore, many of the students in the art history class have already been studying the material in high school, because they knew they wanted to go to art school, and appropriately, the pace of the course is pretty quick even though it would seem to be an "introductory" class.  Also, students here usually only take three classes a semester, to make sure they are able to fully dedicate their time to their studies, especially if they also have a job.  Along the same lines, there aren't that many classes in the middle of the day; most are in the morning or late at night (for example, the tango class is from 6-10PM), although considering the average dinner time here is at 9:30PM, that's not too ridiculous.  

However, despite how intimidating this class may seem, I am determined to stick with it, because I find the atmosphere of the classroom to be fascinating.  There's not as formal a relationship between the professor and the students; the students are very relaxed and are constantly talking, both with each other and the professor, incessantly, and are passing around cups of maté (national drink of Argentina) to be shared with everyone, even a foreigner like myself.  Plus, another one of my goals for the next four months is to make some Argentine friends, and I feel like this is the best place to do that.  

Not to back track too much, but this past weekend IES offered many trips designed to teach us more about the culture of Buenos Aires and Argentina as a whole.  On Friday we went to an "estancia," or a ranch, where there were a bunch of animals, places to play soccer or volleyball, bike paths, and the best meal I have had so far, which was a "parrillada."  As you may know, Argentina is renowned for it's beef, and a parrillada is like a Brazilian steak house where waiters walk around with basically swords of meat and serve you slices directly from the BBQ in the back.  I also went on both a bus tour on Saturday and a bike tour on Sunday of Buenos Aires, which were very informative and helped me get a better sense of how the city is organized, what some of the neighborhoods are like, and of course, more restaurants to eat at.  

This weekend is a 3-day weekend, and so I'll hopefully be venturing outside of Buenos Aires to another area of the country at least for the day, and will spend the rest of my time learning more about this beautiful city.  As this post was distgustingly long, I'll try to update more frequently and succinctly the next time, whenever that is...

¡Bienvenido!

Hello there, and welcome to my blog!  I originally intended for this to be set up before I arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina, but as it seems that being "late" has been a running theme for my travels so far, I find that it is appropriate that this blog should come four days after my arrival (elaboration on this to follow in subsequent posts).  I'll be updating this as frequently as possible, which should be often as I have finally located internet access in my homestay apartment (in the kitchen, no less, which, if you know me, is quite fitting).  As I said, I arrived in Buenos Aires on August 1st, and am scheduled to depart somewhere around November 28th - but we shall see what happens.  I am studying in Buenos Aires through the program IES (International Exchange of Students), with approximately 100 other students, about 7 of whom are also from GWU.  I will be taking classes at the IES center, and I will also have the opportunity to take one or more classes at some of the local universities. Throughout my four months here, I will have the opportunity (both through IES and my own means) of traveling all over Argentina and to some of its neighboring countries, and will be able to experience the culture of South America through theater shows; outdoor activities such as hiking, ranches, bike tours; rugby, polo, and fútbol matches, and my favorite, FOOD. 

 My first official post will follow soon, and I hope you enjoy reading about my adventures, mishaps, and discoveries.  Enjoy the rest of the summer y buena suerte!!