My Long Weekend in Salta in Jujuy

Okay, so I already am not surprised that my blog posts are erratic, but here goes another one.

For the Easter holiday break I journeyed to two provinces in the Northwest of Argentina: Salta and Jujuy. Staying in Salta, I got to enjoy the museums (one of which had a well-preserved child mummy on display) and cafés of its beautiful central square as well as have dinner two nights in a row at restaurants that had peña (traditional Argentine folk dancing and singing). I got to see the chacarera done by the pros. It was really fun, and the second night my new-found Dutch friend, Jacco, had front-row seats for the show. Oh...also the first night, I stumbled upon a milonga. :)

Jacco and I also went on an excursion into Jujuy, which has beautiful, mountainous landscapes. We went to four towns in all: Pumamarca, Maimará, Tilmarca, y Humahuaca. From the amazing river mountain passes to the old indigenous fort to the 'Cerro de los Siete Colores.' The weather was absolutely perfect, so the colors were super bright. Also, this area was important in Argentina's battle for independence against the Spanish, so I learned about some landmark battles.

Obervations:

I often do not understand the packaging here. I was told that it was made to be cheaper after the economic crisis, so they sell some yogurt in plastic pouches, kind of like what they tried to do with milk in cafeterias circa 3rd grade for me. It didn't work for us so much ... at least not the kids. Other packaging is a little strange for me, too, and doesn't look like it's cheaper to make. I miss regular old screw caps on all thing.

Also, the other day I witnessed an interesting spectacle in one of the classes I attended. The students had to present an oral/written assignment in front of everyone (which happens at home), but then a panel of three teachers critique and grade each student at the end of class in front of everyone. I'm curious as to what people at home would think of this. For example, one pro I could see is that you are held socially accountable for your grades, not just personally. A bit more of a motivator, if only to prevent embarrassment. However, at home I think we value the privacy of our grades too much to ever have something like this. This means we have to be extremely self-motivated to do well, I guess.

That's all for now folks. Catch you later.

-B

First Two Weeks of School and So much more

Now begins the random blogs that mention fun things:

First of all, a quote from one of the local students 'what we do here in SantaFe with friends is go to have a coke and talk about anything'. This is very true. As opposed to us and the Europeans going to have coffee `tomar un café,' here they go 'tomar una Coca'.

The first two weeks of school went fantastically well! Most of the first lessons were introductions where I presented info on either myself or university life in the states, and they asked me questions. Since I am answering questions truthfully and fairly, I have had some interesting interactions.

For example, one student asked me "What do Americans think of Argentinians?" I said that we don't really think that much about them, but I gave a good reason. We haven't had very significant connections with Argentina, we don't have cultural imports from there, and we don't have much immigration from there either. Everyone seemed to take the answer well. I hope I can answer questions this well all the time.

Teaching will be interesting, since in some courses I am preparing lessons on parts of American history. It's fun because it helps me review. Plus, I can use my nerdy Poli. Sci. knowledge to tell them that the Civil War wasn't just about slavery.

Something that is a really big difference here also is that they don't pay for undergraduate studies. However, it can take them 5 or 6 years to finish it normally and longer if they have to work.

Other interesting things to mention:

Stray dogs are everywhere. I think there are as many strays as there are pets. Also, sometimes they can just waltz right into a bar and sit under your table, and no one does anything. At least they are nice for the most part.

Every time I need to pay for something, I feel like I am playing Monopoly. No one ever has change, and it occasionally causes stress. Never take change for granted!

That's is for now. Plus, salsa night on Saturday was fantastic!

Tourismo, Gimnasio, y Escuela

Today marks the second day I have taught together with professors at Instituto Almirante Brown. So far I have participated in four classes, North American Literature, Translation Year 3, Social Studies Year 2, and Basic Aspects of British/U.S. Culture. It is an awesome experience, and I especially love it when I share my experiences, and they ask me questions that are intriguing to answer. For instance, I was asked "What do Americans think of Argentines?" I had to answer honestly and say that they didn't think about them much at all. I explained that we didn't have much Argentine immigration, relations with Argentina, or contact with the culture.

Other than the classes, I have been keeping busy with dance classes, making friends, going to the gym, and being a tourist some days. For instance, yesterday, I went with some friends to three museums in the historic district of town. We went to the Museum of the history of the province, the convent museum, and the ethnographic museum. I am slowly trying to get a feel for the history of the place. Tidbit of the day: the current Argentine constitution was ratified in Santa Fe.

Catch you folks later.

--B

Potpourri

Okay. In order to get caught up, and have reasonably sized posts, I need to fit the past 16 days or so into about 5 paragraphs, so here goes nothing:

While staying at Amanda's house, the following things occurred:

• I realized what it would feel like to have younger brothers, and I enjoyed the 'what if' scenario
• I ate many tasty meals at the house and discovered milanesa.
  
• I was taken to my first boliche (night club) experience, and the clubs have excellent music choices in general
• I went with Amanda's daughter, Amisel, and her friends to another boliche, and I had fun dancing at the boliche with 7 girls (some things never change) :)
• There are probably more things that occurred that I do not recall, however, suffice it to say that her family was extremely nice to me

On Tuesday, March 23rd, I moved into Silvio's house. He is an English professor at San Roque, which is not the same institute where I will be working. Mine is called 'Almirante Brown.' He is awesome and told me to think of him as his big brother, so I guess now I enter the opposite situation of having a 'big brother', though not in the 1984 Orwellian sense of the word.

I also happened to get my foot into the door of the salsa scene. I went to a beginner and intermediate lesson at the Cultural Center in town, and some people my age told me there was a salsa night, so I had to decide whether to go there at midnight, knowing I had to catch a bus for my weekend trip to Córdoba at 6:00 AM. Of course, I decided to go. I walked to the bar, and people were inside, but no one was dancing. I had a feeling in my gut to go, so I paid and entered. I decided to get a drink so I could occupy myself with something other than sitting awkwardly alone. After half of the drink was gone, a group of people my age walked in and a girl I had talked to at the lesson about this night invited me to their table. I have since been to more lessons and have spent time with these new dance friends.

I have had several meetings with professors about how I am going to help them with their classes. There are some really awesome ideas floating around, and I will expand upon them as the classes take form.

During the long weekend (due to a new holiday here called 'Día de la Memoria,'), Stacy (who is in Rafaela) and I decided to take a trip to Córdoba. While there we visited some museusms, went to neighboring towns: Alta Gracia (where we went to a Jesuit mission and Che Guevarra's childhood home, and Villa Carlos Paz (where we took in the touristy town full of people walking). In Carlos Paz, we also had a lot of tasty ice cream for only $1.25 in USD.

As to the place I'm living, I like it. It is centrally located, and I do indeed walk everywhere. I haven't even tried to figure out the bus system yet. Also, since I am essentially training my body every day to have better endurance, I decided to train for the minimarathon like my friends at home. I already tried 8 miles on for size, and will try to get a better time on that before moving on. Also, I joined a gym, and my membership starts in April (in the nick of time with all the rich food they eat here).

So this was a short run down of many, many days. I will try from now one to have shorter, more frequent posts with funny blurbs about Argentine society and cultural diversity.

---B

Welcome to Buenos Aires! Bienvenido a Buenos Aires! (sung to the tune of Will Smith's 'Miami')

I hope that this officially begins a blog that I can keep. We shall see.

I arrived last night in Santa Fe, Santa Fe. Today marks the beginning of my second day, but before I get into Santa Fe, I’m going to take a step back and recount the last five days.

3/12/11 – 3/13/11

My departure date for Argentina finally arrives after months of anxious waiting and a state of limbo in every facet of my life. From finding out I got the scholarship on Spring break to fighting the consulate for my visa, the moment is here. I was met at the airport by best friends (Jeniffer, Kim, Madi) who did a great job of not crying and proceeded to give me cards that I had to read in the stalls of the Louisville airport in order not draw undue attention to my emotional outburst. In Atlanta, I met up with a couple other ETAs, Gillian, Jennifer, Hannah, and Maja. After our flight and elusive search for Malcolm, a mystery student, we confronted the dreaded passport control. After momentarily handing my passport to a lady who works there (a very scary thing to do), she moved us ahead into a different line because of our visas. This was great, right? Wrong. None of the employees knew what to do with our visas, asked us for envelopes we did not have, and kept us there until there was no one else left in line, not least of all Maja, who did not have the “permiso de ingreso” in her passport. Luckily, we got our luggage, also the last ones, and headed to our supposed meeting area to find (maybe Malcolm and) a driver with a Fulbright sign from the hotel who would take us there. No such luck… After asking some kind folks to use their cell phone and call our contact numbers – to no avail – and chatting with a nice man who was waiting for his daughter who was coming back from the U.S. and who helped us call the hotel to see if the van was coming, we decided to hire two private cars “remises” to take us to the hotel.

The ride in the remise with Jennifer was a hilarious experience. The driver proceeded to tell us about Argentine relationships from his point of view. For context’s he told us he was married for five years and had now been divorced for sixteen years. He said his wife was cold, and a man can’t live with a women who doesn’t satisfy his needs. Other interesting facts were that Argentine men would make you feel safe and tell you they would take care of you to get together. On the other hand, women are apparently gold diggers. I guess some things are international, though any info from an “interesting” driver should be taken with a grain of salt, or a spoonful of it.

Once we arrived at the hotel, we had some time to have a short “siesta,” or nap, which they do in the provinces though not in Buenos Aires. Then, we decided to venture out with some other comrades we met. We walked along Calle Florida, and found a place to get some schwarma. It wasn’t the best I had had, but after a long flight and exhaustion, food seems to taste better. Later on, we went on a bus tour of the city. We got off the bus a couple times, and in every place we got off, there were people tangoing. Though it seems very much like a cliché, it did happen. Also, outside of the cemetery La Recoleta (where Evita Peron was buried) I saw a group of swing dancers lindy hopping and doing some balboa. I almost fell up the stairs entering the cemetery because of my surprise. Seeing as how I didn’t want to join the tenants, I decided to watch my step. The cemetery was beautiful and looked liked a city for the dead with paved paths and tons of mausoleums. It reminded me of the Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris, though less park-like. That evening, though I really wanted to go out, I felt dead, so I decided to call it a night.

3/14/11

Second day. Time to go the Fulbright Commission. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed we went to the Commission in buses. We arrived early, of course, and waited a bit outside before Kevin, who was in the second bus. What can I say? We North Americans like to be early. To make a long story short we did the following: introductions, awesome presentation by an author, yummy lunch consisting of empanadas, talk with former Fulbrighters working in Argentina, and an overview on Argentina history, politics, and culture.

In the evening I went with some wonderful Fulbright colleagues of mine to walk around in the evening and eat. First, they humored me in a search for tango shoe stores, which I did find. I tried on a pair of two-tone white ones that were great, but I didn’t rush to buy them to see if I could get a good price. I have a eight months to find a bargain. Then, we dined along the Avenida 9 de Julio. I took advantage of the happy hour with a couple Cuba Libres and enjoyed some cannelloni that were “muy” yummy. Yet again, an outing did not work out, but I was still tired, so it was okay. Apparently, jet lag doesn’t always involve a large time change.

3/15/11 – 3/16/11

These two days marked our first day at the Ministry of Education. The first thing I did was to search out Lorena Yaber, who helped me get my visa, which was a really long, drawn out battle of nerves. Then, we met with our “referentes.” Most of the day consisted about information pertaining to education in Argentina, which I won’t write down here, but let’s just say that I love the coffee breaks here that help keep attention spans sharp. I also tried mate, which is tasty. My referente, Javier, helped me figure it out because drinking it is a process.

The evening went very well because first I had some amazing steak. We went to a restaurant called El Palacio de la Papa Friat, or the French Fry Palace. It was not a fast food place, but rather a famous restaurant that had these inflated potato fries (I should have taken a photo). I ordered beef that had the word “mini” in its name, but there was nothing mini about it. It was potentially one of the best steaks I have ever eaten.

After dinner, I went to a milonga that Christy recommended La Confiteria Ideal because it was beautiful. Indeed, the structure was built in 1912 and very pretty. We had a large contingent of Fulbrighters at the milonga, and I took it upon myself to give them a crash course in some basic moves for those that didn’t know anything. It was pretty cool, and I danced a good deal. I even danced with some natives. I think that Tuesdays must be slow because only one of the argentinas could hold a candle to my chicas back home. Also, a fun thing that happened was that I fell on the floor. It was epic. I was walking Stacy through the gancho move, and she hooked me, but I neglected to mention that she needed to unhook, so we took a tumble. Bright side: I will always know to teach this move meticulously, and she will always know how to do that move. A further venture to a Brazilian club involved walking in the rain to the club, which was closed. However, I felt liberated to walk in the rain.

The next day we had a great methodology workshop that was very interactive. After saying goodbye to our friends and wishing them well we all left for the airport. Javier, our (Stacy and I) self-titled “patovica” or bodyguard took us for a walk before taking our luggage to the airport. Luckily, I did not have to pay a lot for my extra baggage, and we had some extra time to look at the river next to it, which looks like a sea. We sat down at a café, and I had a café con leche while waiting for the flight, the three of us, plus Max and his referente. The flight was great and had snack packs. We arrived in the early evening, and I could feel the humidity. I met Susana who will be organizing my activities at the Instituo Almirante Brown, where I will be working. After dropping off Stacey and Javier at the bus station (since they still had to go to Rafaela) I was taken to Amanda’s house, who is a professor of English grammar. She has two sons Sebastian and Lucas, and a daughter Amisel, who lives in Rosario. I had some dinner (at 10:00 PM here in Argentina), and we chatted about all sorts of fun things, especially when a friend of the family “El Flaco” came over to help connect my computer to wifi. Everyone is so nice here so far. I look forward to the following months in Santa Fe.