Update

It's been a long week of Spanish classes, a history seminar on Argentina, homework and visits.

Some highlights:

-Finding hilarious Rosh Hashana postcards at the fair at Plaza Armenia. My favorite was of a man drinking mate out of a shofar, the ram's horn blown on the holiday, which said: "Mate amargo. Año dulce. Shaná Tová." (Translation- Bitter mate, sweet year, happy holiday!)

-Watching a DVD clip of Eva Perón speaking. Her voice is really powerful and entrancing. No wonder people love her. Also, it is interesting to see how she is remembered amongst people of different classes. While my family is not wealthy, Elvira is a lawyer and the house has wifi. She does not care for Eva Perón. Jamila's family, a little more working class, adores her. Obviously, it's not a universal truism, but we had to ask our families how they felt about The Peróns and the answers really differed depending on our neighborhoods, education and class of our families.

-Moving up a level in Spanish. It feels much more appropriate!

-Getting my laundry washed, dried and folded for 8 pesos ($2USD).

-Learning some hand gestures to accompany my Castellano.

-Eating as many vegetables as possible at dinner! In Argentina, the food is good, but it doesn't have the spice that I love. More than anything, I am currently craving some Mexican food. I am looking forward to checking out California Burritos, a small chain.

-This isn't a highlight, but should be noted- today I went to Mansión Seré, a clandestine prison site outside of the Capital Federal used during the terrorism of the state of the 1970s and 80s. We learned a little more about the history of the period, but the prison was demolished, leaving only the outlining bricks. I wanted the experience to be more moving, more profound. I hope to go to a memorial or monument somewhere in the city and maybe there I can feel a better sense of the scope of this genocide. Note: Before I came to Argentina, I had heard this period referred to as the "Dirty War." However, my professor explained that a war often implies equal fighting on both sides, and a more appropriate term used now is "terrorism of the state."

-Playing with Rocío, the granddaughter of Elvira. She is two and I can hardly understand her but she is so cute! Her family calls her "terremoto."

Also, Jamila found this and I find it quite relevant: http://glimpse.org/stories/view/top-5-things-not-to-do-after-returning-from-abroad/

That's all for now. I will keep posting.

Emily

Nightlife of the Porteños

Upon sampling some of Buenos Aires's nightlife, I don't know why they call New York the city that never sleeps. Yes, you can order a burger at midnight, but the bars in NY close at around three or four am. In Buenos Aires, dinners sometimes start at midnight and clubs close at 7 or 8 in the morning. Many don't even open until 1am. Buenos Aires is full of nightlife- tango, jazz, dancing, theatre, opera, you name it!
So far I have gone to a few bars and clubs here, and I must say that they are exhausting! People party all night, dancing for 5 hours or more! It's a good workout. And the music differs from place to place. I've heard techno, American pop, salsa music and everything in between. The clubs have been fun but I do not enjoy the fact that people smoke inside. Technically it is prohibited but I have seen people smoking in every club (or boliche) I've been to and I return from the night with clothes that smell. It also takes a day or two to recover from such a late night (I returned at 6 am- early for BA- and slept until 2), so I don't know how people go out both nights on a weekend and still make it to work on Monday.

Yesterday Jamila and I met Katie, an American expat and a friend of a friend, and her boyfriend Rafael at a craft's fair in Recoleta. While I had never met Katie, and only knew her friend Michael for two months while working at Lambert House in Seattle, Katie and Rafa were so friendly and warm. We had a great time strolling around the fair, and now I know where I will get gifts for everyone!

Today is another lazy day- laundry, buying more minutes for my phone, and going to a fair later in honor of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year. The event is called Rosh Hashaná urbano and I am going with some classmates. Should be interesting! Tomorrow is the start of our history seminar on social movements and human rights. I'm so excited to finally learn about the people whose names mark many of the streets and put more in context.

Chau!

Home stay in BA

Here are some pictures of my room and home-stay house that I described earlier!  I do have my own room but on one of the pictures you can see that my wall doesn't go all the way up to the ceiling which essentially means that it's not as quiet/private as it could be.  However, I really haven't had any problems getting to sleep or with privacy so- so far so good.

Also, the pictures show the entrance to the houses ( I have a key to get in and out of the gate), and the little walk way with other "houses" on either side.   

Enjoy! Jamila

El Mate y Otras Cosas Deliciosas

This post is all over the place!

Juan, my thirty year old "brother," has been helping me with my homework these past few days. A couple of assignments require that we talk to our host families, and Juan has been a great brother to discuss Argentinian culture, NorthAmerican culture, conjugating verbs. He even cooks! For my most recent assignment, I had to prepare mate for my family and put some steps in order on a worksheet. Juan's way of preparing mate- a bitter, caffeinated drink very popular amongst people from Argentina- was completely different from my worksheet. He put many spoonfuls of yerba (the herb) into the mate, a distinct cup made of wood or a dried shell of a fruit or something else, poured in some tea, added copious amounts of sugar, and drank. For others, mate takes hours to prepare, packing the yerba into the bowl, wetting and coating the bombilla (awesome straw with a bulbous head with holes in it) in sugar, slowing adding hot (but not quite boiling) water, and other steps. For many in Argentina, mate is a cultural symbol that unites people across difference and is a tangible excuse for coming together to chat with others. In my Spanish class, we read a piece by Lalo Mir, a satirist who exaggerated the power of mate to erase all differences of age, class, race, political ideas, gender, etc. His humor style reminded me of Garrison Keilor and his creation of Lake Woebegon. While he was hyperbolic, there is something to be said about the power of mate, which many of my professors/advisors/friends drink.

Also, I cooked dinner for Elvira tonight. Juan wasn't home but Elvira and I shared some stir fry- rice, chicken, some vegetables, stuff I improvised because I was sick of eating pasta and beef. I think it was a success but now we have lots of leftovers!

Another thought- upon entering a house, meeting a person, going to bed, waking up, or leaving a house, it is common to give a kiss to those around you. I greet Elvira and Juan with kisses. While I am not used to doing this at my home in the States to friends or family, I really like the intentionality of greeting someone, letting them know when you arrive and leave and that you appreciate their presence. And so, I leave with a kiss!

UBA

Today was the first day of Spanish classes at University of Buenos Aires (UBA). Three hours of Spanish! Miraculously, the time flew by as I learned about vos and its conjugations.
The school is fascinating! It is so different from Macalester. My school, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, is one of the most liberal and socially active colleges at the University. The building looked more like a public high school- big rooms, older building and LOTS of hand-made posters of all sizes around the school. Next week, elections will take place and everyone is very involved. The bathrooms at UBA were pretty terrible- no toilet paper and no seats (only a bowl)! From now on, it's BYOTP. I guess the experience at UBA is more notable than the classes- students smoking in the building, many many people in the rooms and the halls and the rapid Castellano echoing through the building. Chau!

Host Family

On Friday everyone met their host families which was really exciting because we knew very little about them before arriving. I am living in a house, which is pretty rare in Buenos Aires, with a mom and her 21 year old daughter. Upstairs, the grandmother has her own apartment. Lidia, my host mother has 4 daughters and a 15 year old niece that spends a lot of time in the house as well. They are all really nice and funny. I am only understanding about every 3rd word, but Im sure I will be every other word at least by the time the program ends. Occasionally they slow down to explain to me so that I understand, but mostly the spanish is fast and leaves me behind.

The grandmother Marciela came down a few times on the weekend to talk to me. I only understood every 1oth word. I think she knew that, but talked to me anyway. I just nodded a lot. I will know when I have reached true fluency if I can understand what she is saying.

To enter their little community of houses there is a big gate, and then a 10 foot wide path with houses on either side. I will post pictures soon so that you can have a better idea of what Im talking about, but mostly people tend to live in apartments, so its interesting to see what is considered a house here.

I have my own room and a little room on the side which is a closet/study space. Although my room walls dont go to the ceiling, if I need complete silence I can go into the study area and get some work done.

A lot of people smoke in the house which is different for me. It doesnt really bother me much, it´s just different to sit down for dinner inside and have someone smoking a cigarette next to you.

Tomorrow is Lidias, my host mom´s birthday and Im not quite sure what is going to happen but hopefully I can get a lot of my homework out of the way before dinner. People tend to eat dinner around 10:00 PM or later, so I probably will have enough time.

Today was our first day of school and evertying was going perfectly until the subway. I got on going the wrong direction. I dont know why. But needless today I will forever know which is the correct subway to enter. And unfortunately in Buenos Aires, if you get on the subway going one direction, you have to go all the way back to the street and back down to the subway on the other side and pay again. Thankfully it is only $2.oo Pesos (about 50 cents), but that can add up over time.


That's all for now, expect some pictures soon! Hasta luego- Jamila

Buenos Aires- SIT Begins

SIT's Social Movements and Human Rights program started on Tuesday and I haven't had a free moment until now. There is so much to write about!

There are about 25 students on the program from all over but there are a fair amount from New York, Seattle, and two from North Carolina (I feel like that's a bigger number than expected). Students go to places like Williams, Tufts, the Claremont schools, as well as bigger places like Brown, University of Texas and others. So far everyone seems really nice and we are all overwhelmed!

Our first two days of orientation took place in Cañuelas, a small city about an hour outside of Capital Federal (Buenos Aires city). We ate parrilla (bbq) and got to know each other. When we came to Buenos Aires, we stayed in Hotel BAUEN, which has a fascinating history. It's a recuperated business by the workers. We walked around the Congreso area, Plaza de Mayo and had our Spanish evaluated at UBA. It felt really cool walked around the university building. Yesterday, we split into groups of two and each group had to explore a different neighborhood. My buddy Mia and I walked around Puerto Madero, the newest barrio en Buenos Aires. It looks like an entirely different city than Congreso or Microcentro- very clean, quiet, modern, lots of development and on the water. It was interesting. We also learned some slang- chabón, which means homie (only used towards a man) and to be hasta las manos means you are very much in love.

I moved in with my host family last night. My academic director had told me they were a Jewish family but the mother is Catholic. Her name is Elvira and she is 60 years old and very very nice. She speaks really fast but from what I understand she wants me to treat her like my mother. Her son Juan lives in the house. He is 30 and his pets, Jou the dog and Steven the cat, named for Aerosmith, are very cute. It is hard to understand them and exhausting to speak and think only in Spanish, but it will be a worthwhile experience. I live in between the Congreso and Once barrios- Elvira showed me a Jewish social club (like the JCC) and a synagogue. She also taught me that tight-knit communities like Jews are called colectividades. I met Emiliano, her other son, for lunch.

Classes begin on Monday and I am a little nervous, not only for the Spanish but for figuring out where to go. I'm good with the subte (subway) but I am nervous about room numbers! . I hope to keep blogging and maybe write in Spanish a little more. It's good practice!