Ya es la mitad del octubre!

I know I'm way overdue for writing in here and I'm so sorry about that! I can't believe it's already the middle of October and there's less than a  month left until I am home. So let me get you up to speed on some of the things I've been doing...

A few weeks ago I got to meet the Ambassador of the United States, Vilma Martinez, along with about 15 other recipients of the scholarship that I got. It was really cool because she said she had read each of our essays and knew a little bit about each of us. She told us about what she does, how she got to where she is and we got to ask her questions also. And she gave us tips and advice about things that she had learned along the way about life. It was fun because I ended up sitting right next to her in the room. :) 

Afterwards we got to tour the Palace where she lives which is just down the street. The Palace is beautiful! It was funny because when we were in there, among all the different rooms that we saw we saw a dining room which they told us was the small dining room. The room was big and the table sat about 12 or 15 people. I thought that dining room was big and I was scared to see how big the "big dining room" was! As it turns out the big dining room is almost like a hall and the table seats about 60 people, and the area rug underneath the table requires 12 people to lift! The Palace actually made me feel like i was in the Von Trapp family home in The Sound of Music.

A couple weeks later i went back yo the US Embassy and got to vote for the election in November. I was happy about that because I thought that coming down here I was not going to be able to participate in the election. That was a fun event because there're a lot of American citizens there and there was music and food and it was just a great time, and participating in the elections a great privilege. It was amazing how many Argentines knew that we were voting that day. As the voting day was getting closer, A lot of my teachers and friends that are Argentinian were asking/telling me that I need to make sure I vote because the American vote affects the whole world. I thought it was an interesting point and concern that they were saying, but it's true.

On another note, I went to another fair in a different part of town where they celebrate the Argentinian cowboy culture. It was fun because there was a lot of dancing, music and food and different things for sale. One of the interesting things that my friend Danielle and I tried was popcorn-covered strawberries! Afterward Danielle and I got on the bus to go home when we realized we got on the wrong bus and wound up about 15 miles outside of the city at this place called Tigre. I had been wanting to come to Tigre for a while so that was actually kind of ironic that we ended up there because we were talking about it earlier in the day making plans to go in the future. It's a beautiful place to go because you're outside of the city and it's where the river delta is and there's a lot of houses along the riverbanks. These houses are unique in that there are all connected by boat and you're able to take tours through the rivers. 

School is going well, there's a lot of projects coming up most of which are speeches and papers which are keeping me busy, but all in all it's going great. I can't believe it's already the 12th week of the semester,  and here there's only 15 weeks in a semester, so time is flying! 

    Anyway that's all for now, And I promise I will try not to neglect writing in here! :)

Quién necesita las barandas del subte?

Alright, so after class today, I decided to take the subway home which I usually take the bus. It saves me about 20 minutes in all but I figure usually I have noth better to do with my time than to sit on a bus for an hour, plus I've gotten really good at solitaire. Well, I picked an adventurous time to do this. When I got to the subte station, the train going the opposite direction was just sitting there for about ten minutes not moving which there was only one stop left. Knowing I was only one stop in, I figured I'd get a seat which is sort of exciting, but not the end of the world if I have to stand for twenty minutes but you know. Since something was obviously going wrong, more and more people kept piling onto the platform waiting for the train, and when it eventually came, the train was so full that I had no idea how more people were going to fit on it. So we piled on, and there were so many people the door kept opening and closing because not everyone could fit. Each station that we came up on, there was just as many people who needed to get on the train, and let me just say, no one really needed to hold onto those handrails up above because there were SO MANY OF US, that we all sort of just swayed back and forth in one motion. There were so many people that since my hand was up originally to hold the handrail above, I couldn't bring it back down because there wasn't enough room! I'm not joking, I wasn't able to reach down to my pockets even if I wanted to! It was an adventure lets say for 12 stations. I'll never forget that moment! And yes, fire hazard, but down here, that's not really on anyone's minds from what I've noticed. Next, this whole blog thing, yes I always find new ways of getting pictures on here everytime I find some problem with the last solution, and here is the final one. Pictures and words are going to be two separate posts from here on out. It's too complicated to explain why, but that's just how it's going to be. Stories first, then pictures afterwards. :) Things down here in Buenos Aires in the last week and a half have gotten absolutely AMAZING! I have no idea how, what or why, but all of a sudden last week ths changed for me down here and all of a sudden I am having the time of my life! Not that before I wasn't, but to be heat, I feel like I was getting really discouraged with things, namely the language which is a big part of this whole experience and where I chose to come (obviously). At some point last week, I think something clicked and all of a sudden I've been speaking up more places, on the streets and in class. I'm not so afraid to just say whatever to get my message across, and you know what, it's working! For some reason I'm able to speak easier now, and what ever is going on in my brain is happening faster and i notice I'm processing things a lot faster. I can't believe that I've almost been here for two months and I'm really looking forward to everything to come. I feel like nothing really prepares anyone for everything that is experienced when living abroad in another country and all the challenges that are met on a daily basis. Especially of course being away from family, friends, work, food, and everything that makes home, Home. But I guess once you get through the hurdles and everything that has to be met, you realize it's just part of life. You take it as it comes and what you do with what your faced with makes all the difference in whether your able to push on or stay put. And I did NOT come down here to just stay in one place. So all that to say, yes Rosa, I'm starting to learn more than I ever imagined I would coming down here. More than what you can learn through textbooks and also more than just refining and bettering a new language!

Quién necesita.... fotos

All of the captions are at the bottom cuz once again, the sites's being difficult. I hope it's not a bore! =/

       

I finally bought my Mate cup! You can literally see dozens and all look the same. Of course the blue one called my name!

This is the cemetery where Eva Perón is buried and a lot of other famous Argentine people.

I'm going to try and say all this in the order of the pictures: Here is me in front of her.... Grave, casket, ....apartment...place of rest???? I don't know what to call it. Nor do I necessarily know yet whether I like her or not. In Argentina, it's a toss up of who likes her and who doesn't. I think I need to do more research on my part to make my decision. But it is pretty cool to have seen this? After the cemetery, Alex and I went to the Tango festival which was across the street. I was really bummed (and still am) that I'm not taking e tango class that is offered at school. Tango is so much more than what we think of it as being in the United States. Honestly, it is so much more sensual, romantic, involved and complex than just dancing in a straight line back and forth. There was live music performances, different each day during the 2-week long event, and a huge dane floor in which people were showing off what they got. I wish that her and I could have gone out there! She is in the class and will be performing at the international night on Friday put on by our school with her class. There was also a feria in front of the cemetery , similar to the one outside my apartment in San Telmo but it's always fun to walk around and look at what they have. And I'm glad I did of course, because this is where I found my Mate cup! There was a park nearby, and for some reason, I love watching people enjoying each others company in the parks of the city, so I took a picture. There were a bunch of trees with huge roots, so yes, I took some pictures. The feria also had an abundance of food, kwhich they all do. Alex got me to try the Choripan (Chorizo + Pan = Choripan). I thought it was awesome. I niño though that I might be partial to mexican chorizo, but this one is different unto itself, and delicious. So as you can tell, I enjoyed it. They also had Dulce de Leche filled, chocolate covered churros that were indescribable, that I ink Alex might have put a picture of me on Facebook eating. I think it actually looks more like I'm smoking the churro, but I promise, that wasnt the intent when the picture was taken! :) Next is a vessel I guess you would call it, the has been to San Diego according to it the map, so I got a kick out of it, along with some birds chillin' on the rope holding it from floating away. And then me in front of Plaza San Martin with the English clock in the backround, an Argentine flag and the train station at Retiro that only I can make out in the picture or anyone who has been there because it's covered by the trees. And of course, me and cats! There's a lot of cats wandering through the cemetery here in Recoleta. Thone was just chillin' and was down to have Her picture taken!

¿Podés encontrarme?

Can you find me? Hint: I held a cup up so I could find myself, but it's not as apparent as I thought it would be,

            Sorry that it has been I so long! I've been wanting to, but of course with the pictures (once again), something else went wrong uploading that worked only the one time when I got excited, then ceased to work thereafter, and I feel really bad about posting with no pictures because I feel bad. Well, in the picture above, hopefully people are able to click on it and see a bigger version of it, if not I'll see if I can get it onto Facebook to do that. But I'm coincidentally in the dead-center of the photo, I didn't plan that nor did I realize it when it was happening, just worked out that way.
           So these are all the international students! There's quite a few of us going off this picture, and the school I the school confined us all to the 9th and 10th floors of the university. Which I think is both good and bad, because we're all together so there's some comfort, but bad BECAUSE we're all together, how are we supposed to meet Argentine students? Maybe they don't want us to meet them, who knows?
      Well school has been going pretty good. My schedule got changed around a few times, and after I wanted to be in that class thats in English, I actually crashed it and got into it, then switched out of it into a different class for various reasons. At the end of all the shifting, that class got replaced with a cinema class, so all four are in Spanish. The cinema class is interesting, but the films are a little hard to follow because a lot of times they aren't speaking very loud and I won't catch it. I'm having a grand time trying to find them outside of class to watch them so I can take my time watching them to try and get everything. It turns out I have to give a speech on one of them next week so I better get on it! The Latin American cultural class i like a lot. It's interesting to hear things from a different point of view such as the "Discovery" of America being more of an Invasion of America. We had to write a paper in that class that was due yesterday. It went pretty well. My other two Spanish classes are going good, Im doing a lot of writing and short compositions in that class, but I really do like it.
          All in all, things are going well down here. It's been raining A LOT, I think today is the first day I've ever experienced rain for 12 hours straight. I'm used to it raining for twenty minutes then stopping for a while. The lightning storms are intense here also! About the Spanish, I tank I have good days and then frustrating days. Some of the differences in argentine Spanish are easy, such as using the Vos instead of tú, and podés instead of puedes, but the ones that frustrate me are when some words they use here I can't fend the translation for anywhere, no dictionary, nor online or anywhere. And I'll get stuck on the one word and it turns out to be like "wall" or something. By I feel like I'm making progressin the three weeks since school has started. I still want Mexican food. Haha

Español mexicano: Ahorita

        This one is going to be short because I have just one thing to say, I was called out on my "Mexican" Spanish! I said "ahorita" in class when I was talking about something in Spanish during class today, and the professor called me out that she could tell I came from somewhere that Mexican Spanish dominates! Haha. It was actually really funny because we were talking about the differences in language in the Spanish speaking world anyway and that one just happened. I got a big kick out of that! That's all.

La escuela comenzará mañana!

School starts tomorrow! I'm excited and a little nervous. First the universities here in Argentina, and apparently everywhere else in the world, except the United States (of course), is in one building that has about 20 stories I think. I know we have schools that are similar, but I the most universities are sprawled over a large area. I guess it'll be nice though not having to walk 20 minutes across campus to get. From one place to another. I was talking to this guy from Italy who happened to go to San Diego State for a semester, about how he was amazed at State for being so big.

Originally I wanted to take 3 classes in Spanish, two that were going to meet a spanish requirement at Long Beach, the third would be one where I would learn about Argentine Society and Culture so that I could learn more about where I am living and visiting more than just from travel books. My fourth class was going to be in English, and was going to about Latin America and the Global Economy, to meet a requirement for my major. Well as usual, things never go as planned, one of those two Spanish classes threat I needed was canceled and they're not offering it this semester. It was a writing class. So then after emailing advisors back in Long Beach, I decided to take a Spanish intermediate oral communication class. Well as THAT turns out, I tested well on the initial Spanish placement test we took last Monday, so my advisor placed me into the Advanced oral communication class. Wonderful... No pressure on me! I guess only good can come from this class, just a bit nervous. Then the one class that I was going to take in English, I guess I can't get into that class because there is some math requirement that would have had to fulfill, so that's a bummer. So now, I have all 4 Spanish classes, two of which I didn't plan on taking. The good news though is that my classes don't start until 1 o'clock in the afternoon at the earliest. I'm sure I'll be fine.

Now I know that there are really nice plazas throughout the city,but big wide open space I thought was only nearby where I live in Puerto Madero. But after my orientation session last Monday, I wandered around for a bit and found this park! I guess it's the other concentration of green space and mixture of gardens, the zoo and lots of other things over a huge expanse of land. This area is more like a giant Balboa Park in San Diego, El Dorado Park in Long Beach, or Griffith Park in LA, depending on what anyone is familiar with. They have one of those giant lakes that you can rent those paddle boats in! I'll coerce some unfortunate soul at school to do it with me over the course of the next semester. Hehe.

On Sundays on my street in San Telmo, there is this fair that covers the entire street. It's more of an artesan fair where people sell crafts and clothes and anything that can be made. It's really cool actually, there's just A LOT of people at my doorstep. Is cool being in the middle of it all. This is the view outside my window each Sunday...

This is that bridge I was talking about that swings open like a door when a boat passes through. I hope I get to see it, but the way that river looks, not many ships pass through. This is also my new friend Neekolet from Norway.

I'm excited! I finally found a way to get the pictures directly from my iPad to this blog site! Is a process, but its SUCH a relief that I don't have to go to one of those Internet cafés anymore! Also, I promise I'll try and get more pictures with myself and other people up. I'm sure looking at landscapes over and over gets boring, but it's better than just reading I suppose.