Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Culture Class: the meaning of money
Hola,
I forgot to write this down earlier and it is an interesting story:
I went with some classmates to the Plaza de Mayo to record the Madres de Plaza de Mayo marching, as they do every Thursday at 3. We wanted to get an interview with one of the mothers, but they told us that they don't do interviews. We went up to their book stand to ask them questions without the camera instead. After looking at all the trinkets and books that they were selling at this little table in the plaza, we starting asking about the organization. We didn't really know how to get started, we just wanted to know what they do and how their organization operates. I thought maybe refering to the things they were selling as a jumping off point to talking about the organization would be a good approach. As I interestedly looked at the things they were selling, I asked one of the mothers "So where do the proceeds from these items go, an organization?" The woman immediately put up a guard and got upset at my questions. She was mumbling and hard to understand but said "where does the money go? Where do you think?" Then she turned away from me and motioned for her friend to come closer to her and started whispering things about how insulting my question was or what not. I apologized and explained that I was just interested in what the organization does. She responded "What DOESNT the organization do, you want me to sum up 30 years of work in 5 minutes? Why don't you buy a book!" I apologized again and my friends and I slowly walked away.
I don't know all the reasons for this aggressive response (maybe she's tired of answering questions, upset that I asked her instead of doing my research before hand, or bitter because she has probably suffered a lot in life) but my friends and I did realize that one reason was probably the difference in meanings of the word "money." In my "capitalist culture" money = ability. I thought that asking about what happens to the money would be a good way to find out what actions are being taken by the organization. Are they sending it to other places in the world as donations? Are they giving history classes to the public? Are they sponsering talks and seminars?
Once I stepped out of my capitalist culture, I thought about what money means here in Argentina. Money in argentina is highly associated with corruption. If someone is questioning about how the money in an organization is spent, it probably gives the impression that one is suspicious of their operations. This connection is even more intense for these women because they lived through the incredibly corrupt dictatorship and then the Menem presidency which was sustained by corruption. Even today, corruption is a way of life in Argentine politics (as well as other parts of life, for example getting a doctors appt has a lot to do with your connections). In hindsight, I realize the perspective of this woman and how my question came off as offensive.
This is just one more example of the really important concept that words are more than there dictionary definitions. This sort of miscommunication happens all the time, whether between national cultures, local cultures or even family to family. The words we use often times take on these different connotations based on our experience. It's hard to understand the meaning of certain words for other people and we are even unaware of the associations we make with many word. Apparently I view money from a capitalist perspective, who knew.
Another quick example is the phrase "We'll see." Atleast to me, "We'll see" is something a mom says when she means "no" but doesn't want to say it right away. So basically We'll see = no. One time Tomas said this to me when I asked if he wanted to go somewhere or do something later. When he responded "We'll see" I immediately started challenging him and trying to convince him. He repeated the phrase, sort of confused, and then I realized he really meant we'll see, as is maybe yes maybe no, but we'll make the decision later based on the situation. Since Tomas never grew up with a mom who ingrained "We'll see" in his head as "no" it had a completely different meaning.
I don't know what to take away from all of this excpet that its good to ask lots of questions when communicating because there is a lot of content that is not explicitly stated in a conversation.
Interesting stuff.
Ciao,
Kati
I forgot to write this down earlier and it is an interesting story:
I went with some classmates to the Plaza de Mayo to record the Madres de Plaza de Mayo marching, as they do every Thursday at 3. We wanted to get an interview with one of the mothers, but they told us that they don't do interviews. We went up to their book stand to ask them questions without the camera instead. After looking at all the trinkets and books that they were selling at this little table in the plaza, we starting asking about the organization. We didn't really know how to get started, we just wanted to know what they do and how their organization operates. I thought maybe refering to the things they were selling as a jumping off point to talking about the organization would be a good approach. As I interestedly looked at the things they were selling, I asked one of the mothers "So where do the proceeds from these items go, an organization?" The woman immediately put up a guard and got upset at my questions. She was mumbling and hard to understand but said "where does the money go? Where do you think?" Then she turned away from me and motioned for her friend to come closer to her and started whispering things about how insulting my question was or what not. I apologized and explained that I was just interested in what the organization does. She responded "What DOESNT the organization do, you want me to sum up 30 years of work in 5 minutes? Why don't you buy a book!" I apologized again and my friends and I slowly walked away.
I don't know all the reasons for this aggressive response (maybe she's tired of answering questions, upset that I asked her instead of doing my research before hand, or bitter because she has probably suffered a lot in life) but my friends and I did realize that one reason was probably the difference in meanings of the word "money." In my "capitalist culture" money = ability. I thought that asking about what happens to the money would be a good way to find out what actions are being taken by the organization. Are they sending it to other places in the world as donations? Are they giving history classes to the public? Are they sponsering talks and seminars?
Once I stepped out of my capitalist culture, I thought about what money means here in Argentina. Money in argentina is highly associated with corruption. If someone is questioning about how the money in an organization is spent, it probably gives the impression that one is suspicious of their operations. This connection is even more intense for these women because they lived through the incredibly corrupt dictatorship and then the Menem presidency which was sustained by corruption. Even today, corruption is a way of life in Argentine politics (as well as other parts of life, for example getting a doctors appt has a lot to do with your connections). In hindsight, I realize the perspective of this woman and how my question came off as offensive.
This is just one more example of the really important concept that words are more than there dictionary definitions. This sort of miscommunication happens all the time, whether between national cultures, local cultures or even family to family. The words we use often times take on these different connotations based on our experience. It's hard to understand the meaning of certain words for other people and we are even unaware of the associations we make with many word. Apparently I view money from a capitalist perspective, who knew.
Another quick example is the phrase "We'll see." Atleast to me, "We'll see" is something a mom says when she means "no" but doesn't want to say it right away. So basically We'll see = no. One time Tomas said this to me when I asked if he wanted to go somewhere or do something later. When he responded "We'll see" I immediately started challenging him and trying to convince him. He repeated the phrase, sort of confused, and then I realized he really meant we'll see, as is maybe yes maybe no, but we'll make the decision later based on the situation. Since Tomas never grew up with a mom who ingrained "We'll see" in his head as "no" it had a completely different meaning.
I don't know what to take away from all of this excpet that its good to ask lots of questions when communicating because there is a lot of content that is not explicitly stated in a conversation.
Interesting stuff.
Ciao,
Kati
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Boliche
Hola,
Last weekend I went to my first Boliche. There I am, pictured above, with Ale, Pau y Carla. Boliches are what this city is known for and it took me 3 months to get to one, but I`m glad. I'm glad because before I wasn't feeling comfortable about going because I didn't have a good group to go with. I didn't let my self just hang out with big groups of Americans and so I ended spending most of my time with small groups of 2 or 3 friends. Sometimes we would meet up with bigger groups but I wouldn't know any of them and they were usually all guys so I didnt feel
comfortable going with them either (since I hear the argentinians are a little aggressive). Finally, on friday, some girls from the soccer team said they were going to a boliche and invited me to come along, so I went. We had a blaaaaaast. When we first got there, things were just getting started. Then, suddenly a huge group of people poured in and from then on it was non-stop dancing till 5 in the morning. The time zoomed by and we were all just having a good time. There were a few pairs of couples dancing more intimately but for the most part it was just a bunch of groups of friends there. There were just as many girls dancing as guys, and the guys were even dancing by themselves! That was the striking difference from the US becuase you almost never see a group of guys dancing together without feeling awkward. I guess thats cause their dancing doesn't necessarily mean touching each other and rubbin up on each other. I left at 5:30 am feeling dead tired but wanting to go again the next day.
In the end, I didn't go again becuase I got sick :( I'm still fighting off the cold now, but hopefully I'll be recuperated for this weekend! I love dancin till your body is sore the next day!
Hasta luego,
Kati
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Stress update
I already have 2 sections of the paper written :) and in less than an hour!
And it wasn't even difficult to write because I had a realization in the shower the other day about the perspectives of the two texts I'm writing about so I've just been vigorously pouring it out onto paper and reworking it to so that it sounds right. woop woop.
And it wasn't even difficult to write because I had a realization in the shower the other day about the perspectives of the two texts I'm writing about so I've just been vigorously pouring it out onto paper and reworking it to so that it sounds right. woop woop.
Stress
Hola a todos,
Something I really need to work on: not stressing myself out. Logically I know that its not worth it to get stressed out about things; as long as you do the best you can, whatever you produce is going to be all anyone can reasonably expect. I need to somehow turn this logical statement that I can say and undertand, into the way I act.
For example: In my class in the UBA (Argentine University) I am in way over my head. I am in the class with people finishing their majors in argentina history/historiography, when I've taking only 1 college level history class before in my life and had to look up historiography on wikipedia a week into the class... But besides that, my teacher is amazing. She is completely understanding of my situation, doens't want me to be stressed over my final project, wants me to work on something interesting and something that is going to be useful to me in terms of my interests and studies. So I couldn't ask for a better situation in that regard.
So why do I get so stressed out about this project?
1) First I think its because I'm doing this in Spanish and I don't have a good idea of my potential in Spanish. I don't know how long it takes me to read and fully understand complicated historical texts, to plan out a complex historiographical paper, or write a paper. Even though I a good 3 weeks to work, I guess I'm slightly worried that it won't be enough time to get this done. But who knows.
2) I feel like I have to say it all. I realized that I do this a lot: If I have a task, I feel like I have to exhaust the topic before I can focus on the part that I am going to focus on. For example, right now I'm writing about caracteristics of a historical text and I feel like I have to understand everything the text is saying before I can start pulling out characteristics. I've learned that this is a needless step. I can find 3 or 4 characterstics of the text, without understanding every complicated economic nuance or political change and still have a good thesis and paper. Obviously it would be ideal to understand everything in the text, but for the sake of sanity its not necessary at all. Therefore, I think I need to change from strategy for approaching projects such as this. Instead of going into a project with the mentalilty that I need to read everything and undrestand everything, I should set myself more realistic goals about what I am going to analyze and how. (This actually relates alot to historiography because historians can't take into account EVERY detail about the event they are explaining, they have to "blindar" or wall off what their focus is and what there sources are).
3) The other reason I feel stressed is because I don't put enough enfasis on the thinking part of the process. I feel that in order to make progress, I need to be reading, looking up a word, or finding more sources or texts, but the reality is that sometimes what's missing is just some good old brain work. One day I spent hours reading and trying to make progress on the paper, but then I go for a run or take a shower and suddenly I realize how two things relate or a new way of looking at the concepts I'm reading about. Recently I've been comparing two texts and I can be reading and picking apart the texts trying to find differences, but with just a few minutes of looking at the ceiling and thinking, I'm able to articulate so much better that important differences between the texts. My teacher always refers to this in class by saying "I'd rather have you spend 5 hours working for this class, reading for 2, thinking for 3, than have you spend 5 hours just reading" It makes us think about how to spend our time studying and how to get the most out of it. I think sometimes I get scared of this part because it doesn' always produce results in which case there is a small fear that I might spend all this time and not have anything from it. But on the other hand, the most innovative and worthy ideas won't come out of the text that is already written. Those ideas will have to come from a pumpin brain (is that gross? I don't mean it to be).
In the end, I'm in a great position because no one knows my capabilities in Spanish, so I can't really be held to any standard. I'm just going to do my best and that's that. I hope that with the next big project I get in life I will be able to avoid feeling such stress.
Hasta luego,
Kati
Something I really need to work on: not stressing myself out. Logically I know that its not worth it to get stressed out about things; as long as you do the best you can, whatever you produce is going to be all anyone can reasonably expect. I need to somehow turn this logical statement that I can say and undertand, into the way I act.
For example: In my class in the UBA (Argentine University) I am in way over my head. I am in the class with people finishing their majors in argentina history/historiography, when I've taking only 1 college level history class before in my life and had to look up historiography on wikipedia a week into the class... But besides that, my teacher is amazing. She is completely understanding of my situation, doens't want me to be stressed over my final project, wants me to work on something interesting and something that is going to be useful to me in terms of my interests and studies. So I couldn't ask for a better situation in that regard.
So why do I get so stressed out about this project?
1) First I think its because I'm doing this in Spanish and I don't have a good idea of my potential in Spanish. I don't know how long it takes me to read and fully understand complicated historical texts, to plan out a complex historiographical paper, or write a paper. Even though I a good 3 weeks to work, I guess I'm slightly worried that it won't be enough time to get this done. But who knows.
2) I feel like I have to say it all. I realized that I do this a lot: If I have a task, I feel like I have to exhaust the topic before I can focus on the part that I am going to focus on. For example, right now I'm writing about caracteristics of a historical text and I feel like I have to understand everything the text is saying before I can start pulling out characteristics. I've learned that this is a needless step. I can find 3 or 4 characterstics of the text, without understanding every complicated economic nuance or political change and still have a good thesis and paper. Obviously it would be ideal to understand everything in the text, but for the sake of sanity its not necessary at all. Therefore, I think I need to change from strategy for approaching projects such as this. Instead of going into a project with the mentalilty that I need to read everything and undrestand everything, I should set myself more realistic goals about what I am going to analyze and how. (This actually relates alot to historiography because historians can't take into account EVERY detail about the event they are explaining, they have to "blindar" or wall off what their focus is and what there sources are).
3) The other reason I feel stressed is because I don't put enough enfasis on the thinking part of the process. I feel that in order to make progress, I need to be reading, looking up a word, or finding more sources or texts, but the reality is that sometimes what's missing is just some good old brain work. One day I spent hours reading and trying to make progress on the paper, but then I go for a run or take a shower and suddenly I realize how two things relate or a new way of looking at the concepts I'm reading about. Recently I've been comparing two texts and I can be reading and picking apart the texts trying to find differences, but with just a few minutes of looking at the ceiling and thinking, I'm able to articulate so much better that important differences between the texts. My teacher always refers to this in class by saying "I'd rather have you spend 5 hours working for this class, reading for 2, thinking for 3, than have you spend 5 hours just reading" It makes us think about how to spend our time studying and how to get the most out of it. I think sometimes I get scared of this part because it doesn' always produce results in which case there is a small fear that I might spend all this time and not have anything from it. But on the other hand, the most innovative and worthy ideas won't come out of the text that is already written. Those ideas will have to come from a pumpin brain (is that gross? I don't mean it to be).
In the end, I'm in a great position because no one knows my capabilities in Spanish, so I can't really be held to any standard. I'm just going to do my best and that's that. I hope that with the next big project I get in life I will be able to avoid feeling such stress.
Hasta luego,
Kati
Friday, June 5, 2009
Rules
Hola,
Check out my room! It's a little messy at this moment... We call it my "bulín" thats slang for "little personal space." Actually I don't know how to say that well in english.
So I've already talked about rules in one other blog entry; I mentioned how compliance with rules is crucial for a society to operate well (assuming the rules they are complying with are legit). For whatever reason, it seems that people in the US are generally conscious of rules whereas here in Argentina, there are a bunch of laws that no one knows about and/or follows.
Now I am going to add another observation to the mix. I was sitting in my class in la Universidad de Buenos Aires, thinking about the pictures I wanted to take of the concrete walls covered with bold angry political posters in order to remember the "hippy" atmosphere in UBA. (It's very hard to stay attentive in a 4 HOUR class in a foreign language...) Then I started looking around at all the other students in my class. There is such a large range in my class, from 21 year-olds (me, I think im the youngest) - 70 something year-olds, from sociologist to teacher to unemployed student. It makes me think about how uniform my US classes are in terms of the type of students. If someone older than 24 were enrolled in Lafayette the first question would be "what went wrong?"
I think in my culture (be it bethesda, lafayette, private universities, i don't know) there is too much pressure to conform to the norm, which in a certain sense is a rule. Maybe its more of a rule of thumb:
a general or approximate principle, procedure, or rule based on experience or practice, as opposed to a specific, scientific calculation or estimate.
People go to school until they are 18, then if they have the resources and inteligence, they should go to college for 4 years, postgraduate school and begin there careers. The problem with fitting everyone in a structure is that everyone is different! Things happen, good or bad, and we can't meet these "expectations" that are "ideal." Maybe I was going to go to gradschool but I got an offer to do something meaningful in Tibet or Quatar. Am I worse off because I didn't reach the gradschool level? Maybe I was going to go to college but I got struck with bad luck and had to drop out, should I be looked down upon because I can't continue in the normal "right" path of life.
I get the feeling from my interactions with people here that there aren't as many expectations for people to follow the same path. There are women who are close to finishing their college degree and then get pregnant and leave (my host sister). Hey, if thats what they want at that time, and they are going ot be full time moms for life, then who am I to look down on their decision. If someone for whatever reason doesn't make it to college until they are 70 something, or decide to go back when they are 70 something, then good for them for doing it when they can. If someone has to work for 2 years flipping burgers before they can afford to go to the best university, then they shouldnt be looked down on for being 26 in a college class. They didn't mess up, they did well and they should be embarrased. There are good things about structure, but I think to a certain extreme it is very claustrophobic and creates unnecessary pressure to follow whats "the best" even though "the best" can be very different from individual to individual.
These are still thoughts in process... I'll finish with something a little more concrete: An example of how the rules in the US can reach ABSURD extremes is the fact that in some school somewhere in the US they are now limiting the length of hugs in the hallways in a highschool (according to a friend who read this in NYT). Someone should tell the administrators that the kids here KISS each other EVERYTIME they greet. Limiting hugs? Give me a break, thats waaaaaaaay too much.
Hasta luego,
Kati
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Intricacies of Pronunciation
Hola,
I met up last night with the girl I am doing an "intercambio" (language exchange) with. Her name is Mica and she is a very nice girl (pictured above next to the Argentinine bear from the parque). She graduated from school already and is working in an office and studying english on the side. Her english is very good.
It's fascinating to talk about language with her. I learn so much about the english language and of course spanish too. For example, did you realize that we shorten so many of our words in English? I knew this before but never really thought about it fully. People learn in school all these words such as "I am going to" "She would not have" and then they speak with native speakers and we throw at them "Im-gunna" and "She wouldn't'hve" all in what sounds like one word. And on top of all that, we don't even open our mouths that much to say it. That would drive me crazy! So you have to learn all the grammar and such and then separately learn what we actually say.
Another thing we do in English is cut out a million vowels. For example with the word "impossible" which spanish speakers would pronounce how it appears. We would only pronounce "impsbl." Or atleast thats what my friend mica hears, just a bunch of consonants pressed together.
Now with Spanish. I feel so lucky because I can learn a written word and know how the spoken word sounds. But it has been very difficult for my to adapt their pronunciation. I told Mica for example that it is hard for me to pronounce the word "inoportuno" (inopportune) because its hard for me to say their "i" (our tr"ee" sound) and right afterwards their "o" (our "oh" my gosh). When I was telling her that she also pointed out that I say the syllables in english when in spanish they are different. In this word, the syllables are "in-op-por-tune" but in spanish the syllables are "i-no-por-tun-o." My big mistake was that I was starting out with "in" instead of "i." I never though about how the syllables of a word change from one language to another. So whereas it's easier in english to say our "i" vowel right next to the "n," it's easier in spanish to say the n right next to the "o" vowel. fascinating!!! I'm going to be looking for more syllable changes now...
over and out,
Kati
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Classroom/Real life blur
So....
I was just evesdropping on my host sister as she talks on the phone with her friend in the room adjacent to mine and she said "blah blah blah era un chupamedias!"
For those who don't know: chupamedias literally means a "sock-sucker" but as I learned in my spanish class the other day, they use it here the way we use "brown-noser."
I just LOVE hearing in real life the things I learn in class! It's so motivating and now I want to try using the word myself. Just love this study abroad stuff....
paz,
Kati
I was just evesdropping on my host sister as she talks on the phone with her friend in the room adjacent to mine and she said "blah blah blah era un chupamedias!"
For those who don't know: chupamedias literally means a "sock-sucker" but as I learned in my spanish class the other day, they use it here the way we use "brown-noser."
I just LOVE hearing in real life the things I learn in class! It's so motivating and now I want to try using the word myself. Just love this study abroad stuff....
paz,
Kati
Monday, May 25, 2009
Night in the City
Hola,
One of the things I love about cities is that there are always things going on. Yesterday, aparently, was the 4th of July here. I know it was a day to celebrate San Martin (guy who liberated Argentina from Spanish) but I didn't realize it takes the place of 4th of july to commemorate their independence (which happened years after San Martin liberated them). Anyways, there was a free concert down in the city center. There were maybe 10 groups that played. The first 9 were just constantly changing in between songs. I heard some good ones that I'm going to download and it was fun to be in the middle of a huge crowd singing all the words and trying to sing along. Sometimes they put the lyrics up so we could actually sing along. I went with my friends Caroline, Leo y Ivan. Leo and Ivan (porteños) told us about the songs and why everyone knew the lyrics, or when it was a horrible cover and so and so.
This is, from left to right, Leo, Caroline y Ivan.
The last band was the best and veeery argentine. The music is called Tango-electronico. It was awesome, I can't even describe it. There was a fiddle, drums, guitar, upright base and bandoleon (which is like a squarish accordian that expands a lot more). Everyone was dancin around to the techno tango, jumping, tango steppin etc. It was a really great time. During some really dramatic parts of the song, right before the techno base beat would boom out, the bandoleon player would stand in the center of the stage with his bandoleon up in the air and let out long suspensful sound by dropping one end of his badolean the way people pour water into a glass from 2 meters about the glass. It was so intense looking, and then the booming techno underbeats would hit and everyone would start dancing even harder. It was awesome. Below is a picture of a bandoleon.
Afterwards, we went with Ivan, his friend Nico, and leo to Jose's house. I had met Jose at some party way back when and so now we got to see his apartment and meet all his friends. Turns out Jose is from San Martin de los Andes! Where I went just a couple weeks ago. about 6 of the people at this gathering of 10 or so were from there too. So I told them about my trip and I got to here the natives perspective of the town. It was about half and half in terms of liking the town and not. Its funny becuase there is one club in the whole town, and oen guy was complaining that its boring to go to the same one club all the time and that everytime he goes "shes always there" (pointing to the girl next to him. Its really like living with just the kids from your high school class.
We chatted it up late into the night with the people. They were really nice and friendly (like all the argentinians I meet). I find that language makes for great conversation in these situations. The love it when we yankees point out the frases and filler words they always say. They like ot hear us imitate them and talk about there accent. Then we talked about other accents in South America and they had a great time imitating all of those. Then they wanted us to do British accents and Irish accents and they loved that. We had a great night of speaking LOTS of spanish, learning lots of new words, practicing our filler words and colloquial phrases and just hanging out with this bunch. It was a fun night.
Hasta luego,
Kati
One of the things I love about cities is that there are always things going on. Yesterday, aparently, was the 4th of July here. I know it was a day to celebrate San Martin (guy who liberated Argentina from Spanish) but I didn't realize it takes the place of 4th of july to commemorate their independence (which happened years after San Martin liberated them). Anyways, there was a free concert down in the city center. There were maybe 10 groups that played. The first 9 were just constantly changing in between songs. I heard some good ones that I'm going to download and it was fun to be in the middle of a huge crowd singing all the words and trying to sing along. Sometimes they put the lyrics up so we could actually sing along. I went with my friends Caroline, Leo y Ivan. Leo and Ivan (porteños) told us about the songs and why everyone knew the lyrics, or when it was a horrible cover and so and so.
This is, from left to right, Leo, Caroline y Ivan.
The last band was the best and veeery argentine. The music is called Tango-electronico. It was awesome, I can't even describe it. There was a fiddle, drums, guitar, upright base and bandoleon (which is like a squarish accordian that expands a lot more). Everyone was dancin around to the techno tango, jumping, tango steppin etc. It was a really great time. During some really dramatic parts of the song, right before the techno base beat would boom out, the bandoleon player would stand in the center of the stage with his bandoleon up in the air and let out long suspensful sound by dropping one end of his badolean the way people pour water into a glass from 2 meters about the glass. It was so intense looking, and then the booming techno underbeats would hit and everyone would start dancing even harder. It was awesome. Below is a picture of a bandoleon.
Afterwards, we went with Ivan, his friend Nico, and leo to Jose's house. I had met Jose at some party way back when and so now we got to see his apartment and meet all his friends. Turns out Jose is from San Martin de los Andes! Where I went just a couple weeks ago. about 6 of the people at this gathering of 10 or so were from there too. So I told them about my trip and I got to here the natives perspective of the town. It was about half and half in terms of liking the town and not. Its funny becuase there is one club in the whole town, and oen guy was complaining that its boring to go to the same one club all the time and that everytime he goes "shes always there" (pointing to the girl next to him. Its really like living with just the kids from your high school class.
We chatted it up late into the night with the people. They were really nice and friendly (like all the argentinians I meet). I find that language makes for great conversation in these situations. The love it when we yankees point out the frases and filler words they always say. They like ot hear us imitate them and talk about there accent. Then we talked about other accents in South America and they had a great time imitating all of those. Then they wanted us to do British accents and Irish accents and they loved that. We had a great night of speaking LOTS of spanish, learning lots of new words, practicing our filler words and colloquial phrases and just hanging out with this bunch. It was a fun night.
Hasta luego,
Kati
Friday, May 22, 2009
Language todbits - Animal associations
Hola!
I'm taking this Spanish class that is just great. We are using a book that is "the highest level spanish book" that exists (according to the professor.) The book goes far beyond the regular old grammar stuff, and gets down to the good stuff; the things one needs to know in order to master a language. I thought I'd share here some interesting language tidbits:
Animals
I didn't realize it, but in english we have certain ideas associated with certain animals. For example: "She's fat as a caw" "Eats like a pig" "Sly as a fox" "Here comes the stork" etc. Now here are some Spanish associations:
Vibora (snake) - this is spanish's fox. Someone double faced, sly and plotting is a snake
vaca - means fat just like in english.
hormiguita - a litte ant is a hard worker
zorro - a fox is someone very smart in their field
ciñuega - a stork is also associated with bringing babies
cabra - a goat is someone who is crazy
gallina - they also so you're a chicken when you're scared to do something
foca - seals are assicated with being fat
ráton de biblioteca - a library rat is our bookworm
una fiera - this is like saying someones a "beast" at something, its the noun form of fierce (which we don't have in english)
Pavo - turkey in SM de los Andes
Vaca - cow hangin out at the base of a mountain in SM de los Andes
Ovejas - sheep in SM de los Andes
I'm taking this Spanish class that is just great. We are using a book that is "the highest level spanish book" that exists (according to the professor.) The book goes far beyond the regular old grammar stuff, and gets down to the good stuff; the things one needs to know in order to master a language. I thought I'd share here some interesting language tidbits:
Animals
I didn't realize it, but in english we have certain ideas associated with certain animals. For example: "She's fat as a caw" "Eats like a pig" "Sly as a fox" "Here comes the stork" etc. Now here are some Spanish associations:
Vibora (snake) - this is spanish's fox. Someone double faced, sly and plotting is a snake
vaca - means fat just like in english.
hormiguita - a litte ant is a hard worker
zorro - a fox is someone very smart in their field
ciñuega - a stork is also associated with bringing babies
cabra - a goat is someone who is crazy
gallina - they also so you're a chicken when you're scared to do something
foca - seals are assicated with being fat
ráton de biblioteca - a library rat is our bookworm
una fiera - this is like saying someones a "beast" at something, its the noun form of fierce (which we don't have in english)
Pavo - turkey in SM de los Andes
Vaca - cow hangin out at the base of a mountain in SM de los Andes
Ovejas - sheep in SM de los Andes
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
How to Learn Spanish
Hola,
When learning a language, people often hit a barrier at a certain point. I think it usually happens at a pretty advanced point and it has been happening to my friends and me here. There's a point were you say to yourself "I've been trying hard for so long, why am I not better at this?"
If you consider two people who both want to become "fluent" in a language, but one is starting from scratch and one has been studying the language for 9 years, I think person starting from scratch is going to feel more "successful" at learning the language. Consider a single day of studying, where a beginner reads 5 pages of a book and learns 30 new words. The person who has been studying the language for 9 years might read 50 pages of a book and learn 10 new words. The beginner feels great, like he or she is making lots of progress. The later feels like, "great, I know 10 new words, why am I still not fluent? Even if I did this everyday for a year, would I still not be fluent? probably."
What I'm noting here is that once you have learned the grammar, some basic vocab etc. you have to change your strategy for learning the language otherwise you slow down your progress and feel frusterated. I've been feeling this way lately. I learned the beginning material (hola, como estás etc.) I learned the grammar (even complicated subjunctive, pluscuamperfecto etc.) I even know how to say fancy words like meticulous (minucioso) or obscure words like mud flap (guardabarros). If I want to be fluent now, I need to change my focus (not leave altogether, but shift focus) from vocabulary and grammar, to conversation and practice. I need to actively listen to the words that natives use (the equivalents to "like." "um," "ok") and start using them myself. I need to listen to the letters in the words that they pronounce here and imitate that. I need to listen to the inflection of their voices while speaking certain phrases or sentences. I need to see what is uniform accross the board in terms of how they speak, and what changes as a result of personal style o emphasis. I don't know what else, but these are the things I'm thinking about these days. I'm trying to figure out what I can focus my efforts towards so that I can keep making process towards beginning "fluent." PS I don't like that word, I think its vague and means different things all the time, but what I'm refering to is the point where people listen to me with ease and maybe, just maybe, might mistake me for a hispanohablante from ANY country. :) Veremos si logro eso.
Hasta luego,
Katie
When learning a language, people often hit a barrier at a certain point. I think it usually happens at a pretty advanced point and it has been happening to my friends and me here. There's a point were you say to yourself "I've been trying hard for so long, why am I not better at this?"
If you consider two people who both want to become "fluent" in a language, but one is starting from scratch and one has been studying the language for 9 years, I think person starting from scratch is going to feel more "successful" at learning the language. Consider a single day of studying, where a beginner reads 5 pages of a book and learns 30 new words. The person who has been studying the language for 9 years might read 50 pages of a book and learn 10 new words. The beginner feels great, like he or she is making lots of progress. The later feels like, "great, I know 10 new words, why am I still not fluent? Even if I did this everyday for a year, would I still not be fluent? probably."
What I'm noting here is that once you have learned the grammar, some basic vocab etc. you have to change your strategy for learning the language otherwise you slow down your progress and feel frusterated. I've been feeling this way lately. I learned the beginning material (hola, como estás etc.) I learned the grammar (even complicated subjunctive, pluscuamperfecto etc.) I even know how to say fancy words like meticulous (minucioso) or obscure words like mud flap (guardabarros). If I want to be fluent now, I need to change my focus (not leave altogether, but shift focus) from vocabulary and grammar, to conversation and practice. I need to actively listen to the words that natives use (the equivalents to "like." "um," "ok") and start using them myself. I need to listen to the letters in the words that they pronounce here and imitate that. I need to listen to the inflection of their voices while speaking certain phrases or sentences. I need to see what is uniform accross the board in terms of how they speak, and what changes as a result of personal style o emphasis. I don't know what else, but these are the things I'm thinking about these days. I'm trying to figure out what I can focus my efforts towards so that I can keep making process towards beginning "fluent." PS I don't like that word, I think its vague and means different things all the time, but what I'm refering to is the point where people listen to me with ease and maybe, just maybe, might mistake me for a hispanohablante from ANY country. :) Veremos si logro eso.
Hasta luego,
Katie
Social/Political Problems in BA
Last night I went to my internship class. Since the internship is categorized as "Service Learning" we talk about Poverty in Buenos Aires and Argentina. It's interesting not only to learn about their political system and ways of dealing with poverty and other social problems, but then to think about how it is in the US. One friend said that he never appreciated stability until he got to Argentina. Of course the systems in the US are not nearly perfect, but there are some very fundamental steps we have taken that I am now starting to appreciate: we generally follow rules. (I'll get back to this)
What I found out:
- There are 4000 kids (5-17) that enter Buenos Aires everyday. A large number of them in situations of poverty (without parents, hungry, taken advantage of, etc.)
-There are lists and lists of parents who would like to adopt these kids, but the beaurocracy takes 7 or 8 years to get through in order to successfully adopt, by which point the family no longer wants the child. (Um, this seems very clear to me, there is way to much beaurocracy and something has to be done. The first thing I would do in office is slash the beaurocracy and stop shooting myself in the foot with this poverty situation, claro no?)
-Since adopting a child is nearly impossible, there is a black market trafficking of children in Misiones (north near Catarratas) where some families go to get kids.
-Raping of children is a major problem partly as a result of the machismo culture
-Buenos Aires is known as a "turist" destination for undereage prostitution
-Abortion is illegal.
-The only time a child may have an abortion is if he/she is violated and is "mentally unable" to raise the child. In this situation, a court judge must give the person permission for the abortion. In a famous case in one province of Argentina, the family helped the child go through all this process legally to get the abortion, and the judge took 7 months to finish teh case. At this point an abortion was impossible.
-Many people die from "abortos caseros" shady abortions out of a hospital.
-In the past, starving children were sentenced by a judge to a jail where they were locked up and given food. These kids were put in the same place where kids who murdered and commited crimes were put. A new law changed the rules, so that kids aren't put in jail with murderers when there only problem is that they don't have food, BUT no one created a new place to put them, so the kids are still going to jail...
There's more, but I'll stop at that. The crazy thing is that we were learning about all the laws that make changes for the better but nothing changes in reality. Our teachers (we have two, that work in social organizations in BA) explained to us that Argentina's laws are that of a very developed country, but nothing happens in reality. The discrepency between what the rules are and how people act is astonishing.
I then starting thinking about why we follow laws in the US (some of us, but a decent percent compared to Argentina) and why someone wouldn't follow laws. One component I came up with is that in the US we live in a culture full of rules (often times, in my opinion, too many). Many kids in the US grow up in families that are encouraged to give their kids boundries, (I see kids here apeshit on the subway or in public spaces, eating off the floor, licking cans in the grocery store, meanwhile their parents look on and don't say a thing) and schools that are chock-full of rules. Not only are there rules, there are consequences; detention, lower grades, missing recess, time-out, etc. Somehow this socialization makes many of us rule-conscious.
In argentina, from my short experience here so far, there don't seem to be as many rules. I don't know about lower levels of school, but UBA, the university I go to, is a free-for-all. It's my little hypothesis that this free-for-all culture has something to do wit hthe fact that this country has developed laws that few people care to follow. I'm sure there are millinos of other factors and influences, but I think this is an important cultural one.
Hasta luego,
Kati
P.S. There are pros and cons of everything- I don't mean to bash on the rule-less culture here, I find it often times liberating in contrast with the stressful structured life of the US.
What I found out:
- There are 4000 kids (5-17) that enter Buenos Aires everyday. A large number of them in situations of poverty (without parents, hungry, taken advantage of, etc.)
-There are lists and lists of parents who would like to adopt these kids, but the beaurocracy takes 7 or 8 years to get through in order to successfully adopt, by which point the family no longer wants the child. (Um, this seems very clear to me, there is way to much beaurocracy and something has to be done. The first thing I would do in office is slash the beaurocracy and stop shooting myself in the foot with this poverty situation, claro no?)
-Since adopting a child is nearly impossible, there is a black market trafficking of children in Misiones (north near Catarratas) where some families go to get kids.
-Raping of children is a major problem partly as a result of the machismo culture
-Buenos Aires is known as a "turist" destination for undereage prostitution
-Abortion is illegal.
-The only time a child may have an abortion is if he/she is violated and is "mentally unable" to raise the child. In this situation, a court judge must give the person permission for the abortion. In a famous case in one province of Argentina, the family helped the child go through all this process legally to get the abortion, and the judge took 7 months to finish teh case. At this point an abortion was impossible.
-Many people die from "abortos caseros" shady abortions out of a hospital.
-In the past, starving children were sentenced by a judge to a jail where they were locked up and given food. These kids were put in the same place where kids who murdered and commited crimes were put. A new law changed the rules, so that kids aren't put in jail with murderers when there only problem is that they don't have food, BUT no one created a new place to put them, so the kids are still going to jail...
There's more, but I'll stop at that. The crazy thing is that we were learning about all the laws that make changes for the better but nothing changes in reality. Our teachers (we have two, that work in social organizations in BA) explained to us that Argentina's laws are that of a very developed country, but nothing happens in reality. The discrepency between what the rules are and how people act is astonishing.
I then starting thinking about why we follow laws in the US (some of us, but a decent percent compared to Argentina) and why someone wouldn't follow laws. One component I came up with is that in the US we live in a culture full of rules (often times, in my opinion, too many). Many kids in the US grow up in families that are encouraged to give their kids boundries, (I see kids here apeshit on the subway or in public spaces, eating off the floor, licking cans in the grocery store, meanwhile their parents look on and don't say a thing) and schools that are chock-full of rules. Not only are there rules, there are consequences; detention, lower grades, missing recess, time-out, etc. Somehow this socialization makes many of us rule-conscious.
In argentina, from my short experience here so far, there don't seem to be as many rules. I don't know about lower levels of school, but UBA, the university I go to, is a free-for-all. It's my little hypothesis that this free-for-all culture has something to do wit hthe fact that this country has developed laws that few people care to follow. I'm sure there are millinos of other factors and influences, but I think this is an important cultural one.
Hasta luego,
Kati
P.S. There are pros and cons of everything- I don't mean to bash on the rule-less culture here, I find it often times liberating in contrast with the stressful structured life of the US.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Jugando Fútbol
Hola!
Today I played soccer with a team from a local university. It reminded me a lot of the good ol' days playing league soccer. It's fun to play with these team because girls soccer is not that big here so if you are in shape and want to work hard, you really stand out. I think the coach really likes us americans (there are three of us playing) because we play hard and it pushes the other girls to play hard as well. They were so-so in the pass acording to the players, but so far they have one 3 games (including the one we won today) and things are looking up! Today we won 3-1, and i scored 2 goals... :) It ws fun to be out there in shinguards, cleats, and a uniform playing with a team.
After the game, we went out to eat pizza together. I got to practice my spanish a bit and they taught me some new words such as estribillo (refrain of a song) hamoca (hammock) etc. It's fun to hang out with them because since we have practice twice a week and games on the weekend, we have lots of time to get to know each other and become friends. I've only been to two practices and a game but I think it will get better and better. I'm be sure to take pictures at some point in the season to post here. It's fun to get to know people over a common goal or purpose and then let things develop from there. Plus I'm getting lots of excercise! En fin, its good stuff.
I'm attaching a picture of the applecake tomas and I made at our hostel in San Martin de los Andes because tengo hambre ahora... We gave half to Santiago, the cool hostel owner who helped us find all those excursions. This is one of my favorite cakes ever! Its sooo easy to make too; 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 2-3 eggs, 6 or 7 granny smith apples. You put the apples, cut up in rough pieces about 1 inch by one inch in the bottom of caserole dish and pour the other ingredients that have been mixed together on top. Then in the oven (que sé yo, 350?) until its golden brown. We even used an oven that didn't have tempature markings on it and it still came out perfectly! Great recipe.
hasta luego,
Katie
Today I played soccer with a team from a local university. It reminded me a lot of the good ol' days playing league soccer. It's fun to play with these team because girls soccer is not that big here so if you are in shape and want to work hard, you really stand out. I think the coach really likes us americans (there are three of us playing) because we play hard and it pushes the other girls to play hard as well. They were so-so in the pass acording to the players, but so far they have one 3 games (including the one we won today) and things are looking up! Today we won 3-1, and i scored 2 goals... :) It ws fun to be out there in shinguards, cleats, and a uniform playing with a team.
After the game, we went out to eat pizza together. I got to practice my spanish a bit and they taught me some new words such as estribillo (refrain of a song) hamoca (hammock) etc. It's fun to hang out with them because since we have practice twice a week and games on the weekend, we have lots of time to get to know each other and become friends. I've only been to two practices and a game but I think it will get better and better. I'm be sure to take pictures at some point in the season to post here. It's fun to get to know people over a common goal or purpose and then let things develop from there. Plus I'm getting lots of excercise! En fin, its good stuff.
I'm attaching a picture of the applecake tomas and I made at our hostel in San Martin de los Andes because tengo hambre ahora... We gave half to Santiago, the cool hostel owner who helped us find all those excursions. This is one of my favorite cakes ever! Its sooo easy to make too; 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 2-3 eggs, 6 or 7 granny smith apples. You put the apples, cut up in rough pieces about 1 inch by one inch in the bottom of caserole dish and pour the other ingredients that have been mixed together on top. Then in the oven (que sé yo, 350?) until its golden brown. We even used an oven that didn't have tempature markings on it and it still came out perfectly! Great recipe.
hasta luego,
Katie
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Vacation in San Martin de los Andes
Hola, tanto tiempo eh?
I just recently went on vacation with Tomas to San Martin de los Andes in Patagonia. Its in the northern part of Patagonia near 7 huge lakes (sort of like the great lakes of Argentina). When we first arrived we realized pretty quickly that the city was out of season. There were hardly any people there except for some natives. We went to the tourist office to ask about what there was to do, but the two girls working there sort of conveyed the message "Why are you here? There's not much to do out of season..."
We waked to our hostel in the fresh mountain air and unpacked. We thought about taking a bus to Bariloche if we ran out of things to do in San Martin which seemed more likely all the time. That's when we met... Santiago!
Santiago was the owner of the hostel we stayed at. What an energetic fun guy. He built our hostel himself, and designed it according to ideas he thought of while traveling in other hostels. There was a huge spacious kitchen and sitting area when we walked in. The rooms were comfortable spacious and clean. Santiago also built his house, which was behind the hostel, where he lives with his wife and 2 kids. So far he seems like an active, great father, but theres more.... he's also a tour guide! This is what made the difference for Tomas and I because everyday Santiago had some fun adventure planned for us. Since the weren't many buses running during the off season and many of the excursions just ended or were pretty pricey, we were worried that we would only have the few shorts hikes near the city to do. Santiago proposed some other ideas and had us off hiking to the top of mountains and riding horses.
The first day we went to the Cerro Colorado and hiked through a range of environments (forests, snow, rock, sandy shrubs...) to get to the top. I don't think I've ever been in a windier place in my life. Someone had built a wall of rocks at the top to block the wind and I was nearly knocked over trying to reach it. Tomas and I hid and rested behind the wall, enjoying the spectacular view and then ventured back down.
The next day we went to the Cerro Faulkner which was much taller. Again we hiked through various climates, at times so hot that we had to be in t-shirts and at times to cold for just our jackets scarves and fleeces. We also had to maneuver around cows during thsi hike. They also liked to hike up the mountain side and we didn't want to piss them off. But besides the cows up there, Tomas and I were the ONLY ones around. So we made sure to scream at the top of our lungs when we got to the top of the mountain.
The last day, we rode horses around the mountains. Tomas apparently is really good at riding horses. There was a group of 5 of us with the guide, and we all stayed conservatively on the path, slowing walking along. Tomas on the other hand was off galloping through the pastures, giving his horse some real excercise. Who knew he was so good at riding horses....
So those are the highlights from the trip!
Hasta luego,
Kati
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Things get better every day
Hola a todos! It's been a while since I've written because things have been pretty busy here with classes. Quick update with the exchange rate, it took a huge slump! Luckily I took money out for my 200 peso student visa during the peak of the exchange rate, but its sittin lower now unfortunately. I guess this is good for argentina though so I should just suck it up.
Things get better everyday. I hit the slump a few days ago and I was trying to figure out why it was a slump and what made me feel that way. As I sat up on the terrace watching the sunset, a great place for deep thinking, I came back to the idea of a home. I thought somemore about what makes me feel at home. In thinking about this I made the important distinction between the external things that make me feel at home and the internal things that make me "feel at home." There are all the things I listed in a previuos blog that make me feel at home; a network of people and support, the things you are used to etc. But I was thinking, I don't mind that I can't just use my phone whenever I want to talk to someone or ask a question. I don't mind that I can't just go to the kitchen and cook up a storm. Not having these luxuries isn't that big of a deal.
Then I started thinking about missing the network of people that I have at home or at school. That's what makes the "hump period" of studying abroad, this post honey moon period, especially difficult. I don't have a best friend here, or real family members. And when I just want to go chill with another person who is close to me or be with close friends, I can't. In the beginning everything is exciting and going quickly, but then one gets hit with the fact that there isn't the comfortable network of people.
My reaction to this realization though is that I dont want to need another person to make me feel at home. And that is the "feeling at home" that I realized was on my mind. The type of feeling at home that is an internal feeling at home, which is more just a personal contentness. To feel ok just being you and comfortable with what you're doing.
Some one might think its unreasonable to not want to rely on another person to make me feel at home, but allow me to explain. Of course people are important in life, and we are social creatures who want to make connections. But I don't want to have to RELY on someone else to make me feel comfortable being me and doing what I'm doing. Of course I will rely on people all the time through out my life, but when nothing is wrong I hope I can just be good on my own. If I'm not relying on someone to give me oxygen in a hospital, or my sister to help me through a tough time, or any other situation that I can't handle on my own, I want to be an indepedent person who can just be herself in Buenos Aires or any other city I decide to plant myself. I guess what will make me comfortable and internally "at home" is just getting to know myself better. I feel more comfortable when I know what my interests or values are, what types of things I'd like ot try, what I've learned is difficult for me or makes me uncomfortable. All of these sorts of questinos and answers are helpful ot ponder. Of course I learn more about myself all the time and I don't expect to know everything ever, just be honest with myself to know more.
After asking myself some of these questions and thinking about the answers up on the terraze (in the light of a full moon none the less) I started to feel much better. I was thinking afterwards that this surely is the sort of conflict that the program is talking about when they say that students tend to have a slump in their trip. It's when you start feeling that this is longer than a vacation and that you don't have many comforts or connectinos with people that you are used to. You can't just go to your best friend to distract you from thinking about what you want to do here in BA and why. That's some hard stuff to grapple. And on top of it all, I even lucked out cause I have a really good friend here, Jesus (his name, not the religious figure) who I feel like I can go to and talk about anything really deep. I'm sure there are lots of students that don't even have that, because it is a rarety to have that after just one month of doing turisty things together. So anyways, IES was right, there are definitely ups and downs during this study about experience that I know see differently her in BA from how I saw them in Spain since my boyfriend isn't around to make things easier.
Every day is getting better because I've thought about these things and on top of that my external "home" is developing more and more. I met up with a girl I talk with to improve our languages (she's learning english while I leanr spanish) and then I just talked with my host mom for about an hour. As these relationships develop I feel more comfortable that I can just walk out of my room and talk with my family here like I do back home, or write an email to ask a friend to hang out this week. So both my external home and my internal home are developing. And that makes me feel better.
That's it for now, hasta luego,
Kati
Things get better everyday. I hit the slump a few days ago and I was trying to figure out why it was a slump and what made me feel that way. As I sat up on the terrace watching the sunset, a great place for deep thinking, I came back to the idea of a home. I thought somemore about what makes me feel at home. In thinking about this I made the important distinction between the external things that make me feel at home and the internal things that make me "feel at home." There are all the things I listed in a previuos blog that make me feel at home; a network of people and support, the things you are used to etc. But I was thinking, I don't mind that I can't just use my phone whenever I want to talk to someone or ask a question. I don't mind that I can't just go to the kitchen and cook up a storm. Not having these luxuries isn't that big of a deal.
Then I started thinking about missing the network of people that I have at home or at school. That's what makes the "hump period" of studying abroad, this post honey moon period, especially difficult. I don't have a best friend here, or real family members. And when I just want to go chill with another person who is close to me or be with close friends, I can't. In the beginning everything is exciting and going quickly, but then one gets hit with the fact that there isn't the comfortable network of people.
My reaction to this realization though is that I dont want to need another person to make me feel at home. And that is the "feeling at home" that I realized was on my mind. The type of feeling at home that is an internal feeling at home, which is more just a personal contentness. To feel ok just being you and comfortable with what you're doing.
Some one might think its unreasonable to not want to rely on another person to make me feel at home, but allow me to explain. Of course people are important in life, and we are social creatures who want to make connections. But I don't want to have to RELY on someone else to make me feel comfortable being me and doing what I'm doing. Of course I will rely on people all the time through out my life, but when nothing is wrong I hope I can just be good on my own. If I'm not relying on someone to give me oxygen in a hospital, or my sister to help me through a tough time, or any other situation that I can't handle on my own, I want to be an indepedent person who can just be herself in Buenos Aires or any other city I decide to plant myself. I guess what will make me comfortable and internally "at home" is just getting to know myself better. I feel more comfortable when I know what my interests or values are, what types of things I'd like ot try, what I've learned is difficult for me or makes me uncomfortable. All of these sorts of questinos and answers are helpful ot ponder. Of course I learn more about myself all the time and I don't expect to know everything ever, just be honest with myself to know more.
After asking myself some of these questions and thinking about the answers up on the terraze (in the light of a full moon none the less) I started to feel much better. I was thinking afterwards that this surely is the sort of conflict that the program is talking about when they say that students tend to have a slump in their trip. It's when you start feeling that this is longer than a vacation and that you don't have many comforts or connectinos with people that you are used to. You can't just go to your best friend to distract you from thinking about what you want to do here in BA and why. That's some hard stuff to grapple. And on top of it all, I even lucked out cause I have a really good friend here, Jesus (his name, not the religious figure) who I feel like I can go to and talk about anything really deep. I'm sure there are lots of students that don't even have that, because it is a rarety to have that after just one month of doing turisty things together. So anyways, IES was right, there are definitely ups and downs during this study about experience that I know see differently her in BA from how I saw them in Spain since my boyfriend isn't around to make things easier.
Every day is getting better because I've thought about these things and on top of that my external "home" is developing more and more. I met up with a girl I talk with to improve our languages (she's learning english while I leanr spanish) and then I just talked with my host mom for about an hour. As these relationships develop I feel more comfortable that I can just walk out of my room and talk with my family here like I do back home, or write an email to ask a friend to hang out this week. So both my external home and my internal home are developing. And that makes me feel better.
That's it for now, hasta luego,
Kati
Friday, April 10, 2009
Milonga - Tango y Rock
La otra noche fui con mi amigo porteño a una Milonga. A él le gusta mucho el tango. Me dijo que antes, cuando era más joven, no bailaba pero ahora trata de aprender tango y su arte. Además, bailar es un buen ejercicio y muy saludable.
Fuimos a un sitio acá en Palermo cerca de donde vivo. Pagamos 16 pesos para tomar todas las clases que tenían esa noche y depués quedarnos en la milonga. Había al principio una clase de baile “rock.” Nunca he oido de una clase de baile “rock” en los EEUU pero bueno, lo aprendí.
Una cosa que suelo notar acá es la gama de edades que hay saliendo por la noche. Jamás hay ancianos fuera de la casa a la una, dos o tres de la mañana en los EEUU, jámas. Me encanta que los ancianos acá siguen saliendo hasta la madrugada, ¡que vivos son! Estuve allá con los ancianos, extranjeros, todos tipos, aprendiendo como bailar con la música “rock”.
Después, comenzaron las clases de tango. Mi amigo fue al grupo intermedio y me quedé en el grupo principiante. Había muchas más mujeres que hombres así que a veces no tuve una pareja, pero compartimos los hombres durante la clase (que suerte tienen los hombres).
Resultaba que había muchos extranjeros allá; conocí a una chica de Canadá que trabaja en la embujada acá y un chico de Nueva Zealandía de vaccaciones. A mí me parece que hay ciertos barrios y locales donde se congregan los extranjeros: San Telmo, ciertas milongas, ciertos bares (irlandeses por lo general), etc. Este local era uno de estos sitios que atraía a los extranjeros.
Después de bailar tanto tuve que descansar y decidí ir a mi apartamento. Me fui a las 3 más o menos. No sé si puedo acostumbrarme a este horario porteño; salir hasta las 8 de la mañana para empecar con clases el lunes a las 9 de la mañana. No sé como lo hacen.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
The Burial of ex-president Alfonsín
El jueves fui al enterramiento de Alfonsín. Mi host-mother me dijo que probablemente nunca va a ser un evento así otra vez en su vida. Dijo que después del enterramiento de Eva y Perón, este evento atraería una de las muchedumbres más grandes. Mi host-mother se rompió la pierna hace poco así que era mi deber asistir por ella que no pudo.
Ella es gran admiradora de él y los valores que mantuvo. Dijo que él le dió un sentido de orgullo por ser argentina. Explicó que a veces le llamaron “flojo” o “indeciso” pero él evitó conflictos violentos de todos costos porque valoró la paz sobre todo. Además, nunca era corupto ni ávido; vivió en la misma casa por todo su vida en una manera humilde. Entre la dictadura y presidentes coruptos él sobresalió.
Por eso, supongo, había tanta gente a su enterramiento. Estar en el medio de todo me dió tanta emoción. Al principio, estuve fuera de la muchedumbre, sacando fotos, pero terminé en el medio de todo, gritando “Al-fon-sín” con los demás. Me noté que amable y cariñosa era la gente allá. Todos siguieron el coche con el féretro cogidos del brazo. Más tarde mi host mother explicó que eso es bien latino, para acercarse y abrazarse aún con desconocidos durante tiempos así. Y es verdad, no parece que hay tanta amor y cariño entre desonocidos en norteamerica, incluso durante un evento así.
Mi host-mother y yo esperamos que este evento haya servido como una motivación a algunos argentinos para pensar en la política y sus valores. Con los discursos de Alfonsín que han mostrado en la tele estos días y todos los recuerdos de sus ideas, este evento puede terminar enseñando a los jóvenes y recordandole a los demás.
Ella es gran admiradora de él y los valores que mantuvo. Dijo que él le dió un sentido de orgullo por ser argentina. Explicó que a veces le llamaron “flojo” o “indeciso” pero él evitó conflictos violentos de todos costos porque valoró la paz sobre todo. Además, nunca era corupto ni ávido; vivió en la misma casa por todo su vida en una manera humilde. Entre la dictadura y presidentes coruptos él sobresalió.
Por eso, supongo, había tanta gente a su enterramiento. Estar en el medio de todo me dió tanta emoción. Al principio, estuve fuera de la muchedumbre, sacando fotos, pero terminé en el medio de todo, gritando “Al-fon-sín” con los demás. Me noté que amable y cariñosa era la gente allá. Todos siguieron el coche con el féretro cogidos del brazo. Más tarde mi host mother explicó que eso es bien latino, para acercarse y abrazarse aún con desconocidos durante tiempos así. Y es verdad, no parece que hay tanta amor y cariño entre desonocidos en norteamerica, incluso durante un evento así.
Mi host-mother y yo esperamos que este evento haya servido como una motivación a algunos argentinos para pensar en la política y sus valores. Con los discursos de Alfonsín que han mostrado en la tele estos días y todos los recuerdos de sus ideas, este evento puede terminar enseñando a los jóvenes y recordandole a los demás.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
The Class Situation
Che boludos (that;s slang for hey dummies)
Well it's been a while since I've written anything because this has been such a hectic time. A bit stressful at times. I started my UBA classes last thursday and ever since it's been non stop. Here's why:
I was deciding between 4 UBA classes which I should take. I thought 2, since I took two classes at UAM(the Madrid university) and was fine. Little did I know the reputation of UBA. The school system is very different here but basically UBA is the best school in the country and one of the best in South America. It is a public school and free and most everyone there seems like they really want to learn. The first class I went to was a seminar about reciente argentine history from a historical and historiographical perspective. I could understand the teacher pretty well, except for a few big vocab words, and the class mates were very friendly the us foreigners (2 koreans, 1 german, and 1 other "yankee"). The only problem was that the teacher explained that the class was about perspectives looking at history and she wasn;t going to deal with the actual history becuase "we already know it." As we went around the class introducing oursleves I realized almost everyone was fnishing their 5 year long history major (ie pro's in argentine history). For this reason I felt out of place, so I thought eh I don;t think I;ll take this class.
The next class was Social Geography. I chose this topic cause Argentina has very interesting geography and it probably has interesting affects on their society. The content was fine and dandy but the teacher was impossile. Although my classmates were in their 1st or second years and new to this material as well, I couldn;t barely understand a word the professor was saying. He would trail off at the end of every sentence, years of smoking had turned his words into raspy, uninteligable jargon, he made jokes that the class only knew were jokes when he laughed at them himself and he would pase around the room half the time with his back to the class talking to the wall. That was a miserable 4 hours. O yeah, and the classes are 4 hours long, so that makes a difficult class even more overwhelming. I was so glad to get out of that class and I told myself no way am I taking that class. That was the end to spending from 9 am to 9:30 pm at UBA for one day (8 hours in class without a break). I went back home, went to bed, only to go back to UBA at 9 am in the morning.
My next class was in a huge auditorium type room about argentine histroy III (1916-now). The first thing the strong voiced male professor said from up on his mini-stage in this auditorium us something along the lines of "You all are the future historians and leaders of this country. This is the best university in the country and we expect a lot from you." shit. Again, I was a little misplaced in this class.
When the UBA classes were on pause, since I didn;t have another one to go to for 3 days, things got complicated at my program, IES. I decided that I only wanted to take one class at UBA (turns out portenos only take 3 classes at a time, so for a foreigner to take 2 classes was a lot) (In madrid I took two, but the madrileños took 7! So I had it a little easier) I went into IES frist thing on Monday morning and asked to change my schedule. I got into a class about Cultural icons in Argentina. I bought the texts and found out we had to read about 70 pages in spanish for the next day. whew. I started reading.
The next morning I woke up at 5:30 am and went down to immigrations where I was suppose to get my visa. After waiting in line for 6 hours I managed to get my student visa. I headed straight over to my new class in IES for which I had been able to do about one fifth of the reading for. I found my class mates taking a quiz on the reading. Luckily I was excused from the quiz since I joined late. I sat in class for 3 hours and then headed back to UBA to try out the final class. I looked at the syllabus when I got there, about 5 straight pages single spaced of readings.... The teacher sat in front of about 75 students with a microphone and mumbled about what we were gunna study. I stayed for a while and looked at words she said taht I didn;t know and then left early. I spent another couple hours there waiting in line to get the texts for the first class which wasn;t looking so bad anymore. The next day I started reading the texts for the class and that brings me to now. I am almost done reading the texts and I have the class tomorrow morning at 9 am. WHEW!!
Anyways, that is why I haven;t been around for a while. Probably not very interesting to read about, but I wanted to document this hectic week to remember it.
Luego,
Kati
Well it's been a while since I've written anything because this has been such a hectic time. A bit stressful at times. I started my UBA classes last thursday and ever since it's been non stop. Here's why:
I was deciding between 4 UBA classes which I should take. I thought 2, since I took two classes at UAM(the Madrid university) and was fine. Little did I know the reputation of UBA. The school system is very different here but basically UBA is the best school in the country and one of the best in South America. It is a public school and free and most everyone there seems like they really want to learn. The first class I went to was a seminar about reciente argentine history from a historical and historiographical perspective. I could understand the teacher pretty well, except for a few big vocab words, and the class mates were very friendly the us foreigners (2 koreans, 1 german, and 1 other "yankee"). The only problem was that the teacher explained that the class was about perspectives looking at history and she wasn;t going to deal with the actual history becuase "we already know it." As we went around the class introducing oursleves I realized almost everyone was fnishing their 5 year long history major (ie pro's in argentine history). For this reason I felt out of place, so I thought eh I don;t think I;ll take this class.
The next class was Social Geography. I chose this topic cause Argentina has very interesting geography and it probably has interesting affects on their society. The content was fine and dandy but the teacher was impossile. Although my classmates were in their 1st or second years and new to this material as well, I couldn;t barely understand a word the professor was saying. He would trail off at the end of every sentence, years of smoking had turned his words into raspy, uninteligable jargon, he made jokes that the class only knew were jokes when he laughed at them himself and he would pase around the room half the time with his back to the class talking to the wall. That was a miserable 4 hours. O yeah, and the classes are 4 hours long, so that makes a difficult class even more overwhelming. I was so glad to get out of that class and I told myself no way am I taking that class. That was the end to spending from 9 am to 9:30 pm at UBA for one day (8 hours in class without a break). I went back home, went to bed, only to go back to UBA at 9 am in the morning.
My next class was in a huge auditorium type room about argentine histroy III (1916-now). The first thing the strong voiced male professor said from up on his mini-stage in this auditorium us something along the lines of "You all are the future historians and leaders of this country. This is the best university in the country and we expect a lot from you." shit. Again, I was a little misplaced in this class.
When the UBA classes were on pause, since I didn;t have another one to go to for 3 days, things got complicated at my program, IES. I decided that I only wanted to take one class at UBA (turns out portenos only take 3 classes at a time, so for a foreigner to take 2 classes was a lot) (In madrid I took two, but the madrileños took 7! So I had it a little easier) I went into IES frist thing on Monday morning and asked to change my schedule. I got into a class about Cultural icons in Argentina. I bought the texts and found out we had to read about 70 pages in spanish for the next day. whew. I started reading.
The next morning I woke up at 5:30 am and went down to immigrations where I was suppose to get my visa. After waiting in line for 6 hours I managed to get my student visa. I headed straight over to my new class in IES for which I had been able to do about one fifth of the reading for. I found my class mates taking a quiz on the reading. Luckily I was excused from the quiz since I joined late. I sat in class for 3 hours and then headed back to UBA to try out the final class. I looked at the syllabus when I got there, about 5 straight pages single spaced of readings.... The teacher sat in front of about 75 students with a microphone and mumbled about what we were gunna study. I stayed for a while and looked at words she said taht I didn;t know and then left early. I spent another couple hours there waiting in line to get the texts for the first class which wasn;t looking so bad anymore. The next day I started reading the texts for the class and that brings me to now. I am almost done reading the texts and I have the class tomorrow morning at 9 am. WHEW!!
Anyways, that is why I haven;t been around for a while. Probably not very interesting to read about, but I wanted to document this hectic week to remember it.
Luego,
Kati
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Obama and politics/being a (north) American abroad
3.76!! Wowza, just keeps going. Things get cheaper and cheaper all the time.
I just watched Obama's live press conference with my host mom and her sister. It is interesting to see the US relationship with other countries. It seems like everyone likes Obama here. My host mom is so impressed with his confidence, honestly, manner of speaking (and so am I). My host mom always says that the US is going ot pave the way, and the less powerful or developed countries are going to follow in its footsteps. I felt really proud to have him as the president of the US when he ended his speech on a global note. He said that we would get out of this crisis, and so would the world. The fact that he concluded on a global note shows that he has a global perspective. Everything is so tied together these days and to have a president that can't see past texas for example would be an embarrasment. I can sit next to other citizens of the world and listen to him and nod my head. That's a cool feeling.
I have been interested to see while I'm abroad (in Madrid and here) how much people know about the US. It feels strange sometimes that they would know so much about US singers, presidents, culture, tv shows, politics etc while I know so much less about them. At times they know more about the US than I do even. My friends in Madrid watched way more US tv shows that I did, my host mom here knows way more US singers and celebrities than I do. My host mom here watches way more CNN than I do as well. It sort of puts in perspective the fact that right now, US actions are very important. I'm talking now about politics, so I don't know how tv shows and culture fits into all of this, but the politics of the US are of interest to citizens of many countries around the world it seems. I'm not sure what else I think about this. I feel bad sometimes that I don't know even the basic history of Argentina (although I'm learning) while they know such details about the US. But I think that's the situation that many Americans will experience outside of the states. Because to know about another country, that isn't one of the super powers lets say, is to be quite specialized. In contrast, for a non-US citizen to know about the US seems more common and the information is more general knowledge. The news about the US is so readily available in newspapers and tv here. Anyone who reads the newspaper here will probably know the major events of the US. It's an interesting unbalanced phenomenon. If I were from some other country, like Italy or something I would look at it more objectivaly and say of course its that way. But its not as easy to settle into since I'm a US citizen. I'm trying to figure out whats fact and not get caught in some cocky perspective about the US being so important. So just how important is it? I guess that's what I need to figure out. So that I can have more facts and be able to see the difference between patriotism and objectivity. I'll probably touch more on this later. I don't know if I wrote this very well, but that's because I haven't developed these ideas very much. Anyways, it's a start.
I went to the tiny town of San Isidro today. I went with my two friends Jesus and Caroline. It was nice to get out of the hubub of Buenos Aires and check otu a small town. We hung out by the coast of the river, watching the kite surfers, and then had a picnic. We also checked out the cathedral that was relatively new and nice looking. It was a nice day trip to a cobblestone street town.
Buenas Noches a todos.
Luego,
Kati
I just watched Obama's live press conference with my host mom and her sister. It is interesting to see the US relationship with other countries. It seems like everyone likes Obama here. My host mom is so impressed with his confidence, honestly, manner of speaking (and so am I). My host mom always says that the US is going ot pave the way, and the less powerful or developed countries are going to follow in its footsteps. I felt really proud to have him as the president of the US when he ended his speech on a global note. He said that we would get out of this crisis, and so would the world. The fact that he concluded on a global note shows that he has a global perspective. Everything is so tied together these days and to have a president that can't see past texas for example would be an embarrasment. I can sit next to other citizens of the world and listen to him and nod my head. That's a cool feeling.
I have been interested to see while I'm abroad (in Madrid and here) how much people know about the US. It feels strange sometimes that they would know so much about US singers, presidents, culture, tv shows, politics etc while I know so much less about them. At times they know more about the US than I do even. My friends in Madrid watched way more US tv shows that I did, my host mom here knows way more US singers and celebrities than I do. My host mom here watches way more CNN than I do as well. It sort of puts in perspective the fact that right now, US actions are very important. I'm talking now about politics, so I don't know how tv shows and culture fits into all of this, but the politics of the US are of interest to citizens of many countries around the world it seems. I'm not sure what else I think about this. I feel bad sometimes that I don't know even the basic history of Argentina (although I'm learning) while they know such details about the US. But I think that's the situation that many Americans will experience outside of the states. Because to know about another country, that isn't one of the super powers lets say, is to be quite specialized. In contrast, for a non-US citizen to know about the US seems more common and the information is more general knowledge. The news about the US is so readily available in newspapers and tv here. Anyone who reads the newspaper here will probably know the major events of the US. It's an interesting unbalanced phenomenon. If I were from some other country, like Italy or something I would look at it more objectivaly and say of course its that way. But its not as easy to settle into since I'm a US citizen. I'm trying to figure out whats fact and not get caught in some cocky perspective about the US being so important. So just how important is it? I guess that's what I need to figure out. So that I can have more facts and be able to see the difference between patriotism and objectivity. I'll probably touch more on this later. I don't know if I wrote this very well, but that's because I haven't developed these ideas very much. Anyways, it's a start.
I went to the tiny town of San Isidro today. I went with my two friends Jesus and Caroline. It was nice to get out of the hubub of Buenos Aires and check otu a small town. We hung out by the coast of the river, watching the kite surfers, and then had a picnic. We also checked out the cathedral that was relatively new and nice looking. It was a nice day trip to a cobblestone street town.
Buenas Noches a todos.
Luego,
Kati
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Polo/Host Family Drama/Religion
Hola a todos,
Today was a good day. I woke up, ate my breakfast of champions- yogurt, granola, cheerios- and then got some homework done. Next I went out to the terraza on the top floor of my building to check out the scene. My host mom encouraged me to go. She said I would be able to see the polo fields from up there. Check out the view:
Next I headed out to catch a polo game and then to check out the race track. I picked the winning horse, but then changed my mind right before the race (just betting between my friends and I, no money). Next we decided to go to the grocery store and get some fixings for a picnic in the park for dinner. We hung out in the park eating our salami cheese sandwiches and talking about stuff. It was a fun night and now I'm back in my room.
I also had an interesting conversation with my host mom today. For those who don't know, my host sister (I'll call her HS from now on) has been fighting with her boyfriend. Her boyfriend who lives in the south of argentina came to visit for a while. They have been going out for about 5 years now. A couple days into the visit, they got into a huge fight. I was trying really hard to unerstand what the arguement was about from my room. The whole family was involved in the living room. Ther was something about pictures on the internet and marijuana and some other stuff. I couldn't grasp the actual problem but they were upset. The parents would every so often offer up some wise advice with out getting upset as well. I really respect that about them, that they were there but not taking sides and getting involved.
I was talking to my host mom today about this and everytime we talk about it I find out a little more of the problem. I found out that my HS is having trouble accepting her boyfriend. Something that I've thought about recently is that is important to accept people for who they are, the good and the bad. Because thats life, a mix of good and bad. If you accept the good and yell and fight the bad, you are going to make yourself miserable it seems. I think it's better just to acknowledge that that's how life is and accept it and respect it. So everytime the boyfriend does something thats "wrong" according to her, she fights with him about it. The otehr day they were in the kitchen arguing about the death penalty. There are conversations that are interesting, but you don't have to yell at someone everytime you discuss them. Anways, it's interesting to see this behavior and analyze it. I think I used to act the same way in the past, but now that I've been thinking and stuff I've been trying to be more respectful of both the good and the bad. The other thing my host mom added to the conversation is that if there is something bad, the only thing you have complete control over is how you act or view the bad. You can't go around forcing other people to change in order to make things better for yourself. Thats apparently what my HS is trying to do.
Another interesting side note here is the affect of religion in all this conversation. My host mother is very catholic and I am not religious in the least. Interestingly enough my host mother and I have a lot of deep converstations and we agree about a lot of things. So I'm sort of watching out for what types of differences the religion will bring into things. The other day, one of these such differences came up. She mentioned how she accepts everything because in the end it is for the better. Meaning, things might seem bad but they always work out. She asked me if I had experienced that before, where I thought something was bad but it ended up being good. And I said I had, but I don't agree with her here. I don't think bad things happen and that they are actually good in the end becuase someone is watching out for us. Although sometimes a bad thing turns out good, there are plenty of bad things that can be just bad. So my host mom and I are acting the same way about a phenomen but I think for different reasons. I'm trying to accept what is-the good and the bad in people, situations, life- because I don't see any better way. Why fight all the time when yo ucan just relax and accept that there will be bad things that happen to you and imperfections in relationships and people. (This might sound lazy and I don' mean not fight for what you believe in, but just not expect everything to go your way or be the way you want it). My host mom is accepting all these things becuase she has "faith" and she believes that someone is watching from above planning this out and giving justice. I don't think this further jump has much evidence or seems likely, but anyways... She just lets god do what he will do and doesn't get in a tiff when its not what she expects or wants. Interesting stuff.
Anways, here's some pictures of the polo game:
Today was a good day. I woke up, ate my breakfast of champions- yogurt, granola, cheerios- and then got some homework done. Next I went out to the terraza on the top floor of my building to check out the scene. My host mom encouraged me to go. She said I would be able to see the polo fields from up there. Check out the view:
Next I headed out to catch a polo game and then to check out the race track. I picked the winning horse, but then changed my mind right before the race (just betting between my friends and I, no money). Next we decided to go to the grocery store and get some fixings for a picnic in the park for dinner. We hung out in the park eating our salami cheese sandwiches and talking about stuff. It was a fun night and now I'm back in my room.
I also had an interesting conversation with my host mom today. For those who don't know, my host sister (I'll call her HS from now on) has been fighting with her boyfriend. Her boyfriend who lives in the south of argentina came to visit for a while. They have been going out for about 5 years now. A couple days into the visit, they got into a huge fight. I was trying really hard to unerstand what the arguement was about from my room. The whole family was involved in the living room. Ther was something about pictures on the internet and marijuana and some other stuff. I couldn't grasp the actual problem but they were upset. The parents would every so often offer up some wise advice with out getting upset as well. I really respect that about them, that they were there but not taking sides and getting involved.
I was talking to my host mom today about this and everytime we talk about it I find out a little more of the problem. I found out that my HS is having trouble accepting her boyfriend. Something that I've thought about recently is that is important to accept people for who they are, the good and the bad. Because thats life, a mix of good and bad. If you accept the good and yell and fight the bad, you are going to make yourself miserable it seems. I think it's better just to acknowledge that that's how life is and accept it and respect it. So everytime the boyfriend does something thats "wrong" according to her, she fights with him about it. The otehr day they were in the kitchen arguing about the death penalty. There are conversations that are interesting, but you don't have to yell at someone everytime you discuss them. Anways, it's interesting to see this behavior and analyze it. I think I used to act the same way in the past, but now that I've been thinking and stuff I've been trying to be more respectful of both the good and the bad. The other thing my host mom added to the conversation is that if there is something bad, the only thing you have complete control over is how you act or view the bad. You can't go around forcing other people to change in order to make things better for yourself. Thats apparently what my HS is trying to do.
Another interesting side note here is the affect of religion in all this conversation. My host mother is very catholic and I am not religious in the least. Interestingly enough my host mother and I have a lot of deep converstations and we agree about a lot of things. So I'm sort of watching out for what types of differences the religion will bring into things. The other day, one of these such differences came up. She mentioned how she accepts everything because in the end it is for the better. Meaning, things might seem bad but they always work out. She asked me if I had experienced that before, where I thought something was bad but it ended up being good. And I said I had, but I don't agree with her here. I don't think bad things happen and that they are actually good in the end becuase someone is watching out for us. Although sometimes a bad thing turns out good, there are plenty of bad things that can be just bad. So my host mom and I are acting the same way about a phenomen but I think for different reasons. I'm trying to accept what is-the good and the bad in people, situations, life- because I don't see any better way. Why fight all the time when yo ucan just relax and accept that there will be bad things that happen to you and imperfections in relationships and people. (This might sound lazy and I don' mean not fight for what you believe in, but just not expect everything to go your way or be the way you want it). My host mom is accepting all these things becuase she has "faith" and she believes that someone is watching from above planning this out and giving justice. I don't think this further jump has much evidence or seems likely, but anyways... She just lets god do what he will do and doesn't get in a tiff when its not what she expects or wants. Interesting stuff.
Anways, here's some pictures of the polo game:
Friday, March 20, 2009
What makes me feel at "Home"
The exchange rate is almost at 3.75, things are getting so cheap. These days I have to buy things such as a student visa, shampoo, school supplies; start up materials if you will. But once I get done buying those expensive things, I think I will have enough money to travel. For example, on a normal day near the IES center I'll go to this panaderia to buy a "tarta" which is a quiche. Its a large slice with chicken, cheese, spinach and egg. It costs me 7.50 pesos which is equivalent to about $2.00. So I can eat lunch for a little more than $2! And its really good! I also eat a lot of empanadas, mmmmm.
By the way, something terrible happened: I found the argentinian food network. This could be the end of me. Its 24 hours, "el gourmet" (they pronounce the t for some reason). I'll have to excercise a lot of self restraint. Atleast I'm learning cooking terms though!
I was going to just mention some thoughts I've had about living abroad. I think this time, when I return to Lafayette, I will be able to see more good things about being there. I guess I'm just sorting out in my head the pro's and con's of living in different places. One thing I have noticed recently is the value of independence. That is something I never quite have when I'm abroad (well I've always been dependent financially for example but in terms of space I guess). Living in someone elses house is a great learning experience but interms of settling in somwhere, it is an impediment. It contrasts a lot with the experience I have living in a dorm with my own room. When I have a key to my door, it's easier for me to feel comfortable and at home. If I just had a bathroom and a kitchen I would be even more content with the personal space. So that's one fact that limits me from completely settling here.
Another factor is the language. I wanted to come here and be in the uncomfortable situation of always speaking my non-native tongue when I leave my room. So, I don't mean to complain here. I just am noting how much of a toll it takes on someone. It's just one other way that settling down is difficult here. Everytime I chat with the doorman, or someone on the street, or in a store, there might arise some sort of confusion or dificulty. That is a completely different experience from the US where all those interactions are relatively smooth.
The other factor is an established network. That is something I am building right now. In the US I can call certain people from anywhere in the country if I'm in a jam. Whether I'm at home or at school there are always people around that can answer questions if I have them, lend me money, give me a ride etc. That is because I have spent so much time building a network of support. Both with people and through my cell phone, computer, organizations... Here, I am establishing those things from the beginning. I have a cell phone, a computer, a "family," and a few good friends. But I can still feel that my network is pretty week and that makes this experience different. That makes it harder to settle down here. I know that this network is going to grow and grow while I'm here and probably be fairly good by the time I have to leave. I guess that's how studying abroad is, after about a semester, you are feelin pretty good, and then you go.
So en conjunto, I feel like I could live here or anywhere else comfortable if the climate is decent, the language is English or I'm willing to tackle the Spanish, and I give myself time to establish a support network. I'm not going to achieve that this time around, but its good to think about what would make me comfortable living in a certain place.
Here are some pictures, just to keep things interesting. These I took at the botanical gardens today and at a Polo game. Just another day in Buenos Aires... gotta love being abroad.
By the way, something terrible happened: I found the argentinian food network. This could be the end of me. Its 24 hours, "el gourmet" (they pronounce the t for some reason). I'll have to excercise a lot of self restraint. Atleast I'm learning cooking terms though!
I was going to just mention some thoughts I've had about living abroad. I think this time, when I return to Lafayette, I will be able to see more good things about being there. I guess I'm just sorting out in my head the pro's and con's of living in different places. One thing I have noticed recently is the value of independence. That is something I never quite have when I'm abroad (well I've always been dependent financially for example but in terms of space I guess). Living in someone elses house is a great learning experience but interms of settling in somwhere, it is an impediment. It contrasts a lot with the experience I have living in a dorm with my own room. When I have a key to my door, it's easier for me to feel comfortable and at home. If I just had a bathroom and a kitchen I would be even more content with the personal space. So that's one fact that limits me from completely settling here.
Another factor is the language. I wanted to come here and be in the uncomfortable situation of always speaking my non-native tongue when I leave my room. So, I don't mean to complain here. I just am noting how much of a toll it takes on someone. It's just one other way that settling down is difficult here. Everytime I chat with the doorman, or someone on the street, or in a store, there might arise some sort of confusion or dificulty. That is a completely different experience from the US where all those interactions are relatively smooth.
The other factor is an established network. That is something I am building right now. In the US I can call certain people from anywhere in the country if I'm in a jam. Whether I'm at home or at school there are always people around that can answer questions if I have them, lend me money, give me a ride etc. That is because I have spent so much time building a network of support. Both with people and through my cell phone, computer, organizations... Here, I am establishing those things from the beginning. I have a cell phone, a computer, a "family," and a few good friends. But I can still feel that my network is pretty week and that makes this experience different. That makes it harder to settle down here. I know that this network is going to grow and grow while I'm here and probably be fairly good by the time I have to leave. I guess that's how studying abroad is, after about a semester, you are feelin pretty good, and then you go.
So en conjunto, I feel like I could live here or anywhere else comfortable if the climate is decent, the language is English or I'm willing to tackle the Spanish, and I give myself time to establish a support network. I'm not going to achieve that this time around, but its good to think about what would make me comfortable living in a certain place.
Here are some pictures, just to keep things interesting. These I took at the botanical gardens today and at a Polo game. Just another day in Buenos Aires... gotta love being abroad.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Demonstration about Insecurity in BA
The exchange rate is as high as its ever been over the last few weeks, 3.745, woop woop.
Here are some pictures from the demonstration Jesus (my friend, not the dude himself) and I went to. We heard there was a demonstration about insecurity in the city so we went to check it out. The plaza was completely filled. There were even poeple standing on top of the buses nearby just so that they could see. There was a lot of excitement in the air. People were selling flags and food everywhere. We waited for about 15 minutes until they started the speech.
Right in the middle of Plaza de Mayo, in front of the Casa Rosada, we heard 3 different people speak about the problem. The speeches basically talked about not using violence or hate to counter the murders that have occured to young people who were robbed. (not my neighborhood, the bad neighborhoods). The called for everyone regardless of religion or political views to come together behind this cause. They said the solution needed to come from government, a change in system. They also called for the young people to get involved and vote in the upcming election in order to create change in the policing system. When the speaker spoke out against Kischner, the presidente, everyone roared with applause. I guess she is pretty unanimously disliked... It was exciting to see this huge plaza of people cheering and clapping together in agreement of the need for change. It was very moving to see such passion among the people there. Jesus and I listened and cheered just like the natives around us. The only part we didn't participate in was singing the national anthem in the beginning, cause we didn't know the words. What an event.
Luego,
-Kati
Here are some pictures from the demonstration Jesus (my friend, not the dude himself) and I went to. We heard there was a demonstration about insecurity in the city so we went to check it out. The plaza was completely filled. There were even poeple standing on top of the buses nearby just so that they could see. There was a lot of excitement in the air. People were selling flags and food everywhere. We waited for about 15 minutes until they started the speech.
Right in the middle of Plaza de Mayo, in front of the Casa Rosada, we heard 3 different people speak about the problem. The speeches basically talked about not using violence or hate to counter the murders that have occured to young people who were robbed. (not my neighborhood, the bad neighborhoods). The called for everyone regardless of religion or political views to come together behind this cause. They said the solution needed to come from government, a change in system. They also called for the young people to get involved and vote in the upcming election in order to create change in the policing system. When the speaker spoke out against Kischner, the presidente, everyone roared with applause. I guess she is pretty unanimously disliked... It was exciting to see this huge plaza of people cheering and clapping together in agreement of the need for change. It was very moving to see such passion among the people there. Jesus and I listened and cheered just like the natives around us. The only part we didn't participate in was singing the national anthem in the beginning, cause we didn't know the words. What an event.
Luego,
-Kati
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Trip to the Farm - Asado!
The other day I went to an estancia, which is basically a farm outside of the city. It is such a cool culture out there. Instead of renting out a fancy hotel for a business party or family reunion, the people here head out to these resort-ish farms. The scenary is be
autiful out there. When we got off the bus, we all loaded onto these wagons to get to the main part of the farm. We passed pastures of sheep, horses and cows and then we were greeted by some people holding baskets of empanadas. (soooooooooooooo good). Then we cruised around the area to check out what was there. There was a table of mate and thermoses so we tried some out. You fill the cup with the mate leaves, and then pour in the hot water from the thermos. After you drink it you refill it and pass it to something else. It's important that you share it, people usually only have one cup among a group.
After snacking on some olives and cheese we were welcomed into a room FULL of BEAUTIFUL food. It was honestly a dream come true. Everything was beautifully displayed and the options were endless. I think I saw tongue somewhere, which I didn't try... But there was fruit, salad, appetizers, and endless meat and desserts. We absolutely stuffed ourselves.
During the meal, my friends and sat with the asistentes del programa. So we got to speak in Spanish a lot and after the day at the farm they invited us to go out with them. We had a really fun night teaching each other new words in english and spanish at some bar in my neighborhood.
We also went bike riding on the farm and swimming. I got ot play soccer for about an hour which was a good time. First time in a while and my entire body was sore the next day. It's amazing how many different muscles playing soccer uses.
Last night I met up with some friend of one of the asistentes of the IES program. We had a great time hanging out at a bar. Now I'm going to check out this plaza called Plaza Mafalda. Its commemorating the comic book writer Quino who wrote the comics that my host sister shared with me. I'm learning a lot of argentian culture from these comics. For example, one comic had the mom telling little Mafalda not to answer the door unless is was her mother. Mafalda responded "but what if its happiness?" I deduced from that there this is some saying such as "happiness is at your door" or something. I asked my host sister about it and she told me that's exactly true. So I'm hoping to learn more cultural things like that from reading the comic book. And what better place to read it that in Plaza Mafalda!
Luego,
Kati
autiful out there. When we got off the bus, we all loaded onto these wagons to get to the main part of the farm. We passed pastures of sheep, horses and cows and then we were greeted by some people holding baskets of empanadas. (soooooooooooooo good). Then we cruised around the area to check out what was there. There was a table of mate and thermoses so we tried some out. You fill the cup with the mate leaves, and then pour in the hot water from the thermos. After you drink it you refill it and pass it to something else. It's important that you share it, people usually only have one cup among a group.
After snacking on some olives and cheese we were welcomed into a room FULL of BEAUTIFUL food. It was honestly a dream come true. Everything was beautifully displayed and the options were endless. I think I saw tongue somewhere, which I didn't try... But there was fruit, salad, appetizers, and endless meat and desserts. We absolutely stuffed ourselves.
During the meal, my friends and sat with the asistentes del programa. So we got to speak in Spanish a lot and after the day at the farm they invited us to go out with them. We had a really fun night teaching each other new words in english and spanish at some bar in my neighborhood.
We also went bike riding on the farm and swimming. I got ot play soccer for about an hour which was a good time. First time in a while and my entire body was sore the next day. It's amazing how many different muscles playing soccer uses.
Last night I met up with some friend of one of the asistentes of the IES program. We had a great time hanging out at a bar. Now I'm going to check out this plaza called Plaza Mafalda. Its commemorating the comic book writer Quino who wrote the comics that my host sister shared with me. I'm learning a lot of argentian culture from these comics. For example, one comic had the mom telling little Mafalda not to answer the door unless is was her mother. Mafalda responded "but what if its happiness?" I deduced from that there this is some saying such as "happiness is at your door" or something. I asked my host sister about it and she told me that's exactly true. So I'm hoping to learn more cultural things like that from reading the comic book. And what better place to read it that in Plaza Mafalda!
Luego,
Kati
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