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
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
