08 June 2013

Updates- last blog entry in Argentina

A lot has happened since I last posted. I actually kinda forgot I had this blog going- oops.

Basically, this is what I've done since I last updated.

- Trip to Córdoba: resounding success. Highlights were the sightseeing around town (especially the churches); hanging out and going out with Ariel, Agustin, and their friends; and our trip to the Sierras (which ended with a scary, fairly dangerous hike in the dark, but was still quite the memorable adventure)

- Lots of hanging out with Bianca, Alejandra, and Silvana at home, just enjoying their company and havin' fun together

- Some more research at the UBA (probably not as much as I should have done, but I think I've got some useful data)

- Hanging out with my friends Mauro and Alan

- Some sightseeing around Buenos Aires: parks of Palermo, Planetarium, Holocaust Museum, San Telmo, Barrancas de Belgrano,

- Some shopping for me and plenty of souvenir buying for friends/family!

Spain is coming up quick (I leave here on Tuesday the 11th, will be traveling all day Wednesday, and arrive in Spain on Thursday the 13th. Wish me luck! Hopefully my luggage doesn't get lost again *knock on wood*

16 May 2013

Some highlights

Since I think most people that are interested in my trip to Argentina have been checking out my pictures on Facebook and already know more or less what's going on, I'll give y'all the Reader's Digest version- highlights in bullet point form :)

- Carlos Gardel Museum: cheap, small, and simple, but worth the trip. very neat. got some great pictures and now I can say I've visited the home of the world's best-known tango singer and one of Argentina's biggest heroes

- Bicentennial Museum: very cool, full of history, something I could see my dad really enjoying because of all the cool historical artifacts and little placards to read. it's fascinating to see how different the history of the US and Argentina has been and the different ways in which each country views the other.

- Café Tortoni: super famous café where some big names have written (Borges) or presented their poetry (Alfonsina Storni); also a great place to see a cheap tango show, which is on my bucket list :)

- first interviews in the UBA: I did my first recordings and linguistic instruments at the UBA. kind of a headache logistically so far, but they're really doing their best to help me out and I'm confident that when I go back tomorrow (Friday), I'll get a lot more participants, as I'll have quite a bit more time and more students should be there

- trip to Cordoba coming up: Saturday night I'll take a bus to Cordoba (~9 hr trip), where I'll stay with my friend Ariel and his family until Monday the 27th. I'm excited to be celebrating Argentine Independence Day (May 25) there- should be a lot of partying and good times. plus, it'll be nice to be in a smaller city, where it's more calm and less stressful

14 May 2013

Plaza de Mayo, Casa Rosada, Puerto Madero, etc.

Saturday: Bianca and I went to Belgrano and had a huge and delicious dessert with my friend Mauro. Bianca, Ale, and I planned to go out and dance, but I overdid it walking around the city the other day and my leg hurts. Instead we stayed in and had a nice dinner (AMAZING empanadas) with Silvana and her boyfriend Marcelo. It was a good time. This was my first time meeting Marcelo, but he's really cool and SUPER nice :)

Sunday: I spent the morning with the fam, then went to the Casa Rosada for a free tour of the interior. Very cool- now I can check that off my bucket list! After that, Bianca and I went to Burger King and this great book store in the mall. After browsing there for a while, I decided I need to return with about 500 pesos in hand, because I'm gonna STOCK UP on cool books you can't get in the states.

Monday: I had breakfast with Silvana and watched the morning news. There's some crazy stuff goin' on in this world, and Buenos Aires is certainly no exception to that :/ After breakfast, I went to Puerto Madero and revisited some of my favorite spots here in the city. I also went and got a few books on Corrientes, a street known for its theater and for its bookstores. In the evening, we all watched 21 Jump Street (with subtitles for the fam) and ate junk food together. Sad news: I felt a cold coming on all day and was sniffling quite a bit. Now I've got a full-force cold and runny nose goin' on. For some reason, I seem to get sick quite a bit in Buenos Aires. I think the air quality, as well as the germs and little bugs my body isn't used to, are part of the reason why. I took a pill and had some mate cocido (a sort of herbal tea that's supposed to be good for when you're sick), so hopefully I start feeling better soon.

Lots of new pictures of my latest adventures on Facebook!

Loving and missing all my favorite people back home, but still having a great time here in Buenos Aires.

10 May 2013

Back in Baires

It's official. I'm back in Buenos Aires and settled into the house of my dear friends Bianca, Alejandra, and Silvana. Getting from home to 720 Hualfin Street here in Buenos Aires was an adventure.

After two flights (about 10 hours and then 2.5 hours), I landed at Aeroparque Jorge Newberry... to find that my suitcase and a suitcase I was bringing to Argentina for a friend hadn't landed with me. I talked to an employee at baggage claim and reported the missing luggage, and he told me that they probably had not made the connection in São Paulo and that they should be arriving the next day. I told him that I certainly hoped so because my LIFE (along with all my gifts for my friends here) is in that luggage.

Waiting for my friend Katie's brother at the airport was a bit nervewracking, because I didn't have the suitcase I was supposed to bring him... nor did I remember exactly what he looked like or if he would still be waiting after I'd had to deal with baggage claim. Luckily he recognized me, though, and was very understanding about the luggage. His friend, who is a taxi driver, took me to Bianca's house on Hualfin Street, which is pretty far across town. The traffic was NUTS and it took us quite a while to get there- also, I was quickly reminded just how crazy the streets of Buenos Aires are. Lanes, turn signals, the notion of right of way- forget all that. If you can weave through traffic or fly in front of someone and cut them off, go for it. :P

We made it there alive, though. I got out of the car and thanked Katie's brother and his friend and went to ring the buzzer. No response. I waited and rang it again. Still no response. I tried calling Bianca to see where she was. No response. At this point, I'm thinking, "Wonderful. I'm in downtown Buenos Aires with an overstuffed backpack and my laptop, looking about as Yankee as possible. I just prayed Bianca would be home before I got all my stuff stolen. I took a walk around the block so the neighbors would stop looking at me weird and called her again. This time she answered and was just a block or two away from the house. Within a few minutes, her mom and sister also showed up and we had a little reunion after 2 years of not seeing each other. It was wonderful. :)

Later that evening and I, Bianca and I went and got french fries and a pop and just sat and talked, catching up on the last 2 years. We stopped at a Farmacity to get me a tooth brush :P and headed back home, where Silvana had dinnner made for us. It was so nice to sit and have dinner and chat with my old unofficial host family.

The next day Silvana and I spent most of the day either frantically calling the airline or waiting for them to call us. We were freaking out all day, since nobody could tell us where my bags were or if they'd even made it onto the first flight out of Chicago. I barely left the house all day. After all the useless customer service lines drove poor Silvana to the point of swearing at and threatening to set fire to the baggage claim office (joking, of course hehe), we finally got ahold of someone who could help us and by midnight my bags were delivered to our door, safe and sound.

That night I slept much better and finally felt like I was settled in and able to start enjoying Buenos Aires. The next morning (today, the 10th), I went and put credit on my phone, got some pesos at the ATM, and took a walk around, refamiliarizing myself with this part of Buenos Aires. In a few hours I'm headed to the University of Buenos Aires to present my study to a class and recruit participants. Wish me luck!

07 May 2013

Headed back!

It's been over two years now since I was in Argentina. Those of you that know me well know that's far too long and my withdrawal-induced obsession with all things Argentine has probably become pretty annoying. But just in time, I'm headed back!

I fly out of O'Hare tonight at 9:30, make a quick stop in São Paulo, and tomorrow afternoon at about 2pm (BsAs time), I'll be gettin' off a plane at Jorge Newbery. The bags are packed, the ride is lined up, and I'm excited for the trip to begin. The crazy thing is that the same day I get back from Buenos Aires and land in O'Hare, I turn right around and head to Dallas, then to Spain. No time to even stop at home. It's gonna be cray, but talk about once in a lifetime opportunities! :)

So basically this post is just to let you all know that:

a) I've revived my blog from my semester in Buenos Aires in 2010 (reading through my old posts has been a weird but wonderful experience).
b) I'll be updating with pictures and stories as I go and posting to Facebook so those of you that mentioned you're not super good with blogs will know I've posted something new.
c) I love and will miss you all, but I'm super excited to be leaving y'all behind and being in Buenos Aires again.


Carlos Gardel, King of Tango, singing "Mi Buenos Aires Querido" ("My Dear/Beloved Buenos Aires")
Listen

20 December 2010

Conclusions

So my semester in Buenos Aires has come to a close. It's hard to believe that it's been 5 months since I left Indiana.

On one hand, I'm a little sad that the experience is over. I feel like I could've taken better advantage of my time here.

On the other hand, I'm proud of what I've achieved and thankful for the fun I've had. And I'm ready to go home. I fly out tomorrow night at 10pm and will land in Chicago O'Hare on Wednesday morning at 9am. (14 hours total, if you consider the time differences.)

Some reflections:
- I've learned a ton this semester, most of it outside the classroom. My Spanish finally has a native-like identity. It's about as Argentine as it can get now, and I couldn't be happier about that.
- I've built and strengthened friendships with several people- Bianca and Ariel primarily.
- I've learned how to live with people who don't like me; how to deal with people that don't like me because I'm American; and how not to let people's stares get to me.
- I've experienced (and survived) some hardships I'd never encountered before- getting pickpocketed, getting ripped off because I'm American, etc.
- I've overcome some very basic but very real fears- using public transportation, asking directions in a foreign language, traveling across a city of many millions by myself.
- I've learned not to mind several foods that I used to wrinkle my nose up at.

All that said, I think the biggest and most important thing I've learned this semester is gratitude. Gratitude for:

- the familiarity of home
- my family
- my friends
- my university
- my car
- clean air
- air conditioning
- washers and dryers
- dishwashers
- the efficiency/practicality Americans are famous for
- the constancy of God's love and care

07 December 2010

Some updates

Since the last time I updated, the following things have happened.

- I took my 2nd midterm in the UBA. I still don't know the grade for it (nor for the first one, which I took about a month ago now...), but I think it went well. Here's hopin' my grades are high enough that I can skate out on the final exam.

- My good friend Ariel came from Córdoba to visit me and Bianca here in Capital. He's staying until at least the 17th, maybe even longer.

- The only thing I have left, academically speaking, is a Latin final.

- I went to the Museum of Natural Sciences. It was neats.

- I also made a trip to see a Russian Orthodox church, the Basilica of the Most Holy Sacrament, the Plaza of San Martín, the Torre de los Ingleses, and a memorial to the fallen soldiers in the conflicts in the Falkland Islands.

- I discovered a guy who sells awesome ice cream for 3 pesos! That's about 75 cents American, and there's one scoop each of 3 different flavors- dulce de leche, vanilla, and strawberry.

- I won a contest in Flacso called "The New Word I Learned." What we had to do was write new words we'd learned here in Argentina in a notebook and the student who put the most words won a prize. And I won! They said I was the first person to put more than 150 words, which I was more than a little bit proud of. :)

- I'm more excited than ever to get back to Indiana and my family and friends there!