Mid-Semester Review

It is mid-May, and I am officially more than half way to the end of my study abroad experience. At home, my friends are on their way to their homes, and the warm summer weather that awaits them. Meanwhile, here in Argentina, we still have quite a lot more to go.

So, my program and I joined together in an apartment in Palermo to discuss. Marcelo our program leader, who is very popular with the ladies on our program, sat in front of us, as various breads and croissants were passed around the room. He handed out a sheet of paper, we filled out when we first got to Argentina, which listed the goals of our trip. He asked us what we have achieved and what we have not while we’ve been abroad.

I took a look at my sheet, and made a quick analysis of how much I’d achieved.

1 - Eat everything. Check. (My host mom literally told me that she thought I had a Earth worm today because I was eating so much).

2 - Have fun and experience nightlife. Check.

3 - Stay in my long distance relationship. Check.

4 -  Take more than 500 pictures. Check. I underestimated the amount I would be taking. (I’ve easily taken a couple thousand photos already)!

5 – Travel to 5-10 places. Check. (Mar del Plata, Uruguay, Iguazú, and I will go to Salta, Mendoza, Bolivia and Chile in July).

6 – Speak at least an hour of Spanish a day. (Between my host mom, my classes, basketball and random interactions on the street, I easily do that daily.

Then I took a look at the expectations I didn’t quite meet:

1 - Do community service once a month at least. Nope! I haven’t even gone once.

2 - Work out five times a week. Nope! (Granted: That was an ambitious number to expect, but I’ve been here 3 months, and I joined a gym just two days ago…)

3 - Skype with friends every one or two weeks. Fail. I’ve Facebook chatted sure, but I’ve not had many long skype conversations with my good friends. I’m sure they understand, as I’ve been very busy here in Argentina.

4 – Have many Argentine friends. Unfortunately not as many as I hoped. (I have made many Argentine friends on my basketball team and through my classes, but for the most part I have gone out at night with just international students. This is expected since they speak the language, but for the second half of my abroad experience, I hope to increase my amount of Porteño friends.

As I took a bite into the passing croissant and took a sip of my burning maté, I evaluated how I have done on my trip so far. I am definitely having fun and improving my Spanish, but I wonder if I am culturally involving myself enough while abroad. My friends from my program and I all agree that maybe we’ve spent too much time together, going out and speaking English. As I look to the next two months, I hope to break myself from this pattern. I will make it my goal to spend more time with random Argentines I don’t know. Not only will this improve my Spanish, but also I hope it will allow me to learn more about this complicated Argentine culture.

So what do I rate my trip so far. In the level of fun, I’ll give it an A. In my Spanish growth, I’ll give it an A-. With my Cultural knowledge acquired, I’ll give it a B+. Clearly, all I need to do, is live like a Porteño, and I know I’ll leave with an A-rating.

Lazy Sunday

With all the postings of life-changing trips to marvelous natural waterfalls and spectacular beaches, it may seem hard to believe that a study abroad experience in Buenos Aires ever has a dead moment. For this reason, I am here to delineate what the average lazy Sunday looks like. Far from the extravagant excursions of some weeks, this Sunday morning started where most begin: my bed.

           

Gliding out of bed, shortly after noon, I opened the window, to look out at the city shining under the bright sun. Checking my phone, I was happy to see that it was still 65 degrees, despite the fact that it is supposedly winter in Buenos Aires. After a quick shower, some fresh fruit, and a cup of coffee, my host mom gave me a kiss on the cheek and sent me out the door.  

After meeting up with some friends, I headed to a world famous bookstore, with a name I can’t remember. Getting to the store, we found that it was closed for the holidays, so we settled on Burger King coffee instead.

After gobbling down the coffee, we then headed towards the Buenos Aires Book fair, a festival we were urged to go to by our Spanish teachers, who was sure to ask about it in the following class. Expecting a small outdoor book sale, I was shocked by the actual enormity of the event. There were literally thousands of books and a few thousand people spread throughout more than 4 massive buildings.

Inside the buildings, there were hundreds of bookstores, selling novels, biographies, poetry collections, magazines, children stories and every other imaginably readable document Buenos Aires had to offer. There were stores sectionalized by region and author. There were others separated by publishing company or genre. There were a plethora of authors, reading their books and taking questions. Children were sprinting after friends, couples were holding hands and going from store to store, and in every direction, all I could see were books. After a half hour or so, I left the momentous event, and headed towards a park to play Frisbee.

This park, located at Plaza Italia is massive. Located by the Zoo, this large green area is filled with people as it always is on Sundays. From fishing to fútbol, to paddle-boating and drum circles, this park is always packed with men, women, children, and dogs. Lot’s of dogs. On any given day, this park probably has anywhere from 50 to 100 dogs, of all shapes, sizes, and colors. Many of these dogs, would be delighted to chew on our Frisbees, so we try and throw away from them.

This afternoon, we met up with a group of people who come to the same area every Sunday at the same time to toss the disk and drink Maté. This group of people, part Porteño, and the rest foreign, is a collection of couch surfers, who plan events together.

Jumping in with them was an positive experience, as we got the chance to meet many different people of distinct cultures. At the same time it was a good opportunity to get a small escape from the constant Spanish, since there was a large group of English speakers in the group. From the unfairly tall Minnesota student to the Irish girl who thought we were hilarious for saying “trash can,” the eclectic group offered a unique opportunity to meet other people from a variety of cultures.

After a few hours of playing, my friends and I then made our exit for a bar to watch the Knicks-Heat game. Televised basketball games, even during the playoffs, are hard to find in Buenos Aires, so we had to go to one of the few places we know to find it: The Alamo. This bar, typically full of Americans, and preying Argentine men, is a fun bar, full of cheap beer and delicious nachos. Even better, there is no cover charge on Sundays.

A devoted Boston Celtics fan, I’m usually anything but a Knicks supporter, but when they’re playing the talented Miami Heat, I can’t help but root for them to ease the path to the championship. Much to my delight, the Knicks got their first win of the series. As the game came to an end, we all paid, and went home to “study,” eat, and in my case stream the Celtics game. As if to add to the great day, my Celtics not only won but annihilated the Atlanta Hawks.

As I got back into the same bed I arose from that morning, I thought back on my day. No magnificent waterfalls. No splendid forests of spectacular greens. And yet, I felt like singing Ice Cube’s “It was a good day.” It was just another day in Buenos Aires. I closed my eyes sad to see the lazy Sunday come and go, and went to sleep. In seven days, I’d be at it again.