Nueva vida

As Noah and I decided that other day, the first week was the trippiest, most bizarre experience. It´s particularly bizarre because the way of life is so normal for everyone else, if that makes sense. There´s nothing about the way things are here that I can pull out and say, this is what I´m confused about, but the most major adjustments for me a have been getting used to the consumer culture of the city, living with people who don´t know me, who I can´t easily communicate with, and who I want to like me, finishing dinner at 11 and then having to go to wake up at 7:30 (not like GCC haha) and of course the Spanish. My classes are completely in Spanish which is difficult but it´s mostly frustrating because the other students are a lot more advanced in Spanish than I am and I´m a bit overwhelmed with Spanish just to catch up on. I´m almost at the point where I can ask questions that are still relevant to the other students. It kinda stinks but at least my biggest problem is something that I can change.
It was interesting coming back to Cordoba from Jonathan and Victoria´s wedding Buenos Aires. Being a tourist in Rigoletta is so vastly different from being a student in Cordoba. I´m glad I´m doing it this way. I guess I've never really traveled without being a tourist. My summer in Mexico was the closest but the only Mexicans who I spent time with were clase alta teenagers who spoke English fluently and owned their own personal houses, beaches, and towns. It was interesting but still not even vaguely similar to living in the city here. Parts of the city are beautiful, old and well kept up but others have 3-foot wide sidewalks and buildings plastered with billboards of naked white blond women, huge adds for milkshakes, candy, and strip clubs. I see both of these sides of the city on my walk back from school.
The part of the culture that I can´t stop thinking about is influence of the US media on the culture here. Everyone here watches MTV reality shows, Friends, 24, High School Musical, as well as the US news so there´s a lot of mixed information about what the US is really like. Yeah all the way from MTV to Fox news. I was talking to Cristina about the US stereotype and she said, fat, goes to grocery store and needs to buy everything, and never cooks but only opens cans and packages for meals. It´s interesting that food´s what it comes down too. If I had to guess the US stereotype Argentinians think of I´d say, wealthy, dramatic and clueless. It´s interesting too because of course people know about things like Watergate and 9/11 but of US news people also know all about thing like Columbine and Virginia Tech, and yet I know barely anything about Argentine history. I feel bad but people seem to expect me not to know anything about their current events or history. Everyone always asks me how I like Obama and how he´s doing. I never really know what to say, I mean I like to think that he´s doing well and that I like him. He´s a big hit here.
Speaking of cultural influences, the other day we went of a tour of Jesuit churches outside the city in a town called Jesus Maria. From what I understand Cordoba has a very strong Jesuit presence from early on. The city of Cordoba was founded in 1573 and the Jesuits founded the University of Cordoba (the college I´m studying at) forty years later. The city became a center of education and learning as the Jesuits opened more and more schools. Today I think there are 10 colleges and universities here, 10% student kind of like Amherst. So I forget when but at some point the King of Spain decided that the Jesuits had too much educational influence in Argentina and so he exiled the Jesuits just like that. So that´s pretty much the story. The buildings were of course beautiful, white and pink with deep red round roof tiles.

First Days

Patricia picked Noah and I up at the airport after 3 days of us trying to get to Argentina. We had gotten to Bradley to find that our plane had been canceled for mechanical reasons so that night we stayed in a hotel and planned to fly out the next day. The next day however I was very sick and having trouble breathing so that plane was also rescheduled. We finally flew out even though I was still sick to Atlanta, to Santiago and finally to Cordoba. Cristina is my host mom but since it's the dead of summer here she was on a short vacation, so her friend Patricia who is an English translator picked us up and helped us get adjusted. The first day was rough because we were super tired from the ridiculous plane ride and blown away by the realization that we really were going to be here in Argentina, away from friends and family, at the mercy of the foreign Argentine way of life for six months. For the first two or three days I felt very anxious, nervous, and worried about not being able to adjust or feel settled. My first day of school freaked me out a lot because all the other students in my program are majors and minors in Spanish and so they actually can speak only in Spanish like we're supposed to.

I love my house and my host family. Cristina lives with her two kids in a beautiful house very close to the center of the city. The neighborhood is really nice. You turn onto a street an suddenly everyone has their own lawns and nice stucco houses. My room is on the second floor where there's another guest room, a bathroom, computer, and door to the roof deck. Noah and my room are very very comforting in these first few days. The sounds that come into my room over the balcony make my experiences so far feel more exciting and less scary for some reason. I like the way all my clothes look packed into the closest. Even music sounds better than normal in my room with the heat pouring in through the open doors that open to the balcony. The heat is extreme here and makes me tired but there's so much to do every day and so much to take in that I keep pushing and pushing myself until I pass out. I still haven't gotten used to the whole siesta deal but Cristina insists that I come home immediately after school and take a nap.

I've been getting out of school at 2:30 and walking the 15 blocks to Noah's hostel which is in a great spot. Then we walk around or play bananagrams or rummy before we walk back to Cristina's house. Noah then walks back to his hostel when I go to sleep. It's about a 15 minute walk. It's great having Noah here. Being together makes things feel more like an adventure. I'd be totally freaked out without someone to experience this with. Sometimes I'm very frustrated with the Spanish and the transitioning but five minutes later I'm so happy to be here and live out this chapter of my life in Argentina.