Technology

I think maybe I just have trouble writing what I'm thinking about on the computer. It does not come easily but I wanted to quickly post about my trip to San Rafael for the weekend. We went with our "speaking partners" who are argentinian students who've volunteered to give us practice speaking spanish and so that they can practice their english a bit. We rented a bus and drove over night to San Rafael which is in the provence of Mendoza to the west of Cordoba. We went white water rafting with by far the most beautiful surroundings of the four other times I've gone rafting, really great rocky mountains that made me want to go exploring so bad! I wish I could have captured it but I wasn't about to take my camera on the boat. I'm a bit tired of structured trips like that though because for instance, I don't really like white water rafting but just by coincidence I've been so many times and I just really wanted to go walk around the beautiful mountains! I love mountains! But that's ok, I'll have other opportunities. One of these weekends I want to go to Mendoza and rent a bike so I can stop and explore the Andies a bit. Oh and I figured out that I don't need to be budgeting so much! So that leaves my options a little more open for traveling. I have nine days off in May of which four will include Iguazu falls with two friends which I'm really excited about and then I don't know for the rest! Salta? I'd like to go to desert... anyway I'll figure that out later.

So after rafting we went rappelling and zip lining which was fun but of course my favorite part was the beautiful view. (I have pictures of all of this on facebook and picasa). Then on the way to the hotel we played some music on the bus which was really fun. I gotta learn some more Beatles songs, good for all occasions. Its big but I was really glad I brought my guitar. Also it meant that I got two seats to myself and got some sleep. I should have brought it to Buenos Aires instead of my computer hands down. That night we played a lot of music. I had really missed singing and harmonizing with women's voices aka ANNA I MISS YOU!! It was great and the Band was a big hit and Olivia brought her harmonicas--hit the spot. The next day, Sunday we went to a winery and went through and saw all the grape pressers and squishers and squashers. Unfortunately on the way back the drivers got lost and we couldn't find a gas station that the bus could fit in and someone pooped in the toilet on the bus so it stopped working and the downstairs smelled really bad, and we ran out of water so we finally got back to Cordoba at 3:00 in the morning. Luckily I had the earliest class and it was only at 11 but it was still annoying. Everyone was so sick of being on that bus! And to make matters very much worse the movies were horribly terribly bad and when they ran out of horribly terribly bad movies they played music videos for at least an hour. I was very ready to hitch hike home after the music videos. It was weird, such a small thing like a hundred 25 second clips of aggressively assaulting pop culture made me feel farther away from Amherst than ever. It completely 'put me off' as they would say but I went out for churipan (really good sausages with anything and everything you do and could possibly want for 10 pesos) with my friend Alexis and we had some good conversation about the crazy consumer culture in Cordoba. She's not from Amherst and agrees that things are out of hand here in a very plastic way. I've heard people say things like, "When walk out my door and see all the beautiful things in this world like our trees and our technology, I just can't imagine that there's not a God," and also "Oh I went to New York City once, it was truly beautiful. It's just so modern." I'm still processing.

On the upside last night I went to a tango lesson with a few friends (not from argentina but from Holland, Switzerland, and Brazil) and it was great! The first couple of dances were really hard but after that I was surprised how easy it was after I stopped thinking. It was really fun and only 15 pesos so like a few dollars for 3 hours! I really liked it and had a lot of fun so we're going to go to Salsa at the same place today, Thursday and I know a bunch of people who do that so I'm excited! Oh and tomorrow I'm going out to Capilla to spend the weekend with Noah and we're going to meet my friend, Reena from Alaska and an Argentinian friend of hers there and camp out on Mount Uritorco. Ok gotta run to my bus!

I'm Alive!

Posting on my blog is like remembering to catch up with an old friend I haven't called in a year. Where to start. Well so I stayed with Noah on his farm for a weekend which was great and beautiful and relaxing and wonderful and not long enough. The farm is about a two hour bus ride away and 21 pesos which is like $5. Then I went to an Argentinian birthday party (with Cristina's cousin Patricia who I've been exchanging guitar lessons with) where they were dancing....capoeira, how frickin cool. Oh and I made some friends at the park who were playing guitar and speaking english. We have a lot in common and they're all from the south so that's cool cause I haven't really spent much time with all people from Mississippi and Tennessee before. On Sunday, me and Noah celebrated our one year anniversary :), didn't celebrate 4.20 on Tuesday :(, learned a few new songs on the guitar, both of the kids got chicken pox, I found a really good pizza place, and studied my butt off for my argentinian history and latin american history midterms which I had today and did well on. I still haven't taken any tango lessons which I want to do but I need to find someone to go with!!

Then last night I went to a party at a house a block away where a bunch of international students are living, taking spanish, and working with children in the villa miserias which are basically what they sound like, towns of misery except that I think they're more like neighborhoods. Noah and I had meet two of the girls who are living in international house at the post office cause none of us could figure out where to buy stamps. One of the girls is still here but the other girl's parents flew her home a week ago after someone broke into their house and she had a seizure. They were having a party so there were about 15 people just sitting around at the table, eating, drinking, playing cards, talking. They had the door open cause it was hot and two guys walked in with guns and tied everyone up. Tied everyone up. Guns. Yes crazy. They took four lap tops and then all the cameras and cell phones. Then apparently the girl we met had a seizure and really freaked the guys out so they left. And two weeks earlier their house was broken into while no one was home and other things were taken. Oy. I haven't been robbed at all luckily but wow. It's definitely obvious when someone isn't from Argentina and really obvious when someone isn't from Latin America so a house of international students is a pretty obvious target. It's some combination of trying to wear ethnic looking or 'outside of the box' clothes (women here generally wear white or really light really tight blue jeans with really tight tank tops and then a small scarf) nice backpacks, and sometimes skin color for instance if you see a black person they are definitely not from Argentina. I wish I could tell if I look a lot like a tourist. Probably some days more than others. Noah definitely looks like a tourist but not a tourist anyone would want to rob haha.

In terms of emotional stability I've been in and out, up and down and around. In other words there is no emotional stability haha. It's weird, when I'm feeling great I honestly believe that things are getting easier and that living in Argentina is great but then when I'm feeling down I honestly believe that things haven't gotten any easier and that I haven't learned as much as I would like to have which stinks. For example right now the latter seems ridiculous. Of course it's getting easier and of course I'm learning things! I've definitely been thinking a lot about why I'm here, why my life itinerary has me in Argentina. I don't regret anything but all the reasons I wanted to come here seem so feeble compared to what this experience is, so feeble that they hardly even relate, all because of one thing: I assumed that I would understand what I was going though, that I'd be able to feel my consciousness shift, that I'd be able to compartmentalize my new thoughts and the new things I was learning, that I'd be self aware enough to understand what I was going through! Feels like I'm stopped terrapin station ha. Well we'll see what the next three months have in store. Lista.

Up down and in between

So after 1 lost bag, 1 night on an outside couch, and 1 awful stomach virus we decided to fold in our cards for going to Chile. We did have half a good time though. We went to Puente de Inca which was really cool, I'll post pictures. And took a beautiful bus ride through the Andies of which I'll also post pictures. Noah's still sick but I recovered pretty quickly after the night bus back to Cordoba where I threw up the worst of the virus. It sucked and now Noah doesn't have a cell phone or his journal or debit card (which has been canceled) or favorite bandana but of course, he's Noah so he almost immediately snapped back to his chipper happy self. Amazing. I've been feeling very high and low. These last few days mostly low but today turned out good. The social scene here is just so frustrating. I understand that I'm having a very different experience in Argentina than everyone else but I just can't connect with anyone! Its so weird. But today I was reading in the park and met some new people who I immediately clicked with. It was quite a relief, I was starting to believe that Amherst was really more of a bubble than I had thought. So I spent a lot of time with them and we'll definitely see each other soon. I hope that I just haven't been able to find my right circle of people. Maybe this is it. It'll have to wait though cause this weekend I'm going to visit Noah on his farm in Capilla! I'm really excited to have a relaxing weekend away from the city just reading and playing guitar with Noah in the country side. When I get back I'm going to start going to Yoga a few blocks away and look into taking some tango lessons :). So updatesss....hmm

IM GOING TO EARLHAM! Thats a big one.

Oh and I'm exchanging guitar lessons with Cristina's cousin Patricia whose's 26. I'm teaching her Jack Johnson and she's teaching me Samba. I love it.

Connections connections, a guy in my hebrew class knows a girl from my program, Rachael from church and another guy in hebrew class knows Jeremy Aronson because he's trying to start Ultimate frisbee here. Crazy things going on! (btw Jeremy is from Amherst, a member of the JCA, went to DC with me on Panim el Panim, was in my english class, and is also here living in Cordoba in his gap year coincidentally).

Of course! I did Passover at the Habad House which is one and a half blocks away on my street!! It was a great experience and I had a lot of fun. The food was pretty bad but I met a lot of interesting people (there were about 180 people there, pretty much all around 23 and pretty much all traveling Israelis). The seder was in Hebrew which I couldn't understand but that was ok because the Rabbi was really drunk and hilariously picking on random people and asking them what they thought the meaning was of his ridiculously long anecdotes. It was a seder to remember.

Sums it up, will try to check in more often. Thanks for tune'n in folks.

Noah's Last Cordoba Days!

Highlights:

-playing music with a brazilian band that was staying at Noah’s hostel and spending time with people from all over (Israel, Mexico, Argentina, Spain, Brazil)

-the streets got flooded again and the river rose many feet

-saw Alice in Wonderland, enjoyed the effects, ending was lame

-discovered a pet store with puppies and kittens on my walk back from the Language School where I take Hebrew

-practiced my Hebrew with the people staying at Noah’s hostel, apparently all ton of the hostels in South America are filled with Israelis, I was talking to a guy from Mexico about it who had been traveling around, still don’t know why...

-huge soccer parade rally march thing, there were hundreds of people in the street, jumping and shouting, climbing on street signs and monuments in the big intersection in the middle of the city

-a person tried to rob me but i took their hand out of my bag and walked away

-I figured out how to take the bus back from school...it’s the same bus that I take in the morning haha

-had a really funny conversation about arm pit hair and it’s social implications with Cristina, we’ve been talking a lot recently

-meet some girls from the US, Australia, and France who are working with children here and live a block away from me

-talked all night with Noah, this guy from Mexico and three guys from Israel about the Israeli Palestinian conflict, they had very strong opinions

-today was a day dedicated to the Disappeared so I didn’t have any class, there was a huge march in the streets, lots of people carrying signs with pictures of Che and Evita Peron and also pictures of people who disappeared

-I’ve been reading a lot and loving it, I had forgotten how much I love being in thick of a good book, High School doesn’t really make room for such things

-Cristina’s sister, brother in law, and their three children are here from London for a month, bilingual kids with british accents are so ridiculously cute

-today I’m going to Villa Belgrano, the mountain town where Cristina has a few cottages that she rents out

-Noah goes to Capilla de Monte today to start work!!!! I’m going to visit him next weekend

Sentiments:

-focusing on being patient and smiling more

-still getting used to outside Amherst culture but am encouraged by Cristina and my small spanish class (everyone just seems so much more open and unreserved, genuine, fearless!)

-loving argentina!

Nuevos Amigos

I forgot to say that Noah and I met these people playing music on the street at the ferria del paseo del artes (which is this arts and crafts festival that happeneds every weekend on the canal). We went to a birthday party with some of the musicians, Flor and Kaim who live about 10 blocks away from me in Cofico. There were a lot of people playing folklorico and Spanish guitar which was so hard to follow the rythem on! They gave me a viola and it got easier as the night went on but the music is so different to try to jam with!! There was one guy there who spoke english and he quietly helped me out with the rythem. Everyone thought it was really funny and were like, try it again, try it again. Then they all spend a while trying to follow some fiddle songs that I played on the viola. And songs in English were really a hit. This guy was obsessed with the Rolling Stones and spent a long time trying to get me to play "Annnnnnnghhh Aaaaahhnnngghh" before I realized he was trying to say "Angiee Aaaaanngie." They requested Imagine, Let It Be, Bob Dylan songs, and this song by Jason Mraz that's on the radio a lot. They also had a marijuana tree! It was about twelve feet tall and maybe 9 feet wide and we didn't even notice for the longest time. When we did notice, the guy standing next to us, was like yeah I have four more like it at my house! Marijuana is pretty much legal here I think but I don't think it's thaat legal. Of course I think with most people here its a much more taboo topic than in Amherst, at least that's what Jeremy said.

So today I started my first classes at PECLA (basically my first classes with people outside of my program). In my Spanish class there's one guy from my program, Brian from Roosevelt Island, a guy from Turkey who's 22 and has been here for 6 months and a guy from Japan whose also 22 and is staying here with some other Japonese students. That's it! I really like it. Today we talked about the differences in our countries between woman's rights, marriage ages, religion etc and why we came to Argentina, what's different about Argentina than what we expected etc. Then in an hour I start Hebrew! I'm still not completely sure why I'm taking Hebrew but everyone keeps asking me what I'm studying in the U.S. and I always say that I want to study conflict resolution so I've been thinking more about studying abroad in Israel/Palestine which lead me to Hebrew. I could use a place to meet people outside PECLA. Alright Ping Pong calls.

Sinpo Mom Zoo Dogs Homosexuality Lynn

Ok update of the last 3 weeks:

Julia found a kitten in a box on the street and named it Sinpo. I think that when she found her she was probably one or two weeks old but definitely too young to be separated from her mother. We bought kitten food and fed her everyday with a spoon but the weekend before last her stomach started getting really big and bloated and so we gave her to a woman with a cat whose nursing, hoping for the best. It was really nice to have a kitten around and something that I could take care of. She was a very good buddy, crawling over my homework and nuzzling into my skirts so that was a bummer when I came home and she had been given away. I’m sure it’s for the best though.

So my mom arrived and after a few days in the city, my mom, Noah, Cristina and I went to the town Ville Belgrano, where Cristina has five cottages there which she rents out but is trying to sell. It was great to get out of the city but I’m actually surprised how unsick of the city I am. Usually when I stay in a city I can’t stay more than a few days before I need to head back to the hills. I guess it’s because now the city environment is the only home that I have right now. My room is great too. It’s a big help. The campus at the University’s nice too. It feels like a real campus, not just like disconnected buildings in a city of people disconnected from nature to be connected to mass media which is what it feels like somedays walking home. Campus is green and pretty well kept up. No one bothers cleaning up the graffiti in this city but on campus all the graffiti is political and you can tell someone thought about it, not just tagging their name on a wall. Its funny, all the graffiti’s in Spanish of course but I can understand most all of them cause we have the same phrases in English like, “A writer lives to write, a real writer writes to live,” and “Military intelligence is an oxymoron.” There’s this really cool one near my building of five or so women struggling to pull a rope attached to a zipper, which opens to a scene of people with their hands in the air, some carrying signs, some just dancing.

There are dogs everywhere on campus too including in the classrooms but there still all really nice, some are just more attractive than others but actually there probably all pretty much the same amount of dirty. I guess like us, some of them just wear it better. When Julie brought home Sinpo I gave her a bath and pulled off all these gross little tick like bugs that moved really fast along her skin and made lots of little black specks in her fur. It was really gross.

Oh yeah and also we went to the zoo in Cordoba which is right across the park from the University. Someone told me its all happenin a the zoo. I do believe it. I do believe it’s true. Personally I like the cats the best. Lions, tigers, cheetahs, leopards, pumas. I also enjoyed the gigantic spiders and the elephant. It was a good zoo.

Then last week we just had finals and exams and stressful ‘evaluations’ that determine what classes we can handle at the University. Then after our last exam on Thursday the entire program went to Buenos Aires for the weekend. We all (27 of us?) stayed in the same hotel, went on city tours and visited museums and such. There are a whole lot of churches in Argentina. I just wish my Spanish was better so I could actually talk to people here about religion. The hardest part for me about Spanish is expressing specific beliefs and values especially concerning spirituality because the only times that I completely understand what someone is saying if we’re having a real conversation is for me to recognize some of the words and then piece together what I think they’d be trying to tell me. But then what am I going to learn if I can already guess what people are going to tell me. It’s not that big of a deal just a little annoying.

I did talk to Cristina about the war on terrorism after 9/11 and the dirty war in Argentina. She says that a lot of people here think that the US government had a part in 9/11 or at least knew about the attacks beforehand and that of course everyone knows that the CIA prompted, backed, and funded the military in the dirty war in Argentina and Chile. So why do people here still idolize the US? On the topic of homosexuality, Cristina felt more conservatively. I asked her how she would feel if her son Martin came to her and told her he was gay and she said that she would like to meet whoever he was with and respect his 'decision' but would feel guilty for not being a good enough mother. She said people would say, "Oh, yes his parents were divorced and he has many siblings so his parents couldn't pay enough attention to his upbringing" and so on. Although I'm no expert I told her that in my town people think that it's not a choice and not a glitch but simply happens in the brain when the mother produces a lot of female hormones when she's pregnant. I told her I didn't know exactly how it worked with the chemical attraction and all but that I thought it wasn't a choice someone made but part of a person's chemical make up and just as deserving of human rights. She said she didn't know but was interested and open about this outlook. She also thought that gay people should respect other people's opinions on the matter more and be more private. For example, she doesn't care if two men 'decide' to be gay but she doesn't want her children to see two men holding hands in the street and think it's an appropriate life decision. It was a very interesting conversation. I was to reiterate that Cristina was very open to knew ideas about homosexuality and was interested to hear about them too. She kept saying "I don't know but I feel..." Well in Spanish but just so I don't portray Cristina falsely. She's very sweet but is a woman who knows what she wants!

Ok gotta go to dinner. 10 oclock!! Right now I'm at a resort with Lynn and Noah which is amazing and beautiful. I'll post some pictures on Flickr, but it's right on the lake and looks out across to the town and mountains. Very very nice. Oooh and theres a warm pool and a regular pool anndd a hot tub!

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.