Starting My Semester on my Semester Abroad

So it's been over a week since my last post and mucho has happened since then. The last week of orientation flew by. We took a trip to la bombonera, the stadium of Boca Juniors. That was pretty sweet because it had a museum inside, with lots of pictures and awards and such.




Last Thursday the entire IES program went to dinner at La Bistecca, a restaurant in Puerto Madero. It was sooo delicious. I probably consumed enough food to have lasted me a week. Lots of meat and pasta and cheese and dessert! After the dinner a group of friends and I were walking around Puerto Madero and saw a tango show going on in a bar, so we sat outside and watched. I love stumbling upon stuff like that!

After dinner in Puerto Madero

This past weekend probably half of the IES program decided to go to Mar del Plata, a city about five hours south of Buenos Aires right on the Atlantic. We stayed in a hostel that was two blocks from the beach. Couldn't get any better than that.




On Saturday morning my friends and I stopped by a cafe and bought 12 medialunas, which actually turned into about 15 because the guy helping us threw in some extra. We took them down to the beach and it was probably one of my best moments here. Medialunas, sun, beach, Atlantic, no class, ahh. The whole trip was like a vacation from a vacation. And in my head I said a little "I'm oh so sorry" to my friends studying back home. The water was about Lake Michigan temperature in late June, so perfect for my cold water acclimated body. Saturday night my friends and I went out for helado and just chilled out. It was windy and rainy on Sunday, so we went back to the cafe until our bus left.

Mariachi band in a restaurant in Mar del Plata





MONDAY morning I had Spanish class at 9:30. My first class since middle of December. And would you believe it, I was late. Woke up at 9:00, still had my medialuna and cafe con leche because my host mother insisted, then took the bus. But it all turned out ok. Just the first day, no big deal. At 1:00 I had Comparative Argentine Politics and Government. I have never taken any kind of political class before, and this one is in Spanish, sooo should be an interesting time. Then at 2:30 I had 20th Century Argentine Poetry. My professor is really passionate about poetry. He kept saying, "We'll go through poems word for word, because each word has value. Maybe we will spend ten minutes on one word. Words are like coins, and poetry is like gold." I think even if I wasn't interested at all in poetry this guy would change my mind. I'm really excited for this class.

This morning, Tuesday, I had sculpture at UMSA from 8-12. I went with two other friends, and we were the only international students in the class. Which will be perfect for practicing Spanish. However, it is amazing how a kindergarten task can seem so difficult when you don't understand art vocabulary in Spanish. All we did today, after doing some introductions, was cut out three shapes and arrange them on our paper. That's it. So after lots of laughing at ourselves and watching the other art students we realized how easy it was and cut out our shapes. It will be interesting to see how difficult it is to understand how to sculpt, especially considering that I never have before. But there are two women who lead the class and they are very understanding and speak slowly to us so it shouldn't be a problem.

Story Time!

After sculpture class I thought it might be fun to take the 39 bus all the way around its route back to my homestay to see where it goes. That was fun for a little while until I realized how big the city was, and when I realized that I was one of two people left on the bus and he was getting off. Sooo since I didn't have any plans for the rest of the day I thought what the heck, I might as well wander around. So I got off the bus and chose a street to walk down. But there were verrry few people walking around and I didn't recognize the area at all. I walked past a couple little markets and then when I saw the colorful buildings of La Boca it was like a light at the end of the tunnel. Oh my goodness it was such a relief to know where I was.

However, even though I knew where I was, I had run out of monedas, which due to the coin shortage are few and far between. After asking around at several different stores if they had cambio for my pesos, I ran into someone who suggested I go to the bus station and buy a ticket there. Sooo again I didn't know where I was but eventually found the bus station, bought a ticket, and somehow found the bus that took me back to my neighborhood. Granted, this is two hours after I began my whole "let's ride the bus and see where it takes me!" ordeal. I guess it turned out ok, and I'm finally home, but I wouldn't really recommend doing that alone.