New Year, New Semester, New Esperanza

I’ve been reflecting on this adventure. I say adventure because my time here was more than just a semester abroad, and more than just a trip. I did not want to be a typical exchange student, and I definitely resolved not to be a tourist in a city I would call home for five months. I am now super sensitive to the way Americans are perceived abroad: from the crass Republican grandpa who announced to everyone on my flight to Lima that Obama was a terrorist spy to the drunken teenage girls swinging their cameras around in boliches. Yet there are always people who soften the American stereotype of beer pong, Black Friday, and morbid obesity.

When I came home and people asked about my semester, many were satisfied with an Argentine Christmas present and a quick flip through my photo album. I could tell them the stories I’ve shared in this blog, point out the historic places, or play some popular music. But it wouldn't fully convey my experience. And although I am glad I updated this, what I miss most are the little moments with people who helped me feel like I had a family there.

I met my host mother, a farm girl who moved to the city after her divorce, willing to come to salsa classes with me, jokingly in search of a boyfriend with rhythm…an ultimate family that played in wind, rain, sand, and even a dust storm with a spirit of the game that reminds me why I fell in love with the sport…a salsa community that encouraged me since my first awkward steps…an Argentine girl and her family eager to translate cultural differences and welcome some flustered Americans into their home…an Ecuadorian dance student who takes an insane number of classes, and will do so for years to come because it is his passion…some American girls who supported me through oral exams in Spanish and nights when all I wanted was a root beer float…and a group of crazy, frisbee playing, salsa dancing Colombians who were patient enough with my Spanish to give me an excuse to make Christmas cookies.

It was frustrating, and at times humiliating, but I learned a lot about myself and about the world. I'm less shy and more open. I am not afraid to explore by myself. I appreciate more and want less. As we rang in 2010, I realized I had only been in this country for half of 2009. I didn't recognize any of the music on my friend's 2009 mix! But I'm so grateful to have had this experience and I look forward to many more adventures to come!

Stuck in Mexico

My laptop is destroyed. My old camera broke. My new camera was stolen on the street. I left my ipod on the bus. I threw away three pairs of shoes because I walked in them until my toes poked through. And my winter coat was taken. No wonder I had so much room in my suitcase! After a fun beach tournament, a week of sightseeing with Josh, and a series of goodbyes, my bags are en route to New York while I once again find myself in the same Mexico City airport that first greeted me when I started this adventure. I remember being intimidated by a language I barely knew and frustrated that the information employee couldn’t understand me when I tried to explain my flight had no gate number. Five months later, I am happy to report that not only has the airport purchased computer screens that display your gate number clearly, but I also had a conversation at the same information desk without the dreaded language barrier. At least the issue this time was the fact that I was stranded in Mexico for ten hours and not my unintelligible jumble of Spanish verbs!

I treated myself to a big lunch even though I wasn’t sure how much I was paying because Mexican pesos aren’t the same as Argentine pesos. It was the nicest restaurant at the airport, and I’m shocked they let me in. I got some interesting glares from men in business suits and and women in fur coats. They must have wondered who this homeless girl was with red eyes stinging from sleeping in contacts, flip flops, sweatpants and a hoodie! Classy American. My mouth was on fire because that was the first spicy food I’d had in half a year. I then realized that I was eating the jalapeno salsa (to be used for dipping the bread) as soup. I hid behind my Time magazine Josh brought me, trying to look a little more refined.

Other highlights from my ten hour delay in Mexico: I took a nap on the floor sprawled across my luggage, and was waken up by a gaucho Santa who did pirouettes around the terminal and threw candy to screaming children. Spoke with a super nice Mexican woman who was going to see snow for the first time in New York. Finished reading all about American politics via my Time addiction. Realized nothing has changed much since I left.

My favorite picture from the beach tournament:



At the theater to see David's hip hop performance:



Our goodbye lunch in Puerto Madero:

El riesgo es que te quieras quedar

I’m sitting here watching rows of arms reach upwards to adjust the air on the plane. We’re taking off from Bogota in the middle of summer and the AC system is struggling to compete with the heat at this altitude. As I’m writing this I notice my newly bronzed skin against the white paper, and my handmade wooden bracelet that boasts yellow, blue, and red from the Colombian flag. The tan I got from spending two weeks in the sun—frisbee fields, crowded plazas with Botero sculptures, country trails, and abandoned side streets. But the bracelet I got from a sweet woman who sold me very South American looking cotton pants at the market. We had so much fun haggling with her. I complained that she didn’t have the colors I wanted, and that I looked like I was a man because the seam of the crotch was so low. She sort of giggled and kept drawing a horizontal line across her throat as if we were killing her with the prices we were asking for. But since we were all exaggerating, she sold us the pants as her family nearby cheered, and she tied this bracelet on our wrists as if to say it was all in fun. We were obviously two American girls in desperate need of something to cover our legs before the sun nestled down into the mountains. I had no idea Colombia would be this cold at night!

We went hiking:

Rode in a potato truck:

Celebrated my 20th birthday:

Checked out the Christmas displays:

Rode bikes around Bogota:

Played lots of ultimate:

Ate amazing food:

And tried to cook our own:

The woman next to me makes a cross as the plane leaves the ground and the city shrinks into glittering Christmas lights. I reach for my own cross and remember the necklace in its place: a simple black cord with a silver coin. The design is an ambiguous figure running with a disc. The cold metal feels good against my slightly burnt chest. Everyone who played in the tournament in Medellin received these necklaces, and now that the games are over, people in Argentina, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Canada, and the US are wearing them. We are part of a community that is bigger than our practice fields, bigger than our team, and even bigger than our own continent. It’s always awkward having new people play representing with your team, but I am grateful for the two female teams that let us—three American girls with Argentine accents— play with them. Everyone has different styles of playing, different strategies, and different philosophies, but at the end of the day, you are still playing the same game. And hopefully having fun! So after two tournaments, two weeks, two Colombian cities, and two decades of life, I sit patiently in a country I never dreamed I’d visit as the clouds consume the plane and I am consumed by a heat-induced sleep.

Colombia

I left from Bogota yesterday at noon and arrived in Buenos Aires this morning at 8. I stopped in Medellin, Colombia then Quito, Ecuador, then Lima, Peru and finally Argentina. Needless to say, I am a sleepy girl after traveling for almost a full day! But I had plenty of time between flights so I wrote down my adventures and will update soon. Tomorrow I'm leaving for Pinamar to play in a beach tournament and I will be back with a new temporary apartment on Monday! I'm coming home for Christmas in 11 days!

Springtime in Buenos Aires

For a city named Buenos Aires, you´d expect the weather to be paradisal. It´s actually crazy. Sometimes it´s beautiful and then it pours hot rain, sometimes it´s chilly and you wonder why you have sunburn, and sometimes it´s incredibly humid so you feel like you are walking around in soup. But this weekend was perfect springtime weather.

Quick summary: I tried a new salsa class across the city and played in the finals on Sunday. Lack of sleep definitely hit me. I am still on a mission to find a decent Mexican restaurant. This past week and next week I have final exams for classes. It´s been overwhelming to say the least, but Sarah and I had amazing quesadillas on Friday and got cracking on our final presentation.

Flor invited me and some friends to her house for an asado. It was fantastic, not just because I tried chinchulines (intestine), morcilla (blood sausage) and something I think was ear, but also because we took a walk around the neighborhood. Her family is so incredibly nice!

The meat cooking on the parrilla. Please do not drool on the keyboard.

I always wondered what my life would be like if I went to art school...Apparently painting classes have final exams too. For our final painting project, Meghan and I have to do a painting on an open subject. But first we have to hand in 5 still life paintings using complementary colors. So here are the last two of my I Never Want to Paint Bottles Again series, and the beginning of my free subject.

Another thing: Kennedy and Megan came to visit! Megan is Kenn´s friend who I met when I visited Chile, and they came to Buenos Aires for the weekend. I met them on Thursday night at one of my favorite salsa places, and it was fun because even though I am by far one of the worst dancers there (one regular is a professional bailarina) it was great to introduce them to such a subculture of BA. Friday we went with my Venezuelan frisbee friend to a club that was celebrating Venezuela night. We met some of her friends and danced merengue and salsa in their apartment.

It rained all day Saturday, so the girls did tourist stuff and I worked on a paper. We grabbed dinner at a typical cafe and they tried the essentials like ham pizza, medialuna sandwiches, and alfajores. Later, we went to a peña. It was amazing!!! It was like at this "underground" unmarked door and I thought I wrote down the wrong address. The girls left at 2am because they had an early flight but I stayed until 7 in the morning. It was like a huge family reunion, because everyone knew everyone. It was obvious that I wasn´t from Argentina, since I was the only one who didn´t know the words. But everyone was so friendly and so excited to tell me the history behind the songs. They even danced traditional folkloric dances that looked like roosters (the men) conquering the women (with handkerchiefs). My host mom said whenever they had family parties, that´s exactly what they would do, but they would move from house to house singing and dancing from dinner until morning. No wonder why these people love coffee!!

Baby Duckies!

Things I did this week:

Went for a run and discovered the most amazing park with a track, baby ducks, rollerbladers, and paddle boats. A man saved a baby duckling crossing the street and reunited it with his Mama Swan. So cute!

Fixed my laptop. It must have fallen (even though I don't recall dropping it) and my ethernet cable snapped. You should have heard me trying to explain this to the computer shop guys in spanish!

Went to an electronic tango concert with a Venezuelan friend I met through frisbee.

Hit up Barrio Chino after our game for my very first chicken and rice in this city. The Chinese lady gave us a much needed chopstick lesson.

Les and the chopstick teacher

Lionesses!

Papita's first time ever using chopsticks

Joined Sarah, her Argentine boyfriend, his friends and exchange student for a quiet afternoon at his family’s Jewish country club-like isla. I had my first kosher hamburger.

Field of a Thousand Mosquitos

Tigre!

Sarah's boy and his friend hard at work...well one of them is!

Kosher BBQ (Chairs are empty because everyone's to the right eating)

(Drum roll please…)

Bought my ticket to Colombia! There’s a huge international Frisbee tournament in Medellin and I’m going to spend my birthday there. I’m leaving Nov 24 and returning Dec 10 to Buenos Aires. SO EXCITED! http://www.tepmedellin.com/web/ingles

Cultural Differences Part I

Argentina is a third world country. Let’s just throw that out there before I start talking about cultural differences. Anyway, I’ve been here for 3 months and I guess it’s time for a brief compare and contrast. Here's Part I:

Portenos use a different clock.

Literally. Everything here is on the 24 hour clock. You would never, for example, say “Hey let’s meet at 18 o’clock” but when you write 6 pm, it’s easier to say 18 instead.

Expect your Argentine friends/colleagues/teammates/professors etc a half hour later than scheduled. This usually works out in my favor, but not when I show up to my 8:30 am class and wait around for the professor to come in with the test an hour later.

They also eat LATE! You will not find a restaurant open at 7, when we usually eat dinner. Most families eat at 9 or 10 (excuse me, 21 or 22). This is one custom I don’t think I’ll adopt- I really hate sleeping on a full stomach!

The American Eat-and-Run

When you go to a restaurant, café, or bar, you have to practically hunt down the waiter for the check. They will not give it to you because they don’t want you to feel rushed, even if there’s a line around the corner. I remember Sarah and I got ice cream with David and we finished and got up to leave. He didn’t understand why we were leaving since we were mid conversation. It was just reflex. We order, we eat, we go.

Lines

I’ve only eaten fast food in BsAs twice, and twice I got cut in line because I stood too far away from the cash registers. The ATMs are the same way. People stand on top of each other!

Showing skin

I’ve found the dress code to be relatively conservative for a city. Girls do not wear shorts. When I wear knee length dresses, I get looks. There is generally no cleavage and definitely no tank tops. But (no pun intended) there is an abundance of lingerie ads, naked massage flyers handed out on the streets, and porn magazines in FULL view on newsstands.

When I first came here, everyone said portenos dress up. I’ve only found that true in the sense that it is very sloppy to wear sweatpants. I think a better term would be “overdress,” because it’s 75 degrees, sunny, and I saw a woman with a winter coat, scarf, boots, and gloves!

Spring Break in October

Buenos Aires-Santiago-Valparaiso-Cordoba. I survived spring break! Since I didn´t pack much entertainment, I wrote almost a notebook´s worth on the bus. But I promise I will condense everything for this recap!

Little Victories

I listened to Matt Nathanson on the 20 hour bus trip to Santiago. I´ve always loved his music, but I never really paid attention to the lyrics until we left Retiro. Little Victories seemed so perfect for my adventure:

This time, I'll be sailing
No more bailing boats for me
I'll be out there on the sea
Just my confidence and me

And I'll be awful sometimes
Weakened to my knees
But I'll learn to get by
On little victories

This time, I'll have no fear
I'll be standing strong and tall
Turn my back towards them all

And I'll be awful sometimes
Weakened to my knees
And I'll learn to get by
On the little victories
And if the world decides to catch up with me
Still little victories

And that was the theme of my spring break-living with less inhibition. Not in a dangerous way, obviously one has to be cautious, but there are so many things you miss if you always say no to new potentially embarassing experiences.

Jitterbug in Buenos Aires??

(This is a valid segue) Last night I went to the salsa place with friends from my program... and my host mother came too! I laughed the whole time! But during the middle of the salsa classes, there is..well they call it rock here but basically it´s 50s music. I learned some swing in North Carolina, so I danced with a boy from my program in the middle of the floor... Among the most advanced dancers! They were practicing difficult footwork and there we were...No choreography, no lessons, nothing. Just two crazy Americans dancing to our own (really old) music. It was hilarious. We even got a standing ovation!

To me, overcoming embarassment and just saying yes was a little victory. Traveling alone was a little victory. Taking tests in Spanish with Argentine students and living in a big city without knowing anyone and making meaningful relationships has all been a series of little victories. This isn´t meant to be self-congratulatory, I just think the fact that I will no longer be a teenager when I go back home is more than symbolic. I´m finishing out the teens in Argentina and this trip made me realize how much I´ve grown up here. Here are my notes in brief:

A creative legacy

I am sitting on a red pleather seat between a pudgy porteno reading Clarin and a vintage coffee machine. My rusty reflection in the stainless steel is a blurred version of myself. I´m not tired yet, but the man next to me is speaking very loudly into his cell phone. He looks like a professor in his faded gray sweater vest, owl-like glasses, and a belly full of laughter. Apparently he is going to Mendoza to spread the ashes of his recently deceased friend. They were neighbors and childhood friends but she moved to France to become a ballerina. She asked that her remains be spread in all different parts of the world so the people she loved can have a chance to meet. What a valuable legacy! He says it is an honor to have been chosen to meet her family in the other side of the country to transport her ashes. I guess it´s a morbid idea, but I think I´ll request that my ashes be spread in exotic places so my loved ones can travel!



A warm welcome

I´ve met two kinds of portenos. Some, like the girls in my UMSA classes, want nothing to do with me and I feel like I´m the smelly kid in middle school. And lot of men make the feminist inside me feel like a machisto´s punching bag...But some people here are genuinely nice people who invite me into their lives and are excited to share the city that I´ve come to love as well. I am so grateful to those who have enough patience with my Spanish and to take the time and share their lives with me. I promise when I am an immigration lawyer, I will pay it all back! So I guess I was surprised at how friendly people were when I arrived in Santiago after an incredible trip through the Andes. I met up with Bobby and his girlfriend Sofi and couldn´t have met a kinder chilean! Sofi invited me to have lunch with her friends at the law school. They did a potluck with healthy food (finally!!) and the most incredible fruit. I went to class with them and learned about the Chilean Constitution, we got ice cream and chatted in the park, visited an art museum, posed with street art, listened to chilean music on the walk to her dance class...


Go Bananza

Oh yes I went to her dance class. We danced arabe... also known as belly dancing. This was my worst nightmare! I stayed in the back and told her I´d watch, but she brought me clothes! So we changed and I jumped right in, belly chain and all. Someone in the class recorded a video with my camera. I refuse to put it online, but let´s just say I didn´t exactly hit all the choreography! It was still fun though and now I can say I bellydanced in Chile. Little victory, check!


Little Italy?

My first impression of Valparaiso was that it looked identical to the Amalfi Coast we visited as a family in Italy. Same quaint cobblestone steps and winding streets, same colorful houses nestled on hills overlooking the water. Kennedy had class during the day so I climbed the cerros on foot and got quite a workout. Little did I know they had elevator lifts I could have taken advantage of! I wondered why everyone going downhill gave me looks of pity as I powered up those hills. When I finally arrived at the hostel, I met two British girls who made me laugh until I cried. They told funny self-deprecating stories for about an hour and I had tears streaming down my face. One explained that her dad didn´t quite understand Skype, but he wanted her to see the dog so he chased it around the house with the laptop in his hands instead of bringing the dog to the webcam. The other girl talked about her obese uncle who married a string bean Indian woman.

Once

Once is my neighborhood but it´s also 11, which is the time that Kenn and her host family gather to eat bread and cheese. They made fun of Kennedy and the fact that she doesn´t bathe everyday. The sister asked why she even bothers to change her underwear if she doesn´t use a bidet. I almost died! I loved the way they all poked fun at each other but in the end there was nothing more important than gathering around the table and sharing a simple meal. Later, we went to a bar with Kenn´s friend from her program and we drank wine mixed with fruit juice. It was amazing! Then we went salsa dancing on the roof of a boliche and I even got to whip out the bachata I learned in Buenos Aires.

Cordoba!

I had to rush back to Santiago to catch my bus to Cordoba, but the woman next to me was so sweet. She told me all about her life as a ski instructor and her family´s farm in Juyjuy. She shared her pastry with me and we talked about the differences between Chile and Argentina. She was great company when we had to wait 3 hours at the border! I met some interesting people outside waiting as well. There were hundreds of motorcyclists of all ages but I met two with Batman masks. I guess one of the guys just got married and his bachelor party theme was Batman. The tournament was a blast, even though we played on dirt fields! The city felt more like Argentina than Buenos Aires, just because there were no tourists. We had a big frisbee asado and played card games and enjoyed each other´s company. That´s what I love about frisbee. It´s not just a game. Off the field there´s a community of people who have many varied interests and stories.

There was a storm at the end of Day 1... the wind blew dust into my eyes, so I wore sunglasses at night!