Sorry it's been so long in posting. My class schedule is regular, but as far as what I do during my free time, and when I actually sleep isn't. I'll still try to be doing these posts at least once a week. Although, other than class, I haven't been doing anything different from going out late and 'partying.'
But anyway, Saturday night, I went with Jennifer and Rachel to a birthday party in downtown Córdoba. It was Romy's 24th birthday I think, and I believe she's someone speaking partner in the program. The party was fun. There were a few other students from CC-CS there, and we met a few NICE Argentine guys. We had fun listening to them swear in English. We also had choripan which is a delicious Argentine, sausage sandwich. I scarfed two down, and tried really hard not to come off as some fat, gross, American. But when I belched I got a few laughs and all the Argentines responded with ¡BIENVENIDOS!
After the party, Jennifer and I caught a late movie that started at 1:30am. We saw Los hombres que no amaban las mujeres which directly translates into: The men who don't love women, but is most widely known in the US as "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." We picked an intense movie to watch at 1:30 in the morning. There's just a lot of weird violent parts, characters with really messed up minds, and a really graphic rape scene. It was also longer than we thought it would be. By the time the movie was over, it was almost 5am.
We had an interesting experience going into the movie. The movie was listed as subtitled, so Jen and I thought we could just follow the dialogue, and then as it started, we realized the original dialogue was in Swedish, so we had to use the subtitles ourselves as well. It wasn't bad, just a little weird. We knew what was going on in the film. Although it would be a little jarring when we read the Spanish subtitles, and the Swedes, would say something that sounded very similar to English.
Also, when I got home that night, I got locked out. I had my keys, but Mimi has this habit of sometimes leaving her own keys in the lock. So when I got home, I wasn't able to stick in my own keys. It was 5:10am and I just wanted to sleep. After fighting with the lock for about 5 minutes, I ended up ringing the doorbell twice and shouting Mimi's name until she came to the door to let me in. She wasn't too pleased, and I was apologizing profusely the moment she answered the door, but she just turned around and kinds slept-walked back to bed. I really hope this doesn't happen again. Because of this, I'm starting the habit of leaving around more notes to Mimi letting her know I'll be out late in hopes she won't accidently lock the door on me again. (So far it's working.)
So Jennifer, Rachel, Sarita, and I tried dancing to cuarteto for the first time last night. That was a lot of fun. We had a few drinks at a bar, and then Rachel led us over to one of her favorite boliches, but it was empty when we arrived, so we decided to hang out down a few blocks. While the rest of the girls were having a smoke, some guy came over to talk to us, and then invited us over to the bar across the street and sit with his friends. So the bought is drinks, and we talked for awhile. They were actually nice, and not being too forceful and forward (which is kinds rare in the bar and boliche scene here in Argentina.)
Two of the guys said they were gay, but I'm pretty sure they were lying, (one of the gay guys was married and danced with Sarita later, and Sarita told me he was kissing her neck repeatedly at the boliche.) One of the guys that Jennifer and I both thought was the cutest, claimed he was bisexual, (And I am going to refer to this guy as 'German' because he was wearing a t-shirt with some random German phrase on it.)
The guys lead us to a boliche on Chacabuco afterwards, and they handed us what they thought were tickets that they took from some woman in the street. (I don't actually know where or how they got them, I was just handed one and took it.) When we got there, we found out the 'tickets' were just ads, and the men tried to argue with the bouncer. They ended up giving up the fight, and payed for us to go in. (That's right, they paid our entry fee for us!)
So basically there was one guy for each girl, and my dancing partner was 'German.' ^-^ He was fun to dance with, and tried telling me how I should move my hips to the music. He told me that the live band was called "Guardito" or something like that. He kept trying to buy me drinks and asking me what I wanted, but I knew I already had enough that night, and that if I had another full drink, I'd just be stumbling everywhere. He eventually gave up and got himself a large drink, which ended up being shared by the whole group. I don't know what it was, but at least it tasted alright. Also, just the sips I had from sharing the cup were enough.
But yeah, the guys were really nice, in that they didn't try to physically force themselves on us if we didn't want it, and there was no pressure for anything afterward. (They actually all left the boliche as a group an hour earlier before we did!)
Jennifer and I got separated from Rachel and Sarita for awhile, but at least it wasn't hecticly crowded that we couldn't easily find them later. Anyway, Jennifer and I danced with this other really cute guy, whose name was Louis. The his hair was and his face was shaped, he liked a Native American to me. (Very handsome!) But he was great to dance with too. He had this "come hither" move and face, but when we got to actually dance with him, it was just fun, simple dancing. And he and his friends ended up pulling me and Jennifer into an impromptu conga line.
We ended up leaving the boliche with Rachel and Sarita at around 4:30. Which means it was actually fun, because I usually leave these places by myself and before 4 am! Cuarteto is actually a lot of fun. I think I may have to download some songs for my ipod, and host a cuarteto party as a hall social next year.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Classes
So my first week of classes went well. So far I have only started classes at PECLA. My integrated classes at the University don't start for awhile. I had three back-up classes at the University and Alfredo told me to try them all before settling on one. Introducción a Fotografía doesn't start until Monday, and the painting and drawing classes don't start until April. I was thinking of just sticking with drawing, but my host mother, Mimi, suggested I take photography since I'm good at it already. (She really likes my pictures of Japan.) I guess I might, especially since the other classes don't even start for awhile.
Anyway, the classes I am taking at PECLA are: Realidades Culturales, Literatura Argentina, Cultura Argentina, y Gramática Avanzada. The classes aren't all that hard. Well, at least so far. All of the classes meet at least twice a week, and we always have three day weekends. What I really like about classes here in Argentina is that we don't have to spend money on an absurd amount of textbooks like in the United States. It's true for all classes here at all Universities in Argentina. What teachers do is compile all the material they're going to use for a class, like articles, and book passages, and just put them all together in this one plastic notebook. They either just give it to you in class, or you end up buying it at one of the fotocopías on campus. Basically you go in and say you need this book for this class from this professor, give them your name, and then they print all the pages and put it together for you, and it usually doesn't cost more than 16 pesos. And that's your textbook for the class! I love it! It also saves a lot of room in my bookbag, and takes a lot of weight off of my shoulder.
Argentina doesn't really celebrate St. Patrick's day like we do, but they know what it is. The closest I got to celebrating was buying a small cheap bottle of Bailey's, and bringing it home. I went to see Percy Jackson that day since the movies were 10 pesos per person at Patio Olmos. It was dubbed in Spanish, but I was able to catch and understand the majority of the dialogue. I still had my bookbag with me, and since I didn't buy any movie snacks, I was taking a few sips of the Bailey's during the movie.
Taking the colectivo home after the movie was a bit of a fiasco. The bus' engine started making these sounds like it was straining from under pressure. Right as it entered my barrio, it stopped to let some people off, and then would not move forward anymore. The driver told everyone to get off since the bus wasn't going anywhere, but luckily, another, empty colectivo came up from right behind real quick to finish the route. Even though the problem was fixed faster than I would expect, I still got home much later than I intended.
But my lateness was forgiven that night when I presented the Bailey's to Mimi. She was ecstatic! She went into the other room, and brought out glasses with Bailey's printed on them, and she went on about how she bought the classes back in the US, and how she loves Bailey's. She tried to give some to Taylor, but he refused. Mimi went on to explain how Bailey's is the whiskey for women. We had an interesting conversation about how and why St. Patrick's day is celebrated in the US. At one point, Mimi asked why people drink in order to celebrate. Really, the only answer I have is that St. Patrick is the patron Saint of Ireland and the Irish drink.
We also somehow got on the subject of pasta, and the different names for different pasta's. So this conversation made me realize that in English we retain a lot of the original Italian names for different pasta's. I thought Spanish would keep a lot of the same too since the two languages are similar, but apparently English does a better job of it. Penne pasta is called mostachol here, and one of the corkscrew like pasta's (I forget which one) is called tirabuzón.
And this last bit of news is a bit off topic from Argentina in general, but I have to share it. I got an email last night notifying that I am being re-hired as an RA again next year at Hollins, and my assignment is . . . . OTAKU HALL! I am so freaking excited! I'm looking forward to my next year of school even more now!
I should be posting again on tomorrow. ¡Chau!
Anyway, the classes I am taking at PECLA are: Realidades Culturales, Literatura Argentina, Cultura Argentina, y Gramática Avanzada. The classes aren't all that hard. Well, at least so far. All of the classes meet at least twice a week, and we always have three day weekends. What I really like about classes here in Argentina is that we don't have to spend money on an absurd amount of textbooks like in the United States. It's true for all classes here at all Universities in Argentina. What teachers do is compile all the material they're going to use for a class, like articles, and book passages, and just put them all together in this one plastic notebook. They either just give it to you in class, or you end up buying it at one of the fotocopías on campus. Basically you go in and say you need this book for this class from this professor, give them your name, and then they print all the pages and put it together for you, and it usually doesn't cost more than 16 pesos. And that's your textbook for the class! I love it! It also saves a lot of room in my bookbag, and takes a lot of weight off of my shoulder.
Argentina doesn't really celebrate St. Patrick's day like we do, but they know what it is. The closest I got to celebrating was buying a small cheap bottle of Bailey's, and bringing it home. I went to see Percy Jackson that day since the movies were 10 pesos per person at Patio Olmos. It was dubbed in Spanish, but I was able to catch and understand the majority of the dialogue. I still had my bookbag with me, and since I didn't buy any movie snacks, I was taking a few sips of the Bailey's during the movie.
Taking the colectivo home after the movie was a bit of a fiasco. The bus' engine started making these sounds like it was straining from under pressure. Right as it entered my barrio, it stopped to let some people off, and then would not move forward anymore. The driver told everyone to get off since the bus wasn't going anywhere, but luckily, another, empty colectivo came up from right behind real quick to finish the route. Even though the problem was fixed faster than I would expect, I still got home much later than I intended.
But my lateness was forgiven that night when I presented the Bailey's to Mimi. She was ecstatic! She went into the other room, and brought out glasses with Bailey's printed on them, and she went on about how she bought the classes back in the US, and how she loves Bailey's. She tried to give some to Taylor, but he refused. Mimi went on to explain how Bailey's is the whiskey for women. We had an interesting conversation about how and why St. Patrick's day is celebrated in the US. At one point, Mimi asked why people drink in order to celebrate. Really, the only answer I have is that St. Patrick is the patron Saint of Ireland and the Irish drink.
We also somehow got on the subject of pasta, and the different names for different pasta's. So this conversation made me realize that in English we retain a lot of the original Italian names for different pasta's. I thought Spanish would keep a lot of the same too since the two languages are similar, but apparently English does a better job of it. Penne pasta is called mostachol here, and one of the corkscrew like pasta's (I forget which one) is called tirabuzón.
And this last bit of news is a bit off topic from Argentina in general, but I have to share it. I got an email last night notifying that I am being re-hired as an RA again next year at Hollins, and my assignment is . . . . OTAKU HALL! I am so freaking excited! I'm looking forward to my next year of school even more now!
I should be posting again on tomorrow. ¡Chau!
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
I like to Rock!
Okay, so this is quite a few days late, but I needed to sleep, and classes started on Monday, so now I finally have free AWAKE time to write this.
Jennifer and I went to the Paseo de los Artes again on Saturday. I actually bought something this time. A leather coin purse and id card holder, since the blue sparkly one that Alyssa gave me as a High School graduation present is finally shot. (I had been re-gluing it repeatedly the past year and a half to hold it together.) We also stopped at the same bar we stopped at last time, but we didn't see the same cute waiter again (awe . . . )
Anyway, while Jennifer and I were chilling, sharing a lomo and drinking beer, and old man somewhere in his sixties came over and started talking to us. He asked us where we were from, and how we liked Córdoba, and then invited us to sit over at his table, so we went over and talked with him for a bit. There were other people at the table but we didn't talk to them as much. There was younger guy who i think was around the same age as us. He had a weird faux-hawk hairstyle going on with half his head bleached blond.
They asked us about where we're from and how we like it here in Córdoba, and what we're studying at UNC. They refilled our glasses with more beer for free, and the old man invited us to come over to his house sometime. He and Jennifer traded phone numbers, and after we payed fro our lomo, he followed us out the bar and hailed a taxi for us. We could've walked the whole way to the next bar we were going to as it was only 6 blocks away, but the man was insistent.
Jennifer and I met up with Mika and Sarita at a bar and ordered some drinks, and this one guy came up to us asking if we were from Germany. We also started responding where we were actually from in Spanish, but then he said he was from the US too and introduced himself as Brandon. He told us that the bartender told him we were all from Germany. I don't know why the bartender told him that, probably just likes jerking foreigners around.
But Brandon was nice. He told us he was there on a business trip and that he comes down to Córdoba every once in awhile for work, and that he and his uncles like to go dove-hunting here in Argentina. He also told us he found one of his Norwegian relatives on facebook and that this relative of his was in Córdoba and that he was going to meet him the next day.
At about 1:15 ish, we left the bart and walked all the way to this small rock-club venue along la calle Lima, to see a few bands play. We went, because Vicky Carando, the assistant director here for CC-CS is a drummer and her band was playing there that night. I had so much fun! It was just 10 pesos to get in. I don't remember any of the names of any of the bands but the music was good. I've been looking everywhere for a good indie-rock place in Córdoba like this one and I finally found it!
I saw a table with a bunch of CD's on it by the local bands. I'm not sure if they were for sale or free, but no one was around the table that looked like they were managing money, and after the show there were only 3 cd's left and I saw two random girls picking them up and putting them down. I don't know, but I plan on picking one up next time I come back.
The first band was pretty good. The local audience was little lame. They don't move like people move at shows back home. I was behind this line of teenage girls, and they kept backing up into me. They would stand and nod a little bit to the music, but me, I like to jump and wave my arms, and all that jazz.
When Vicky's band started playing, I made sure to get up to the front so that I wouldn't get stuck behind people, and knock into them. The audience in general got more active when Vicky's band played. There was one girl that actually crawled onstage twice and danced around the guitarist, and then went over to the keyboard and pretended to play before getting off the stage.
And Vicky plays the drums like it's nobody's business! It was amazing! And I don't remember how all the songs went, but I remember one song where the chorus went "Todos los días" repeatedly and everyone sang along.
I don't know when Vicky's band plays again, but I can't wait to go to another show!
Jennifer and I went to the Paseo de los Artes again on Saturday. I actually bought something this time. A leather coin purse and id card holder, since the blue sparkly one that Alyssa gave me as a High School graduation present is finally shot. (I had been re-gluing it repeatedly the past year and a half to hold it together.) We also stopped at the same bar we stopped at last time, but we didn't see the same cute waiter again (awe . . . )
Anyway, while Jennifer and I were chilling, sharing a lomo and drinking beer, and old man somewhere in his sixties came over and started talking to us. He asked us where we were from, and how we liked Córdoba, and then invited us to sit over at his table, so we went over and talked with him for a bit. There were other people at the table but we didn't talk to them as much. There was younger guy who i think was around the same age as us. He had a weird faux-hawk hairstyle going on with half his head bleached blond.
They asked us about where we're from and how we like it here in Córdoba, and what we're studying at UNC. They refilled our glasses with more beer for free, and the old man invited us to come over to his house sometime. He and Jennifer traded phone numbers, and after we payed fro our lomo, he followed us out the bar and hailed a taxi for us. We could've walked the whole way to the next bar we were going to as it was only 6 blocks away, but the man was insistent.
Jennifer and I met up with Mika and Sarita at a bar and ordered some drinks, and this one guy came up to us asking if we were from Germany. We also started responding where we were actually from in Spanish, but then he said he was from the US too and introduced himself as Brandon. He told us that the bartender told him we were all from Germany. I don't know why the bartender told him that, probably just likes jerking foreigners around.
But Brandon was nice. He told us he was there on a business trip and that he comes down to Córdoba every once in awhile for work, and that he and his uncles like to go dove-hunting here in Argentina. He also told us he found one of his Norwegian relatives on facebook and that this relative of his was in Córdoba and that he was going to meet him the next day.
At about 1:15 ish, we left the bart and walked all the way to this small rock-club venue along la calle Lima, to see a few bands play. We went, because Vicky Carando, the assistant director here for CC-CS is a drummer and her band was playing there that night. I had so much fun! It was just 10 pesos to get in. I don't remember any of the names of any of the bands but the music was good. I've been looking everywhere for a good indie-rock place in Córdoba like this one and I finally found it!
I saw a table with a bunch of CD's on it by the local bands. I'm not sure if they were for sale or free, but no one was around the table that looked like they were managing money, and after the show there were only 3 cd's left and I saw two random girls picking them up and putting them down. I don't know, but I plan on picking one up next time I come back.
The first band was pretty good. The local audience was little lame. They don't move like people move at shows back home. I was behind this line of teenage girls, and they kept backing up into me. They would stand and nod a little bit to the music, but me, I like to jump and wave my arms, and all that jazz.
When Vicky's band started playing, I made sure to get up to the front so that I wouldn't get stuck behind people, and knock into them. The audience in general got more active when Vicky's band played. There was one girl that actually crawled onstage twice and danced around the guitarist, and then went over to the keyboard and pretended to play before getting off the stage.
And Vicky plays the drums like it's nobody's business! It was amazing! And I don't remember how all the songs went, but I remember one song where the chorus went "Todos los días" repeatedly and everyone sang along.
I don't know when Vicky's band plays again, but I can't wait to go to another show!
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Alicia en el País de Maravillas
So Jennifer and I went out to see Alice in Wonderland last night. We ended up seeing a later showing since neither of us left our houses as early as we thought we would. I got their before Jennifer, so I just went ahead and bought both our tickets before she arrived, because the ticket line was kinda long.
We had a little over an hour to kill, so we went and got ice cream at Grido on a corner down the street. It was sad, because while we were eating, there was little girl, who couldn't have been more than eight, going up to everyone who was sitting down, asking them to buy her ice cream. When everyone refused, she stood by the counter, waiting for incoming customers to buy her some. And she was by herself without any parents.
When we left the Grido, I saw big, grungy-looking woman who might have been her mom, because she was just standing on the corner, staring inside the Grido at the counter, and not moving.
When Jennifer and I decided to head in for the movie, there was some confusion. We went up these set of stairs, and when we got up to the ticketer, he told us it was en el otro lado and we didn't know what that meant, because we didn't see obvious signs as to where el otro lado was. The movie theater isn't in it's own separate building. The ticket booth is in the open airway of a shopping center, and then you just go up these separate stairs. So Jennifer and I walked up and down the hallway, wondering what the guy meant. We finally pulled over a janitor wearing the movie theater uniform and had him lead us to where we needed to go.
Apparently the other two theaters were out of the way and not even attached to the rest of the theater. We had to walk outside through this gate, into this area that was pretty much deserted, before seeing signs for the theater again. But at least we found it.
Jennifer and I made a point to see the later showings, since they were subtitled instead of dubbed. Online it said that the subtitled showings were not in 3D, but apparently that wasn't the case, but we're not complaining. The theater was packed though! We had a hard time looking for a good spot that had two seats open so we could sit next to each other. We ended up sitting in the second row in the front, because we didn't think it was worth it to crawl over 16 people to get to an open seat.
I thought the movie was really good, and even though I knew it was a Tim Burton movie, and that it wasn't exactly meant for real small children, it was still more gruesome than I thought it would be. I'd go into more detail about that, but I don't spoil anything for anyone who hasn't seen it yet.
There were a few times where I was able to just watch the movie and ignore the Spanish subtitles underneath, but there were a few times I made a point to read the subtitles to see how they translated a few things. Especially all the nonsense words and when they recited to poem The Jabberwocky. I wonder how hard it was for the translators to figure out how they should translate them into Spanish. So "Frabjus Day" was el día Frabjusoso and "galumphing" was galumfando. I wonder if the translators took the time to read an original Spanish translation of the book and used it to help base their translations of the script. If I was translating a movie into English that was based off of a foreign book, I'd do that, just to make it easier for those who are familiar with the book. I don't know. I think it might be in my best interest to go and find one or both of the Alice books in Spanish, and find out for myself. Speaking of which, I haven't read of them in English yet in the first place. I should do that when I get home in July.
After the movie was over, I hung around with Jennifer until she met up with some other girls to go to a boliche. But Jennifer was getting frustrated with them. Two of the girls, were the same ones that went with us to the boliche the other night, and when Jen kept calling and texting them, they kept giving her different answers as to where they were, and where she should go to meet up with them. One time they told her "just take a taxi" and hung up without telling her where she should take the taxi. It was during this time that Jennifer and I came to the conclusion that were having the same problems with hanging out with these girls.
The general problem/s being that these girls like to invite people to go out partying with them, but aren't really thinking about the people around them. It's like they invite people because they want to look cool with a posse or something, but the moment they enter a club, they drop their companions flat on their asses, and are only there for themselves. One of the girls particularly, whom I'll call 'S'. 'S' has been involved, however indirectly, for all my crappy experiences regarding bars and boliches and late nights. And I know she's not doing this to be mean. She's trying to be nice, but because she's so dim-witted and not thinking about the people around her, bad things happen. I'm not the only person she has inadvertently put in unsafe situations, and these people have the same gripes about her as I do. I've come to the conclusion that I cannot trust 'S' anymore with important stuff like this, and that she just isn't dependable. There are so many times I just want to punch some sense into her. Right now I think I'm just going to avoid situations where she makes the forward plans and she tries to make herself the main safety-net. I really think she needs a talking to about her behavior, because I don't think it's getting through her head, how her actions are affecting other people. I know that if it was just me doing it, I'd just end up losing my cool and try to beat her up. I wonder if Jennifer, and I, and maybe someone else should go to Alfredo and let him know that this is going on, and help drill it into 'S''s head that what she's doing isn't exactly safe behavior, especially for foreigners who don't know the city so well. I really think the only way she'll pay attention is if an authority figure enforces it and shows just how serious it is.
As soon as the girls showed up, I took a taxi home. The place looked a lot loss crowded than where we went the other night, but as I still wasn't in the mood to try that again . . . But it did look like a place I might enjoy, after I take my long break from boliches. I think I only can do small places with very little people, and that's okay with me.
I don't have anymore plans for this weekend, except for the phone call on Sunday. I had a hard time getting my phone cards to work these past two days. I bought two and kept pressing in the numbers, then calling Jen to see if it worked, and it still kept telling me no crédito but I finally got one of them to work this morning!
We had a little over an hour to kill, so we went and got ice cream at Grido on a corner down the street. It was sad, because while we were eating, there was little girl, who couldn't have been more than eight, going up to everyone who was sitting down, asking them to buy her ice cream. When everyone refused, she stood by the counter, waiting for incoming customers to buy her some. And she was by herself without any parents.
When we left the Grido, I saw big, grungy-looking woman who might have been her mom, because she was just standing on the corner, staring inside the Grido at the counter, and not moving.
When Jennifer and I decided to head in for the movie, there was some confusion. We went up these set of stairs, and when we got up to the ticketer, he told us it was en el otro lado and we didn't know what that meant, because we didn't see obvious signs as to where el otro lado was. The movie theater isn't in it's own separate building. The ticket booth is in the open airway of a shopping center, and then you just go up these separate stairs. So Jennifer and I walked up and down the hallway, wondering what the guy meant. We finally pulled over a janitor wearing the movie theater uniform and had him lead us to where we needed to go.
Apparently the other two theaters were out of the way and not even attached to the rest of the theater. We had to walk outside through this gate, into this area that was pretty much deserted, before seeing signs for the theater again. But at least we found it.
Jennifer and I made a point to see the later showings, since they were subtitled instead of dubbed. Online it said that the subtitled showings were not in 3D, but apparently that wasn't the case, but we're not complaining. The theater was packed though! We had a hard time looking for a good spot that had two seats open so we could sit next to each other. We ended up sitting in the second row in the front, because we didn't think it was worth it to crawl over 16 people to get to an open seat.
I thought the movie was really good, and even though I knew it was a Tim Burton movie, and that it wasn't exactly meant for real small children, it was still more gruesome than I thought it would be. I'd go into more detail about that, but I don't spoil anything for anyone who hasn't seen it yet.
There were a few times where I was able to just watch the movie and ignore the Spanish subtitles underneath, but there were a few times I made a point to read the subtitles to see how they translated a few things. Especially all the nonsense words and when they recited to poem The Jabberwocky. I wonder how hard it was for the translators to figure out how they should translate them into Spanish. So "Frabjus Day" was el día Frabjusoso and "galumphing" was galumfando. I wonder if the translators took the time to read an original Spanish translation of the book and used it to help base their translations of the script. If I was translating a movie into English that was based off of a foreign book, I'd do that, just to make it easier for those who are familiar with the book. I don't know. I think it might be in my best interest to go and find one or both of the Alice books in Spanish, and find out for myself. Speaking of which, I haven't read of them in English yet in the first place. I should do that when I get home in July.
After the movie was over, I hung around with Jennifer until she met up with some other girls to go to a boliche. But Jennifer was getting frustrated with them. Two of the girls, were the same ones that went with us to the boliche the other night, and when Jen kept calling and texting them, they kept giving her different answers as to where they were, and where she should go to meet up with them. One time they told her "just take a taxi" and hung up without telling her where she should take the taxi. It was during this time that Jennifer and I came to the conclusion that were having the same problems with hanging out with these girls.
The general problem/s being that these girls like to invite people to go out partying with them, but aren't really thinking about the people around them. It's like they invite people because they want to look cool with a posse or something, but the moment they enter a club, they drop their companions flat on their asses, and are only there for themselves. One of the girls particularly, whom I'll call 'S'. 'S' has been involved, however indirectly, for all my crappy experiences regarding bars and boliches and late nights. And I know she's not doing this to be mean. She's trying to be nice, but because she's so dim-witted and not thinking about the people around her, bad things happen. I'm not the only person she has inadvertently put in unsafe situations, and these people have the same gripes about her as I do. I've come to the conclusion that I cannot trust 'S' anymore with important stuff like this, and that she just isn't dependable. There are so many times I just want to punch some sense into her. Right now I think I'm just going to avoid situations where she makes the forward plans and she tries to make herself the main safety-net. I really think she needs a talking to about her behavior, because I don't think it's getting through her head, how her actions are affecting other people. I know that if it was just me doing it, I'd just end up losing my cool and try to beat her up. I wonder if Jennifer, and I, and maybe someone else should go to Alfredo and let him know that this is going on, and help drill it into 'S''s head that what she's doing isn't exactly safe behavior, especially for foreigners who don't know the city so well. I really think the only way she'll pay attention is if an authority figure enforces it and shows just how serious it is.
As soon as the girls showed up, I took a taxi home. The place looked a lot loss crowded than where we went the other night, but as I still wasn't in the mood to try that again . . . But it did look like a place I might enjoy, after I take my long break from boliches. I think I only can do small places with very little people, and that's okay with me.
I don't have anymore plans for this weekend, except for the phone call on Sunday. I had a hard time getting my phone cards to work these past two days. I bought two and kept pressing in the numbers, then calling Jen to see if it worked, and it still kept telling me no crédito but I finally got one of them to work this morning!
Friday, March 12, 2010
Feeling Better
I'm feeling much better after taking a day of just chilling out in the house.
Mimi is having a big party today/tonight at her house for her birthday, (which was actually two days ago). I don't know if it's going to be this afternoon or late at night. Either way, I plan on staying awhile for the food, meeting some of her neighbors, and then I plan on heading downtown around 9 because Jennifer and I have plans to see Alice in Wonderland tonight. I plan on heading straight home afterwards, no doubt about that!
Mimi is having a big party today/tonight at her house for her birthday, (which was actually two days ago). I don't know if it's going to be this afternoon or late at night. Either way, I plan on staying awhile for the food, meeting some of her neighbors, and then I plan on heading downtown around 9 because Jennifer and I have plans to see Alice in Wonderland tonight. I plan on heading straight home afterwards, no doubt about that!
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Not feeling so good
So I ended up getting a básico score on the CELU, which isn't even really passing. Alfredo said not to worry about it since more than half of us received básico and that the test is Waaaaay advanced, and that many people can be in the advanced classes back in the US and still get básico and that I can still take certain integrated classes at UNC. Most of my choices are still available to me since I picked easy classes in the first place so I wouldn't be so overloaded. But I'm still so disappointed in myself because I put in all that hard work, and I've been studying for so long, and I feel like I put in all that effort so little payoff. And I feel so frustrated when I hear that some of the other students got advanzado or intermedio and I was so sure that my Spanish was better than their's.
I also had a Shit-tastic night last night. I decided to go with some girls to a bar and a boliche last night. They gave me an address, and the taxi didn't take me to the right spot, and I had this frantic phone-tag with the girls to figure out where I was actually supposed to be. Meanwhile, while trying to navigate where I was actually supposed to be, I think I ended up passing by 6 homeless men lying on the streets, and just felt so unsafe.
When I finally did end up meeting with the girls, we went to a bar and they all ordered Fernet, which is some disgusting shit that I had tried before and absolutely hate. When they all ordered, Sarah asked if I wanted to same thing. I said no, but they all got the karaf anyway, which is fine for them, except that I didn't get a chance to order anything different, and so I ended up taking a tiny glass of something I hated and putting in 10 pesos to help pay for a drink that I didn't even want.
We didn't have to pay to to into the boliche, thank God. At first when we entered it seemed like everything was going to be just fine, but the place was packed. The music was actually okay, but when the girls started going into the crowd and I lost them, things started going downhill fast. At first I saw the direction that they were going in, and that I would be able to find them in the next five minutes or less. But then I made it all the way to the other side without finding them. So I went back and forth, trying to push my way through the people trying to find them but couldn't. I had people stepping on my feet, and I couldn't make out distinct faces, and I ran frantically to the bars in hopes that that's where they were because they talked about getting drinks.
I finally found a set of stairs and seeing club-goers going up and down, so I went up thinking it might've been another floor with another dance floor that might be less crowded, and that they might be there. It just had bathrooms, but I looked in there to see if I could find them, but they weren't there either. I spent 15 minutes hiding out in the stall, because I couldn't bring myself to keep braving the chaos that was outside. And I broke down in tears for a moment because I felt so lost and I didn't know what to do, and I kept staying a few minutes longer hoping one of the girls would come in looking for me, because that would be easy. I was finally able to pull myself together to walk out of there and try going up and down the boliche a few more times. The first time I was going down, it was horrible because I could not move forward through all the people, and some random guy grabbed my waist from behind and that freaked me the hell out so I just booked it to another part of the floor until I couldn't move anymore, and then a strobe light came on and I lost all sense of where I was going or if I was even moving at all, and I felt like throwing up. Since I couldn't move forward, I tried running back, and I got to the bar in the back, and tried to pretend I was heavily interested in something so I wouldn't get strange guys grabbing my hand and grinding up against me.
When the strobe lights stopped I made way to the front near the door where there were a lot less people and started fanning myself. There was one Argentine girl, who was nice, and I think she tried starting a real conversation with me, but I was so frantic I couldn't get into it, so I was just like, "Sí, hace mucho calor."
That's when I got two texts from Jennifer telling me to wait by the door and find them there, and asking me to text her back when I received it. So I texted her back telling her I was right by the door already, and that I was waiting. But then I ended up waiting 20 minutes and no one showed up, and then I started to wonder if they had left to go somewhere else and if they were waiting for me outside, but I didn't want to go outside and then not be able to get back in to find out that they were still inside. So I texted them asking if I they were inside or outside, but the text wouldn't go through, which didn't make sense at first sense I had excellent reception by the door, so I thought maybe Jennifer had bad reception. I tried just calling, and that's when I figured out the real reason why. When I dialed Jen's number, I had an automatic voice tell me in Spanish that I had just run out of credits. I waited by the door a little while longer, hoping one of them would get the idea and just fucking come over. But instead I just kept getting texts from Jennifer asking me where I was and how come I wasn't responding, and I just wanted her to fucking call already since I couldn't make outgoing calls or texts, and I just needed to blatantly tell her to come to the fucking door and get me if she wanted to find me. I then got one last text saying, "Did you go home already? We tried finding you, sorry." So yeah, they had basically given up on me, and since they thought I just went home, that's when I knew it was time to leave.
I cannot tell you just how abandoned and betrayed I felt at that point. I did try going to a kiosco to see if they had phone cards I could use so I could call them to let them know I was leaving. But the only two kiosco's that I found that were still open at 4 am didn't sell any. I walked over to the Paseo del buen Pastor because it seemed like a safe place to wait for a taxi. But first I hid myself behind some trees and just bawled my eyes out, and I had the luck of finding a pack of unopened tissues where I was sitting. (And the fact that that's the best luck I had all night fucking sucks.) And even though I was in a well-lit place with quite a few people I was so unsafe, because I was by myself, at 4am, in downtown Córdoba.
I took some time getting myself together before I hailed a taxi, because I didn't need a stranger all up in business asking what happened. I swear, the taxi driver seemed like the only person who cared about me all night, and he didn't even know what the fuck was going on, but at least he was nice. I'm pretty sure expected I was upset because he asked me twice , "Estás bien?" I was able to keep myself together until I got home and into my room where I just broke down, and I felt so sick that I threw-up a little in the sink, and just went to bed.
I slept in till 1:30 in the afternoon, and I still feel like shit, and I can't bring myself to leave the house because I feel so paranoid, and I don't want to leave my bed.
It's so stupid, because it's not like the girls I went out with are even mean to me or anything. But it's very obvious to me that our friendship so far is still at a superficial and shallow level. My close friends wouldn't have let me fall flat on my ass. My Asperger's and that environment just do not mix, and I don't think these girls would be willing to go out of their huge socialization attitude to understand what I'm going through. I really miss my friends at Hollins, and my family at home. I had a support system back home, that I don't have here, and I need it. I'm hoping I can build it up soon, since it's only been a month and it takes time for me to make one. But if I can't get one soon, I don't know how I'm going to function if shit like this keeps happening while I'm down here.
It sucks, because I'm already vulnerable as a foreigner in a strange land, but I'm even more vulnerable than the rest of the students here at CC-CS and PECLA because of what I have, and they're oblivious to it, and I feel so alone, and I can't keep putting myself out there like they can, because it takes so much more effort for me. I love it here, but I don't have the support system and I needit so much. I love being here in Argentina, but my confidence went down to zero just like that in one night. I try to make friends and socialize and connect with people, but it hurts me so much more pretending to be normal than it does to just drift by alone on the side.
I hope that when classes start on Monday that it helps in normalizing my life, and that the school work keeps me busy enough, so I'm just not stuck alone in my room most of the time not knowing what to do with myself.
I also had a Shit-tastic night last night. I decided to go with some girls to a bar and a boliche last night. They gave me an address, and the taxi didn't take me to the right spot, and I had this frantic phone-tag with the girls to figure out where I was actually supposed to be. Meanwhile, while trying to navigate where I was actually supposed to be, I think I ended up passing by 6 homeless men lying on the streets, and just felt so unsafe.
When I finally did end up meeting with the girls, we went to a bar and they all ordered Fernet, which is some disgusting shit that I had tried before and absolutely hate. When they all ordered, Sarah asked if I wanted to same thing. I said no, but they all got the karaf anyway, which is fine for them, except that I didn't get a chance to order anything different, and so I ended up taking a tiny glass of something I hated and putting in 10 pesos to help pay for a drink that I didn't even want.
We didn't have to pay to to into the boliche, thank God. At first when we entered it seemed like everything was going to be just fine, but the place was packed. The music was actually okay, but when the girls started going into the crowd and I lost them, things started going downhill fast. At first I saw the direction that they were going in, and that I would be able to find them in the next five minutes or less. But then I made it all the way to the other side without finding them. So I went back and forth, trying to push my way through the people trying to find them but couldn't. I had people stepping on my feet, and I couldn't make out distinct faces, and I ran frantically to the bars in hopes that that's where they were because they talked about getting drinks.
I finally found a set of stairs and seeing club-goers going up and down, so I went up thinking it might've been another floor with another dance floor that might be less crowded, and that they might be there. It just had bathrooms, but I looked in there to see if I could find them, but they weren't there either. I spent 15 minutes hiding out in the stall, because I couldn't bring myself to keep braving the chaos that was outside. And I broke down in tears for a moment because I felt so lost and I didn't know what to do, and I kept staying a few minutes longer hoping one of the girls would come in looking for me, because that would be easy. I was finally able to pull myself together to walk out of there and try going up and down the boliche a few more times. The first time I was going down, it was horrible because I could not move forward through all the people, and some random guy grabbed my waist from behind and that freaked me the hell out so I just booked it to another part of the floor until I couldn't move anymore, and then a strobe light came on and I lost all sense of where I was going or if I was even moving at all, and I felt like throwing up. Since I couldn't move forward, I tried running back, and I got to the bar in the back, and tried to pretend I was heavily interested in something so I wouldn't get strange guys grabbing my hand and grinding up against me.
When the strobe lights stopped I made way to the front near the door where there were a lot less people and started fanning myself. There was one Argentine girl, who was nice, and I think she tried starting a real conversation with me, but I was so frantic I couldn't get into it, so I was just like, "Sí, hace mucho calor."
That's when I got two texts from Jennifer telling me to wait by the door and find them there, and asking me to text her back when I received it. So I texted her back telling her I was right by the door already, and that I was waiting. But then I ended up waiting 20 minutes and no one showed up, and then I started to wonder if they had left to go somewhere else and if they were waiting for me outside, but I didn't want to go outside and then not be able to get back in to find out that they were still inside. So I texted them asking if I they were inside or outside, but the text wouldn't go through, which didn't make sense at first sense I had excellent reception by the door, so I thought maybe Jennifer had bad reception. I tried just calling, and that's when I figured out the real reason why. When I dialed Jen's number, I had an automatic voice tell me in Spanish that I had just run out of credits. I waited by the door a little while longer, hoping one of them would get the idea and just fucking come over. But instead I just kept getting texts from Jennifer asking me where I was and how come I wasn't responding, and I just wanted her to fucking call already since I couldn't make outgoing calls or texts, and I just needed to blatantly tell her to come to the fucking door and get me if she wanted to find me. I then got one last text saying, "Did you go home already? We tried finding you, sorry." So yeah, they had basically given up on me, and since they thought I just went home, that's when I knew it was time to leave.
I cannot tell you just how abandoned and betrayed I felt at that point. I did try going to a kiosco to see if they had phone cards I could use so I could call them to let them know I was leaving. But the only two kiosco's that I found that were still open at 4 am didn't sell any. I walked over to the Paseo del buen Pastor because it seemed like a safe place to wait for a taxi. But first I hid myself behind some trees and just bawled my eyes out, and I had the luck of finding a pack of unopened tissues where I was sitting. (And the fact that that's the best luck I had all night fucking sucks.) And even though I was in a well-lit place with quite a few people I was so unsafe, because I was by myself, at 4am, in downtown Córdoba.
I took some time getting myself together before I hailed a taxi, because I didn't need a stranger all up in business asking what happened. I swear, the taxi driver seemed like the only person who cared about me all night, and he didn't even know what the fuck was going on, but at least he was nice. I'm pretty sure expected I was upset because he asked me twice , "Estás bien?" I was able to keep myself together until I got home and into my room where I just broke down, and I felt so sick that I threw-up a little in the sink, and just went to bed.
I slept in till 1:30 in the afternoon, and I still feel like shit, and I can't bring myself to leave the house because I feel so paranoid, and I don't want to leave my bed.
It's so stupid, because it's not like the girls I went out with are even mean to me or anything. But it's very obvious to me that our friendship so far is still at a superficial and shallow level. My close friends wouldn't have let me fall flat on my ass. My Asperger's and that environment just do not mix, and I don't think these girls would be willing to go out of their huge socialization attitude to understand what I'm going through. I really miss my friends at Hollins, and my family at home. I had a support system back home, that I don't have here, and I need it. I'm hoping I can build it up soon, since it's only been a month and it takes time for me to make one. But if I can't get one soon, I don't know how I'm going to function if shit like this keeps happening while I'm down here.
It sucks, because I'm already vulnerable as a foreigner in a strange land, but I'm even more vulnerable than the rest of the students here at CC-CS and PECLA because of what I have, and they're oblivious to it, and I feel so alone, and I can't keep putting myself out there like they can, because it takes so much more effort for me. I love it here, but I don't have the support system and I needit so much. I love being here in Argentina, but my confidence went down to zero just like that in one night. I try to make friends and socialize and connect with people, but it hurts me so much more pretending to be normal than it does to just drift by alone on the side.
I hope that when classes start on Monday that it helps in normalizing my life, and that the school work keeps me busy enough, so I'm just not stuck alone in my room most of the time not knowing what to do with myself.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Buenos Aires
So this weekend has been very busy for me. I'll write down as much as I can remember. (Good thing I took lots of pictures! They'll come much later though.) So I took the CELU on Thursday. It was actually easier than I thought it would be, but it still was a very long test. It was four different essays, and an oral part. Even though it was slightly easier than I thought it would be, I still don't think I'm going to get the highest level, but I'm pretty sure that I'll pass.
The oral section was organized like this. It was like a small little interview asking basic conversational questions, then they hand you two random articles. You read them over then pick one you want to talk about. I picked one about the benefits of alcoholic drinks. Basically when you talk about the articles, you can go in any direction you want, it was really ambiguous. If you wanted to go on a tangent you totally could. Anyway, after you had this random spiel on the article, you had a role-play, which depended upon the article you chose. I actually had a choice between two situations, and I chose the one where I was this person that wanted beer at a party that had no alcohol whatsoever, and I was asking where it was. It was kinda fun.
My oral part was at 4 in the afternoon, so when I finished I went straight home and packed everything I needed into my messenger bag and went with Taylor to the Terminal de Omnibus for our trip to Buenos Aires. The bus left around 9:30ish at night and we arrived in Buenos Aires around 6 am. And let me tell you, the overnight buses in Argentina are Freaking Fantastic! The seats are huge, they lean back, you get this thing that pops out in front of you to rest your legs on, there's so much leg room. They served a pretty decent box meal. So much better than any bus tour I did when I lived in Europe. Alfredo (the program director) and Mimi kept warning us about how it got cold on the Omnibus at night. I only went with my sandals and figured I'd just brave it. I'm guessing Argentines aren't that used to the cold because I remember waking up twice because I was so freaking hot during the night.
Anyway we arrived at our hotel in Buenos Aires (which is on a block right next to their congress building!) around 7:15 am and we had until 9ish to unpack, rest, freshen up and have breakfast before we started our tour for the day. The hotel rooms were nice, they were like a mini apartment with four beds, and a kitchenette.
The first day there, we went to the Plaza de Mayo. They had symbols of the "Mothers of the Disappeared" painted all over the ground, and there were so many flags and banners around commemorating the fallen soldiers from the war over the Maldive islands. And if you haven't heard, there's been more conflict over the Maldives lately, since in the past week and a half the UK has just started drilling oil less than 100km from the Maldives and the Argentines are pissed off like none other over it.
Anyway the Plaza de Mayo is also the where the Casa Rosada is located, aka the Argentine White House. Our Tour guide pointed out the specific balcony where Eva Perón gave her speeches, but we did not see Kirchner.
We also went to a Cathedral at the Plaza. I don't remember the name of it, but it was gorgeous and I took a lot of pictures. It looks a like a courthouse on the outside, and the twelve columns out front represent each of the apostles. Inside one of the girls in our tour group asked one of the docents inside a question and I randomly bumped into their conversation. The man asked me if I spoke Spanish. I told him I knew some, and then he started speaking in English, "No, that is impossible. This is a House of God. All are welcome to come and pray and confess however they wish." I was touched. And they had parts of the church roped off with signs saying, "Closed to tourists, Private Prayer Only." So I figured I'd go into each of these places and pray for a bit since I haven't been to church since . . . December I think. I'm not the prime example of a really good Catholic, but most everyone here in Argentina is a Christmas/Easter Catholic themselves, so I fit right in.
We also spent some time at the Rose Garden in Buenos Aires' version of Central Park, which was absolutely gorgeous and smelled absolutely great, but we left earlier than planned by a few minutes because there were so many mosquitos.
We also went to the Cemetery at Recoleta and saw Eva Perón's grave. The whole cemetery was above ground mausoleum's for different families. Eva Perón's had a lot of flowers attached to the door, and many of the actual Argentine visitor's, especially the women, were making their way to the door to kiss it.
There was also another grave that's famous for the creepy and sad story behind it. A 7-9 year old girl was buried in the cemetery. Her family thought she was dead, burt she wasn't. She had this condition that slowed down her pulse and made her appear dead. The night after her funeral, one of the cemetery guards heard loud banging and scratching noises from her mausoleum and went to get help to let her out, but by the time help arrived it was too late. There were scratches all over her coffin and all over face. So she was re-buried in a different coffin in the mausoleum, and now there's a huge statue attached to it of an angel opening a door as if to let someone out, representing what the little girl went through.
We had a nice buffet lunch and then around 2:30 we went back to the hotel and had the rest of the day free. So of course me and some others took a siesta and then left the hotel around 5-ish so that Lucina could go shoe shopping. I tagged along to get out and see some of Buenos Aires, but those of you who know me real well and what I think about 'shopping,' well . . . It wasn't too bad, but we went to like, 8 different shoes stores or something and I can only keep interested in shoes for like, oh I don't know 15 minutes.
Anyway, I wasn't all that hungry for dinner, so at about 9:30 I had like a bag of chips and some orang juice and I was fine. At midnight, I went with some other girls to a boliche/bar called Sahara with Vicky (assistant director for the program, she's really cool.) I decided to go because I like hanging out with Vicky and I figured since I was in Buenos Aires it would be a good time to start partying like an Argentine. Sahara was right across the street from the Recoleta cemetery, and it was free for us to go in, thankfully. The aesthetic was pretty cool because they has 'Sahara' themed decorations and they used pictures from Indiana Jones on their drink menu, which I thought was funny as hell.
I had like two drinks the whole night, and when they started taking away tables so they could turn it strictly into dancing only, random guys started coming over to our table to ask various girls to dance, which was NOT COOL for me because frankly, I thought most of the men were skeazy and sleezy, and I couldn't tell if they were the kind of guys that would 'want more' as the night went on. A lot of the guys looked like they were old enough to be my dad, and had god-awful haircuts. (On a 'related' tangent, there are so many guys here in Argentina with mullets! Mother-f@#king mullets! And they all think they're hot stuff! I've seen more mullets here in one concentrated area then I have back in the US! WTF!?) So I played this game of, pretend I'm really interested in my drink and don't make any eye contact with any strange man if possible. I remember running to the bathroom a few times and hiding out there for periods of five minutes, and at one point I had a panic-attack because I was so nervous. I remember I tried picking up mu glass and fiddling with my straw and finding looking down to find I had put them in random places on the table and not remembering putting them there. I know it was a panic attack, because I had this feeling of paranoia that I haven't had since I used to cut myself in high school.
But things got better when a few girls took me to the level up with different music, and it was just us in that room and I didn't have to worry about strange guys. The rest of the night at the boliche was okay, but I wish I had left earlier. I think I stayed because I was trying to persevere through my social awkwardness and Asperger's or something. But looking back at it, I wouldn't have missed much.
Anyway, when I left with the rest of the girls, they all had this bright idea to walk back to the hotel at 4:15 in the freaking morning because it would save money from taking a cab and that "Oh there's seven of us so we're safe in a group and it's not that far blah, blah, blah . . .' WORST FUCKING IDEA EVER! (sorry for the vulgarity, but seriously, this explains just how bad it was.) So anyway, Sarah McCroy kept saying how for it wasn't (not far my ass) it's 4:30 in the morning, it took almost fourty minutes to get their, a lot of girls were wearing uncomfortable shoes and falling behind, and we kept getting weird-ass catcalls from creepy men on the streets. I remember we passed this one group of boys inviting us somewhere and when I walked passed them they gave me a dirty look and shouted "Sola chicas flacas!" They can suck my ass. There were also a couple of homeless guys lying randomly in the middle of the sidewalk, and oh God it was just so unsafe, but we managed to get to the hotel all together in one piece with all our money, which I don't know how we managed, and when I mentioned that we shouldn't
EVER again I got responses of "Well the catcalls weren't that bad. I've had worse." "What? Nothing happened." Like that excused it. Just because we were that lucky that time doesn't mean that it's okay. So basically I learned that in the future it's in my best interest to take a taxi by myself in that situation, no matter the cost.
So we got back around 5am and I woke up around 9:30 so I could eat breakfast before it closed at 10am. Then that day we went to the Evita museum and saw a lot of her outfits, and the car she and her husband used to ride in. The museum is converted from one of the temporary homes that Evita organized and founded that women and their children used to live in as a halfway house. I really liked the museum, I thought it was powerful. I bought a copy of Eva Perón's La Razón De Mi Vida.
After the museum we had about an hour and a half to walk around Caminito, which is really colorful and also one of the really touristy parts of Buenos Aires, but there was a cool little artesan market to look at.
We went back to the hotel in the early afternoon and I just crashed, because I was so tired. (This how the Argentine's function. This is why they take their siesta seriously!)
That night, we all went as a group, dressed up, to a Tango show dinner at Madera Tango. The dinner was fantastic and the show was great. I'm telling you it made me want to sign up for a Tango class right away. The show went on until midnight, and then we went back to the hotel.
At around 1-ish, Jennifer, Sarita, Heike and I went along with Gabriel to a Gay bar, since that's where she really wanted to go. I figured I'd tag along, knowing it was a gay bar, with the reasoning that it wouldn't be filled with creepers looking for sex. We paid a 20 peso entry fee and it gave a ticket for a free drink. I ordered a "Destornillador" but I'm pretty sure the bartender gave me a different drink than what I asked for because I know my hand slipped when pointing at the drink menu. But the drink wasn't bad and it was free anyway, so I'm not complaining. But the music was better at the gay bay, and we danced with these two guys that were actually really nice. One of them said he was from Colombia, and that he was going to University there in Buenos Aires. Before we left, Sarita made a comment about how she thought they were gay, and they told us that they weren't gay and that they didn't know it was a gay bar. And we DID take a taxi that night. All the girls actually wanted to, and I would have refused to hear of any unsafe alternatives.
On Sunday we went to a Feria fair-market that sells artesan crafts and antiques. they have it every Sunday. It was pretty cool, but I wasn't interested in buying many of the antiques, and most of the artesan crafts were very cheap-looking and touristy to me. I ended up just getting a pin, hair barettes, and a shot glass, while some of the other girls were getting leather goods. Not that what they bought was crap, but I had seen some better priced and better quality items at the Paseo de los Artes here in Córdoba.
Then we went to the Museo de Bellas Artes, which was cool, but I thought it fell a little bit short. We had talked about the museum in class and how it held works by Berni, and his art about the poor children in the slums of Argentina. I expected the museum to have this whole section dedicated to his work, but they only had two of his paintings. Everything else was this weird modern art by other Argentine artists, and all this artwork from France.
Then we got back on the bus, picked up our luggage at the hotel, and took a plane back to Córdoba. We got back home around 9:15 at night. When we got back to Mimi's house, Mimi, Juan Pablo, and Soledad had just finished eating dinner and Juan and Soledad were packing themselves back into their car say they could drive all the way back to Buenos Aires.
It was a crazy weekend. Buenos Aires is beautiful, and I am so glad this week is pretty much close to just all free time so I can relax before classes start next week. I'll have more tomorrow after I sleep some more!
The oral section was organized like this. It was like a small little interview asking basic conversational questions, then they hand you two random articles. You read them over then pick one you want to talk about. I picked one about the benefits of alcoholic drinks. Basically when you talk about the articles, you can go in any direction you want, it was really ambiguous. If you wanted to go on a tangent you totally could. Anyway, after you had this random spiel on the article, you had a role-play, which depended upon the article you chose. I actually had a choice between two situations, and I chose the one where I was this person that wanted beer at a party that had no alcohol whatsoever, and I was asking where it was. It was kinda fun.
My oral part was at 4 in the afternoon, so when I finished I went straight home and packed everything I needed into my messenger bag and went with Taylor to the Terminal de Omnibus for our trip to Buenos Aires. The bus left around 9:30ish at night and we arrived in Buenos Aires around 6 am. And let me tell you, the overnight buses in Argentina are Freaking Fantastic! The seats are huge, they lean back, you get this thing that pops out in front of you to rest your legs on, there's so much leg room. They served a pretty decent box meal. So much better than any bus tour I did when I lived in Europe. Alfredo (the program director) and Mimi kept warning us about how it got cold on the Omnibus at night. I only went with my sandals and figured I'd just brave it. I'm guessing Argentines aren't that used to the cold because I remember waking up twice because I was so freaking hot during the night.
Anyway we arrived at our hotel in Buenos Aires (which is on a block right next to their congress building!) around 7:15 am and we had until 9ish to unpack, rest, freshen up and have breakfast before we started our tour for the day. The hotel rooms were nice, they were like a mini apartment with four beds, and a kitchenette.
The first day there, we went to the Plaza de Mayo. They had symbols of the "Mothers of the Disappeared" painted all over the ground, and there were so many flags and banners around commemorating the fallen soldiers from the war over the Maldive islands. And if you haven't heard, there's been more conflict over the Maldives lately, since in the past week and a half the UK has just started drilling oil less than 100km from the Maldives and the Argentines are pissed off like none other over it.
Anyway the Plaza de Mayo is also the where the Casa Rosada is located, aka the Argentine White House. Our Tour guide pointed out the specific balcony where Eva Perón gave her speeches, but we did not see Kirchner.
We also went to a Cathedral at the Plaza. I don't remember the name of it, but it was gorgeous and I took a lot of pictures. It looks a like a courthouse on the outside, and the twelve columns out front represent each of the apostles. Inside one of the girls in our tour group asked one of the docents inside a question and I randomly bumped into their conversation. The man asked me if I spoke Spanish. I told him I knew some, and then he started speaking in English, "No, that is impossible. This is a House of God. All are welcome to come and pray and confess however they wish." I was touched. And they had parts of the church roped off with signs saying, "Closed to tourists, Private Prayer Only." So I figured I'd go into each of these places and pray for a bit since I haven't been to church since . . . December I think. I'm not the prime example of a really good Catholic, but most everyone here in Argentina is a Christmas/Easter Catholic themselves, so I fit right in.
We also spent some time at the Rose Garden in Buenos Aires' version of Central Park, which was absolutely gorgeous and smelled absolutely great, but we left earlier than planned by a few minutes because there were so many mosquitos.
We also went to the Cemetery at Recoleta and saw Eva Perón's grave. The whole cemetery was above ground mausoleum's for different families. Eva Perón's had a lot of flowers attached to the door, and many of the actual Argentine visitor's, especially the women, were making their way to the door to kiss it.
There was also another grave that's famous for the creepy and sad story behind it. A 7-9 year old girl was buried in the cemetery. Her family thought she was dead, burt she wasn't. She had this condition that slowed down her pulse and made her appear dead. The night after her funeral, one of the cemetery guards heard loud banging and scratching noises from her mausoleum and went to get help to let her out, but by the time help arrived it was too late. There were scratches all over her coffin and all over face. So she was re-buried in a different coffin in the mausoleum, and now there's a huge statue attached to it of an angel opening a door as if to let someone out, representing what the little girl went through.
We had a nice buffet lunch and then around 2:30 we went back to the hotel and had the rest of the day free. So of course me and some others took a siesta and then left the hotel around 5-ish so that Lucina could go shoe shopping. I tagged along to get out and see some of Buenos Aires, but those of you who know me real well and what I think about 'shopping,' well . . . It wasn't too bad, but we went to like, 8 different shoes stores or something and I can only keep interested in shoes for like, oh I don't know 15 minutes.
Anyway, I wasn't all that hungry for dinner, so at about 9:30 I had like a bag of chips and some orang juice and I was fine. At midnight, I went with some other girls to a boliche/bar called Sahara with Vicky (assistant director for the program, she's really cool.) I decided to go because I like hanging out with Vicky and I figured since I was in Buenos Aires it would be a good time to start partying like an Argentine. Sahara was right across the street from the Recoleta cemetery, and it was free for us to go in, thankfully. The aesthetic was pretty cool because they has 'Sahara' themed decorations and they used pictures from Indiana Jones on their drink menu, which I thought was funny as hell.
I had like two drinks the whole night, and when they started taking away tables so they could turn it strictly into dancing only, random guys started coming over to our table to ask various girls to dance, which was NOT COOL for me because frankly, I thought most of the men were skeazy and sleezy, and I couldn't tell if they were the kind of guys that would 'want more' as the night went on. A lot of the guys looked like they were old enough to be my dad, and had god-awful haircuts. (On a 'related' tangent, there are so many guys here in Argentina with mullets! Mother-f@#king mullets! And they all think they're hot stuff! I've seen more mullets here in one concentrated area then I have back in the US! WTF!?) So I played this game of, pretend I'm really interested in my drink and don't make any eye contact with any strange man if possible. I remember running to the bathroom a few times and hiding out there for periods of five minutes, and at one point I had a panic-attack because I was so nervous. I remember I tried picking up mu glass and fiddling with my straw and finding looking down to find I had put them in random places on the table and not remembering putting them there. I know it was a panic attack, because I had this feeling of paranoia that I haven't had since I used to cut myself in high school.
But things got better when a few girls took me to the level up with different music, and it was just us in that room and I didn't have to worry about strange guys. The rest of the night at the boliche was okay, but I wish I had left earlier. I think I stayed because I was trying to persevere through my social awkwardness and Asperger's or something. But looking back at it, I wouldn't have missed much.
Anyway, when I left with the rest of the girls, they all had this bright idea to walk back to the hotel at 4:15 in the freaking morning because it would save money from taking a cab and that "Oh there's seven of us so we're safe in a group and it's not that far blah, blah, blah . . .' WORST FUCKING IDEA EVER! (sorry for the vulgarity, but seriously, this explains just how bad it was.) So anyway, Sarah McCroy kept saying how for it wasn't (not far my ass) it's 4:30 in the morning, it took almost fourty minutes to get their, a lot of girls were wearing uncomfortable shoes and falling behind, and we kept getting weird-ass catcalls from creepy men on the streets. I remember we passed this one group of boys inviting us somewhere and when I walked passed them they gave me a dirty look and shouted "Sola chicas flacas!" They can suck my ass. There were also a couple of homeless guys lying randomly in the middle of the sidewalk, and oh God it was just so unsafe, but we managed to get to the hotel all together in one piece with all our money, which I don't know how we managed, and when I mentioned that we shouldn't
EVER again I got responses of "Well the catcalls weren't that bad. I've had worse." "What? Nothing happened." Like that excused it. Just because we were that lucky that time doesn't mean that it's okay. So basically I learned that in the future it's in my best interest to take a taxi by myself in that situation, no matter the cost.
So we got back around 5am and I woke up around 9:30 so I could eat breakfast before it closed at 10am. Then that day we went to the Evita museum and saw a lot of her outfits, and the car she and her husband used to ride in. The museum is converted from one of the temporary homes that Evita organized and founded that women and their children used to live in as a halfway house. I really liked the museum, I thought it was powerful. I bought a copy of Eva Perón's La Razón De Mi Vida.
After the museum we had about an hour and a half to walk around Caminito, which is really colorful and also one of the really touristy parts of Buenos Aires, but there was a cool little artesan market to look at.
We went back to the hotel in the early afternoon and I just crashed, because I was so tired. (This how the Argentine's function. This is why they take their siesta seriously!)
That night, we all went as a group, dressed up, to a Tango show dinner at Madera Tango. The dinner was fantastic and the show was great. I'm telling you it made me want to sign up for a Tango class right away. The show went on until midnight, and then we went back to the hotel.
At around 1-ish, Jennifer, Sarita, Heike and I went along with Gabriel to a Gay bar, since that's where she really wanted to go. I figured I'd tag along, knowing it was a gay bar, with the reasoning that it wouldn't be filled with creepers looking for sex. We paid a 20 peso entry fee and it gave a ticket for a free drink. I ordered a "Destornillador" but I'm pretty sure the bartender gave me a different drink than what I asked for because I know my hand slipped when pointing at the drink menu. But the drink wasn't bad and it was free anyway, so I'm not complaining. But the music was better at the gay bay, and we danced with these two guys that were actually really nice. One of them said he was from Colombia, and that he was going to University there in Buenos Aires. Before we left, Sarita made a comment about how she thought they were gay, and they told us that they weren't gay and that they didn't know it was a gay bar. And we DID take a taxi that night. All the girls actually wanted to, and I would have refused to hear of any unsafe alternatives.
On Sunday we went to a Feria fair-market that sells artesan crafts and antiques. they have it every Sunday. It was pretty cool, but I wasn't interested in buying many of the antiques, and most of the artesan crafts were very cheap-looking and touristy to me. I ended up just getting a pin, hair barettes, and a shot glass, while some of the other girls were getting leather goods. Not that what they bought was crap, but I had seen some better priced and better quality items at the Paseo de los Artes here in Córdoba.
Then we went to the Museo de Bellas Artes, which was cool, but I thought it fell a little bit short. We had talked about the museum in class and how it held works by Berni, and his art about the poor children in the slums of Argentina. I expected the museum to have this whole section dedicated to his work, but they only had two of his paintings. Everything else was this weird modern art by other Argentine artists, and all this artwork from France.
Then we got back on the bus, picked up our luggage at the hotel, and took a plane back to Córdoba. We got back home around 9:15 at night. When we got back to Mimi's house, Mimi, Juan Pablo, and Soledad had just finished eating dinner and Juan and Soledad were packing themselves back into their car say they could drive all the way back to Buenos Aires.
It was a crazy weekend. Buenos Aires is beautiful, and I am so glad this week is pretty much close to just all free time so I can relax before classes start next week. I'll have more tomorrow after I sleep some more!
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