More insight into the Argentine educational system

So, last week I decided that I was done shopping classes and I had my schedule organized. I am only taking three classes, but in American credit hours (which Tufts doesn’t actually use) I am taking 15 hours worth of class (aka 4 Tufts classes). What does suck is that I have to go to class every day of the week, which I haven’t had to do since freshman year….however, this is the first semester not having class before 9AM (but I have to leave the house at 8:40 to get to my 9 AM class so its about the same as usual). My schedule is kinda wacky: Monday and Tuesday mornings I have Anthropology at the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, which is a 45 minute walk away (or 10 minute bus ride). Wednesday and Thursday evenings (until 8 or 9 PM) I have 20^th Century Argentine Literature at the same university. Then, Friday mornings I have Argentine Foreign Policy at the Universidad de Congreso, which is only 4 blocks from my house. I’m all signed up for my classes and everything, which is an amazing relief and weight lifted off my shoulders. Now, I have to start doing homework.

Next week I have an Anthro práctico due. A práctico can be any kind of homework assignment, like a paper, response to questions or some kind of analysis of an article. In this case, we had to read and article and respond to some questions. I did the whole thing last week, wrote about 5 pages in paragraph form. It wasn’t that hard. Today in class, the teacher told us that we have turn the práctico in with a group of no more than 9 and really we can just respond to the questions. I hadn’t been able to ask this teacher about the specifics of the práctico because he wasn’t there last week. Last week’s teacher had told me prácticos could be like mini-essays and we should cite the article and another article. So, I followed those instructions.

The problem is that these professors don’t actually talk to each other. The right hand is doing one this and the left hand hasn’t got a clue what that action is. We actually have three teachers for anthro, but I have yet to meet the third. Having three teachers is normal; I have four for Argentine Literature and two for Argentine Foreign Policy. They have this weird system where teachers teach in multiple universities and high schools and no one teaches an entire semester. My host “mom” (nearly genetically impossible, she’s 34) teaches communications at at least three high schools each semester. The students stay in the same classroom and the teachers run around the city. They have this whole system in place because some teachers (and students) go to morning classes and others go to afternoon/evening classes. Everyone in the city has 1/2PM-4/5PM off because those are the siesta hours. During that time, everyone goes home for lunch and some students are done with the day and some are just starting. Mariana (host mom) only really works 15-18 hours a week, which is enough to support herself and live in a house on the main street of the city. She works Monday and Friday afternoons and Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Wednesdays she has off. During her off time, she doesn’t really do much related to her job: I have seen her preparing lessons, but never really grading papers or anything.

So, back to the group work: I have only two weeks of classes and I have had to do a group práctico in every single one. In literature, we had to read an article (during class because Wednesday’s teacher told us to read it for the following week, but Thursday’s teacher had wanted us to read it for that week). Then we had to summarize the article and write the summary in a diagram/chart on a big piece of paper. I worked with 4 other women (2 of whom have teenage children). I almost killed one of them. We only had an hour to do this whole project and reading the article took a little while to begin with. We also had to leave the classroom because other groups were reading too loudly and pissing off my group. So we really had about 20 minutes to write the notes on the big paper. But, first we had to write everything out on a smaller piece of paper and argue about the order and very specific details of the contents of the notes. So, that took about 10 minutes and then this one woman couldn’t figure out if she wanted the poster to be horizontal or vertical. she decided on vertical and began writing in pencil, but had to flip the poster over because she didn’t like the way she wrote Argentine Literature on the first side (not that anyone could actually see the writing, because she had written it so lightly). So, now we have the teacher coming over every five minutes telling us to hurry up and everyone is standing around watching this woman write (and we still had to go over all the letters in marker). I finally picked up the marker and started going over her letters. I was standing at the top of the poster (it was on a table) and therefore, re-writing the letters upside down. These women were so impressed….the foreigner was managing to write in SPANISH from upside down….really it wasn’t that big of a deal: I was following her letters. Of course, we had absolutely no time to actually present the poster. We had also skipped our 10 minute break which pissed off all the students.

For every hour of class at the UNCuyo, a 10 minute break is built into the schedule. These students are very serious about that break. They get pissed if a teacher tries to take up any of the break time and doesn’t “reimburse” them by letting them out early. In anthro, the break usually winds up being 25 minutes because of all the questions the first-years have regarding everything about the homework and everything in general. These kids need major hand-holding. Break time is usually cigarette, food, mate time for everyone. And, whats even worse is that they have bells in the Filosofía y Letras building, where I have my classes. Teachers cannot hear the bells if the door is closed, which means the students close to the door shout when the bell goes off (or a few minutes beforehand if they are feeling bored). Today in anthro, the guy sitting next to me left for the ten minute break and didn’t return for an hour (when the next 10 minute break was beginning).

Tomorrow is a strike at the university, but we’re still going to have class. I really have no clue what they are striking about; I think its something medically/health care related. Teacher 1 in anthro text messaged teacher 2 (during class) and they decided to hold class….you can’t image the student’s reaction….very mad. We’ll see if we actually have class…

(this is actually being typed on Tuesday, whereas the rest was typed on Monday) So today I went to class and we actually started on time (9AM). During the break at 9:50AM, the prof walked back in and said students I have an announcement (in a loud/excited voice): class is cancelled, we need to leave immediately. We thought something was wrong, but really it was that someone who worked in the building had died recently and out of respect, we were not allowed to have classes. So I left and went to COPA to use the internet.

My busy weekend:

I was pretty much busy every second of this weekend. Friday I went to Noel’s apartment. Noel is in my Argentine Foreign Policy class and last week Dan, Drew (other COPAs) and I went over and made pancakes and pizza with Noel and her friends. This week, I went over in the afternoon and hung out with Noel and her friends and then went back after dinner to get ready to go out. We went and met up with some of her friends from Córdoba and then went to a club to go dancing. Dan came too. We spent a few hours at the club, which was relatively close to the city and where I live (most of the clubs are way the hell outside the city, like 20 km away). Dan and I left at 5 AM because we were basically falling asleep on the dance floor (which was absolutely packed and I got stepped on). I stripped as I entered my house and left my smoky clothing outside.

Saturday morning, the cleaning woman showed up at 9 and rang the bell, which is a horrid noise. My host mom was sleeping and didn’t wake up. The woman kept ringing the bell and even called the house. I dragged myself out of bed to let her in as Mariana was dragging herself out of bed. I have no clue why she was so tired; she didn’t go out Friday night (she watched Love Actually on my computer). Anyway, the Peruvian cleaning woman had come over to teach Mariana how to make this chicken and rice dish and to clean the house a little. Luckily, she didn’t need to clean my room (there was no way I was getting out of bed again). However, they made so much noise while cooking that I didn’t really sleep much anyway. I dragged myself out of be at noon and had breakfast. That afternoon I worked on my anthro homework and went to blockbuster.

Blockbuster is 6 blocks away from my house on the main plaza of the city. Being that its blockbuster, I basically went in my pajamas (they were black yoga pants). I had to be buzzed in (and out when I left). Inside is pretty much exactly like every single blockbuster in the US: rows of movies, extremely bright lights and it was freezing. it made me kind of homesick for OT blockbuster on a Friday night when the whole world is there…aka you have to see people you know (although I’m getting to old for that because I don’t know the current high schoolers). I rented El tigre y la nieve, an Italian film that both Nancy and I had been wanting to see (but couldn’t find) the entire time we were home for break. it was a really good movie.

I watched a little of the movie and Noel texted me to tell me that everyone was meeting at Agustina and Fernanda’s apartment (10 blocks away) to take taxis to Luli’s house. The message said meeting at 9PM, but I got it at 8.45PM….so I ran out the door and hurried to the apartment, but didn’t get there until 9.15PM (ok, so I had to put on actual clothing first). when I got there, Fern was straitening Agu’s hair and they were all sitting around doing nothing. We were waiting for Dan, Drew and two Argentine girls to get there (we waited 1.5 hours). Next time, I will not be running out the door….i’ll just be late like the rest of these girls.

Luli lives in an enclosed neighborhood above the park. To enter, one of the Argentine’s in our taxi had to present her document of identity and give her name and all this info. The neighborhood felt like NJ or CA suburbs: quiet, no buses, people with cars on the street, houses with windows open….totally tranquil. It was completely different from the center of the city. I felt like I was back in the US again….this girl had a dishwasher and a mudroom with washer and dryer (these are not common in Argentina). The house also had two dining rooms (formal and informal) and high ceilings. Anyway, Luli had made pasta and lemon pie for dinner. We ate at 11.30PM and then sat around chatting until 4ish. We also played charades with movie titles which was tricky, but a lot of fun. She drove us home, which was super nice of her (we were going to call a taxi because there are none in her neighborhood).

I went to bed at 5 AM Sunday morning and woke up at 11. At 1:15PM, I was outside waiting for Mariana to pick me up (she had run some errands) to go to her sisters’ houses and get them and go to an asado (bbq) in Luján, which is about 20 minutes outside the city. Both sisters and their kids, as well as Mariana’s brother’s family and her dad were at this bbq. She has six nieces and nephews. Kate and Katie (both in COPA, each lives with a sister) were also there. We ate 5 different cuts of meat as well as chorizo (sausage) and lots of salads which mainly consisted of roasted peppers and eggplant. For dessert, one sister had made brownies with dulce de leche and meringue and the other had made lemon pie with meringue on top. Both were delicious, mainly because I couldn’t taste the dulce de leche on the brownies and they were chewy.

After the asado, Mariana drove me to the park and I went to the stadium to meet up with my friends and watch the fútbol game. Finding them was a bit of a chore. They hadn’t gotten seats and were standing on the stairs. We squished ourselves into the section (I had to climb a railing to get to them because I couldn’t get around the police barricades to go the normal way.) There were 10 of us. The people in back kept telling us to sit down and the woman in front was a major pain in the ass. She kept yelling at us to give her more room and kept giving us dirty looks…we basically ignored her and did whatever we wanted. The game was fun, but would have been much better if we were in the popular section (cheap, more “dangerous” aka the people actually enjoy the game), whereas our section was pretty boring. They cheered and yelled, but not that much. Boca (from Buenos Aires) beat Godoy Cruz (from here in Mendoza) 1-0. The game wasn’t that interesting, but it was still fun. Then we walked home, finished tigre y nieve and went to bed; the very busy weekend was over…..

Photocopies are the story of my life

So, over the past week or so, I have had to get photocopies in various places and every time its more fun that the last. This requires an explanation: students in Argentina don’t use books to study for their classes. Books are too expensive. As it is, they refuse to buy all of the photocopies because those are too expensive also. So, the photocopies… no one gives you a syllabus or any assignments. You have to go to the photocopier and buy these documents. There are two photocopiers in the Filosofía y Letras building (where I have anthro and Argentine literature). One is on the planta baja (entrance floor) and the other is on the first floor (American second floor). The planta baja copier has a larger counter and more people working. All of the documents are in big folders and you have to find them and ask for copies….I’ve only gotten syllabi there. The people are always smoking and being that we’re in Argentina they can’t make change….money is so screwed up here, but that’s a whole other story.

The past few days, I’ve been to the first floor copier every day. The way the system works is that you first have to get a number (deli-counter style). The first time I was there I pulled B65 and they were on A97. I amazingly didn’t have to wait that long (no one from 20-50 was actually there and I found B55 on the counter). There is no line. Everyone just grabs a number and crowds the counter, smoking and talking really loudly with friends. When your number gets called, you have to jump at the counter because if you don’t, they’ll pass you by (you get ½ a second to respond to your number). Then, you get to push through people until you get to the counter and talk to the copy lady. She has a computer and looks up the materials for which you are searching. She then sends the copies to one of four huge printers (which spit out pages with writing on both sides), you pay and get to push your way out of the crowd. Its chaotic, but you wind up making friends because you chat with people while waiting.

For my anthro homework, I had to read an article. The prof. only gave us the title of the article and the photocopy didn’t have any information about the author or anything like that. We haven’t seen that prof since last week (each class has 3 or 4 professors teaching it). This week’s prof gave us two authors’ names for suggestions of readings that might help us with the homework assignment. I went and found the photocopies, which involved the copy lady and I searching the readings from last year’s class. I paid AR$4.7 (US$1.5) for my copies, which is relatively a lot and brought them home. At home, I discovered that one of the copies was actually the reading we had to do for the assignment…so now I have two copies of it and I wasted time at the copier. Argentines don’t really understand the concept of wasting time…like making a bunch of the same copies at once and selling them later might make sense…Gnoman copy really has this down a lot better…they should come teach the Argentines.

Then, I went down to the student services desk to sign up for classes. COPA told us to bring a photocopy of our passport and go fill out the forms. So, being the good student that I am, I went a week ahead of the deadline to fill out the papers and stuff. However, they don’t just want a photocopy of the photo page of the passport (like most places), they want a photocopy of every page which has stamps, which for me is a lot (like more than half my passport). This really isn’t a problem, except for that the stamps are starting to come through the pages and you can see them on more then one page. The Chileans use so much damn ink and the passport has been damp recently, oops. So, I’ve got the rest of the those photocopies and I’ll go later today and see what they say…

Feeling natural in San Rafael

Rafting in San Rafael!! No, I´m not helping paddle.....or well, I´m ´´helping´´

COPA took us to San Rafael for the weekend. San Rafael is three-four hours away in the valleys to the south of the city. We left Saturday morning at 6.30AM (thank goodness the departure point was 4 blocks away). I had only gotten three hours of sleep because I was at the apartment of a friend from one of my classes. A bunch of Argentine girls, two American guys and me; we made pancakes and pizza. We got to San Rafael and found our cabins….it was super cute, a campground and cabins and a pool, all right alongside a river and mountains. we swam in the pool and sunbathed and then went on an excursion to a lake that had been damned and we chilled on a private beach for the afternoon. I climbed a sand hill (quite difficult) and the views were amazing. Then, we had a sing-a-long because my friend Paul brought his guitar. We went back to the cabins and played cards until dinnertime. Then, chatted and went to bed because we were so tired.

Sunday, we went on a hike through the mountain/canyon/valley thing (there wasn’t much climbing involved). The colors of the mountains were really pretty: reds and whites and rusty-brown colors. it was very hot and we all ran for the pool as soon as we got back to the cabins. After lunch we all went rafting, which was fun. It wasn’t as good as the time I went in Pennsylvania; the rapids weren’t super strong here. Our guides threw us into the water and then had to pull us back into the boat, which was funny. rafting is really fun in big groups because its like a constant water fight. We got back to the cabins with just enough time to shower before returning to Mendoza. I slept a fair amount of the drive back.

One of the things I really like about this COPA group is that I am one of four girls with a digital SLR; one has a Nikon, another a new Canon rebel, and the other a D20 or 30 or something like that. Its fun because we can talk cameras and lenses and stuff and people don’t look at me like the crazy girl with the big camera.

Me on the lake where we hung out on a private beach.






























Our group hike during the trip.

When they let morons design cities, but first the cool parts:

The picture on the left is an acequia and the sign for the university. The picture on the right is my building at the university.

Last night it rained. Mendoza is a desert, officially, but because of the climate changes (aka global warming, humans really are screwing up the world), they get these huge thunder and lightning storms. What you need to know as background is that many years ago, when Mendoza was founded, there was no rain. They constructed a city with irrigation channels called acequias. They are everywhere: every street has them, even though some have covered them. They are either covered with wood in construction sites or covered by the sidewalk and then have grates to let water pass. Because of the acequias, Mendoza’s central plazas (there are 5) and all of the cities street have huge trees which grew from the water they used to carry. Now, the acequias function for water removal as well. Most of the time, as I walk, the acequias are dry and like every other Latin American city (if it had acequias) filled with garbage. They are also refered to as tourist or drunk traps as people do occasionally fall into them. (I will post when I see this happen.)

When it does rain; it rains like mad and the next day, the acequias get to show off their absolute necessity. Each one becomes a river and gushes with water. My favorite acequia is the one on Bolounge Sur Mer because it is twice the width of any other acequia in the city. Also the houses on Sur Mer are really huge (they face San Martín Park, which is 1/3 of the city space). Some of the people have covered the acequias with vines and other plants to make them fit with their houses. Its really interesting to see how people have incorporated them.

The average center of the city acequia and the ones on the university are a good 14-18 inches wide, which means you have to watch where your feet land when getting off a micro (city bus) or getting out of a car. It is entirely possible to step off a bus and wind up nearly two feet below street level. If this were a city in the US, every acequia would be painted bright orange to warn people, or more likely, they would all be covered by the side walk with grates to allow water to enter. Even the park and the plazas have acequias running through them. That’s what allowed man to do things like plant pine trees next to cacti. (Its ironic to look at too.)

One does get used to crossing acequias by taking large steps, but this can be difficult in a skirt and flip flops. However, acequias make crossing the street a challenge because you might have to make the jump upon reaching the other side. There are little bridges (aka parts where the side walk has been built to cross the channel), but they are few and far between on the university.

So, the city planners were really thinking when they designed the acequias, but they really screwed up the city in one way: every street running east-west has three names. Ok, so if you want to have the streets change names when running through a central axis, that’s one thing. Its another when the center is a plaza and there are two streets functioning as an axis. The city is long and narrow; it is only about 25 blocks wide, which means that every eight blocks, the streets change names. Its not just the main streets that do this, in the central part of the city, all streets change when crossing Belgrano and San Martín. I am lucky enough to live on one of the main streets, its called Colón where I live, Aristides Villanueva between Belgrano and the park and Emilio Zapata between San Martín and the eastern city limit. Each part of the street has its own character, too. Aristides is the party street; its where most of the bars are located and where most of the population can be found on a Friday night. (Note, this is most of the human population, taxi cabs are still few and far between.) When it becomes Colón, it has more businesses like banks and supermarkets and hardware stores, with fewer bars and residential buildings. Then, Zapata has some businesses and stores, but its distinction is that when you cross San Martín, Zapata starts a two-way street.

Its not that hard to figure out, until you have to cross Belgrano. I’ll look at bus routes and they say the bus runs Ortega. Ok, but that’s in the western part of the city; then I have to figure out what that means for me. I have to think about it: Ortega is San Lorenzo for me, here in the center. Or for going to friends houses, “Sure, come over, we’re drinking mate (traditional, biter Argentine tea). I live on Avellaneda.” There is no Avellaneda where I live, so I have to consult my map and discover that Avellaneda is called Gutierez before it crosses Belgrano. Its actually more likely I would walk Belgrano and find the street, but I would have to know the direction first. Even though Mendoza is a small city, the street names do make it a bit confusing and the bus lines are an absolute hell.

Its because of Mendoza’s size that most bus lines are complete circles and go to the surrounding towns, called departments, as well. This means that even though I take the 112 or the 103 from the corner of Chile and Rivadavia, taking either of those buses back will not bring me to the same location without going all over the world. So, I have two different lists of buses: one for going to the university and another for returning. All of the buses have a line number and then a specific route number. You can only see the line number from far away. The route number is written on a much smaller sign and behind the glace window (hello, glare!), which means you get about three seconds to glance and the route number and decide if it’s the one you one. This isn’t so much a problem when I’m going to the university, but when I’m on my way home, buses I can take are constantly passing me without my realizing until its too late. At least I live in the center which is pretty easy to get to and from. I feel really badly for all the people who live on the outskirts or outside the center because there are fewer buses that go towards their houses and most of them wind up taking the bus in the wrong direction and finding out they are in one of the suburbs. This has never happened to me.

Vendimia and (the lack of) classes

Monday morning I went to Universidad de Congreso, which is located about 4 blocks away from my house. My class was supposed to start at noon. I found the room and went and sat down. An Argentine and five Mexican exchange students entered and sat down also. Then we realized that it was a first-year class and, therefore, won’t be starting for two weeks. So, I left and went back home and then went to COPA to use the internet, which is pretty useless because its so slow.

To continue the wine festival, we went as a group (all 35 of us) to the third night of the Vendimia (grape harvest) festival/show in an amphitheater in the hills of the park. I had seen the show on television a few nights before, but seeing it in person was completely different. The stage was enormous; I mean, absolutely huge. There were nearly 500 people involved in the production, mostly dancers. The costumes were elaborate and the dances were incredible. The show was meant to be a metaphorical history of the region: Mendoza as a city and Argentina as a whole. It is slightly related to the wine production here in Mendoza, but not really. There were some scenes about wine, but mostly it covers the history and culture of the country. The dances dealt with the nature of the region (rivers and forests), the native people who were the original inhabitants, the coming of the Spanish, the introduction of the train, and everything grapes. At one point, 5 dancers lowered themselves from a bunch of grapes suspended 40 feet in the air. The white backdrop of the stage was lit up with different colors and designs (mostly grapes). There were also scenes showing the tradition of empanadas (with huge hands and a rolling pin) and truco, an Argentine card game. The only thing I can compare the show with is the Lion King on Broadway. After the show, there were fireworks set off above the stage.

Tuesday I woke up early and went to class at UCong. There were 15 COPAs already in the room when I finally found it. This classroom was on the 5th floor of a building that only has 4 floors. To get to the classroom, I first went to the first floor (American floor 3), found the room on the bulletin board listing, climbed to the 4th floor (American 6th floor), walked outside and crossed the rooftop “buffet” (glorified kiosk, which probably serves coffee), went up the stairs to the 6th floor of another building, went to the end of the hallway and down stairs to the 5th floor. After waiting 20 minutes in the classroom, a woman entered and told us that the schedule had changed and the class would be at 2.30PM instead of 9.30AM, but she didn’t know where. So, we gathered our things and left. A bunch of us girls headed for a café to sit and chat for a while.

I went back to Congreso at 2.20PM and climbed back up to this crazy classroom. It was dark, so I went back to the first floor student center (a counter with people who answer questions about when and where classes are, kind of like Dowling). The counter people sent me to another office, where I was told that the new schedule is correct, but the class is actually going to start next week. So, I went back home. I wasn’t really that interested in taking either Monday or Tuesday’s classes, but now I am even less interested, especially because UCong is less prestigious than UNCuyo and the classes are supposed to be a joke/super easy, like waste of time easy, which doesn’t surprise me based on what I found in Buenos Aires.

I returned to UCong at 9PM for another class, which was really interesting, but I don't think I'll be able to take it because of scheduling and because I don't think I can count it towards my IR cluster. The class was Argentine Foreign Policy, a 4th year IR class. It was nice to finally go to a class...

Wednesday, I finally found a micro (city bus) to go to UNCuyo, the other university which is located in the park and COPA's office is there. I had been walking the 45min-1hour journey every other day or so, which is good exercise. I realized that I had no clue which micros went to the uni and probably should figure that out before it rains or before I have to be there super early (aka tomorrow). So, it took me about 25 minutes to figure out which micro and where it left from and to wait for it. The ride only takes 15 minutes or so once aboard the micro. Its actually more confusing here than in Buenos Aires because there are no really long streets that all the micros take. In BsAs, the micros passed my house and went towards the center. There were some major streets that most micros took. Here, the major streets are so much smaller that they don't have tons of micros running on them. The micros run near the plazas and its somewhat confusing. Anyway, there is a website with all the micro lines on it, so I've studied it and hopefully can figure out which are the better ones and which suck. I also went to the facultad de filosofía y letras (the building where I will take history and literature classes) to try to find the schedules and classrooms. Unfortunately, the schedules haven't changed (I wanted them to change so I could take certain classes which right now have conflicting schedules). It took me about 15 minutes to find the bulletin board with the schedules on it. Being that I am in Argentina, I had to ask 4 different people. Person 1 had no clue. Number 2 sent me to some student center. I never made it to the desk because there were so many students. Person 3 send me to the scheduler for final exams. That person (number 4) sent me to the 2nd hall....which turned out to be a large space with students taking English placement exams. The lists were posted next to the exam tables and I finally figured out where my classes would be located and that I had the correct schedules. The sad thing about the education system in Argentina is that finding classes is actually harder than taking classes.....

Vendimia....The festival of grapes!

March 1, 2007
I went to Paul’s house in the afternoon with Anna. We had some mate and chilled for a while. Then we walked to COPA because Anna had her academic interview and Paul and I wanted to use the internet. We chilled there and then walked back home (which is about 40 minutes for me). That night we met up at Paul’s again before going out. Anna didn’t want to go out because she didn’t want to walk from her house to Paul’s alone. Mateo, Paul and I went and got here and then chilled in a plaza near her house for a little while. We went to Aristides Villanueva, which is the street with all the bars (its actually my street with a different name and 2.5 blocks from my house). We went to the one bar that has pool tables and played a round. Mateo and I were a team and Anna and Paul were the other team. I sunk 2 balls on my first attempt. Then I sunk some more and Mateo got two in. I won us the game by calling and sinking the 8 ball in a corner pocket. We made friends with a group of Mendocinas (girls from Mendoza) because we were looking for information on boliches and stuff. I got home late and went to bed.

March 2, 2007
I, luckily, did not have classes, so I got to sleep a little later than the rest of my friends. I woke up with a slight cold, but went to the tourism office to try to get a copy of the culture guide, but they didn’t have any. Then I had more of the amazing grape juice that they sell at a cart on the street here. Its white grape juice and super fresh and only costs a peso ($.30USD). I walked through Plaza España where there was a feria (market). Next, I went to the grocery store and then returned home. I ate lunch and napped during the afternoon. Anna came over at 6 because we were going to go shopping. We went to UCong to check schedules for classes that are going to start on Monday and then walked around a little bit. Paul met us at Plaza Independencia and we went out to dinner. Mateo came and we went to the Vía Blanca, a parade. The Annual Festival of the Vendimia (wine harvest) is going on right now. All of the 17 or so departments (towns) in the Mendoza province have beauty queens running to be queen of the vendimia. Friday night’s parade was a display of the queens, each on her own float, throwing fruit, water, wine, raisins and other stuff at the crowd. Mateo and I watched the parade from a street lamp, while Anna and Paul stayed on the ground. We had a decent view. It was interesting, but a lot of the same thing: another float with another girl, throwing something at us. We couldn’t actually get anything because we were on the streetlight, but Anna and Paul ate grapes and grabbed a bag of raisins that we shared (raisins are bad here; they have seeds). We went back to my house because I live three blocks from the parade route. We played cards for a while and then went to a party 11 blocks away. There were a lot of people from COPA there, which was nice because I hadn’t seen them in a while. They went out to dance (and some went to another party) and I went home because I was tired and didn’t want to go out any more.

March 3, 2007
I woke up pretty early and went to the Carrusel, the morning version of Friday night’s parade. This time the route was reversed and there was music and dancers. The girls continued throwing things, including apples, pears, raisins, cookies, nuts, grapes (a lot of grapes went flying through the air), and melons…yes, honeydew melons came soaring through the air thanks to the girls from Lavalle. I was behind a barricade, but the nieces of the woman next to me were in front. These girls had the most ridiculous amount of fruit. They had every kind of everything, except wine because they’re too young. They just kept coming back with more stuff to put in their aunt’s bag. There was one float that passed with an asado (bbq) going. They were cooking up the meat and distributing it to the crowd….mostly to the police and EMTs. The people around me shared some grapes (we weren’t in an area where stuff was being thrown because we were on a corner, but everyone in front of the barricade brought us stuff). It was fun, but really sunny and I was very tired from not getting too much sleep the night before.

Buenos Aires y Mendoza

Feb 22, 2007
Arrived at the hotel and found my room. There was already a girl in the room and the other one was downstairs. My roommates were Jerin and Jenna. Jerin is from Atlanta, GA and goes to the University of North Carolina. Jenna is from rural Illinois and goes to UIll in Urbana-Champagne. We had lunch as a group and then, after some free time, had an orientation session at the hotel. Dinner was in Recoleta at an Italian restaurant. Then, I went to Gilda’s and picked up my stuff. It was weird taking the colectivo and walking along the botanical garden and all that….kind of like dejá vu. I sat in her kitchen and chatted with her and the new COPA girl. Then, I took my bag and went downstairs and hailed a cab. I told the cabbie exactly where I wanted to go; he looked at me and said, wow, you know your way. I told him I lived in the city. We chatted: he was from Cafayate (I had just come from Salta) and his sister lives in New Jersey. I got to the hotel at midnight and went up to my room. Jerin, Jenna and I stayed up until 2:30 AM chatting and listening to music.

Feb 23, 2007
I woke up early to use the internet. Then we had a day-long city tour. We started by going to Recoleta and walking around the cemetery….my third time seeing Evita’s grave. We walked through Buenos Aires design, then drove to San Isidro for lunch overlooking the river. Then we drove back into the city and went to Palermo to the Rosedal. Finally, we went to Plaza San Martín and looked at the Malvinas memorial. Then we returned to the hotel and had more orientation. That night, after chatting with Paul and Mateo, Anna and I went to a play where the entire cast started out naked then put on a uniform and acted out scenes about current social topics such as the daily grind of a job/stressful life or father-daughter sexual abuse. We met up with the boys in Plaza Serrano. We tried to go to a bar, but they told us that only three people could occupy tables on the sidewalk (we took a table after a group of four left). We gave up because the bar was kind of expensive and went to a little café/bar that was also a bookshop. It was the kind of place that I wish I had known about while I was living there because it was so cute and interesting: the menu was a book. We took the 152 back to the hotel and went to bed at 4AM or so.

Feb 24, 2007
I woke up with very little time to pack (aka I slept through 3 alarms). We left pretty early and took a tour of the Plaza de Mayo, then drove to and walked around La Boca. Finally, we went to San Telmo and ate lunch, then stopped by Puerto Madero. At the airport, we checked our bags, but I forgot to check my pocket knife. They wouldn’t let me through at security, so I had to run down to the check-in counter and luckily caught the last girl checking her bag. She put my knife in her bag (after I knocked over the post for the queue). We went back upstairs and through security. I fell asleep, on the floor, while waiting for the flight. Jose woke me by kicking my feet. During the flight, I organized some photos from my trip. The families were waiting for us at the airport. Mariana’s first reaction when she met me was that I sound like a porteña. She drove me to her house; we chatted along the way about my allergies and my interest in photography. She had received a paper about me, which told her what I was allergic to and that I had been to Kosovo and other information. I was tired, so we didn’t do much that first day. Her house is perfect. Its on the main street, but you enter through a gated door off the street and then walk 60 feet down an ally way, which has lots of potted plants to a patio with more potted plants. Its painted a sunny yellow color, inside and out. You walk in to the living room, which feels like a sunroom (windows, small high windows on the other side, plants, white tile floor and yellow wall). Then the kitchen and dining room are right off the living room, with a sky light and everything is open. Our rooms are off to the right side (mine in the back and hers in the front) with the bathroom in the middle. My room had lime green closets!, which are fun. I love the colorfulness and openness of everything. It’s a super cute house and feels like a little cottage. Its great because I can walk home at whatever time I want, but we have peace and quiet (sort of) because we are set back, off the street a bit. For dinner we had eggplant milanesa and roasted peppers and I discovered that Mariana and I eat basically the same foods.

Feb 25, 2007
Empanadas here only cost $.70 each. Drove around the park, which was full of people. Went to Villavicencio, which is in the mountains outside of Mendoza (about 45 minutes away). Drove around a little more and then went out and had ice cream at Perín. I have cinnamon and grapefruit (my two fave flavors). Then we ate dinner super late, while watching the Oscars on television. I can eat whatever I want, whenever I want. There is food in the fridge, I just open the door and eat. It doesn´t matter what the food is there for. Mariana is a great cook….we had gnocci Bolognese which was amazing…her sauce was fantastic. She made a stir fry today and I can´t wait to try it for dinner.

Feb 26, 2007
Orientation day one. Went to CICUNC and listened to Jose (our program director) talk and then I left early because I didn’t have to take the diagnostic test. Didn’t do much during the afternoon, then went to a wine tasting at Jose’s friend’s house. We were given a wine demonstration, tasted some wine and then ate dinner (empanadas and milanesa). Afterwards, I went out to a bar with some of the people in the group. Then walked home at 1AM or so and felt totally safe. The students, there are only 30 of us, are very different from those in the Buenos Aires program. This group is from all over the country and very few knew each other beforehand or go to the same university in the US. Overall, I am happy, but I don´t know them very well because I don´t have to take the grammar class.

Feb 27, 2007
Jose told me I could take the “Cititour” with the Spanish classes. I figured, of course, I want to take a tour of the city. I met the group at Plaza Independencia and we started the tour. It turned out to be more of a Treasure Hunt at the Mercado Municipal and Mercado Persa. We had to ask prices of things and other questions. The activity was rather stupid, except we witnessed a couple fighting (like actually throwing punches) on the street. That was insanely intense and almost scary. The woman was really going after her husband/boyfriend. The teachers tried to take us to lunch, but ½ of us didn’t want anything to eat because we had eaten beforehand. A bunch of us went back to Plaza Independencia and then went out and got some ice cream. I had vanilla al malbec (literally wine-flavored ice cream). After the teachers set us free, I went and bought a new SIM card for my phone, so now I have a Mendoza number. Then we went to an orientation session at Universidad de Congreso, which as a horrible event….boring, hard to understand, and not really helpful. I took a bunch of people to Movistar to help them buy cell phones or figure out SIM cards and tarjetas and all of that crap. Finally, I returned to my house and then went out to a festival in Plaza Italia. I went with Mariana and her friends. We ate and drank and enjoyed Italian music. Kate and Katie (who are living with Mariana’s sisters) were there, as were Mariana’s nieces and nephew. We played with the children and took them to get some pizza, then returned home.

Feb 28, 2007
I woke up and did nothing during the morning, then went to COPA at 2ish (Mariana’s friend drove me to the park entrance and I walked the rest of the way). I had a meeting with the academic coordinator about classes and then the secretary sent me the schedules for my classes. There are already conflicts in my schedule regarding the classes I was interested in taking, which makes me sad. Then we had an academic orientation, which was mainly information I knew, but still good to hear again. I took a micro home….for the first time. The route actually followed my street for a while, so it was pretty easy for me to get off. I ate dinner (gnocci bolonese) and then went to the movie theater. The university had a theater in the center, which is free for COPA students. The line at the theater was incredible, around the corner and down the block. Paul, Anna, Maggie, and Mateo met me at the theater, while I was waiting on line. We saw Los Infiltrados (The Departed), which just won the Oscar. It was absolutely amazing. All the Bostonness made me a little homesick, especially seeing the bridge over the Charles and the State House and the accents…..and they mentioned Somerville!!! Homesickness for Tufts aside, the movie was really fantastic: you had to think to follow it. I can’t imagine what it would be like to watch it as an Argentine, probably difficult to follow, even with the subtitles. Afterwards, Mateo and I walked home (the rest took taxis). We walked through Plazas Independencia and Italia, both of which had people. He is frustrated with the people who speak English in our program and pretty much just misses Córdoba (he studied there last semester).

March 1, 2007
I went to get a university student bus pass….a somewhat disastrous process, this being Argentina. Yesterday, I had gotten the letter of university status from COPA and Jose told me to bring a copy of my passport and a photo. So this morning I got more photocopies of my passport and went to the bus station, where he had told me to go. Getting there was a pain in the ass because the intersection (aka main road and highway) is under-construction. The amount of guys talking to me was incredible…construction workers in a group=piropo (catcall) hell. I finally made it to the terminal. Once inside the terminal, I had to locate the city bus ticket office. This was difficult, but after asking a woman, I did finally find the ticket office. After waiting (thankfully only 5 minutes) on the line, they told me that I had to go to Lavalle 315 and ask there because they don’t issue the abono estudiante (card with discount) at this location. So, I left the terminal and went to the address, which didn’t exist. I walked the block and went to a plaza with a cathedral (I didn’t enter). Then I walked the other side and found the government office where they sell these tickets. I waited for about 15 minutes and when I got to the front they told me I had to go to the next window and that my photo was too big. It turned out ok because the woman just cut the photo and was able to use it. I had her explain the entire system to me and I think I have to go before April 30 to renew the card and I can only put more money on the card at this office or at the bus terminal (where I was earlier). Once I had the card, I walked towards my house, stopping to stare at the cardboard cut-outs of the girls running to be Queen of the Vendimia (grape harvest, festival this weekend). I took some pictures and then walked the peatonal, crossed Plaza Independencia, went to Plaza Italia and read for a while. Then I went back to my house and had lunch.