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.