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.....
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