Part 1 of 2: The Last Few Days

I wanted to write a two-part post about both what's been going on for the last few days in Rosario and also giving a brief update of how I'm feeling about the experience as a whole. My plan was to write about both of these topics in one blog post, but since I wanted to get something published tonight, I decided to break one long post into two shorter posts. So below is part 1: a summary of the last few days in Rosario:

After coordinating plans via email to turn the final version of Mi Aventura in to Karie (since I couldn't email it to her because the file was too big) and meet Mary at Starbucks, both of these plans were realized Saturday afternoon. Starbucks was quite an experience. I felt obnoxiously American when I walked in because I was supporting an American company while in Rosario (when I told Eugenia I was going to Starbucks, which is maybe 6 blocks down our street, she asked me what Starbucks was. I almost died. That might be an exaggeration. I'm not obsessed with Starbucks.), wearing letters, and carrying Vera Bradley. When we went to order, the man working the counter spoke in English, so we placed our order for alto (tall) dulce de leche frappuccinos. After ordering, he said he didn't have any cups in that size, and would it be okay if he gave us a larger size (it would be easier for him to give us change that way too)? He was holding up a cup for a warm drink, which should have been my first hint that we weren't getting our frappuccinos. When they called our names, we were surprised to find not alto dulce de leche frappuccinos, but venti dulce de leche lattes! You could tell I was mad about it by the way I drank the entire venti latte. After Starbucks I went home briefly, only to walk back to Starbucks about 2 hours later to meet the gang for our evening activity.

Even though Karie's class ended a week ago, she's been hanging out and going to events with us. Saturday was her last night in Rosario, and we wanted to spend the evening with her. We had found a bowling alley while shopping on Friday, and we thought that would be something fun and low-key for all of us to do. After meeting at Starbucks, we made our way to a different bowling alley around 9:30, and the place was dead. We still had fun, and when our game was finished Karie went home to rest up for her day of travel and Mary, Melissa and I headed to an Irish pub. We sat at the bar because there were no tables available. After we had been sitting at the bar for a while, the bartender told us that the bar was cerrado (closed) and that they would get a table for us if we wanted to stay. We then looked around at the rest of the people sitting at the bar, only to find that we were the only women sitting there. There were also 3 men standing by the door behind us, and it looked like we were getting kicked off the bar in order for these men to sit there! We were a little confused about why we were asked to leave, but then we found out that in Argentina people only sit at the bar while they're waiting for a table. Instead of taking the table, we decided we'd have an early night so we could get up the next morning at a normal time.

I had told the group that I went to church last Sunday, and everyone talked about how they wanted to go with me this Sunday, even though no one else is Catholic. We found a church that's much closer to home than the Catedral, and it ended up being just me, Mary, and Melissa that went to Mass. When we arrived, we were approached by who I suppose was the Mass Coordinator, and she told us that since we were young and there were three of us, would we mind taking the gifts to the altar during the preparation of the gifts? After some confusion about our nationality, I told the Mass Coordinator that we would do it, ignoring the fact that neither Mary nor Melissa are Catholic nor familiar with the Mass and its rituals. With some guidance from the Mass Coordinator, we presented those gifts like we knew what we were doing the whole time.

Sunday evening ended with many games of solitaire played on my phone and a research project/presentation over the differences between Argentinean public and private schools. After class on Monday and lunch at Zona, I was off to do some shopping on my own! I'd been dying for a pair of boots, and Karie had left me with a list of recommended boot stores around Rosario. I set off on my own, peering at boots through windows, wishing that the cute boots I kept finding weren't $699 (pesos, not dollars. But still expensive!). I went back to the bookstore that Cain, Mary and I had found on Friday and bought a book called Te Invito a Creer (I Invite You to Believe). I read the introduction on Friday, and the author, Maunel Lozano, writes eloquently yet simply enough that I could understand. It looked like a fascinating book about the different realities that Manuel encounters while traveling around Argentina, and I'm really excited to start reading it! (Manuel also has this really cool TED Talks video where he discusses why he became interested in learning about different realities in Argentina, which you can watch here. You"ll have to turn on the captions since it's in Spanish, but if you have 20 minutes his story is really inspiring). I'm excited to have this piece of literature that was written and produced in Argentina so that I'll have a tangible memento of the language to bring home with me to practice reading in Spanish.

I also witnessed an attempted theft while at the bookstore! This guy came into the bookstore while I was checking out, and was just loitering near the front of the store. I could only see him out of the corner of my eye, but he was giving me the heebie jeebies. As I was finishing paying, he walked up to the woman working and tried to hand her some little cards, but she told him to stop loitering and get lost. So as he tried to leave the store, the alarm starts going off, and the woman working runs over and stops him. He pulls a book out of his bag, mumbling something about "how did that get in there?" and I didn't know what to do but I had already paid so I just kind of walked past them and left. As I was leaving, the worker yelled "Ladrón!" (thief!) and the guy came running out the door behind me, and I was afraid he was going to try and steal my bag out of my hand or something, but he didn't. It was just really creepy and definitely not the way that situation would have been handled in the United States!

After I had checked out all the recommended shoe stores once, there were a few I thought had some promising boots, but I was tired and didn't feel like walking back into the same stores that I had visited already. So I made plans to go back Tuesday after classes. I decided to go on a walk for exercise, so I decided to eat the equivalent to Oreos for energy and left for my walk. I walked along the river and ended up in the Catedral de Nuestra Sra del Rosario, where I took some pictures of the catedral and shopped in the gift store. The lady working in the shop asked me what I was doing in Rosario, and when I told her I was studying Spanish in the university, she told me that I spoke Spanish very well! On my way home, I decided to take pictures along Tucumán, the street I live on, and I came across a shoe outlet where I found 2 pairs of boots that I really liked. I didn't have any more money on me and I needed to think about which boots I wanted, so I promised I would return and went home.

Today started out as a not so good day (only because I had class at 8am and it was freezing outside. Otherwise everything was fine). After class, Mary and I had plans to go to Starbucks for Frappuccino Happy Hour! We found out this weekend that Happy Hour had been going on for the last week and that today was the last day, so even though today was one of the coldest days we've had in Rosario, we made our way to Starbucks. On our way we stopped in the boot outlet I found yesterday and I bought a super cute pair of boots WITH A 25% DISCOUNT. Then we walked across the street and got grande dulce de leche frappuccinos for half price! In that moment I might have been enjoying the happiest day of my life! (that might also be an exaggeration. But it was seriously pretty happy.)

I didn't have any classes after lunch but I hung around the site and journaled while sitting by a warm fire and talking with the students from the other summer program. The day ended with a movie called Victoria, a documentary about a girl born in captivity during the Dirty War trying to find information on her biological parents. I finished my Spanish homework while at the site, so I had time for blogging AND going to bed early so I can get up round 2 of 8am class tomorrow. Unfortunately I don't have time to finish part 2 of this blog post tonight because I want to go to bed, but my mid(ish) program reflections will be posted soon!

Truths I May Have Exaggerated...

 Truths I May Have Exaggerated to the Other Students in My Study Abroad Program:

• There is only corn in Indiana: This came up in Spanish class because I was asked to talk about what Indiana is like since the other students in my program are all from Oregon. No one has ever asked me that and I quickly realized that my Spanish vocabulary was limited to maiz, so I might have just said that's all there is there. When they asked me to tell them more about Indiana in English I couldn't think of anything else to add to my description. I did finally tell them that paved roads run between the cornfields so that's a step up, right?
• I am afraid of camp: This came up because some of the students from Oregon are camp counselors. One day, they were talking about the kids that wake up in the middle of the night crying and I told them that I would be that kid. I cried at day camp because I disliked the whole experience so much (and I'm sure it only would have been worse at overnight camp, thank goodness Linda and Dan had the sense to never send me). In Spanish one day, I was asked if I had any fears and I said no (because I couldn't think of any in the moment). Then, it came up in a later activity that I didn't like camp so then they just assumed that because I didn't like it I'm afraid of it. Which is not how it is at all.
• I can't live without Starbucks: If you had a Starbucks rewards card, you wouldn't leave it at home to miss out on drink rewards, would you? Sorry I brought my card for a company known around the world to a different country. I'm rather enjoying my cafe con leches in the quaint cafés here, and I'm surviving just fine without my frappucinos, thank you very much. I found the Starbucks last weekend (it's only like 5 blocks away from my apartment!) but it's super expensive. 27 pesos for a coffee? I still want to go to say I've been there, and I think Mary and I are planning an excursion there this weekend.
• I only do the 'sorority lean' in pictures: I just really like putting my hand on my hip when I have one arm free in pictures. Otherwise, what am I supposed to do with my hand? Let it hang awkwardly (although we all know how much I love awkward things)? Cain initially asked if I would teach him the sorority lean, but now it has caught on and we need to tone it down a little - our sorority leans are getting a little out of control. Karie looked through the photos I brought with me from home and said that the lean is the pose I do the most. When I went back and reviewed the 25 pictures, only 5 contain the lean in some form, 3 contain the sorority squat, and the rest are semi-normal. Since the majority are semi-normal can you really say that I do the sorority lean in every picture?
• I am afraid of elevators. I have two irrational fears that come up every time I have to ride in an elevator: that the cable supporting the elevator is going to snap while I'm riding in the elevator, and that the elevator is going to get stuck with me inside. I don't know where these fears originated, especially because I'm not claustrophobic and neither of these horrendous scenarios have ever happened to me. Because of these irrational fears, I usually try and take the stairs when I have that as an option. Not only are stairs safer than elevators, but they also promote wellness by improving my cardiorespiratory endurance. Anywho, so the elevators in Argentina are sketchier than elevators in the United States. There are no doors that open automatically when the elevator arrives at a floor: you must first open what looks like a regular door in order to enter the elevator, shut the door behind you, then move the grate across the doorway to keep you inside. The elevators take off and come to a stop with a halt, which continues to freak me out even though I know it's coming every time. Also, the elevators are TINY. I can barely fit myself, my backpack, my suitcase, and one other person in an elevator at one time. Now that the other students know about my fear, every time that we take an elevator, they apologize for making me take the elevator. It's totally unnecessary because a) I've never made a big deal about taking the elevator instead of the stairs, and b) elevators don't freak me out enough to not take them. Although maybe the elevators in Bracken Library should make me reconsider - they seem to be broken every time I go to the library, which is a lot. I guess maybe I should say that instead of being afraid of elevators, I simply distrust them because of their sketchiness and ability to break down often. That would probably be more truthful.

The Beginning of ESOL B

On Saturday, July 21:

• We walked around the city in the early afternoon, looking for food and the little shops that Karie and Terry told us set up along the river on the weekends. We couldn't find the shops.
• Once we finally stopped for lunch, I ate a dressingless salad at Ojo al Bife. Toward the end of our meal, an entire professional soccer team filed off their bus, stopping traffic outside (which was a big deal - traffic stops for no one in Argentina) and filled up the restaurant. Then we found out that we had been locked in the restaurant once we tried to leave, and one of the waiters had to let us out. Kind of embarrassing.
• In the evening, we went to a bar and a boliche (dance club). Might not have returned home until the wee hours of the morning. It was fantastic.

On Sunday, July 22:

• I woke up after very little sleep and went to Mass at Nuestra Señora del Rosario, the cathedral in Rosario (fun fact: Rosario means Rosary). Because we were in a gigantic cathedral it was really hard for me to make out the words to the prayers, but it was beautiful to find the familiarity in the Mass, even though it was in a different language. The only thing that really threw me off was when the priest kissed the people that brought the gifts to the altar during the preparation of the gifts. While it is customary in Argentina to greet one another with a kiss on the cheek, I wasn't expecting to see that same gesture used in the Mass.
• After Mass, I walked home through the parks along the river. It was sunny and beautiful and there were people everywhere. I finally had my camera with me and was able to take pictures in the parks.
• At 7pm, I went to the Ariston Hotel for the reception for our two new ESOL B students, Jessie and Monica! It was crazy to see how tired and overwhelmed they were by everything, and how much my perspective on Argentina has changed since I was in their position only 3 short weeks ago.

On Monday, July 23:

• ESOL B classes began. I'm only taking one class this session, which is Spanish for educators. It's already very nice to only have one class to worry about. 
• We ate lunch at Zona with our new ESOL friends after class, and then I spent the 2.5 hours that the other students were in class uploading pictures to Facebook and killing my computer battery. 
• When their class was done, Mary, Emily, Jessie, Monica and I went to get café con leche at our favorite cafe. When Jessie and Monica had to go back to school for their placement test, Mary, Emily and I had a great conversation about education and what this experience has done for us (so far). I love being around people who are as passionate about education and making the most of this experience as I am! The ideas we talked about will have to be summed up in another blog post.
• I spent the evening hoping people would get on Skype so I would have something to do. Had a great conversation with Ellen :)

On Tuesday, July 24:

• We went to a Gaucho Party! We took a bus for an hour over the Rosario-Victoria bridge and through the swampy Entre Rios province, finally arriving at the ranch. Some students rode the horses, but the horses had some attitude so I didn't ride. I enjoyed sitting in the sun and talking with the other people from the program. We ate lunch and watched a traditional gaucho dance, and the dancers were intense. Quote of the day came from Karie, who at the beginning of the show said, "I don't know what's going on, but there's going to be a fight. He has a knife." (the gaucho ended up pulling his knife and stabbing the ground with it, but then we found out it wasn't really very sharp) After the show, we ate a traditional dessert of bread pudding and scrambled eggs that were flavored with lemon and sugar. Very good, but very sweet. After dessert we went home.
• When I got home I watched a 45 minute video of Whose Line is it Anyway bloopers on YouTube.

On Wednesday, July 25:

• Spanish class started at 8am. I wrote a poem to express how I felt about early morning class:

This morning, I woke up before the sun.

Early mornings are no fun.

• After class, Mary and I went to the heladeria for café con leche in the hour between when class got done and when we could eat lunch. I think Mary meant to do her homework but we ended up talking. 
• After lunch, we went to el Pozo, which is the part of the Plaza Civica where political activists were sequestered during the Dirty War. There's no real way to describe the experience. I can't describe how it felt to stand in a room and have our tour guide tell us that in that same room 30 years ago, people were tortured through electric shocks (the use of electricity as a form of torture was invented in Argentina). I can't describe how it felt to see the detainment center in the basement, where the tour guide's own mother was held with 20 other women in 1 room, sharing 2 mattresses among themselves. I can't describe how it felt to see how close we were to the center of Rosario and to know that people outside could hear the screams of the people being tortured inside and couldn't do anything to stop it. It's a hard experience to unpack. The tour guide herself was jailed for 3 years, starting in Rosario and ending up in a concentration camp in Buenos Aires, for her involvement in a student union in high school. It was hard for me to piece together both the military history of the country and the history of the detainment center, but it was amazing to see how important this history is to the tour guide, which is why she has committed her life to educating others about what happened.
• After our experience in el Pozo, all the ESOL B students except for Cain and me were off to their ESOL class on biliteracy. Cain, Karie and I took a tour around la Parque de la Independencia, which involved wearing just about all the clothes I brought to Rosario to keep warm, dancing to Michael Jackson's Thriller, and modeling for Karie's photos (one of which involved sitting in the same place where Ernesto Guevara's first picture was taken as a child...that seemed like a bit of a stretch of a tourist location to me).

Now that I'm only taking 1 class I have what feels like lots of free time, but with free time comes time to realize how tired I am. I have a lot more that I want to write, both for personal reflection as well as for this blog, but since I don't have Spanish until tomorrow afternoon I'm planning on getting a full night of sleep tonight so hopefully I'll feel a little better tomorrow. But I have some ideas for my next few blog posts, including mid-program reflections and truths I may have exaggerated to the other students in my study abroad program...so hopefully I'll have time to get those written in the next few days so Dan can continue to live vicariously through my blog. :)

In case you haven't seen the newest additions to my pictures, here are the links to my Facebook albums:
Bienvenidos a Rosario
Excursión a Córdoba

16/07/12-20/07/12: A Brief Synopsis

Here is a list of my adventures from this last week:

• We visited la Isla de los Inventos on Tuesday. It's in the old Rosario train station by the river and is filled with various learning stations where kids can engage in different hands-on activities. It was very cool because it encouraged kids to think outside of the box in order to complete the activities. It also encouraged collaboration because at many stations, you would start your own project and then leave it for someone else to finish while you finished the project someone else started. It gave us as future teachers some very good practices for culturally relevant teaching!
• Karie and Terry threw us a pizza party Wednesday evening. It consisted of us eating pizza, telling Ella stories about what not to do in high school, playing LCR, giving Terry and Karie love notes and chocolate, and teaching the 'sorority lean.' The pictures (and Terry's captions) can be seen here: http://cultureandcommunity.weebly.com/pizza-party.html
• I aced my Spanish final Thursday morning.
• Thursday afternoon consisted of a trip to al Museo de la Memoria. We pass this museum every day since it sits on the opposite corner of Córdoba and Moreno from Prats. The building was one of the military headquarters during the Dirty War in late 1970's. This museum displays artistic renditions of the breaking of human rights, and it was really sad to learn more about what happened during the Dirty War and how those acts of violence were present in Rosario.
• I stayed up late Thursday night trying to finish my Mi Aventura project, which is an ethnographic project for my Culture and Community class written in both English and Spanish. Eugenia helped edit my Spanish paragraphs (and modeled for one of my pictures).
• I presented Mi Aventura Friday morning and got a lot of great feedback on it. I still have a little bit left to finish but it will be done soon!
• We watched, laughed at, and quoted YouTube videos (or really just one over and over again).
• We made empanadas, a traditional Argentine appetizer, with Annie and Emily during our Spanish class on Friday. They were delicious and super easy to make.
• I found Starbucks! (but didn't buy anything)
• We had a "goodbye" dinner Friday night at Cívico, a restaurant/art gallery/museum, to mark the end of ESOL A and to have an official goodbye party for Annie :( 
• Friday was also Día del Amigo, or friendship day. Argentines celebrate this holiday by bringing their friends gifts and drinking copious amounts of alcohol until the wee hours of the morning. Since it would be super lame to spend Día del Amigo alone, all of us from ESOL A decided to take a walk to the Monumento de la Bandera after dinner. The monument was beautiful at night.
• Eugenia was hosting Día del Amigo festivities at the apartment when I got home from the monument. It was CRAZY. And all I wanted to do was go to bed.  

Design Possible and Impossible Objects - Isla de Los Inventos

Puzzle pieces depicting the children born but not yet recovered during the Dirty War - Museo de la Memoria

Enjoying our homemade empanadas

Mastering the 'sorority lean' - I'm so proud!

Rule #5: Don't Burn Down Any Places of Historical Significance...

We had a busy weekend on our first school-planned excursion to the province of Córdoba! Friday night we were supposed to go out with Terry so we would have something to do while waiting for our bus at 3 am. We hit the town HARD - aka we all fell asleep in Karie and Terry's living room while watching Evita (a musical with Madonna and Antonio Banderas as a creepy waiter). It wasn't very good sleep since we were curled into armchairs, but it was probably better than trying to go out before our excursion. Around 2:30 am we woke up and started our trek across town to the gas station, where we met up with the students from the Language and Justice program and our guides for the weekend, Karina and Fernanda. At 3 am we all boarded the bus, which we assumed would have nice seats like the bus we took to Iguazú - no such luck. The seats were very close together, and you couldn't lay your seat back without ending up in the lap of the person behind you. Needless to say, the sleep Beba promised us didn't happen.

Around 9 am, we arrived in Villa Carlos Paz, a town in Córdoba. We ate breakfast of pasteries and café con leche, which made me slightly happier because bread is my favorite and there was chocolate on this bread and it was so good. After breakfast we had our tour of Villa Carlos Paz, which we assumed would be a walking tour like every other tour we've been on. No such luck - we were back on the crowded bus with our tour guide Mariana to tackle the 100 curves and sierras chicas (small hills) of Villa Carlos Paz. Carlos Paz is one of the most important touristic cities in Argentina because of the lake and its mild temperatures that create the ideal climate for people with health issues. We drove down by the lake and got off the bus to to look at a dam that provides most of the electricity and energy for the city. Then we were back onto the bus to drive around more, and I ended up falling asleep because I was really tired and there was a good length of time when Mariana wasn't guiding us at all. Needless to say, at this point I wasn't too thrilled by our excursion to Córdoba. We were jolted awake when Mariana told us we were entering downtown Carlos Paz, where the world's largest cuckoo clock is located. We made it to the clock right before 12, and we were ushered off the bus and ran down the street to watch the cuckoo make its appearance at the top of the hour. Unfortunately, the cuckoo was stolen last week (I remember seeing this on the news) and had just been returned, so it wasn't functioning as it should be. The whole thing was slightly anticlimactic.

On the corner by the cuckoo clock was a chocolate shop called La Quinta. They gave us a sample of alfajores, which are these delicious candies with dulce de leche in the middle, and watched them make candy in the back of the store. Then we were back on the bus, headed for lunch. We drove through what looked like a neighborhood where we stopped at what looked like a cross between a dude ranch and Bethlehem Farm. It ended up being a restaurant called Shangri-La, which had a gaucho themed interior and we got to eat carne asada - BBQ! The meat was good but very fatty, and we had oranges for dessert. I never thought I'd see the day when I looked forward to having fruit for dessert, but this fruit was long overdue and was very tasty.

My archery-pirate getup

After lunch at Shangri-La, we were off to Complejo Aerosilla, which was a park for archery and zip-lining! We had to take a chair lift to the top of the mountain to reach the park, which was really neat (I've never been on a chair lift that shows views of a city below). At the top, we were divided into two groups, and my group was off to archery first. At this point, I wasn't sure how things were going to go. I told my friends stories about how the last time I tried archery at Conner Prairie day camp, all my arrows ended on the ground about 5 feet in front of me, and I wasn't sure that I could do much better this time. After watching the group in front of me practice and seeing how their arrows actually made it to the targets by the end, I figured I could do it as well. What I didn't expect was that I would have to become a pirate in order to practice archery. If you know me at all, you probably know that I can't wink, and I look like an idiot when I try. In order to shoot a bow and arrow, you have to close one eye in order to shoot at the target. Since I couldn't wink, they gave me an eye patch to wear to keep my eye closed, which was super embarrassing. Even with the eye patch, I didn't manage to shoot my target once. I was, however, quite successful at hitting Mary's target in the lane next to me. At the end, they gave us our target sheets with our scores on it. I don't know how I managed to score a 9 - I'm pretty sure they were pity points. I threw my target sheet away so no one else would feel inferior by my awesome score. Needless to say, my dream of becoming Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games was officially crushed.

After archery, my group headed off to the zip-line! It was pretty fun to fly between the two mountains, and it was especially cool to see the other people who were really afraid of heights give the zip-line a go. I didn't actually make it all the way to either side: I slowed down too much (I'm still not sure how) and on the way in, had to have the guy working slide out to catch me. On the way back, I got close enough that the man let me pull myself in hand over hand, and the people who were watching said I did it like a pro :) When we finished zip-lining, we took the chair lift back down the mountain to hike el Cerro de la Cruz. What this path ended up being was a 30 minute hike up one of the mountains following the Stations of the Cross. I didn't realize that the walk was of the Stations until we started, and it ended up being a great reflection as I walked up and down the mountain. The path was all rocks and was probably one of the most realistic depictions of the Stations I've ever seen. It was an unexpected place to find God on this trip, but it was definitely appreciated and worth the trek up and down the mountain to the cross at the top.

Villa Carlos Paz from the chair lift

When we all arrived safely back at the bottom of the mountain, we checked into the hotel and freshened up for dinner. We ate dinner in the hotel's restaurant, where I was so tired that I just kept talking and talking (Mary told me I was being as open and honest as a drunk person) and I felt like a small child when Mary sent me to bed after dinner. Some of the other students wanted to hang out, but I was so tired that I fell into bed and slept very well after hardly sleeping Friday night. Sunday morning we checked out of the hotel and ate breakfast, then boarded the bus for Alta Gracia, another town in Córdoba. This town is significant because it's the town where Che Guevara moved to when he was young. We toured Estancia Jesuítica, which was a Jesuit monastery when the Jesuits originally tried to evangelize Córdoba. It was neat, but parts of the place looked like it was part of a house and I was confused because our guide could only speak Spanish and didn't take us to each room to explain what everything was. When everyone finished touring the Estancia Jesuítica, we were off to Che's childhood home. It was really cool to see the house, and a lot of the things in the house had to do with the things we saw in Diarios de Motocicleta. Seeing the things that came out of Che's involvement in the Cuban Revolution made me want to learn more about Che's involvement because the brief history we heard didn't tell me a lot since I don't know much about the Cuban Revolution. While we were touring Che's house it started hailing, and Karina and Fernanda told us that they never see hail here so everyone was getting really excited. Then we went to eat at this pizza place that kept bringing us pizzas even though we were all so full, and then we were off to our final destination of the day: the house of Manuel de Falla, a composer from Spain that died in Argentina. Basically this house was like a shrine to the man because it wasn't a house that he had built or anything - it was a house that he rented in Córdoba to help improve his health and ability to write music. One of the first things that happened when we walked in the house was that a burning log from the fireplace suddenly fell onto the floor! It was totally scary because some students were standing right in front of the fire trying to keep warm and the log fell out behind them, but the caretakers of the museum acted like it was no big deal and just threw the burning log back into the fire. We quickly left Manuel de Falla's house and were back on the road to Rosario, where I had a good conversation with Emily about the need for education and what patriotism means and explained to Emily, Annie, and Melissa what being a member of Kappa Delta is like (since they have no Greek life at Western, my experience was the only reference they had to base their knowledge of Greek life on besides what they've seen in movies, which we all know is exaggerated). Then at one point the bus pulled over to the side of the highway and jumped outside to check something, then came back in and revved the engine, then left again. We were all worried about was going on, and some students started asking who we would eat first if we were stuck on the side of the road forever. Fortunately we were able to take off and made it back to Rosario only stopping one more time, but the bus was definitely on the struggle bus.

ESOL A at the childhood home of Che

Although I was initially not thrilled by our trip to Córdoba, we ended up having a fun weekend full of meeting new friends from the Language and Justice program, unexpected Godly references, breathing in mountain air, and not sleeping. I'm still tired going into this week, which is not good since this is our last week of classes for ESOL A and I have a lot of projects to finish in a very short amount of time. I can't believe that we're almost halfway through this program, and I'm so glad that I decided to come for the full 6 week program. I can't imagine going home yet - there are so many things I still want to do here!

Thursday, Friday, and Weekend Plans

On Thursday afternoon, Cain, Mary and I went with the Language and Justice group (the other international students in Rosario through AHA) to view the Museo de Ciudad (Museum of the City). I didn't really know what we were going to get ourselves into, as Karie signed us all up to go and then left the three of us to go on our own. I walked to the park with Essence, who is the only other student from Ball State here, and we got to catch up on how our trips have been. Even though we both use the same building for our classes, we usually only wave hello in passing, so it was nice to finally talk to her about everything we've been going through here. To find the museum, we walked through Parque de la Independencia (Independence Park), which was beautiful and is definitely a place I want to visit again,. A tour guide met us outside the museum (which is in the center of the park) and showed us pictures of what the park looked like when it was first created 100ish years ago. Then we went inside and she explained the rest of the pictures and showed us a pharmacy they have preserved. The museum was neat but also a lot to take in all at once, and the tour guide told us that the point of the museum is that you will go through it once with a guide and then return to explore it on your own. I thought it was interesting that Parque de la Independencia was initially a gated park for only the elite of Rosario. When we walked through it, there were people from all walks of life enjoying the afternoon, and it was neat to compare the social and political changes of Rosario in the same physical setting.

Today we had our Culture and Community class in the morning, then went to Spanish to watch Diarios de Motocicleta (Motorcycle Diaries). This movie is about a motorcycle road trip that Ernesto Guevara (later known as Che Guevara, a revolutionary of the Cuban Revolution) and his friend Alberto Granado took in 1952 from Buenos Aires to Venezuela. Guevara was studying to be a doctor, but seeing the injustice of the world on his trip eventually led him to become a revolutionary...well I kind of extrapolated a bit based on my limited knowledge of Che's life and since the movie ends while he's still young. It was really powerful to see how much the injustice of the world affected Guevara and led him to fight actively against it, even at the age of 24. Since I don't know much about Che's activism (and apparently Che isn't a topic you should bring up in casual conversation in Argentina because people feel so strongly about him and his actions) the movie didn't change my views of him politically, but I thought it provided a neat anecdote for how pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone helps you to see the world differently and change your actions to reflect your newfound awareness. Maybe I picked this out because I feel like I'm currently having that kind of experience myself, but I really liked the movie and its message (Padre, I fully expect that you will go look this movie up on Netflix now).

This weekend, we're going on our first school-planned excursion to the province of Córdoba, which is the province to the west of Santa Fe and home to the second largest city in Argentina. I don't believe we're actually going to the city, but we're going to tour Che's home and go trekking (I'm pretty sure Beba told us there's a zip line and I'm super excited). It wouldn't be a real adventure if there wasn't something sketch involved, so we're leaving from a GAS STATION at 3 in the MORNING (this is a SCHOOL-ORGANIZED excursion, let's not forget). So that we don't all have to walk across the city alone at 3 am, Terry and Karie are hosting a movie night for all of us, followed by (as Karie put it) bar-hopping with "Terry [who is] committed to hitting the town." Terry and Ella aren't going on this excursion with us, so Karie is sending Terry out with us so that she can sleep before our bus ride. The rest of us will just have to sleep on our significantly-shorter-than-any-bus-ride-to-an-excursion-that-I've-been-on-in-Argentina bus ride, which is what Beba initially recommended for us all to do (it's not like she knows we're a bunch of college students or something). I'll let you know when we get back how our excursion to Córdoba was (and which boots Terry decided to wear tonight). Next week will be a little busy since it's our last week of classes for ESOL A (I can't believe how quickly this program has flown by!) but I'm already looking forward to having a low-key weekend in Rosario while we wait for ESOL B to start.

The Beauty of the City

The last couple of days have been filled with some unexpected surprises. Yesterday's classes were pretty low-key. We were in the middle of Spanish class when the power went out in the Fundación Prats, and the caretaker Sylvia (I think that's her name) ran in and opened the windows so we could continue with class. Turns out, the power outage was city-wide, but they had power back up and running within a half an hour. We also had an interesting conversation about our barrios (neighborhoods). I said that I needed to explore my barrio more, and my Spanish teacher Sole told me that I live in a good location - very close to both the river and the center of the city. When classes finished at 4, I felt inspired by our discussion about my barrio and decided that I would go on a walk to find the river. I also felt like I needed to get some exercise, since Eugenia keeps telling me that she is going to make me fat by the time I leave (which is not going to happen).

The last few days have been very cold in Rosario, so I put on my layers of clothing and walked the 5 blocks to the river.  The street I walked down opened to the Parque de las Colectividades, which was very open and green but covered in graffiti. I started walking to the right because I knew there were more parks to walk through, and I wanted to find the Monumento de la Bandera (Monument of the Flag) which is a tall structure that is lit up with the colors of the Argentinian flag at night. I walked through the first park and past some restaurants along the river bank, past an indoor bike track and came up on a gigantic set of stairs, which marked the entrance into the Parque de España. There was a HUGE skate park there, and there were people everywhere - riding bikes, skateboarding, practicing tricks on roller skates - and it was neat to watch them display their talents through that medium. At that point, I wasn't sure how much further I should walk, but I could see what I thought was the Monumento de la Bandera not too far ahead of me and I decided to see if I could get there. As I got closer, it was starting to get darker, and when I finally reached the Monumento, the lights turned on and it started to glow a light blue. On my way back, there was a park with a swing set that gave me a clear view of the Monumento, and I was overcome with the desire to swing. I got a few stares from the weird people sitting in the park, but it gave me both such a rush and such a feeling of peace to be swinging, watching the Monumento light up in front of me. After a few minutes of swinging, I walked back through the parks through which I had come and got to see the city unfold in front of me. Before living in Rosario, I don't think I would have called an urban city 'beautiful,' but seeing the tall apartment buildings lining the avenue on my left and seeing the parks and river to my right made me begin to appreciate this urban beauty as well. And now I've found a great place where I can go run and work out and not worry about getting fat, so I know I'll definitely be going back and will be able to take pictures.

When I got back home, I figured I was in for the night, so I settled on the couch in my mismatched workout clothes to read for Culture and Community. Around that time, Eugenia got home from work and got dressed up. She had told me on Monday night that she was going to eat dinner with a friend Tuesday night, but I didn't understand that I was going to dinner with her! I quickly threw my nicer clothes back on and we walked down the street to Norma's. I had met Norma on my first day here, as she picked me up with Eugenia from the hotel and drove us home. I didn't know she had an 18-year-old daughter, Julieta, so Eugenia introduced me as soon as we arrived at the apartment. Julieta told me that I could speak to her in English if I wanted to (I must have really been struggling) but I told her that I wanted to practice my Spanish so that I would get better at speaking. Eugenia has been telling me that my Spanish has definitely improved since I've been here, and that I'm able to understand everything she says (kind of not really true) and that I write perfectly (I know I definitely write better than I speak). While Julieta was very patient with me and spoke slowly, she spoke so quietly that I still had a hard time understanding what she was asking me! Then during dinner, Eugenia and Norma got into a heated discussion so they spoke even quieter and faster, and I might have completely zoned out because I was so tired and overwhelmed. I gave Julieta my phone number because I guess she's at home during the afternoons when I get home from school and Eugenia wants us to hang out so that we don't have to be alone. I'm excited to hopefully hang out with her again because talking with her is only going to help improve my ability to comprehend Spanish. I think I was just caught a little off-guard going over to Norma's last night that I wasn't able to comprehend at my highest ability.

This morning, the ESOL group had to get up early to go observe at our second school, Colegio Mariano Moreno N°60. This was a public school, meaning it is free for students to attend, and we could sense the differences as soon as we walked in the door. The principal greeted us and asked what activities we had planned to do with the children. We told her we were just there to observe, and half the group went to observe a class of little kids and the rest of us were off to observe the middle school students. The principal didn't have a classroom of older students set up for us to observe in, so she just barged into a couple of classrooms to ask if we could observe, completely interrupting the teaching going on. We were placed in a social studies classroom, where it seemed that only some of the students were paying attention to the reading from the textbook. After a short time, the bell rang for recess, and we followed the students outside. We were swarmed by students that asked us really random questions. A group of girls asked if I was on Facebook, and then asked what my last name was so we could be Facebook friends. Fortunately, I was saved by the bell (literally), because I didn't want to give them my name and I didn't know what to tell the girls! We weren't sure if we were supposed to go back to the classroom we had been in, so Terry asked the students who their favorite teacher was and they pointed to a man who was walking around with a guitar in hand. So we followed a different group of students to music class, where most of the class didn't even try and engage in the exercises the teacher led them in. I recognized a lot of the exercises from my music classes, and it was neat for me to see that music really is a universal language. Then he asked us to sing a song, and we had no clue what we were supposed to do. Cain, Annie and Ella ended up singing a camp song about a donut that I didn't know, and the students just looked so confused. When they finished singing, Terry thought we were supposed to be back downstairs, so we left the class and waited downstairs for the rest of our group to show up. The principal came out of her office and asked if we wanted to see one other group, and she took us to a 4th grade classroom. The teacher would give each student a subject and verb tense, and the student would have to conjugate the verb to match the given parameters. I understood what was going on, even though it was all in Spanish, but if I was one of those students I would have been so intimidated by her teaching style! We left class about halfway through and went to a café as a group to debrief our experience in this school. As we walked back to the Site, I talked with Karie about bilingual education and why it isn't more widely supported. We don't have a bilingual teaching license program at Ball State, but I really wish we did - from my understanding, there are so many benefits to that kind of teaching style that most importantly allow students to maintain their first language while learning English.

After our Spanish class in the afternoon, the ESOL group had a movie night at the Site. We watched Cautiva, an Argentinian film about a girl who discovered that she had been living under a false identity for year and that her parents "disappeared" during the Dirty War. Have you ever heard of the Dirty War? I hadn't until this movie, but it happened in the late 1970s and had to do with the military regime making those people politically involved with the communists "disappear" into concentration camps. It's definitely a topic that I plan to study more while I'm here. Although the story in Cautiva was fictional, it was really sad to see how the events of the Dirty War still impact Argentina.

On that note, I'm going to bed, since I'm still wiped out from Iguazú and waking up at 7:30 every morning is a challenge! I'm not sure why I chose teaching as my future profession since I'm definitely not a morning princess...

Las Cataracas del Iguazú

This weekend, I did the one thing I didn't want to do while I was abroad: travel without a planned excursion. We had a three-day weekend in order to celebrate Argentina's Independence Day, and my friends decided that they wanted to celebrate by traveling to Las Cataracas del Iguazú, one of the seven natural wonders of the world. I was a little apprehensive about going at first, since this was only my first weekend in Argentina, I was still catching up on sleep from arriving, and it would just be 5 of us students going. After some convincing, I figured I probably won't have the opportunity to go to Iguazú again and I decided I was all in. We boarded our bus to Iguazú at 6:30 pm Friday night, and we didn't get off the bus until 2 pm Saturday afternoon. The trip wasn't unbearable because I was able to sleep a lot and I had 4 poorly made films with Spanish subtitles to watch for entertainment.

Once we arrived in Puerto Iguazú, we tried to find our hostel. We had tried to make a reservation online before we left Rosario, but the hostel hadn't received our reservation and they told us that we would have to come back to see if they had a room available. The whole thing seemed a little sketch, so we kept walking around the town to find a hostel. We found one and dropped off our things, then decided to explore the town. Puerto Iguazú is completely different from Rosario. It's in the province Misiones, which is one of the poorest provinces in Argentina, and makes its livelihood on tourism. While Rosario has a European vibe, Puerto Iguazú felt very Latin American. We explored the city and went into many little touristy shops that all basically sold the same things. After shopping for most of the afternoon, we found a restaurant for dinner and then decided that we should go to bed in order to spend as much time on Sunday as possible at the Falls.

On Sunday morning, we made it to the bus station around 10 am, carting all of our things. The bus ran to the Falls about every 20 minutes, and soon we were crowded onto the bus, on our way to one of the 7 natural wonders of the world!

Once we arrived at the park, we found out that it cost 130 pesos to enter, and they didn't accept credit cards (seriously, what national place doesn't accept credit cards?). I didn't have enough pesos on me, so Emily had to help cover my entrance fee. We entered the park and found a place to meet in case we got separated, and then Emily, Melissa, and I were ditched by Cain and Annie (rude). We asked for a map of the park and started walking along the green path that would take us to the Falls. The paths weren't labeled very clearly, which made it hard for us to find where to go. After walking the wrong way initially, we found our way to the Lower Path, and we decided to walk along and see where we ended up.

We passed some wild animals and a small waterfall - Salto Alvar Nuñez. After turning some corners, we finally emerged on the most gorgeous place I've ever seen. There were rainbows EVERYWHERE and the Falls spread as far across as I could see - cheesy description, but true! We kept walking along the lower path and reached the place where we were standing right under the Salto Bossetti! The path was slippery and very crowded, and we were soaked by the end, but the view was worth it.

Our next visit was to the upper path, which took us to the top the Salto Bossetti. The view was still cool, just very different. At the end of the upper path, we looked at the map to see where else we could go. Originally, we wanted to either take a boat ride right up to the Falls or walk around on La Isla de San Martin in the middle, but a boat ride would be cold and the island was closed due to high waters in the river. Instead, we hopped on the train and rode out to the Estación de la Garganta del Diablo to see the last of the Falls.

We had to walk a ways over the Río Iguazú Superior to reach the Garganta del Diablo (Throat of the Devil), and we were able to see the spray from the falls rebounding and filling the sky around the Falls from a ways out. When we reached the Falls, we were standing right over the top of the Falls, and you couldn't even see the bottom of the Falls because of the spray! The view was fantastic, and I can't even explain to give it justice so this video will have to suffice:

At that point, since we had seen everything, I became a little grumpy from carrying my heavy backpack and Vera around all day and not having eaten anything since breakfast. Emily, Melissa and I took the train back to the station in the middle of the park, where we were able to meet Cain and Annie at 5 and take the bus back to Puerto Iguazú. When we arrived, we had about 3 hours before our bus was supposed to leave for Rosario, so we ate dinner and walked around, looking at some of the stands where people sold their handmade goods. We were all looking forward to the bus ride home because we had nicer seats and thought we would be able to sleep well (and were hoping for some better movies, and we were not disappointed although I couldn't hear the movies from my seat - they showed The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and One Day, both movies that I wanted to see). The ride back to Rosario took about 20 hours, and it felt so good to walk the 18ish blocks back to my house when we arrived.

So that was my weekend! I had fun bonding with the others who went, seeing one of the natural wonders of the world, and navigating some of the sketchy places of Puerto Iguazú. After 20 hours on the bus I'm tired and a little smelly, but the sights we saw at Las Cataracas definitely made the trip (and all the minor inconveniences that came with it) worth it.

Here's the link to see the rest of my pictures from Iguazú:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.400453873336067.85910.100001143731223&type=1&l=ddd48fa2e7

El Colegio Español

I got to Skype with my family last night! It was wonderful but they told me I looked a little tired so when we ended the call I just went to bed...I mean, even abroad, I have to follow my bedtime (jokes jokes jokes. Everyone knows I don't sleep!)

Yesterday, the ESOL group arrived at the site early to visit the Colegio Español in Rosario. This trip was important because the Colegio Español is a private school, and all public schools in Argentina are FREE for students to attend. This is the standard for all the public schools, from preschool to the university level. We'll visit a public school in the next week or two, and it will be interesting to compare the schools. I wasn't really sure what we were going to see when we got the school, but we took the bus across town and arrived. A woman named Celia met us in the front office, and she spoke impeccable English. She told us we were going to sit in on the 7th grade English language classes, which is just like how students in America take classes on the Spanish or German or Japanese languages. We took a tour of the school building and learned about the influences that Spain has on the school. The uniforms the students wear sport both the flags of Argentina and Spain, Spain's National Anthem plays at school assemblies, and there is a replica of the boat that came from Spain to Argentina. I didn't fully understand why Spain was so important to this school, but you could see its influences everywhere.

Once we finished the tour and had a coffee break in the staff room, we were divided into pairs to go observe the 7th grade English classes. Celia warned us that the students would be very interested in talking to us and asking us questions, but because of their knowledge of the language, their questions might come across as inappropriate. Emily and I were lucky that the students in the classroom we visited were very inquisitive, but also very respectful. There were only 12 students in the entire class, which gave every student ample opportunity to participate in class. The class was studying directions, and I remembered all of the Spanish classes I've taken that have used almost the exact same material. What was interesting about these students, however, was how incredible their English was. As 7th graders, their entire class took place in English! We found out that these students had been taking English classes for 40 minutes a day, 5 days a week, since they were in Kindergarten! They've been taking English for about as long as I've been taking Spanish classes, but I felt like they could speak much better than I am able to at this level. The English they were learning was very formal - it sounded like they were trying to speak with British accents, and they learned to "turn into the street," not to "turn onto the street" like we would say. On the other hand, I'm sure that the Spanish we learn to speak in the United States is very formal as well.

Observing this class made the possibility of teaching English abroad seem very appealing and very achievable. I'm not sure whether it's something I'm really interested in pursuing long-term, but it's another option for teaching that I think I'll file away and continue to reflect on. I think all of us were impressed with the quality of the school, so it will be very interesting to see how the English classes in the public school are different and if that will change my mind about possibly wanting to teach abroad.

How Argentines Celebrate the Fourth of July...

...they don't.

BUT, the profesoras at the school and the students coordinators wanted to do something to let us celebrate the 4th, so they got pizza and chips and sodas for all the international students to have at lunch to celebrate. They were really excited about making sure we were able to celebrate our holiday, and it was really nice of them to go out of their way to do that for us.

ANYWHO, our ESOL class started at 9 at the Fundación Prats, and some things were a little weird from the start. In the first 20 minutes of class, a bunch of scooters drove around the corner on the street, honking their horns and being a nuisance to our class, so we got up to watch them all drive by. Then, we started hearing drums but we kept going with class until we heard a cannon start to go off outside the Fundación Prats. We were so confused and we kept jumping every time the cannon blasted. At 10, Karie and Terry excused us from class to take a break and to walk to the Site so we could watch a movie about race for our class. We walked outside, where the drums became louder and we could see a large group of people gathered on the far side of the Plaza de San Martin, near the government building. We started walking toward the sound of the drums and the large crowd of people, only to notice that a) everyone in the crowd was wearing construction hats (except us) and b) everyone in the crowd was male (except us...well, except for Cain, but he was walking with Mary and Annie and me). We figured out that a group of construction workers were protesting something (I'm still not sure what) and we quickly left the plaza so as not to get caught up in the protest if violence broke out.

After class, we had our little 4th of July celebration at the Site. When our celebration was over, we still had about an hour before our next class. Mary and I walked around the now calm Plaza de San Martin and took pictures, then walked down the street so I could find an ATM. I had a bit of trouble when I kept putting the wrong PIN number into the machine, but once I realized my mistake I was able to access pesos with no problem. We went back to the Site for our Spanish class, and when class finished we went to a café on the corner for hot chocolate and café con leche because we were hungry and freezing. The server in the café was very friendly and pushed us all to use our Spanish to talk with him, which was really interesting. I got to talk with Cain and Mary about why they chose to study education, and it was really inspiring to be with other students that are so passionate about teaching English as a second language. I also found out about Western Oregon's teaching license in bilingual education, and I wish we had a program like that in Indiana because even though it's expensive to implement, it has to yield amazing results and growth in the students.

When we finished eating/talking, we went back to our houses, and I had a decision to make. The other students in my program were intent on visiting Iguazú Falls while they were down here, and they wanted to go this coming weekend since we have Monday off from classes for Independence Day. I wanted to go, but as you probably know, I like to plan things out WAY in advance, so planning a trip for this weekend felt very rushed to me (Let it be known that this trip requires an 18 hour bus ride EACH WAY). I talked the decision over briefly with my parents, and they told me to take full advantage of every opportunity I have to explore Argentina while I'm here (YOLO, anyone?). So, I walked back to the Site to meet my friends after their last class got out, and we walked to the bus station (let it also be known that the bus station is about 18 blocks from the site) to buy our bus tickets to Iguazú Falls for this weekend. And then we walked home, and I was super tired and hungry and just wanted to go to bed but I hadn't started my homework or blogged yet and...that leads us to me, sitting on my computer in the living room after midnight, trying to write down everything about my day. So now that I've accomplished my task, I'm going to go to bed, because I'm seriously still exhausted and we have to get up early tomorrow morning to visit al Colegio Español, a private school in the city.

If you want to keep up with what we're doing in our ESOL class, you can check out of class website: http://cultureandcommunity.weebly.com/. I'm posting this website because we're looking at a lot of cool materials (such as the first video under week one resources from Chimamanda Adichie - seriously take the time to listen to her because her message is SO COOL) and I don't feel like stealing Karie's pictures to put on Facebook, but you can see some of the things/places we've been as a group from going to the last link at the top of the page (the Buenos Aires pictures are from an excursion only for the students from Western so I'm not in any of those, but you'll find me in all the rest!).

ALSO, in case you're super behind the times and not on Facebook (ahem...Linda and Dan...) here's the link to look at the pictures of my trip as of today:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.398886810159440.85460.100001143731223&type=3&l=feb2c2da81

:)

You mean...I actually have to do WORK?

Today marked the start of our classes here at the Universidad Nacional de Rosario. I had a minor setback trying to get to the school when I couldn't figure out how to unlock the door to the apartment from the inside and Eugenia had already left for work, but I figured out how to get out and walked to the school. Spanish class started at 9:30 a.m. at the Fundación Prats (don't ask me what that means because I still don't understand). There were only 3 of us in the class with our teacher, Sole. Sole is very patient with us because I think she's still trying to gauge where we all are with our knowledge of Spanish, and I understood almost everything that she said in class. We did an exercise/played a game where we wrote down things about ourselves in different categories, but 4 of the categories had to be lies. Then we switched papers and had to guess what things were true and what things were not. After we finished that exercise, we made a chart with things "lo que sé" (what I know) and "lo que quiero saber" (what I want to know) about Rosario." Sole told us about the historical significance of the city, pointed out some of the main roads, told us where some good places to go dancing and to get drinks are...totally normal things for a teacher to tell her students, right? The last activity we did for the day involved learning about the countries in South America, almost like a mini geography lesson. Class ended at 12 (2.5 hours!), but it didn't feel very long because we took a break in the middle and the class felt like a discussion between friends rather than a lecture from the professor.

After class, all of the students from our program met outside the Fundación Prats and we walked to Zona 36 for lunch. When we finished, all but one of us walked to the international programs site for our ESOL class with Karie and Terry. This class was also 2.5 hours long, but it was in English and seems to be very similar to the class on diversity in the classroom that I took at Ball State. This class is focused solely on how to work with English Language Learners in the classroom, and the 4 of us in the class (and the 1 who decided to sit in) are all very passionate about the subject, which made it easy for us to engage in conversation right from the start. Karie and Terry are also very passionate, and they don't lecture us like teachers either. Karie is from Western Oregon University and made me feel very welcome on our first night in Rosario. Terry teaches in Portland and has her high-school aged daughter, Ella, with her and brings her to classes with us. I think that because we have spent time with these professors outside of the classroom, they feel like friends with more knowledge on the subject of teaching English Language Learners than teachers, which is a cool dynamic to have in the classroom.

Once I was done with classes for the day, the other students in my program decided that we should meet back at the site at 7 (when the last class of the day was done) so we could go on a mission to find stamps. I walked back to the apartment and all the lights were on, but Eugenia wasn't anywhere to be found. I caught up on my social media and started reading for my homework, but then it was time to walk back to the site to meet my friends. Once the 5 of us who were on going on our mission arrived, we went to this store on Córdoba that looked like Hollister in the front, with strong perfume wafting out the front door and bumping music, but had a little store that sold school supplies in the back. The man in the store told us where we could go for stamps, but that store was closed so we would have to go tomorrow. The man seemed to know that we weren't very fluent in Spanish and he used big gestures to demonstrate everything, and we reacted like the people in those cheesy, over-the-top language learning videos when we figured out where he was telling us to go. Since we couldn't complete our mission, we went and sat in a little café on the corner and talked. It was really fun to get to know this group better, and I think we'll have a lot of fun together learning about Rosario together. We're already trying to figure out how to take a trip to Iguazu Falls sometime while we're here, but we've heard that it's a 24 hour bus ride away so we're not sure when we'll have time to go.

I really like everyone involved with our program, but I definitely come from the most different background. The other 5 students are all elementary education majors from Oregon, so they can talk about the schools out there like I could talk with other people from Indiana about Purdue or IU. They've asked a little about Indiana, but I've just told them there's a lot of corn in the state, I'm from a suburb of Indianapolis, and that Muncie is often referred to as, "Funice" (I'm sure they really want to visit after my vivid description.). In our ESOL class, Terry and Karie were very interested in learning what the differences are between the ESOL programs at Western Oregon and Ball State, but there were some pedagogical terms they used in class that I had never heard of before. I don't think the differences are big enough to negatively impact my performance in the class, as Terry and Karie really liked the things I had to contribute to the discussion. This class is just further helping to put me in the position of my future students that will be minorities in my classroom, and hopefully this experience will help me to understand how to better reach those students to teach them effectively. Although I'm having to adjust, everyone has been really nice and welcoming and accommodating and I'm having no problems fitting in with these other students. Since tomorrow is the 4th of July in the States, Beba (the site director) wanted us to be able to celebrate with a fiesta at the site with sandwiches (that's seriously what she said she would get for us to celebrate, but today we passed her on the street and she said she would get us pizza and we were all disappointed) so hopefully that will be fun! I'm sad that I have to miss the 4th of July on the lake with my family, but if anything can make up for it, it will be the Argentine sandwiches.

First Full Day

What a crazy day today has been! I think I'm beginning to experience a little bit of culture shock from everything. Mary and I started our morning much too early - just by the time I managed to get into a deep sleep, my alarm was going off for me to get ready for the day. It was so cold that I didn't want to get out of my bed (side note-the weather is bipolar here. When I arrived yesterday, it was 80 degrees and people were wearing shorts and tank tops, but today it was about 50 and I've been wearing my winter coat!) So we got ready and checked out of our hotel room. We had breakfast in the hotel while we waited for the other students to arrive for orientation, and we tried to study a little bit of Spanish for our placement test. Orientation began at 9:30, which involved going over the expectations of the program, looking at our class and excursion schedule for the next 3 weeks, and being formally introduced to our professors. After a break for café con leche (coffee and milk) and snacks, we took our Spanish language placement test. I was very nervous going into it because I hadn't studied much Spanish since the fall 2011 semester, but I felt confident taking the test and managed to score a 90!

After we finished our test, the student coordinator took us on our first tour of the city! We walked down the main street, Córdoba, and learned that the drivers in Argentina are seriously crazy - they blatantly drive through stop signs, they drive two cars wide down streets meant for one car, and they honk to tell others that they're going! Pedestrians definitely don't have the right of way here - that's something I'll definitely have to get used to! We found the two buildings where our classes are held - in the morning, our classes are in a beautiful old building that the international program rents out, and the afternoon classes are held at the site for international programs for the Universidad de Rosario. What's really strange is that the classes switch what times they're at - on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I have my ESOL Culture and Community class in the mornings, but it's in the afternoons on Tuesdays and Thursdays. My Spanish class has the opposite schedule. So after we found the school buildings and made friends with a stray dog (there are stray dogs everywhere, and this one kept running into traffic and jumping at the cars! We were all so sure he was going to get hit by the crazy driving), we went to a restaurant called Zona 36, which is 1 of 3 restaurants that I have a lunch ticket to eat at in between classes. I had a chicken fillet with a puree of potatoes and ham - it was delicious! I made the mistake of ordering agua con gas (carbonated water) because I didn't realize that the agua sin gas was also served out of a bottle and was totally safe to drink! I don't drink carbonated beverages, so it was a little hard for me to drink something fizzy that had no flavor to it.

After lunch, it was time for Mary and I to be united with our host moms! The coordinator of the home stays walked us back to the hotel, where my host mom, Eugenia, was waiting for me. She gave me a big hug right away and helped me take my luggage outside to her friend Norma's car, and Norma drove us to Eugenia's apartment. We moved all my things inside, and she let me get settled in my room. She even had a cute little gift of St. Ive's lotion and soap waiting for me! I have a Vera Bradley tote bag for her, but I haven't given it to her yet. After I unpacked most of my things and met the cat Teresa, Eugenia wanted to talk in the living room. She showed me how to use the internet (I do have internet access in my home stay; it isn't wireless but Eugenia doesn't use it so I'm free to use it as much as I want/need to). I got on the computer to check to see if the internet worked, and I got on Facebook and my email to find some encouraging messages from my parents and my friends. I think the lack of sleep, the vulnerability of being in a foreign country, and how overwhelmed I felt from having to understand Eugenia's fast Spanish made me cry when reading the messages. I think Eugenia was worried about why I was crying, because she kept asking me, "Porque triste?" (Why are you sad?) and I couldn't give her an answer. She started asking about my family and about Indiana, again in fast Spanish, but I got to show her the photo album that I brought with me. I tried to explain to her about Kappa Delta and about Greek families, but I don't think she understood how they could be my sisters but not be related to me. Eugenia kept trying to say my name like we say it in the U.S., and I told her some people call me "Rach" so she's been trying to call me that as well. At home, some of my friends call me "Raquel," (and I've taken to calling myself that as well...embarrassing) and it's weird to me that the pronunciations are almost switched - not something I expected.

After we talked, Eugenia took me on a walk through the city so she could show me how to get to the school from her apartment. I live about 3 blocks up and 2 blocks over from the school, so it isn't a long walk at all. We found the site first because it's closer, and then Eugenia tried to tell me where the other building was in relationship to it, but she was totally facing the wrong direction and I pointed out where the building was since I had been there earlier today. Eugenia then called me "la mapa humana" (the human map - I had told her earlier that my friends from home call me the human GPS) and we walked back home, only to leave again minutes later to go to the grocery store to get yogurt for my breakfast and food for tonight's dinner. We stopped at a store that sells meat and a store that sells wine too, so I'm not really sure what we're having for dinner - it's currently cooking and I left the kitchen after I tried unsuccessfully to light the gas stove. And now here I am, updating my blog and I've just KEPT WRITING. Eugenia just came in and commented that I had written a ton.

I think that's everything about my day so far. I'll try and post some pictures soon - I've been taking my camera around the city and taking many pictures, but I can't figure out how to post them on my blog yet because Google switched to Google Argentina...and all the controls are in Spanish. There is a lot to see in this city and I've been enjoying every minute of it, even the parts that are hard and push me in my knowledge of the Spanish language. Many of the words and phrases I'm using are things I remember learning in middle school Spanish, so it's very interesting to me to see how early this essential vocabulary was taught. Also, even though I keep crying when I read the encouraging notes from home, it's not so much because I'm sad but because I feel very supported, which is very comforting. So they're much appreciated!! Thanks for all your prayers and support while I'm here - it's definitely making this transition manageable. :)

Estoy Aquí! (I'm here!)

I don't think I've really slept in over 24 hours, but I'm SO happy to be in Rosario!

Here is a list of things I've done since I left Indianapolis:

• I sat next to the Foundations Director for Delta Gamma sorority on my flight from Indy to Houston. It was so cool to be able to talk to her about involvement as an alumnae and to share what Greek life has done for us, even though we aren't in the same sorority.
• In Houston, I met up with a girl from my program named Mary who was supposed to be on my flight. Turns out, we were seated next to each other for our 10.5 hour flight.
• We were served dinner and breakfast on our flight to Buenos Aires, which was new for me. I tried to watch 21 Jump Street, but the sound kept going out every 45 seconds or so. So then I tried to sleep, and it was weird how silent and dark the plane became when everybody was trying to sleep. I kept waking up, thinking I had to have slept for some time, only to find out we still had hours left on the flight. There was a map charting our flight on the big screens in the aisles, and it was crazy that when it showed us flying over a coast, I could look out the window and watch our plane leave the lights of the shore behind as we flew over the ocean.
• Around 9:30 a.m., we arrived in foggy Buenos Aires. I paid an entrance fee, got my passport stamped, picked up my luggage, and went through customs. No big deal. I was the most nervous about the next leg of my trip: taking the 4 hours bus ride from the airport in Buenos Aires to Rosario. I had sent the bus company Tienda Leon an email on Thursday asking to make a reservation, but they apparently never received my request. So they had no reservation for me and no room on any other buses to Rosario. At this point, Mary and I were separated because she did have a reservation. 
• Tienda Leon sold me a bus ticked to the Retiro, the city bus station in downtown Buenos Aires. I took the bus to the Tienda Leon station, where I got in a van and was driven to the Retiro. I was told to go up the ramp, then up the escalator, to the ticket booths upstairs. After trying to find a ticket booth listing Rosario as a destination, I paid for my ticket, only to find out that the bus was leaving the station in 5 minutes. So I rushed outside and got on the top level of the bus that had "cama" (bed) style seating (the seats would lay down so you could sleep). I wasn't sure where this bus was taking me in Rosario, but I was so tired that I tried to sleep.
• After 3.5/4 hours on the bus, I arrived at the bus station in Rosario and the driver told me to go through the station to the taxi pick up on the other side. I got to experience the local traffic then, where drivers basically just drive wherever and whenever they want! When I arrived at the hotel I couldn't pay for the taxi with my credit card, and I hadn't converted any of my money to pesos yet, so I had to pay the driver in American dollars. He told me it was $2, but I gave him $3 for having to deal with me and my money issues.
• I checked into the hotel where my program was meeting and made my way to my room. Come to find out, Mary and I were sharing a room as all her things were in the room. I had a few hours before I had to be anywhere but I didn't want to deal with finding my way around the city, especially after having to take the city bus unexpectedly. So I cleaned up (24 hours of travel can make you feel pretty gross) and tried (unsuccessfully) to take a little nap. Then Mary came back and we got ready for our program's Welcome Party!
• At 7, we went downstairs for the Welcome Party! We got to meet the other 4 students currently in our program and met the site director and some of the faculty over little sandwiches and ice cream, which was just what I needed after a long day of eating only granola bars.

Everyone I've met so far has been so helpful and nice! I got thrown right into having to use my Spanish to find my way to the hotel but it's coming to me much easier than I thought it would. There are a lot of interesting things in this city already but I only saw many of these things from the bus. It looks like there are some really nice areas and other areas where people are living in slum cities without electricity. I'm excited because tomorrow I get to meet my host mom and find out where I'll be living for the next 6 weeks! We also have orientation and will take placement tests in the morning, followed by walking to the site center for lunch. I'm excited to find out what all this city has to offer, but right now I'm just thankful I made it in one piece after my little scare in Buenos Aires with having to figure out the buses!

Thanks for all the great feedback on my blog so far! Most of my posts probably won't be as long and detailed as this one but I'm pretty proud of myself for making it to the hotel on my own. :) Keep giving me feedback and I'll find out tomorrow what kind of internet access I'll have at my host mom's house. Otherwise, Rosario is only 1 hour ahead of Indianapolis so catching up over Skype should be pretty easy to coordinate. Buenas noches!