Wanderings, Wonderings

The past two days have been notable for their relative normalcy. I've had less free time, and am thus having my first experiences just living in the city. I won't pretend that this in any way feels like home, but it's definitely been a new dynamic.

I spent yesterday attending various orientation events, eating lunch with friends, going to the gym, and meeting up with Jenny at a bar with friends from each of our programs. Although the bar was very loud and very American (right down to the bartenders), it was fun to sit and talk with friends, and hear some good music (Queen and Sublime in Buenos Aires - I was so excited!). While there, we had a great conversation about language, communication, and everything our short time here has made us realize about them. For me at least, it was one of those really great interactions wherein you realize your own opinion on an issue through talking to someone else about it. Here's a summary of what we talked about and what I've been thinking about generally:

1. It's amazing how much of two different languages can be translated almost exactly. I find it fascinating that people in different parts of the world all needed to come up with ways to say the same things, whether basic or quite complicated. I'm not sure if I'd feel this way if I were studying a language that shared fewer roots with English. At the same time, despite the coincidences, there are also all these divergences between the two languages; some things simply cannot be translated adequately. I'm perhaps more fascinated by what these differences say about the people using their respective languages to communicate. At the same time, I haven't spent enough time here to really understand the connotations of those colloquial phrases, so I imagine this is a topic to which I'll return.

2. We also talked more generally about the amazing capacity humans have for language. All of us have had the experience of watching small children speak Spanish effortlessly (and feeling more than a bit jealous). Seeing these kids speak with the pronunciation I'm striving so hard to achieve makes me realize how intrinsic one's own language is. It is physically difficult for me to move my mouth in a way appropriate to Spanish pronunciation, and I see Argentinians having the exact same problem when they try to speak English. Similarly, when I see two Argentinians talking to one another in Spanish, I have trouble comprehending that this is their version of speaking English, that this feels as comfortable and natural to them as English does to me.

3. I never before considered all the subtle, unspoken cues we send to one another through our specific manner of using language. Austin and I spent a good five minutes picking apart my use of the phrase "it's a bit much." In using words that are ever so slightly more formal than one would typically use, we make subtle jokes that say to the other person, "I'm intelligent. I'm witty. I know how to re-arrange words for our mutual amusement without even interrupting the flow of the conversation." In English, our conversations happen on several levels, most of them unspoken and barely conscious. In Spanish, we simply do not have access to this type of interaction. A successful interaction here consists of telling a story with more than two tenses, or pronouncing difficult words such that porteños can still understand them. While this definitely frustrates me, it is not entirely bad. I'm learning as much about English as Spanish, and thus as much about my culture as this one. So corny, but so the point of this, right?

Today was less structured, since I had little to do at FLACSO, so I ate breakfast/lunch with Bennet, attended the 20 minutes of orientation that applied to me, and then commenced my plan of wandering around San Telmo. I went into a bookstore called La Librería de Avila, that, according to the pamphlet they gave me, has occupied that spot in some form or another since 1785. Elvira pointed it out to me on our walk around the neighborhood a few days ago, because it is known for having lots of books specific to Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Latin America. I bought two books, Buenos Aires Negra and Buenos Aires Ídish, respectively about the historic influence and place of black and Jewish culture in Argentina. I loved the feel of the bookstore in general, and I'm really excited about my purchases. After a bit more wandering, I spent the afternoon reading a packet I received from the teacher of Cuestiones Culturales en la Historia Argentina. Although I'm almost sure I'll drop that class, it sounds really interesting, and I'll take any opportunity to boost my embarrassingly meager knowledge of Argentinian history.

The pictures spread throughout this post are my attempt to capture my neighborhood. Although this is a particularly charming section of Buenos Aires, I've noticed that, even in the more modern, commercial areas, beautiful buildings tend to pop up among the nondescript gray and white slabs. It's pretty cool.

Hasta pronto,
Chelsea