Muchísimas Cosas

Once again, after having taken only a short break from writing, I find myself teeming with things to say. As I told my host mom earlier today, everything I do here is a "thing." This can be frustrating when simple tasks like grocery shopping or telling a story require all my concentration. At the same time, this means that everything is new, leaving me filled with observations and thoughts about even my most mundane experiences. To that end, I have much to say about the past few days, during which I've encountered new people, neighborhoods, and classes.

To begin with, Sunday was el Día de los Niños, a holiday here just like mother's and father's day. I planned to go to the zoo with Elvira, Joaquín, Ezekiel (Joaquín's friend), and Ezekiel's mom. We started the morning my going over to their friend's apartment, an exciting place in of itself. Their apartment was huge, about twice the size of ours, and ours is pretty big for densely populated Buenos Aires. It looked like something from a design show: each room was painted a different color, with lots of animal print furniture and plants all over the place. The coolest part was the second floor, which they added themselves by hanging a layer of metal walkways from the ceiling, with mechanically retractable stairs and ladders to go up and down. The family was really nice, and I felt very Argentinian sipping mate and gossiping with Elvira and her friend.

When we arrived at the zoo, it was absolutely packed with people, so we decided to walk around Alto Palermo, a nearby neighborhood. We walked to this street fair (they really like those here), this one for clothing and jewelery. Palermo, particularly Alto Palermo, is a fun part of town. It's very residential, with lots of trees and great French buildings. It's also a huge nightlife center - the only place I've found so far where you can just walk around until you find a bar.

We all went out for lunch together, and Elvira introduced me to asado - Argentinian barbecue, as far as I can gather. Our lunch consisted of platters of meat, far more meat than 5 people should ever ingest in a single sitting. Elvira and her friend just kept putting more meat on my plate and pouring me more glasses of wine, until by the end I just felt tired and woozy. It was fun, and I did like some cuts, but I do not understand how Argentinians eat like this on a regular basis. I did have a really interesting conversation at lunch with Elvira and her friend about education and socialism in the US and Argentina, two things that seem to come up a lot here.

Here are some pictures that Joaquín, the resident photographer here, took of Alto Palermo and the fair.



That last one is not Alto Palermo, but rather the bus ride home. I don't think I'll ever get over how cool my neighborhood is.

Monday was also a day of firsts, most notably my first dance class, not just in Argentina but in my entire life. The class is called "Ritmos y Danzas del Río de la Plata," and I'll learn tango as well as a bunch of folkloric dances. On the first day, we learned El Gato, a supposedly simple dance that I was comically bad at. I have many redeeming qualities, but grace is certainly not one of them, something the teacher certainly reinforced when he stopped class twice to give me extra help. Despite these embarrassments, however, I had a lot of fun in the class, and I think it will be a different way to learn about Argentina. It's certainly outside of my comfort zone, but then again, so is everything in Buenos Aires.

After dance, I had my first History of Argentina class, which I absolutely loved. We spent the first half of class divided into groups of four, discussing the (im)possibility of neutrality in the study of history by reading two different accounts of the military dictatorship in two different newspapers. For about the first half of my group's discussion, I sat there in silent confusion. I could understand the words coming out of their mouths, but I lacked the background to discuss these issues in any sort of sophisticated way. I could barely identify the differences between the two articles' perspectives, much less say something about those differences. However, when the group realized that I was American, they were extremely considerate of me. They went back and explained the context of the conversation, and then made sure to ask me my opinion at regular intervals, just in case. By the end, I did have opinions (just a great deal of trouble expressing them). Although I'll have to do some independent reading in order to follow this class, I think it's going to be really interesting. History totally rocks. Also, I made friends with a girl from my group, and we took the subway back together. She lives about an hour outside the city, like many UBA students, and it was interesting to hear about her daily routine commuting, working, and taking classes. In general, people here have been so nice to me - totally willing to repeat themselves, talk slowly, and show me things, and also, it seems, almost as interested in talking to an American as I am in talking to an Argentinian.

Monday was also my birthday, and I came home to find this on the door, courtesy of Joaquín and Elvira:

Elvira also made me a special birthday dinner, which consisted of, you guessed it, beef. It was actually delicious - she made it fondue style with all these really good sauces, some of which even had meat in them. Gotta love the idea of dipping meat into more meat. I invited Jenny over and it was great to have my whole Argentinian "family" with me on my birthday. Elvira was worried I'd be homesick on my birthday, and she made such an effort to make it special for me. Once again, I realized how lucky I am to live with my host family.

Today, I had my first service learning class, and my first Argentinian Political Thought class. I think both of them are going to be really interesting, but, to be honest, my sleep deprivation caught up with me today, and I didn't absorb as much as I would have liked in either class. More interestingly, I got to go the office of Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo, basically to learn more about the organization and see if I want to work there or not. We met two of the madres, and they showed us pictures of their disappeared children, and told us about the projects they're currently working on. It's so amazing to think of these little old ladies helping to take down a dictatorship, and still fighting for the same principles today.

And now I'm back at home, living life like a Porteño: out of class at 11 pm and starting my homework at midnight.

Until next time,
Chelsea