Seconds and Firsts

I spent my second Sunday in a row at La Ferría de San Telmo, this time with new friends Austin and Elaine (both pictured in previous post). No mom, I didn't buy anything (besides an empanada), but it's a fun place to people watch and enjoy cobblestone streets and old buildings. We wandered off of Calle Defensa, the site of all the vendors, and saw sidestreets I'd not yet ventured down. I made a resolution to come back on a less busy day and wander. Also, as promised, here is a picture of el Cabildo, site of the first Argentinian revolution. Have I mentioned that my neighborhood is awesome?The next picture is a Jesuit Church in my neighborhood (one church of about a bajillion within ten blocks of me).
Today was full of firsts, including most notably my first time going to a new place without getting lost (and three of them at that!). Even more exciting, I had my first class. Since classes have now officially begun, I think the time has come for me to explain the various schools I can access while here. I am technically studying abroad through CIEE, a private American company that has programs all over the world. However, in this program, CIEE basically acts as my liaison to FLACSO (Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales), a graduate school, funded in large part by the UN, that has one undergrad program: CIEE. Through FLACSO, I can take classes at any combination of four institutions: FLACSO, UBA (Universidad de Buenos Aires), UCA (Pontificia Universidad Católica), and IUNA (Instituto Universitario Nacional del Arte).

FLACSO is very well-respected academically, and pretty much every class they're offering sounds fascinating. They're all designed for Americans, which means they don't require any background in Argentinian history and culture. In some ways, I'd probably learn the most from taking classes at FLACSO. At the same time, all the students are American, so in other ways I'd learn less. I'm going to compromise and take one class there, a service learning seminar, because they give us the opportunity to work with Las Madres de La Plaza de Mayo, and that is totally awesome.

UBA is a HUGE public university. It has no campus, but rather consists of a bunch of buildings spread throughout the city. Students usually work at least 6 hours a day and live at home with their families, up to an hour outside the city, further limiting campus life. Because all Argentinians can attend for free, UBA is wildly underfunded. Right now, 30,000 professors teach there for free or for only a nominal salary. According to the Argentinians I've talked to (i.e. Elvira and the FLACSO staff), these professors consider it an honor to teach at UBA, because, despite its lack of basic resources, it is one of the best schools in Argentina. They also believe in the importance of free university, so much so that they're willing to make real sacrifices to make it happen. Apparently, a former minister of education had to resign because his plan to make Argentinians pay for higher education was so unpopular. Incidentally, most FLACSO professors get their salaries from FLACSO but also teach at UBA. I think it's amazing that so many Argentinians value education so highly; 30,000 people would never work for free in America.

Within UBA, I can take classes in Filosofía y Letras, Ciencias Sociales, and Ciencias Económicas, each of which encompasses several majors (although I don't qualify for economics, which requires terrible things like higher math). According to the people at FLACSO, we will meet every kind of person at UBA, but quite a few who are the first in their family to attend college, and who have made lots of sacrifices to get there. Right now, only 50% of Argentinians attend college. UBA students, they said, are only there if they want to be, and this makes it a more intellectual place than, for example, UCA. Finally, they told us that UBA, especially Filosofía y Letras, is the last bastion of real leftist thinking in Argentina among both students and professors.

UCA, in contrast, is smaller (although still 30,000 students), private, and Catholic. Although many of the professors are liberal (and, not coincidentally, shared with UBA), the institution is more conservative. There is a dress code, and students have to take finals in formal attire. Elvira told me that every student there is blond. Although some attend UCA simply because it has a major UBA lacks, UCA students are generally wealthier, and many attend university because their family expects it of them. On the flip side, UCA has much nicer facilities, and even university funded student organizations. However, I decided not to take any classes at UCA, because the campus climate just doesn't appeal to me as much. Interestingly, despite its greater resources, UCA seems to garner less respect academically than UBA - basically the opposite of schools in America.

IUNA, the last school, is one of the best art schools in the country. Obviously, I have no business attending.

My class today, Social Geography of Latin America, was at UBA Filosofía y Letras. The FLACSO staff described UBA Filo as a combination of hippies and black-coffee-drinking- cigarette-smoking intellectuals, and oh boy were they accurate. Every wall in the building, including the exterior, is covered with either pamphlets or paintings, uniformly having something to do with socialism or an upcoming concert.

However, nothing else about my class today was what I expected - in a good way. The FLACSO staff told us to expect overcrowded classrooms and frustrated professors with little interest in teacher-student interaction. However, my class was tiny, about 12 people (almost half of them American, unfortunately), with a welcoming professor who gave us her email address and said she wanted a discussion- based class. They also told us that the professors would resent the presence of American students, people who, in their minds, don't deserve the privilege of the Argentinian education they're working so hard to provide. However, my professor made a point of saying she likes foreign students, as well as non-geography majors, for the diversity they bring to discussion. For various logistical reasons, I think there will be more people in the next class, but it will still be tiny by UBA standards. Overall, it looks like it's going to be an awesome class, and I'm so excited to get started.

Geekily yours,
Chelsea