great week for classes! not so hot for the rest....

so UBA (universidad de buenos aires)classes started this week! On monday I went to check out my Violencia Familiar class, had to take two subtes to get there, but it was cool, got to conocer a different barrio. I loved the building, the outside had murals and inside, there were posters everywhere for clubs and organizations and events, it was beautiful. That and the location next to the autopista made it feel just like home! Gah,to think that I would every miss freeways! Not that I miss them, but nothing says home like being near an overpass! jaja so I got there early, walked to nearby plaza and sat and read. It would've been perfect had it not been for the creeper who sat right next to me and who I felt lean over and come closer to watch me read. Scary! So I left my nice tranquil spot in the parque next to the overpass. Gr! Ruin my moment!

But my class was going to start, so whatevs...So they did the usual intros, then they asked a series of questions, why we chose the class, what were our expectations, what did we not want to happen with the class....etc. We did this individually, then shared with the group, then the class. It was nice, sadly, as I expected, all women in the class, because of course, these issues are for women only, they shall be solved by women alone. Yup! I brougth that up as one thing I didn't want for the class, but could obviously not escape.

So we went over our responses for a bit, plus the profesoras did some explaining about what the class would entail. They wanted to emphasize that it would by no means be a purely theoretical class, one of the issues that some women brought up as to what they didnt want from the class. But they also highlighted that it's an intro course and we would by no means be able to magical miracle workers to end domestic violence, which was obviously a great point to bring up.

In the second part of class, we went over the term "violence". They asked us to freely write on our papers the first things that came to mind when we thought of "violencia". I was very embarrassed about this part because my vocab in this part was like that of a fifth grader, but that's besides the point. After we had our free write, we got back in our groups and shared, then they asked us to write down 5-6 of the most common words between all of us in the group, then 3-4 unusual ones. So we had things like "golpe", "miedo", "peligro" as our common words, and then things like "invisibilidad" for our uncommon words. From there, each group wrote their two groups of words on the board. What we noticed across the board was that the common words were all of the initial, situational concepts of the words violence. The physical pain, the immediate emotional reaction, the individual experience. The uncommon words included things like the aftermath, things that described the state of the person afterwards, the subconscious and also the institutional systems that support violence. The uncommon words were the quite profound ones, the ones that really make you think. It was a great exercise.

At the end, they told us that besides doing our reading, for the next class we should write about an incident of violence that we have experienced/witnessed. They said we could have been the antagonist, the victim or a spectator, didn't matter, we just needed to describe that situation that we personally witnessed. At that point was when I was thinking...hm...maybe this class isn't for me, maybe I'm not ready for this just yet. So I headed to the subte stop, linea E headed back to linea D, contemplating the last class I just had and whether or not I wanted to be in it. Despite this, I still had the Talking Heads, "Psycho Killer" playing through my head over and over again, still in my state of euphoria from Saturday night's great playlist at Avant. ah, it was great!

Instead of going home, as it was actually 6pm already, I headed up further north on the linea D because I decided to have a meeting with the "consejera" through FLACSO. So the program pays for it and since it's free, I was thinking, hey why not just go and get some things off my chest and let go a little bit with complete stranger. Her office was pretty far away and my cita was for 8pm, so I had lots of time. Once I got there, to barrio Belgrano, I walke around the main avenida and looked for a bookstore to find La Regenta, the novel I need for my Literature espanola class. Found it, both its two parts, in a nice little bookstore for only 20 pesos, so about a little more than 6 dollars. NICE!!!

I finally made my way over to her office, feeling a bit nervous. I had always said I'd see a psychiatrist one day, just to check it out. I went once to Emmons at Oxy and hated it, so I never gave it another shot. So I took the elevator up to floor and found myself right outside her door, and heard her clearly on the phone inside. I rang and waited a bit and she let me in. She gave me the usual porteña greeting of a beso and a little hug and first she wanted to know what specific tings I had wanted to talk about. So I told her about my immense homesickness I was feeling last week, about Eli, about my grandma, about my missing my family and how I had really never been away from them this long and my main goal for this trip was to become more independent and grow from this experience. And then I told her about my tendencies to put the weight of the world on my shoulders and how I tend to keep all that bothers me bottled up inside me because I'm used to helping everyone else and not used to being helped or asking for help. This stuff led to other topics and then finally she sat there really concerned about my wanting to take the domestic violence class, she personally thought that it wouldn{t be good for me, would take me back to home instead of using my time here as an escape and a way to think of solely myself. She thought that I should really use this time here to forget about all the stuff back home, not to forget about all the people I care about and distance myself from home, but to take the time to better myself, to put myself first for once. I kinda sat there confused at the concept for a while, not really wanting to take what she said in. I'm so hard headed that even the suggestion of bettering myself seems like a foreign concept.

Yeah, it was difficult sitting there listening to her suggestions, because they were so simple and straightforward and of course logical, but my mind doesn't work that way, I like to torture myself with it sometimes. yeah and as I sat there telling her things I sometimes keep from even my closest friends, I was really scared of the judgement, that feeling I get, of being scared of seeming like a scary monster in the eyes of others, which in the end keeps me from exposing most of my real emotions to people. But she listened and took it all in and sat there and acted like, no big deal. And that was it. I think I needed that. It made me realize Eli was right, it doesn't matter, shit happens and my life is what it is and my feelings are what they are, it doesn't matter because in the end I am a good person and yeah my life can be complicated and my feelings can be dark, but it doesn't make me a bad, ugly person. It was really actually relieving going to that session. Even though it was painful letting some things out and her phone rang at some point and she had to talk to her daughter in the middle of the session, it really did help. Even though I wanted to punch her as she sat there on the phone, right in the middle of my vulnerable point, it made me realize, we're all people and we all have our things going on. She's a mom, she needs to talk to her daughter, no biggy, calm down crystal.

So I left the session feeling a little shaken but rejuvenated. I was quite content with that. She told me to come back next week for a check in, so yeah I will head back next Wednesday in the evening.

Tuesday, I headed back to UCA and to my literatura española class, very unenthusiastically. So in the course of the class, Karla (one of the other FLACSO students in the class) and I realized that we were not on some class list to receive emails for the class, emails that included our extra side readings for the class. GR!!! that class is so frustrating, and interacting with some of the women in my domestic violence class made me realize that the kids in this class, the literatura española class, really do suck! They know we're foreign students and completely lost to this new system of schooling, but they don't extend any offerings of help at all. But we spoke with the professor and got some things straightened out and cleared up, which was really nice and it was great to talk to a professor. Class ended, and Karla and I sat outside on the grass of UCA, and ran into Natasha on her way to class. It always brightens my day being able to see that gal! I do love her!

After a while, I left and went to the subte and back home. Ran some errands, took a nap, then off to another UBA class which was located near FLACSO, so I decided to walk there. When I finally arrived, I realized that it was a building I had passed before, and this one was even crazier than the other UBA building. It used to be an old hospital, but it's now turned into a classroom building. It's completely run down, but great! There were even more posters all over the walls and more people recruiting for their clubs and their meetings. I was standing by the class lists, double checking that I was at the right place, when some guy asked me if I knew where a certain class was. It always makes me happy to know that I am sometimes mistaken for a local! yay!

I was early for the class and just waited in the room, doing some reading. As the class rolled in, we realized there weren't enough seats, so people dragged more in from another nearby classroom. Once the class actually got started, I realized it was perfect for me. The professor talked about the notion of teenage pregnancy as a "problem", from whose perspective is it a problem? Who is it a problem for? What does this reflect about our society? Also, she talked about the difference between pregnancy and maternity, explaining that a pregnancy can be terminated, but maternity is something one chooses to enter into...but also has certain societal constructions attached to it too. We also introduced ourselves and talked about what kind of experience we've had with the theme of the class. I talked about my experience with WYSE and the girls we have worked with and the themes we discussed, and this short remembrance of my WYSE days really did make me realize I wanted this class instead of the domestic violence class. Also, as we did the intros, I realized that there was another American girl in the class, not from FLACSO, she was actually living here and works with an organization for women. Me and another girl from FLACSO talked with her after class, she was pretty great to talk to and helped us find where to get our fotocopies. It was great, and as she talked more about her work, I further realized I really wanted to be in the class. Plus, the psychiatrists words were still wringing through my ears, and I realized I felt much more comfortable after leaving that class than I did in the domestic violence class. I realized that I would be very uncomfortable and emotional taking the other class, and with this pregnancy class, I felt more ready and willing to attack life and give it my all, plus, after leaving, I had that euphoric feeling of being in love with Buenos Aires. It was great.

So I walked to the subte stop with the other girl from FLACSO, talking about how amazing the class was, with that great feeling of contentness set upon me. Then we talked about St. Paty's day and what our plans were. I told her I didn't even realize it was March 17th, how crazy. Said I'd probably stay in, didn't want to go crazy, and we parted at the stop and she wished me a happy st. paty's day...gah, if only it had been that way, it's actually funny now that I look back on it.

So I went home, ate with my homestay family and watched the ridiculousness of the city on the news,people were climbing lamposts and openly defying the already very weak police force. It was great, I sat there laughing at their ridiculousness. Then I txted Natasha and she wanted to meet up for helados, also agreeing that she didn't want to go crazy that night. So we met up at our usual malabia and santa fe corner and enjoyed some great gelato, standing and being ridiculous and silly and drunk looking on the street corner, eating our helados. But when we finished, Natasha asked what we wanted to do next. I sat there confused, thinking all we were going to do was have helados. Oh no, destiny did not have that in store for me. We ran into a FLACSO acquiantance, Colby on the street, who said he was meeting up with Kristina (a girl who had also gone to avant with us the previous weekend, a soon to be close friend after the events of the nite)in Plaza Serrano for a bit of guinness drinking. Colby left and Natasha and I pondered our opciones. Then we said, hell, joining Colby and Kristina wouldn't be too bad, it's close to home and we could leave when we were tired. jajjaja

So we caught up to them and went to the Irish Pub a block away from Plaza Serrano. Most of us at the table hadn't tried guiness so we wanted to give that a go. But they sadly ran out. Oh jajaja it was the funniest thing ever, when we arrived, one of the waitresses greeted us in a irish accent and we had a moment of stupidity and talked back to her in English, forgetting where we were and that she probably just memorized that one phrase in English, but basically she refused to speak spanish to us for the rest of the night, we were the stupid americans. So when we asked for guiness she sadly informed us that they had run out,but that Otro Mundo, Rojo was a good choie (no it wasn't) and we ordered a few of those. So, I didn't know this at the time, but each bottle was a medio litro and red beer is stronger than regular beer. I quickly downed two bottles as we played a game of 21 (one of natasha's, of course) and yes, I was quickly tipsy. Well, at some point I made my way up to the restrooms, located upstairs, as always, and yeah I puked in the baño, it was great. I don't even remember the process of puking, the nastiness coming out, so I guess that was good, but it wasn't great that I got it all over myself and some nice irish girl found me and took me down stairs, yelling at me to drink more AGUA! It was great, but apparently, at that point, Natasha was talking to this guy with dreds who I had been telling her to talk to all night, and Colby and Kristina thought I had gone home with a few other kids. So all were surprised to see me suddenly chilling with this Irish girl. They came over to the table and collected my drunken self, and took me outside, where I proceeded to puke in the street, right next to all the tables on the sidewalk where people were still seated. GREAT!!! yeah right, more puke on myself. Kristina was a doll and took nice care of me though, so we proceeded to walk home towards santa fe. Somewhere along the way, I asked where my purse was, then we realized I didn't have it nor did anyone else. Colby ran back to search for it, unsuccessfully of course.

And this whole walk home, there was supposedly a porteño named Nicolas walking with us, who I dont remember AT ALL. yeah Colby was hitting on him, but no luck, but still there was another human being with us and I didnt realize it. At this point we were freaking out for me because I didnt have my cell to call my homestay family, nor did I have their numbers, they were on my phone. Nor did I have my keys. I reassured them that I didnt have any identification or credit cards with me or much cash for that matter, remember, I thought I was only going out for helados with Natasha, which really did save me because all I lost was my phone and 30 pesos and well my keys too. At this point, it was 6 am and a cafe just opened, so my amazing friends stayed there with me until 8am when I knew I would run into my homestay dad would be exiting our apartment for work. I took advantage of this cafe by cleaning myself up in the restroom, Natasha gave me a shirt, but I still reaked and had some chunks on my jean shorts. It was GREAT! At some point after we finished our cafe and medialunas, Colby and I fell asleep with our heads on the table for a good few minutes. 8am finally arrived and I walked myself home, waited outside for 2 seconds when I ran into Enri, and told him what had happened, and how I wasnt used to red beer and to take pity on me. I was hoping I didnt reak too bad. But it was all good, he was worried about me, he saw my empty bed and thought the worst, so he was glad to see me. He walked me upstairs and I took off the puke smelling clothes and slept for like 3 hours. When I woke up, I embarrassingly told the story again to Rossanna this time, who gave me another spair set of keys (luckily they had some!) and said that at least I was alright and didnt lose much, which really is the truth.

I hungoveredly tried to read all day, didnt go outside that whole Wednesday. It was pathetic. On Thursday, when I woke up and had to go to FLACSO, I still felt weak, it was the worst feeling ever. I got through one class, ran into Kristina and others in the comp. lab during lunch, they were all happy to see I was doing better. Told my story to a few others, I got two reactions from Katy and Elizabeth, both thought I had been roofied, but we saw them uncap our bottles, so that was inprobable. BLAH! I went to my other class, on Argentine history, and it was wonderful. We have the cutest professor, this older man with curly grey hair whos just a sweetie! He broke out into operatic song to demonstrate what the argentine flag song sounded like, he was amazing! Not to mention, so great at drawing parallels between american and argentina history, he's AMAZING! Finished up my day with my awkward writing class. We went on a field trip to this bookstore, that used to be a playhouse. It was GORGEOUS!!! but the walk to the place was funny. I dont know anyone else in the class, but they all know each other. They walked together and I was stuck with our awkward-geeky looking young professor who looks like he hates having to teach us. Yes, I made awkward convo with him and he weirdly asked where I lived, I wanted to die. gah. Awk, awk, AWK!!! blah! But the bookstore made up for it.

That thursday I took it easy. I wanted to meet up with Kristina and Colby who were at a restaurant in Palermo, next to plaza serrano. I called Kristina from my home phone (since at this point I didnt have a phone) and got the address from her. I also got the address to Emmette's house, this guy from our program, who had invited all of us over to his place to chill. Natasha and Elizabeth were already there. Well, it was a great thing I got all this addresses and numbers because I took off walking to Plaza Serrano, stopped by the pub to embarrassingly inquire if anyone had turned in a black purse (no luck of course) and by the time I arrived at the parrilla that Kristina and Colby were eating at, I realized that it was on fire, the street filled with interested passerby and firemen all around. Basically I was scared. Didnt know what to do or think or know where my friends were, because they weren't around. But I calmed down, realized they probably took off to Emmette's, so I walked passed the sketch train tracks to a big street and flagged a taxi to Emmette's, and found Kristina and Colby outside, the had just arrived too. We hysterically hugged and greeted each other, amazed at our porteño luck to get ourselves in such crazy situations. They were quite impressed at my resourcefulness and ability to stay afoot and get myself to Emettes in one piece. I was impressed myself. jajaja omg and Kristina told me that she redialed my home phone number, thinking it was my new phone and started cussing and shouting about the restaurant being on fire, when she realized it was my homestay mom saying, "I don't speak English". jjajaja so funny.

So we spent a chill night in Emmette's just talking, he has a nice spread with a single 30 year old who was on a short vacation. Nice to have a homie place to ourselves. Friday, the next day, I did a whole bunch of errands, bought a phone and did my laundry in time to get in contact with Kristina and Colby, Kristina had proposed we take a bus to La Plata, a city an hour outside the city, to this alternative folklore festival that her homestay "dad" (hes 27, with dreds and plays in an awesome band) was going to perform in. That day was such a rush, but I got everything done, even walked to UBA to get my fotocopies for my class and by 4:30 I was meeting Kristina, Colby, and Natasha at the Ortiz subte stop, on the way to the bus station en Retiro. That place was huge and kinda intimidating at first, but we bought our hour and a half bus ticket to La Plata for only 9 pesos!!! 3 dollars! Ridiculous! And the ride was beautiful! It was great being able to see the countryside, you know, grass and trees and not a single high rize or apartment in sight! Plus, Natasha brought a whole bag of medialunas and other postres, it was AMAZING! The only downside was that our friend Sara brought her friend from home with her, and she was grossly obnoxious the whole night. On the bus, she talked loudly, as people who use this bus to do their daily commute to and from work sat there having to endure this gross interruption of their daily routine, having to endure the sound of loud americans on their bus. It was great, quite embarrassing. Plus, the whole night, she refused to speaka a single word of spanish, not even a gracias to the waitress who served us! It was so annoying.

Natasha and I proceeded to whisper to each other in spanish. We did have an early eruption of laughter though, because I realized that there was a penis drawn on the seat in front of me, and we all quickly remembered the wondrousness of superbad and I HAD to take a pic of it, using Kristina's camera (I didnt bring mine because I still didnt trust myself) When we arrived, we walked through the streets through trial and error, the calles were conveniently numbered only, so we just walked in one direction to find if they were rizing or increasing. We found which direction to walk in, as we stood on a street corner confusedly, a couple of old men asked if we needed help with anything. It was quite nice. They were great help! They told us how to get to the festival and pointed us in the direction of a few hotels, in case we wanted to stay over in the city. We quickly found it would be grossly overpriced to spend the night, so we just proceeded to walk to the festival. It was quite adventurous, we didn't know where we were at all, but it was nice to be out of the high rises, as I said earlier. But of course, that one girl looked like she was in a horrible mood, not down for exploring and getting lost and being adventurous, she even said, gah I dont want to get raped tonight! Yup,nice way to joke about rape, and be annoying at that. But we quickly found the parque it was happening at, and went to eat at this place that was deserted, because it was only 8pm. We ordered, had some good intellectually stimulating convos, ranging from Teach for America to gay rights, but our convo was interrupted when that girl said, "OK this convo is too serious, it's not even that deep, just too serious. So um...has anyone seen gossip girl?" No lie she said that, not an exaggeration in any way. I wanted to strangle her, plus I was on the other side of the table from Colby and Natasha, I was stuck with this annoying girl!!! WHY?!?!! It was great...

So we stayed there a while, and as 10:30 approached, the place got packed and the "show" was going to start. So this was a restaurant filled with older people and there was going to be one of those corny solo singers performing. And he did, he started, as we were paying the bill. We waited until he finished his song, and walked out, what else were we supposed to do? Kristina's homestay "dad's" band was going on at 11, we had to leave. We thought we were doing it as politely as possible, but as each one of us passed by this man, he asked, into the mic, "Adonde van? Apenas empezo" jajaja way to call us out and put us on the spot! That was evil, but oh well, we had to leave.

We walked that long walk to the big park and found the stage, it was a great night. We found a little spot on the grass and listened to one band finish up, then Luciano's band came one. They were great! He played the accordian, there were a millilon members to the band, the lead singer playing an ukaleilei (spelling?). It was so amazing to be out of the city, underneath a patch of slightly visible stars, in the open air listening to great music. On the last song, they brought out a group of folk dancers who performed on the grass right in front of us. We stayed around and danced to a few other bands, then we indecisively walked back and forth between the park and the main drag a million times, hoping that Luciano would say, hey lets go to a party that so and so is throwing. But that never happened, and we eventually all made our way back to the bus station. Luciano and his gf and his groupie went to eat and we sat there, 4am dying from the exhaust of weeks of partying and coming home at 6 am. Once we got on the bus, we all knocked out. I sat next to Natasha, who used her scarf to cover her head. That was probably the soundest I've ever slept in BsAs, all I remember was once looking over at Natasha as we locked eyes and giggled hysterically at each other. Silliness. Oh and these buses are AMAZING! They cost 15 pesos round trip, this was a low cost bus, but the seats went all the way back, they were comfortable, easy to sleep in, I can't believe the quality of bus they have here, it's great! Highly recommended. So all of us were passed out when the bus got back to the station, the bus driver had to yell "chicos!" at us several times before we realized what was going on. So we all made our way back to the subte station, departed for our respectful lines at Diagnol Norte.

Got home at around 6am like always.. Enri and Rosanna were sleeping. They were going to leave for Rosario, where their son and his family live 3 hours away, at around 9am. I was going to have the whole house to myself and Rosanna gave me permission to have a friend stay the night. I passed out yet still didnt get a full night sleep, woke up in the 1 oclock hour. I got in touch with Elizabeth and Natasha to see if they wanted to drink mate and have some sweets in el jardin botanico. I met Elizabeth and we bought some breadstick things that are weirdly plain and popular type of snack here. In my bag I had my mate, the yerba, a termos full of hot water, and my imitation yet still amazing nutella chocolate that would acompany the plain biscuits. We found a nice little bench and sat there all cool, sipping on my mate, enjoying those biscuits with chocolate, which reminded us of the asian yan yan snack that you can find at any store in china town. mmmmm...

Then we decided to take advantage of my kitchen and cook an amazing dinner. We went to carrefour, the french named market, and picked us ingredients to make a stir fry veggie mix, cheese and tortillas for quesadillas, and some wine. We got back and set up my room. Rosanna had showed me how to access the bottom cushion of my bed and we proceeded to make my room into the ultimate sleep over room. We took a whole bunch of silly pictures that looked horribly like American Apparel ads and contemplated watching Natasha's DVD, boondock saints, a movie about some irish mobsters who get into trouble on st. paty's day, quite suiting for the holiday that had of recent made me sick. We decided to make dinner instead. I started off by making some amazing salsa, if I do say so myself. We consumed that happily with some Lays, since tortilla chips are nonexistant here, sadly, are all other maiz based goods. We proceeded onto our stir fry mix and Natasha got to work on the quesadillas. She had the brilliant idea to add this other hot sauce to the veggies. The result, an amazingly tasty vegetarian meal (just for my Natasha, but to my own happiness too, I miss veggies). It was AMAZING having quesadillas, really, indescribable! Added some of our wine to the mix and started watching boondock saints and we called up kristina and colby. We met them outside after a short wait (Colby surprisingly lives two blocks down from me, which I didn't know). Showed them around my house, they revelled at my balcony, we had a bit more wine out there. We proceeded with more ridiculous american apparel pics. We had been planning to go to a reggae show downtown, but my friend Cecilia, the porteña, ended up texting me saying she wasn't going after all, and that Zelmar was going to Avant again. Gr! Wasn't the highlight of my night. Well, we were all way to lazy to make our way to microcentro, so we walked over to a different bar in Palermo! Could you believe that, we didnt go to Tazz in plaza serrano! Crazy huh!?! It was a queer friendly bar, and Colby was happy to check out the other chicos there, but was a little disappointed because he thought that there were more straight people there than gay. That and the guy he had been eying didn't respond much after we had urged him to go talk to him. Too bad. Natasha went home early, Elizabeth never went with us. Then we quickly got tired dancing, so we all went home. The next day...I don't remember what happened, nothing too eventful I believe. I don't think that was the sunday me and natasha went to san telmo and got dragged into a drum circle.

Well, actually, this is as much of an update I can do right now, I still need all of last week, which included a frustrated me saying a stupid childish retort to Natasha, due to misplaced frustration at a failed night. Gr! Yeah, and last weekend, which I think was uneventful, found a new mexican restaurant and underestimated the argentines in their ability to make spicy food.

Anyways, tonight, Wednesday April 1st, we are getting on a bus at 10pm to go to Cordoba, a city 9 hours northwest of BsAs, great for outdoors activities, with nearby mountains and rivers. Activities include: hiking, biking, horsebackriding, and paragliding, which I have been told costs about 120 pesos, amazing price for a chance to fly through the air, so hopefully I come back with some great stories!

Besos!

GO BIG or go home!

So, last week (by week I mean, you know, not the weekend, and by weekend, I mean Jueves-Domingo!woo!) was pretty rough. Classes were awkward, I was awkward, I showed up to buildings completely lost, showed up for class that starts in two weeks, and showed up for a class that wasn't mine and had to run back down corrientes and ayacucho to get to the right class. Pretty embarrassing, Alex King and Elizabeth were in that class and had good laugh at my not being in the right place, I would've laughed too any other time, except I had already been too confused and frustrated with classes to actually laugh. On top of that, I was feeling pretty homesick. Well, I guess I would, with all the frustrating things and scariness of starting school for the first time, worse than the first time I actually started college, because now I don't have my family 20 minutes away to run to on the weekends if I need something. Hell, I don't even have my mom to pick me up along with Memi to get some dim sum.

But, at 7:30 on Thursday, when I was finally done with my three classes for that day, I was ready to forget about this rough start of classes. I called up Natasha and the gals, but they wanted to rest up and then go out later that night, to the drag show/club that we didn't go to last week. So I tried sleeping with no success. But whatevs, I got ready and headed over to Elizabeth's, then to Natasha. We met up with Alex and Katy at Plaza Serrano, as always. We sat outside of Tazz, as always, but this time our waiter was the short guy with dreds and a strokes tshirt! Yay! haha So we hung out there for a while, then finally headed over to Niceto Vega where the drag show was supposed to happen. By that time the girls needed a restroom run badly, so while Alex and Katy stayed in line for the club, Natasha, Elizabeth and I ran across the street and ducked into a bar to use their restroom. But Natasha and I felt bad and decided to buy a drink from the very cute bartender. haha yeah we finished that quick and ran back across the street to find Alex right in front of the window, so we paid our fee and got in. It was another very huge club and the theme that night was KISS, you know, the band, the one I saw when I was in 4th grade, when I first smelled pot? Yeah, that KISS. So there were guys and gals dressed up KISS style and like Amerika, the other club, tons of platforms and different levels, but we just stayed on the main floor. It was pretty fun, lots of electronic music as always, but suddenly in the middle of dancing I realized that I really was still hurt from the break with Eli, to the point where I kinda felt broken inside. It was frustrating. Whatever, but when we got out of the club, I talked to Natasha and Katy about it and felt better to vent. They're amazing girls, I love them so much!

Friday, didn't get to sleep in much because my host mom was in the living room talking to the new maid she was thinking about hiring. It's so weird having a maid, I can't get used to it. But yeah, I was wearing my crazy colored pjs that Auntie Irma gave me and when I went to the living room to saludar, the girl was looking at me like I was crazy, I felt so awkward. So I got ready, ran some errands, then walked to the park to read. I didn't even realize that I had a park like 3 blocks away, good to know though. Minus the mosquitos, it's a great location to study, sadly no tennis courts though. It's pretty frustrating that the only tennis courts I've seen are in clubs, so there are no public ones for use. boo!

Later on that night, I was still feeling kinda bad, a skype convo with Eli didn't help, but it's a good thing Natasha called me and wanted to do something, because I might have just stayed inside and cried. But it's a great thing I went out because it was one of the funnest nights so far. She and I agreed we didn't want to party just chill and she suggested La Peña del Colorado, a mate bar/ folk music lounge/cafe that we had heard great things about. We got there and were laughing and being ourselves, to the point that a family changed tables to get away from us. Gah, it's really annoying when people react like that to laughter. That's the usual reaction I get from people when they hear me laughing in public places, but I guess more than one person is too unbarable for people, so they moved. Whatever, it cleared up space for Elizabeth, Katy, Kris, and Trish to come and sit with us later. As we waited for them, Natasha ordered helado (ice cream) and I got a crepe with dulce de leche and a scoop of helado. It was AMAZING! The atmosphere was great too! Like a little cave, very rustic feel. While we waited, there wasn't live music, just the stereo. But after everyone showed up, we saw that random guys were busting out their acustic guitars and chatting and strumming at their tables. One walked past and tried a line on Natasha, asking if it was she who ordered wine and then invited her to drink with him at his table. She declined. Then we noticed that that guy went back to his table and he started talking with his friends and then they were pointing. I love how guys over here are not subtle at all, they were of course saying that we were americans and a different guy came over to our table and started talking in English, saying he was fluent and proceeded to ask all of us where we were from. After chatting it up, he also invited us to their table, promising to play some amazing Argentine folk music for us.

This time, we decided to say yes and made our way towards the stage, where their table was. They started playing Argentine songs first, then asked us for requests. One guy played "Under the Bridge", I wanted to cry! It's totally my song and I always tend to hear it on KROQ while driving between Oxy and home, gah, it made me miss home for a few minutes! But it was such a great feeling of hospitality that night, it helped me forget about my homesickness. Trish was sitting on the other end of the table, talking to this cute old man who later shared his mate and food with us, he was the sweetest! The guys continued to play amazing songs, it was great. Of course, sometimes a few of them would gaze longingly at Natasha, sometimes just grossly staring at her. But as the night when on, Natasha, Katy and I got to have a convo with two of the guys, it was fun. We learned that they were from el interior, outside of the city. The old man, Jorge, explained to me that lots of interior guys hang out there as a sort of home away from home. He told me that he always hangs out there, usually til it closes at 7 am. It was great. One of those guys gave his contact info to Natasha and said we should all go out to eat and dance sometime. It was nice to have a conversation and get to know people and get to know a very homie, chill place.

I slept in on Saturday, basically chilled indoors all day because it was hot and rainy. Gah, sometimes I think I should go outside in the day more often, but that's what the week is for! haha So I had texted Cecilia on Friday night, she was the girl I met last weekend at the rooftop party. She had said she knew of a free club with 80's and indie music so I wanted to check in with her and get that stuff arranged. Plus, I wanted to see if she'd bring along her friend Zelmar (z not s like I thought) would come along too, hehe. So I texted her the names of me and my friends so we could be on the list. Saturday, I looked at the website and it looked amazing. At 10ish, I met up with Katy, Kris and Trish downtown. They ate and I joined them. Then we went over to a kiosco that had tables and a mini cafe and enjoyed some quilmes before the club. We played some drinking games and giggled at our uncoordinated movements and forgetfulness after a while. I texted a few people to see their wherabouts...then we walked over to the club to meet Cecilia and also Nicolas, one of the other guys I met at the party last weekend.

There was confusion about the time that the club opened, it was daylight savings time. But we ran into more of our friends along the way and we got there for the second time and found Cecilia. She really is the sweetest person. We chatted it up as we waited for it to open, which it finally did around 2am, yeah, we got in free! It was pretty empty because it was still early. There were two floors, but only the top, main floor was open for the mean time. Initially they played the usual electronic music, which was alright. Then they started to mix it up, played a little Does it Offend You, Yeah?, Hot Chip, and MGMT. In the mean time, Zelmar showed up! hehe I said hello, you know the argentine way, which I love because it's besos all around. He was his usual awkward self. He would occasionally offer me some of his drink, then I saw him talking with Cecilia and he turned to me, and was like, "Ok I'm going to try this..." then he asked in English "So are you having fun?" hehehe it was really cute. He said he didn't speak any English but yeah, idk, maybe just trying to impress? haha I wish... yeah I said yeah. And was like, "Vos?" But I already knew the answer, the complete lack of punk music until that point already told me the answer. He said it was alright and hoped they would change it up soon.
Haha ok, so my fear with this kid is that he's going to think I'm a complete poser. Why you ask? Because I made myself out to be some crazy punk fan the first time we talked, but really, I love SLC Punk and know some bands, but that's about it. I don't even know how I know what I know, I guess a combo of Robert's punk phase in high school, where he introduced Rancid, the Specials, the Misfits and Rudimentary Peni to me. Maybe some of the boys from middle skill, with their circle jerks and dead kennedy's. Or maybe it was Mr. Goldstein and his old school punk life prior to becoming a teacher. Idk, but it fascinates me, but I am no punk but can fake it for like, one convo. hahaha

Anyways, they opened up the bottom floor and it was complete heaven for me. They blasted the The Strokes, Franz Ferdinand, Arctic Monkeys, some 80's including the cure and others, it was absolutely amazing. I had a blast skanking to the songs and in my own little Strokes heaven, never did I imagine listening to the Strokes at a club, it was perfection for me! It was indescribable. Anyways, so I was in my own little world, really, what happened around me didn't matter at that point, it was lik a natural high, probably my fav. point of this trip so far, because I'm not gonna lie, I also chose BsAs for the music, their love of rock and the possibility of expanding my musical interests. hahahaha great decision right? I love how that was a factor, but hey, it was perfect, right? Yeah so I was dancing in my own world when someone grabs my wrist and then I realize there's some guy asking if he could dance with me, and I'm sitting there thinking, "How nice of you to ask before you grab my wrist and whisk me out of my own personal euphoria!" and I told him know but he didn't let go, he kept grabbing my hands, I kept saying no and had to knudge him away. I know, whatevr, it's just dancing but one, I came to have fun and listen to amazing music with my friend and two, the guys here are too aggresive, they quickly move on from dancing, I'm sorry but I didn't want some random stranger in my face.

After a while I had to take a break which was good because I spotted Zelmar creeping by the sides. haha, so I walked on over to him and chatted it up. Then he asked "Y que te parece los chicos argentinos?" "So what do you think of the argentine boys?" and I told him "Son muy agresivos" which he interpretted in a violent way, so I had to explain that I referred more to my personal space and that being violated when these boys wont leave me be and grab me when I'm dancing. I told him that I thought some Argentine boys seem to think that we "Americans" are easy. Then he said that it probably isn't because they think we're easy, but that they just see the possibility as a way of enacting a fantasy of being with a foreigner. Then awkward silence and then he walked away. hahaha it's so funny, he always walks away. At first I thought it was because I was being too boring, but he does it a lot, he does it with Cecilia, he's just awkward. haha whatevs, I like it, I prefer awkward over aggresive any day, plus he seems very pensive and thoughtful, clubs are just not a great place for conversing.

So me and my friends went between floors for the rest of the night. They began to play more argentine songs, which was fun, everyone in the club knew the lyrics and then they'd stop the music and everyone would be screaming the words. Oh yeah, in our floor hopping, we ran into that kid Garret from the party last weekend, it was crazy! Such a small world, we didn't invite him, we don't even have his contact info. So we danced more and Cecilia tried to get Zelmar to dance, a no-go. But mostly everyone had left and me and my friend Molly were feeling tired, so we said bye to Zelmar and Cecilia (who made a hang gesture to call her, she's so sweet!) and then Nicolas walked us to our colectivo stop. We were dead tired on the busride home, but it was so worth it. Got home around 6/7 am again. haha

The next day was BEAUTIFUL! And I finally had an amazing feeling and love for the city. I walked to a kiosco and a bought more minutes for my phone and texted Natasha, who agreed to go to the botanical gardens with me. The temperature was PERFECT!!!! It finally cooled down, it wasn't humid and there as a breeze. Plus I had this wonderful feeling running through me, I was really happy! We met up outside her place and walked to the park. Then we caved and did our usual trip to San Telmo to enjoy the artesanos and the random drum circles in the street. On the subte, Natasha and I enjoyed this group of guys with dreds and other scruffy style... haha we have such similar taste. We were all headed to Defensa, so we walked near them for a while. They seemed like a fun group of kids. haha I'm such a weirdo, I guess since I dont have my group of friends like I do at home, it's nice to freeload off the silliness of other kids. Anyways, I quickly caved and bought a beautiful scarf for 10 pesos, so like 3 dollars. It's gorgeous. I was still running on my natural high then. We stopped at a cafe and had te con leche and then continued, admiring all the beautiful things we wanted to buy but probably should wait for. Then we ran into the same Brazilian drum circle we saw two weekends ago. We were dancing outside the circle, just having a good time then one of the drummers starts to pull us and two other girls into the circle. Ok, so I like having my own little space, but I don't do on the spot in front of everyone. It was so intense, I was in the middle of drum circle dancing, scary! Not something for everyone to watch, but yeah, I guess it was fun. Then it turned to night quickly and we realized we were dead tired from the rest of the weekend.

We were unable to even speak on the subte ride home, we departed and gave besos at our stop and I walked home. I had emailed Cecilia earlier on that day asking her if she had a facebook. She quickly added me and we sent messages back and forth and now we have plans for next weekend. Yay! Then, from her facebook, I found Zelmar's and proceeded to stalk him. haha yeah, with longer hair he looks even cuter! haha yup, plus he has pics up from his mohawk days, very nice. Katy agrees, very cute. I've got Katy's stamp of approval! haha so she told me to add him in a couple of days, she'll do the same so I don't look like such a creeper. Gah, idk what this obsession with punker kid is, maybe just my middle school self appearing out of the blue? idk but he seems pretty cool, it'd be nice to hang out with him outside of a club. It'd also be nice if Pandora worked over here, I could get my free set of punk music tailored to my interests, but no, it doesn't work over here! It couldn't be that easy.

So I was planning on writing about my Monday, but I'm tired and I want to call my parents, so I will leave that until tomorrow!

I get by with a little help from my friends...

So we arrived here Thursday Feb 19^th in the afternoon and we are quickly approaching the 3 week mark of our stay here in Buenos Aires. What’s so important about 3 weeks? Why not write about the 1 month marker or something like that? Well, the longest I have ever been away from home on my own is 3weeks, so it means a lot to me. Plus, today was a day that really did test me and at one point I found myself talking to Alex and telling him how I wish my mom could just pick me up and take me to Memi’s house. Gah, yeah, that’s how tired of today I was and how homesick I was today.

So it was the first real day of classes, first day of attending school with porteños and first day of having to try out a class that I actually do picture myself taking. So I got up at 8:30am to make sure I had enough time to get ready and show up to my 11:30 Literatura española class at la Universidad Catolica, Argentina (UCA). Did my usual, got ready, made my lunch, ate breakfast and was already out the door at 10am and rushing towards the 152 colectivo stop 2 blocks away. I thought I’d give the bus (colectivo) a shot today because I thought it might leave me off closer to the school. Well, it took basically 45 minutes and I was left off maybe 5 blocks closer to the school than if I had taken the subte (subway), which usually doesn’t take more than 30 minutes. So I think I’m going to stick with the subte for that ride, plus I get a little more walking in, too.

Now let me tell you a little background about UCA. It’s the private university in the city and our coordinators as well as others say that it is much easier than the larger, public university in BsAs. Why you ask? It is a private entity and it has the reputation of letting its alumnos buy their way into a degree. The campus itself reeks of privilege. It’s located next to the water and the ecological reserve. It’s nicely placed behind the Casa Rosada and conveniently set aside from all the noise and craziness of the city. You can actually feel a cool breeze as you walk across the immaculately clean campus, it is probably a few degrees cooler there than in the rest of the city. It’s kinda crazy the whole set up of it, reminds you most private universities ::cough:: oxy::cough. Nicely in the heart of the city but easily removed from the actual community so that a convenient microcosm exists and encapsulates the students, only those who venture out of the bubble get to really experience what really matters to the community. Yup I get that feeling from UCA.

So I found the building that my class was in and according to the map I had and Leandro’s email, Filosofia y Letras (the department that includes language classes) was located in the third building bottom floor. At this point it was about 10 or five minutes to 11 as I enter the building, so I had a little more than 30 minutes to find my class. Simple, right? Not so easy. I went to the bottom floor, found the section my class should’ve been in and found a security guard. She told me to check this one room, I interrupted a professor’s meeting, she told me to check another room, and I interrupted a professor’s phone convo. Yup, apparently I never learned to knock, but once the second professor’s phonecall was done, he told me to go back up to the main floor and check the lists that were posted on the walls. So I had already looked there and didn’t find my class. I looked again, still nothing. So there was a line of kids waiting to talk to someone at a window, so I got in line. This whole time, kids kept happily greeting each other, asking each other how their summers were, cutting in line, being generally happy in a moment when I was freaking out. I was running out of time and Leandro and others had made UCA out to be very strict and orderly and I was scared of showing up late to my class. I kept running the worst scenarios through my head and I was actually going to give up and was ready to go back home and say, Hey at least I tried. But I finally found a couple of girls who weren’t over giddy and asked one of them where I might find the aula for Literatura española. She helped me look over the lists again and she too didn’t find it, but she kept examining the walls and the lists and found that the lists I need were around the corner and on a different wall. I could’ve hugged her, she saved my life. So I found the class but was still confused by the organization of the lists. It wasn’t very clear where the classroom was so I took a shot with what I expected the classroom number to be and made my way up to the third floor and successfully found the classroom, which already had backpacks on every single desk but one.

The porteña in the room was explaining to another American student in the room that they their classes in the same place all day, so they just leave their stuff where it is and then go on break, which is where everyone was. So pretty much two minutes later the class was full again and the professor was back and she was giving her intro but more and more students kept pouring in. They had to keep bringing in chairs from other nearby classrooms. And I slowly noticed that there were quite a few FLACSO students in the class, which eased some of the nerves. The professor went over her required reading and authors orally, she didn’t have a syllabus, which confused me. I didn’t know if that was normal or if I should’ve asked for one. But she finished and we had our break and switched to another classroom where the other professor was going to explain her half, which was another thing that confused me. I wasn’t expecting two professors. She also went over the authors orally and kept saying that she would have a syllabus next class. No one seemed to object so I figured that this was normal, but seriously, no syllabus? I don’t even know if we have homework. I’m thoroughly confused by the class and I have no background in Spanish literature, I know more about Latin America, not Spain. I understood one reference to other pieces of literature that the professors made. Gah! It’s so frustrating.

So I really don’t want to go back there, but I don’t think I have a choice because I have to take a literature class for my Spanish major. Blah, never thought I’d be going to Catholic school either, my dad went to Catholic school his whole life and vowed to not put us through it, but there I am throwing myself into it. The school is so different from the rest of Buenos Aires, I can definitely sense the lack of liberalism and free thinking there on campus, it’s a bit weird. From what I’ve heard about UBA, it sounds like the Berkeley of BsAs, and I’m so ready to start my class there. I know I’ll feel at home there in the free thinking, rebellious, no B.S. campus of UBA.

Speaking of nonconformist, today, after the class, me and my friends went to one of the many cafeterias there. I had packed my own lunch and didn’t need to buy anything, but I went along to check out what they had. All the food looked so good, and most of it was just sitting there. I don’t know why, but I’ve been having urges to steal food so bad here in BsAs. Hahaha, but not just that, I was eying all the leftover food people left on their trays, wanting to devour it. I guess it’s New Orleans freeganing coming out. See, since the Common Ground Collective in NOLA was started by a whole bunch of anarchists, many of the people who still run it and work there now are anarchists. Case in point, Tommy, who would go freeganing through dumpsters behind super markets to get us food. He scored us boxes of Krispy Kream donuts that lasted us days. He didn’t believe in paying for food and to some extent I feel like that sometimes. Get the concept of the word? Like VEgan but Freegan! Because the food is essentially free if you just found it. So I have greater tendencies to freegan here because this is the first time I’ve ever had to buy everything for myself. And unlike most kids in the program, I worked for most of the money I brought with me. I don’t have my parents busting out the bills to pay for all everything that I’m spending here. They did give me some and I’m so grateful, but my budget is nowhere near as much as other people. Someone said their parents gave them an extra $2000 to spend down here and I was like, excuse me? That’s what I saved up myself, so yeah… I may go freegan sometime soon, I don’t care, but I am happy I met those punks at the party, but I need to go to more free events, no more paying for everything. It’s ridiculous.

So anyways, I also got a yellow fever shot for free at some vaccination place. It was great. I love that it was free. A healthcare system that takes care of you, crazy huh? But I love how I just totally used the system and am not paying taxes and just got a free ride. Good job. But this trip to the vaccination place made me realize that I didn’t get my typhoid shot. That is on my next to do list…

I ended up the day going back to FLACSO and trying to figure out if there was any lit class I could take at UBA, my options look grim. But I sat there for a while and the whole walk/trip back to Palermo thinking about how I wanted to be home, how I wanted to just sit with my mom and vent about my day. I wanted to just chill with here, preferably at Memi’s house, in the perfect LA climate in Memi’s garden. Yup, I wasn’t a happy camper walking home. Blah, yeah, I really do need a hug and someone to just crawl up on a couch with and watch TV for hours. I miss home. I miss you LA. I miss you perfect weather, the kind that doesn’t rain on me in the middle of summer and leaves the rest of the day humid and sticky. I miss veggies and tofu and beans and rice and tortillas and boba and noodles. I miss my family and sitting and laughing at stupid things with them and playing tennis with them. I miss my friends and all those beautiful faces back home. I really do miss hugs and being held, and no, it doesn’t come from not having a boyfriend, he was never a daily presence in my life anyways. It comes from the fact that I have the most amazing and loving family and friends that make my life so beautiful and amazing. I realized in college how lucky I was to be blessed with such constantly amazing family and friends in my life, but now I know how hard it is to be without them, too. I hate that the farther away from home I go, the more I love it. Gah, these months are going to be hard.

P.S. the milk here is so whole and fatty, it tastes like cream…it’s pretty gross.

Fotos

View outside my window at Hotel Lyon en Microcentro, I had this room to myself, shared the flat with three other girls. It was insanely hot and stuffy, but the privacy during the first few days in Buenos Aires was nice. I got space to myself to think. I had this room for two nights I
believe? Yes for the first two nights of orientation.


Another view from my window at the hotel.










My room at my homestay, all to myself! Look, my hedwig is there too!










The living room, plus a view to the balcony.











View of the street from the balcony.