On Saturday we went to a traditional Argentine estancia, or ranch. At first, we were all sort of disappointed; all we could see was grass, a pool and that’s about it. We had no idea how we were supposed to spend 8 hours there. But then we discovered the joys of a lazy day of fun.

Epic games of foosball

Chicken in the pool

Soccer, tennis and volleyball

And sunbathing, of course

All in all, it was a super fun day. Everyone got to relax after another long week of classwork, projects and general excitement, which was perf. It was really great hanging out with friends, and our assistants, teachers and program administrators.

Just got back from a tango lesson! it was pretty fun. Not too many of us initially went, just me, Alex R., Alex G., Kristina (mi tocaya!), Jackie and Gabe. The place looked deserted, complete with a sign saying they were closed until January 30. Just as we were getting ready to leave, this guy walks up and asks us if we’re there for the lesson. After a few minutes, when our instructor, Ezekiel (a friend of my professor, Belén) was giving us the introductory speech, Sneha, Jemi and Jane showed up.

Ezekiel taught us some basic moves, which we went over by ourselves, and then we paired off. Since Gabe was the only guy other than our instructor, all of the girls learned/danced (or in my case, attempted to learn/dance) both the male and female parts. I did best when I was with either Ezekiel or Gabe; then, someone was leading me and I could focus on not looking at my feet, tripping, or stepping on my partner’s toes.

It was really, really fun, although at times frustrating since I always confused the male and female parts and some of the half-steps were hard to do. At the end of the lesson, we sat in a circle and everyone danced in pairs for the group. Each mini-show ended with a gancho, or kick.

The best part? It was only 8 pesos! I’m hoping to take another tango class soon, or else try something else.

Zamba de Amor y Mar – Los Tucu Tucu

Que no te llegue triste mi cantar

Porque le puse una sonrisa a mi guitarra

Para llenar de vida y de color

La soledad que va creciendo en tu mirada

Mirá que la Luna está partida en la mitad

Y sin embargo alumbra igual.

Y solo por el gusto de cantar

Así dejé que el viento inflara mi pañuelo

Dueño de mi tiempo y capitán

Me encaramé al palo mayor de tanto sueño

Vine a caminarte con mi copla y continuar

Es largo mi camino y va.

Puedo llorar o sonreír

Mi corazón se quedó aqui

Mar del amor plata y dolor

Con ojos de agua me verás partir.

Me fui por esa costa a caminar

Y dibujé mi rostro todo piel de arena

Para quedarme un poco y perdurar

Y vino el agua y lo mezcló con tanta piedra

Teerco como siempre por mi verso quedará

La huella de mi corazón.

El nombre de Alfonsina me llegó

Para mostrarme el corazón de Mar del Plata

Aquella que en la muerte enalteció

Todo el amor con que la nombra mi guitarra

Crece en el recuerdo no puedo remediar

Un tiempo que me hará volver.

Puedo llorar o sonreír

Mi corazón se quedó aqui

Mar del amor plata y dolor

Con ojos de agua me verás partir.

Mar del amor plata y dolor

Con ojos de agua me verás partir.

There are 5 groups here: A, A+, B, C and Lit. I’m in C, which is the most advanced grammar class before lit. We’re not exactly sure how they split us up; some people in my class should be taking mid-200 level classes, while some should be in 102, 201 or 202. It may have been based on language skills (our first day of classes, Jan. 4, we had to take written, oral and aural placement exams).

We have classes Mondays through Fridays from 8:30-10:30 and 11:00-1:00. From 2:00-6:00, we’re supposed to be free to work on our proyectos, but more on that later. My professors, Juan and Belén, switch off who teaches first. Juan mainly focuses on grammar, while Belén teaches us about the history and culture of Mar del Plata. Our proyectos are a mix of both lessons: they’re week long projects on some aspect of Mar del Plata that culminate in oral and written presentations in which we’re supposed to use grammatical structures Juan’s taught us. We meet with our asistentes (one per group) after class to discuss the projects and work on them. On Fridays, we present in front our our teachers, the asistentes, the program administrators, our peers, and oh, right. A camera. Yep, they film us giving our presentations. Soooo embarrassing and stressful. During the final Friday presentation at the end of the program, each class presents in front of our entire group.

Last week’s project was on learning more about a certain place in MdP and compare it to another similar place, so my group looked at los centros comerciales, or places to shop. People here don’t really shop in malls. There are tons of stores everywhere in certain areas and that’s where people primarily shop. This week, we need to do interviews. We’re trying to interview Daniel Gil, the man who brought surfing to Mar del Plata. This afternoon, we’re free to brainstorm interview questions. Tomorrow, we’ll meet up to go over the questions and logistics of the interview, and then on Wednesday we’re going to meet him. Thursday will be spent consolidating our information, going over our oral presentation and writing our paper.

The classes aren’t too bad. Last week we did an exercise where we listened to a certain type of tango song (zamba), filled in the missing words in the lyrics in our workbooks, and then analyzed the poem. I’ll post the portion of the zamba that was in our workbook and try to find the song online. It’s super pretty.

• INSTALL STOP SIGNS AND TRAFFIC LIGHTS. It’s insane here. Pedestrians never have the right of way, and at intersections, cars frequently get trapped because drivers refuse to move back to let other cars by. Walking on these streets is terrifying.
• ASK BEFORE ASSUMING SEPARATE TABLES GO ON THE SAME BILL. Just because we all came in together doesn’t mean we’re paying together, and we never split the check evenly. There’s a reason we ask for a different table and ask how much our food is.
• MAKE RESTAURANT BILLS COMPREHENSIBLE/ISSUE BILLS. Some places have a system of tallies on a card where orders are printed, others write in shorthand or put down a number and then the price, and some places just tell you the final amount. There’s no bill. Just a number. fjkdal;jdlkaj IT DRIVES ME CRAZY!

I’ve literally spent this entire weekend shopping. It’s probs not a good thing. I had a freakout yesterday when I checked how much money I’d spent because I’d forgotten pesos aren’t equivalent to dollars. Whew! I’ve been buying souvenirs for the sibs and my parents, but it’s hard. I don’t know what to bring back, and when I see cute stuff, I want to keep it for myself!

Mate

So people in Argentina drink mate a lot. As in, EVERYONE drinks mate ALL THE TIME. They carry around thermoses full of hot water (although a ton of places advertise “agua caliente”), the cup and the bombilla, or straw. You pack the bottom third of the cup with yerba mate, put your finger over the top of the bombilla to keep out air and stick it in the yerba, then pour water and drink.

Wanna hear a secret? Mate’s kinda gross. You might even say it’s not my cup of tea (ha! It’s funny because mate IS tea). I’m going to give it another shot, though. Maybe it’s an acquired taste.

Yesterday I went to Peatonal San Martin with Shekeima, Arielle, and Arthur. We had the best ice cream I’ve ever had, went with Arielle to buy a shirt, got sunglasses, wandered around a bit more, cracked some truly groan-worthy jokes, and then got Arielle shoes after hers broke. The guy at the store laughed at us. Dinner was fun; we met up with Aaron, headed to the beach for a bit (the water was FREEZING), and then across the street to grab food. I’m on the fence about this place. The food isn’t all that bad (except for the burgers, which aren’t worth it), but the service is so slow, except, of course, when you’re paying. Then the staff tend to hover. But seriously. Last night, I swear the waitress must’ve hand-stuffed each of my mini-ravioli. It was driving me crazyyyy.

Today, Shekeima and I fuimos de compras otra ves en San Martin, although we got a little lost along the way and found a cute little store where I bought some stuff for my sisters. For whatever reason, we tend to get lost when we go someplace together. It’s cool, though, because we also wind up finding pretty cool places (that we can never find again). I got the cutest bag ever. Totes pleased with my compra. Now I’m on the hunt for leather. Wallets, belts, shoes, purses, I want todo de cuero!

1. Make several copies of your passport when you travel. Hide your passport somewhere safe in your room, or in an actual safe, if your room has one (if your hotel keeps the safes behind their desk, don’t put your passport there. You might forget it). Keep a copy with you at all times, in case you need ID, and keep the other one(s) somewhere in your room (but not with your actual passport).
2. If you’re planning on using your debit and/or credit card(s) while you’re away, ALERT YOUR BANK. They may think your card’s been stolen and cancel it. You should also make sure your cards will be accepted in ATMs, restaurants, etc. wherever you’re going.
3. Don’t convert all of your American money, just in case. And don’t keep all your money in one place. Hide bills in different pockets of your wallet or even leave some cash hidden in a safe place [in your bags] at the hotel. Be prepared for our nightmare: ATMs without money and banks without tellers.
4. If you carry a purse or bag or satchel or murse or whatever, make sure it zips securely, keep it zipped, and don’t leave it hanging off the bag of your chair when you’re out or hanging loosely off your arm, etc. The best kind have lots of pockets to put your money and valuables.
5. Don’t wander around with your camera strapped to your wrist, or in any other easily accessible place. Put it away after you take your pictures, and make sure you close your bag after.
6. Carry water with you. You never know how long it’ll be before you’ll find water, and there’s no reason to continually buy water if you just get a reusable bottle. Hooray for saving money (and the environment)! You might want to also carry (a) snack(s).
7. SUNSCREEN IS A MUST IN MAR DEL PLATA (and in other sunny places). Even on cloudy days. And even if you’re just going to be outside for a bit. Almost everyone in our group is at least a little bit burnt (and most got super burnt and are now in pain and/or peeling. Ew).
8. Avoid tourist shops. A lot of the time, their items are overpriced and not necessarily high quality. Ask a local, the concierge or google where to find souvenirs for less money.
9. If you’re someone who likes to get up and go and/or order, eat and pay with ease at restaurants, DON’T TRAVEL WITH BIG GROUPS. Friends want to wait for friends who wind up taking forever to get ready, it’s tough to agree on what to do or where to go, ordering in restaurants is confusing, the food takes forever to arrive, and figuring out the bill is hellish. Seriously. A few days ago, a large group of us went to this delish Mexican place and wound up being over 100 pesos short. Not cool. Some people left after dropping some bills on the table, which sucked, because the bills here are pretty confusing (ex: if you order spaghetti, it comes with butter, unless you order sauce. You need to pay for everything separately, which a lot of people forget).
10. Get ready for your internal clock to be all crazy, especially if you’re wintering in a warm country in the middle of their summer where people eat late at night. It stays pretty light out here until around 8:30 or 9, and it starts to get light again around 4 am. Most of us go out to dinner between 8 and 11 pm, so we’re getting back late. Then it’s weird for me to go to bed just after eating, and I need to take a shower before I go to bed anyway because I don’t have time in the mornings. I usually wind up going to bed between 1 and 3, and our wake up call comes at 7. My internal clock is muy disoriented, and all of me is muy tired, which brings me to my next point:
11. SIESTAS ARE AMAZING. THEY ARE A MUST.

More life lessons and words of wisdom to come… It’s 8:38 pm – time to get dressed for dinner!

Ever since I got off the bus in Mar del Plata, the beach has held some sort of magnetic attraction for me. It’s not very pretty or clean, the water tends to be cold, and it’s frequently super crowded, especially since it’s summer here, but I’m forever thinking about it. Is that weird?

Actually, last Sunday (aka January 2, aka MY TWENTIETH BIRTHDAY!) a group of us walked to Cabo Corrientes, a beach that’s to the south of the hotel, to go banana boating. It was a pretty nice, although fairly long, walk. We saw loads of street vendors selling jewely, churros rellenos (churros filled with chocolate, dulce de leche and other creamy sweets), flip flops, fruit, candy, etc. Unfortunately, when we finally got there, we were told it was too windy to head out and the beach was totally packed. While we waited to see if we could go out, we had a delish lunch at the restaurant, which took forever since we couldn’t decide where to sit and service is usually slow when cooks and waiters are trying to prepare and bring food to a large group. After lunch, we finally headed back since the wind hadn’t died down and the waves were still ridic big. We stopped to take tons of pictures on the rocks, and a random woman told my fortune, which was pretty exciting.

Walking back to the hotel, I got to see more of the city, which is another of the things I’ve been doing quite a bit of. There are tons of couples everywhere looking all cute (mostly teenagers and young adults, presumably enjoying summer vacation), families, and tourists. A lot of the architecture is absolutely gorgeous. I’ve seen a lot of huge houses made of stone with intricate detailing, specially-shaped windows and well-kept gardens. We stopped by the bank on our way back to take out money (obvi), and were unsuccessful. I’m not entirely sure what’s going on, but most of the banks didn’t (and apparently still don’t) have money in their ATMS; the few banks that had ATMs with money had ridiculously long lines (one bank had a local cop making sure everyone stayed in line, no pun intended). This whole money thing has been an issue since Buenos Aires, but more about that in a different post. Actually, a couple of girls were able to trade in dollars at the casino for chips, and then trade those in for pesos, which was pretty cool.

Mar del Plata is soooo pretty. I’ve spent a few hours each day walking around the area surrounding our hotel, and I’ve gotten pleasantly lost (at least, it’s usually pleasant until it’s been a loooong time and I start to worry that I won’t be able to get back!) several times. Streets are sort of zoned here (I’m not sure if it’s official): there are a few streets devoted entirely to [the coolest] bars and clubs, some to different clothing, shoe and accessory stores, some to open air markets, and some to restaurants. Finding dinner isn’t usually a problem since the area around our hotel is “zoned” for restaurants (the real problem is deciding where and what to eat!).

I’ve quite a bit of exploring to do, so I’ll keep you guys posted on what I find!

After we got to Mar del Plata, I dropped off my bags in my room, and met up with a group to grab dinner (it was around 3 am). After that, some of us split off and watched the sunrise on the beach with some stray dogs that followed us. It was sooooo gorgeous. For whatever reason, I decided that I wasn’t going to bed after that, since by the time I got back and ready for bed, it was almost 7 am and a group was getting breakfast at 10. That was probably (definitely) a poor decision.

After breakfast, everyone changed and we spent the day literally baking on the beach, which was pretty packed. I wandered around the shore and clambered over some some rocks to see the waves crash into the jetty. After we all got sunburnt and hungry, we went back to the hotel to eat, maybe power nap (mine was an hour), and get dressed before orientation in the lobby at 8 and the party at 9:30.

I’m glad we had orientation, since I missed it the first time around in Buenos Aires (thanks, American Airlines!), and it was fun to see everyone all decked out to greet 2011 and go to the first even with almost the entire group (5 students were still missing). During our walk to the restaurant, I finally realized that Prof. Schinaider wasn’t kidding when she said that several people had broken toes in previous years – there were tons of potholes, missing and/or cracked sidewalk slabs and random other obstacles.

My group arrived about 45 minutes early and got stuck waiting at the table for the DJ to call everyone up to eat. When that finally happened, there was a mad dash to the table for some appetizers that were, in my humble opinion, not very yummy. The Argentinians, however, seemed to really be enjoying them. Dinner, which was chicken stuffed with ham and some mini potatoes, also took quite some time to be served. I wasn’t very impressed. From about 9:30 to maybe 11:45, the night moved demasiado lentamente. It was pretty lame.

I actually almost missed the New Year (or at least, missed “seeing” it happen) since most of us had gone outside to see the fireworks being set off on the beach and the shores opposite the restaurant, but I ran inside just in time. Once we hit 2011, though, the DJ started his set. Almost immediately, everyone started dancing. It was pretty wild. Many of the older people at the restaurant were really getting their groove on, and dragged us into conga lines around the dance floor, which was pretty funny. It got pretty hot in the club extremely quickly, and I was exhausted (see above) so I left with a friend around 1:30 am.

This was the first time I’ve spent NYE away from family. It was also the first time I’ve gone out for NYE. Usually we stay at our house or go to my aunt and uncle’s house to eat, catch up, and watch the ball drop. So those were major changes. Once the DJ started playing (everything from Latin music to YMCA and the Bee Gees to regular old club music), I really began to enjoy myself. It was SUCH a fun night.

The best part about the night: my roommate, Shekeima (plus two other students who traveled with her) finally arrived after a hellish day of travel!

My second day in Buenos Aires, I grabbed breakfast in the hotel lobby with friends, participated in the scramble to check out, and then took a taxi to La Boca, where we saw the Caminito Tango Show during lunch and had a chance to wander around.

The show was amazing. In between the numbers, the MC would come out and sing. Each dance told a story, usually something very sensual and about love (duh). My favorites were the “gaucho” dancers; though their costumes weren’t as flashy as the other three couples’ costumes, the male dancer’s complicated syncopated stomping, accompanied by the female dancer’s clapping and twirling, was contagious. Everyone tried (and mostly failed!) to clap the rhythm.

I also had my very first steak! It was delicious and massive. I wasn’t able to finish it 🙁

BISTEC!

After the show, we were able to wander around La Boca. I bought some cute new sunglasses for 25 pesos (about US$6), and then wandered around for a bit. It was set up sort of like an open-air market. Artisans had little tables or booths showcasing their wares: leather, thread and beaded bracelets, scarves, sunglasses, keychains, belts, jewelry, and even little people, animals and symbols carved out of a single matchstick! I made a couple of new friends, and we wandered around, looking at some of the shops on the upper levels. We also walked to the nearby soccer stadium, although we didn’t go in because it required an entry fee. Manny, Alex and I decided to take the bus back to our hotel and wander around that area a bit more. Somehow, we got lost. For over an hour. Finally, after asking several people for directions and circling around, we found our hotel and checked out what the street vendors were selling. All in all, a pretty good day.

That night at 8, we all met back up at the hotel, grabbed our luggage from the three rooms we had stuffed everything into, loaded ourselves and our bags onto the bus, and left for Mar del Plata, a 6 hour bus ride. It definitely felt shorter than 6 hours, which was good, probably because I was getting to know people. Unfortunately, since we left at night, we weren’t really able to see the Pampas and the local scenery. We finally got to Mar del Plata around 3 am Friday morning.

Stay tuned to read about my adventures thus far in Mar del Plata!