Cordoba

In mid August, I had a long weekend from school. I went to Cordoba with my housemate, Rachel, and some friends. The bus ride was 10 hours. We took an overnight bus and got into Cordoba around 10 am. We took a bus to tour the countryside. The mountains must have been beautiful in the summer but in the winter everthing was brown so it wasn't as pretty.

On the way we visited the resort town of Carlos Paz. In the summer it is very popular with Argentines. It was still cute in the winter with a big lake. We went to a factory that makes alfajores, which are an amazing Argentine cookie. They have two cookies with dolce de leche (its like caramel) in the middle. We also saw the town from the mountain. Carlos Paz is touristy enough to have ski lifts even though it doesn't snow, for summer tourists to "climb" the mountain. At the top there is a cafe and everything.

Below is a picture of the street of Cordoba. It is university city, with lots of students.

The next day we went to Alto Garcia. The boyhood home of Che Gueverra is there, along with a 17th century Jesuit estancia. The estancia was restored as a museum and was very well done. Estancias are similiar to ranches or plantationa. Below is La Poderosa, the motorcycle used in the Motorcycle Diaries.

Dia del Campo

Dia del Campo was an excursion with my program, ISA. They first took us to Lujan, a city outside of Buenos Aires with a famous basillica. I was not overly impressed by the basillica as in Spain I've seen enough cathedrals to last for a while. I was more impressed by the coffee shop beside the basillica as it was 9 am, which is early by Argentine standards.
Next we went to a 1860's estancia, complete with gauchos, horses and most importantly, peacocks.

First we walked around the estancia, which is similar to a ranch. The estancia house was preserved from the turn of the century and showed how it would have looked at the turn of the century. As cattle has long been a central part of the Argentine economy, landowners of estancias similar to this one had lots of influence. This influence declined under Peron. The gaucho culture is central to Argentine identity, presenting a contrast to the cosmopolitan Porteno (resident of Buenos Aires). All of the estancia workers were dressed as gauchos, of course with the infamous gaucho pants.

We got to ride horses, which was in itself a let down as we just went in circle. It was great to at least be around horses though.
Afterwards, we had an asado. This is Argentine for BBQ and directly translates as 2.5 hr banquet with about 4 courses of meat. They gave the vegetarians (my roommate and me) pretty gross pasta. For a bit, I was worried that Argentina was finally going to fufill a long held worry of me not liking what was served. Then they brought out grilled veggies, which were amazing! The grilled red pepper was almost like candy it was so sweet. Argentina definitely does not deserve its reputation as a vegetarian wasteland.

The gauchos demonstrated traditional gaucho dancing, which consisted of a lot of foot stamping and twirling. Then, completely stuffed, we went outside to watch gauchos perform games on horseback such as jousting a canter to put a spear through a little ring. They brought along the five year that had been running along all day. He was fine on the horse, mainly because he did not want to be left behind.

Winter in Buenos Aires

This week I had several presentations so I didn't get out much. Most of the presentations have consisted of interviews with Argentines, which is harder than it sounds. We are learning about immigration to Argentina, which is crucial to understanding the culture.
However, on Wednesday I went to Fuerza Bruta, which is like Argentina version of Cirque de Soleil. The scenes were incredible, including a pool with a glass bottom that was suspended above us with swimmers. There was also a guy running through things such as walls of paper on a huge treadmill. It was very unique.

Afterward we went and got crepes. In Argentina crepes are called panqueques. The restaurant had over 100 different varieties of fillings. It was amazing.
Lastly, as it is still cold here I broke down and bought a coat. I'm on the terrace of my host family house with my housemate Daniel (a fellow vegetarian).

Its a long weekend so I'm going to go to Cordoba with my other housemate, Rachel, for the weekend.

Universidad de Belgrano

Classes have begun!
Between not having a break between my exams, Spanish classes in Spain and it being winter here, I feel like I haven't had a summer. After some changing of classes, I am taking Latin American Cinema and Latin American Cultural Studies(both completely in Spanish), Intermedio B, Latin America in the Global Economy and a literature course on Borges.
Every afternoon I take the bus for about half an hour to school. Argentine universities are interesting in that they have three shifts, morning 7 am-12pm, afternoon 1-7 pm and night 7 pm to midnight. Argentine students normally take classes in the morning and evening so they can work during the day. University is normally not the main focus but is a supplement to their lives. Thus, classes for international students are usually in the afternoon.
So far my classes have been good although its difficult to pay attention for an hour and a half in Spanish. You really have to pay attention the whole time in classes in Spanish cause you can't pick up the lecture based on the context.
Last night I went to a concert. It was very nice and in the back of a cafe. The opening act was blues guitar and piano. The main act was called El puchero misterioso (the mysterious pot) and was a mix of tons of different instruments. At one point there was a saxophone and trumpet. The link to their page is below.
http://www.myspace.com/tomilebrero
The cafe was really cool so I'm definitely going to try to go to more concerts there.

First week- El Tigre/ La Boca

Unsurprisingly, I am no better at keeping up this blog in Argentina than in Spain. The first week before classes began, there was orientation. I also did some of the touristy things and went to La Boca and El Tigre. It rained the first few days, which curtailed the sightseeing somewhat.



My host family is great. It is actually just a single woman but she is a law professor at Universidad de Buenos Aires and has testified before the Argentine Congress. I have a single room but there are two other American students. The cooking is great, much better than Spain. For instance, last night we had beat salad with chickpeas and eggs. The guy I live with is vegetarian and the girl only eats kosher meat so all the food is vegetarian. Below is my house. The house is also very cool cause its brightly painted and filled with art and books. I have begun reading Harry Potter y la Piedra Filosofal.


Lastly, I went to see El Tigre with my program. It is a region north of Buenos Aires with many rivers and waterways so instead of roads they have waterways, complete with boat-buses and boat stores.


Then we stopped at a cafe and took pictures of Buenos Aires from across the Rio de la Plata. There were some guys that took windsurfing to the next level and did kite surfing. Dad, I don't recommend this as it was about 50 degrees and freezing.


on a side note, I love the graffiti of Buenos Aires. Some is political, some is typical graffiti and some is just pretty.

What's new Buenos Aires?

I arrived in Buenos Aires yesterday. The trip went seamlessly except for the ending, in which I decided to attempt to save the US$35 dollar cab fare from the airport to Buenos Aires by taking the public bus for 2 pesos or 50 cents. Big mistake. The hostel had been very helpful in giving me directions and noting it would take over an hour and a half. I asked the information desk where to catch the bus. The lady wrinkled her nose, which should have been an indication. The crowded and unheated bus took nearly 2 hours and went through some rather interesting areas of Buenos Aires. And missed my stop, resulting in me having to drag my 70+ pd luggage 12 blocks in 40 degree weather.
The hostel wouldn't let me check in until 1 pm but kindly let me store my suitcase.
I went to get lunch at a cool cafe that looked straight out of SoHo in NYC. I have been worried about finding vegetarian food but they had over 10 things on the menu that were vegetarian, and 3 that were vegan, which is more than most American resturants. They also had good coffee and Argentine jazz music in the background. The whole meal was 48 pesos, or roughly 12 dollars. I am quickly falling in love with Buenos Aires...

Espana wins El Mundial!

I am so grateful to be in Spain when they won the world cup for the FIRST TIME. The streets were filled with Spaniards celebrating.

I watched the game with Holly, Jenny, Andra, and Julia. Here we are waiting for the game to start.

Spaniards celebrating in the Plaza Mayor of Salamanca.

Me with vuvuzela... which created a constant buzz on the TV and were super annoying when blown nearby

Ávila/Segovia- Of Alcázars and Aqueducts

On my last weekend in Spain and the day of the world cup final between Spain and Holland, I went to Ávila and Segovia with friends from school, some Turkish girls and a Belgian.
Ávila is a medieval city with one of the best preserved walls from 1090. We were able to walk along the walls and see the city, which probably had more tourists than residents. The wall is so well preserved you can easily pretend you are back in the medieval period.












Next we went to Segovia. First we went to the Aqueduct, which was amazing as it was built sometime in the 1st century by Romans without any mortar and is nearly 100 ft tall. This is a reminder of the variety of Spain's heritage, from Romans to Moors, who damaged it in their bid to invade Spain. It functioned until recently to bring Segovia water.





Next we toured the city, nearly all of which is brutally historical.
This is Asli and me at the Cathedral











Finally, Segovia's Alcázar is notable as this was the where Isabella was living when she was proclaimed queen. It looks straight out of central casting for a castle for a Disney movie.
pretending to be a princess...

Alveiro, Portugal

Yesterday I went to Alveiro, Portugal. It was really pretty. The city is near the Atlantic Ocean and has lots of canals. The houses are very colorful. I really like Portugal as a country. The people I talked with were very welcoming and spoke English, which is kind of surprising considering Spaniards often really can't be bothered even though they get loads of tourists whereas Portugal doesn't get quite the same volume. The Europeans I was with keep attributing it to television, as in Spain, shows are dubbed (rather badly), whereas in Portugal and the Netherlands they are in English with subtitles. I'm not sure how accurate this is but most have American accents so there may be some validity.
The streets are all mosaics, which really makes the city very pretty.
We had breakfast in a bakery with traditional sweet quiches made with cheese and coffee (1.35 euros total). Needless to say, I really liked Portugal after that. The waiter also taught me some Portuguese; obrigado: thank you, olá/oi:hello.








Many of the houses had tiles on the front of the themand if they don't then are painted bright colors so the whole city is very colorful.













and lastly, la playa....

Toledo

Today I went to Toledo with my colegio. Toledo is an ancient city that was conquered by the Moor and was a commercial center with Christianity, Judaism and Muslims coexisting. The city is gorgeous.




In the morning a professor from the colegio gave a tour in Spanish and we saw one of El Greco's most famous murals. We also went to several churches and an old synagogue, which was interesting considering Spain's history.



In the afternoon I wandered the city with some friends from school.


Toledo has a reputation for being very hot and the city didn't fail to uphold its reputation. Fortunately, much of the city have canvas shades over the streets to keep it cool.

El Mundial/ World Cup

Today is the first game for the US in the World Cup. We are playing the UK. This will be the first time we play the UK in the world cup since 1950 (we won then in a massive upset). Currently, I am in a cafe watching Argentina v Nigeria. I'm quite excited to be in a country that feverishly watches "futbol". Also, it's great that the United States is in the World Cup. Tomorrow, I am going to Toledo with some friends from school.

Museo del Reloj

Salamanca is definitely a good place to study Spanish as most of the local people don't speak English but are patient with you when you butcher their language. This is very helpful as I've discovered my Spanish is truly terrible, instead of passable. However, due to some cramming day of, I placed into low intermediate Spanish. I like the school that I am studying at Colegio Delibes, as they don't just have low-med-high but have around 10 levels. Thus I'm actually on level 4. I have four hours of class per day, from 10 to 2. We have 2 hours of grammar and 2 focusing on communication.In my class (of five people) there is a mix of international students and no Americans. The material is pretty fast paced so I hope I can improve a lot.

Salamanca has a lot of history since the University of Salamanca was founded in 1225. The location of my apartment is ideal because it is directly in the old center. Thus it is less than a five minute walk to any museum or the lovely Plaza Mayor.


In the picture with me is Julia, who is my British flatmate. In my piso (as apartments are called here) everyone else are Spanish students, which in theory sounds good but in practice is pretty useless as they are busy studying for their classes and aren't too interested in American exchange students. Also, I really can't understand what they're saying because they use so much slang and speak so quickly. I can better understand my landlady, Ana. We have meals twice a day, at two and nine at night. There is both a cook and maid, which is different for me. Thankfully, a vegetarian option is made for me, which I really appreciate. The apartment is very nice.
On Wednesday, I went to the Art Deco Museum, which was really good.
















There was a great selection of art deco perfume bottles and statues. I also met a fellow student who is a Chinese graduate student learning Spanish. She asked me if I wanted to go to the Museo del Reloj, which translates as the Museum of the Clock. I assumed I had translated wrong or that it was simply a name but no, it was a museum of just clocks. They were really old and were really ornate. They had one of the first alarm clocks as well as a huge selection of grandfather clocks.

The View from my balcony

These are the views from my balcony at the pisa (apartment) that I am staying at. Apparently host family in Spain really means apartment with Spanish students and two meals a day. However, the view from the apartment is so nice I can't really complain.

Trip to Salamanca

Day 1 Arrival in Madrid

My flight from Baltimore to Madrid may be seen as a cost-benefit analysis of flying internationally

Good thing: Spending 8 weeks in Spain

Bad thing: extremely little sleep from finals

Good thing: finished with finals

Bad thing: have to pack for year in 24 hours plus find places for all of my stuff

Good thing: Mom was there to help (thank you mom)

Good thing: have bulkhead so plenty of leg room for 7 hour flight to Heathrow

Bad thing: worst passage ever sits down for 7 hour flight combining terrible body odor and little kid. The passage on her other side expressed surprise that a two year didn’t have to have her own seat. The women replied she was turning two in a month (the child was big)= me being clobbered by mother and child trying to fit in seat. The child also keeps coughing so hopefully I don’t get sick ( I should note the women was very nice so I feel bad about this)

WORST THING: 25 minutes into the flight, the child proceeds to projectile vomit onto me (luckily I had a blanket to cover me). However, I was going to smell like puke for the rest of my 26 hour journey.

Better thing: I got upgraded to economy plus and got to listen some interesting stories from a former special forces guy (who had dinner with a mafia don in Sicily!)

Bad thing: London flight delayed arriving at Heathrow so I had 40 minutes to completely change terminals. Sprinting across Heathrow with a heavy bay+ having to re go through security=not fun.

Good thing: I made it to my flight on time

Bad thing: the plane leaving Heathrow was delayed so the rush wasn’t necessary

Good thing: landing to 70 degrees and sunny

Bad thing: waiting for my bag; not seeing it and assuming it had been stolen

Good thing: it hadn’t

Bad thing: apparently I raced for the plane to Spain, my bag didn’t and so remained in London. ARGH meanwhile this took about an hour to determine this.

Good thing: However they agreed to bring it to Salamanca so I guess that saved me porting it through Madrid on the next leg of my adventure.

Bad thing: I had assumed I could simply buy a bus ticket to Salamanca. WRONG Apparently I could have if I had arrived 20 minutes earlier (hence all of the delays and if even one hadn’t happened I would have been fine). However now that the bus ticket counter was closed the only way I could do this was online and print the ticket or take the metro across the city and go to the one counter that stayed open. However, I called the program in Salamanca, who knew (unlike the tourist information booth at the airport) that the bus company was on strike. The ONLY bus company that goes to Salamanca. So I decided to take the train. Of course the train terminal closed at four, the same as the bus. So I took the metro to the train station and bought a ticket for 9 pm, getting in at eleven. This will definitely made a good impression on my host family.

On the bright side: I’m on a train watching the sun set over Madrid...

7 pm May 16, 2010