La vida cotidiana en Buenos Aires

It's been a whirlwind of a few days.  I've been in Argentina for less than a week, and I've already learned so much.  Of course, there are still many, many things that I don't understand yet.

The Food

The typical Argentine diet includes a lot of meat, mostly beef.  Argentina is famous for its steaks, though I have yet to try one because my host mom is a former vegetarian, and my family generally eats more vegetables and less meat than the average Argentine household.  I really appreciate this fact, because a lot of people from my program have had trouble adjusting to such a meat-and-processed-carbohydrate heavy diet.  The empanadas are delicious, although I'm pretty sure they aren't that good for you, because they're basically just Hot Pockets.  Also whole grains don't exist here.  Overall, though, the food is fantastic, but somehow everyone here is thin...

Orientation

My program's orientation began Friday, and it has been a whole lot of boring.  I have spoken and heard a lot more Spanish because of it, but I've also done the same with English, because having other American students around is a constant temptation to break out the inglés.  I've made friends with some really cool people, though, and they'll come in handy in the coming weeks until I make Argentine friends.  (That last sentence made it seem like I'll ditch them as soon as I meet some locals.  I can neither confirm or deny this, but I can say that that was not the sentiment I was trying to convey.)  On Saturday we got to tour the Casa Rosada, which is the Argentine equivalent of the White House.  I don't have much to say about it, except that it's pink.

The Language

Argentines don't call it español, they call it castellano.  I'm not entirely sure what the distinction is, but it's possible that español refers to the Spanish spoken in Spain while castellano refers to the Spanish spoken in Argentina and Uruguay.  And oh yes, there is a difference.  In most Spanish-speaking countries, ll is pronounced like y.  For example, pollo is pronounced "po-YO." But porteños (literally people of the port, or residents of BA) pronounce "ll" and "y" like the "s" sound in "measure," so pollo = "po-ZHO."  This can be confusing, because sometimes you won't even recognize basic words when you hear them.

The view from my room, photo courtesy of Moira

My castellano has improved quite a bit since I got here.  I've started to unconsciously think in Spanish and I've had several dreams in Spanish (though the idea that this is the indicator that you're fluent is phooey).  It is a very bizarre feeling to think in another language.  When I think about things people said in the past in English, I remember them as if the person said them in Spanish.  My mind is automatically converting ideas expressed in English to Spanish, and it's a really cool but surreal experience!  Since orientation has started, though, I've been speaking a lot more English to the other Americans, because after speaking Spanish for 8-10 hours, everyone is really tired of it.  It's amazing how comforting it is to simply to able to express yourself fully and naturally after hours of not being able to.  But my progress with Spanish has slowed because of this, so I've decided that for the next week I'm going to try to speak and read as little English as possible.  I need to learn as much Spanish as possible before I start classes in two weeks!

Nightlife


On Friday night a few people from the program decided that we wanted to go out.  I was really tired, though, and porteños don't even start their night until midnight or 1am, so I decided to take a short siesta at 10pm.  I learned that this isn't the best idea when I woke up at 10am the next morning.  The key to success is to drink mate, a ubiquitous type of tea which is basically crack cocaine in liquid form.  Drink just a little mate and you feel like running a marathon!  Saturday was more successful after this lesson was learned, and we went to an overpriced bar in Palermo.  I realized that I've already become a cheapskate, because the idea of paying 8 dollars for a mixed drink was horrifying.  In general things are very inexpensive here; the national slogan should be "In Argentina, it's all Two-Buck Chuck".  I went to the grocery store and bought the most expensive bottle of wine they had early today.  And it was ten dollars.  I didn't especially want/need the ten-dollar bottle of wine, but how many times in America will I buy the most expensive wine in the store? Approximately never.


¡Qué Quilombo!

Cornelios fell asleep on my bed while listening to Eminem.
 All together now, "AWW"

From what I've gathered, there is a lot of pickpocketing and straight-up robbery here.  I'm pretty sure I experienced this firsthand a few days ago.  I was waiting at the bus stop, probably looking like an American, and some guy came up to me and starting saying something.  He was speaking really quickly and really close to my face, and I couldn't understand him; I'm pretty sure, though, that he said the word "machete" (although this could have been "billete," or wallet, but either way he wanted my money).  I figured I was being robbed, although it was a curious scenario -- it was dark, but it was only about 8pm, so there were plenty of people around.  Thus I surrendered my wallet and the guy took some money and walked briskly away.  I wasn't too shaken up about it, though, considering that I was confused more than anything and he only got away with around 30 US dollars.

In other news, there have been some small victories.  Like when I figured out how to decode the bus guide, or unlock the front door to my house.  Now the big decision is choosing my classes; do I want to take "Análisis Político: Conflicto y Cooperación en Latinoamérica," or "La Socialdemocracia en América Latina: Problemas, Actores, y Estrategias en el marco de los procesos de democratización"?  I'll letcha know how that one turns out next week!

¡Hasta luego amigos!