International Student Orientation

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I have been at UCA orientation all week. Pretty much the daily schedule is as follows: arrive around 10am via metro (subte) and short walk through Plaza de Mayo, have a croissant (media luna) for breakfast, listen to a lecture on shock cultural or the transportation or something student related, then have lunch, and sometimes stay for an afternoon activity.

Highlights of the orientation:

Monday we were split into random groups and had to do a scavenger hunt around campus. UCA sits right on the water, which is the same color as the Potomac, and has about three buildings connected by an underground tunnel. My group won the scavenger hunt, so we all received the cup thingy that Argentines drink mate from. Mate is an herbal tea of sorts, it’s a very ritualistic social drink. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mate_(beverage)

Tuesday we had an asado in the afternoon at the facultad de agrarias campus in Belgrano, which is a few subte stops down from my apartment, and a lot of stops from UCA. An asado is a barbeque, also called a parilla (grill) but it’s not like northern OR southern barbeques in the US. It’s pretty much a lot of meat being cooked on a huge grill. Argentina is famous for its meat, and having tried it on multiple occasions already, there is no question why, it’s delicious.

The university hired a caterer for this particular asado, so we hung out in the university yard and waiters brought us pieces of different meats on little rolls. I tried the chorizo and cerdo (sausage and lamb,) it was very good.

Wednesday and Thursday’s orientation was for choosing classes. We had a preliminary sign-up and I signed up for six classes, besides the mandatory Spanish class for non-native speakers. Most of the classes I chose were in PEL, the Latin American Studies Program that UCA offers to foreign students (programa de estudios latinoamericanos), but I also registered a journalism and theology class. The university gives students a two week drop period, so I am planning on narrowing down the amount of courses (materias) to five, with an extra language class as an elective.

Classes don’t start until March 2, so there is still a lot of time to settle in before going back to school.

Other things that I have been doing.... I try to keep busy in the afternoons, so usually I will meet up with some other people from the program and wander around the city. There is a shopping mall down the street from me that is very nice called Alto Palermo. It one of the few Starbucks, which is also probably incredibly expensive. They have an arcade/miniamusement park on the fourth level inspired by the cartoonnetwork. We looked around to see what it was, and while it was overwhelming to me, I think I know a few cousins who would appreciate the Scooby-doo rides and games.

Tuesday I walked from UCA to Plaza de San Martin. San Martin was the liberator of Argentina, and also Chile and Peru. There is only one statue of Jose de San Martin in Buenos Aires, and it is not in this plaza. The statue of him is not the typical man-on-horse-with-big-sword, rather it is of an old man reading to two young children, representing him in exile in France and not staying to take power himself in South America. But the plaza is very nice, unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera. There is a small memorial for those that fought in the Falkland Island war, which we are told not to talk about here because it is a very sore subject for Argentines. The war took place in 1982 (before I was born but some of you older readers may recall…) We thought it was interesting that at the memorial there were two guards, and they marched around and did the whole standing with the gun thing, but one of them was smiling, which probably wasn’t supposed to be happening when on guard. Then I walked from there to my house, which was a poor choice since it took about an hour and a half!

I feel like I have seen so much of the city already, but in reality I haven't even started!

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