I don't have a title for this one.

So it's about to be my one week anniversary here, and I don't really believe it. It seems to have been significantly more time. I think I might have already gone through most of the stages of culture shock. After writing my last entry on sunday, I went two nights with virtually no sleep, due to a combination of factors that included a bad cough and the fact that there was tons of city light entering via my window, a cual no estoy acostumbrado (some things just sound less awkward in spanish). But I started facing the other way and taking cough medicine, and last night I slept the first full night that I have during my entire time here. Because of this I felt much better today, and I think perhaps I mistook for the stages of culture shock fluctuations in mood that were really just due to changes in my sleep pattern. Because I think my mood is to a huge extent dependent on how energetic I feel. If that's true, then I probably have yet to complete the "honeymoon phase," because I still feel sort of like a tourist in that I can for the most part enjoy just walking around and taking pictures and the like. According to all the respected authorities, I'm soon to become disillisioned and get homesick and hate everything about Argentina. Then of course I'll reach a more balanced stage where I can appreciate cultural differences while still remaining faithful to my own culture. Actually I feel like I may have gone through most of those stages just yesterday. So of course I started out quite tired, not having slept very much. We're doing orientation and scheduling all this week, so in the morning I went to FLACSO for the orientation for the UBA facultad de filosofía y letras (which by the way I didn't actually need to attend). Meli, who was giving the presentation, started by telling us our spanish levels in the argentine style, according to which all the scores are read out loud. Of course I didn't hear my score because for reasons that are not very interesting but totally legitimate I was with the wrong group. So basically I explained these reasons in poor nervous spanish in front of all my peers, after which Meli told me I was wrong anyway and then that my level had been assessed as 4, which is not particularly high. Though I know the level doesn't really matter, and is not in any way a measure of one's worth as a person or anything, I couldn't help but be annoyed at and worried about this "bad grade."
So after that embarrassing experience I didn't really have much to do all day and couldn't really find any friends with whom to hang out. So I decided to just walk around and find lunch, which I proceeded to do, still in a lousy mood. I almost joined a gym in order to be able to swim, but decided not to spend the money. Then I purchased this sandwich called the Milanesa, which is characterized by deep fried and breaded slabs of ham , and decided to eat as I walked. Of course, the Milanesa is an extremely awkward sandwich to eat thus, and I pretty soon started to feel self-conscious, even moreso as it occurred to me that I never really saw any Argentinians eating as they walked and that therefore I must look extra ridiculous. My embarrassment and misery reached its climax when one of the big slabs of ham fell onto the ground. I held it aloft for about 5 seconds debating whether to eat it or to throw it away, and I found when I tossed it into the trash can that this drama had an audience, some locals, one of whom said: (I don't know whether he was serious or not) "¡no va a comerlo!" as if utterly scandalized by this waste. After quickly finishing this sandwich, which of course at this point could only taste like ash to me, I kept walking and soon decided to buy some chocolate milk to get the taste out of my mouth. Sure, it was delicious, but I soon began to castigate myself nonetheless for paying too much for it.


It was at this point that it suddenly occurred to me how hilarious my "predicament" was. The most hilarious thing about it was that it was almost entirely in my head. I didn't have any problems! I was in Buenos Aires with a free afternoon, for God's sake! Then I spent the rest of the afternoon being a carefree tourist: I photographed parks, statues, and buildings, walked all over the place, and bought some awesome music (a tango cd by Carlos Gardel). Later in the day I found out about all the cool classes I could take, and had a wonderful dinner with my host parents.

So the moral of the story is something you probably all have heard before, but that you may as well hear again. Next time you're in a bad mood, try to gain some perspective. Do you actually have any real problems? I think at this stage of modern civilization, as wealthy Americans, the vast majority of most peoples' problems are psychological. It's too extreme to say that they're merely illusions, but nevertheless it's really amazing how quickly such problems vanish if you can get yourself to laugh at them. Really it all comes down to not taking oneself too seriously.

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