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Published: September 18th 2007
Bistec y Vino
Our first group dinner - 8 bucks for amazing steak and wine!Hello my loves!!
I have been here in Buenos Aires for about two and a half weeks now, and am absolutely loving it!! First things first, I got most of your email addresses either from my mom or from stalking you on facebook, so if you would rather not be on this email list feel free to unsubscribe yourself. Secondly, thank you soooo much to everyone who organized/came to my goodbye dinner and events. My last couple weeks in the states were wonderful thanks to you!! And sorry to everyone I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to. I miss you all and I can't wait to see everyone again in December or January!
Ok, now for the fun stuff...
Buenos Aires really lives up to its nickname "The Paris of South America." The city is huge and the buildings are tall, ornate, and very European, but there are also many parks to enjoy and everyone here seems to have a dog. The Residencia where I live is a short
subte ride away from my university and not too far from all the main attractions of the city. The group I am here with is quite small,
Yankees
Our first night out with some Argentines - Americans are called "yankees" (pronounced "shankees") there are only 11 others in my program, and we are all bonding and having a great time together. Most of them are living in homestays with an Argentine family, but I live in the Residencia which is more like an apartment/dorm/hostel for students. The homestays are great for practicing Spanish and experiencing the Argentine home life, but I am having an awesome time meeting other students from all over the U.S. and South America in the Res.
Arriving here made me realize how horrible my Spanish has gotten. The first few days were really difficult, espcially because of the thick accent, but I am finally getting used to it. With so many Americans it is tempting to speak in English a lot, but luckily I have made some Argentine friends with whom I practice my Spanish. Spanish here is a lot different than in Mexico, there are completely different words and pronunciation rules. They even have slang for the word slang, it is called
lunfardo and refers specifically to the slang of Buenos Aires. My actual Spanish class is incredibly easy and boring, and I am hoping that they will move me up soon.
A few times
a week my program has excursions planned for us, which include trips to restaurants, famous neighborhoods, and day trips outside the city. We have visited La Boca and San Telmo, two of the oldest neighborhoods in Buenos Aires, Plaza de Mayo, and the famous Cafe Tortoni and El Ateneo bookstore. My favorite by far was seeing las madres march. A short history: in the 70's Argentina was ruled by a military government, and about 30,000 students and young left-wings were kidnapped, tortured and killed for their liberal views. The mothers of many of these young "decaparicidos" started marching in the Plaze de Mayo, the square in front of presidential house, demanding to know the whereabouts and fate of their sons and daughters. These women were very courageous and played an extremely important role in getting the attention of the international community. The sad thing is that although the oppressive government was overthrown, amnesty was granted to all officials involved in the disappearances and the mothers never got any answers, which is why they still march today. Anyways, seeing these old old women marching with their white scarves was extremely moving, and I really feel like I saw a part of
Quilmes!
Enjoying Argentina's national beer on one of the few clear nights history. I would highly recommend everyone to wikipedia "las madres" or "dirty war" to learn more about this, it is a very tragic but important part of Argentina's past.
I've been able to do some exploring of the city on my own, basically this means that I have been to the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano and Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes and am already planning on making a second trip to each soon. What an art nerd, right? I've also done a lot of shopping and eating of empanadas. I decided to keep track of how many empandas I eat throughout this trip; so far I am at 15. Also, they have this amazing invention here called alfajores, they are stacks of cookies with dulce de leche in between and completley covered in chocolate. Here is where I should mention that I also joined a pool, mostly due to the aforementioned empanadas and alfajores. There is so much going on in the place that I never want to just sit at home! Because it is the very beginning of spring down here it has been raining and thunderstorming all the time, which is not fun, and I can't wait
for it to warm up in the next few weeks.
I hope that everyone back home is doing well, I miss you all!! Feel free to email me any time, I would love to hear from you all!
Ciao!!
xoxo
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Kate
non-member comment
yay
Hey I'm glad studying abroad is so freaking awesome! France rules but I definitely feel you on the language thing...some people here have a Breton accent (the name of the region I'm in) and they might as well be speaking another language...which actually sometimes they are... Keep me posted about all the amazing fun things! Loves you. Kate