Some exciting developments in Maggie’s world…


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South America » Argentina » Buenos Aires » Buenos Aires
September 9th 2006
Published: September 9th 2006
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Mi familiaMi familiaMi familia

This is my host family. From left to right: Trinidad "Trini" (16yrs), me, Rosario (14yrs), and Emilia "Emi" (36yrs). One of these times I'll write more about them in a blog...they're absolutely wonderful.
First of all, congratulations to my big sister Emily who taught her first day with her very own class of first graders this week!!!

Second of all, lacrosse DOES exist in Argentina! As some of you already know, one of my passions in life is lacrosse, which made for a difficult decision to study abroad for a year knowing I would miss out on an important season with my team at school. Let’s just say when I told the team about my plans to study abroad, I couldn’t get through a whole sentence without breaking down crying...pitiful, I know. But despite how difficult it was for me to tell the team, they were/are extremely supportive. Nonetheless, I was determined to find lacrosse in Argentina, so months before I left I googled every possible combination of “lacrosse +Argentina” and found an out-of-date site that had a contact for the president of the “Argentine Lacrosse Asociación.” I sent a hopeful email (with a translation in Spanish and English) conveying my need to play lacrosse, and lo and behold, a month later I received a reply saying “Maggie - you will be welcomed in Argentina! We started a women’s team last year.” So,
CONGRATS!CONGRATS!CONGRATS!

OK, this isn't an argentina pic, but look how cute Emily's students are!
when I packed for Argentina, one of my two checked bags was my stick bag. And despite the skepticism of all my friends and family, it looks like my far-fetched hope paid off this week…

Ricardo Acuña is the man behind it all. He works for the “Commission for Alternative Sports” here in Argentina, and fell in love with lacrosse when a guy from Santa Clara University came here and introduced it to him. From what I gather, the guys’ team has existed on and off for the past 6 years, and the girls team is just gathering steam over the last year. I met with Ricardo two weeks ago in the café across the street from my apartment to chat about the lacrosse team. He arrived sweaty, post-badminton game, and 40 minutes late, but nonetheless I was overjoyed to hear the words, “Sí, vas a jugar mucho lacrosse.” The group had their first practices of the season this week! On Thursday night I took a 20-minute train ride to arrive at the sports club where the boys were holding their first practice. It was great! We passed around for an hour or so while everyone walked in fashionably late, then the guys scrimmaged a lot and I watched because Ricardo was afraid I would get hurt, but he let me play in the final scrimmage! Then Friday night I took an hour and a half bus ride to arrive at a different sports club where we had a “mixed” practice for the guys and girls on an outdoor field, where we scrimmaged for an hour and a half. The turn out the first night was about 12 guys and the second night was about 8 guys and two girls, not counting myself - but that’s still something! Hopefully the girls’ turnout will pick up next week because this girl Daniela who was supposedly a field hockey star was trying lacrosse out for the first time on Friday and she is going to bring a lot of girls from her team. Everyone was super sweet to me and very curious as to why/how this American girl came to Argentina to play lacrosse (not to mention how I arrived at the practices on my own)! I even got a car ride home with one of the guys on Thursday night and we went to an “asado” (meat barbeque) for his friend’s birthday and I ended up chatting with all his friends at one of their family’s house into the wee hours of the morning (they were endlessly amused by trying to use their English and failing miserably)!

Aside from lacrosse, the other exciting development in my life was that I interviewed at HelpArgentina (one of the orgs for this service learning course I'm taking) and I got the internship! Here’s the website if you want to learn more about it: http://www.helpargentina.org/idioma.html I start Monday and I am really excited to be involved with them because I really think this could be a great experience in the world of international non-profit organizations to help me decide if it’s something that I want to do with my life. Stay tuned for more on that…

Oh, and I finally officially “registered” for my courses, after a weeks of narrowing down which ones would serve me best. So here’s the final list:
1. Spanish through Film - we’re required to take a language class, this one will only last till October and has some awesome Argentine films that I probably wouldn’t have encountered otherwise.
2. Social Geography of Latin America - the class that takes up the most time because it’s twice a week and has a lecture component and a practicum/discussion class. But some very interesting discussions on topics like the legacy of colonialism, “underdevelopment,” globalization, neoliberalism, and endless tangents about the politics and geography of Argentina and South America.
3. Actions, Protest, and Social movements - a very discussion-oriented class which supposedly has a research component. It focuses on the social movements in the “interior” of Argentina (which is the region excluding Buenos Aires).
4. Seminar on Service Learning - this is the course where I’ll work with HelpArgentina. There is a class once a week where we discuss our volunteering experience and readings on the distinctions between terms like solidarity, service learning, philanthropy, etc and their significance in Spanish, and also learn about the socioeconomic issues of Argentina. The class itself is not demanding whatsoever, and at times the material seems like common sense, but I mostly took the class for the opportunity to work with an NGO, which I’m sure will be the more interesting aspect of the class. This is my only non-UBA class; it’s at FLACSO where our program offices are.
5. Theories on Integration: MercoSur and European Union - I’m actually auditing this class, because I was so interested in it that it would have been a shame to drop it, but I didn’t want to be completely stressed out and consumed by school work. The course is more focused on Mercosur (the trade union and free trade zone of South America) but we discuss NAFTA, FTAA, and the European Union too.

Each of these courses is in a different building, in a different part of the city - which means a lot of public transportation for me! Something interesting that happened this week was that there was a strike in UBA. The strike was (and is, it will continue next week) related to a general lack of funds (or bad distribution of those funds) in the university - the professors were asking for a salary raise and the maintenance workers were striking because they weren’t paid and the lights and gas (heating) was cut off in some buildings because the budget didn’t allocate sufficient funds for those monthly fees. Not all professors participated in the strike, but some buildings were completely closed because the maintenance workers refused to open them. For me, the strike produced some very interesting class discussions, and I only missed two classes as a result of professors on strike or closed buildings. For example in my Social Geography class two weeks ago, there was a small turnout of 6 people and instead of listening to a lecture, we had a small group discussion about everything from the strike to a larger movement to reform the university to politics in Argentina as a whole to the distinction between the concept of race in Argentina vs. in the US, all whilst passing a mate tea around the circle. And then in my “Collective Actions” class we decided to have a collective action of our own and hold a “public class” in the lobby of the school building, to “protest” the issue that the lights and heat were cut off in the majority of the building but also, in a broader sense, the flawed system of the university. Both of these experiences were so intriguing to me; just to be apart of a dialogue that seemed so necessary and urgent for these students and professors. I feel like those experiences are just as important to me as normal lectures, maybe even more so.

Well, I am very content with my life here in Argentina. I feel like I am really “living” here now. And good luck to my close friends Megan, Annie, and Cisca who just took off for their respective study abroad destinations this week - you girls will have the time of your lives! To everyone else, I hope you are all happy and healthy and enjoying life. Write to me with your thoughts and ponderings.

Un besito,
Maggie


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11th September 2006

Green Bean
Hi Maggie, Yay!!! I'm glad to hear that you found a team to play lacrosse with. I still plan on trying it sometime; it looks like so much fun! I was soo tempted to sign up for a field hockey team but I have too much going on. Your classes sound really hands on and quite exciting; the class "protest" sure sounds different from the typical class up here. The discussions sound fun... Tomorrow I'm going to go to Green Bean and get the measurements to put up the display! It's so exciting to have the chance to display the photos. The fundraiser "film screening" will probably be the third of fourth week of October. I'll be sure to send an invitation to your parents. Keep the updates coming! They are fun to read! Ruth and Stan
16th September 2006

Care Package
Hi Mags, Hope you're getting to play some lax this week too. I'm assembling a care package with your favorite items. Here's hoping it arrives in good shape! Love, Mom

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