Hola!

Today I went to a craft market at a local park in Belgrano. Lots of hippie crafts, jewelery, leather, and glass. I love just walking around here, sitting on the grass, thinking my thoughts, listening to the gentle hum of distant tango music and bus engines.

Is this the classiest Blockbuster you've ever seen?

Well, I thought I'd share with you the benefits (or curses) of globalization. Here in Buenos Aires we have Walmart, Starbucks, and of course McDonalds and Burger King. Now, I'm not telling you this because I think that the expansion of private enterprise is evil. Buenos Aires is among the most modern cities in the world, and therefore has become a prime location for American based companies to spread their 'services'.

In general, Buenos Aires is a city full of immigrants (comparable to NYC) that bring with them their different tastes and cultures. Sunday dinner here consists of very authentic Italian food, Sushi is all the rage momentarily, and Chinatown is quite authentic (and by authentic I mean that everything sold there is not-authentic). In 1900, BsAs was 50% straight off the boat immigrants! And thus, when taking role call in my classes I noticed that literally all the names are European... Bamballi, Vinardi, Brown, Edwards... you name it, it's here. So, there you have it. Come to Buenos Aires and you'll feel right at home, no matter where you're coming from!

Dear friends:

In effort to compensate for my lack of communication, this is about to be the most amazing post ever!

Okay, so first you need to click on this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4tF8H9LSJ8 to listen to music while reading...

Got it? This song is like everywhere here. the other day i was walking on a busy street and a school bus of elementary kids were all singing it... happy

I just finished my midterms yesterday. They were challenging, mostly because they were in class essay types (spanish of course). I kind of feel like a 6th grader going to college. But they are done, and I feel good about them, and now I have the next 10 days off school (well sort of)! 10 whole days. ahh so beautiful. I have a very long list of things to do/visit/accomplish/read/eat... which I will be very dilligently sharing with you. Everyday. So get excited.

Classes have turned out to be very interesting. When people ask me what I study here, it's easy. I'm studying Argentina! I'm taking a History and Literature class which goes through all of the notable argentine literature and it's complementary historical context. Perhaps the most well know latin american writer is Sarmiento. he wrote a critical work called Facundo in 1845 and he later became president of beloved Argentina in the 1860s. I'm also taking Argentine Foreign Policy. We spend half the time discussing meat in this class (chilled vs. frozen) and the importance of meat in economic relations with the rest of the world. To me, this is funny but here meat is no laughing business! My last class is just for exchange students and covers Peron (controversal president of the late 40s and 50s). Most of you are familiar with "Don't Cry for Me Argentina"? Well, the musical Evita is about Eva Peron, his wife. Peron created a sort of "Welfare State", semi-fascist, Catholic, anti-american in words, pro-american in most actions. He was a leader of the working class, tight knit with the unions and Eva created a role of social projects including schools, hospitals ect. I'm holding out on a definative opinion about him until the end of the class.

The weather here is starting to cool off. Boots are in the store windows. Leaves are on the ground. But I mean, it's still like 65 degrees outside. Mentioning degrees, let me express my frustration with Celcius. I mean it's just confusing. To me. And same with millitary time. To me. While both methods are easier, they are harder when you're brought up using good old Farenheit and 'civilian' time.

In other news: I officially have a place off campus for next year in DC! My sister is having her baby shower this weekend! Swine Flu has not reached Argentina (which is good, because people here tend to FREAK OUT about things that there is no use freaking out about). My little sister here, Paula, had her 3rd birthday party last weekend... there was a giant inflatable slide= amazing. I found a hotdog joint, 4 pesos, all the toppings you can imagine (including fries on top)!

BBC has made me very angry this week. They did a special series on the Nigerian Police force: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8023067.stm . And let me just say, I am in no way condoning how the Nigerian Police operate. I have been on the other side of one of their AK-47s and trust me it's not a fun place to be. But, in most places in the world it is common knowlegde that the police are not your friends. They merely operate to the advantage of the highest bidder. So, I am up set that BBC chose to highlight Nigerian's incompetencies considering the irony that most of Nigeria's problems can be easliy tied to the imperialistic explotation they recieved for over a hundred years courtesy of the UK. I do not think that this BBC article helped those suffering in Nigeria, it merely made a story and hurt Nigeria's image when it's just trying to find it's identity 40 years after independence. Sorry, that was a little ranty, but honestly am I being completely ridiculously biased? hope not...

see you tomorrow!

my weekend:

so it's confession time...
I have an unhealthy obsession with laundry. Anyday I get to clean clothes, is a good day. In Nigeria, we would pay women to wash our clothes (about 35 cents per item) and everything was handwashed and then hung out to dry. But, given the Sahara-like conditions, the clothes never came back to me looking, smelling or feeling very clean. In my home here, there is a washer (in the kitchen) and after about 40 minutes of scrubadubdub, the clothes are ready to go upstairs to the lines. The smell of line-dried clothes is very marketable (candle company anyone?), but honestly there's just something about letting the wind and sun do the work... So as spring approaches (for most of you at least), instead of throwing that next load in the dryer on a beautiful day (and wasting ton of energy), hang the clothes up in your backyard and soak up the freshness!

school:



so i realized that i have done a pretty poor job so far in sharing with you all about how classes are going.



okay then, so i attend Universidad Torcuato di Tella (or di tella as we all call it). it's in the neighborhood of Belgrano... i have class monday-thursday and i normally start at 12:45 (with the exception of tuesdays 8 am class). i'm taking only three courses, they are: 1.)Argentine foreign policy 2.) history and literature 3.) study of Peron. All of which are taught in spanish, by argentine professors. The study of Peron is a class offered only to exchange students, but otherwise i'm with regular argentinian students. so far, so good, the material is interesting enough and i can understand pretty well. funny story: for my history and lit class we have a session with a TA to help us review the material and get some extra discussions in. but us exchange students cannot understand this TA. so in fact, we sit there for two hours, paying ridiculously close attention and leave the room laughing, because we don't understand squat. don't worry, we're going to talk to him about it.



di tella is one of the primer private universities in argentina. it's small, with only two buildings, but very nice. the professors are extrememly accomplished and very helpful. as far as the students go, it's been a mixed box. they are generally really kind and nice, but as far as getting to know people, i mean really know people, it's been a challenge. most of the students at di tella went to the best high schools in ba and now are going to college with their high school friends. so essentially they have their groups and are quite comfortable. and add on that they all live with their families (dorms are non-existant here in south america)... so to put it generally, the students are quite comfortable in their bubbles, in their city, with their family and friends. as you can tell from my diction, i'm not the biggest fan. it has made being here difficult, esspecially factoring language difficulties...



but on a happy note, the exchange students are really wonderful, a truly neat group of individuals. it's just tricky to hang out considering it's a big city and we're all over the place...

a love poem:

Nori-
i love you
you are the woman of my heart
never will i stop loving you
i love you
-chelo

found this today near the river, and it made me smile...

On Wednesday I went to my cafe after class to get some serious reading done. But as life would have it, a protest literally started right outside the cafe. I live several blocks from the president's house (where she lives, she works at la Casa Rosada downtown). The police shut down the street, setting up metal walls to keep the people as far away from the gate as possible. But metal walls are nothing to human spirit, and within a few hours they broke through and took their pumped fists straight to the gate... What do they want? Better security in Buenos Aires. More and better police. There are a lot of robberies and murders (frankly very similar to DC), and the people are fed up. Needless to say, I didn't get much reading done... But I sure learned a lot.
Seguridad: Mejor y mas!

one love

i am not a particularly inspired person but since arriving in ba i have felt particularly inclined to express. it all started in santa teresita when i bought a spray paint painting from a street performer. ever since then, i've been seeing the beatuy in everything around me.

when you walk here, there are always people passing out flyers. mostly nonsense (clothing sales, business prospects, concerts) i had taken to declining and walking blankly past. however, while cleaning out my purse i found a pile of brightly colored papers and bus tickets. so... i decided to let the design speak for itself, instead of the basura.

so here's to looking for a sign...

English in Spanish

In honor of my newly discovered love of the English language, I thought you all might enjoy some words that lack a Spanish counterpart and therefore are encorporated into the Spanish language (with an accent of course). My personal favorite is delivery. And now that I've sat down to write down all the words, none of them are coming to me. Well, I'll keep you posted as they come back to me.





Life is going well. Friday concluded my Intensive Spanish Course and i had an orientation for exchange students which was very helpful. The fam here went to the beach for the weekend and I joined them on Saturday. It was my first experience traveling alone within a foreign country by bus and it went really well. The buses here are double decker and the seats are super comfy (you can almost lay flat) so, it's the most common way to move around the country. The trip from Buenos Aires to Santa Teresita was about 5 hours and I enjoyed getting to see the country (lots of cows for eating). The ocean was beautiful, I got to relax and enjoy some down time before the semester officially started. We camped at a place right next to the beach and had wonderful weather until Sunday night. I headed out around 1 am on Monday morning and slept the whole way back.





Today I attended my first, for real, legit classes. The first was Latin American History in the 1800s, focusing on literature. Then I went to a Politics and Society in Argentina class (but I don't think I'll be taking it). Fortuneately the university lets exchange students try out classes for a week before officially registering. So I'm not exactly sure what my schedule will look like as of now. It's really hard, but I just have to stay persistant and know that it's going to get easier with time.





Here's my address:
VIRREY A. OLAGUER FELIU 1960
(1636) C.P. OLIVOS
BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA





And as always, I uploaded more pictures:



http://picasaweb.google.com/samantha.boss