First days (July 22nd – 23rd): Arrived at the Buenos Aires airport at 8:30am after 18 hours of travel time, and with a group of other Flacsit@s (what out coordinators call the FLACSO-CIEE participants: -itos/-itas means little, a term of endearment in Spanish) bundled into chartered buses for Hotel Lyon in the city. During our overnight stay in the hotel, my roommate and I explored the “barrio” (neighborhood) of El Congreso, getting lost for 2.5 hours (what we got for wandering without knowing the address of our hotel), but fortunately finding our way back in time for dinner. The day after our arrival we were taken to FLACSO* where we attended info sessions about city life and took language placement exams. That night, we met and went home with our host families. I am completely in love with mine: I live with a single mom, Emi, and her two daughters Trini and Rosario (20 and 18 years old) in their apartment within walking distance of FLACSO. My first night with them was actually Trini’s 20th birthday, so I got to have hamburgers and talk with her friends!
Week 1 (July 24th – 31st): More orientation stuff, including seminars on academic life and cultural adaptation. I also found out that I completely bombed my Spanish placement exam (oops), but fortunately Georgetown has special requirements that CIEE has to comply with, so I was still able to register for the classes I need to get credit. My most important purchase of these first few weeks was an Argentine prepaid cell phone through a company called Claro. Unfortunately, I didn’t find out until after I paid US$50 for it that my provider is the AT&T of Argentina: poor reception, dropped calls, faulty programming (twice I’ve had to bring my phone into a Claro store because it stopped sending texts), slow customer service, and exclusive distribution rights to the iPhone. However, when it does function it connects me to Buenos Aires, so it ultimately fulfills its purpose.
Culture-wise, I came to realize some key differences between Argentine and US culture (of which I will go into more detail in a later blog post). But what struck me the most these first weeks was the differences in timing: almost everything in Argentina takes place later than it does in the US. For orientation programming, the earliest we would have to be at FLACSO was 10am, as opposed to 8am in the US. Similarly, lunch takes place around 12-4pm, and dinner not until 9:30-11pm! And here “breakfast” does not mean pancakes and fruit or bacon and eggs: a few “medialunas” (small croissants with a sweet glaze) and “café con leche” (espresso with milk) constitutes “desayuno.” Fortunately my family has hosted US students in the past, so they keep plenty of cereal, yogurt, toast, fruit and coffee for me to eat in the mornings, but you’ll be hard pressed to find cafés offering anything more than medialunas or toast with jam before 11am.
Like everything else, Buenos Aires nightlife also starts later: most bars open around 8pm, and nightclubs not until 1 or 2am! Taking advantage of our free time during orientation, my FLACSO friends and I checked out some popular bars and “boliches” (dance clubs). One of my favorites was a bar called “Sugar”: the bouncer is this burly guy from Orange County, California, and the DJ was from Gourock, Scotland! Of course I completely blanked on my Nana’s maiden name (since she’s the one who has family there), but he did say he had a great-aunt Kathy Ross and knew some Rosses from secondary school! Talk about a small world!
Week 2 (August 1st – 7th): Even more orientation activities, including preregistering for classes through FLACSO and at local Universities. Georgetown requires that students take at least two direct enrollment courses (classes taught in Spanish and offered to Argentines), up to 4 credits of Spanish language courses and only one course through CIEE-FLACSO. We can enroll in three different local universities: the Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA), Pontifica Universidad Católica (UCA), and Instituto Universitaro Nacional de Arte (IUNA). I elected to take my two direct enrollment courses at UBA, in the “carerra” (degree course) de Ciencias Sociales, one FLACSO course, and two 2 credit Spanish courses (I’ll go into more detail about my classes later).
This last week of orientation was rounded out with a FLACSO-sponsored overnight trip to San Antonio de Areco, a town outside of Buenos Aires that captures the “gaucho” (Latin American cowboy) spirit of Argentina. While there we toured the town and went to an “estancia” (ranch) for an “asado” (barbeque), as well as a dancing and horseback-riding demonstration.
Weeks 3-5 (August 8th – 28th): All classes started on the 8th of August, and after shopping some UBA courses I settled on a 5 class, 17-credit course load. I’m taking two Spanish courses through FLACSO, one focusing on grammar and the other on oral production (2 credits each), FLACSO’s Seminar on Living and Learning in Buenos Aires: Intercultural Explorations (3 credits), an UBA Political Science course titled Administration and Public Policy (6 credits), and an UBA Social Work course titled Urban Politics: Policies of Social Control (4 credits). So far all of my courses are going really well, I’ve managed to make Argentine friends in both of my UBA classes and have not yet missed my Administration course (7-9am Mondays and Wednesdays).
Weeks 6-7 (August 29th – September 12th): These two weeks were filled with classes and cultural events! On the 29th my friends and I caught one of the tango exhibitions in the Festival y Mundial de Tango (World Tango Festival) held every year in Buenos Aires, followed by a trip to Café Tortoni, one of the oldest cafés in Buenos Aires. September 3rd I went with another group of friends to see Broadway’s Bella y la Bestia (Beauty and the Beast) in Buenos Aires. To say it was AMAZING would be an understatement! For US$35 we got 15th row seats to a Broadway show with an INCREDIBLE cast that has been touring all of Latin America! It was absolutely unforgettable, the best money I have spent in Argentina by far!
That Sunday, September 5th, two flacsitas and I went on a trip to Tigre with a group of retired people and their families. My friend’s host mom is a member of this group, which organizes inexpensive trips for senior citizens (“jubilados” in Argentina). For AR$90, we went on a 3 hour cruise in Río de la Plata, where we got a three course meal and an improv dance party with 60+ year olds, and a trip up to Tigre, a beautiful little town up the river delta. It was a gorgeous day out, and we had a great time practicing Spanish and enjoying the sun!
*Clarification: FLACSO, which stands for Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales, was founded in 1957 by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) and sponsors a prestigious postgraduate teaching and research program. FLACSO partners with CIEE (Council on International Educational Exchange) to host US American students in Buenos Aires.
You are so funny! lol I love these posts and I promise to write more often too! Bombed the spanish test? Paige.... :)
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