Adventures, Adventures!

*Apologies if the formatting on this post appears strange, something weird is happening whenever I copy and paste text from a Word document. But I have to do it that way because of the lack of a stable connection in my apartment. Sorry if it's hard to read!

 As good as my intentions were to write an entry before I left for Patagonia for four days, my body had other ideas. I (not 100% positive, but almost certainly) have IBS, as I figured out back in 2006 after a particularly stressful year at Hamline. The last few years I’ve been able to keep my IBS under control by following a diet of lots of organic whole grains and veggies and trying to keep my stress to low levels (part of why I haven’t gotten as involved in campus life at NMU). I’ve still had a few flare-ups brought on by stress, but they’ve always been manageable and short-lived. Looking back on the week leading up to my trip to Patagonia, I had been ignoring warning signs that I should slow down and take better care of myself. And so the day and night before I was scheduled to leave I didn’t write anything or sleep a wink because of being sick. Thankfully I got it under control by the time I got to El Calafate (whew!) and ended up having a great time seeing glaciers and riding horses.

The trip to El Calafate was one of ISA’s scheduled excursions, but had a lot of free time for us to explore the area on our own. We left Buenos Aires incredibly early in the morning in order to get south as early in the day as possible. I didn’t realize until looking at a map on our last day how truly far south we were, further south of the equator than Marquette is north of it! People aren’t kidding when they refer to it as the ends of the earth; it definitely felt like that at times.

            The first day after getting off the plane was spent viewing the Perito Moreno glacier. The views of this monster were just amazing. I’ve seen a good few glaciers in my life (thanks, Mom and Dad!) but this was something else. The sheer size of it coupled with the sound of it – huge chunks of the glacier cracking loose and crashing into the lake below. It was unlike anything I’ve ever seen in my life and since I have no words to describe it that don’t sound like clichés – breathtaking, astounding, jaw-dropping, etc. – you’ll just have to go see it for yourself ;) Here’s a link to some videos of it. We did get to see the glacier calving (breaking) into the lake right before we were about to leave, but because I was watching through my binoculars (thanks, Dad!) I didn’t get any pictures of it. Like I said, you’ll just have to go see it yourself!

After the planned excursion to the Perito Moreno with ISA, we all had two days to do our own activities around the area. Many people chose to go to nearby El Chalten to visit other parts of Parque Nacional Los Glaciares (the park that Perito Moreno is in) but I opted to stay in El Calafate and see some sights around there. Because of a mix-up with times and companies, I ended up doing not one but two horseback riding excursions that first day. The first turned out to be just me, the guide, and four scruffy dogs for two hours! The second lasted closer to three hours with seven other tourists and two guides and included an enormous asado (Argentinean barbeque) at the end.

            For my second free day I booked an excursion called Todos Glaciares, or All Glaciers, and was up bright and early to see…all the glaciers! Well, all the glaciers on Lago Argentino at least, which meant most of the glaciers in the park. The excursion lasted all day and I got some beautiful pictures of the glaciers and the lake. Here’s a link to see the rest of my pictures from the trip on Facebook. That night I went with Ashley (another NMU student whom I had never gotten to know before this trip, which is crazy because we know a lot of the same people and frequent many of the same places in Marquette!) to a restaurant called Pura Vida where we had a fantastic meal. I got a dish called Carbonada de Calabaza, which was a rich stew – with potatoes, carrots, squash, onion, and peaches! – served in a half of a pumpkin. I am definitely going to try to recreate this when I get back. Any volunteers to taste-test?

So, when does my volunteering finally start, I’m sure you’re wondering, or am I going to spend all my time here gallivanting around glaciers and devouring whole squashes? A fair question, dear reader, but not to worry: I met with Federico, ISA’s ELAP coordinator, yesterday and I am going to FundaciónCor this Friday to meet with Silvia, the presidenta (not to be confused with Silvia my host-mom!), and meet the kids and see the house. We’ll also figure out my schedule for the next eight weeks; after talking to Lukas, who’s been at Cor for several weeks now, I want to try to schedule my days over the weekends, because there are fewer volunteers who want to do weekends and they need more help. I think this will work out great for me because it will leave me some days during the week to see sights around the city and maybe go on a few day trips outside it.

In order to keep myself focused and busy while waiting to start at Cor, and during the eight weeks when I have days off, I plan to visit at least one museum or cultural center each day I’m in city and not at Cor (most museums are only open in the afternoon, so on days I’m at Cor it might not be possible to get to one in time). So many museums have reduced admission for university students so it’s a very affordable way to pass the time and learn a lot. I’ve already been to the Larreta Museum, La Redonda, the Carlos Gardel House, the Evita Museum, and the Latin American Art Museum of Buenos Aires (MALBA), as well as both the Recoleta and La Chacarita cemeteries, the San Telmo art and antiques fair, and the Carlos Thays botanical gardens. Among the next things on my list are the planetarium, the city zoo, and the Museum of Fine Arts. I’ll make sure to keep posting updates of the things I see as well as my time at Cor.

One down, two to go

            Amazing to think I’ve been in Buenos Aires for over a month now! I finished classes at the end of the month and passed my final exam without breaking a sweat, ha-ha ;) I did my oral exam on the preparation and tradition of drinking mate, a sort of herb tea that’s brewed in a gourd or wooden cup and is very popular in the Rio de la Plata region. As soon as I get back to Marquette, I’ll be sure to show you how to “take” mate, porteño-style (in Spanish you often use the verb tomar – to take – in the sense of drinking something). The written exam wasn’t terribly easy, but it wasn’t impossible either. I didn’t have a perfect exam, but my final cumulative grade ended up being a 10/10. Yippee!

            It was a good way to end the week, because I’d been feeling a lot of frustration at that point. Four weeks is usually the point in any study abroad experience where the “honeymoon” of living abroad ends, often abruptly. All of the times I’ve lived abroad or spent significant time away from home – Ireland, Germany, even going away to Minnesota for college! – I’ve experienced a similar feeling after approximately 4-6 weeks into the experience. Every little thing about the host culture starts to bother me, from the food, to people’s modes of interacting with each other (and me), to the weather, all across the board. Any little thing that’s different suddenly becomes a massive annoyance, where before it was just a curiosity.

            Even things I knew about, like the fact that random men will make comments about women as they pass by (these are called piropos, a word which refers to both the comments and the men saying them) and that this tends to happen more foreign women. Even though I knew this, I didn’t honestly think it would happen to me, especially after I noticed I didn’t exactly fit the standard of beauty here. But much to my surprise, I started getting piropos all the time (and noticing them more as my Spanish improved). Initially, it amused me, then it annoyed me, then it got me hopping mad. I don’t like people I know complimenting me normally, and I certainly did not enjoy creepy (in my opinion) strangers leering at me and whispering “Que linda sos” as I strode past. One day a security guard at a park asked me where I was from and, after letting me talk for a few minutes, started commenting on how pretty my eyes were and then asked me if I wanted to go have coffee with him (in Argentina, a woman agreeing to go off somewhere private with a man always means you want to do something much more than just have coffee…). Initially, I laughed about it, then it made me feel icky, and afterwards a little scared. Wasn’t it this man’s job to protect people from such lecherous behavior? If even a security worker looked at me as a piece of meat, what hope did I have against someone with actual bad intentions? After this encounter, each piropo made me more and more annoyed and I started projecting my annoyance onto everything I saw and did in Buenos Aires. By the time I was taking my exam, I was feeling really homesick and just wanted to run away back to Marquette.

            It wasn’t just the piropos, there were other things that were causing me a lot of frustration. But at the same time, I don’t think it’s worth getting into the details anymore, because that feeling went away. It took some work on my part: all I wanted to do was sit in my room and pine for Marquette, for Will, for yummy vegan food, for cooler weather. But I knew from my experiences in Ireland and Germany that the only way to get past this point was to keep going, keep doing things and find something interesting to do. So I did. I went to parks, I went to a museum, I went to the feria in San Telmo, I went to the movies with friends, I went to dinner. I kept myself busy, and I’m still keeping myself busy. And yes, I did spend a lot of time talking to Will and to my parents, because even though I know I need to immerse myself in the host culture, the three of them are good listeners, and they always give me the little boost I need or a different outlook on things. Just enough to keep me grounded. Plus, I feel almost an obligation to put on a cheerful face for them, so it helps me think of how to put my experiences in a more positive light.

            I hope to write one more entry tomorrow before I leave for Patagonia early (4am!) Thursday morning. Now that my class is over I’ll be volunteering with FundaciónCor about 3-4 days per week and I’ll be writing more about the kids and the organization. I’m getting really excited after hearing about the kids from Lukas, another NMU student who’s volunteering with Cor. I’m interested to know how the child and family services organizations are run here, because it seems like there are a lot of key differences between the programs here and those in the US. And after visiting the Evita Museum today and reading about all of the social welfare programs she founded, especially for children, I want to know if Cor is in any way related to the hogares de tránsito, which were a type of shelter for women and children. So much to learn!

            For those of you following this blog who don’t have a Facebook account, here is a link to some of the pictures I’ve taken over the last month. Sorry there are so few, I didn’t have a lot of time to go sight-seeing while doing the intensive month class. There are sure to be a lot more once I get back from Patagonia next week. So until next time, ¡chau chau!

Tercera semana

I told myself when I started this blog that I was going to make an effort *not* to have to start every entry off with "Sorry it's been so long since I last wrote" but it looks like I shan't be so lucky. So, sorry it's been so long since I last wrote! The reasons are varied and include homework, migraines, threatened power outages caused by recent flooding of the city, and fickle internet connections, but also I've been distracted with trying to get out to enjoy the city on the rare nice days that we've had.

 As much as I'm enjoying speaking Spanish todos los días and meeting some lovely people in my program, it's been quite an adjustment. I plan to write more about this later, but suffice it to say the dietary transition has probably been the toughest. Most people who know me will attest that I will try anything once and that I'm not one to refuse food that's offered to me when I'm a guest in someone's home. However, I'm used to that being more of a special occasion than the norm, and to having the recourse to cook for myself most of the time. Believe it or not, I have eaten some sort of meat dish almost every day I've been in Buenos Aires. It's entirely possible to find vegetarian food around Buenos Aires, but the problem is that it's almost always accompanied by massive amounts of dairy and eggs, both of which I've consumed very little the last two years. I'm sure the change in diet was a big player, along with the heat and humidity, in the series of migraines I had during the past two weeks.

But enough with the whining! It really is fantastic here, especially when the weather is sunny and a little cooler. Because my class runs from 9:30am to 2:30pm, and because it's rained every weekend I've been here, I haven't had a lot of time to see the "sights" of Buenos Aires, but once my class wraps up at the end of this week, I plan to do it up tourist-style! A friend I knew in Ireland is living in Santiago, Chile, and is in BA this week with his cricket team, so we are planning to meet up downtown after I finish my exams on Thursday. Additionally, I decided to splurge on an excursion to El Calafate to see the Perito Moreno glacier during the first week of March. So I've got some fun things coming up before I start my volunteering with FundaciónCor in March!

As I said, I'll be writing soon with some more impressions of life on the sixth floor of 5831 Av. Libertador, but for now I'll leave you with this picture of me drinking mate with some friends from ISA. ¡Chau chau!

How to even begin?

After about ten hours on the plane from JFK to Ezeiza, during which I panicked that I had lost my passport, we finally touched down in Argentina Saturday (30 January) morning. The temperature was in the low 80’s F and humid, quite a change from 13 F and windy! I got a taxi at the airport – my first opportunity to use Spanish in Argentina! – and started into Buenos Aires. It’s no exaggeration that the taxistas here are bonkers; mine spent most of the drive into the city tailgating in the left lane at about 130-140 kph. Several times I felt sure that an accident was imminent, but we survived and made it to 5831 Avenida Libertador in the barrio of Belgrano, my home for the next three months. My host mom, Silvia, rarely leaves the apartment because she walks with a cane, but she knows almost everyone in the building and most of the shop owners around the block because they deliver her groceries and other sundries (just about every business in Bs.As. will deliver to your home, including McDonald’s in some places). Every morning she makes up a huge breakfast spread for my roommate, Maddy, and me – fruit, coffee, bread, and of course dulce de leche (more on that later).

            First thing after I arrived on Saturday there was an orientation for ISA. This orientation was very brief, and was mostly general cautionary advice such as not wandering the city late at night in huge groups of Americans whilst speaking English. A good policy no matter where in the world you go, in my opinion J I sent off a few emails to let people know I was alive and then headed back home to rest up for the big orientation and city tour the next morning.

            The big orientation was very similar to the first, but went into more depth about the hazards of the city – counterfeit bills, the occasional sneaky cab driver, the potential for “cultural misunderstandings” between Argentine men and American women – as well as how to make living with a host family as smooth as possible. A lot of this was familiar to me from living abroad twice before, but it never hurts to review in a new country. After the long orientation, we were treated to algo muy argentino (something very Argentine) – empanadas (see picture above). If you’re a yooper, think of them as little pasties with a lot more variety for the fillings. The style of crimping on the dough helps you tell the different fillings apart. We had four different kinds to choose from – chicken, beef, ham & cheese, and caprese with mushroom – but I’ve seen lots of combinations so far, like spicy beef, ham & bleu cheese, cheese & onion, spinach, and something that was a mix of chicken and sweet corn. Empanadas are a great lunch or snack food because you can find them practically everywhere and at AR$3 (Argentina uses the $ symbol for pesos: AR$) for one, they’re a steal. I have a feeling I’ll be eating a lot of these little guys while I’m here.

            After devouring our empanadas, we took a brief city tour of some Buenos Aires highlights, which I’ll write more about in later entries. After the city tour I spent some time walking around Belgrano and had my first sandwich de miga – kind of like a big tea sandwich – and an alfajor – a big sandwich cookie made of two delicate, buttery gallettes around a filling of dulce de leche. I could still barely take it all in – I was in Argentina (sitting in a café called “La Argentina”, no less) eating migas and alfajores while drinking café con leche and reading about drinking problems amongst Argentina’s youth. And all the while sweating like I was in a sauna! Even with all the traveling I’ve done, it never ceases to amaze me how quickly I can now travel to somewhere so very different from my home.

            Monday morning arrived and it was time to take the placement exam for my month-long Spanish class. The test was scheduled for 10am and all of the ISA people had advised us to show up early so that we could start on time. As ten o’clock rolled around, students were still meandering in and out of the classrooms while instructors flitted from one room to the next, shuffling papers and looking not the least bit flustered. About 10:30am we were handed a form to fill out that included our address in Argentina and other sorts of identification information – but still no test. Sometime around 10:45am we were finally handed our exam which was essentially a two-sided cloze exercise and told we had as much time as we needed to finish it. Some people “finished” (gave up) in about 2 minutes while for most it took about half an hour to fill in the blanks. I ended up being placed in the Advanced class (kudos to NMU’s Spanish program for that one!) and had the rest of the day free until classes started on Tuesday.

            I really enjoy my class and think it will end up being a good use of my time. A lot of this first week was review and learning the voceo – the informal form of address in Argentina, which I’ll write more about later – so nothing too stressful. Even so, by the end of the week I was starting to feel the first pangs of homesickness. I think it’s less that I want to be back home and more that I want to bring everyone from home here, to share the experience with me. Not a day goes by that I don’t see or hear something that makes me think of a friend or family member and how I wish I could be seeing or hearing it with them. I guess that means I’ll just have to come back again! In the meantime, I hope people get a kick out of this blog and the pictures.

            I’m also having a fun time comparing this experience to my time in Germany, everything from the placement exam to daily life. In Trier, I was more or less plunked down and had to do a lot of fending for myself. ISA’s program is a lot more structured and the homestay is an adjustment, since I’m very used to cooking, cleaning and looking after myself. And then of course there are differences in the culture, climate, language, food. That said, there are lots of similarities, too. I can tell already that I’ll have lots of material to write about during the next three months!

            A side note about receiving mail here. ISA advises us to have mail sent to their office, since our names generally aren’t on the letter-boxes at our homestays, and the letters or packages could get “lost”. If anyone feels like sending mail to me, address it like so:

Attn: Katelynn Jensen

c/o ISA Office

Av. Cabildo 875 #1

C1426AAI  Buenos Aires

Argentina

(But don’t feel obligated, as it could take a very long time to get here. Email is definitely quicker.)

Antes de llegar...

Here's a short entry I wrote while waiting for my flight from JFK to Ezeiza (the international airport of Buenos Aires).

            I’m writing this entry from JFK International Airport in New York, but by the time it’s posted I will be in Buenos Aires! I really did intend to write one more entry before I left, ideally one outlining the things I was packing – a sort of what to bring, what not to bring PSA. But as it turned out I was packing up to the last minute, so writing a blog about it wasn’t top priority. I had everything stowed away, my luggage was even way under the 50-lb limit (33.5 lbs for the suitcase, 24 lbs for the backpack, boo-yah!). I had electrical converters, extra pairs of socks and underwear, soap, books, snacks – I was prepared for any hiccup on the trip. And then about three hours into the drive to Chicago, I realised I had left my entire ISA folder – complete with my homestay information, ISA and ELAP handbooks, and my hotel reservation in Chicago – at my parents’ house, where I had stopped before leaving. Thankfully, I have an amazing mom and she was able to overnight the entire folder to where I was staying in Chicago. Whew! Just goes to show you can never prepare for everything.

            Speaking of homestay information, by the time I post this I’ll have met my host-mom, or perhaps “host-abuela”, Silvia Clark. From what I found on Google maps, it looks like her apartment is very close to the University of Belgrano – where my classes are based – and also on a pretty big thoroughfare in Buenos Aires, Avenida Libertador. Pictures to come! Before leaving Marquette, I picked up a few U.P. goodies to give as gifts, like yummy thimbleberry jam and maple syrup. While I was in Chicago, Will and I visited the Shedd Aquarium and I got some coloring books to bring with me to FundaCor. I wish I had thought sooner to pick up some coloring books for the U.P. but the aquarium ones are probably a little cooler. J

            I’ve had such a mixture of emotions the last few days. It was hard for me to say good-bye to Will, even knowing that I’ll be back in only three months. Thankfully, he let me download a lot of his music, so now whenever I miss him I can pull out my MP3-player and listen to music that reminds me of him. We also both have Skype, so that makes keeping in touch a little easier. I bought a phonecard in New York and the plan is to call my parents and Will before boarding the plane for Argentina. The flight leaves New York at 10:20pm and touches down in Argentina at 11:00am, so with the 2 hour time zone difference, that makes it about a 10-hour flight. I’ve brought Cien años de soledad by Gabriel García Márquez with me to read on the plane, as well as guidebooks to Argentina and Buenos Aires. Much as I love to read, I’m really hoping I’ll be able to sleep a little on the flight, even though I always have trouble sleeping on long plane rides. Oh well, guess we’ll see.

¡Llegué en Buenos Aires!

I'll be writing more later, but this is just a note to let anyone reading this know that I arrived safe and sound in Buenos Aires this morning. The weather is nice and warm, if a little overcast, and I am surrounded by Spanish! Yippee!

More to come!

Preparations and Transitions

This is the blog I'll be using to update my advisor - and friends and family - on my adventures and experiences in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I'll be in BA for a little over three months with International Studies Abroad (ISA) taking a month-long language class and then two months volunteering at FundaciónCor. I'll be receiving academic credit for both the language course and the volunteering through Northern Michigan University's Spanish and Education departments. I was so excited to find a program that allowed me to spend the majority of my short time in country working with native speakers, and children too! I know this will be a great asset when I start my student-teaching and job-hunting.

Looking outside at the many feet of snow in Marquette makes it hard to believe that I will be in a completely opposite climate in just a few weeks. I received my acceptance letter from ISA on the same day Marquette got its first big snowstorm of the 2009-2010 winter season, so definitely saw the humor in "escaping" the frigid U.P. winter for the balmy capital of Argentina. Even so, it hasn't quite yet sunk in that I will be leaving Marquette, and its weather, behind for three months to find myself completely immersed in Argentine culture and language.

So far, I've got all of my paperwork in order for ISA - health release, host family application, phone interview for my volunteer placement. Because I'm only going for three months, I won't apply for a student visa, but that also means that I can legally stay in the country for only 90 days. This means I'll be leaving Argentina briefly after my program finishes - probably to Chile or Uruguay - and then returning to do some more traveling. Even though I won't need a visa to go to Argentina, I will have to pay an entrance fee of US$131; thankfully that payment is good for ten years, so I won't have to pay it again once I reenter the country.

Along with thinking about the clothing and other necessities I'm going to pack, I've been thinking about what I might want to bring to enhance my volunteer experience with FundaCor. According to past volunteers, the possibilities are endless, but also very much left up to the individual volunteers. I wrote in my application that I would be willing to tutor kids taking English language classes - I'm certified to teach English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) - or work with them on cooking healthy foods, since I love to cook vegetarian and vegan foods. Past volunteers said that I should try to have some sort of plan in my head, because volunteers at FundaCor are given a lot more independence than we might expect. I really want to bring some of my EFL books and cookbooks, but I'm afraid they will weigh me down. At least I still have some time to think about this, since I haven't really started packing yet (don't tell my mom!).

I'll try to keep this blog updated prior to my departure, but I know I'll also be trying to get as many winter-weather activities in as possible before I leave. ¡Hasta luego!