Putting the Study in Studying Abroad

After my last post on Sunday, I got down to some more studying for my exams this week. 

On Monday, I had my Listening and Conversation Examen Parcial. The exam wasn't too bad. It basically entailed doing new versions of exercises we had been practicing in class. Sometimes, the audio wasn't really clear, but I think that's part of the challenge(!), but I assumed I did well enough to pass, especially since there wasn't more I could have done to study for it.

That night and last night, I poured over my Economic Development of Argentina notes, which was really boring. But the exam today wasn't that bad, I think. I'm pretty sure I did fine and I'm so glad that it's finished. Next week, I have my midterm in my World Economic History class. I don't think it will be too challenging, but I definitely have a lot of studying to get down this weekend/next week to be ready for it.

 My class at UBA is turning out to be quite challenging. Last night, I barely understood what was going on in the first hour and during the second two hours I was just lost. Hopefully, when I have time to get around to readings for that class (after my midterm next week) I'll have a better understanding of everything for that class. Plus, the other kids from my program in that class and I are planning on meeting with our program's tutor for that class (who is also the TA!) sometime in the next week, so I'm sure I'll be caught up before our midterm for that class which isn't until May.

This weekend I'm off to Tandil, for a trip that the program is throwing for us. Originally we were going to Entre Rios, but because of the incidents of dengue in the north, we've changed our locations! 

And here's a picture of me from Puerto Madryn:

Soccer, Burritos and Dengue

After two weekends outside of the city, I'm glad to be spending this one back in Buenos Aires. On Thursday, I had my last class of the week and then ran into some friends in the Plaza de Mayo. After "doing work" for about an hour, we headed to California Burrito, which was great and reminded me a lot of Chipotle. That night, after doing some work, I headed out to a the Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires, where the Madres de La Plaza de Mayo, were having a discussion about a new book called, "Silencioso no es una palabra" which was about the disappearances of thousands of people during the Dirty War in Argentina about thirty years ago. Although I didn't understand everything that was said at the event, it was still pretty interesting to go to and hear the different speeches.

The next day, Friday, we had our Dengue informational meeting. For an hour, we all learned about the life cycle of a mosquito. Apparently, it's really really hard to get Dengue in Buenos Aires, it almost seems like you have to go out of your way to get it here. Plus, one of the girls in our program actually had dengue a few years ago in the Dominican Republic and assured us that as bad as it is to get it, it's not the end of the world. The first time you get it, there's no chance of dying, but the second time there's more of a risk. That afternoon, a friend and I had lunch in one of the parks in Palermo.

Yesterday, I went to a soccer game. I was really excited to go to one, and the game did not disappoint. The weather was perfect as we watched Velez play Arsenal at the Velez Field. The crowd really got into the game and sang encouraging songs for ninety percent of the game. I tried to remember the words, but all that I could make out was Ganador, winner. Velez ended up winning 2-0, after ninety minutes of intense playing. Then last night, I headed home and studied some economic history of Argentina for my midterm this week. Hopefully it goes okay, but I gotta get back to studying now! Hope all is good with everyone!

The Puerto Madryn Trip

Hey All,

So, it's been a while since my last post! and i'm sorry, things have just been really busy here.

First, last Wednesday, I headed down to Patagonia! I went via bus, which meant the trip was incredibly long. But since I had a long weekend for Easter, I figured why not? After 23 hours on a bus to the city, I headed to the hostel, which was great. The next day, I headed around the Port, which was really interesting. There's a lot of history of the Welch influence in this area, which was shown in many of the statues around the city. One painting I thought was interesting was this one:

Which essentially means, A ship is safe in the harbor, but that's not why it was built. 

Puerto Madryn seemed to have a long history of naval ties in various wars within the Argentine path and I thought this was an interesting sentiment.

On this first day, I headed to the museum called the EcoCentro, which had tons of information on all the wildlife of the area, but I really wanted to do a tour of the Valdez Peninsula right to the north of Puerto Madryn, so I booked a tour for the next day.

After getting picked up from the hostel at 8, we drove to the peninsula. There was so many amazing sights in the Peninsula, which has been designated as a national park. We covered the whole peninsula, saw orcas, sea lions, sea elephants, more penguins, llamas, and tons of other wildlife. It was a long day, but it was definitely a really cool place to go to. It was probably my last trip to Patagonia and even though I'm sad that it was my last time there because it's such a beautiful place, I'm excited to have the opportunity to spend more time in Buenos Aires, the lake district of Argentina, and other areas in the north!

Classes are really picking up too! By this time next week, I will have finished two midterm exams, one in Listening and Conversation and one in the Economic Development of Argentina in the Context of Latin America. I'm not too worried about Listening and Conversation, but I still have a lot more to study for Econ, so I'll probably be spending a lot of time this weekend in the library, but it'll be good, and all my classes are just pass/fail, so I'm not too worried. 

I Left My Heart (and Cell Phone) in Mendoza

Hey everybody,

I can't believe that it's already April. This past weekend was amazing. I headed down to Mendoza, which is the wine country of Argentina. After my two classes on Wednesday, which felt really long, I went home and packed. I got to the bus station, where I realized that I had printed off my confirmation, but not my ticket! So I had to get my ticket printed at the station. However, I managed to get onto my bus with minutes to spare and settled in for a fourteen hour bus ride. The ride wasn't too bad. They served us food, which was a milanesa (breaded beef) and a (surprise!) ham and cheese sandwich. After midnight, I fell asleep and successfully stayed in that state till we arrived at 9 the next morning.

We checked into our hostel, and then planned to go paragliding. I had never paraglided before, but I thought that it would really be a cool experience. I'm also a bit afraid of heights, but figured I would be able to overcome it to see Mendoza from a different perspective. So, we headed up one of the mountains that overlooked the city. Then, we signed waivers (which got me a little nervous) and waited to head up to the highest point of the mountain to jump. When I got up there I was still pretty worried, but after I was harnessed in the backpack with the parachute and instructor behind me, I finally relaxed and was able to run off the cliff! The view was extraordinary and I was able to take some pictures from the air!

That night, we went out for dinner at a really cool restaurant. It was a holiday in Argentina on that day, and in the plazas, there were lots of people holding some sort of festival. It seemed like a really fun, end-of-summer fair where lots of people came to just relax and enjoy the awesome weather. 

The next morning, my friend and I decided to go on a guided hike up the mountains in the Andes. We took this van to a mountain about an hour and a half from our hotel. Twenty minutes after getting out of the van, I realized that my cell phone had slid out of my pocket when I was in the van and I had lost it. Bummer, but since there wasn't anything I could really do to get it back at that point, I decided to just enjoy the rest of the day. 

Then we got to the trail. Hiking was quite a physical task. The way up wasn't too difficult, and we stopped many times to refill our water bottles and catch our breath. But, the way down was quite treacherous at points. I slid many times and was definitely in danger of falling a few times. But we all reached the top and bottom of the mountain without any real problems.

 

Finally, on Saturday, our last day in Mendoza, we set out for the wineries, aka the bodegas. After a short bus ride to Maipu, we rented bikes from a place called Mr. Hugo's. Then we followed the map that Mr. Hugo gave us to the wineries. The first place we went, was actually an olive oil bodega. We went for a free tour and tasting. Though I'm not a huge olive oil aficionado, the olive oil did taste delicious and it was cool to get all the info on how it was made. 

Next, we headed off to a family-winery. The winery specialized, as did most of Mendoza, in making Malbec wine. For ten pesos, we attended a wine-tasting and tour. Though I have very little knowledge of wine, I could definitely tell which kinds I liked and which I wasn't a huge fan of. 

Finally, we stopped at the chocolate factory. There were countless different options of combinations of chocolate and liquor. For another ten pesos, we participated in a tour and tasting. I chose the "Chocolate" option, a little boring, but I definitely wanted to see what the original flavor was like. Although the chocolate part of the drink seemed tasty, the taste of the liquor in the drink really diminished my liking of the drink itself. The factory also gave us pieces of real chocolate to eat and it was quite delicious.

After a free glass of wine from Mr. Hugo when we returned the bikes, we headed back to the hostel, picked up our bags and were back at the bus station for our 8:30 back to Buenos Aires. The bus ride went by very quickly and when I got back to Buenos Aires, I realized that the weather seemed cooler than when we had left, and as sad as I am that the summer is winding down, I'm certainly welcoming this drop in humidity.

Another Week

I can't believe another week has already gone by. After getting back from Tierra del Fuego last week, I definitely took some time to catch up with some homework and reading. Last Tuesday was a feriado, or holiday. Although I spent most of the day doing some reading for my classes, I did venture out to the Plaza del Mayo to watch the protests that Buenos Aires is so known for. It was muy lively. 

The rest of the week was pretty normal. My classes are going smoothly and I'm starting to get used to everything in the Argentine culture. 

On Saturday, I watched the Argentine national soccer team in their World Cup qualifying game versus Venezuela. Argentina won 4-0 and it was fun to watch the game. I wasn't able to get tickets to watch it live though. Some people in our program waited in line from 230 am to 930 am to get tickets, but they said that the game was a lot of fun.

On Sunday, I went to a feria, fair, in San Telmo. Sundays are so quiet in the city. Most of the businesses are shut down, and the public transportation is very empty. It feels very strange, but also very relaxing. It was my first Sunday in the city in almost a month and it was a nice way to relax and take in parts of the city. I've also found a route to run through the parks here which is lovely now that the weather is slowly beginning to cool.

Tomorrow, I'm going to head off to Mendoza, the wine country. I'm excited to travel again in Argentina. I'll be leaving on Wednesday night, because Thursday is another holiday, and then returning sometime on Sunday. It should be a great trip! I'll blog again when I return.

Back from the End of the World

On Thursday afternoon, after my class at UCA, my friends and I headed out to the Airport so that we could take a flight to Ushuaia which is the capital of Tierra del Fuego. During the flight, we stopped once to drop some of the passengers off, but we were in the middle of nowhere. On the last half of the flight, there was an amazing sunset. It must have lasted for two hours in total. 

Once we got off the plane, the first very clear difference was the drop in temperature. In Buenos Aires, it's usually in the 80s with humidity. In Tierra del Fuego, the temperatures were in the forties to low fifties with tons of wind. We took a quick cab to the hostel, which was incredibly clean. The next morning, we headed up to the National Park. Normal entry fee is 50 pesos, but with a student id, it was only four pesos. There were four possible trails that we could hike, and we choose the one that was by the Beagle Channel. The views were amazing. Along the way, we passed by horses and rabbits. The trail was supposed to take about 3 hours, but because we took tons of pictures and stopped to eat lunch, it took us about five hours. When we had reached the end of the trail, we saw two rainbows. The weather at Tierra del Fuego was a bit strange. It was always sunny, event though it was a bit cold until late afternoon, when clouds would roll in and it would rain for a few hours. 

That night, we headed to bed pretty early because the next day we planned to take a boat out to an island of penguins. We had not realized, however, that first there would be an hour and a half bus ride to the boat. It was well worth it though. When we finally arrived to the island, we saw hundreds of penguins in their natural habitat. Our tour guide, Anna, told us about the migration path of the penguins. Apparently, we had arrived just in time to see them because in a few weeks they will be returning to the South pole for the winter. I took lots of pictures of the penguins and had a great experience there. 

The next day, we headed out on a 10am boat across the Channel. First, we visited islands with seals. Then we passed the lighthouse. We visited a few other islands, but we finally disembarked on one of them and climbed up a hill. From the summit, we had a great view of the city of Ushuaia and the other islands. It was an incredible sight. 

Finally, that night we headed back to Buenos Aires. It had been an incredible experience. I had never seen such fantastic landscapes and been so close to so much wildlife. I'm glad that I had this chance to get to travel to the End of the World.

Today, Tuesday, is actually a holiday in Buenos Aires. It is called el Dia Nacional de la Memoria por la Verdad y Justicia. So, I don't have classes, but I'll probably head down to Plaza de Mayo to see how the citizens commemorate this day. 

Finally, although I've been posting some pictures here, this is a link to my picasa site. Just copy the line below this paragraph into the address bar of your web browser and you'll be able to see my pictures! Because it's so hard to post a lot of pictures to the blog, I've been uploading pictures to this site. I only have about fifty up from the End of the World Trip so far because it takes a lot of time to load, but I should be posting more soon.

http://picasaweb.google.com/ej.jones06/

Quick Post

Hey All,

This week has been really exciting! I finally had a week with all of my classes. My class at the Universidad de Buenos Aires seems awesome. It's called Transicion, Crisis, y Reforma and it's all about the transitions in Latin America during the past years. The building and classrooms of UBA are so interesting. There's tons of graffiti and posters on the walls, and the buildings seem really beat up. But the education is the best in Argentina and it's free for Argentines. Most of the students work part-time/full-time and attend classes later in the days, which means they're really committed to the work. The professor seemed really knowledgeable about the subject and I've heard great things. Also, there are three other students from FLACSO in the class, so it was a relief to know other people in the class, though I do hope to meet some of the portenos in the class as well. 

On Monday, I was really tired from the weekend, but I was talking to some students in the program and we decided to travel to Tierra del Fuego (aka Land of Fire, aka The End of the World). It's the southernmost city in the world and with any luck I'll see glaciers and penguins! The temperature there should be in the forties, low fifties, which is a lot higher than I anticipated, especially coming from a cold Massachusetts winter. But it should be a lot of fun, and i'm gonna take tons of pictures!

Finally, today when I was going to my class at the Universidad Catolica Argentina and during some other points of the day, I took some pictures of the university, the statues in the Plaza de Mayo, the view from my street, and some pictures of my apartment building. Hopefully, you all will enjoy this little slideshow!