SIX WEEKS and counting!!!
Hey everyone!!! Long time no talk. I know I haven’t sent as many emails as I’d hoped but I haven’t received many at the same time. So send me emails! (I still don’t have internet at my house, so I have to type this on my computer first, then take my computer to an internet café and copy/paste it onto the blog- SO sorry for the delay!! I know it has been forever since I posted. SORRY. But it means I don’t have AIM cuz I can’t take my computer every time, so EMAIL!!) Well I hope everyone is doing great with the new school year, love and miss you all, and don’t forget about me here in Argentina, leave a comment to show you came!
Well I shall start by saying that I had already written 10 pages of a post when for some reason it all disappeared off of my computer. So I shall leave off of the day-by-day things; there are just too many, especially from 3 weeks ago in Buenos Aires. However, it will still be very long, and therefore I shall separate into parts: reflections of Buenos Aires and such (food, driving, etc); my host city/house; my host family (who they are, what they’re like after 3 weeks, etc); school (how it’s different and such); then finally friends and weekends. So don’t say I didn’t warn you!!
Buenos Aires
So! Buenos Aires isn’t very different from any other big modern city, really at all. I shall start with the driving, as that is what will hit you first; it’s crazy. The people here all drive like maniacs. Lane lines mean nothing, red lights are just a caution sign, especially in the night when it’s worst, and on one-way streets it is not uncommon to see people driving the wrong way. On one of the main avenues in the city, in the morning there are I believe four lanes going into the center, and two going out. That’s as big as a highway! Then in the afternoon, there are four going out of the center, and two going into it. The center of the city is called the Plaza de Mayo, which has all of the important things (like the Casa Rosada – the same as out White House only it’s the Pink House, because when it was built, there were two political parties, one red and one white, so they painted the government house pink to symbolize a joining of the two parties – and the most important
church, etc) As the AFS office was so close to the Casa Rosada, every time I got lost I headed there, then could easily find my way. Which happened a lot at the beginning, but oh well, by the third week, I was getting SO good at navigating myself. It was pretty cool.
Anyways back to driving; as I said there will be 4 lanes going in one direction – and anywhere from 3 to 4 to 5 to SIX cars going that direction. Lane barriers mean NOTHING, absolutely nothing. With my host family getting off a highway one day, there was our car and another on the off ramp, which I was quite sure was only meant for one car, there being very, very little room between our car and the next and our car and the shoulder barrier. But as they didn’t quite touch, it was perfectly acceptable.
The other thing is with as crazy drivers as these people are, when you’d think seatbelts would be most necessary, in the backseat you don’t have to wear them at all, and no one does, and in cabs you are lucky if you can even find the seatbelts in the back (the front seat of cabs isn’t used). On the subject of cabs, they can be any kind of car, so long as they are painted black on the bottom half, and yellow on the top half. I’ve a picture somewhere of a cab… But it means you get some quite nice cars as cabs. The same thing goes for police cars, but it seems that all the money is in the cab business, for while cabs tend to range from normal to very nice cars, police cars range from normal to incredibly ratty, barely moving cars, so long as they’re painted right. I’ve even seen police pick-up trucks! Yea. I’m not sure how comforting that is. But oh well :P So that’s driving in Buenos Aires… it is very crazy.
FOOD. I could go on forever. The food here is SOOOO amazing!!!!! The principal things that they eat here that we don’t have in the US/Maryland are milanesas, matte, empanadas, DULCE DE LECHE, alfajores, flan, and asado.
I know that empanadas exist in the US but I’ve never seen them in Maryland, so they’re new to me at least. For anyone who doesn’t know them, they’re a soft flour tortilla like shell with ground meat, sometimes a sauce, often egg, and other things such as onions or whatever is in the sauce. There are also chicken ones, and a thousand kinds, but the ones with beef, chicken, and ham & cheese are the most popular kinds.
They are OBSESSED with ham and cheese here. Everything is jamon y queso. Pizza con jamon y queso. Empanadas de jamon y queso. At my school, you can get a hamburger or a ham and cheese sandwich. I can eat jamon y queso when it’s hot, like in empanadas, and even pizza if there’s no other option… but the sandwiches I can’t do.
Milanesas are thin pieces of meat that are dipped in egg, then in breadcrumbs, then fried, sort of like scaloppini, just… different. There’re milanesas de carne y de pollo (beef and chicken), and with salt and lemon, are really, really good.
Matte I’ve described before, it’s a tea-like drink that you drink in a special cup with a special straw that doesn’t let the leaves up; you fill the cup with the leaves, add some sugar if you like, pour boiling water over it and drink. When you are given a matte, you always have to finish it (it’s not very big) it is just very hot, however, especially when it’s cold, I quite like it.
Dulce de leche. Sigh. It is going to be the reason I shall be coming home fat. I’m thinking of changing the name of my blog from Over the Equator to When Argentina Was Out To Get Me Fat. Because it is. Anyways dulce de leche literally means candy of milk, which is what it is. I’m not quite sure how to make it, but it is supposed to be very easy, and it is absolutely amazing with everything; they eat it with everything as well. As Mariana told me, for Argentineans, it isn’t sweet enough unless it’s got dulce de leche : )> Alfajores are cookie sandwiches, usually filled with dulce de leche, and often dipped in a chocolate coating, and a thousand kinds are found at every kiosko you pass (and you definitely pass a LOT).
Flan is another desert, I really don’t know how to explain it… sometimes I love it and it is incredibly good, especially with dulce de leche, but then other times it is nasty… it is sort of like a cross between bread pudding and normal pudding, kind of gelatin-like, but very good usually : ) flan ice cream is amazing, but then again, all ice cream here is amazing. Much better than in the States lol.
Asado is their version of BBQ, though without the BBQ sauce. It’s very good, but in my opinion uses rather odd parts of the cow… I think I rather prefer normal cuts of steak, but asado is very good as well, most families eat it once a week on Sundays, and I’ve eaten it once with the Medici’s, once with AFS kids, and twice with my family here; it’s always eaten with a HUGE lunch meal, and that night for dinner you rarely eat much if anything at all.
So those are the main types of food that they eat here that we don’t really eat in the US… all of the food is amazing, and as I said, Argentina is out to get me fat, what with dulce de leche, alfajores, and the most amazing ice cream on the planet : )>
The people are all incredibly nice, but when they hear English, especially guys, they do change, and it’s quite amusing. Whenever I was walking with AFS kids, we’d be speaking English, and therefore people would notice. However, for most people it was just looking, but when we’d pass guys, they would all make comments such as the one or two phrases in English they knew; I love you!! Or other silly comments like that. In Buenos Aires however it isn’t just foreign, it’s also blonds, and here I’m considered blond, though I’m quite sure my hair is not blond at all, here it is considered such, so even when I’d be walking with my host mom (we came to Buenos Aires one day so I could get a cell phone and she could go to the lawyers about her car for something) she was speaking Spanish to me, we’re just walking along, and we pass some guy who bows to us and blows me a kiss. Silly stuff like that. But it just amuses me, it doesn’t bother or disturb me… if it did, I’d be in trouble, as t
here’s nothing I can do about it, and it’s never more than a look, or a blown kiss, or something spoken is Spanish; they’re just joking around.
I don’t know if it’s because of my lack of city knowledge that the city didn’t scare me at all, but I had no problem going anywhere by myself, I wouldn’t take a bus after 10pm by myself, I’d take a called-for taxi, but I was never nervous about being alone aside from not always being sure I’d get to where I was supposed to go just for my lack of city direction at the beginning. The most that ever happened to me when I was by myself was when I was walking back from the place we had Tango lessons to the AFS office one afternoon, and some guys, three or four, were playing soccer in one of the streets, and as I walked by one of them kicked the ball to me; when I kicked it back, he came over, and said a lot of stuff in Spanish: what I understood was he told me his name, asked mine, then said it was a pleasure to meet me, then some stuff I didn’t bother trying to understand, then held out his hand as if to shake mine, only kissed it instead, at which point I just walked away and he call
ed out that I was taking his heart with me. There’re too many people in the city for them to do much more than that, so for me it seemed harmless. After that I was more careful, but again, my lack of horror stories made it so I really had no fear of the city, and that helped a lot; if I wasn’t scared, they wouldn’t try to take advantage of me, so if I asked for directions, they’d just tell me where to go.
Those were my main observations of the city… it’s a got beautiful old parts, fancy new parts, very poor parts, a million kioskos no matter which direction you turn, lots of culture and lots of fun. On the outskirts of the city are places where people live in shacks made out of different pieces of things they’ve propped together about one square meter in places; really horribly poor. Then you enter the city and there are tall, modern buildings… near where the Medici’s live is a set of train tracks, and on one side is the barrio in which they live, one of the nicest / most modern residential areas (still with thousand of places to buy anything you could want other than chocolate chips and peanut butter), and on the other side are a set of those shacked together places. I wish I’d gotten a picture but I never seemed to have my camera with me when I went there, but it was an exact example of “the wrong side of the tracks.” I had a lot of fun in that city, it has beautiful places like the Teatro Colon where I went with the Medici’s the day before I left for Pacheco to see a Tango performance (Tango music, not dancing, and it was a performance of maestros; the average age was 85, and if my voice is as strong as the voices of the 3 singers were when I’m that age, I should be amazed and the happiest person; it was incredible, not to mention the Teatro).
My last week in Buenos Aires was crazy. Each day after I got back from language camp (where we effectively did nothing) I did something. With the exception of Wednesday, when I went with Luna’s (the daughter of the friend of Reed’s) mom to the International Tango competition, every other night I was with my temporary host uncle David (who’s 18) and his French family from when he went on exchange. As in, speaking French. Some nights the Medici’s were with us as well, such as when we went to the Teatro, but then afterwards I went to dinner with the French people (and after that to a disco with David, the Icelandic kid who’d stayed with him while he was switching families, and another friend of David’s). So that was difficult.
Just the 3 weeks trying to understand Spanish has made me a lot better at understanding French, or at least learning how to get the general nub and gist of everything, so that I could understand virtually all of what the French people said (plus they spoke the most perfect French ever, it was adorable), and each day it took less and less time before I could speak French as well (the first day, Sunday, it took a good 2 hours, till I took a train ride with them and sat next to the French mom who spoke with me the entire time and my brain finally separated the two languages, but by Thursday it only took about 45 minutes :P) But switching between the languages (Spanish throughout the day and in the afternoon, French in the evening) especially when I was so tired being out every night, was very difficult.
But yea; that was my impression of Buenos Aires, and a sketch of what I did. Thursday evening someone from the AFS office called and told me I was leaving Friday from the office for Pacheco, not Saturday as I’d thought, so I had no time to pack before leaving for the Teatro, and I didn’t get home from the disco until 4am (but that’s getting home early from a disco; when I went out with Luna, we got back at 7am, which was perfectly normal), so that meant I slept 2 hours, packed all my stuff, and hung out at the AFS office, went to lunch with the Medici’s to say goodbye, they gave me a choker necklace with a Fleur-de-Lyse on it as it’s a national symbol for good luck, then my family arrived at the office and I left for my new home! I had lots of fun staying with them, they were so incredibly nice to me, and told me any time I ever wanted to come into the city, with my friends or such, and didn’t feel like taking a bus or taxi back to Pacheco late at night I was always more than welcome to go to their house, which is incredibly nice : ) they also promised to have me over to dinner sometime to try something called fish burgers. Hm. We shall see.
Host Home/City
So first I’ll describe my home; it will take less time : )> anyways, the house is very small. For Argentina, I guess it’s a normal size, but even of the other houses I’ve been in, it’s pretty small. The ceilings are higher, but other than that it’s not much bigger than the apartment I was in with the Medici’s. When you walk in, there is a sitting room kind of place with a TV, which turns into the kitchen, which turns into the dining room (though it is sort of separated). On the left is a room that has 2 bunk beds in it, a desk, and a bunch of shelves; the room I share with the older two of my three sisters; my bed rolls out and pulls up from under the bottom bunk in the night, which is fine, but I miss having my own place to flop down on during the day or evening, but there’s always the couch. On the right, a bit off are the small bathroom, the 7 year old's room, and then my host parents room.
The house is painted yellow, and we’ve got an ok sized yard in front, surrounded by a metal fence about 6’ high, as all the houses here have. There is not a single house without some kind of gate or barrier; a very few have just a 3’ high fence, but about 98% have a full metal fence or brick or cement wall all around. We even have a tiny in-ground pool; that’s another thing many tiny houses have; pools. I guess it’s because it gets so hot in the summer a pool is a bit of a necessity. Outside the dining room, there is a tiny porch/patio where the laundry hangs, the lawn mower is… stuff you wouldn’t want on your front lawn (the patio bit is surrounded by a cement wall on 2 sides, the house on the other 2). My host mom loves yellow. All the colors in the house correspond with yellow to orange to brown colors. It is very small, but not really cramped; the living room/kitchen don’t have a ceiling; like… it’s the roof, so it’s very tall in the center. It’s hard to descri
be not knowing all the lingo but if interested you can see pictures.
We live outside of Pacheco, though in General Pacheco (sort of like Baltimore City vs. Baltimore County; we’re in the suburbs). In three directions, it is a very safe place, with other houses nice by Argentinean standards, and only small by others. However, we are also only about 2 or 3 blocks from a very poor part, not so poor as directly outside of Buenos Aires the city, but you see a lot of horse drawn carts on my street coming from there, with different things to sell. My school is in Pacheco, so it’s about a 15-minute drive, which is nothing for me ? but it means it’s too far to walk. However, I have friends at my school who live 1, 2, 6 blocks from my house, and about a 10 minute’s walk away is a route lined with shops and internet cafes and such, though my host mom would rather we timed our needing to get anything with a time she was going into Pacheco, though today, as the car has broken (we have one car, very old, that has broken down about 5 times since I’ve been here… twice on the road, but yesterday the entire ignition thing… I have no idea what it was. But it was hanging out; as my host dad drove the key was in the ignition, which was in his lap.
However, though I’ve yet to figure out what he does for work, he’s really good with fixing the car and such, and it always manages to work after a couple hours or so (it didn't work for 2 days which is the longest it’s been out…but by now it's working again, really no idea how, but it's driving around) lol.
I’ll take pictures around the house and the area around it… it’s harder walking around Pacheco with a giant camera than Buenos Aires, because as there are less people, they notice you more, and notice you more closely than in the city. However, as I haven’t actually walked around with my camera yet, I really don’t know and I’m sure it will be fine; it does fit in my purse (thank you SO much for the purse, Grace, it’s been absolutely perfect, especially because it DOES fit my camera and all my other crap in it at the same time). By the time this is on the web, I’ll have the pictures as well, so check them out ?
My first impression of Pacheco (when I came just for the day) was of a small city/large town with lots of brightly colored, very Latin-American stores and buildings, that looked like most everyone who lived there was middle class and down. It wasn’t terribly far off, though it is pretty big. However, there are no big office buildings or anything; it’s close enough to Buenos Aires that while there is a hospital and all the vital stuff, for things like lawyers’ offices and all those business-y things, that’s all in Buenos Aires. When I rode the bus every morning in Buenos Aires, there were thousands of people in business suits looking very important and such on their way to work; I haven’t seen people like that in Pacheco.
There are lots of auto service places (one street I found the other day was entirely of auto stuff; parts, used cars, pretty much everything but insurance and the business section). But the people here seem to work in the stores, schools, obviously some in the hospitals and such, but the people who work in office buildings all seem to work in Buenos Aires; they don’t seem to exist here, the lack of which I think is what gave me the impression of a not very rich place, very cheap-commercial. There are a few small shopping center places here (very much like Kenelworth in Towsen, though about a quarter of the price), but the unicenter (ginormous shopping mall) is about 30 minutes away. That doesn’t stop anyone from going though, and I’ve been a few times with friends already, it’s got some pretty good places to eat, and it’s very near a place called the show center, with a mini amusement park in the middle surrounded by places like bowling centers and such.
The shopping in Pacheco is very inexpensive for us, though it’s normal for them, and I’m starting to stop having to convert everything into dollars (approximately 3 pesos to 1 dollar) and adjusting to the value difference. I went shopping with my mom and sister one evening when we had an hour while my other sister was at her figure roller blading class (figure skating on roller blades), and went to one shop my mom promised was not very expensive and had nice clothes. For me, it was incredibly cheap; I got three shirts, a skirt, and a pair of jeans for US$54. No more. You have to be careful though, of noting these differences, without offending the people here; it took one of the exchangers here a while to realize that maybe people here didn’t like hearing how cheap everything was, when it was normal or even expensive for them. However, I haven’t bought anything in terms of clothes other than a pair of shoes, because here kids all go out in huge groups (rarely less than 10) and while it’s always lots of fun, it does make shopping, as in actually buying clothes, a bit difficult, but I’ll talk more about hanging out with people later.
Host Family!
My host family consists of my host mom (Florencia), my host dad (Claudio), and three sisters, Maria de la Paz (14), Sofia (13), and Maria Luz (7). That’s a lot of sisters. Especially for me. But it’s fine, they’re fun. As it’s only been 3 weeks, it’s still hard for me to communicate with the older two my host sisters enough to be like sisters; they’ve got their friends to talk about stuff with, and I do have my own. Plus, being so close in age, they’re very close, but we’ll get closer with time I’m sure. Maria de la Paz (Paz) reminds me often of Arthur in her moods, with friends always content and a little goofy, but fun, then with her family much more introverted and such, all the way to a lack of table manners that she shares with the other two... haha thats just a petpeeve of mine but STILL. at points they're worse than arthur. which is kinda bad lol.
Sofia is quieter, but with more dramatic mood swings, but while I like being with Paz more when she’s around her friends (who amuse me unto no end, though there are often moments when the age difference is very obvious), I like being with Sofia more without her friends, who’re rather loud and seem to invade the house. However when I’ve nothing to do and Paz is on the computer taking myspace-worthy pictures of herself then photoshopping them and listening to the same 5 songs a thousand times over and over, I’ll play cards with Sofia (they have a game identical to Gin Rummy in everything but name: they call it Chin-Chon!! lol)
The last sister, Maria Luz is a bit of a handful. She never stops talking, unless it’s to do the thing she calls singing and I call enough cause to run for a bomb shelter before the house crumbles to the ground. But aside from that, she’s an incredibly affectionate child, and probably of the three, the most that treats me just like her sisters, which is why I like little kids. Also, if I’m bored and have nothing to do, she’s always happy to go take a walk, which especially in the morning (I’ve woken up insanely early two Saturdays in a row, like 7:30 and 8:30, it’s bad lol) but if I go for a walk with Maria Luz, it means she’s not in the house to wake everyone else up, as she otherwise does. The other way she’s incredibly different from her sisters is that while they are both skinny with dark brown hair (Paz’s is wavy and cut into the style of hair a lot of girls here have that I think looks hideous at the bottom, and Sofia’s is straight, and cut similarly, though with a totall
y different effect without the waves, though I still don’t like it, but enough of the hair rant), anyways Maria Luz has blond hair and blue eyes, which I think come from her dad, and she’s rather chubby. But she’s an amusing little child, and her friends are adorable, if equally bad singers as she is XP
So those are my sisters as I’ve found them so far… on to my host parents. As I’ve said, I cannot for my life figure out what my host dad does for work. It’s got funky hours sometimes it seems, or maybe they’re just liberal, I really have no idea, having no idea what he does. I keep forgetting to ask my liason when I see her (as I do often, cuz she’s my sisters’ English teacher for their English classes after school), but I shall have to remember, and I’ll tell as soon as I do. Anyways, he’s 41, salt and pepper/dark grey hair and blue eyes, really good with fixing the car, and very nice. He treats me the same as his daughters, just as my host mom does, which I really like. So far the only difference is that I haven’t given them cause to get vexed with me, and I hope I’ll be able to keep it that way.
That’s one of the fun parts of exchange in my opinion, being the perfect kid; you’re close enough with the family that you feel like you’re part of it, but enough of a new member that they aren’t as ready to get mad, and it’s easier not to get annoyed at host siblings than at real ones. A lot of this is what Marika kind of was; she was definitely part of our family, but at the same time I think mom and dad got mad at her maybe one time, and I’m not sure if any of me or the boys ever fought with her (excepting me and Marika’s silly battles over tastes in books and such, which were all in fun). My sisters do the same thing I remember doing when Marika first came: if she wanted to do something, of course it was ok, so if we wanted to do something, we used her as our excuse (“Even Marika wants to!! Please??”); Paz just told me to ask mom if we could go to Pacheco cuz she was bored ? However, it was shot down as apparently she needs to study (>: )>).
Anyways, my host mom is 34 (quite young), with hair dyed very blond and straightened every morning.. dunno, but in my opinion, she'd look better with brown hair and brown eyes than blond hair and brown eyes, but from all the pictures i've seen, since she's been with my host dad she's had dyed blond hair, so whateva). She is incredibly organized and such; with a tiny house and no farm and animals to take care of as well (we had two cats, but one ran away last week so now we’ve just got one that eats anything and everything it gets… rather like Guido, only not as playful, and it will let Maria Luz do anything she likes to it, poor thing), anyways everything is incredibly neat, and by Argentinean standards we’re always on time. She spends her life ferrying us around, cooking, and cleaning; but it’s what she likes. She’d rather drive us to Pacheco
than have us take the bus, which is fine by me, as it gives me the same amount of freedom especially now that I’ve got a cell-phone; she doesn’t mind where I go or anything as long as I tell her, and she knows how I’m getting home, but if something changes, I just tell her, and it’s all fine again... the only thing is that she smokes, but she's pretty good about never smoking in the house, never ever in the car, and doesn't smoke much... but here, almost everyone does, so whatev.
School
So my first day of school was the Monday after I arrived, and I was so nervous. For some odd reason though, I didn’t look nervous, and went into the main entrance with my mom while my sisters went into the courtyard, where all the kids were, looking relatively normal. We were greeted by a couple of people, one of them was the head of the school, basically the main people of the school, but I’ve still no idea who is who; I can’t tell the principal from the person in charge of schedules from any of the other administrative people. Anyways, there was another girl there, I thought they told me she was from Canada, but it turned out she was from New York State, and by the end of the week, there were FIVE exchange students at the school, four with Rotary and then me. The Rotarians consisted of another girl from Maryland (from near Hagerstown), Alexa, the girl from New York (upstate), Margit, a girl from B.C. Canada, Carly, and a girl from Belgium, Julie. The girl from New York was d
one school, so she went to the final year, however with Rotary unlike with AFS Argentina, there isn’t a university program, so after summer she’ll come back and she’ll be in our grade; the rest of us are in their form of 11th grade (it’s the 11th grade but it’s called secundo; 10th grade is primero, 11th secundo, and 12th tercero, just because the school system is different).
My school has two tracks, naturales (sciences) and economia (economics). Then, all the kids in naturales are in one class, and all the kids in economia in the other; the kids stay in the same classroom while the teachers change rooms (though if they need to use computers, they go to the computer room, etc). Because of this, the kids get really close with all the others in their class, however I like the way in the US, you get to know more people, in other grades and such as well. However, because we’re exchange students (even though it took two weeks to get them settled) we have changing schedules, and I have 4 classes with the kids I was originally assigned to, with Carly, 2oA, the economics track.
However, at first it was a bit silly, as the courses unique to economia were the four that I didn’t understand anything in (law, organizational theory, philosophy, and accounting), then math was what I’d already done (they were just starting logarithms, and though I understood, it was to the point where after 2 classes I really didn’t want to have to take it), so the four classes I have with them are history, language (like our English), English (God that’s a boring class, but I do have to take that one), and geography.
Then, with 1oA I have tech (I’ve only had one class so far, and we effectively did nothing except the guys in the back, who wrote me a love letter in English using an online translator XP), and with the other secundo class, I have physics and chemistry. I honestly do not have any idea what was going through my mind when I asked for both. Maybe I want to kill the me that asked for them? Haha but whatever, it’s ok and I can understand enough that I don’t think it will be the death of me. But it very well might.
Anyways, aside from the classes I have time in the biblioteca with the 2 ladies who seem to live there (the library is tiny; it’s just a room with all the textbooks in it, and if a teacher needs a textbook he’ll send a kid down to get one, then bring it back when they don’t need it), and that time is supposed to be used for working on Spanish, or learning more about Argentina’s history; as I’ve generally got it with Carly (the only difference in our schedules is that I’ve got physics and she’s got math), who speaks virtually no Spanish, I usually end up sleeping with my eyes open :P
The last part of my schedule is the time when they had nothing to do with me, so I can either go to the computer room and use the internet (supposedly, though last time it didn’t work and there’s often a class there anyway), watch movies on Argentinean history, or find a class to hang out with (tercero is good for that cuz they rarely do anything, being the equivalent of second semester seniors, and lots of fun to hang out with). So that’s my schedule; it’s pretty crazy.
But I think it’ll be fine, and I even understood enough of the video we watched in geography, about the life of a poor guy who lived first in one of the slums in the country, then on the streets in a city, that I could answer the questions all in Spanish, and afterwards I went over them with my mom so she could fix my grammar, but as I had to use my dictionary/grammar book so much anyway (it took about an hour and a half for 2 pages of 1.5 spaced Times New Roman font, which for me, in Spanish, was a lot :P), pretty much all I’d screwed up on with grammar was all the genders of the nouns; I didn’t bother to look close enough at the dictionary, and just guessed, so there were a couple words I used a lot (like city) that I guessed wrong on it, but that being it, I was pretty proud of myself :D
Friends & Weekends : )>
I LOVE the Argentineans, and everyone at my school. My first day, it was just me (Carly arrived in Argentina Monday, came to school Tuesday, lasted about 45 minutes before she went home to sleep, then came back Friday), and I was so nervous I really didn’t want them to make me late so I’d have to walk in after the class had started, then have them talk like “this is Ada. She is from the United States, she is going to be with you for the year; please be nice to her, be her friends, help her learn Spanish; she already understands everything.” Which is exactly what they did. For some reason, my host mom got the idea that I understood everything, so the school thought so as well; they probably still think so, as by now I just don’t care that much if I don’t understand; I find go with the people that don’t kiss me on the cheek, find out where I’m going when I get there, and what I’m doing when I do it, but it’s fun : ) However, my class was so nice to me, and the first week they real
ly took care of me (first week I had all classes with them).
Then, once Carly was back, Monday they put up a big sign in the room that said “Welcome Carly & Ada!” next to their 2oA Todo Cartón! Which means “all cardboard,” because to raise money for their senior trip next year to Bariloche (a place in the South of Argentina that every senior class goes to for a week to ski and go out every night), they are collecting cardboard… I’m not entirely sure how cardboard gets them money, but they are making it, and they also have a lot of cardboard… I guess it goes for recycling and such. Anyways, Friday they put up on the blackboard for everyone that night to go to the restaurant/karaoke bar; they do stuff it seems every weekend and everyone in the class is invited; why not? As I said, everything here is done in huge groups, so every time we go somewhere, there’s always one or two people I’ve never seen before, but it’s lots of fun.
The other thing they’re obsessed with is birthday parties; since being in Argentina, I’ve gone to eight (one last night), and a ninth on Wednesday; since being in Pacheco there has not been a week gone by without birthday parties. They’re rarely more than just dinner, but it means busy weekends, but busy weekends mean fun weekends, so it’s all good (and the one on Wednesday, as we don’t have school Thursday, it being the first day of spring, we’re all going out to a club after eating :D).
The other thing is, being exchange students, everyone knows who we are. Carly’s birthday was last Wednesday (her Sweet 16) and I swear, the entire school knew it. I was standing with her in the morning before class and people would come up, wish greet us both (it’s impolite if you don’t kiss everyone on the cheek the first time you see them that day at school, then after school if you see them again, etc; there’s a lot of kissing on the cheeks here), then wish her happy birthday and leave: we’d be left to wonder who on earth they were. The other thing is everyone seems to have my msn, so I’ve talked with people when I’m at cyber cafes (all have msn messenger, but obviously none have aim, which is why I haven’t been on) and I’ll be talking to people, in Spanish, the entire time without the slightest clue who they are, other than that they go to my school, and at any rate know who I am (I’ve even talked with people who didn’t go to my school, who I met in Buenos Aires, apparently, as they knew I’d taken Tango lessons there and wondered if I was still doing them, but I can’t for my life figure out who it was; I figured one of the AFS kids, but then wouldn’t they speak English…? Haha whatev)
But what’s cool is that they also all want to know us, so instead of just being friends with the kids in my class, I’ve made friends with kids from all grades (I don’t know who any of them are, or any of their names, but they all know me, and I can at least recognize them). The names are the worst; it’s so hard to remember them all!!! I think there’re about 30 people (maybe a bit less) in my class but damned if I know 6 of the names :P At first, people seemed a bit like “… what? You don’t remember my name? ?” but now they just kind of expect I don’t know it, and no one minds, and I just hang out and talk with all the people having no idea what any of their names are. The same goes for my cell-phone, I’ve no clue who half the numbers correspond to, which makes it difficult when I need to call someone and can’t remember which is their number, but whatev, I’ll learn them eventually lol.
As I said earlier, the tercero kids are lots of fun to hang out with; they’re crazy, and really nice. As Carly and I have such similar schedules, and as she speaks virtually no Spanish (this was the first week our schedules were at all different), she’s pretty much always with me, and we were talking at one point about how the tercero kids were different from the kids in secundo; Carly’d said she felt really young around them. For me though, I dunno, but I feel perfectly comfortable with them, and sometimes like the kids in secundo are young… never when I’m with them, just when I’m with the kids in tercero. It’s weird but I dunno I guess this past year I hung out a lot with kids who were all older than me (all the AFS kids in Baltimore were older than me, then as well at the language camp only one other girl was 16, and one 17, the rest were all 18, so I’m just used to hanging out with kids a year or so older, or I dunno what. But for me, I just don’t really notice, and (when I
want/try to), I’m pretty good at getting along with everyone, so it’s all good : ). Anyways, Carly's left for another school (and another family) now, and she moved down a grade as well, so I guess 2 grades different is more than 1, but whatev.
Guys; I’ve got to say a bit about them. It’s so funny. Argentina is out to do two things: their first prerogative is to get me fat, but their second is to get me a boyfriend. With Paz and her friends (Carly’s first host brother is one of Paz’s best friend so we hung out with them a lot at first), apparently one of the group, a tiny kid for the first two days I thought was someone’s 10 year old brother (no, he’s 14, but about 4’ high), either was in love with me, or they decided was; they spent a good week following me around making jokes about it; that was one of the instances Carly and I looked at each other as to say “…can you tell they’re 14?” lol however, apparently it’s not just 14 year olds.
Two days ago I was standing with some of my friends from my class, talking whatever, when a group of guys from tercero called me over; when I got there, they informed me they’d found a boyfriend for me, lol XP so they were joking about that for a bit, then the guy they were talking of came over, it was pretty funny, but all I really wanted to say that this was exactly what my 14 year old sister and her friends were doing; but they were 14. Not 17. Haha, the only difference was the guys had chosen better; their pick was one of the few at the school actually taller than me, and he wasn’t bad looking, but now it’s all a joke so whatev. Pretty amusing though.
Then, as I said, the guys from primero were being silly the entire tech class; all the guys here are lol. I don’t mind though, I find it pretty funny, as do my friends and especially my host mom. Here, I’m considered blond, so even when walking with my host mom, she’s speaking Spanish to me, I’m just listening, guys still notice, especially as she’s so blond. I asked one of my friends if I looked American, and she said yea, but she wasn’t sure how; I just did. So we decided next weekend we’re going shopping and she’ll pick out stuff so that I at least look Argentinean, till I open my mouth : )>
The other thing I’ve noticed about the kids is, unlike the US where there are lots of very obvious cliques, even at Park, here I can’t really find any. Maybe it’s because of the uniforms, but I really don’t think so; everyone hangs out together, and it’s really nice. Sometimes it’s hard in the US when you’re friends with different “groups” but here as I’ve still yet to find any (cept some people who are closer than others) I’m able to be friends with just about everyone, and though there’re kids I’m closer with and such, everyone is so nice it’s like being friends with the entire school. Walking down the street in Pacheco, I’ll see someone from my school I’m quite sure I’ve never talked with before, but they’ll wave or whatever; it’s pretty cool ?
So yea; that’s about my life here so far. I’ve had one riding lesson at one place, but it’s not gonna work out; the teacher for anyone other than little kids doesn’t come on Fridays or the weekends, which is the only time I can go, but I don’t really mind as though the horses were pretty, the place was a bit of a dump, I couldn’t really ride outside the ring, the riders were all riding with just their hands (the person actually told me to yank the horse in the mouth as I went over the jump to tell it what lead I wanted it to land on, as it was green and didn’t know lead changes, only then it gave me the lead change ?) plus, it didn’t have a bathroom.
But, one of my friends at school, her sister is a riding teacher, and it’s closer to my house, according to my mom in a much prettier area, she’s there every afternoon and all day on weekends, and I was supposed to have a lesson yesterday, but as the car was broken I couldn’t go ? But yea. I’m still having an awesome time here, I love everything about Argentina, and already I’m really sad there isn’t dulce de leche in the US. As of now, all I’m really missing is being able to ride every day (riding the one time made me miss it more), but I’ll be fine riding once or twice a week, it’s just I miss the regular exercise. Other things on my wish-list? Normal lunches, instead of having to convince my family I’m really not used to eating two full meals a day as they do here. Peanut butter & jelly sandwiches; they have jelly but I haven’t found any peanut butter and half the time I ask, people look at me like I’m crazy; the only sandwiches they seem to eat here are of jamon y queso XP
I’d do a lot for some peanut butter right now. What else… good English tea… normal bread (it seems they have French bread, or wonder-bread-like white bread. Just like Marika I could really go for some normal bread lol. As for friends and family and such, it’s like I’d love it if my family, friends and all were with me right now, but I’m still ok by myself; I’ve got my host family, and my new friends, and I’m here on exchange. Love and miss you all, sorry this was so long, but I hope you found it at least a bit interesting!! Xoxo and check out all the pics!! there are a LOT of new ones!!:
http://picasaweb.google.com/countrygal13101 go there! lol
p.s. POST A COMMENT!! Tell me you read at least part of it, you can post comments on the pix, so do! Let me know you came. I love comments, so put one up! Just click the link below, click other, put your name (you can leave the website place blank… ‘less of course, you want to put a website), and just say hi or something. catch yall later!! xoxoxoxoxox
Well I shall start by saying that I had already written 10 pages of a post when for some reason it all disappeared off of my computer. So I shall leave off of the day-by-day things; there are just too many, especially from 3 weeks ago in Buenos Aires. However, it will still be very long, and therefore I shall separate into parts: reflections of Buenos Aires and such (food, driving, etc); my host city/house; my host family (who they are, what they’re like after 3 weeks, etc); school (how it’s different and such); then finally friends and weekends. So don’t say I didn’t warn you!!
Buenos Aires
So! Buenos Aires isn’t very different from any other big modern city, really at all. I shall start with the driving, as that is what will hit you first; it’s crazy. The people here all drive like maniacs. Lane lines mean nothing, red lights are just a caution sign, especially in the night when it’s worst, and on one-way streets it is not uncommon to see people driving the wrong way. On one of the main avenues in the city, in the morning there are I believe four lanes going into the center, and two going out. That’s as big as a highway! Then in the afternoon, there are four going out of the center, and two going into it. The center of the city is called the Plaza de Mayo, which has all of the important things (like the Casa Rosada – the same as out White House only it’s the Pink House, because when it was built, there were two political parties, one red and one white, so they painted the government house pink to symbolize a joining of the two parties – and the most important
church, etc) As the AFS office was so close to the Casa Rosada, every time I got lost I headed there, then could easily find my way. Which happened a lot at the beginning, but oh well, by the third week, I was getting SO good at navigating myself. It was pretty cool.
Anyways back to driving; as I said there will be 4 lanes going in one direction – and anywhere from 3 to 4 to 5 to SIX cars going that direction. Lane barriers mean NOTHING, absolutely nothing. With my host family getting off a highway one day, there was our car and another on the off ramp, which I was quite sure was only meant for one car, there being very, very little room between our car and the next and our car and the shoulder barrier. But as they didn’t quite touch, it was perfectly acceptable.
The other thing is with as crazy drivers as these people are, when you’d think seatbelts would be most necessary, in the backseat you don’t have to wear them at all, and no one does, and in cabs you are lucky if you can even find the seatbelts in the back (the front seat of cabs isn’t used). On the subject of cabs, they can be any kind of car, so long as they are painted black on the bottom half, and yellow on the top half. I’ve a picture somewhere of a cab… But it means you get some quite nice cars as cabs. The same thing goes for police cars, but it seems that all the money is in the cab business, for while cabs tend to range from normal to very nice cars, police cars range from normal to incredibly ratty, barely moving cars, so long as they’re painted right. I’ve even seen police pick-up trucks! Yea. I’m not sure how comforting that is. But oh well :P So that’s driving in Buenos Aires… it is very crazy.
FOOD. I could go on forever. The food here is SOOOO amazing!!!!! The principal things that they eat here that we don’t have in the US/Maryland are milanesas, matte, empanadas, DULCE DE LECHE, alfajores, flan, and asado.
I know that empanadas exist in the US but I’ve never seen them in Maryland, so they’re new to me at least. For anyone who doesn’t know them, they’re a soft flour tortilla like shell with ground meat, sometimes a sauce, often egg, and other things such as onions or whatever is in the sauce. There are also chicken ones, and a thousand kinds, but the ones with beef, chicken, and ham & cheese are the most popular kinds.
They are OBSESSED with ham and cheese here. Everything is jamon y queso. Pizza con jamon y queso. Empanadas de jamon y queso. At my school, you can get a hamburger or a ham and cheese sandwich. I can eat jamon y queso when it’s hot, like in empanadas, and even pizza if there’s no other option… but the sandwiches I can’t do.
Milanesas are thin pieces of meat that are dipped in egg, then in breadcrumbs, then fried, sort of like scaloppini, just… different. There’re milanesas de carne y de pollo (beef and chicken), and with salt and lemon, are really, really good.
Matte I’ve described before, it’s a tea-like drink that you drink in a special cup with a special straw that doesn’t let the leaves up; you fill the cup with the leaves, add some sugar if you like, pour boiling water over it and drink. When you are given a matte, you always have to finish it (it’s not very big) it is just very hot, however, especially when it’s cold, I quite like it.
Dulce de leche. Sigh. It is going to be the reason I shall be coming home fat. I’m thinking of changing the name of my blog from Over the Equator to When Argentina Was Out To Get Me Fat. Because it is. Anyways dulce de leche literally means candy of milk, which is what it is. I’m not quite sure how to make it, but it is supposed to be very easy, and it is absolutely amazing with everything; they eat it with everything as well. As Mariana told me, for Argentineans, it isn’t sweet enough unless it’s got dulce de leche : )> Alfajores are cookie sandwiches, usually filled with dulce de leche, and often dipped in a chocolate coating, and a thousand kinds are found at every kiosko you pass (and you definitely pass a LOT).
Flan is another desert, I really don’t know how to explain it… sometimes I love it and it is incredibly good, especially with dulce de leche, but then other times it is nasty… it is sort of like a cross between bread pudding and normal pudding, kind of gelatin-like, but very good usually : ) flan ice cream is amazing, but then again, all ice cream here is amazing. Much better than in the States lol.
Asado is their version of BBQ, though without the BBQ sauce. It’s very good, but in my opinion uses rather odd parts of the cow… I think I rather prefer normal cuts of steak, but asado is very good as well, most families eat it once a week on Sundays, and I’ve eaten it once with the Medici’s, once with AFS kids, and twice with my family here; it’s always eaten with a HUGE lunch meal, and that night for dinner you rarely eat much if anything at all.
So those are the main types of food that they eat here that we don’t really eat in the US… all of the food is amazing, and as I said, Argentina is out to get me fat, what with dulce de leche, alfajores, and the most amazing ice cream on the planet : )>
The people are all incredibly nice, but when they hear English, especially guys, they do change, and it’s quite amusing. Whenever I was walking with AFS kids, we’d be speaking English, and therefore people would notice. However, for most people it was just looking, but when we’d pass guys, they would all make comments such as the one or two phrases in English they knew; I love you!! Or other silly comments like that. In Buenos Aires however it isn’t just foreign, it’s also blonds, and here I’m considered blond, though I’m quite sure my hair is not blond at all, here it is considered such, so even when I’d be walking with my host mom (we came to Buenos Aires one day so I could get a cell phone and she could go to the lawyers about her car for something) she was speaking Spanish to me, we’re just walking along, and we pass some guy who bows to us and blows me a kiss. Silly stuff like that. But it just amuses me, it doesn’t bother or disturb me… if it did, I’d be in trouble, as t
here’s nothing I can do about it, and it’s never more than a look, or a blown kiss, or something spoken is Spanish; they’re just joking around.
I don’t know if it’s because of my lack of city knowledge that the city didn’t scare me at all, but I had no problem going anywhere by myself, I wouldn’t take a bus after 10pm by myself, I’d take a called-for taxi, but I was never nervous about being alone aside from not always being sure I’d get to where I was supposed to go just for my lack of city direction at the beginning. The most that ever happened to me when I was by myself was when I was walking back from the place we had Tango lessons to the AFS office one afternoon, and some guys, three or four, were playing soccer in one of the streets, and as I walked by one of them kicked the ball to me; when I kicked it back, he came over, and said a lot of stuff in Spanish: what I understood was he told me his name, asked mine, then said it was a pleasure to meet me, then some stuff I didn’t bother trying to understand, then held out his hand as if to shake mine, only kissed it instead, at which point I just walked away and he call
ed out that I was taking his heart with me. There’re too many people in the city for them to do much more than that, so for me it seemed harmless. After that I was more careful, but again, my lack of horror stories made it so I really had no fear of the city, and that helped a lot; if I wasn’t scared, they wouldn’t try to take advantage of me, so if I asked for directions, they’d just tell me where to go.
Those were my main observations of the city… it’s a got beautiful old parts, fancy new parts, very poor parts, a million kioskos no matter which direction you turn, lots of culture and lots of fun. On the outskirts of the city are places where people live in shacks made out of different pieces of things they’ve propped together about one square meter in places; really horribly poor. Then you enter the city and there are tall, modern buildings… near where the Medici’s live is a set of train tracks, and on one side is the barrio in which they live, one of the nicest / most modern residential areas (still with thousand of places to buy anything you could want other than chocolate chips and peanut butter), and on the other side are a set of those shacked together places. I wish I’d gotten a picture but I never seemed to have my camera with me when I went there, but it was an exact example of “the wrong side of the tracks.” I had a lot of fun in that city, it has beautiful places like the Teatro Colon where I went with the Medici’s the day before I left for Pacheco to see a Tango performance (Tango music, not dancing, and it was a performance of maestros; the average age was 85, and if my voice is as strong as the voices of the 3 singers were when I’m that age, I should be amazed and the happiest person; it was incredible, not to mention the Teatro).
My last week in Buenos Aires was crazy. Each day after I got back from language camp (where we effectively did nothing) I did something. With the exception of Wednesday, when I went with Luna’s (the daughter of the friend of Reed’s) mom to the International Tango competition, every other night I was with my temporary host uncle David (who’s 18) and his French family from when he went on exchange. As in, speaking French. Some nights the Medici’s were with us as well, such as when we went to the Teatro, but then afterwards I went to dinner with the French people (and after that to a disco with David, the Icelandic kid who’d stayed with him while he was switching families, and another friend of David’s). So that was difficult.
Just the 3 weeks trying to understand Spanish has made me a lot better at understanding French, or at least learning how to get the general nub and gist of everything, so that I could understand virtually all of what the French people said (plus they spoke the most perfect French ever, it was adorable), and each day it took less and less time before I could speak French as well (the first day, Sunday, it took a good 2 hours, till I took a train ride with them and sat next to the French mom who spoke with me the entire time and my brain finally separated the two languages, but by Thursday it only took about 45 minutes :P) But switching between the languages (Spanish throughout the day and in the afternoon, French in the evening) especially when I was so tired being out every night, was very difficult.
But yea; that was my impression of Buenos Aires, and a sketch of what I did. Thursday evening someone from the AFS office called and told me I was leaving Friday from the office for Pacheco, not Saturday as I’d thought, so I had no time to pack before leaving for the Teatro, and I didn’t get home from the disco until 4am (but that’s getting home early from a disco; when I went out with Luna, we got back at 7am, which was perfectly normal), so that meant I slept 2 hours, packed all my stuff, and hung out at the AFS office, went to lunch with the Medici’s to say goodbye, they gave me a choker necklace with a Fleur-de-Lyse on it as it’s a national symbol for good luck, then my family arrived at the office and I left for my new home! I had lots of fun staying with them, they were so incredibly nice to me, and told me any time I ever wanted to come into the city, with my friends or such, and didn’t feel like taking a bus or taxi back to Pacheco late at night I was always more than welcome to go to their house, which is incredibly nice : ) they also promised to have me over to dinner sometime to try something called fish burgers. Hm. We shall see.
Host Home/City
So first I’ll describe my home; it will take less time : )> anyways, the house is very small. For Argentina, I guess it’s a normal size, but even of the other houses I’ve been in, it’s pretty small. The ceilings are higher, but other than that it’s not much bigger than the apartment I was in with the Medici’s. When you walk in, there is a sitting room kind of place with a TV, which turns into the kitchen, which turns into the dining room (though it is sort of separated). On the left is a room that has 2 bunk beds in it, a desk, and a bunch of shelves; the room I share with the older two of my three sisters; my bed rolls out and pulls up from under the bottom bunk in the night, which is fine, but I miss having my own place to flop down on during the day or evening, but there’s always the couch. On the right, a bit off are the small bathroom, the 7 year old's room, and then my host parents room.
The house is painted yellow, and we’ve got an ok sized yard in front, surrounded by a metal fence about 6’ high, as all the houses here have. There is not a single house without some kind of gate or barrier; a very few have just a 3’ high fence, but about 98% have a full metal fence or brick or cement wall all around. We even have a tiny in-ground pool; that’s another thing many tiny houses have; pools. I guess it’s because it gets so hot in the summer a pool is a bit of a necessity. Outside the dining room, there is a tiny porch/patio where the laundry hangs, the lawn mower is… stuff you wouldn’t want on your front lawn (the patio bit is surrounded by a cement wall on 2 sides, the house on the other 2). My host mom loves yellow. All the colors in the house correspond with yellow to orange to brown colors. It is very small, but not really cramped; the living room/kitchen don’t have a ceiling; like… it’s the roof, so it’s very tall in the center. It’s hard to descri
be not knowing all the lingo but if interested you can see pictures.
We live outside of Pacheco, though in General Pacheco (sort of like Baltimore City vs. Baltimore County; we’re in the suburbs). In three directions, it is a very safe place, with other houses nice by Argentinean standards, and only small by others. However, we are also only about 2 or 3 blocks from a very poor part, not so poor as directly outside of Buenos Aires the city, but you see a lot of horse drawn carts on my street coming from there, with different things to sell. My school is in Pacheco, so it’s about a 15-minute drive, which is nothing for me ? but it means it’s too far to walk. However, I have friends at my school who live 1, 2, 6 blocks from my house, and about a 10 minute’s walk away is a route lined with shops and internet cafes and such, though my host mom would rather we timed our needing to get anything with a time she was going into Pacheco, though today, as the car has broken (we have one car, very old, that has broken down about 5 times since I’ve been here… twice on the road, but yesterday the entire ignition thing… I have no idea what it was. But it was hanging out; as my host dad drove the key was in the ignition, which was in his lap.
However, though I’ve yet to figure out what he does for work, he’s really good with fixing the car and such, and it always manages to work after a couple hours or so (it didn't work for 2 days which is the longest it’s been out…but by now it's working again, really no idea how, but it's driving around) lol.
I’ll take pictures around the house and the area around it… it’s harder walking around Pacheco with a giant camera than Buenos Aires, because as there are less people, they notice you more, and notice you more closely than in the city. However, as I haven’t actually walked around with my camera yet, I really don’t know and I’m sure it will be fine; it does fit in my purse (thank you SO much for the purse, Grace, it’s been absolutely perfect, especially because it DOES fit my camera and all my other crap in it at the same time). By the time this is on the web, I’ll have the pictures as well, so check them out ?
My first impression of Pacheco (when I came just for the day) was of a small city/large town with lots of brightly colored, very Latin-American stores and buildings, that looked like most everyone who lived there was middle class and down. It wasn’t terribly far off, though it is pretty big. However, there are no big office buildings or anything; it’s close enough to Buenos Aires that while there is a hospital and all the vital stuff, for things like lawyers’ offices and all those business-y things, that’s all in Buenos Aires. When I rode the bus every morning in Buenos Aires, there were thousands of people in business suits looking very important and such on their way to work; I haven’t seen people like that in Pacheco.
There are lots of auto service places (one street I found the other day was entirely of auto stuff; parts, used cars, pretty much everything but insurance and the business section). But the people here seem to work in the stores, schools, obviously some in the hospitals and such, but the people who work in office buildings all seem to work in Buenos Aires; they don’t seem to exist here, the lack of which I think is what gave me the impression of a not very rich place, very cheap-commercial. There are a few small shopping center places here (very much like Kenelworth in Towsen, though about a quarter of the price), but the unicenter (ginormous shopping mall) is about 30 minutes away. That doesn’t stop anyone from going though, and I’ve been a few times with friends already, it’s got some pretty good places to eat, and it’s very near a place called the show center, with a mini amusement park in the middle surrounded by places like bowling centers and such.
The shopping in Pacheco is very inexpensive for us, though it’s normal for them, and I’m starting to stop having to convert everything into dollars (approximately 3 pesos to 1 dollar) and adjusting to the value difference. I went shopping with my mom and sister one evening when we had an hour while my other sister was at her figure roller blading class (figure skating on roller blades), and went to one shop my mom promised was not very expensive and had nice clothes. For me, it was incredibly cheap; I got three shirts, a skirt, and a pair of jeans for US$54. No more. You have to be careful though, of noting these differences, without offending the people here; it took one of the exchangers here a while to realize that maybe people here didn’t like hearing how cheap everything was, when it was normal or even expensive for them. However, I haven’t bought anything in terms of clothes other than a pair of shoes, because here kids all go out in huge groups (rarely less than 10) and while it’s always lots of fun, it does make shopping, as in actually buying clothes, a bit difficult, but I’ll talk more about hanging out with people later.
Host Family!
My host family consists of my host mom (Florencia), my host dad (Claudio), and three sisters, Maria de la Paz (14), Sofia (13), and Maria Luz (7). That’s a lot of sisters. Especially for me. But it’s fine, they’re fun. As it’s only been 3 weeks, it’s still hard for me to communicate with the older two my host sisters enough to be like sisters; they’ve got their friends to talk about stuff with, and I do have my own. Plus, being so close in age, they’re very close, but we’ll get closer with time I’m sure. Maria de la Paz (Paz) reminds me often of Arthur in her moods, with friends always content and a little goofy, but fun, then with her family much more introverted and such, all the way to a lack of table manners that she shares with the other two... haha thats just a petpeeve of mine but STILL. at points they're worse than arthur. which is kinda bad lol.
Sofia is quieter, but with more dramatic mood swings, but while I like being with Paz more when she’s around her friends (who amuse me unto no end, though there are often moments when the age difference is very obvious), I like being with Sofia more without her friends, who’re rather loud and seem to invade the house. However when I’ve nothing to do and Paz is on the computer taking myspace-worthy pictures of herself then photoshopping them and listening to the same 5 songs a thousand times over and over, I’ll play cards with Sofia (they have a game identical to Gin Rummy in everything but name: they call it Chin-Chon!! lol)
The last sister, Maria Luz is a bit of a handful. She never stops talking, unless it’s to do the thing she calls singing and I call enough cause to run for a bomb shelter before the house crumbles to the ground. But aside from that, she’s an incredibly affectionate child, and probably of the three, the most that treats me just like her sisters, which is why I like little kids. Also, if I’m bored and have nothing to do, she’s always happy to go take a walk, which especially in the morning (I’ve woken up insanely early two Saturdays in a row, like 7:30 and 8:30, it’s bad lol) but if I go for a walk with Maria Luz, it means she’s not in the house to wake everyone else up, as she otherwise does. The other way she’s incredibly different from her sisters is that while they are both skinny with dark brown hair (Paz’s is wavy and cut into the style of hair a lot of girls here have that I think looks hideous at the bottom, and Sofia’s is straight, and cut similarly, though with a totall
y different effect without the waves, though I still don’t like it, but enough of the hair rant), anyways Maria Luz has blond hair and blue eyes, which I think come from her dad, and she’s rather chubby. But she’s an amusing little child, and her friends are adorable, if equally bad singers as she is XP
So those are my sisters as I’ve found them so far… on to my host parents. As I’ve said, I cannot for my life figure out what my host dad does for work. It’s got funky hours sometimes it seems, or maybe they’re just liberal, I really have no idea, having no idea what he does. I keep forgetting to ask my liason when I see her (as I do often, cuz she’s my sisters’ English teacher for their English classes after school), but I shall have to remember, and I’ll tell as soon as I do. Anyways, he’s 41, salt and pepper/dark grey hair and blue eyes, really good with fixing the car, and very nice. He treats me the same as his daughters, just as my host mom does, which I really like. So far the only difference is that I haven’t given them cause to get vexed with me, and I hope I’ll be able to keep it that way.
That’s one of the fun parts of exchange in my opinion, being the perfect kid; you’re close enough with the family that you feel like you’re part of it, but enough of a new member that they aren’t as ready to get mad, and it’s easier not to get annoyed at host siblings than at real ones. A lot of this is what Marika kind of was; she was definitely part of our family, but at the same time I think mom and dad got mad at her maybe one time, and I’m not sure if any of me or the boys ever fought with her (excepting me and Marika’s silly battles over tastes in books and such, which were all in fun). My sisters do the same thing I remember doing when Marika first came: if she wanted to do something, of course it was ok, so if we wanted to do something, we used her as our excuse (“Even Marika wants to!! Please??”); Paz just told me to ask mom if we could go to Pacheco cuz she was bored ? However, it was shot down as apparently she needs to study (>: )>).
Anyways, my host mom is 34 (quite young), with hair dyed very blond and straightened every morning.. dunno, but in my opinion, she'd look better with brown hair and brown eyes than blond hair and brown eyes, but from all the pictures i've seen, since she's been with my host dad she's had dyed blond hair, so whateva). She is incredibly organized and such; with a tiny house and no farm and animals to take care of as well (we had two cats, but one ran away last week so now we’ve just got one that eats anything and everything it gets… rather like Guido, only not as playful, and it will let Maria Luz do anything she likes to it, poor thing), anyways everything is incredibly neat, and by Argentinean standards we’re always on time. She spends her life ferrying us around, cooking, and cleaning; but it’s what she likes. She’d rather drive us to Pacheco
than have us take the bus, which is fine by me, as it gives me the same amount of freedom especially now that I’ve got a cell-phone; she doesn’t mind where I go or anything as long as I tell her, and she knows how I’m getting home, but if something changes, I just tell her, and it’s all fine again... the only thing is that she smokes, but she's pretty good about never smoking in the house, never ever in the car, and doesn't smoke much... but here, almost everyone does, so whatev.
School
So my first day of school was the Monday after I arrived, and I was so nervous. For some odd reason though, I didn’t look nervous, and went into the main entrance with my mom while my sisters went into the courtyard, where all the kids were, looking relatively normal. We were greeted by a couple of people, one of them was the head of the school, basically the main people of the school, but I’ve still no idea who is who; I can’t tell the principal from the person in charge of schedules from any of the other administrative people. Anyways, there was another girl there, I thought they told me she was from Canada, but it turned out she was from New York State, and by the end of the week, there were FIVE exchange students at the school, four with Rotary and then me. The Rotarians consisted of another girl from Maryland (from near Hagerstown), Alexa, the girl from New York (upstate), Margit, a girl from B.C. Canada, Carly, and a girl from Belgium, Julie. The girl from New York was d
one school, so she went to the final year, however with Rotary unlike with AFS Argentina, there isn’t a university program, so after summer she’ll come back and she’ll be in our grade; the rest of us are in their form of 11th grade (it’s the 11th grade but it’s called secundo; 10th grade is primero, 11th secundo, and 12th tercero, just because the school system is different).
My school has two tracks, naturales (sciences) and economia (economics). Then, all the kids in naturales are in one class, and all the kids in economia in the other; the kids stay in the same classroom while the teachers change rooms (though if they need to use computers, they go to the computer room, etc). Because of this, the kids get really close with all the others in their class, however I like the way in the US, you get to know more people, in other grades and such as well. However, because we’re exchange students (even though it took two weeks to get them settled) we have changing schedules, and I have 4 classes with the kids I was originally assigned to, with Carly, 2oA, the economics track.
However, at first it was a bit silly, as the courses unique to economia were the four that I didn’t understand anything in (law, organizational theory, philosophy, and accounting), then math was what I’d already done (they were just starting logarithms, and though I understood, it was to the point where after 2 classes I really didn’t want to have to take it), so the four classes I have with them are history, language (like our English), English (God that’s a boring class, but I do have to take that one), and geography.
Then, with 1oA I have tech (I’ve only had one class so far, and we effectively did nothing except the guys in the back, who wrote me a love letter in English using an online translator XP), and with the other secundo class, I have physics and chemistry. I honestly do not have any idea what was going through my mind when I asked for both. Maybe I want to kill the me that asked for them? Haha but whatever, it’s ok and I can understand enough that I don’t think it will be the death of me. But it very well might.
Anyways, aside from the classes I have time in the biblioteca with the 2 ladies who seem to live there (the library is tiny; it’s just a room with all the textbooks in it, and if a teacher needs a textbook he’ll send a kid down to get one, then bring it back when they don’t need it), and that time is supposed to be used for working on Spanish, or learning more about Argentina’s history; as I’ve generally got it with Carly (the only difference in our schedules is that I’ve got physics and she’s got math), who speaks virtually no Spanish, I usually end up sleeping with my eyes open :P
The last part of my schedule is the time when they had nothing to do with me, so I can either go to the computer room and use the internet (supposedly, though last time it didn’t work and there’s often a class there anyway), watch movies on Argentinean history, or find a class to hang out with (tercero is good for that cuz they rarely do anything, being the equivalent of second semester seniors, and lots of fun to hang out with). So that’s my schedule; it’s pretty crazy.
But I think it’ll be fine, and I even understood enough of the video we watched in geography, about the life of a poor guy who lived first in one of the slums in the country, then on the streets in a city, that I could answer the questions all in Spanish, and afterwards I went over them with my mom so she could fix my grammar, but as I had to use my dictionary/grammar book so much anyway (it took about an hour and a half for 2 pages of 1.5 spaced Times New Roman font, which for me, in Spanish, was a lot :P), pretty much all I’d screwed up on with grammar was all the genders of the nouns; I didn’t bother to look close enough at the dictionary, and just guessed, so there were a couple words I used a lot (like city) that I guessed wrong on it, but that being it, I was pretty proud of myself :D
Friends & Weekends : )>
I LOVE the Argentineans, and everyone at my school. My first day, it was just me (Carly arrived in Argentina Monday, came to school Tuesday, lasted about 45 minutes before she went home to sleep, then came back Friday), and I was so nervous I really didn’t want them to make me late so I’d have to walk in after the class had started, then have them talk like “this is Ada. She is from the United States, she is going to be with you for the year; please be nice to her, be her friends, help her learn Spanish; she already understands everything.” Which is exactly what they did. For some reason, my host mom got the idea that I understood everything, so the school thought so as well; they probably still think so, as by now I just don’t care that much if I don’t understand; I find go with the people that don’t kiss me on the cheek, find out where I’m going when I get there, and what I’m doing when I do it, but it’s fun : ) However, my class was so nice to me, and the first week they real
ly took care of me (first week I had all classes with them).
Then, once Carly was back, Monday they put up a big sign in the room that said “Welcome Carly & Ada!” next to their 2oA Todo Cartón! Which means “all cardboard,” because to raise money for their senior trip next year to Bariloche (a place in the South of Argentina that every senior class goes to for a week to ski and go out every night), they are collecting cardboard… I’m not entirely sure how cardboard gets them money, but they are making it, and they also have a lot of cardboard… I guess it goes for recycling and such. Anyways, Friday they put up on the blackboard for everyone that night to go to the restaurant/karaoke bar; they do stuff it seems every weekend and everyone in the class is invited; why not? As I said, everything here is done in huge groups, so every time we go somewhere, there’s always one or two people I’ve never seen before, but it’s lots of fun.
The other thing they’re obsessed with is birthday parties; since being in Argentina, I’ve gone to eight (one last night), and a ninth on Wednesday; since being in Pacheco there has not been a week gone by without birthday parties. They’re rarely more than just dinner, but it means busy weekends, but busy weekends mean fun weekends, so it’s all good (and the one on Wednesday, as we don’t have school Thursday, it being the first day of spring, we’re all going out to a club after eating :D).
The other thing is, being exchange students, everyone knows who we are. Carly’s birthday was last Wednesday (her Sweet 16) and I swear, the entire school knew it. I was standing with her in the morning before class and people would come up, wish greet us both (it’s impolite if you don’t kiss everyone on the cheek the first time you see them that day at school, then after school if you see them again, etc; there’s a lot of kissing on the cheeks here), then wish her happy birthday and leave: we’d be left to wonder who on earth they were. The other thing is everyone seems to have my msn, so I’ve talked with people when I’m at cyber cafes (all have msn messenger, but obviously none have aim, which is why I haven’t been on) and I’ll be talking to people, in Spanish, the entire time without the slightest clue who they are, other than that they go to my school, and at any rate know who I am (I’ve even talked with people who didn’t go to my school, who I met in Buenos Aires, apparently, as they knew I’d taken Tango lessons there and wondered if I was still doing them, but I can’t for my life figure out who it was; I figured one of the AFS kids, but then wouldn’t they speak English…? Haha whatev)
But what’s cool is that they also all want to know us, so instead of just being friends with the kids in my class, I’ve made friends with kids from all grades (I don’t know who any of them are, or any of their names, but they all know me, and I can at least recognize them). The names are the worst; it’s so hard to remember them all!!! I think there’re about 30 people (maybe a bit less) in my class but damned if I know 6 of the names :P At first, people seemed a bit like “… what? You don’t remember my name? ?” but now they just kind of expect I don’t know it, and no one minds, and I just hang out and talk with all the people having no idea what any of their names are. The same goes for my cell-phone, I’ve no clue who half the numbers correspond to, which makes it difficult when I need to call someone and can’t remember which is their number, but whatev, I’ll learn them eventually lol.
As I said earlier, the tercero kids are lots of fun to hang out with; they’re crazy, and really nice. As Carly and I have such similar schedules, and as she speaks virtually no Spanish (this was the first week our schedules were at all different), she’s pretty much always with me, and we were talking at one point about how the tercero kids were different from the kids in secundo; Carly’d said she felt really young around them. For me though, I dunno, but I feel perfectly comfortable with them, and sometimes like the kids in secundo are young… never when I’m with them, just when I’m with the kids in tercero. It’s weird but I dunno I guess this past year I hung out a lot with kids who were all older than me (all the AFS kids in Baltimore were older than me, then as well at the language camp only one other girl was 16, and one 17, the rest were all 18, so I’m just used to hanging out with kids a year or so older, or I dunno what. But for me, I just don’t really notice, and (when I
want/try to), I’m pretty good at getting along with everyone, so it’s all good : ). Anyways, Carly's left for another school (and another family) now, and she moved down a grade as well, so I guess 2 grades different is more than 1, but whatev.
Guys; I’ve got to say a bit about them. It’s so funny. Argentina is out to do two things: their first prerogative is to get me fat, but their second is to get me a boyfriend. With Paz and her friends (Carly’s first host brother is one of Paz’s best friend so we hung out with them a lot at first), apparently one of the group, a tiny kid for the first two days I thought was someone’s 10 year old brother (no, he’s 14, but about 4’ high), either was in love with me, or they decided was; they spent a good week following me around making jokes about it; that was one of the instances Carly and I looked at each other as to say “…can you tell they’re 14?” lol however, apparently it’s not just 14 year olds.
Two days ago I was standing with some of my friends from my class, talking whatever, when a group of guys from tercero called me over; when I got there, they informed me they’d found a boyfriend for me, lol XP so they were joking about that for a bit, then the guy they were talking of came over, it was pretty funny, but all I really wanted to say that this was exactly what my 14 year old sister and her friends were doing; but they were 14. Not 17. Haha, the only difference was the guys had chosen better; their pick was one of the few at the school actually taller than me, and he wasn’t bad looking, but now it’s all a joke so whatev. Pretty amusing though.
Then, as I said, the guys from primero were being silly the entire tech class; all the guys here are lol. I don’t mind though, I find it pretty funny, as do my friends and especially my host mom. Here, I’m considered blond, so even when walking with my host mom, she’s speaking Spanish to me, I’m just listening, guys still notice, especially as she’s so blond. I asked one of my friends if I looked American, and she said yea, but she wasn’t sure how; I just did. So we decided next weekend we’re going shopping and she’ll pick out stuff so that I at least look Argentinean, till I open my mouth : )>
The other thing I’ve noticed about the kids is, unlike the US where there are lots of very obvious cliques, even at Park, here I can’t really find any. Maybe it’s because of the uniforms, but I really don’t think so; everyone hangs out together, and it’s really nice. Sometimes it’s hard in the US when you’re friends with different “groups” but here as I’ve still yet to find any (cept some people who are closer than others) I’m able to be friends with just about everyone, and though there’re kids I’m closer with and such, everyone is so nice it’s like being friends with the entire school. Walking down the street in Pacheco, I’ll see someone from my school I’m quite sure I’ve never talked with before, but they’ll wave or whatever; it’s pretty cool ?
So yea; that’s about my life here so far. I’ve had one riding lesson at one place, but it’s not gonna work out; the teacher for anyone other than little kids doesn’t come on Fridays or the weekends, which is the only time I can go, but I don’t really mind as though the horses were pretty, the place was a bit of a dump, I couldn’t really ride outside the ring, the riders were all riding with just their hands (the person actually told me to yank the horse in the mouth as I went over the jump to tell it what lead I wanted it to land on, as it was green and didn’t know lead changes, only then it gave me the lead change ?) plus, it didn’t have a bathroom.
But, one of my friends at school, her sister is a riding teacher, and it’s closer to my house, according to my mom in a much prettier area, she’s there every afternoon and all day on weekends, and I was supposed to have a lesson yesterday, but as the car was broken I couldn’t go ? But yea. I’m still having an awesome time here, I love everything about Argentina, and already I’m really sad there isn’t dulce de leche in the US. As of now, all I’m really missing is being able to ride every day (riding the one time made me miss it more), but I’ll be fine riding once or twice a week, it’s just I miss the regular exercise. Other things on my wish-list? Normal lunches, instead of having to convince my family I’m really not used to eating two full meals a day as they do here. Peanut butter & jelly sandwiches; they have jelly but I haven’t found any peanut butter and half the time I ask, people look at me like I’m crazy; the only sandwiches they seem to eat here are of jamon y queso XP
I’d do a lot for some peanut butter right now. What else… good English tea… normal bread (it seems they have French bread, or wonder-bread-like white bread. Just like Marika I could really go for some normal bread lol. As for friends and family and such, it’s like I’d love it if my family, friends and all were with me right now, but I’m still ok by myself; I’ve got my host family, and my new friends, and I’m here on exchange. Love and miss you all, sorry this was so long, but I hope you found it at least a bit interesting!! Xoxo and check out all the pics!! there are a LOT of new ones!!:
http://picasaweb.google.com/countrygal13101 go there! lol
p.s. POST A COMMENT!! Tell me you read at least part of it, you can post comments on the pix, so do! Let me know you came. I love comments, so put one up! Just click the link below, click other, put your name (you can leave the website place blank… ‘less of course, you want to put a website), and just say hi or something. catch yall later!! xoxoxoxoxox
posted by xoxo ada : )> | 6:46 PM
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