In the past few weeks in Argentina, I have seen a lot of beautiful places, met many amazing people, and enjoyed an abundance of delicious food.
Bonding with family
I have now been living with my host family for two weeks, and I think they are wonderful. I have a big family here- there are two grandparents, six children, and five grandchildren. I live in an apartment with Maria and Eduardo, the grandparents of the family, their son Wenceslau (Wenchi) and their granddaughter Josefina.
My favorite memories thus far with my family have been sitting in the kitchen passing around mate (Argentine tea), visiting a feria (market) in Palermo and playing cards with Josefina. She and Maria taught me how to play chinchon, which is similar to the card game gin.
Another amusing experience was introducing Maria to YouTube. She stayed up until three in the morning because she was so excited about that she couldn’t sleep. The next day she told me she was worried because all of the songs that she had found “disappeared,” so I helped her find all of them again.
One of the best parts of living with a host family is that I get a chance learn the porteno (local) vocabulary and accent. Moreover, they have allowed me delve deeper into the Argentine culture through family traditions, their daily activities, and food. I love having such a great support system here.
Exploring Buenos Aires
Not only has my host family turned out to be amazing, but also the city of Buenos Aires has far surpassed my expectations. Every day I encounter something new and exciting even when it is not planned.
In the past month I have seen much more of Buenos Aires, and I feel much more comfortable making my way through the city. I just started classes, so for the first few weeks I got to explore the city every day, which I enjoyed immensely. My favorite part about living in the city is that there is always an endless list of fun activities just waiting for me.
I have gotten to expand my cultural knowledge of Argentina through many side trips. I have visited many art museums including the Buenos Aires Museum of Latin-American Art, and Fundación PROA where I saw Ron Mueck’s sculpture exhibition. I also attended a seminar on mate, where I learned all about the different types of mate, how it is made and the culture surrounding the tradition of sharing mate in a group.
The people in my study program and I have bonded through exploring the city. Together, we went to a milonga (tango bar). There we learned the milonga style tango and got the chance to cut lose and have some fun.
A few weeks ago, we tok a trip to an estancia just outside of Buenos Aires where we rode horses, learned about the gaucho culture and enjoyed an asado (barbeque).
The city of Buenos Aires is very diverse. By wandering around, I have gotten to explore the various neighborhoods of the city including Barrio Chino, Palermo Soho, Recoleta, and La Boca, and enjoy the unique characteristics and activities of each area. I especially love the feria of San Telmo that occurs every Sunday. It is a fair that is filled with 15 blocks worth of amazing art, leather, souvenirs, mate gourds, clothing, and antiques!
I also stumbled upon El Atenco, an old theater that has been transformed into on of the most beautiful bookstores I have ever seen.
Registering for classes
Although I have loved almost everything so far in my experience here, there is one part of my time here that has been very stressful: school.
Registering for classes here is much more complicated than at Elon. Once the day of registration has passed, I can only drop classes and not add any more.
For this reason, I signed up for many more classes than I will take just in case I didn’t like the class or the teacher, or if it conflicted with another class I have to take. I am currently preregistered for 17 classes even though I will only take 6. It doesn’t help that I registered for classes at three different universities!
Now that I have tried out all of the classes, I am excited to get into my very recently finalized schedule.