So I won't go into ridiculous detail about this past week because that would actually take up an entire book's worth of space, however, this past week my family came to visit me i.e. my grandfather, mother and MY SISTER!!! This was a huge surprise, since that very morning I received a facebook message from my sister's facebook of her telling me that we should skype that night when my mother and gpa arrived because she was sad she wouldn't be coming.
The cute freaks that my family are, decided to surprise me which they seem to enjoy doing, so as I walk into the hotel room to drop off my things and see an awkward looking video camera coming from behind the curtain it took me more than a minute to realize who it was. I was so happy to see her I was crying and probably drooling, I looked ridiculous and they got it all on film...so typical of my family.
The week was spent doing great adventurous things such as a hugeee asado with my entire extended host family and an extended tour of the city of Mendoza and a trip to the touristy sights like the natural Inca Bridge near the Chilean border, and a beautiful view of the mountains and the huge Volcanoe, a cooking class, and some horseback riding in the Andes! All good fun and of course some fine wining and dining which was to be expected of any visit to Mendoza. I'm almost completely positive that I gained an entire other person this week, and the rigorous excersise routine will begin this coming week seeing as how up until now I haven't been able to get my lazy ass out of bed before 1 in the afternoon I will have to make some adjustments to my schedule.
We spent our last night together with the addition of my entire host family and two of my brother's friends for a good ole' family dinner. My brother made a lovely feast for us including ceviche (fish marinated in lemon) to start off, followed by mashed potatoes or puré and wine marinated lomo and tomatoes, and the finale was a dessert wine with pears soaked in Malbec and cream. It was simply divine, and for once I actually tasted some of the cooking I have heard my host family speak so highly of, the rest of the night included singing and playing of guitars by both my host father and myself, I even got my sister to join and harmonize with me on one of my songs. It was an absolutely lovely night, and it was a sad day knowing that my family would be leaving the next morning.
I keep telling myself there is only two months left until I'm home, but it just seems so much longer than that....
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Cordoba AGAIN!!!
So now that I have been worse than awful at catching up this thing I will now try to write shorter posts, more often...though it may be difficult to do seeing as how I no longer have internet... double damn.
A few weekends ago a group of about 12 of us went on our merry ways to Cordoba for the wonderful even that is OKTOBERFEST!!!! We only really planned on going to the festival for one day and then just spending the rest of the days in the city. This plan just seemed to be a lot friendlier on everyone's wallets, seeing as how entrance into the festival was $50 pesos and then each individual beer was $20... which is a tad ridiculous if you ask me. Our day in the festival was incredible, we got on an early bus and took the hour and a half long trip from the center of the city out to Villa Bel Grano, when we got there it was like nothing I had ever seen. There were soooo many people and the little mountain town looked like something out of a fairytale. Everything just seemed so non-Argentine....but in a totally great way.
We drank a fair amount and then it just got to be a little too crazy for me and a little tiring, which I guess is reasonable since we woke up that morning and started off the day with morning mamosas (sp??) which totally perpetuated the American stereotype as our lovely hostel mates noted.
The next day we all just lounged around the city we met some absolutely lovely people at the hostel so we spent some time with them, we even made dinner that night, homemade mexican salsa and guac with grilled chicken and bean and red pepper salad, all of which were absolutely incredible!!! We enjoyed our meal and just spent the remainder of the evening watching movies in the hostel. None of us had the energy to go out and party after the day we had before.
The whole group spent a good four days in Cordoba, and since I didn´t have any classes and had some time to spare, I figured I would stay another day or so in one of my favorite cities of Argentina. My friend Brian who I had met last time I stayed in Cordoba happen to be staying at the same hostel as myself so I figured I would spend the next days with him and some of my other new hostel friends. The next day we meandered to the beautiful park that has a precious little island in the middle of it, it was an absolutely gorgeous day so we spent most of it inside and then went back to the hostel to hang about a little more before I had to head to the bus terminal. My friend Isabelle who I also met last time I was in Cordoba came to visit and we enjoyed a lovely bottle of wine and a dinner made by our new friend Steve.
Isabelle works at the other hostel I stayed at in Cordoba, which I think is awesome. She is from Belgium and has been traveling around for the last 8 months, the hostel lets her stay for free if she works a few hours a week which I think is one of the coolest jobs ever, I think after I graduate I may want to look into doing the same thing, it seems like it would be a great way to meet people, and of course practice my spanish!!
A few weekends ago a group of about 12 of us went on our merry ways to Cordoba for the wonderful even that is OKTOBERFEST!!!! We only really planned on going to the festival for one day and then just spending the rest of the days in the city. This plan just seemed to be a lot friendlier on everyone's wallets, seeing as how entrance into the festival was $50 pesos and then each individual beer was $20... which is a tad ridiculous if you ask me. Our day in the festival was incredible, we got on an early bus and took the hour and a half long trip from the center of the city out to Villa Bel Grano, when we got there it was like nothing I had ever seen. There were soooo many people and the little mountain town looked like something out of a fairytale. Everything just seemed so non-Argentine....but in a totally great way.
We drank a fair amount and then it just got to be a little too crazy for me and a little tiring, which I guess is reasonable since we woke up that morning and started off the day with morning mamosas (sp??) which totally perpetuated the American stereotype as our lovely hostel mates noted.
The next day we all just lounged around the city we met some absolutely lovely people at the hostel so we spent some time with them, we even made dinner that night, homemade mexican salsa and guac with grilled chicken and bean and red pepper salad, all of which were absolutely incredible!!! We enjoyed our meal and just spent the remainder of the evening watching movies in the hostel. None of us had the energy to go out and party after the day we had before.
The whole group spent a good four days in Cordoba, and since I didn´t have any classes and had some time to spare, I figured I would stay another day or so in one of my favorite cities of Argentina. My friend Brian who I had met last time I stayed in Cordoba happen to be staying at the same hostel as myself so I figured I would spend the next days with him and some of my other new hostel friends. The next day we meandered to the beautiful park that has a precious little island in the middle of it, it was an absolutely gorgeous day so we spent most of it inside and then went back to the hostel to hang about a little more before I had to head to the bus terminal. My friend Isabelle who I also met last time I was in Cordoba came to visit and we enjoyed a lovely bottle of wine and a dinner made by our new friend Steve.
Isabelle works at the other hostel I stayed at in Cordoba, which I think is awesome. She is from Belgium and has been traveling around for the last 8 months, the hostel lets her stay for free if she works a few hours a week which I think is one of the coolest jobs ever, I think after I graduate I may want to look into doing the same thing, it seems like it would be a great way to meet people, and of course practice my spanish!!
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
DAMN THE PARCIALES!!
I know I am behind on the posting so that means... A MILLION NEW POSTS TODAY!!!
So I figured an appropriate topic for this post would be midterm exams since they are the current topic on my mind at the moment. I figured that as an exchange student the professors might have given us a tad more guidance on the topics of the exams, or the format, or what we should study. But alas no, so for my first parcial that was for ecological anthropology no less I was far from prepared, I had done all of the readings that we were given and had taken notes, and prepared more than I would normally for any exam in the U.S.
I walked into the classroom with a head full of nerves but fairly confidents, and then our professor walks in (late as usual) and she then proceeds to introduce our new professor who will be procturing the exam, the kid looked as if he had just graduated from college, and in fact he had. He is going to be our acting professor since our normal professor would be having a surgery of some sort. So we began the exam after being informed that we would only have an hour and a half to complete the exam rather than the two hours that we had expected. The TA began to read from a sheet of paper our exam questions, he didnt post them on the board or hand out an exam paper, so naturally I began to get a tad more overwhelmed, so I asked one of my friends from the class to see his questions but of course I couldnt read his hand writing, I did the best I could with the questions and began the exam. In the U.S. while taking an exam it is expected for the classroom to be silent, with spaces in between desks to ensure that no cheating will occur, however during this exam all rules seemed to go out the window, people were laughing, talking sitting in groups just having a good ole time.
I decided to just do the best as I could and was able to finish just in time however, one of the other girls from the program, was still on the second essay question when I left, of course that wasnt something to be ashamed of at all seeing how the exam essay questions were so poorly worded and confusing, and not anything we were taught in class I have no idea how I even managed to finish the first question.
The next parcial of doom was in my sociological modern history class. The name alone should have dissuaded me from taking the class but I needed a history credit for the semester. The set up of this exam was going to be a little bit different, we were all put into groups and we had to read a set of four readings, (one of them being 50 pages long) and then we were to have a graded oral discussion based on the selected readings. With only four American students in the class we thought it would be appropriate to be in a goup together, we set on each reading two out of the four readings, so that way in the discussion we would have those two guide the discussion while the other two added in bits here and there based on what they read in the summaries that we had to write on each article. We had the system down solid and we all felt prepared for the oral exam. However, when we got to class and looked at the order of presentation list our group was split so we would be going in pairs...which we had not prepared for.
Peter and Robin were the first group to go, so not only were they not prepared and were totally thrown off base, they also had to be the first group to go for the day. Ari and I waited paciently outside and tried to cram as much information as we could into our heads before going in, while we were waiting Robin runs out of the room frantically to grab our group summaries and tells us its not going well and that she doesnt think they are going to pass. This did absolutely nothing for my nerves, Ari and I continued to cram as best as we could and then it was our turn. Ari and I walked in attempting to humble ourselves and make nice with our professor, which seemed to be working at least a little bit. We sat down in a circle of desks and the exam began, naturally our professor asked us to summarize in detail the 50 page article, which was okay because Ari knew it backwards and forwards, and I knew enough to put in details here and there. From there the exam went pretty smoothly I bullshitted more than I ever have in my life, and we actually passed!!! I had no idea what grade we received but honestly I couldnt have cared less. I was just relieved to have finished.
I will however say that for the first time ever I actually missed taking structured exams like we do in the U.S.
We shall see how long that will last.....
So I figured an appropriate topic for this post would be midterm exams since they are the current topic on my mind at the moment. I figured that as an exchange student the professors might have given us a tad more guidance on the topics of the exams, or the format, or what we should study. But alas no, so for my first parcial that was for ecological anthropology no less I was far from prepared, I had done all of the readings that we were given and had taken notes, and prepared more than I would normally for any exam in the U.S.
I walked into the classroom with a head full of nerves but fairly confidents, and then our professor walks in (late as usual) and she then proceeds to introduce our new professor who will be procturing the exam, the kid looked as if he had just graduated from college, and in fact he had. He is going to be our acting professor since our normal professor would be having a surgery of some sort. So we began the exam after being informed that we would only have an hour and a half to complete the exam rather than the two hours that we had expected. The TA began to read from a sheet of paper our exam questions, he didnt post them on the board or hand out an exam paper, so naturally I began to get a tad more overwhelmed, so I asked one of my friends from the class to see his questions but of course I couldnt read his hand writing, I did the best I could with the questions and began the exam. In the U.S. while taking an exam it is expected for the classroom to be silent, with spaces in between desks to ensure that no cheating will occur, however during this exam all rules seemed to go out the window, people were laughing, talking sitting in groups just having a good ole time.
I decided to just do the best as I could and was able to finish just in time however, one of the other girls from the program, was still on the second essay question when I left, of course that wasnt something to be ashamed of at all seeing how the exam essay questions were so poorly worded and confusing, and not anything we were taught in class I have no idea how I even managed to finish the first question.
The next parcial of doom was in my sociological modern history class. The name alone should have dissuaded me from taking the class but I needed a history credit for the semester. The set up of this exam was going to be a little bit different, we were all put into groups and we had to read a set of four readings, (one of them being 50 pages long) and then we were to have a graded oral discussion based on the selected readings. With only four American students in the class we thought it would be appropriate to be in a goup together, we set on each reading two out of the four readings, so that way in the discussion we would have those two guide the discussion while the other two added in bits here and there based on what they read in the summaries that we had to write on each article. We had the system down solid and we all felt prepared for the oral exam. However, when we got to class and looked at the order of presentation list our group was split so we would be going in pairs...which we had not prepared for.
Peter and Robin were the first group to go, so not only were they not prepared and were totally thrown off base, they also had to be the first group to go for the day. Ari and I waited paciently outside and tried to cram as much information as we could into our heads before going in, while we were waiting Robin runs out of the room frantically to grab our group summaries and tells us its not going well and that she doesnt think they are going to pass. This did absolutely nothing for my nerves, Ari and I continued to cram as best as we could and then it was our turn. Ari and I walked in attempting to humble ourselves and make nice with our professor, which seemed to be working at least a little bit. We sat down in a circle of desks and the exam began, naturally our professor asked us to summarize in detail the 50 page article, which was okay because Ari knew it backwards and forwards, and I knew enough to put in details here and there. From there the exam went pretty smoothly I bullshitted more than I ever have in my life, and we actually passed!!! I had no idea what grade we received but honestly I couldnt have cared less. I was just relieved to have finished.
I will however say that for the first time ever I actually missed taking structured exams like we do in the U.S.
We shall see how long that will last.....
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