My Final Day in Buenos Aires

OK from this point on daily blog plostings, or at least I will have an individual post for each day to keep it from getting too confusing.

So it is my last day in Buenos Aires : ( but still so much to do

During the first half of the day we went to explore the northern part of Buenos Aires including el Cementario de la Recoleta which is one of the oldest cemetaries in Buenos Aires and is home sweet home to the ancestors of some of the wealthiest families and the most famous families in Argentina.

With the lovely Alejandro as our tour guide once again we explored some of the ruins and some of the most beautiful mausoleums I have ever seen ( not that I have seen many but these were truly incredible). Unlike those in New Orleans every mausoleum has several levels including a basement which is odd to think about each one being like a little home for the dead. Some of them have actual sitting areas for family members to come and visit. We spent a long time visiting some of the more noted mausoleums including that of Eva Peron. The irony being that Eva Peron hated the upper class and the fact that she was buried amongst some of her most hated peers is just a little hilarious. She is currently resting in the basement of her family´s mausoleum because years ago her body was stolen and was taken to various places of the world and gaurded by various different owners. So finally they sealed her in the basement with several layers of cement ensuring that no one will every steal her body again.

There was one Mausoleum that stood out the most to me simply because the story behind it is so frightening. Apparently, years ago during the early 19th century a rich young girl was having the best of fun on her birthday, when she suddenly became very sick and died. The next day her body was placed in the family mausoleum and was lay to rest. That night the keeper of the cemetary was walking amongst the mausoleum´s doing his nightly rounds when he heard muffled noises coming from one of the mausoleums he began searching vehemently amongst some of the newer resting places (because these were the most commonly broken into) but alas he could not find the source of the noises. The next day when her family went to the resting place of their daughter to pay their respects they noticed that the lid of the coffin had been moved so in a panic they removed the lid only to find the terrified and contorted body of their daughter with dry blood from her nails and scratch marks on the lid of the coffin. Apparently she had suffered some strange illness that put her into a coma (dead like state) and she had awoken in her coffin only to suffocate from lack of oxygen. As a respect to the actual death of their daughter the family had a huge statue built of their daughter knocking on the door of her mausoleum. And it is because of this case and similar instances that bells were placed in the coffins of the dead and that in some religions they leave their deceased out of the coffin for days after their death to ensure that this type of story is not repeated.

All of us got major chills after hearing this story which kind of made being in the cemetary all the more exciting. It was sad to see though, that some of the mausoleums had not been taken care of for quite some time as some were overgrown with plants and displayed broken windows and doors. Interestingly enough though, even if the family does not have enough money to keep up with the mausoleum no new mausoleum can be built in it´s place until every member of the extended family agrees to give up the spot of property.

After the cemetary we headed back on the bus to go to Barrancas de Alvear which rests on the river where if you look hard enough you can see Uruguay across the river. The whole group enjoyed the afternoon laying in the sun or sitting on the wall overlooking the water with our legs hanging off the edge. We played different games including Ninja and Waa which looked absolutely ridiculous to anyone watching it. Then we went into the restaurant which was beautiful and overlooked the entire river. It had sort of an old rustic beach house feel to it with ceilings open and all the walls and floors made out of wood panels and with open windows everywhere. (even though it was winter and freezing) The food was again incredible and we had some amazing helado (ice cream) for dessert, there is something about their ice cream that is unlike anything you can get in the U.S. same goes for their coffee...everything tastes purer and richer-mom I´m not just saying that because it´s actually true everything just tastes better here.

After lunch we spent a little more time outside playing on the trees and just acting like little children and playing soccer with some of the local Argentine kids. This is exactly what I pictured an abroad experience would be, just living like the Argentines and interacting with everyone and enjoying life because time is definitely not money here. If I could compare the pace here to anywhere it would probably be most similar to island time where things just happen when they happen and if nothing gets done it´s ok because you are enjoying the day.

Unfortunately we did have to catch a plane so we begrudgingly boarded onto the bus where we made our way for the airport. On the way I began making more friends with the people around me including a lovely young chap Michael from Portland who displays to a "T" what being hipster is and who shares my love for sarcasm and we enjoyed many a laugh just being the best of sarcastic to one another. And another lover of sarcasm Ross from Idaho who enjoyed spitting his little bits of sarcasm here and there. It was a perfectly lovely sarcastic bus ride and I had a perfectly wonderful time.

Then to the airport.... my least favorite activity of all time partly because I wayyyy overpacked and it was a huge pain to lug all of my stuff all over everywhere. One trick that I learned from my prior experience was use a cart it makes all of it a whole lot more pleasant that way you can put all of your bags on top of one another and push it through the check in line. One more tip if you have a huge carry on...make sure it has wheels because carrying a duffel bag that weighed about 30 pounds on top of everything else I had to carry was borderline miserable. Once we had gone through that whole process everything went much smoother. Unlike security in the U.S. the process of going through security in Buenos Aires was a piece of cake; we didn´t have to take off our shoes or take our our computers or turn on our cell phones we simply stuck everything on the little conveyer belt and picked it up on the other side. The security guards looked as if they couldn´t care less if you brought a bomb to the airport, as long as you didn´t make a mess that they´d have to clean up. I don´t know if it is naivete or just and extreme sense of trust in people but it made the process a whole lot less stressful.

We boarded the plane with ease, but this time I was not stuck next to a lovely young man from Argentina I was stuck inbetween two old business men who looked like they just wanted to get this whole thing over with and didn´t really want to make small talk; which I suppose was fine because after last night I could really use the two hour nap I would get from the flight. Besides I didn´t really want to stress myself out thinking about the fact that in a couple hours I would be meeting my new temporary family and that it might actually hit me that I was going to be staying with them for the next five and half months.

I woke up after about an hour and a half and filled my nervous stomache with some tasty plane cookies and turned my attention to the television that was playing what appeared to be an Argentine version of smile you´re on candid camera or punk´d. Then I proceeded to doze off some more until we began our descent into Mendoza at approximately 8pm.

Once we land and get off the plane the fear and stress finally set in I think amongst the mob of people behind the glass doors holding white paper signs I can see my family smiling and jumping and waving. My nerves ease up a little but then proceed to take over my entire body as I just stand like a statue smiling and making an awkward wave as I laugh nervously to myself. I finally collected all of my massive tons of baggage and meet my host mother Fanny and sister Marina at the end of the mob of people. I am embraced with kisses on each cheek and lots of hugs as we rush to the car to escape the freezing cold weather. I am bombarded with questions about the flight and my family and my studies and if I have a boyfriend back home or if I knew anyone in the program. I tried vehemently to switch my brain into spanish mode as I awkwardly answered each question in slow and simple spanish. We drove through the outskirts of the city of Mendoza and through some back roads to get to my new home.

Everything looked soo different we clearly lived in a nicer part of town in some of the barrios (neighborhoods) outside of the major part of the city but still I was greeted with a huge black iron gate and some weird looking keys that were meant to unlock the gate. Once we stepped past the gate we were joyously greeted by Coki their teeny long haired miny doxen looking dog and my new father Enrique who is a tall happy looking fellow. We walk into the house and Marina´s novio (boyfriend) and the rest of the family struggle to bring all my things to my room upstairs. I could understand some kind of funny joke about how I am the first to bring this much stuff during a study aboad program. I laughed along because I knew how ridiculous I must look to everyone. Once I was settled in a little bit I was told that my host brother Javier would not be able to join us for dinner because he works incredibly long hours at the restaurant since he is in school to become a master chef.

Although my brother would not be joining us most of the rest of the family would be. As we prepared for a lovely meal of empenadas and several different types of pizza one with hard boiled eggs and cheese and tomatoes and the other with ham and peppers the family began pooling in. Including, aunts and uncles, and cousins and great aunts and some neighbors. Before dinner began, Enrique brought out his guitars and gave me one of them and then he asked me to sing and play something for him while the rest of the family was putting everything together. So I did, slightly nervous at first and then I began to open up more and soon he was joining in creating harmonies and jammin it up. Then we put away the instruments until after dinner and I was showered with compliments on my playing and my voice and was then told that after dinner I was to have another concert for the rest of the family. My face must have dropped because he just laughed and told me not to worry it would be fine and that I was the new lead singer of the family...no pressure. So we all ate and laughed and again I was bombarded with 17 million questions about what it´s like living close to D.C. and more about my family and friends at home. It was an absolutely fantastic meal and definitely se the tone for what meals are like around here.

So after dinner we grab the guitars again and my tio (uncle) grabbed some percussion instruments and we all started singing and playing together, I played some songs by myself and so did Enrique and then we all joined in on all of them. I swear the grin on my face must have looked ridiculous, but I was just having so much fun. It felt like home, like our christmas eve parties when we all get together and sing songs and play our respected instruments. And I am happy to say that they knew most of the beatles songs that I asked to sing and we all sang beatles songs even though it sounded a little strange with everyone´s thick Argentine accents.

After dinner we cleaned up the plates and the family headed home. My family asked if I wanted to go out and meet some friends, even though at this point it was nearly 1 in the morning. I politetly declined explaining I needed to catch up on some much needed sleep and so we said our goodnights and I headed to bed.

It was the minute that I lay down to go to sleep that it kind of hit me. I wasn´t going to be able to say goodnight to my parents every night before going to bed, and that this was actually happening. I got a little sad but then sleep quickly overcame me and i drifted off into slumberland.

And such was the end of my first night in Mendoza

Ta ta for now and until my next post which I am probably going to write in the next five minutes...toodaloo

Oh yes and the pictures will be posted eventually, hopefully

***MB

Culture Shock

Ok so it is officially my fourth full day in Mendoza Argentina, my sixth full day in the great country of Argentina and the seventh day on this great adventure that is my study abroad experience.

Although I had every intention of writing daily blog postings I have come to be in a slight predicament with my computer and thus I am sharing this single laptop with my entire family. So until I can rent a temporary interenet modem from the school I will just write when I can and attempt to fill you in on EVERYTHING that is happening. I guess I will start from where I left off...my second day in Buenos Aires

Day 2 BA July 22, 2010

After a lovely evening celebrating my day of birth with my new IFSA friends at a hip bar down some random street near our hotel it was another bright and early 8 am morning of fun in Buenos Aires Argentina. As I can recall Annabel (my roommate) and I got up and went down for a buffet style bfast in the hotel restaurant. I felt horrible for anyone who was just trying to enjoy a nice quiet meal because I can´t imagine that being an easy task when you´ve got over 50 American students trying to get as much food as possible to juice up for a full day of tourism. After eating we all piled onto the huge charter bus that was to take us to all the various places of southern Buenos Aires. The most memorable stop of the morning was hands down La Boca. Historically La Boca was originally home to all the misfits of BA many immigrants to the city ended up in La Boca because high society had little room for them. Throughout the amount of color was overwhelming all the houses and buildings are put together with sheets of painted tin and are kept in tip top condition and you will notice from some of the windows and rooves different cartoon-looking statues kind of making fun of the original inhabitants of the city.

The residents of La Boca thrive on the tourists with street performers and different gypsy-like people who will do almost anything to make a buck or two. After a small group of us were done walking up and down the streets we found a lovely little cafe behind the stage of a group of salsa and tango dance performers. It was the best view in the house and we all ordered Las Ruedas which is a sweet espresso with dulce de leche and rum which was incredible and we sipped on our drinks and tried to enjoy the warmth of the restauarant before going back out into the cold streets.

After lunch of a million different courses including empanadas, milanesas de pollo con quesso (breaded chicken with cheese and ham on top) Tomate and flan we left for the Plaza de Maya and the Casa Rosada. La plaza de Mayo is basically the exact center of the city and la Casa Rosada is the our equivalent of the white house home to the much loved La Presidenta. We explored the different buildings inluding the beautiful cathedral just next to the different houses of parliament. Although the buildings and architecture were beautiful nothing was so moving as the demonstration of Las madres.

Las madres of la Plaza de Mayo are a group of women who gathered together in seach for their missing children after the mass abudctions by the Argentine governement during what is now described as "the dirty war". After the war the military admitted that 9,000 of the children who were kidnapped are still unaccounted for but Las Madres say that the number is closer to 30,000 most of whom are dead. After the war because most of the children were born in jails and were orphaned during their imprisonment some 500 children were given to the families of military officials. These are the children Las Madres faithfully wait for every day. The demonstration consists of who are now "las abuelas" the grandmothers of the lost children, walking around the plaza with the names of their children embroidered on their white head scarves. During this presentation the names of every child are read off a list from one of las abuelas or a close family member and to every name the crowd and las abuelas shout "presente" or "Present yourself" hoping that one day one of the lost children will appear. During the presentation I don´t think a single eye was dry I know that for myself I was practically sobbing during the entire presentation just in admiration for the hope and the dedication that these women and family members have for this cause.

After that we were all drained emotionally and physically from walking around the city so most of us spent our free time taking naps or siestas until orientation.

After orientation we all decided to go out for our only full night in the city so a small group of us girls decided to go to Palermo SOHO which was the artsy area of Buenos Aires night life. We tried to organize a larger group to all go to the same area but that was nearly impossible. So we called up three Radio Taxi´s (the only taxi service garunteed to not rip off nice young american tourists) and took what seemed like a roller coaster ride to the plaza. **Side note drivers in Argentina are frighteningly terrible... I mean there may be lanes on the road but no one abides by any of the typical traffic laws** So we all reunite and decide to go to a random restaurant that looks swanky enough for our only night out. Immediately when we walk in we are served glasses of complimentary champagne and what looked like sausage by the hostess. We had to wait a while to be seated but we had a lot of time to kill before anything opened up. Once we were seated the six of us ordered a couple bottles of Malbec wine for the table and dug in on the complimentary bread with some weird but tasty spread. I ordered a filet mignon marinated in wine sauce with mushroom rissoto on the side all for A$60 pesos which is actually practically $15 American dollars. The food was delicious and sooo filling but instead of staying for dessert we decided to head to one of the local bars.

We decided on one that looked pretty well occupìed and headed to the top floor where there were people everywhere. At this point there were about 15 of us so we piled a few tables together and figured we would do something totally typical and order margaritas. They were amazing even though it took about two hours to get them. We stayed there for a little while and then most of the group decided to head back to the hotel, however, a few of us including myself decided to stay out and see if we could find a discoteca or dance club. We managed to find one that was packed but the bouncers at the front kept charging people different prices to enter and when it was finally our turn to enter he was asking for A$40 pesos which was ridiculous so we left. We made a slight attempt to find some other discoteca but after getting followed a few blocks by some creepy guys we decided to call it a night. It was about 4 am so it was all in all a pretty successful evening....and one of many typical Argentine days to come I´m sure.

To sleep to sleep I go...my last night in Buenos Aires, a huge success and tomorrow off to Mendoza to meet my family!!!!


Much love and many hugs and kisses to everyone who will be reading this blog religiously to stalk my every Argentine move. Pictures will be up as soon as I can get my computer to stop being dumb


****MB

I HAVE ARRIVED!!

So I am sure you are all very pleased to know that I have arrived safely and securely in the lovely land of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

My entire excursion began yesterday morning at approximately 10 a.m. when we left my home in Rockville, MD and traveled the 45 minutes to BWI airport. After making various plans with my peers from the program on our UNCUYO facebook group I was under the impression that I would be the only person traveling from the DC metro area... but alas I was mistaken! After about a half hour of waiting in gate C20 I met Annabel, a fellow Marylander who was going to be traveling to Mendoza through the IFSA-Butler program. Granted I only found this out by stealthily eavesdropping on her conversation with her father. Unlike myself Annabel is well traveled having been in Wyoming the week before for a wilderness EMT training course. At least I know I will be safe around her! Our flight to Dallas was short and sweet but I sat next to this 16 year-old boy who didn't really understand the idea of me taking a nap on the plane and proceeded to talk to me about his video game and scary movie collection the whole plane ride, at least that was until I put in my headphones and he got the idea.

Once we arrived in Dallas (which was ridiculously huge) I got separated from Annabel and had to take the shuttle train to my gate where I met this lovely woman who was headed back to El Salvador and found herself quite turned around, I tried to help her as best I could but I knew as little as anyone how to maneuver around the airport. Finally I arrived to where I was supposed to be after asking almost everyone, surprised that most of them responded to me in spanish when I asked where the Buenos Aires gate was located. Once I was situated I spotted Annabel and another girl I had recognized from the facebook group Coral. We all got to talking until more and more girls from our program began showing up. It got to the point where it looked slightly ridiculous how many females were all sitting in a circle in our gate. All the girls were fab and had great personalities that I could tell, some of them kind of knew each other from their home universities but I was completely unfamiliar with everyone. I broke out of my shell relatively quickly and we all began laughing and chatting away trying to spot any familiar guys who might be in our program. (Not that we had any idea but we figured any guy walking around dressed for winter with a lot of luggage might be a good bet to be in our program).

We started boarding the plane at around 7:30pm Dallas time which was fine we were all beyond confused since the announcer was speaking in Spanish to all of us boarding the plane. Once I stepped onto the shuttle that was to take us to Buenos Aires I was completely overwhelmed; the plane was HUGEEE and had four or five sections to it-needless to say I looked like a moron who had completely overpacked knocking into people left and right as I moved down the aisle. I eventually found my seat next to a pleasant, though tired looking gentleman. He could tell right away that I was not from Argentina and we got to talking about all sorts of things mostly related to Argentina. He offered to talk in Spanish to help me practice but I quickly declined explaining that my Spanish would improve eventually but slightly in denial that I was just embarrassed. He gave me some pointers as to how to behave to fit in culturally and of some places to check out while in Buenos Aires for our short trip. He told me about his wife and his travels as an employee for the Cisco Network (the human network).

As I drifted in and out of sleep I began to realize that I may have some extreme difficulty adjusting to slumber on a plane no matter how comfortable the pillows and blankets may have been. Before I knew it though, there was only twenty minutes left before our landing and my nerves set in for real. We all exited the plane all 16 of us who eventually met outside of the landing and then we made the intimidating trek through customs. Of course I had accidentally left my survey sheet on the plane(we needed to give them this information to prove we had a place to stay while in the country). I hustled to fill out the forms and got back in the outrageously long line. Once we got through customs, which happened to be way less intimidating than I had expected we met our bus driver in the lobby holding up a sign for Universidades Mendoza. We proceeded to stand in the lobby for a while waiting for the rest of the group to catch up to us before boarding the bus. Once we got on the bus we realized that we were actually the last to arrive as we met up with most of the rest of our program.

We checked into the program with ease and coincidentally Annabel and I were given our shared room keys first which was a huge relief because after a night of traveling and sweating while lugging our suitcases around a shower and a nap were much needed. So we both showered in our lovely hotel room and then decided to skip the nap and tour some of buenos aires. Our first stop was to exchange our dollars for Argentine pesos. The process was surprisingly quick except that our banker was frustrated with my lack of comprehension and Annabel had forgotten her passport so I had to get her money converted for her which was hardly a problem. Then on our way back we stopped by for some Capuchinos with chocolate which were incredible and our two drinks together were only $32 pesos which is about $4 in U.S. dollars. The barristos could tell we were American so we gave up on trying and they seemed highly entertained by us (which was fine with me). Afterwards we meandered back to our hotel room before our lunch was to begin.

Lunch was an incredible presentation of three courses, to start we had freshly cut tomatoes and basil with mozzarella cheese, followed by an incredible steak with fried potatoes and mixed garden vegetables, followed by a bowl of mixed fruit and great Argentine coffee. My new mantra for this entire trip is to try everything, even if I know I am not a huge fan of a certain thing, I will eat it out of politeness. Lunch was a great opportunity to meet some new faces and catch up on all our various travel stories. And now it is after lunch and I think I am headed for a nap to catch up on my lack of sleep and then for orientation at 5!! It seems like I've been here for months already and it has only been half a day. I am thrilled to see what's in store for the rest of the week.

Keep ya posted

MB

And the Countdown Continues

So it is the final week and the nervous stampede of buffalo has taken off in my stomach...one.week.left that is it, just one week and I am going to be in a new country with new people and a new family and just wow. I don't know really what else I can say at this point. I just found out that it is going to be highly unrealistic to ship my clothing over to my host family so my brilliantly planned out idea of just bringing a carry on bag and checking my guitar is a no go it is just not going to happen; so i have to figure out a new plan I will check the largest suitcase I can find and ship my guitar? I have no idea it is slightly bizarre I couldn't really follow the rationale for this rule it had something to do with the fear of spreading disease-completely absurd I do not have diseases that I just rub all over my clothing to somehow spread some outrageous pandemic to the rest of the world that I plan on spreading by mode of my clothing.

I'm probably overreacting but I don't know... I feel as though I am a pretty rational human being and the idea of packing all of my belongings for the next 6 months is just pretty crazy and I don't know if i could go that long without my guitar, I am not really a guitar aficionado but I would like to be someday and I can't really see myself doing that if I don't have the instrument with which to practice my mad skills.

There are so many things I have to remember to do before leaving. My father is a member of the DC rotary club and apparently the Argentine Rotary wants to make a contact with our rotary club so I have been made the ambassador and I am to meet a member of their rotary while I am in Buenos Aires and am to switch flags with them, ha maybe I'll take a picture or something as it is to be my first record-worthy action upon my arrival in Argentina. As much as I feel honored and privileged to be in this particular position it is kind of stressful to think I am going to be making some potentially important contacts the first few days I'm in new country. It is going to be an adventure for sure

I don't know if it my fault that I feel so lost in all of this, I don't know really what to pack or if I'll have not enough. I STILL don't know who my host family is which is incredibly frustrating, even though Ashley said we would know by this week, I guess it doesn't really matter, I will have a family to live with regardless but it would be nice to get to know them at least a little bit. However I guess it just adds to the adventure of it all I suppose.

I also thought I might be able to do some work with some restaurants in the states that are looking for good wine to import, and that would only involve going to some wine tastings and sending them some names and possibly getting paid to do so which would be wonderful because I have very little funds for this trip I feel as though I probably won't have enough to sustain myself the entire time but I am sure it will all work out fine. My biggest suggestion to anyone who plans to go abroad is LEARN HOW TO BUDGET EARLY ON because I seriously don't know how to and that's an issue.

Well ttfn until next time

ADIOS

The Stress Factor Doom

So I have just about two weeks left before leaving for lovely Argentinaland and it seems to be that I am not in the slightest bit prepared, I have not shopped or packed or fully prepared for this incredible adventure. However, as I am practically a professional procrastinator it is only appropriate that I wait until the very last moment to complete all that needs to be done before my departure.

If I were to make a list, which I happen to end up doing quite often the various bullets would include:

-Go to the Dr. get all of my vaccines completed

-Do my laundry so that I may actually figure out what clothing I have before going shopping for what I need

-Proceed to make another list of things I need to get including winter clothing and new jeans that are without massive holes everywhere

-Plan and follow through with seeing every last possible person I know so as not to offend anyone by leaving without saying goodbye

-Plan a small but entertaining birthday gathering of sorts seeing as how I turn the lovely age of 20 the day I arrive in Argentina

-Shop for every last thing I may ever need while traveling in a foreign country

-Begin to pack all of my things and then unpack and repack to ensure I have not forgotten anything

-Make copies of all important documents so that on the off chance that I lose anything I am not stranded in nowhereland with not a single way of returning home

-And finally proceed to depart from my lovely home place of the DC metro area to arrive in a land that is more than foreign to me

-Which is the point at which I will continue to have lots of fun and live a relatively low-stress period of my life in Mendoza, Argentina the land of beautiful culture...and wine (or so I've been told by my wine aficionado of a grandfather)

So that is my list as of now but I'm sure there will be many additions as I continue on with this stressful period of prepredeparture.

I cannot tell if I am awake right now because of the massive amounts of caffeine I stupidly ingested a few hours ago... or because I am so nervous and frantic about all the things I have left to do I can't tell but for whatever reason I am awake now and I am getting slightly frustrated with my lack of drowsiness.

I should probably contact some of the people I might be meeting in Dallas, since I think I may be the only one flying from the NE coast I believe I may be meeting some of my fellow travelers in Dallas to then proceed to fly into Buenos Aires. Maybe I'll save that for tomorrow's To-Do list.

As much as I'd like to think I am an adult, there are times that I wish someone would just hold my hand throughout this entire process because as much as I can pretend I know what I am doing I feel like a lost puppy.

I fear that much of this blog has been me complaining about this process and to that I will just have to poo-poo you because this is my moment of venting and I get to use it and abuse it at my own accord.

and so the days are dwindling... whatever will happen next?!?!?!