Email and Facebook Hacked!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please disregard any email or facebook messages you receive from me about being mugged and needing money!!

I have not been mugged, but both accounts have been hacked.

4 days in San Juan

I spent the past 4 days in San Juan, capital city of the province of San Juan. Honestly, if I could choose any place to live in Argentina long term, I feel pretty confident about saying it would be San Juan. I'm not sure how much I would like the hot hot summers in San Juan (up to 115 degrees Fahrenheit,) but the fall/winter there is definitely to my liking. There is practically 0 humidity, so San Juan doesn't exhibit the bitter cold bite of the air in Parana, and it fairly warm and sunny this time of year. Also, the city is just the right blend of urban city and small town. It has a nice, relaxing (re tranqui) pace of life, while also offering a cultural scene and sufficient public transportation.

Because of 2 serious earthquakes during the 20th century, San Juan consists of only modern buildings. Everything constructed before the earthquakes was destroyed. I can only speak of the places I visited, but from what I've seen, San Juan is a pretty prosperous community. The civic center, public university, and the school of music here are beautiful and big. I've heard that the school of music here has the largest auditorium and organ in South America! I went to the auditorium on Friday to listen to a string quartet play Dvorak, and it was incredible. Sitting so close up to the musicians made it possible for me to see every movement and discern every sound produced. With most music, I don't care whether I listen to it at a concert or on a cd, but with classical music I've realized that it really is especially beautiful and moving to experience it in person.

One interesting tidbit about San Juan is that it is the birth place of one of Argentina's most notable national heroes, Sarmiento: president, inventor, and founder of education.

My Journey Westward

Ok, so I haven't written in a loooong time, but here's the deal: I've been busy doing many, many things in Parana! I will write on that later though. Right now the main topic of focus is my journey westward. Because of the May 25th Independence Holiday and the exam boards I have a full 2.5 weeks to travel, and my trip westward is already afoot.

Last thursday morning, I took a bus from Parana to Rafaela to visit my friend Agostina and her family. We hadn't seen each other in about a month since my last visit to Rafaela. Her and I watched a really funny Argentine movie called Un novio para mi mujer about a man who hires a Senor Flores to seduce his wife because he's too chicken to tell her he wants a separation. One highlight of the trip was the acto or celebration at the university in celebration of Argentina's bicentennial on May 25th. I could hardly stop myself from laughing out loud when a stray dog wandered wandered down the aisle behind the national flag during a very solemn procession. I just can't get over the presence of stray dogs everywhere here in Argentina, even inside school auditoriums!

On Friday night, I took an overnight bus to Cordoba to meet up with 4 other Fulbrighters. My bus was delayed by about 3 hours unfortunately, but thankfully the rest of the trip went pretty smoothly. I couldn't tell how beautiful Cordoba was the first day I arrived because the weather was pretty overcast, and truthfully, nothing looks good when it's cloudy and cold out.
We really had an action packed 4 days in the nation's 3rd largest city: a trip to Che Guevara's childhood home in Alta Gracia, a typical Cuban meal at the restaurant nextdoor owned by a woman who met Che in Cuba, a hike to almost the tippy top of a sierra in La Falda (the place where Hitler is rumored to have visited once although this is debatable), an interpretive dance/military procession/fireworks spectacular in honor of the bicentennial at midnight on the 25th, a visit to the two largest Cordobese art museums and one of the oldest Jesuit missions in Argentina, and a three-person bicycle ride around a lake.

Now after a 10 hour bus ride, I am further northwest in San Juan with another Fulbrighter: Matt. I am pretty excited to be visiting him in San Juan, the birthplace of Sarmiento, as well as the province where El Valle de La Luna is located. I've heard that this is one of the largest sites for dinosaur fossils in the world!

I will post another entry later with a run-down of my stay in San Juan. On a parting note, my first observations in San Juan: it was very difficult to navigate my way to Matt's apartment from the San Juan bus terminal as there are no real signs indicating bus stops, street names, or house numbers. I basically had to ask every single Argentine I saw in the street this morning at 7am "Where is bus 12a?" I'm pretty proud of myself for actually finding his apartment considering the fact that Argentines always give you directions when asked, but 9 times out of 10 they have no idea what they are talking about. I have been sent on many a wild goose-chase because of that. I have to ask one of my Argentine friends what's going on.
Also, interestingly, the Argentines of San Juan do not use the "shh" sound. I can't get over it nor, now that I've adopted the shhh into my speech can I stop using it even though no one else here speaks this way. Oh regional linguistic diversity!

Until next time!

A WOW weekend in Rafaela

Last weekend I took a long-distance bus to visit Brian in Rafaela. Rafaela is very different from Parana and Diamante. As Brian informed me earlier, Rafaela is a noticeably wealthier city, and therefore, it really reminded me of Fairfield County in Connecticut. The people on average have larger homes, more modern appliances, and newer car models. I'm guessing that the wealth comes from the three main industries in Rafaela: autoparts, dairy, and the metallurgical industry(?).

For the three days I spent in Rafaela, I stayed with Brian's host family, the Ricotti's. The mother, Leilia, is a recently retired English teacher, and the father. Raul, is a recently retired professor from the Tech University nearby. Their youngest daughter Sonia, who studies Bio-Engineering in Santa Fe, also came to visit and spend the weekend with all of us. I am very grateful to their hospitality and generosity to me. My weekend in Rafaela was a really relaxing and enjoyable vacation for me. The Ricotti's fed Brian and me delicious food all weekend, including a very special asado on Saturday. For our first time, Brian and I tasted molleja or ....... sweetbread. I believe the translation is pancreas! Although neither of us is a fan of eating organs, we have to admit it was quite tender and tasty. Unfortunately, noting the yanquis' aversion to organ-eating, the Ricotti's informed us that American cuisine does feature animal organs ground up in the form of hot dogs, hamburgers, and cold-cuts! Oh goodness! I also learned that the italian cold cut Mortadela is sometimes made from ground up horse! Ehhh......

During the weekend, Brian and I spent a lot of time hanging out and chatting with his young Argentine friends. On Friday night we went to a pub called La Republica to dance. I still haven't full-out gone to a Boliche (dance club), but I have been making gradual progress toward it. First I went to a pub in Diamante to drink and chat with Facundo and his friends Sebastian, Estefania, and her boyfriend Emanuel until 4am, and then I danced at a pub in Rafaela with Brian, Leo, and Edu until 5am. The next step is to actually dance at a Boliche until 7am with all the rest of the Argentine youth. As usual, the DJ at la Republica played a lot of American songs, including "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga, and, to my delight, "YMCA"! However, that night, we also had fun dancing to a lot of Reggaeton songs, such as my personal favorite, "Yo soy tu gatita" = "I am your little cat." I am excited for when I will be fluent enough to actually understand all the words in a Reggaeton song.

While I was in Rafaela, I also met up with Flavio's friend Mauricio. (awww... the beauty of networking!) Mauricio and Flavio met and became good friends in the US while they were both working at a casino in Reno on a work exchange program. Although since there return to Argentina, they have not been able to see each other again, they still keep in contact, and Flavio passed Mauricio's contact information along to Brian and me. Mauricio works at the Hotel Plaza in Rafaela. Even though Rafaela is not a popular tourist city, it does receive a lot of visitors from Europe and the US regularly for business reasons pertaining to these industries. He and his girlfriend Mari also joined Brian and I at la Republica, and I am hoping to see them again soon in Parana or Rafaela. I may visit Rafaela again at the end of May when the classic racecars from all over Argentina come there for a race.

Over the weekend, I also met Brian's friend Agostina, or Agos. Agos is studying Spanish language and literature at the local University, so we had a lot to talk about as regards books and authors. Even though Agos does not know a lot of English, she spoke so clearly in castellano that I was able to understand almost everything she said to me right away. : - )! On Sunday, Agos invited me over her house to watch an Argentine film called "Lluvia," meaning "Rain." As she informed me, this film is very Argentine because there is not a lot of action, words, or changes in setting. Nearly the whole movie takes place while it is raining in Buenos Aires, first in a line of cars stuck in traffic and then in a hotel. This movie was especially interesting to me because of the two main characters: one is a Spanish man and the other is an Argentina woman. During their (very)brief conversations with each other, I noted the various classic differences between Argentine and Spanish castellano. The differences in vocabulary, intonaton, and pronunciation were all fairly transparent right away to me since I have lived in Spain and am now living in Argentina. I could see myself one day using this movie to teach a class about the differences in castellano spoken in Argentina and Spain.

Now for the definite piece de resistance of me trip to Rafaela:
This past weekend, I spoke and listened to so much Argentine castellano that I have actually begun dreaming in castellano for the first time. : - )!!!!

One weekend in Diamante with the Gregorutti's

I haven't had time to add a new entry in the past two weeks because I have been keeping very busy exploring Argentina and meeting new friends along the way. Last weekend I took a long-distance bus to the city of Rafaela in the Santa Fe province to visit fellow ETA Brian, and the weekend before that, I stayed with my friend Facundo in his parents' house in Diamante. It is difficult to condense two weekends of activity into two blog entries, but I will try to summarize as best I can.

Diamante: Most of the university students only live in Parana Monday though Friday; on the weekends, they return home to their respective hometowns in Entre Rios province to visit with their family and friends. Therefore, Facundo and his family were very kind to invite me to their home two weekends ago when I was very bored and at a loss of things to do in Parana. Facundo's mom cooked Estofado (beef stew), Milanesas, and a delicious salad with diced hard-boiled eggs, steamed zapallito, and chickpeas.

Facundo's mom also prepared achicoria for me, which is a green leafy plant eaten by a lot of Argentines with Italian heritage. Interestingly, I've already tried this vegetable before at my home in the US, but my grandma and her sisters refer to it as gigordia. I may sound a little nerdy, but I think this is really cool that on two distinct continents, people descended from Italian immigrants have preserved the tradition of eating this same plant, and that the Americanized and Argentinized versions of the original Italian name differ very slightly. I am really interested in studying the cultural and lexical similarities and differences between Italian-Argentines and Italian-Americans. I've noticed several other similarities between the two groups in the food, i.e. the plethora of similar cold cuts or fiambres, such as mortadela, pizza (although Argentine pizza is considerably thinner, less heavy on the cheese, and almost always features an adornment of whole green olives), pasta (lasagna, gnocci, cannelones, raviolis), and milanesas or breaded veal cutlets with fresh lemon on the side. Also, I've noticed similarities in the tradition of gathering together the whole family to eat on Sunday. In the US, my grandparents and parents were accustomed to this familial tradition, but since then it has fallen by the wayside. In contrast, Sunday family lunches are very much alive in Argentina. Now one difference that I am aware of is purely linguistic: in some parts of Argentina, where there is a large population of Italian-descendants, it is common to affix the article el or la, meaning "the", in front of a person's name. For example, I am "la Christina." Although the Spanish language uses artices in front of nouns, an article is not used for a person's name. The custom of saying "la Christina" or "el Facundo" in Diamante comes from the influence of the Italian language where articles are placed in front of people's names!

During my stay in Diamante, I brought my own supply of Quinoa along just in case it would be difficult to find any grains/carbohydrates that I could eat for over the weekend. His family really laughed it up when I showed them my bag of Quinoa seeds because to them it looked exactly like bird seed or mijo. Facundo's dad ran out right away to pick up a bag of bird seed to show me how much it resembles Quinoa. I've seen el mijo, and it is true! Some of my friends tell me that, with all my dietary restrictions, I eat like a bird, and now I realize how right they are!

Talking with Facundo and his family was really a two-fold learning experience for me. First of all, conversing with Argentine people who do not know any English (with the exception of Alfonso, Facundo's Dad, greeting me with "Good Morning")is really helpful. Non-English speaking Argentines don't alter their vocabulary, intonation, or syntax at all so as to make it easier for a Native-English listener to understand them. I want to learn Argentine castellano, not some simplified/Americanized version of it. I really think that even after only spending roughly a day and a half with the Gregorutti's my castellano improved noticeably. Facundo even told me that he could notice a difference in my intonation afterward.

Second of all, I learn a lot about Argentine culture, past, and present by talking with Facundo and his parents. His parents engage me in interesting conversations about the rising price of beef, the baseball-sized hail stones that terrorize Buenos Aires periodically, and the ships from all over the world that come to the Diamante port through the Parana River to pick-up and deliver grains. Actually, while I was in Diamante, I saw a HUGE ship from Hong Kong that was picking up soy to bring back to China. Interestingly, China imports a lot of soy grown in Argentina. I couldn't get over this when Alfonso told me. China, soy-based diet capital of the world, imports the majority of its soy from Argentina!

Off to a good start!

I have been very busy these past couple of weeks because at last classes have started! I am teaching in English Language II & IV, English Literature I & II, and in the ESL Teacher Training Workshop. So far I have been planning and leading lessons on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, American body language, and text messaging abbreviations in the USA. All of my students are in their 20's or older, so it is quite a relief to be able to teach a lesson without also worrying about classroom management and misbehavior. So far, I definitely prefer teaching this age group to highschoolers. Occassionally, I visit my advisor's morning classes at the local high school, and that is when I realized how lucky I am to be teaching adults. All in all, all of my teaching experiences here, even with highschool students, have been very fun and rewarding.

When lesson planning, I try to be creative about how I present the material so as to make it fun and accessible to the students. I'm a big fan of using games. I played Charades with Language II last week when we discussed body language in America, and I played Agree/Disagree/Unsure with Alice's high school class this morning in order to discuss various misconceptions about the United States.

It is a very interesting feeling to be an authority on USA culture and American English. I sort of feel like an Ambassador since, for the majority of the people here, I am the first American and/or native English speaker they have ever met. Of course, right away I get a lot of questions about where I am from and why I am here, and various inquiries about the USA. Actually as soon as I open my mouth, I hear " De donde sos" meaning "Where are you from?" At first it can get a little irritating because I want to blend as much as possible, but my accento norteamericano always gives me away. Thankfully, unlike my experience in Spain, the people that I've met so far haven't reacted negatively to me being an American. In general, they are just curious because Parana rarely gets foreign-speaking visitors. A lot of times people even say to me, "Why did you come here? Everyone here wants to go to the US?"

On Mondays and Tuesdays, I take classes at the School of Visual Arts. My class on Mondays is called "Libre Expresion" or "Free Expression;" I basically get to do whatever I want to do in art for 2 hours while surrounded by retired female teachers from the University. I am the youngest student by at least 30 years in that class, and I don't mind it at all! Then, on Tuesdays, I take an art class that focuses specifically on color when painting. For my first class, I drew a copy of a picture of a toucan I found in a magazine, and then I had to paint it using only black, white, and different shades of grey. I'm pretty excited to be painting; I recently went to the art store and bought all sorts of acrylic and oil paint, watercolors, and brushes. I've always wanted to paint, but I've never really had the opportunity to take any art classes since high school. Tomorrow I start classes in Tango and Folklore (another traditional dance from the Entre Rios Province).

I also recently signed up at SerAcuaGim: a gym offering group classes in water aerobics, aerobics, pilates, and yoga. I really enjoying going to a few classes a week because it's a great way for me to have fun working out while also reviewing the parts of the body and commands in castellano. : - )
I find it really funny that all of the songs are American remixes: "Oops I Did It Again" and such.

I really am enjoying teaching. In spite of being so shy for most of my life, I'm now at the point where I am confident and out-going enough to enjoy speaking in front of a classroom of students. I used to be nervous sometimes even when I taught 11 year-olds at Freedom Schools, but now I calmly teach 41 students (!!) in the second section of English Language II. It really shocks me how comfortable and happy I now feel speaking in front of such a large class of students. I think I may have found my niche, but we shall see how the next 7 months go. I am considering pursuing teaching as a profession, but I'm not certain yet.

Mi nuevo departamento!

At last, after all the delays, I am now in my own apartment. As mentioned earlier, I am living right across the street from the Hospital San Martin. Now, this of course has some perks (i.e. instant emergency medical care if need be), as well as some disadvantages (i.e. a lot of noise while I am trying to sleep!). Oh well, I am sure I will get used to it. I usually sleep like the dead anyways.

My apartment here is the nicest apartment I have ever lived in! Everything is brand new, and it is much more than a studio. I have a kitchen, dining room, bathroom, and nice-sized bedroom. The apartment came furnished with gas stove (eh), fridge, table, chairs, silverware, plates, bowls, dishes, pots, bed, and mattress. I am really happy I don't have to buy these furnishings at least. I already have a long list of things to buy. It didn't occur to me how easy I had it when I was living at a home-stay in Madrid, until I had to rent an apartment here. When I lived with Julia en el Barrio de Pilar, I didn't have to buy food, cook, or do laundry, not to mention worrying about buying shower curtain rods, dish detergent, light bulbs, or a broom and dust pan. Also, waiting for gas and electricity hook-ups was annoying, especially since this all happened Wednesday, the day before the start of the 4 day holiday here. So, if I didn't get gas and electricity then, I definitely wasn't going to have it for the next 4 days. Thursday was Holy Thursday, Friday (today) is the Day of the Veterans of the Malvinas War, Saturday is Saturday and Sunday is Easter. What a relief that everything turned out okay yesterday thanks to my realtor's secretary! He sent Rita over to handle all the lio (mess). I just had to be present in my apartment while the carpinter finished putting shelving into my closet.

Even though I did enjoy living with Paula, and I would prefer to have a nice Argentine roommate, I am excited to be living by myself. Now I can decorate everything to my taste! So far, I have some nice pink bathroom hand towels and a black and white rose shower curtain that matches the grey tiles nicely :-)
I am also thinking about getting a Bienvenida (Welcome) doormat where guests can leave their shoes. Since I have white tiles, I now see the merit in not wearing shoes around the apartment. I would also like to decorate my dining room.....hmmm......

Fortunately, I have not been so obsessed with interior decorating that I haven't been able to start planning for my first two lessons next week. In Literature II, I am giving an introduction lecture on Alice in Wonderland, and in English Language II, I am designing an interactive lesson on Body Language in American culture. I am thinking about including a game of Charades to make it more stimulating and fun for the students. I am most used to designing classes for children, so we shall see how University students like this.