My first couple of days in Parana

Today is my second day in Parana and I am enjoying it very much. Alicia, my advisor, and Paula, the University student I am staying with now, are very nice and helpful to me always. I am looking at apartments today to find my own for my stay here, but Paula said I can stay as long as I want to with her. It is difficult for a foreigner to find an apartment for a short period of time like 8 months here because most apartments rent for minimum leases of 2 years. Additionally, one also needs to provide at least 2 gaurantias or co-signers on the lease who will be responsible for paying the rent if I do not. Also, furnished apartments are not the norm here and simple, basic furnishings such as refrigerators and stoves are very expensive. A refrigerator usually sells for about 3000 pesos or 750 american dollars. Luckily, Alicia has found one realtor or inmobiliara that can offer me a furnished one bedroom apartment for 1500 pesos or about 375 american dollars per month, which is very expensive for Parana standards, but fairly cheap for Americans used to paying upwards from 700 dollars monthly for a one bedroom in Philly.

Parana is a very small city, but there are plenty of shops and a moderately sized downtown area, and there is a large population of young people because of the University here. There is also a very nice national park, riverside with rowing club, and beautiful old government and school buildings. It has also been very hot and humid here, so my recently trimmed hair is now extra curly and short, and I have been able to wear my beloved onesie. We had a pretty fierce rainstorm with thunder and lightning last night, so Im expecting it to be a lot cooler for the next couple of days. According to Paula, Parana does not usually get tropical storms like this one last night, but in the past few years the weather has been changing little by little and the climate is becoming more tropical. Sound familiar to the folks in Philly with our 40 inches of snow in 5 days this winter? Parana is becoming the Carribean and Philly is becoming Buffalo, NY.

I went to Walmart yesterday with Paula and 2 friends to buy towels. toiletries, and food yesterday afternoon. Walmart looks the exact same as the ones in the US! In fact, this is a Super Walmart with pharmacy, optical shop, dry cleaning,automotive, and extensive grocery section with fresh produce and meat. Most of the vegetables and fruits are the same here as in the US, with the exception of a couple interesting items like the Zapallito, a very squat, round looking version of the Zucchini.

I also visited UADER, Universidad Autonoma de Entre Rios, to meet the Dean and secretaries yesterday. It was a very brief introduction, but they did talk to me about an interview soon for an article in their local newspaper. UADER is held in two highschool buildings in the downtown area. The main site is in a 100 year old building with an inner open courtyard and some classrooms with extremely old-fashioned desks. I will have to take pictures soon to post. The desks reminded me of episodes from the Little House on the Prairie. The other highschool building is the site for the English teaching classes so I will mostly be there once classes start April 5th.


My castellano is quickly improving as I get more used to the pronunciation of Argentine Spanish, the shhh and jjjja, and the vocabulary here. In Parana and Entre Rios, its surrounding province, the people pronounce the sound of y as shhh, unlike the rest of Argentina where they say jjja. For example, in Parana, one says sho me shamo, instead of yo me yamo in Spain, or jo me jamo in Buenos Aires. I am interested in looking into the reasons behind these regional differences.

I have also been teaching Paula and her friends Marcia and Facundo English words and expressions. They are all students of English interested in teaching ESL.
We speak half the time in English amd half the time in Spanish, so we all improve our foreign language skills a bit with each conversation. They have also introduced me to the popular custom of Mate, where everyone drinks a very bitter herbal tea from the same pot and metal straw. It sort of reminds me of the tradition of passing the joint or bong in the US, except more legal and not a drug. According to Paula, marijuana, aside from being illegal here, is not popular in Parana at all.

Finally today I have a few hours to myself to rest and unpack my suitcases. As Paula is teaching English lessons all day in the neighboring town of Diamante, I have the apartment to myself. I have been very tired lately from doing too much and not sleeping enough. I will post more tomorrow hopefully.