May 30, 2007

Today I got up at 9 after more than 10 hours of sleep. I should not be tired, but I still feel exhausted. I took a freezing cold shower. Somehow, seeing my breath when I come out of the shower does not make me feel better! I had my usual breakfast of tostadas with dulce de leche, hot chocolate (Nesquik—which sounds like NES-kwee when Fani says it), and some grapes. Fani gave me an apple to take to school. I worked on my computer for a while and then left at 11:15am. I went to the ISA office for them to copy my passport and to get directions to the tango place for tonight. I also asked Paula about my homework because I had a question that Fani could not answer in a way that I could understand. I got online for a few minutes and checked my email before heading out. I looked for a Guia-te which is a really helpful little book of maps and bus routes, but the book/magazine/newspaper vendor outside ISA was sold out. I stopped at an ATM and took out some pesos. I continued on to UB (Universidad de Belgrano) and arrived a little early. Will was early, too, so we talked a bit in Spanish and then we wrote out our new Argentine vocabulary words with Spanish definitions. For the first 2 hours of class, we read an article about the history of Argentina written by the ex-president of Uruguay. It was interesting, but I wish I could have read it on my own first because I could have looked up more words than I could in class. The profesora had a volunteer read each paragraph and then we would talk about the main idea. When we had finished the whole article that way, we got into groups of two or three and discussed the author’s opinion of Argentina. It was difficult because we couldn’t understand what the teacher wanted us to do. At 2:30, she gave us a half hour break. Will and I met Meagan and Sam (a girl from a different program) at a really cheap empanada place right across from the university. I had three large empanadas (cheese and onion, a vegetable one, and a chicken one) and a glass bottle of Coke for less than $2! We had to hurry to get back to class. I was kind of freaking out because we were going to be about three minutes late, but when we got back, we did not start for another five minutes! I need to remember that we are in Latin America and time does not have the same constraints here! We talked about the difference between the imperfect and the preterite past tenses for most of the rest of the time. This was a lot easier for me than discussing the article because I already knew most of what she was telling us. She put a few examples on the board of the slight difference in meaning when you use the same verb, but in the different past tenses. This was a bit more difficult to understand. She gave us a ten minute break to get coffee because most of the class was dragging (due to late night partying), but several students (including me) stayed in the classroom and talked to the teacher. Paul was asking her about the Southern Cross, but she did not understand what he meant. She told us that there are three stars in a row (Orion’s belt, we believe) that they call the “Tres Marías.” I went to the bathroom and I have to tell you about the soap! It is so funny! They have these metal rods that stick out between every two sinks and these rods swivel between the sinks. On the end of the rod, there is a ball of soap stuck on the end. It is very interesting. I will try to take a picture and post it soon. Anyway, the rest of the students wandered back into class and we did this activity where the teacher gave us each the start of a story and we had to finish the story in three sentences without many details. Then, each group told its story to the class and we were allowed to ask any question we wanted about the story. For example, one story was about buying four bottles of water at a store, drinking them all, and then having to go to the bathroom. People asked which store they bought the water at, how much it cost, who sold them the water, and many other questions. It was really fun. She assigned us homework for the next day and then we left. I went with will and Rachel to a phone store so Will could buy a phone. Having a cell phone here is really a necessity because we do not live close to each other and we are not supposed to use the phones at our homes, so it is really the only way to communicate. ISA had planned tango lessons for tonight, but we had to get there ourselves. It was kind of far away and so they recommended that we take a taxi. Rachel, Heather, and I planned out where to meet so we could catch a taxi together. We stopped by an heladería for some ice cream. I had dulce de leche and white chocolate. It was cheaper than the other places we have gone. We think that we should try every ice cream place in Buenos Aires before we leave! That might be difficult—even for an ice cream lover like me—because they are EVERYWHERE! I headed back to my apartment and changed my clothes and had dinner. Fani didn’t eat, as is pretty usual, but she served me the most food I have ever seen in my life. I felt bad because I had just eaten ice cream less than 2 hours ago, but I could not have eaten it all anyway. She served me three pieces of meat about as big as hamburgers (2 chicken, 1 something else), a salad that consisted of about 4 grape tomatoes cut up and a whole cucumber sliced, an enormous bowl of soup (probably about 1.5 cups), a 4 inch long roll, and a can of fruit cocktail in a bowl! I made sure that she knew I liked it all, but that I could not eat that much food! After dinner, I worked on homework. Fani went to bed about 8:45 and I left at 8:55 to meet the girls. I found them and we hailed a cab. It was not a radio taxi like they tell us to take, but the girls said it didn’t matter. I personally would have waited for the right kind. We got in and drove for quite a while to this bad-looking part of town. We were all getting really nervous, but we eventually made it there safely. The tango club didn’t look like anything much from the outside, but when we went inside, we found the ISA man, Gustavo, and went downstairs. There were tons of Argentine people dancing downstairs. We put our stuff at a table and watched. I was really afraid that someone was going to steal our stuff, so I tried to keep an eye on it. A waiter saw of come in and immediately came over with a drink menu. I can see why Americans sometimes give off a bad impression because the first thing our group did was to order five of the largest bottles of beer that they had. I looked around and most of the people were not even drinking alcohol, but had pop instead. We watched for a while and then they said that they were having lessons for beginners upstairs. We all went up and it reminded me of swing dancing because they were more girls than boys so we had to switch partners a lot. We learned the basic step and then we practiced with each other. It was fun, but there were so many people that we kept running into each other! We stayed until midnight and then the lessons were over. Meagan called a taxi and Michaela, Meagan, and I rode home together, getting dropped off one-by-one. I went inside without any key problems. I wasn’t actually too tired and I couldn't fall asleep right away. I think I drifted off about 1:15am…