Author Archives: Alison Claire Roby

About Alison Claire Roby

Hi! I'm a senior studying biomedical engineering and Spanish. I am a Schreyer's Honors scholar and am in the IUG program to finish a master's degree. My research, which will culminate in my thesis, focuses on the functional connectivity changes associated with nicotine administration in rats. I have participated in outreach events through Discovery Space and the Society of Women Engineers. I look forward to my experience with Haunted-U, and hopefully many more outreach events!

In One Place and Thinking of Another

Tomorrow is my final exam in my university class, and I have been trying to study hard. But don’t worry, writing this blog is just a short break from studying for my exam. It will be an oral cumulative final exam in Spanish, of course. I have no hints as to what the questions will be or how it is structured. So I am pretty nervous for it, even though my professors are very patient and kind. Oh, and the exam also worth my entire grade for the course.

Despite my anxiety for the exam, I am finding it very hard to concentrate on studying. For one, many people left over the weekend or on Monday, so I spent a lot of time with them enjoying the last sights and tastes of Buenos Aires. Before we said our goodbyes, we went to some of our favorite cafes across the city to chat and enjoy good coffee. Yesterday, I went to a Peruvian restaurant with my friends because I surely will not find that in my suburban town or in State College.

I hadn’t really realized that I was leaving Buenos Aires so soon until I started saying goodbyes to friends leaving BA. We gave each other besos on the cheek and big hugs and agreed to see each other back in the States. Gratefully, many of the friends I have made here live in Northeast, so it will be easy to visit them and stay in touch. I have even made friends who go to Penn State, so I’m especially excited to hang out with them on campus next year! But when saying goodbye/ see you later to them, I think gee, I’m going to have to say goodbye to more friends, my lovely homestay family, my buddies at the tea house, and this city in a few days!

Besides spending time with my friends, I am trying to check off my own bucket list in Buenos Aires. I went to another cafe/ bookstore that I’ve been wanting to go to and studied there for a while in Palermo. I plan on going to the tea house a lot on my last days here. I am also running around buying the last few gifts I have on my list for friends and stopping at bookstores to pick up more books in Spanish to take back with me to the US.

So, it has definitely been difficult to study.

Today, I have been studying a lot. But last night at dinner, my host parents asked me a few questions about Argentine history to help me practice for my exam and that made me feel a lot better and more confident. No matter what grade I receive on this exam, I will be really proud of myself for taking this course. I never could have had this experience at Penn State. The course really improved my Spanish comprehension, and I learned modern Argentine history with Argentine students and learned more about their own political perspectives.

Studying abroad has been an unforgettably unique experience. I have learned so much academically and culturally. I have experienced economic instability first hand. I have learned to manage the public transportation of a developing country. I have come to love Argentines: their ability to adapt, their pride, and their interminable hope for a better future.
On my last day of class at the local university, my teacher brought in a t-shirt she made to show to the class.

Last lesson

As always, she passionately tried to inspire pride of country. The shirt has the Argentine flag and says “Yo amo Argentina”, “I love Argentina”. She warned the class that this shirt was not for pajamas, but was to be worn proudly out to the previa (pre-game) or the boliche (club). Although the class laughed at her jokes, my professor truly does love her country, dedicates herself to teaching Argentine history with the hope of inspiring patriotism and political activism in her students.

She asked us if the foreigners if we loved Argentina, and we all responded yes. My professor asked what we thought of peronism and how we would describe it to Americans. We replied that we would explain peronism is quite complicated. The class laughed.

So with all that I have learned in Argentina, I hope to carry these lessons home with me. I hope to be as warm and welcoming as Argentines: warmly greeting colleagues, friends, and family with kisses and hugs; to read more and watch more films in Spanish; to have the insight to sit and enjoy a cup of coffee without thinking about everything else I need to accomplish; to be more flexible in my own country when things go wrong or plans change; and to share what I learned in Latin America with friends and family.

Location: Carlos Pellegrini 1069 Buenos Aires, Argentina

I don’t wear a watch, but I’ve got time.

Our guide on our trip to Salta and Jujuy provinces shared the aphorism in the title of this blog with us, and it really sums up the most important lessons I’ve learned in Argentina.

Time

At Penn State, I have an alarm set almost everyday to wake up, get to class on time, or accomplish some work. I have almost every minute of my day planned out from the moment my alarm goes off, and I have this all organized on my Google calendar. I have multiple calendars to organize which events are for the Red Cross and which are for the Society of Women Engineerings; I make sure I spend enough time in the research lab every week; and I have reminders set on my phone fifteen minutes before every event in case I am immersed in a problem set. I know— I am very anal retentive. But, I love being busy and love the work that I do for school and for different clubs on campus.

However, coming to Argentina, I knew I wouldn’t have so much homework or so many extracurriculars and would have more free time for other important things like exploring the city and traveling. I adjusted easily to this change, but I didn’t consider other cultural adjustments that I would have to make. However, staying in South America for sixth months, I quickly realized that there is a completely different concept of time here.

For example, pretty much nothing starts on time: whether it be a class, a touristic event, or an activity organized by IES. My teachers in university normally show up about ten minutes late. Sometimes I even am on the same bus with my professor, and we both arrive to the university a half hour early before class. So, I know she is on the campus, yet she still arrives 15 minutes late to our class. It’s also not like at Penn State where if the professor isn’t there fifteen minutes into the scheduled time for class, all the students leave. In the US, it is generally understood that students could be doing something better with our time if the teacher failed to notify them that he or she would be late or absent. But, in my university course here, we have sat more than a half hour two times during the semester for our professor.

Transportation also complicates being timely here. There are no schedules, no general rules of intervals for buses nor subways here. So any American that is pretty concerned about punctuality or preoccupied with timeliness would feel culture shock coming to Argentina. But for me, with my very type A personality, adjusting to their conception of time was my biggest challenge.

Flexibility

Argentines adapt easily, not only because they have a looser concept of time, but also because they have suffered a lot of drastic political and economic changes in their lifetimes. Democracy in Argentina is less than 40 years old, and before it was established, Argentina suffered dictatorship after dictatorship. In 2001, they also suffered an economic default that closed the banks for an entire year and still affects their economy today. I mentioned in my last post about inflation here: about forty percent annually. Because of high inflation, there is also a lack of printed money here. In the provinces, people can go to the bank and there can often be no money in the ATM to make a withdraw. Also because it is a developing country, there are some times when electricity is cut because there isn’t enough of it to go around between industry and the population. However, Argentines learn to adapt to these issues and have proven very resilient despite these political and economic difficulties. So I could learn how to be more flexible from some of the best.

So, I learned how to adapt adeptly in Argentina. To be honest, I pretty much have left my type A personality behind so that I do not have a mental breakdown. Nevertheless, I have learned so much from my newfound type B personality.

I now relish the moments where I can just enjoy time pass by without any worry. For advising appointments here I don´t arrive 15 minutes early and fill the time before the appointment with homework. I arrive right on time, and normally my advisor is late anyways. But I don’t worry about it; I just sit and relax for a few minutes.

I will go to a café after school to savor a rich café and sweet scone in solitude. While I wait for the bus to arrive, I can people watch on the sidewalk or appreciate the changing colors of a sunset. I can enjoy taking a simple photo of a vine on an urban wall or of grapes, hanging from a verdant vine.

Ironically, I didn’t bring my watch to Argentina. I love my beautiful watch, so I feared losing it or having it stolen while abroad. So I not only lost the tan line from my daily worn watch, but also lost my overwhelming preoccupation with optimizing time and productivity while in Argentina. When I return to the States next week, I will be happy to wear my lovely watch once again, but I will try to remember what I learned about being flexible and present in every moment.

Location: Carlos Pelegrini 1069, Capital Federal, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Culture shock: conquered ✓

Can you believe it is the week before finals? I have a few exams next week, and then I have my final in the local university on July 1. So I am leaving in two weeks on July 2. I have really enjoyed myself in Buenos Aires. I feel like my horizons have truly broadened studying liberal arts, improving my Spanish,making new friends, and living in an entirely different culture. When I arrived here months ago, I encountered a lot of differences in culture to which I have learned to adapt. I can truly say that I have conquered those culture shocks.

Greeting Culture

When I first arrived in Colombia, I went to a party. I entered and when I was introduced to everyone, I offered my hand, then quickly withdrew it as everyone leaned in to kiss my cheek. So when I arrived at my homestay in Argentina, I was prepared and boldly greeted everyone with a kiss on the cheek. When my friends and I go our separate ways, we all kiss each other on the cheek and say “chau”! It now feels unnaturally cold-hearted to greet or thank someone with a handshake.

Food Culture

While walking to class in the morning, I see waiters running through the streets carrying metal trays with coffee. This practice is the Argentine version of “to go”. A Starbucks opened up on the corner of my street, and my host dad complains about how everyone carries “to go” cups from there. He can’t understand how someone could possibly enjoy coffee from a “to go” cup on the run to the office. I used to bring my computer to cafés and I always felt that I was ruining everyone else’s relaxed vibe at the café. So now when I go for my café con leche, I maybe bring a book or my knitting, but more often I just sit, people watch, and enjoy the taste of well made cup of coffee.

Milanesa sandwich

Another challenge for me with Argentine food culture was their obsession with meat and misconception of what vegetables actually are. I pretty much have meat every day in this country, although I have been a vegetarian for the past five years. Along with the meat that I eat everyday, there is usually potatoes and bread, maybe a salad once in a while. Potatoes serve as a vegetable here, and I really miss things like steamed broccoli or But I wanted to share dinner with my host family every night and enjoy what is particular to their culture. So I have certainly enjoyed dinners with my host family, but I honestly cannot wait to go back to my plant-based diet when I get back to the US.

Transportation Culture

I have described the colectivo (bus) culture in another blog post earlier in the semester, but there are a few more things I have noticed during the past few months. A few new bus stop signs have been put up. The stop where I catch the bus to go to my university used to be completely unmarked. I learned to look for the particular bus line I want to take while I walk to the general area of the stop so I know exactly where to stand. But now there is a nice, clear sign that displays 111 with the colors of the line where I hop on the green and yellow bus. However, there are still no signs for the 106 or the 140, and none of these bus stop signs include schedules. So I have adapted to being patient finding a bus stop and making sure to have a plan B if I can´t find it or the bus does not show.

Although the bus can be unpredictable sometimes, everyone (unless they are heading to a Boca Juniors soccer game) is polite and respectful. Whenever a mother, child, or elderly person hops on the bus, there is always a person to jump from there seat and graciously offer it to them. I hear a woman thank a man for giving up his seat, and he responds, saying “no, por favor, it is your right.” While waiting at the bus stop, men are also always sure to let women on the bus first.

Political Culture

Another reason for the uncertainty of the bus is Argentina’s political culture. If you decide to visit the Plaza de Mayo, where the offices of President Cristina are, it would be rare to not encounter some kind of political protest. These protests often cause the streets to be barricaded and closed.

Plaza de Mayo with the Casa Rosada in the background

When my mom visited me, there were hundreds of people protesting for the right of self-cultivation of marijuana. The police barricaded the streets and stood by while the people set up their posters and light up their joints. Other days when I go to the plaza, there are people fighting for protection of the environment. A few weeks ago, there was an enormous protest against domestic violence. Almost every Argentine I know went. Protests where people, whether young or old, fill up the street and yell obscenities to their opposition are quite common in Argentina and a huge part of their political process.

Protest in the plaza

Unions, and their strikes, also have a huge role in Argentine politics. They will also participate in protests in political areas of the city when they strike. Since my arrival in Buenos Aires, I have experienced two general strikes. This may not sound like a big deal, but during these strikes, all forms of public transportation were stopped. In the last strike, transportation was stopped across the country: there were no trains, no subways, no buses functioning in all of Argentina. Not one plane flew into the Ezeiza International Airport, nor the domestic airport. These general strikes are normally not so common, but it is an election year. So the stakes are higher and everyone is trying to publicize their stance.

Economic Culture

Many of the strikes while I have been here have been about raises in salary. The last strike also was fighting for a raise, but focused more on the problem of inflation. They see this as the root of the economic problems of workers because the pesos they receive are worth less and less.

In the grocery store or in the mall, they offer to everyone to pay installments. I buy ham, cheese, and bread for sandwiches and the cashier asks me if I only want one installment on my credit card. Some clothing stores advertise offers of 12 installments over an entire year. Because of the economic uncertainty, Argentines are more likely to spend their money right in the moment because of inflation.

During the four months I have been here, I have seen everything go up in price by about ten percent. The scone at the tea house, the cost of doing my laundry at the laundromat, a salami sandwich at Al Sandwich: all up ten percent.

Since the default of 2001, Argentina has experienced significant inflation, and my peers in my university class have grown up with it. They ask me how much a dollar is worth in two years, and I don’t know the answer.

Adapting

These culture experiences are very different from my daily life in the United States. At times, confronting these differences proved difficult, especially trying to navigate them by communicating in my second language. Even more so, learning to be more laidback with uncertainty and unpredictability was hard with my type A personality. But over the past few months, I have learned the importance of a warm greeting, having a second plan, adapting to changes of plans, and enjoying a single moment without distraction or multitasking.

Drinking mate and relaxing at an estancia

A cosmopolitan city

Recoleta

This is the barrio that I live in, and it is perfect for me! It is super close to the IES center. It is filled with quiet, shady streets, French architecture, and is the “old money” neighborhood of Buenos Aires. I especially love the tea house that is a block away from where I live!

My friends and I at Bonjour Paris

The perfect pair

They have great tea in adorable little tea pots and deliciously warm scones. I go there a lot to do homework, read, knit, or just people watch. People often meet each other here after work. Old women bring their dogs to sit with them and their friends and chat.

When I am not at the tea house, my favorite ice cream spot is also in Recoleta a few blocks from my house. It´s called Fragola and has tons of amazing flavors. I have made it mission to try all of the flavors before I leave Argentina. I haven’t completed the mission entirely but have come quite close. I love the Maracuyá (passion fruit) and Roger flavors. The Roger flavor really confused me at first because I had no idea what Roger could possibly be in Spanish. But it is actually flavored after the candy Ferrero Rocher, which I love and so I also loved the Roger (in Spanish sounds like Rocher) ice cream. I love getting ice cream and crossing the street to sit in the shady park when it is unbearably humid and hot. In the park, I can sit and enjoy my ice cream while families play with their babies and other young people sit around and drink mate. On the same block of the ice cream store is my favorite empanada place, Maestros. This is a great place to grab a cheap meal: three empanadas of mozzerella, tomato, and basil for 50 pesos, or about 5 dollars. On the weekends, there is also a great fair on Plaza Francia. They sell a lot of leather goods, mates, incense, and jewelry. I have bought a lot of souvenirs and gifts for my friends there.

Plaza Francia

Overall, Recoleta is filled with small cafes and boutiques that make it very charming to stroll around and enjoy the day.

Palermo

The most charming part about Palermo, a neighborhood to the west of Recoleta, is that there are so many colorful murals and colorful cafes that line its cobbled streets.

Mural in Palermo

This barrio is very different from Recoleta. It has a huge expat community and sometimes restaurants or cafes will have their entire menu posted in English or have numerous references to American culture.

Exhibit A: Kramer in Buenos Aires

Many expatriates establish their own restaurants that offer food that is difficult to find in Buenos Aires. For example, I love going to a this one restaurant with my friends that offers Sunday American brunch. I normally don´t go for breakfast burritos in the US, but when I go I want something obnoxiously American for breakfast. So I ordered their breakfast burrito, and it is amazing! Another fun place on the weekend is LattenTe, a coffee shop. On Sunday´s an expat from New York sells his homemade bagels. His company´s name is Sheikob´s Bagels; sheikob is how Argentines would pronounce his name, Jacob. He was a lifesaver because I absolutely love bagels and they are not to be found in Buenos Aires, unless you count bread in the shape of a bagel.

So in Palermo, it is definitely more common to hear English and feel more at home.

Belgrano

Belgrano is farther away from where I live, so I haven’t been there too many times. But I went there once on a field trip with IES to a Buddhist temple there. We got a tour of the temple and learned how to meditate and greet the Buddha. Another time, I also visited Barrio chino, their Chinatown, which is also in Belgrano. It was fun to walk through the pagoda gate into the barrio. My friend and I happily enjoyed a yummy, spicy meal in a Chinese restaurant. Spice is sometimes hard to find in Buenos Aires: they don’t even offer black pepper on the table in restaurants. So, it was great fun to spend a day in Barrio Chino.

San Telmo

This is an older neighborhood of Buenos Aires and is where the biggest artesanal fair in the city is held on Sunday´s. I love taking the colectivo (the bus) to the Plaza de Mayo and wandering down Avenida Defensa through the fair. Similar things to the Plaza Francia fair are sold here, but there are tons of tourists and stands; you could waste all day browsing through the stalls. One of my favorite restaurants is also in this neighborhood: La panadería de Pablo. The food is great and there´s a great outdoor terrace with heaters for when it is a little chilly. The restaurant also plays great music and the menu has soup, which is not commonly offered at restaurants in Buenos Aires.

Puerto Madero

This is the newest neighborhood of Buenos Aires: about a decade ago the government invested in the abandoned port area to renovate it. It is now so beautiful and is actually where my local university is located. So sometimes after class, I walk along the water and enjoy the nice breeze that comes in off the port. There are a lot of touristy restaurants and you can even go in a gondola to float along the river for a bit. This area is the most expensive to live in, and there are a lot of executive offices for large companies like Google in the skyscrapers in this neighborhood. The best part about this neighborhood is that there is an ecological reserve to the East where you can get some fresh air and get away from the noise of the city.

Only a part of the whole

All of these neighborhoods have a unique feel and a unique group of people that live there. However, whether you’re looking for a tea house, a cafe with great espresso, a buddhist temple, or a burger joint, you can find it in this cosmopolitan city. But no matter what neighborhood you visit in Buenos Aires, you are always greeted by a cafe on the corner, two bookstores on every block, and a restaurant that offers a fresh milanesa and empanadas.

Location: Carlos Pelligrini 1069 Buenos Aires, Argentina

Where could we possibly be going?

Roadtripping through Salta and Jujuy Provinces

This past long weekend I traveled to Salta and Jujuy provinces in the northeast of Argentina on a trip organized by IES. These provinces are completely different from Buenos Aires and Patagonia. Five hundred years ago, this region was conquered by the Incans of Peru and still retains its Incan influences. This area was very rural and much more of what I expected Latin America to be. Through much of our trip, our bus either was climbing thousands of meters of altitude through Andean mountains or passing through dusty dirt roads in the desert valley. At times, I asked where the hell we could be going. We were always on an endless highway, surrounded by mountains only dotted with cacti. In this very rural area, I pretty much had no Internet access. This trip really demonstrated to me how diverse Argentina is in environment, culture, people, and development. We spent a day in Salta City, and then traveled to Jujuy province for three days, where we visited Humahuaca, Tilcara, las Salinas, and Purmamarca.

The colonial church in Salta City

Incan Mummies

In Salta, we saw a performance of samba music, very different from the tango and guacho folk dancing of Buenos Aires. We also visited the Anthropological Museum of Alta Montaña, which is entirely dedicated to a collection discovered on the Mountain Llullaillaco. An archaeologist who participated in the dig told us all about the collection and the Incan history to better understand the context of the discovery. In the excavation funded by National Geographic, these archaeologists found an offering made to the Incan gods of three children and artifcats for them to carry to their afterlife with the gods: jewelry, tapestries, clothes, statues, and ceramics. The three children were perfectly preserved due to the arid and frozen environment. Only one of the three is exhibited every six months to best preserve them. Because the province of Salta wanted to maintain the collection in Argentina, the province completely funded the construction of this museum.

The mummy we saw was called La Niña del Rayo, the Girl of Lightning, because her face has burn marks due to a lightning strike on the summit of the mountain. She was shown in a case that monitored the color of her clothes and the temperature, and the air pressure of the display case. All of these factors were programed to match the conditions of the mountain where they were buried. The preservation was incredible: her clothes had no holes, nor any fading; her skin looked like that of an alive person; she sat sound asleep in the fetal position where she took her last breath five hundred years ago.Her skull was larger in the back and made her head wide in profile and narrow when facing her. The Incans used to shape the heads of children from important families, and I was able to see the consequences of this ritual before my eyes.

After the museum, we traveled in bus to Jujuy province, where we stayed in Tilcara. All of the places we visited in Jujuy were tiny, dusty towns. We first visited the Seven Colored Hills, near the town of Purmamarca.

Seven Colored Hills at dusk

The next morning we hiked through an area called La Garganta del Diablo, the Throat of the Devil. We hopped across colorful rocks and helped each other cross little streams carefully. The beautiful sight of a small waterfall rewarded us at the end of our hike.

Waterfall on our hike of La Garganta del Diablo

Got my flat lion pic!

Llamas, or “Shamas” if you’re Argentinian

Later that afternoon, we walked with a caravan of llamas through the streets of Tilcara. It was so fun! Our llamas were very nice and did not spit on anyone. They loved taking a ton of selfies with us and tried to eat the hay bales we sat on at the end of our walk. They are really funny creatures: they bah like lambs and run hilariously with their little legs and wide hips.

Llama selfie

Our journey to the Salinas

Our tour guide was great. A local indigenous person, he shared all of his ancestors´ history and culture. We learned how his people worship the PachaMama, their Mother Earth. While we ascended mountains during the trip, he offered us coca leaves, a sacred leaf in Incan culture. It is the plant used to make cocaine, so its stimulant properties help combat altitude sickness. When we traveled to the Salinas, the salt flats, we made a pit stop at the summit of the mountain, at about four thousand meters above sea level. We all picked up a rock from the summit, placed the rock along with our coca leaves on the ground, drenched them with wine and alcohol, and thanked the PachaMama for our safe journey up the mountain. At the summit there were huge piles of rocks and wine bottles because many other people do the same ritual to thank the PachaMama.

Pit stop along our drive up the precordillera

When we arrived to the Salinas, we walked off the dirt road onto the salt flats. The sun reflected off the salt and warmed our frozen bones from the wind that cut across the mountain summit. A local salt miner told us how they extract the salt and showed us the pools they create for the extraction process. After the salt miner´s explanation, my friends and I traversed the salt flats and tried to capture all the funny and cool pictures we could think of with the rainbow colored Andean flag.

Salt from the Salinas

Our attempt at an Urban Outfitters ad

Casually laughing with the Andean flag on the salt flats

Pools made by miners to extract the salt.

Visiting with locals

After our fun at the Salinas, we visited a Frenchman´s bread and breakfast. He shared with us why he moved to this area, cooked an amazing meal with the food he produces on his farm, and showed us his painting studio. He also mentioned his projects within the community: his painting workshops and his promotion of natives´ tourism businesses. The next day, we visited one of these projects: a tiny town called Barrancas where native peoples started their own tourism businesses. To get to this town, we turned off the main road onto a completely dirt road. Our bus soon had to cross a small stream in a dried up river bed. We continued to drive for another half hour in the middle of a desert valley until we reached the town of only five hundred people. In fact, this town only received electricity three years ago. The fridge in the kitchen was shiny new. Their Spanish was a little bit different, more sing-songy, and they added -ito to almost all adjectives. They prepared us a traditional indigenous meal of lamb, shared their traditions and culture, and gave us a tour of rock paintings, ranging from five hundred to four thousand years old. It was amazing to see how this incredibly rural and small village survived in this isolated desert environment.

This trip was incredible and showed me entirely an different part of Argentina. Like the United States, Argentina has diverse landscapes: plains, deserts, tropical rainforests, and even glaciers. But this trip also showed me another cultural identity of Argentina. Everyone in this part of the country seemed of indigenous origin, and on their holiday, May 25, an indigenous performer played his instrument to accompany the speech of a politician in the town square. In Bariloche in Patagonia, native people were completely invisibilized and kept in the poorer parts of town. Even in churches in Jujuy, the image of the Virgin Mary was adapted to include the iconology of the local indigenous religion ━ instead of being slim and womanly, she was in the figure of a triangle to represent the mountain, the PachaMama. Through this trip, I saw an entirely different part of Argentine identity and culture and learned to appreciate a more rural, simpler lifestyle.

Location: Tilcara, Argentina

Bariloche: the Swiss Argentina and so much more!

Class Field Trip!

This trip was probably the closest I have ever gotten to having an out of this world Magic School Bus trip. I had an amazing time traveling to Bariloche on our field trip. Bariloche was so beautiful: mountains, lakes, trees changing colors, while roses crept up the side of our cabin. We stayed right on the edge of the lake, Nahuel Huapi, the namesake of the national park that surrounds Bariloche.

Bariloche´s location in relation to Buenos Aires

The cabins where we stayed by Lake Nahuel Huapi

The town of Bariloche was so quaint: wooden edifices with cobblestone streets that wound around the lake. We had free time to wander through the small town filled with chocolate shops. I enjoyed taking in the crisp, fresh air, as well as the changing colors of fall that have only just started to arrive in Buenos Aires.

We were able to take a few hikes while we were there, and I am afraid to say that my legs have completely forgotten what hills feel like in the flat pampean landscape of Buenos Aires. Indeed, that will be a rude awakening when I return to State College. Neverthless, it was great to spend sometime in the National Park and learn more about the ecology of Patagonia. There is not a huge amount of biodiversity, but a lot of species found there are completely unique to that area. So I saw a lot of interesting trees and plants that our guide, an ecologist, pointed out to us.

These types of trees only grow in Patagonia.

Learning first-hand

I am so glad I was able to take this trip with my class. Of course the touristy spots of Bariloche were spectacular, but with my class, we saw other parts of Bariloche outside of its tourism that I would never have seen on my own. For example, one day we went to a Mapuche community, an indigenous population of Argentina, and they prepared us a typical Mapuche meal. They prepared curanto. To prepare the meal they create a fire over rocks outside, and once the rocks are heated, they remove the firewood. They then lay fabric down over the hot rocks and put all of the food- chicken, beef, lamb, carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and apples- and cover the food with leaves from trees typical of the region. After folding the fabric over top of the leaves, they shovel earth on top of the mound to seal it off and allow everything to cook.

As they prepared our meal, we listened to a lawyer´s lecture about indigenous rights in Argentina and heard community members´perspectives on securing these rights. The community we visited is one of the few that have obtained the right to their traditional territory, although the government has created laws to allow this reclamation to happen for all native communities. Once the food was ready, they called us outside for the process of disinterring our meal. Steam rose from the earth, and we could smell the distinct combination of earth, the leaves, and our food.

Cuarnto; a typical mapuche meal prepared on hot rocks beneath the earth.

The food was amazing, and the experience entirely unique. With everything I have learned through my anthropology class about Patagonia in mind, I was able to interact and share a first hand experience with this Mapuche community.

With my class, we also had the opportunity to see art that is prohibited from being shown in the museum. Why? Because the art was painted by a Nazi-refugee, Toon Maes, in Bariloche. The town was actually a refuge for many Nazi leaders, where they lived quietly and solitarily until they died. Once the artist’s past was discovered, human rights activists protested for his art to be taken out of exhibitions. So when we went to see the art, the paintings were just leaned up against a wall. Normally they are kept in an office, hidden from the public. Our teachers spoke to us in English about the paintings instead of Spanish, because the person who maintains the collection was once a student of the Nazi artist. She really cared for him, so they didn’t want to disrespect her by denouncing these paintings as art created by a Nazi.

Art by Toon Maes, a Nazi leader who found refuge in Bariloche, Argentina

We also visited a school in El Barrio Alto of Bariloche, a poorer neighborhood outside of the touristy center of the town. Our bus drove through dirt roads, with precarious homes on either side of the road. We arrived at the school, filled with happy children and surrounded my colorful murals on every walls. We brought with us musical instruments to donate to their school band and posters of pictures of our homes in the US. My group had a picture of mac and cheese on our poster, and the kids excitedly asked, “What’s that, what’s that?” They loved asking us questions about football and wanted to know what our school´s mascots were. The town´s newspaper was actually there and wrote an article about how we donated instruments to the school.

http://www.elcordillerano.com.ar/index.php/actualidad/item/26001-universitarios-estadounidenses-donaron-instrumentos-musicales-a-la-escuela-cailen

These excursions were very special and made my experience in this beautiful town all the more incredible. So, I was disappointed to leave this peaceful place but was happy to come home to my homestay family. They waited for me to arrive before they sat down to eat and were so excited to hear all about my trip.

My Kind of Town

Descanso

Last week I had a break after completing our midterms. It felt like a spring break because in my mind I’m in the mode of spring. But in Buenos Aires in May, the winds are picking up leaves, rains have come, and autumn is bringing colder air. On Facebook, I see tulips blooming at Penn State and my friends finishing up their finals, while I just completed midterms! I still do not know when my local university course’s final exam will be; they say sometime in the first half of July.

Nevertheless, I cannot believe I am already halfway through my semester abroad! I am so happy I choose to come to South America, although adjusting to the opposite of seasons still confuses me and I will return to the US in late summer. Studying in Buenos Aires, I have been able to really get to know one city, one culture. I feel that even after being in this city for five months, there will be things I still wish to see. Every week, there is something new that I plan to visit or do: whether it be another fair of artisans, a bar popular with the locals, or a tango show.

Because it is impossible to exhaust the long list of things to do in BA, I love staying here every weekend and am excited to return when I do travel elsewhere in the country. So when my mom decided to visit me over my break, I had a huge list of things to show her in this city. For the week we were here, we went all over the city. No one in her hotel spoke English, and most restaurants don’t speak English. Some offer menus in English with funny translations. For example, once I saw a menu that translated jamón (ham) as jam. For me, I know Spanish speakers pronounce the letter j like the letter h in English, so jam sounds like ham. But to an English speaker, like my mom, jam is something very different from ham. So in this context, I was able to show my mom the fruits of all my years studying Spanish.

My mom and I at a restaurant.

Traveling around the city, my mom experienced the adventure of the colectivo, the bus here in BA. We successfully hailed buses from unmarked bus stops and arrived safely at our destinations. We went to a lot of museums: the MALBA, Bellas Artes, Museo Bicentenario, Museo Etnológico, and Evita. Many museums do not have English translations, and I was able to translate the descriptions and add what I had learned from my history class about particular periods in Argentine history.

Visit to Juan B. Ambrosetti Museo Etnológico

A work by Eugenio Cuttica, an Argentine artist in Museo Bellas Artes.

We had a wonderful time. My mom saw my home stay and my favorite tea shop, and we ate Argentine food, like a fugazzeta (a thick crust pizza with cheese and onions), and drank Malbec wine. My host family here also went out to dinner with my mom, my house mate, my house mate’s family, and myself. Although the language barrier sometimes seemed overwhelming, it was very special to share a delicious meal together and enjoy everyone’s company.

I loved sharing this wonderful city with my mother. The more time I spend here, the more grateful I am that I made the decision to study here in this city, in South America. I always thought I would study abroad in Spain, but as advisers talked to me about choosing a place, the more I became disenchanted with going there. Through this experience, I really wanted to become familiar with a particular culture and immerse myself in Spanish. Buenos Aires has been the perfect place to accomplish both of these goals. I still want to go to Spain in the future but am so happy that I chose to study abroad in Argentina.

Exploring new cities

This weekend, I am going to Bariloche with one of my classes. It is an anthropology course about Patagonia. So we have learned about the first conquerors and explorers’ perspectives of Patagonia, Argentine explorers and scientists’ ideas about the region, along with current perceptions of Patagonia, indigenous peoples and their cultures. Through this trip, we get to travel there and see what we have learned firsthand. In Bariloche, we will see the touristy parts like Nahuel Huapi National Park, as well as the more subtle political and social issues within the city. For example, we will travel to a poorer neighborhood of the city and visit a school in this neighborhood.

At the end of the month, I am traveling to the northwest of Argentina to Salta. I am excited for this trip because this region, unlike the rest of Argentina, was once ruled by the Incans and still retains these Incan cultural influences. But even on this trip, I will continue to practice my Spanish and have the opportunity to get to know another part of Argentine culture.

Location: Recoleta, Buenos Aires, Argentina

So, are you fluent yet?

An Interminable Progress

One of my pet peeves is when I talk to my friends at home and they ask me, “So are you fluent yet?” Considering I came to Argentina to improve my Spanish and practice it living day to day in a foreign country, this is a valid question. After being here for about two months, my Spanish vocabulary and my ability to speak has improved immensely. However, it is very hard to say yes, I am fluent in a second language. I am still learning constantly, so I would say that I am certainly proficient in Spanish. But saying I am fluent makes me feel that I am done learning Spanish, that I am satisfied with my ability to communicate in a second language. I always try to improve my accent, but I am resigned that this is very hard to do. Even people whose first language is not English who have lived in the US for decades often still have accents. Even with this being said, I do not think I will ever be satisfied with my fluency in Spanish. Even in English, I love reading and learning new words to enrich my vocabulary. Of course, I would say I am fluent in English. But the never ending process of learning a second language – learning new vocabulary, learning the context of when words and expressions are used- makes it harder for me to say yes, I am fluent in Spanish.

I need something that glues things together a.k.a glue

For example, the other day I needed glue or tape to finish a poster project about fracking in Argentina for my Spanish class. As I was walking to the store to buy glue, I realized I couldn’t remember the word for glue in Spanish. This presented a problem because in the school supplies stores here, the worker asks what you need and they get it for you. I couldn’t just look around for glue and pay without speaking. However, I remembered the verb to glue. So I asked the worker in the store for something that I could use to glue paper to a poster. She understood and asked if I wanted liquid form or the stick. Of course, this was not the most concise way for me to buy glue, but I got what I needed and finished my project. But now, I now the word for glue and won’t forget it anytime soon. This kind of learning is a daily occurrence.

Living in a foreign country that speaks your second language is the most incredible learning experience. All of my courses here are in Spanish. Whether I’m in my Argentine poetry class or my Patagonia anthropology class, I’m constantly learning new words. When I take the bus through the city, advertisements and store signs flash by me, teaching me new words and expressions. When summer was ending here, every store had signs of “rebajas, rebajas!”, “sale, sale!”. I learn new social and political terms when I pass by signs campaigning for candidates. In the Plaza de Mayo, there are always political demonstrations or political graffiti and posters across from the Casa Rosada, the equivalent of the White House.

The poster hung in the Plaza de Mayo says Truth…? Memory…? Justice…? Inclusion…?: Lies from those governing!
We want to believe in their commitment to memory, justice, and truth.

Sail or candle?

Although I read La Canción de la Pirata (The Song of the Pirate) in my Spanish literature class, I have never had a sailing unit in any Spanish class at Penn State. When I first told my host family I was going sailing, I remembered the word for sail, but my host family didn’t understand me at first. I second-guessed my memory of the word for sail because it also means candle. But after going sailing, I have a concrete experience of sailing, had conversations with our Spanish speaking captain, and learned lots of new words related to sailing and the river: words like sailing, stern, and words for different types of sailboats.

Sailing with my friends on the Río de la Plata

Oh, I can read a menu in Spanish… I think

We also had alfajores on our sailing trip. Alfajores are two cookies that have dulce de leche in between them, and the whole thing is dipped in chocolate. A lot of Argentine dishes, like in any language, have their own specific name. So, it has surprised me how difficult reading menus or reading labels in the market has been. For example, lomo is a word I commonly see on signs near large cuts of meat at delis. I am normally a vegetarian at home, so not knowing what type of meat my sandwich has freaks me out. I think, “Oh, is lomo rabbit? Deer? What could this possibly be?” Turns out lomo is just a cut of meat. Argentines are very serious about meat, so normally signs and menus always include the cut of meat, no matter whether it is a to-go sandwich shop or a nice French restaurant. I also saw a quiche that was labelled “puerro” in the market. This also freaked me out because puerro sounds very similar to perro, meaning dog. However, I found out puerro means leek, so I didn’t need to worry that the market offered dog quiche.

My favorite bakery: In the name of dessert!

An alfajor

I have even learned a lot of words for vegetables, fruits and herbs here: eggplant, basil, arugula, parsley, grapefruit. When I go to my favorite bakery, En el Nombre de Postre, I learn new words for spices like cinnamon or the phrase for whole-grain bread.

Another language challenge is the ice cream parlor. You would think this would be simple, but if a foreigner came to an ice cream store in the US, there are plenty of names that don’t really describe what the ice cream actually is. For example, what the hell does moose tracks actually mean? There are many ice creams like this in Spanish too. I have been intrigued by one flavor named Roger. Sometimes I feel silly asking what an ice cream is like, so I remind myself that there are a lot of nonsensical names for ice creams in English too. I ask my friend who owns the store what the mysterious Roger ice cream is like, and he says that it is like the candy Ferrero-Rocher. So I tried it, and it was amazing!

So, all in all, I work on my Spanish constantly outside of the classroom. A lot of it depends on my own effort to learn. I can either point and gawk, or I can exercise my ability to ask Argentines what something means or get my point across without knowing the exact word that I want to use. So sometimes, it seems so much easier to point instead of say, “what is this like?”, “what is this made out of?”. So even though sometimes I feel like a complete idiot asking silly questions, I am an idiot that is learning new things every single day in the city, unlike any experience in a contained classroom at Penn State.

Location: Paraná 1205 Buenos Aires, Argentina

Una Locura: the Argentine Classroom

Earlier in the semester, I decided to take a course at one of the local universities in Buenos Aires. I decided to take a class at the Pontifica Universidad Católica de Argentina (la UCA) because they offered courses in history. La UCA is a private university in Buenos Aires, as opposed to the University of Buenos Aires, which is free to Argentines, as well as foreigners. I didn’t know what to expect on registration day for international students, and certainly nothing could have prepared me for what ensued.

When I arrived, I was given a course catalogue with course descriptions. For a while, I looked through the book and found a few courses that interested me. Then I went to an area where the schedule of courses was posted on paper. Squeezing past other international students, I tried to squint at the times and see which courses fit in with the rest of my schedule. Eventually, I found a course, Argentine History of the Twentieth Century, that fit in my schedule, wrote it down on paper, and signed. I then handed in my registration form to be placed in a manila envelope and thought, well, I hope there is a spot in the class. After this experience, I vowed never to complain about scheduling online and receiving immediate confirmation at Penn State.

When I arrived to my first day of class, I was nervous and hoped my registration had gone through. My stomach turned and I worried what expectations the teacher would have. While we waited, I made an Argentine gesture of being scared: palm facing upward, opening and closing my fingers. The professor finally arrived a half hour late and class began. She was very curious about all of the foreigners in my class and had all of us introduce ourselves. Her welcoming spirit and her clear speaking calmed my nerves about the class.

Two professors teach the class, and both always try to include comparisons with the US. My first professor is very passionate, loves jokes and always will start a hearty debate during class. Sometimes, these debates become a little overwhelming with Argentine students raising their voices to explain their opinions, but it is a great way to challenge my Spanish skills. This year is an election year in Argentina, so everyone is buzzing about politics: Macri, Massa, PRO divided, Peronists also divided. Everyone in the class expresses their opinions about the death of Nissman, the lawyer investigating the 1994 bombing of a synagogue and found dead in his bathroom.During these conversations, I am very pleased when I understand references to or jokes about Argentine politics.

After a month of going to the class, the subject is absolutely fascinating. As my professor said the first day of class, Argentine history fascinates foreigners but is painful for Argentines. This has proved true. I do not know that much about Argentine history, so for me everything in the course is new and exciting. Sometimes being unfamiliar with the content of the course makes it more difficult, but it’s all part of the challenge of taking a course at the local university. But for the Argentines in the class, learning about the development of their country makes them question why their country is in the situation it is today.

Some of them seem either ambivalent or extremely disappointed with politics. Many say they want to go to the States because they believe America has no significant problems. One student carried a bag with an American flag design on it, and my professor questioned it and asked if the students had any sense of national identity or pride. The students rolled their eyes. Granted, my teacher’s reaction is a little exaggerated; plenty of Americans wear clothes with British flags too, but the conversation is indicative of the frustration of some Argentines. The students in la UCA are mainly from the upper middle or upper class families. They can afford to pay for higher education when it is offered for free by the state, so I assume their families are fairly successful. So considering their situation, it surprises me that they feel so disenchanted with their country.

However, I do not mean to say that students here are entirely disenchanted. My house mate goes to the public University of Buenos Aires, and her classes are constantly interrupted by organizations trying to promote social and political issues. But to me it is fascinating to compare these two experiences in very different universities of Buenos Aires.

Location: Av. Alicia Moreau de Justo 1300 Buenos Aires, Argentina

What are men compared to rocks and mountains?

View of Mendoza from Terrraza Jardín del Mirador

View of Mendoza from Terraza Jardín del Mirador

There were holidays this week, so we had a four day weekend to have an awesome trip in Argentina. So, my friends and I took a bus to Mendoza for the long weekend. Mendoza is about 15 hours west of Buenos Aires along the Chilean border- I know 15 hours by bus sounds horrible. I bought my bus ticket expecting I would never buy one again after 30 hours of busing. But the buses in Argentina are not like Greyhounds in the US.

I have taken Greyhound home to Philadelphia from State College. We had to stop in Harrisburg and the trip ended up being about six hours in a gross Greyhound bus. But here for long trips, you can purchase a “cama” seat on a bus, which is basically a really wide seat that reclines and has a foot rest to elevate your feet. They give you champagne, a not so great dinner, and a decent breakfast, so what’s there to complain about? An overnight bus trip to the opposite end of Argentina is actually a pretty comfortable trip.

The only tricky part about buses here is that they don’t post the platform from where the bus will depart until about ten minutes before departure or not at all. So I was a little worried when I arrived at the Retiro bus station and didn’t know where my bus would be. But as I have mentioned in my last blog, patience is always required with transportation in Argentina or anywhere in the world.

Once we arrived, we explored the city. It is more of a small town compared to Buenos Aires, and we appreciated the quiet streets and clean, fresh air. The accent in Mendoza is also more familiar than in Buenos Aires. The “sh” sound of the “ll” and “y” of Buenos Aires was not as common and closer to the castellano that I have learned in school. My friends and I rented the second floor of a house from a family in Mendoza. The family was very nice and accommodating and we loved the cozy atmosphere within the house.

One of the coolest things about Mendoza is that it actually has a semi-arid climate, practically desert. Yet Mendoza is famous for its wine production, and the province is lush with verdure. All throughout the city, there are irrigation ducts and rivers of water flowing from the mountains to provide water for the province. So not only do these mountains dominate the landscape, but they provide the sustenance for Mendoza’s people and its economy.

After exploring the streets and plazas for a while, we went to a museum exhibiting regional art that was awesome. It was amazing to see artistic depictions of landscapes that were clearly from the Mendoza province. So many paintings included the Andes looming over the landscapes of vineyards and gardens.

On Sunday, I went horseback riding outside of Mendoza, close to Luján. I have never ridden a horse before, so I was a little frightened by the experience. I was especially scared when I found out we would be scaling a few smaller mountains on horseback to get a better view of the Andes. But I trusted my horse and had a spectacular view of the landscapes in Mendoza.

My final excursion in Mendoza was a bike tour through wine country in the province. We rented bikes from a family owned business, Mr. Hugo’s, and got a map of the different wineries around Maipú. Sounds like a bad idea to have wine tastings and then bike to the next winery, but it was great! We also stopped at an olive farm, where we tried artisan olive oils, tapenade, jams, chocolates, and liquors. Through the entire bike tour, the street was lined with shady trees and surrounded by acres and acres of grape fields. In Mendoza, they grow Malbec grapes to make Malbec wine, which I tried on the wine tastings. The day was fantastic, and we rushed back to the bus station to catch our bus back home to BA.

Ready for the wine tour?

Today, we arrived after our long journey, and I never thought I’d be so happy to see Retiro Bus Station. I came home to my home stay, and my host dad was excited to hear about all of our adventures in Mendoza, where he used to live. Mendoza was such a beautiful place and I had an awesome weekend there beneath the Andean mountains. Like Jane Austen wrote, “what are men compared to rocks and mountains?” After my trip to Mendoza, I wonder what are men compared to rocks and mountains AND wine?

Location: Mendoza, Argentina