Feliz Tres Meses, Argentina!
He estado aca en Argentina por tres meses! Que rapido paso! Estoy muy feliz estar en Chilecito.
Now my three months was officially on December 10th. Now that I've spent a sufficient amount of time here, I'm no longer living the inconsistent, every day's completely different life of a newly arrived exchange student. I've settled into a sort of groove over the past month I'd say and I'd love to share it with you. Settle in, folks, there aren't any pictures in this post.
For my first three months here, I had to attend school. School starts at about eight and ends at noon every day except for Wednesdays, which ends at one. Each day (excluding Wednesdays) we had three different classes. My schedule included biology, mathematics, literature, English, art, geography, and social sciences. No, I am not going to pretend that I was an active participant in class. At first, I didn't understand anything that any of the teachers said. By the time I started to comprehend, it was time for me to leave on the South Trip. When I returned after missing two weeks, I was so behind on the information that I could hardly do anything. I did, however, excel in math and English (surprising, I know), and didn't actually do too bad in art. Luckily, no teacher insisted that I take the final tests and I didn't exactly plead with them to let me.
After School
After school was always the same. We all collectively left the school and walk a block to the center. For my first two months, I would always pass time in the plaza by talking to friends and classmates until it was close to 1 o'clock then wander over to my host mom's office and ride home with her. Then, after I changed families, I would stay in the plaza until my host sister was ready to go to her dad's work, a clinic a few blocks from the plaza. From there we would ride home with my host dad. Almost immediately after school is always lunch. Lunch is always a fairly large sized meal and, when I was in school, was almost always promptly followed by a nap.
Activities
For my first two months, I was mostly occupied by only my tango classes on Mondays and Fridays at 10PM and gym classes at 3PM on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Upon returning from the South Trip and switching families, I finally joined a volleyball team, joined an aerobics class and started attending weekly Roteract meetings. With my volleyball team, I practiced irregularly on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, usually around 5PM. Games were at 6 or 7 ish on Tuesdays and Thursdays. My aerobics class was Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 8PM to 9PM. Roteract, which is a part of rotary, but for young adults from the ages of 18 to around 30, has meetings every Thursday starting at about 10-10:30 PM and ending close to midnight. My Dutch friend (who also attends Roteract) and I started a tradition of cooking for ourselves before Roteract meetings.
Weekends
Without a doubt, my favorite part of being in Argentina is Saturday nights. Now it isn't because I've become a crazy party girl (please, I'm a proper Rotary exchange student), but because Argentine parties are something I know I'll never find anywhere in the USA. Saturday nights are when my friends and I go to the club, typically the outdoor club at this time of year due to the heat, and there's always loud music and dancing. The best part is, the dancing isn't at all similar to the dancing seen at clubs in the US. It's fun and needs some practice to be good at including spinning, twirling and fancy moves. I love it!
However, one of my least favorite parts of Argentina are Sundays. Usually we don't get in until between five and six in the morning on Sunday and can only sleep a few hours before we're up again. The blame for our lack of sleep can be placed on asado. Eating asado is a Sunday tradition. Sometimes my family will stay in and eat at my house, but other times we head over to someone else's home to eat. Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy eating asado! However, being sociable when I'm tired has always been a challenge for me.
Spanish
It's not the fault of my teacher's in high school that I don't appear to know anything of Argentine Spanish. The language notably different than from what I learned in school. Let me list a couple of differences that I have noticed:
The thing is, everything I just told you is about to change. I'm now officially I'm summer vacation, starting last Friday! Unfortunately, everyone (adults included) are starting their summer vacations as well. This means that my activities are winding down as my teachers go on their own vacations and I'll have to start searching for new things to do. With all the heat that's headed my way, my new activity might just be sitting poolside and tanning. No snow for me this Christmas!
Now my three months was officially on December 10th. Now that I've spent a sufficient amount of time here, I'm no longer living the inconsistent, every day's completely different life of a newly arrived exchange student. I've settled into a sort of groove over the past month I'd say and I'd love to share it with you. Settle in, folks, there aren't any pictures in this post.
Argentine Life
School
After School
After school was always the same. We all collectively left the school and walk a block to the center. For my first two months, I would always pass time in the plaza by talking to friends and classmates until it was close to 1 o'clock then wander over to my host mom's office and ride home with her. Then, after I changed families, I would stay in the plaza until my host sister was ready to go to her dad's work, a clinic a few blocks from the plaza. From there we would ride home with my host dad. Almost immediately after school is always lunch. Lunch is always a fairly large sized meal and, when I was in school, was almost always promptly followed by a nap.
Activities
For my first two months, I was mostly occupied by only my tango classes on Mondays and Fridays at 10PM and gym classes at 3PM on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Upon returning from the South Trip and switching families, I finally joined a volleyball team, joined an aerobics class and started attending weekly Roteract meetings. With my volleyball team, I practiced irregularly on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, usually around 5PM. Games were at 6 or 7 ish on Tuesdays and Thursdays. My aerobics class was Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 8PM to 9PM. Roteract, which is a part of rotary, but for young adults from the ages of 18 to around 30, has meetings every Thursday starting at about 10-10:30 PM and ending close to midnight. My Dutch friend (who also attends Roteract) and I started a tradition of cooking for ourselves before Roteract meetings.
Weekends
Without a doubt, my favorite part of being in Argentina is Saturday nights. Now it isn't because I've become a crazy party girl (please, I'm a proper Rotary exchange student), but because Argentine parties are something I know I'll never find anywhere in the USA. Saturday nights are when my friends and I go to the club, typically the outdoor club at this time of year due to the heat, and there's always loud music and dancing. The best part is, the dancing isn't at all similar to the dancing seen at clubs in the US. It's fun and needs some practice to be good at including spinning, twirling and fancy moves. I love it!
However, one of my least favorite parts of Argentina are Sundays. Usually we don't get in until between five and six in the morning on Sunday and can only sleep a few hours before we're up again. The blame for our lack of sleep can be placed on asado. Eating asado is a Sunday tradition. Sometimes my family will stay in and eat at my house, but other times we head over to someone else's home to eat. Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy eating asado! However, being sociable when I'm tired has always been a challenge for me.
Spanish
It's not the fault of my teacher's in high school that I don't appear to know anything of Argentine Spanish. The language notably different than from what I learned in school. Let me list a couple of differences that I have noticed:
- Stem changes. They aren't used unless you are speaking to someone in a formal tense. I was confused for quite some time by seeing verbs written like "tenes" or "podes" and still can't bring myself to remember to write it like that myself. I'm just a very polite person, I suppose.
- Vocabulary. Here they do not say "camiseta" but instead "remera". I still don't know whether I'm supposed to say "usar" or "llevar" when I'm talking about what I'm wearing. I learned that "buscar" is used when someone is going to pick you up (there was quite a bit of confusion before that was properly understood). "Derrecho" means straight, which is uncomfortably close to "derrecha" which means right. "Salir" means both to leave and to go out (like on a Saturday night). I was a little confused when people always asked me if I was going to leave this weekend and I would answer, no, I'm staying the whole year . . .
- The biggest difference in Spanish here is undoubtedly the use of "vos" in place of "tu". "Vos sos" takes the place of "tu eres" when conjugating the verb "ser". I'm so used to hearing "vos" now that if I were to listen to a Spanish conversation using "tu" I might be confused for a while. Additionally, "vosotros" is never used but instead "ustedes" is applied when asking about more than one person or "you all". For example, the question "What are you guys doing?" would be "Que hacen ustedes?".
The thing is, everything I just told you is about to change. I'm now officially I'm summer vacation, starting last Friday! Unfortunately, everyone (adults included) are starting their summer vacations as well. This means that my activities are winding down as my teachers go on their own vacations and I'll have to start searching for new things to do. With all the heat that's headed my way, my new activity might just be sitting poolside and tanning. No snow for me this Christmas!
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