¡Fútbol!

This past week was fairly standard and unremarkable, except for Sunday, in which I was finally able to make it to my first soccer game in Argentina! Almost everybody in the group had expressed an interest in attending at least one game while we were here in Argentina, especially because there are multiple teams in Córdoba and a good-sized stadium (which very conveniently happens to be located only a 10-15 minute walk from my house). Our accompanying Union professor is also a big soccer fan, so he took on the task of organizing this outing for the whole group and even got Union to foot the bill for the tickets, which was awesome.

View from our seats before the game started.

Another angle of the stadium. Capacity is 57,000.

The match was between Belgrano (from Córdoba) and Colón, a team from Santa Fe. There are multiple teams in Córdoba, but the teams with the biggest followings are Belgrano and Talleres. Talleres is currently playing in the third division, while Belgrano is playing in the top division (Argentina, like most countries, uses a system of promotion and relegation among their divisions) so Belgrano is the top team in Córdoba now. As I mentioned before, the stadium happens to be located only about a 15 minute walk from my house, which is extremely convenient. Most of the rest of the group met downtown to take some crowded buses to the game, but I was able to take a quick stroll down the street to the stadium, which I was grateful for.

We met outside the stadium, got our tickets, and headed in to the stadium to our seats, which were pretty good. The stadium layout is like a shallow bowl, and the seats are set back from the field a little bit, so the views weren't great, but we were still able to see the field just fine. Interestingly, the have separate entrances for the supporters of the different teams, so as to avoid confrontations and clashes between the different fan groups. We got to the stadium pretty early and it was fairly empty, but as game time drew closer, the stadium began to fill up and the atmosphere got a little more rambunctious. People were excited, but nobody was out of control or dangerous or anything, although there were some creative jeers at the other team's fans, often involving those fans' sexuality and/or mothers, as well as some others I couldn't understand. One thing that's different at soccer matches in Latin America and Europe than from mainstream US sporting events is that they love to sing songs. Almost every team has their own song, and Belgrano is no exception, as the fans sang out about their beloved "Pirates".

The enormous banner rolled out by one end of the stadium.

My view once the game had started. You can see the newspaper confetti in the air. 

Among the highlights of the beginning of the game was the throwing of newspaper-confetti onto the field as the game began. I guess that's a tradition or something, but fans had ripped up bits of newspaper and chucked them all up in the air and they floated through the stands down onto the field, where they remained for the entire game. Fans in one end of the stadium also rolled out a massive banner that covered thousands and thousands of people, although they soon rolled it back up, presumably because they actually wanted to watch the game. Once the game started, we were standing for most of the time, especially when something exciting happened or Belgrano had a good chance. Belgrano scored the first goal, which prompted a huge celebration, but Colón tied it up not too long afterward. For most of the second half, it remained 1-1 and it looked like the game would end in a draw, but then Belgrano scored with just a couple minutes go, causing the whole stadium (save for the small section of Colón fans) to erupt in celebration. It was really a phenomenal scene. The game ended a few minutes later and everybody went home happy after an exciting win. I took a video of the crowd a minute after Belgrano scored their last goal, and the crowd was still pretty amped up. Take a look!

A view of the fans!

Game finishing up, sun setting, everything looking nice.

The soccer match was really fun and a great way to get a look at another part of Argentinian culture. Plus, I got to go to a live sporting event for free, which is always good. We've to another normal schedule this week, but almost as soon as classes end on Thursday, we're heading up for a weekend trip to the north of Argentina. We leave Thursday evening and get back late Sunday night, so it seems like we'll get in a solid several days of sight-seeing and fun. The area is supposed to be really beautiful and have some great scenery as well as some great artisan crafts and products, so hopefully it'll be a fun trip! Time's winding down fast here in Argentina, with only a few weeks left to go, so I'm trying to make the most out of what's left. Thanks for reading, and I'll keep everyone updated!

Cooking and Volunteering

This week, we had a regular week of classes, but with two interesting extra-curricular activities - a cooking class, and my first day of volunteering. Both were interesting, in different ways, with each providing their own little slice of Argentinean culture.

Most alfajores you buy in stores look like this,
with a chocolate shell on the outside.

After classes on Wednesday, we all walked over to a place called Celia's in downtown Córdoba, which is apparently a cooking school. There, we learned how to make empanadas and alfajores, two staples of Argentinian culture. There are many varieties of empanadas around the world, and even in Argentina, and we were told that we were specifically learning about Cordoba-style empanadas. Like most empanadas, empanadas Cordobesas (adjective form of Cordoba!) are made by wrapping a certain type of dough around a variety of different fillings. The first part of the class mostly involved observation, and not any real hands-on activity. Our professional chef explained to us how to make empanada dough, which is pretty simple - a whole lot of flour, some water, and a bit of animal fat, along with a pinch of salt. After making that, it's supposed to sit for a while, so we moved on to the alfajores, a type of sweet cookie that also has a lot of variations, depending on where in South America you go. In Argentina, they consist of two small, plain, sweet biscuit/cookies with a sweet spread like dulce de leche (a caramel type spread) in the middle. He made the dough for that, and we moved back to to the empanadas. He prepared the filling, which for Cordoba-style empanadas includes ground beef, olives, potato, hard-boiled eggs, raisins, and onions. When that was ready, we finally got to do some hands-on cooking, rolling out the dough for the two foods, and cutting them into circles, so they'd be ready for cooking. The alfajores went into the oven to bake, while we filled the empanadas and fried them (although you can also bake them). The empanadas were absolutely delicious, especially fresh out of the oven, even if I don't care for olives (they're everywhere here, and probably my least-favorite part about Argentinian cuisine). Then the alfajor cookies were ready, and we got to spread dulce de leche on them and roll them in shredded coconuts, and they were delicious too. All in all, a very delicious and rewarding experience.

This pictures isn't mine, but it is almost
 exactly what our alfajores looked like!

Thursday was our last day of classes, but later that evening, I had a volunteer assignment at a "nocturnal refuge" near downtown Córdoba. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but it ended up being a very interesting, and generally enjoyable experience. Based on its name, I expected it to be more or less like a homeless shelter, but it wasn't really like that at all. As I learned, this shelter is more like a hostel, catering to people who come to Córdoba from somewhere else and need a place to stay for a few days, and can't afford a hotel. According to the women working there, most of the people staying there fall into one of two categories: they're here looking for work and stay at the refuge until they have a more permanent option, or else they're here for some sort of medical treatment or health reason, and stay at the refuge while they or their friend/family gets treatment. Most people stay the night there, and then go out and tend to their business for the day before returning for food and sleep in the evening.

I got there at 6pm, and my first task was to sort and organize clothing, which I found a bit ironic, since I'm not all that orderly and organized with my own clothes. The refuge receives clothing via donations, and they have to go through them to see what clothes are serviceable for use, and what clothes are too dirty or ripped for use. I sorted through and depending on what shape the article of clothing was in, I either put it on the appropriate shelf or put it in a trash bag. At about 7pm, people started arriving, and I helped prepare dinner. Dinner that night was a big stew of meat and vegetables, so I helped with chopping vegetables. It was just me and one other woman working, and we were preparing a lot of food (for about 35-40 people), so it was a fairly time consuming venture. When dinner was finally ready, we served it in a small dining area, with a long table that could seat 14. There were obviously more people in the refuge than could fit at the table, so as soon as people were finished and got up, more people came in and sat down, so we were more or less constantly serving people. 

Everybody in the refuge was very polite and helpful, and they even washed their own dishes after finishing eating, which was somewhat of a surprise, although definitely a pleasant one. As dinner wound down, I talked with some of the people, who asked me where I was from and what I was doing in Argentina. I had some enjoyable conversations with people, and they were all very nice to talk to. When I said where I went to college, one man even said to the others "Did you know that the capital of the state of New York isn't New York City? It's Albany!" I was both impressed and amused by this, considering how close I am to Albany at Union, and also because there are quite a few people in the U.S. who don't know that. I left at 10pm, and was quite tired after a full day of classes and volunteering, but I was glad I did it, because it was definitely a unique experience. I spent Friday doing a whole lot of reading and relaxing, and then on tap for Saturday was a tip to La Cumbrecita, a tiny mountain town to the southwest of Córdoba. That deserves its own entry though, so I'll put a new post out just for that in the next couple days!

Classes behind, Mendoza ahead

¡Hola, todos!

Shortly, we will be departing Córdoba for Mendoza, located on the western side of the country in the foothills of the Andes, near the Chilean border. Mendoza is known for it's exquisite wine and it's abundance of natural offerings, including rafting, hiking, paragliding, and horseback riding. Hopefully we will be able to partake in at least some of these adventures. We have a day full of scheduled events and such on Saturday, but we're completely free on Sunday, and we'll be able to embark on adventures of our choosing.

After a full week of classes that included two tests, this excursion is quite welcome. In fact, Monday and Tuesday of next week are holidays (seems like February in Argentina is full of holidays), so we only have classes on Wednesday and Thursday. Seems like the opposite of Union, where we don't spend as much time in classes, but have precisely one day off during the entire year apart from winter and spring breaks. One interesting development this past week is that we are beginning our volunteer assignments, although calling it volunteer seems a bit misleading since nobody volunteered for this; we were all given assignments by the program. Still, it should be interesting - I, along with a number of my classmates, have been assigned to a nocturnal refuge in Córdoba. This is a small shelter that takes in people who don't have anywhere to go during the night, and gives them food and a place to sleep. It seems similar to a homeless shelter, but not identical, because they seem to host people who just need somewhere for a short time before they get back on their feet. Among these people are those who come looking for jobs and need somewhere to stay while searching, and those who might be in a tough situation for some reason and need a place for a short time while doing some sort of transition. I will be there once a week from 6-10 pm doing whatever they need me to do, which sounds like it will include making beds, distributing food, moving things around, and engaging the people staying there with conversation. It seems like it'll be a good opportunity to see the real/non-touristy side of life here, and really immerse myself in the culture. That starts next Thursday, and since I'm only there once a week, I'll really only have 5 nights working there, but I'm betting those nights will be pretty interesting.

I must go now, since it's time to pack and prepare for Mendoza. Like the trip to Buenos Aires, we will be taking an overnight bus, so I'll get to practice my sleeping-on-bus skills once again. We'll have all day Saturday, all day Sunday, and part of Monday there before coming home Monday evening. I'll put up another blog post sometime on Tuesday I think, so you can look forward to some (hopefully) good stories and photos about my weekend in Mendoza.

¡Hasta luego!

Doing American Activities in Argentina

I meant to post this yesterday (Monday) but I wrote most of it, got called down to dinner and forgot to finish and publish it. Woops!

Hola everybody! Sorry in advance for not posting photos this week - a result of not going out of the city this weekend and not bringing my camera anywhere in the city.

Anyway, we had a short week last week because Thursday was a national holiday, commemorating the elimination of slavery in Argentina. What that really meant for me though was that I got a 4 day weekend, since we don't ever have classes on Friday! It was a fairly standard school week, although we did have our first real test, in history, which nobody really enjoyed all that much. If only they could just eliminate tests from classes... On Thursday, I just took advantage of the day off by sleeping in and relaxing most of the day. I have a high tolerance for relaxation, so I was fine with a day of unwinding most of that day. Interestingly, I find myself more tired here than at Union, probably because we're getting up at 7am every morning, and we're actually in class for longer than at Union. Combine that with more commute time, and then having to whatever other miscellaneous things I have to do, I'm usually more tired at the end of the day than I would be at Union.

Friday, I went downtown with a few others and partook in some decidedly American activities - we first went to a bowling alley type place in a mall, although it was inside a larger arcade-style area. There we bowled and played pool, at which I am spectacularly average and unremarkable. It was good fun though, especially since I hadn't done either in a while. After that, we didn't have anything going on, so we decided to go see Django Unchained, the new Quentin Tarantino movie with Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, and Leonardo DiCaprio. It was in English, with Spanish subtitles, and I often found myself following along with the Spanish subtitles just because I was curious how they translated certain phrases. The movie itself was tremendously entertaining, and probably one of my favorite movies ever. It's extremely violent which might be a dealbreaker for some, but it's very well directed, it has great acting and dialogue, and it's got a very unique and bold style that I very much enjoyed. After the movie, I went back to the house of two of my classmates, since they live closer to the center and we were planning on going back out again. After meeting their host mom, who was quite the character (older, single woman who was alternately amusing and crabby), we met up with some of our other classmates and enjoyed a night out on the town.

Saturday morning, I met Prof. Mosquera (our accompanying professor from Union) and several other students at a pool/sports club that happened to be conveniently located near-ish to my house. There, I was able to swim and play basketball, both of which I haven't done in a while (I hadn't played basketball in a month, while I hadn't swam since summer, but the gap for basketball felt just as long). I was a little rusty on the court at first (might have had something to do with a hoop that I suspect wasn't exactly 10 feet, nor exactly straight and level) but I soon got my groove back and was dropping buckets. We spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon there before I came back to my house to relax and read, which was how I spent the rest of the evening.

Sunday was spent sleeping in and getting work done until the Super Bowl, at which time I sat down on the couch and tuned in to hear...not the dulcet tones of Jim Nantz, Al Michaels, or Joe Buck, but rather the Spanish commentators for the Argentinian broadcast! It was a different experience, but still enjoyable, especially since the game was an entertaining one. We've got a slate of classes this week before leaving Friday evening for Mendoza, where we will have a set program Saturday, but a free day on Sunday, which it seems will be used for student-organized rafting excursion (also means we're footing the bill ourselves). I'll put up another post on Friday before we leave, and I'll include our (hopefully) finalize and definitive itinerary. Thanks for reading!

More Fun Times

Hello again,

Sorry for not putting up a new post for a while; I've been slacking in my blogging duties. Over the past week, things have been very nice. After going to Jesus Maria last weekend, we had a pretty standard week of classes this past week. To get to the university campus by 9:00, I have to catch the bus by 8:00, which means I have to be up around 7:00 or so, which is a full hour and half earlier than I would have to get up for a 9:00 class at Union. So that part of my schedule is less than ideal, but I suppose it's a small sacrifice to make. For my Argentinian cinema class, we watched a movie called Nueve Reinas (Nine Queens) which is a tremendously entertaining crime caper from around 10 years ago. I'm sure you can get it with English subtitles, so I would recommend it to anyone looking for a fun, twist-filled film. As a full group, we also saw another movie this weekend in theaters, called Tesis Sobre un Homicidio (Thesis on a Homicide). This was apparently a very highly anticipated movie here, and had some well known Argentinian actors, including the star of Nueve Reinas, which was an interesting little coincidence. It was about a university professor who teaches a class on crime and criminal justice who becomes in trying to solve a homicide. Although it was a well-made movie, I wasn't very fond of the movie's ending, but it was still an interesting experience, especially because it didn't have subtitles or anything, so we really had to listen carefully and pay attention to know what was going on. Adding to our authentic Argentinian experience was our outing on Friday, for which the whole group went to a restaurant that also has tango shows. So we enjoyed a nice dinner and then watched several talented performers sing and dance quite impressively. The whole night felt quite Argentinean, although I think that place does get a good amount of business from tourists, both domestic and international. Still, a very enjoyable evening.

Nice looking Jesuit mission.

This past weekend, on Saturday, we went to the town of Alta Gracia, which is about 45 minutes to an hour to the southwest of Córdoba. According to Wikipedia, it has 43,000 residents, so it's a nice, small-ish town with plenty of history. We first toured an old Jesuit residence from the 1600s that has been converted into a museum. The Jesuits had a big presence in the whole Córdoba province when it was first being settled, so there are various Jesuit museums and such throughout the area. This one was quite pretty, and had some nice interesting exhibits that we were able to explore on our own. We've visited several historical sites that belonged to the Jesuits, so much of the same sort of information pops up each time we visit such a place. Still, it's interesting and usually very nice to look at, at the very least.


After that, we grabbed lunch at a nice restaurant in town and then went to visit what is possibly the main attraction in Alta Gracia - the childhood home of Che Guevara. Che Guevara was born in the city of Rosario, but he lived in Alta Gracia from the ages of 4-16, and they have converted his house into a museum that attracts a fair number of visitors. That was moderately interesting, especially since I didn't know a whole lot about him, aside from the basics. One of the more interesting exhibits was an add-on that had photos of Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez visiting the house about 10 years ago or so, and signing the guestbook and everything. The exhibits tended to focus on the life of Che before he was very well known and how his childhood shaped his future, since this was the place he really grew up. Overall, Alta Gracia was a nice trip; I particularly enjoyed the more relaxed and condensed feel of the smaller town, as opposed to the busy sprawl of Córdoba. I guess I'm just not really a city guy at heart.

The welcome sign to the museum/house of Che

Me and Che.

We've got another standard week of classes now, but Thursday evening, we will leave for our first overnight/multi-night excursion - ¡Buenos Aires! Although I'm no stranger to long rides, I'm still not looking forward to the ~8 hour bus ride there. Still though, it should be quite a fun time, and I'm looking forward to it. Buenos Aires is the 4th biggest metro area in the Americas, so it'll be interesting to see what it's like and explore everything. Thanks for reading, and I'll keep everyone updated!

PS - A couple bonus photos of my house and the street I live on, just for some context. As you can see, my neighborhood's pretty suburban and residential, although it does get busier and a bit more urban-like a few blocks away.

Jesus Maria!

All continues to go well here in Argentina, especially with the weekend here; the freedom of weekends allows for quite a bit more fun than during the week, when we have classes. Thursday evening, we all met up with our speaking partners in a restaurant downtown. Most of them are around our age, but their level of English varies greatly, from nearly fluent to very basic. My partner is a girl named Belu, whose English is fairly basic and limited, but is very nice and friendly. After meeting with our speaking partners, we split up into several different groups and explored the city as we walked, talked and ate. Friday was the first day that we didn't have classes, so I took that opportunity to sleep in, for which I was very grateful.


Then in the afternoon, the whole group went to the town of Jesús Maria, a town about 50km north of Córdoba that hosts a festival of doma and folklore every year. Doma refers to the Argentinian equivalent of rodeo, in which people ride around on horses performing various tasks, such as lassoing horses, guiding them through a course, and riding a bucking bronco, all of which is supposed to be in honor of traditional gaucho culture. Folklore referes to a certain type of music also from the same culture, although I don't know it well enough to identify any defining characteristics. This festival happens each night in Jesus Maria for about two weeks, so we were really only seeing a snapshot of the whole thing. After arriving in the afternoon, we toured the city, visiting several spots in particular. The first spot was a Jesuit mission, hundreds of years old that is now a museum of sorts. We took a guided tour and heard about the history of the mission and looked at various rooms, paintings, and artifacts. Interestingly, they allow cameras on the grounds, but not inside any of the buildings.

A serene pond scene, and the main building of the mission, below.

After visiting the mission, we went to a winery, where we toured the place, and saw all the equipment that they use to produce the wine. The place was quite expansive, and they showed us all the places where they make and store the wine, which was interesting to see.

Our next stop was a meat-packing place where they packaged and sold various cuts of meat, including salami, which was their specialty. It was really just a small house-looking place on a street, that didn't look like anything special from the outside. Inside however, were rows and rows of salamis hanging from the ceiling. We got a tour of the place (if you can call it a tour, considering it was a pretty small building), and we learned about the process of getting the meat, and doing everything they have to do to sell it - store it, season it, package it, etc. While the information was mildly interesting, the real focus of the tour was the fact that having tons of meat hanging everywhere gave the entire place a rather distinct aroma, and not an entirely pleasant one. Like some sort of weird challenge, the smell got stronger the further into the building you went. There were two rooms on the first floor, and then two rooms in the basement, and each room had a stronger smell than the last. Some people couldn't even stand to be in the first room and had to go back outside. As the tour progressed, more and more people bailed out as we ventured further into the depths the meat rooms. By the time we got to the last room in the basement, probably only 1/4 of the original group was left. Although the smell was strong and unpleasant, I didn't find it as horrific as others seemed to find it, and it was relatively easy to avoid smelling it just by breathing through your mouth only. All in all, a most interesting experience.

After this, we went into the center of town, where it steadily got more crowded as people gathered for the events of the festival. We ate at a roadside stand, where we got choripan, which was a delicious sausage sandwich (chorizo [sausage] + pan [bread] = choripan). Afterwards, we ventured into the center of town, where they had blocked off all the streets for the festival. The streets were filled with people, and there were roadside vendors everywhere, along with the restaurants and such that were all open as well. After walking around and exploring for an hour or so, we went into the stadium, where the actual festival was happening. The stadium was fairly large, and could seat probably 25,000 people, and it was filled to capacity and then some. All the seats and benches were filled, and people were standing all around the stadium behind the seats as well. In addition, there were more people walking around the inside of the stadium, eating, sitting, and talking. All told, there might have been 30,000 people in the stadium, plus thousands more out on the streets. The events consisted of various rodeo-type events, such as lassoing horses, guiding them through a course, and riding a bucking bronco. In between the various events, there was music performed on a big stage by different performers, all of whom are apparently known in Argentina.

Overall, it was a unique experience for me, and

really interesting to see the celebration of this culture. There were all sorts of different people there, from Argentinian city dwellers, to people had come in from the country, to foreigners like us. I'm definitely glad we got the chance to go to this festival, especially because I don't know if I'll see something like this ever again. I'll keep updating here, so stay tuned! ¡Hasta luego!

¡Córdoba!

Hello everybody! Sorry that I haven't written in a few days, but there's been a lot going on which means I've got an extra-long entry today! I'll scatter in some photos for those of you who might be limited by time and/or attention span.

My Schedule and Living Situation

My room (books were provided)

Sunday evening, after a tour of the city, we met our families and moved into our new temporary homes. I live in fairly nice residential neighborhood with an older couple (60-ish I would guess) and their adult son, who's 24 years old. Despite having his own job, and being finished with school, he still lives with his parents, which is not all that uncommon in Argentina from my understanding. They've had a number of exchange students before, so they're familiar with the process, which is nice. They've been generally nice and friendly, and more than willing to converse, which has provided good chances for both practicing Spanish and learning about the culture here. It's also nice to have someone else close to my age in the house, especially since he's been very willing to talk to about whatever aspect of culture I might be wondering about. The house has both wireless internet and outlets that take American plugs, so from a technological standpoint, I feel right at home.


We take classes at the campus of the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, which as a pretty big campus, although we only utilize a very small portion of it. Because it's the middle of the summer here, there are few other students on campus, so we have it mostly just to ourselves. Classes are Monday-Thursday from 9am-2pm, with the three day weekend usually dedicated to some sort of cultural excursion that takes up anywhere from one day to all three depending on the trip. The classes I'm taking are a spanish language course, Argentinian history, and Argentinian cinema. The spanish and history courses are taught by university professors, while the cinema course is taught by the Prof. Mosquera, the Union professor who accompanied us for the term. Both of the university professors seem both friendly and competent thus far, so hopefully that continues for the rest of the term (although history looks like it has the potential to get rather dull at some points). I've had Prof. Mosquera before, and his classes are usually enjoyable, and the subject of Argentinian cinema is definitely an interesting topic. It almost feels as if I'm back in high school again, because I take the bus in the city center in the morning, and back again in the afternoon, and I'm on campus during the day. Because my house isn't particularly close to the university campus (more on that later), there's no chance of going home for lunch or anything like that, and we only have around 5 minutes between classes, which adds to the high school feeling. I must admit that I miss the typical US system of living on campus and only walking a few minutes to each class. Oh well, I suppose sacrifices must be made!

Impressions of the City

Impressive looking cathedral

After only a few days in Córdoba, snow, ice, and cold weather seem like a distant memory, but I guess that's what happens when it's 85-90 degrees all the time! I've been in Córdoba a few days now, and have begun to settle in a little bit, although it's still a process. The first thing that I noticed about Córdoba is that it is a BIG city. At 1.3 million people, it's quite populous, but even more so than that, the city is extraordinarily extensive and sprawling. According to Wikipedia, the city proper is 222 square miles, which is several times larger than the total area of Boston, and more than 10 times the size of Providence. As I found out firsthand, travelling through the city by bus or car can be very slow going, especially as you work you way through the center of the city, which makes the city seem even larger, because it takes so long to go through it. As I mentioned before, my house isn't particularly close to the university (~7 miles) and the slow travel through the city makes it a 40 minute commute twice a day, which is less than ideal.

Another church, slightly less elaborate than the other one.

The center of the city is an interesting mix of new and old, with a number of very old buildings right near some more modern high rise apartments. Although there are certainly nice areas, downtown Córdoba is rather grittier and dirtier than I expected (although I can't say that I had any real basis for those expectations). Two of the most striking characteristics of the city are the amount of graffiti (lots, and usually just scrawled messages, not artistic pieces) and the number of stray dogs, neither of which I was expecting. As with any city, some areas are quite nice looking, but there are a lot of areas that are much less aesthetically pleasing.

Plaza!

One thing I do like about the city is the presence of plazas, which are a staple of Latin American cities. They serve as places to congregate, relax, or do whatever, and are usually surrounded by rather important buildings for business, government, or religion. They're a nice aspect of the city, and there's no real equivalent that I can think of that exists in American culture.






My Experience

Two views of the city from a vantage point on our tour.
(Below right as well)

So far, my ability to explore the culture has been limited, since we haven't had a weekend yet, and everyone's still getting settled in. The other afternoon, a group of us met downtown to go buy phones, and walking through the downtown area looking for a good place to buy them was a fun way to observe and soak in the environment. After successfully purchasing phones, we went to a streetside empanaderia and ate....you guessed it, empanadas! The empanadas in Argentina are absolutely delicious; nice dough filled with meat (usually beef or chicken) and then whatever else one might want, including veggies, cheese, and potatoes. My other significant culinary experience thus far was going to my first asado, the Argentinian equivalent of a barbecue. Hernán, my host brother, invited me to come to an asado with him and a couple of his friends. It was a nice, low-key affair with a couple of his friends, one of whom had lived in California for nearly 15 years, so we compared notes on the differences between the countries, although he's undoubtedly much more at home here, considering he he was born here, lived in Córdoba for the first 8 or 9 years of his life, grew up speaking Spanish. As for the food, it was absolutely delicious; there were several different cuts of meat, including beef, pork, and sausage, and all was slow-cooked over a charcoal fire. Meat in the U.S. is quite nice, but I haven't had anything quite as good as this, and this meal was put together by several 20-somethings in a backyard. Tomorrow (friday) the whole group will go up to the city of Jesús Maria for the day. Jesus Maria is ~50km north of Córdoba and is home a huge festival every January that celebrates traditional gaucho culture, featuring music, dancing, and horse riding. It seems like a very authentic Argentinian experience, so I'm excited that we get the chance to go up and see it. I'll be sure to take plenty of photos and write an entry on the festival.



Overall, everything's going well thus far. It's a good group of students, and my family has been quite friendly and helpful, so no complaints there. The different hours of Argentinian culture has been a slight adjustment - dinner is frequently not served until 9:00 or 10:00, and people generally stay up pretty late, even on weekdays when they have to get up early the next morning. Luckily, I've usually got a couple hours in the afternoon to relax and take a siesta. I've wanted to go running and look for a pickup basketball game (there's a park with a court near my house), but I haven't been able to do either one so far, due to settling in and trying to figure out a typical schedule. Saturday and Sunday are free though, so I'll try and use those days to get going on those two items.

The whole group at our hotel on Sunday

Soon I'll be going back downtown to meet up with the rest of the group at a bar/restaurant, where we will meet our Argentinian speaking partners for the first time. The idea is that we meet periodically with an Argentinian student and alternate speaking in English and Spanish so that we can both practice our language skills. Hopefully all goes well with that, and I'll keep everyone updated on everything else here. If you read all this, thanks, I appreciate it! ¡Hasta luego!

The Journey Begins

Hello all!

Here, I will be writing and posting pictures about my time in Córdoba, Argentina, where I will be on a study abroad program until mid-March. Hopefully it will be interesting, so read and enjoy!

Departing from JFK

I arrived today in Córdoba, Argentina, nearly 24 hours after checking in to JFK airport in New York, tired but excited to be here. I took an overnight flight from NYC to Santiago, Chile and then spent several hours there before making the hour and a half flight to Córdoba. Despite being a bit cramped, the 11 hour flight to Santiago wasn't too bad, thanks to the nice personal TVs on the seats that allowed you to watch movies, TV shows, listen to music, and even charge your iPod!

My view as we descended on Santiago

I met up with several of my fellow Union students in Santiago, so that was nice to share the experience of coming into the country with them. We spend tonight in a hotel before diving into the program tomorrow, getting a tour of the city, meeting our host families, etc. Everything seems pretty great so far, and I'll keep everyone updated!