The Blog Must Go On!

I've loved keeping this blog, but lately I've found that posting isn't coming as naturally to me as it did before. As reflected in my previous entry, life feels more ordinary now, and therefore somehow less blog-able. I'm still having great adventures as a wannabe porteña, but now my life feels like real life as opposed to some imaginary version of life abroad. Also, that to-do list I posted is messing with me. It makes me feel super un-accomplished, even though I plan to do many of those things when classes are out and when my family visits, AND most of my little adventures aren't really to-do-listy. Blah, blah.

BUT I want to keep on trekking with the blog and staying connected to my beloved readers! My camera got stolen this weekend (UGH. I won't dwell on this, but WHAT A PAIN), but luckily I didn't lose any pictures. So here are some glimpses of recent life:

Valentín and I had a farewell photo shoot with Irma before she returned to El Salvador. We miss her :(

Bailee, Gwen, Jamie, Zoé, and I wandered around the beautiful Recoleta Cemetery the other day:

Next to Eva Peron's tomb:

I look way too giddy to be in a cemetery. The sun was shining, I went stocking-less for the first time while in this country...and I STILL HAD MY CAMERA (note my left hand)

Bailee admiring our strange and beautiful surroundings.

Goofy girls :)

We then ventured to the park next to the planetarium, where I shared a dramatic moment with Galileo...

...and the other girlies climbed a tree!

This is becoming long! How about that!

Some more tidbits:

I bought this journal in the States before leaving, and filled it up recently! It's mostly in Spanish. I am proud.

My new journal, front and back (I'm using the girly shoe as the front, even though the shoes I wear every day are identical to the manly one)

To complete the healthy dose of TMI you're getting in this post, here's a fruit salad I ate the other day. Because you're statistically about eight times more likely (no joke) to read/comment if I post a picture of food. I know you too well, dear readers ;)

Besos :)

Isa

Word of the day: la cana - n. Police. (also means, but doesn't have anything to do with, "white hair")

Within the near future: boliche-style Halloween, census-inspired picnics, and (surprise!) belated play reviews. Stay tuned!

Cinco Cuentitos...

This is post #50! It's likely I'll double that by the end. So much clogging with a b.

I've got two reviews to write from the past week, but first, some little stories in random order:

1) I stepped in mierda for the first time today since being here, which is impressive considering it's just about everywhere. The concept of picking up after your pet does not exist here. Neither does the concept of moving your pet out of the center of the sidewalk when it's about to do its business. That's one thing Rosario has over Buenos Aires! ONE thing.

2) Realizing I have just a tad over two months left, I made a to-do list yesterday for the rest of the semester. It was shockingly brief and included very tangible goals such as "finish at least one of the books I'm reading" and "make PB + J for my Argentine friends." (They've tried peanut butter before but think it would taste awful with jelly. Having eaten thousands of PB + J's in my lifetime, I disagree and am set on proving them wrong!) In conclusion, I'm not running out of time :)

3) Robyn turns twenty today! Last night we partied it up in Palermo Hollywood. I got home around 5, ready to sleep for a good long while, when I realized that I had to get up at 8:30 to go to Immigrations. For further information, see the phrase of the day.

4) Sometimes, my friends and I get the urge to do very yanqui things and we feel embarrassed. The other day, for example, Gwen and I went to see "Comer, rezar, amar" and liked it a little too much. It's a chick flick with a bit of a brain! We read the subtitles to appease our guilt.

5) Continuing with the theme from #4, I've also fallen in love with Tea Connection, a yummy restaurant with actual fruits and vegetables on the menu (and amazing tea, of course.) Yesterday they forgot to charge me for this deliciousness:

That's spinach, corn, and parmesan tarta with lettuce and cherry tomatoes on the side. YUM. The karma's gonna come back to bite me. Or it would if there were such a thing as karma. I firmly believe there is not. I did pay for the tea, though:

All right, now that we're clear on my lunch preferences as well as my religious beliefs, I think this blogpost can end.

BUT not before I make it INTERACTIVE! Question: What should be on my to-do list? What would you do in Buenos Aires if you had the chance?

Okeedoke, that's all.

Besos,

Isa

Phrase of the day: estar hecho/hecha de mierda - lit. "to be made of shit." Usually used to describe one's physical state or appearance after getting little sleep, having a long day, or getting an embarrassing sunburn. I've been using this one a lot lately. To say it about yourself: "Estoy hecho de mierda" if you're male, "hecha" if you're female.

Jueves: My hair is gone!

(Note the new hair, the slightly exasperated facial expression after many photo fails, and the pots and pans that my clothes share a closet with.)

School week diary, day four:

10:00 Wake up. Laze through getting ready. Head out.

11:00 Arrive at the church around the corner where I attend the fourth years’ play rehearsals every week. Marisa tells us that there’s been a miscommunication: they’ve already started rehearsing in the performance space, and it’s too late for us to get there now. The play goes up Monday, October 11^th, and will be performed weekly through October and November. You can check it out on facebook here.

I head back home. I stop in a verdulería to buy an apple. Lately, men selling me fruit always ask me about the weather. They think I haven’t understood them when I reply that no, it’s not cold outside. Then I respond with a speedy, verbose explanation that I’m not from here and thus this doesn’t seem cold at all to me.

I eat the apple on the way home. It’s delicious. People don’t usually eat outside here, but I figure that I’m going to be stared at anyway, so I might as well do what I want.

13:15 Leave the house. Get on the colectivo, head to Recoleta to meet Gwen and Zoé for lunch at Tea Connection – not the most Argentine of spots, but delightful nonetheless.

14:00 I’m the first to arrive. I snag us a table near a guy with an ironic moustache. I look up words while I wait for the girls.

14:20 The chickies arrive. We decide what to order and spend most of our mealtime in Spanish. We eat some wonderful food, drink yummy tea, and have some ridiculous conversations. Lovely all around!

16:30-ish We realize that we should maybe leave Tea Connection at some point in our lives. Gwen and I decide to go to Palermo to do some shopping, and Zoé decides to head home to study. First, we stop by Gwen’s house. Zoé gets to meet host mom Dolo and host dog Felipe for the first time!

As we’re walking toward Palermo, Gwen and I spot the Doctor Who look alike that we saw in a boliche a few weeks ago. THE SAME GUY! We feel creepy but are overjoyed nonetheless.

18:00 Gwen and I arrive in Palermo. Gwen hasn’t given up on our mission for me to get my hair cut. We find a salon called Maldito Frizz – it looks promising. I step in to inquire about making an appointment. The dude (there are a lot of very DUDE dudes working as hairdressers in this city) says he can start my haircut in five minutes. And so, dear readers, I got much of my hair chopped off by a balding 30-something-year-old guy named Leonardo while listening to some excellent jams.

So, newly rid of my “ugly ends,” we went on to do some shopping, and actually found some lovely stores that were light on the floral print. I got lucky and found a dress, a sweater, and a headband – Gwen left empty-handed, sadly, but we’ll be back. The exchange rate is too much in our favor for us to pass up the opportunity.

20:00 We start heading over to the theater where we’ll be seeing Estado de ira, sponsored by IFSA. The theater is in a weird spot – sort of inside the zoo, from what I gathered. We immediately run into one of my classmates from Voz y Canto – it’s a small world when you’re a theater kid. Once inside, we see another of my USal peeps. I’m not surprised in the least.

21:00 The show starts. Review coming soon!

23:00 Show over. The group of yanquis hovers around Mario, our program director, to see if we’ll be getting a free meal this evening. After we follow him awkwardly for a couple of blocks, he peaces out. Sad.

Left to our own devices, Gwen, Zoé, Rodrigo and I have dinner at Kentucky Pizza. There are a disconcerting number of places in this city with “Kentucky” in the title. At least Gwen feels right at home!

And there you have my jueves. It didn’t turn out to be a school day in the least. Go right ahead and burn with jealousy at my abundance of weekend, just don't hate me for being free!

Besos,

Isa

Word of the day: la bronca - n. Anger. (I feel like it's almost an onomatopoiea)

Miércoles: Garments and Gradual Grumpaliciousness

I kind of want a pair...but imagine that print in pastels and on a dress. AGH.

School week diary, day three:

9:30 Alarm goes off. I begin my bad romance with the snooze button.

10:15 Rise. Have a “big breakfast” of cereal, crackers, and an apple. Listen to Kate Nash and Adele (I woke up feeling like a sassy Brit, I guess) as I get ready for the day.

11:30 Leave the house, hop on the colectivo. I work on memorizing lines as I go.

12:00 Meet Robyn for lunch downtown. It’s been a while and we have stories to exchange. I’ve been craving ñoccis, and it’s the 29^th – the day of ñoccis! – so I couldn’t resist ordering some.

13:00 Robyn and I walk a few blocks to get to our private acting workshop (we’re spoiled) that we have each week with Marisa, whom I’ve mentioned before – she’s basically our mom, although she’s not that much older than us. She graduated from the theater program at USal a few years ago and is now busy working in the Buenos Aires theater scene, in addition to running around with the two of us making sure USal is nice to us.

We’re working on monologs and spend a lot of time focusing on full involvement and consciousness of the voice and body. (I’m translating directly from Spanish again, sounds a little weird...) I had a great time acting today – I feel like I can really be expressive with the language now, and it feels lovely. I wish we could have the workshop every day!

15:00 Time for our dramatic theory seminar with Jorge Dubatti! (As I said, we are SPOILED) The classroom is just two doors down, so I grab a quick two-peso cafecito from the vending machine. Delicious!

Dubatti is a delight. Today we talked about Ricardo Bartís,* one of the most highly acclaimed theater directors in Buenos Aires. Dubatti had an interview with him recently, which I attended. His lecture today focused on logically synthesizing Bartís’s ideas, which were a little all-over-the-place in the interview, although fascinating nonetheless. I think that today, I finally convinced Dubatti that I understand Spanish. He thinks I should move here. I don’t completely disagree.

16:00 Class ends. Robyn had to peace out early because she’s been feeling sick :( Thus, all alone, I decide to wander a bit and do some shopping. Spring fashions have now hit the stores.

My most devoted reader (my mother) recently suggested that I write a post about fashion in Buenos Aires. I plan to write said post in the near future, but I’ll give you all a sneak peak now: if I see another floral print, I think I might just puke. There’s also lots of lace going on. And PASTELS. It’s shocking and quite nauseating. Usually, the reason I get frustrated while shopping here is because I don’t fit into the clothes. (They have four sizes for women, and a lot of stores only have the smaller two in stock. Like that store from “Mean Girls”!!! Then there are special stores for “gordas” and “super-gordas.”) But today, I went to a total of seven or eight different stores, and didn’t find ONE THING that I wanted to try on. Sad. At least I’ll save some money...until, of course, I head back to the U.S. and become overwhelmed by the bounty of beautiful things I want. I’m dreaming of H&M and Anthropologie!

16:45 Discouraged, I go to Havanna for a cup of tea. I accidentally order café con leche and medialunas. Oops. I do some reading for class – the chapter, fittingly, is about consumerism.

18:00 I board the colectivo to go home. I should have taken the subte, the traffic was awful!

19:00 I get off a few blocks early in the interest of my physical and mental health. I go into a few more clothing stores. I want to scream at the very, very ugly things I see. I glance in a mirror; I’m looking rough. I head home for real.

I arrive home. I eat apples and granola. I watch “Friends” on tv. Cintia has returned from Mar del Plata, and she gets her friend on the phone whose son wrote and directed an award-winning play that’s still running in the city – she passes the phone to me and I get a theater contact! Exciting.

20:15 I write most of this blog entry because I have nothing better to do and I don’t want to infect the world with my grumpalicious mood that I caught from the awful clothes and stop-and-start bus ride.

20:45 Brief bout of illness. Blegh. At least I know I don’t have yellow fever.

21:15 I sit in the kitchen sipping water. Cintia takes this as a sign that I want to be fed and serves me a plate of chicken and squash that she had prepared earlier. It’s delicious! I eat while she does other things, then sit with her while she eats her dinner. Conversation includes teenage pregnancies. Leticia puts in her two cents from time to time by shouting from the next room, where she is busy with architecture assignments.

22:00 I write the rest of this entry. My arm itches. I want to take a shower.

22:30 Showertime.

22:45 While finishing my shower, I realize that "Para vestir santos," my favorite Argentine show, is on in 15 minutes! Grumpy mood fades. I watch the show. It is excellent.

Well, there you have my miércoles. These things just keep getting longer and longer. Tomorrow should prove to be more interesting, as I’ll be starting my weekend. Stay tuned!

Love,

Isa

P.S. I should note that there are tons of very well-dressed Argentines, and that I have found clothes that I like here. Just not today. To see some interesting alternative styles, check out www.onthecorner.com.ar

*Bartís is the director of “El box,” which you may remember I did not like in the least. Nevertheless, his ideas are interesting...and Dubatti’s sending us to see the play again! Apparently it’s gone through huge changes since I saw it a month and a half ago. We’ll see.

Word of the day: ruso/a –adj. Blond. (lit. Russian. Huh.)

Martes: Rain, shine, being alive

School week diary, day two:

7:30 Miraculously wake up despite having set my alarm to the wrong time. Get up, decide to wear my ugh-it’s-Tuesday outfit (maximum comfort and messy hair coverage), get ready to go. Have a delightful mug of tea and a couple of tostadas (toast.)

8:15 Get on the subte. It’s not as hideously claustrophobic as it usually is at this hour. I close my eyes and focus on the movement of the train. It’s amazing what you can appreciate if you become conscious of it: the steady forward motion, the breeze that comes in through the windows as the train pulls into each station.

8:45 Get off the subte. Notice the torrential rain that has begun to pour from the sky. Brace myself to hate it, to complain about it once I’m inside...but then decide to try to enjoy it for once. I have no umbrella. I get soaked on my way to class. I feel alive! It feels amazing. I can’t stop smiling.

9:00 Spanish language class begins. There’s just a few of us, and the professor, Cruz, is great – very smart and sharply funny. She’s an actress, and as such, full of expression and energy. I’ve learned a lot from her grammar-wise (oh, grammar) and I love talking with her about theater. In class today, we read, we write, we talk, we get off track.

10:15 Ten-minute break. Zoé and I have our usual water-cooler chat. Patricio, my academic advisor, knows all of the details of my personal life by now, whether he likes it or not – his desk is right there.

Class continues. More of the same. I make use of the multiple dictionaries I carry around with me (one Spanish-English and one Spanish-Spanish) and we start reading our second book.

12:00 Class ends. Jimmy and I go in search of food that won’t kill us. We run into his friends Jamie and Ashley, and the four of us end up at California Burrito...something. CBC, in any case. The burritos are yummy! 80% of the customers are tall, smiling blond people. 10% are tall, unsmiling blond people. I creep around the latter 10% to see if I’ve finally found the only other Finns in Argentina. Sadly, the search is still going.

We have some lovely lunch conversations about siblings and insects, but the SAME SONG has been playing on repeat since we got to the restaurant, so we need to peace out for our own sanity.

I buy myself an alfajor for dessert, get back on the subte, get back to Caballito (my ’hood) pretty quick. I pick up my laundry on my way home. (Continuity from yesterday!) Now I have clean clothes. Hooray!

I bum around, take a shower. Coming out of the bathroom, I see light shining through the living room windows – it has stopped raining and is now a beautiful day! In keeping with my Conexión Creativa way of life, I decide to meditate and do breathing exercises in the sun for a bit. It feels wonderful. Almost as good as an orange massage – well, not quite, but in any case, I’m feeling very Zen and one with the Universe.

I write a few pages in my journal, in Spanish as always. I’ve been writing in Spanish for five weeks now, it helps a lot!

17:30 I go to Disco (the supermarket down the street) to buy apples and granola. I come home and eat apples and granola.

18:30 I skype with my dear Hilary Tandy for a good long while and watch the sunset through her Vassar dorm-room window. Lovely!

20:15 The apples and granola haven’t held me over – I cave in and eat an early dinner of leftovers. Tomorrow, Catalina comes to cook, I’m excited to dine on her creations for the rest of the week!

20:45 Start writing this entry. It’s still super early, but it’s been an early kind of day.

All in all, a very tranqui Tuesday. Lots of lovely inner moments and eurekas. A surprising number of words came out of this day!

Off to do some homework (it does exist, I swear.) Stay tuned for Wednesday!

Besos y abrazos :)

Isa

Word of the day: tranqui – adj. Calm. Short for “tranquilo/a.” Used a lot to describe positive moods. Kind of like “chill.”

Lunes: Oranges and Articulations

School week diary, day one:

9:25 Alarm goes off. I hit the snooze button a lot. Get out of bed, get dressed, etc. Eat a little breakfast. Bring laundry to laundry place down the block, owned by a friendly middle-aged Japanese couple. Hop on the subte, travel less than 10 minutes to school.

11:00 Conexión Creativa. We “share.” We dance around and shake each other’s hair out. We give full-body massages using oranges – this is DIVINE and I want to start and end and spend every day doing this. We end class by talking about the experience of the orange massage, what images appeared to us while we were being massaged, etc.

Buy a piece of tarta from a panadería around the block (I live off of tarta). Sit in the lobby of the building reading my book and chatting with classmates passing through.

14:30 Voz y Canto. We warm up our voices and practice the ridiculous duet we’ve been learning, then move on to the monologs – Romeo and Juliet in Spanish. I perform the monolog in front of the class for the first time since reading it out loud on the first day. Since then I’ve memorized it and worked hard – they were impressed! It was a nice feeling. The professor points out that I articulate better because I’m still learning the language, and tells the rest of the class to listen to me as an example. Heh heh. Gold star on my forehead...but for real, it’s nice to (a) see the results of my efforts and (b) have an advantage, for once, as a yanqui* in a class full of native speakers. Some of the girls talk to me at the end about how much my Spanish has improved – they’re shocked! Progress √

16:20 Peace out. Buy some candy from a kiosco and catch the subte home.

Chill at home for a bit, facebook e-mail blog yada yada while the cat takes a nap on my bed.

18:30 Take the colectivo downtown to la escuela de espectadores (“spectators’ school” for theater-goers). Listen to Dubatti, my fave, interview the director of Estado de ira, which I really really wanna see. I haven’t been to the theater in SO LONG!

21:00 Class ends. I get to chat with Robyn for a second, who’s back from a wild weekend in Mendoza and needs to recover. And then she needs to tell me all about it. I peace out on the colectivo and read on the way home.

21:45 Arrive home, super hungry. Host sis and her friend are studying hard. I heat up some dinner, eat, realize how boring my blog post is going to be. And now here I am, writing it.

It was really a lovely lunes! The weather is nice and both classes were great. I’m also realizing how lucky I am to be surrounded by crazy theater people all the time, it’s really wonderful. I’ve got love for non-theater-types, too, of course, but school is so much more fun when it’s a nuthouse.

Tomorrow you get my Tuesday.

Besos!

Isa

Word of the day: yanqui - n. or adj. Person from the United States. Comes from the English word "yankee," but is pronounced JAHN-kee.

Cinco más

1) Proof that this is me and I am here: me in a tree in the park near the apartment.

2) Some of Vassar, plus others from the program, in a park near the orientation site. Note my cameo appearance in shadow-form. The hilarity of this photo can be explained by #3.

3) OH.

4) A view from inside my bus. It is usually packed, so this was a rare photo-op. I've been taking the bus to and from orientation every day. Public transportation is really good here, and busses are everywhere, 24/7.

5) The fancy building downtown where our orientation takes place:

As it is not always safe or convenient for me to take out my camera, I do not have un montón de fotos yet (another reason to read my blog: learn Spanish bit by bit as I spontaneously blurt it out!), but these should give those who were curious a good sense of my daily life so far.

Let me know if there is anything you would like to see or know more about! As I learn more, I plan to blog a bit about Argentine politics (a complex and heated subject!) and the theater/art world. For realzies leave some comments so this blog doesn't turn into me just rambling. (Example comment: "Izzy: Your use of the phrase 'for realzies' makes me laugh/lose all respect for you/love you to the max.")

Besos,

Isa

Coming soon: cows, films, and boliches. (What a strange word-trio! What could this possibly mean?! This blog is SO SUSPENSEFUL)

Word of the day: el boliche - n. Argentine word for discotheque. Which is a French word, because English isn't cool enough to come up with its own.

Las primeras fotos!!

Cute cups and saucers in the kitchen. We actually drink our tea out of huge round mugs with cows on them :)

Beloved Kaira, modeling in the kitchen:

One corner of my room. Note my earrings in the handy-dandy earring-thingy:

Shoes for my Argentina-feet:

Watching Love Actually on tv (an educational experience when I read the subtitles!)

Two contemporary Argentinean novels I bought. I've started Crímenes imperceptibles, it is quite good. Also please note (and be jealous of) the clouds and rainbows on my bedspread.

Kaira is surprised to be interrupted my my creepo Uglydoll in the middle of her catnap:

Also: I totally O.D.'d on empanadas during the first week. They are SO GOOD. I documented all of them:

More pictures coming in just a moment!

Mi Vida Porteña

I think it took me a few days to fully realize where I was. 16 hours of travel to a completely new environment can be a little disorienting. But now I’m well past the initial daze, and I feel incredibly lucky to be here. I hope five months will be enough!

To explain my situation a bit, for clarity’s sake:

1) I’ve had orientation at IFSA (the study abroad program) for most of the day every weekday. Learning about the city, practicing Spanish, preparing for classes, etc. It’s been nice getting to know the other Americans – we are about 150 total, including 6 Vassar-folk :)

2) I live with a WONDERFUL host family. THE BEST. Mother, 21-year-old sister, and adorable, adoring cat.

3) Classes start next Monday: I’ll be taking 5 classes, most of which will be at local universities with Argentinean students. I plan to continue studying drama while here: Buenos Aires has an incredibly active theater scene.

I can already feel that my Spanish – especially my ability to understand – has improved considerably. The road to fluency is paved with humiliation, but it can be a fun ride if you let it be. (Oh, how I amuse myself with my wisdom)

At first, I was easily identified as being from the States everywhere I went, but now I guess I’ve acquired some sort of Argentinean essence, because I’ve been asked for directions – by Argentineans – several times. Sometimes I’ve even been able to answer! I’ve also started drinking tea multiple times a day, and eating dinner around 10 pm – the schedule here was made for me.

Pictures coming SO SOON (as soon as I can get them to upload...blegh)

Besos,

Isabella