Jay In Argentina

Maybe one of my favorite weekends ever.

2006-10-18T14:22:00.000-07:00

Well, this last week started off as a little bit of a downer because I´m no longer going to be able to go to Calafate and Ushuaia, which kind of sucks. However, that wasn´t going to stop me from enjoying my extra day off this past Monday. Anyway, most people went to travel because of the extra day off, so it was pretty much just me, Katie and Kia left in Bs As; and since Kia is too busy "practicing her Spanish" with Abel, it was more or less Katie and I all weekend long. Friday we went to La Plata, a city of around 600,000 people just 45 minutes away from Buenos Aires. It´s the capitol of the provincia of Buenos Aires and is pretty sweet in my opinion. It´s the most delibirately planned city I have ever seen in my entire life, 100% blocks that are either squares or rectangles, but all very straight and boxy. No weird shapes or streets that start and end out of nowhere. It also has a bunch of diagonales that go straight through the city to make transportation a little easier. Every 5-10 blocks there is also a small plaza so the city has quite a bit of green in it.

Well, the big attraction in la Plata, besides the fact that they have a soccer team and all that, is the Museo de Ciencias Naturales. It was built at the end of the 1800´s and has a lot of cool stuff in it, including a bunch of dinosaur fossils that are found in Patagonia. There isn´t really anyone watching and the stuff isn´t very well protected, so I actually got to touch a real dinosaur fossil, not the plaster copies that tend to be on display in museums in the states and Europe. They also had a bunch of marine biology stuff on display including the bones from a blue whale´s head which is GIGANTIC!

Saturday we went to chinese and saw Little Miss Sunshine. People in the states, you may have already missed this movie since we get everything atrasado here, but if not, go and see it, it is awesome! Sunday was Argentine Mother´s Day, so my host mom´s daughters came over and we ate parrilla together which was delicous (except for my kidney, I didn´t like that very much--however, I did eat some other unidentifiable part, it was good).

Finally, Monday Katie and I went to the Teatro Colón to see an orchestra performance. An orchestra from somewhere in France came and played Mozart (since it is the year of Mozart) and they were really good. It was my first time in the Colón, and that place is absolutely amazing/beautiful. It sucks for anyone who comes to Argentine in the next two years because in November they are shutting it down for renovations. They want it looking all spiffy for the 100 year anniversary. Well, that´s more or less all that has been happening to me lately. Chau chau.

Jay

Soccer is the greatest game ever.

2006-10-09T16:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went to one of the coolest events I have ever been to in my entire life. It was the River Plate-Boca Juniors soccer game at the River stadium just a few blocks from my house in Belgrano. Without a doubt, it was one of the coolest things I have ever gotten the opportunity to experience. The stadium holds a little over 70,000 people and it was completely full. Thousands of people were verbally abusing each other throughout the entire game (my favorite chant "El puto de la cancha, de la cancha, de la cancha de tu madre"--rough translation, whore from your mother´s pussy). They had a flag that was so big it probably covered somewhere between 5-10,000 people. Everything was just gigantic and amazing, it was so energizing to be there and experience it. To top it all of, River won! I like them better because Boca is sort of like the Yankees of Argentine soccer and every American who comes here becomes a Boca fan, and that just seems stupid to me. After the Boca fans got done starting some fires in the stands, we all had to wait for them to leave so that we ourselves could leave. We left in shifts to avoid street rioting between the fans. The Boca-River rivalry is considered the largest rivalry in world sports, so you can imagine how crazy it gets.

Other than that I haven´t been really exciting lately. I´ve had a lot of tests lately, so I´ve been doing a lot of studying for them. Hence, little, if any staying out until 6, more like 2 or 3 lately. Other than that, just normal class, etc. Last weekend I did have Indian food for the first time in my life and it was absolutely delicious! I want more right now. I leave you all with my fondest farewell.

Jay

Update time

2006-09-20T14:28:00.000-07:00

So, I can say with some conviction that really not that much has been happening, and that´s why I haven´t written a ton. Anyway, the last couple of weeks the Argentine gonvernment decided that we, the international students needed to have student visas. Why? I don´t know. Anyway, this has started a long and expensive process of getting a visa. We had to basically get our mug-shots taken, our finger prints taken, and a whole bunch of other crap. Some time this coming week we can actually finally go and get our visas. The only good thing about this is that we can now legally enter and exit the country as many times as we want, so travelling at the end will be a lot easier that it would have been.

Last weekend, on Saturday, we went to Colonia, Uruguay. It was a pretty cool place, very small and very pretty. It had a bunch of old buildings from the 1700´s, and they were kind of cool to see. Not to mention it was on the shore of the Río de la Plata, and had some beautiful beaches to hang out at. I, however, much like whenver I travel anywhere ever, got strep throat. So, although I enjoyed going to Uruguay, probably not as much as I would have had I not been so damn sick. Suffice it to say that I did not do much else for the rest of the weekend considering that I was getting sick and all that crap. A trip to Bariloche is in the works, so look for a post about that soon to come.

Jay

A Tranqui Weekend

2006-09-04T10:28:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, quick update.

I started taking German this last week. It is a lot of fun both because I just love learning a new language and because I am the only American in the whole class. It is pretty sweet to just chill with some Argentines. At first, I think they thought I was kind of weird for being in the class, but they all seem pretty chill now. Last week my psych prof gave me a two articles, written in English, and told me that in a couple of weeks I´m giving an in class presentation for 10-15 minutes about the articles since it would be easier for me to understand. Sweet?

Thursday night I want to a party at some friends´ apartment. It was Andres´ (my French friend with Colombian parents) birthday and we chilled there most of the night. There were a ton of people from all over the world and it was just cool to get to hang out with all of them, not to mention there were languages flying all over the place.

Friday night was my friend Ben´s birthday. We first went and had a delicious dinner with some tasty Argentine wine. After that, we went to a place called Buller´s and had the most glorious drink ever! The Fuego Sagrado: gin, rum, whisky, vodka, tequila, triple sec, Tía María, and grenadine; mixed on fire, served on fire. It was sweet. We went to a club afterwards, and then called it a night.

Saturday not much happened, so I´m just ending it there.

Chau chau, Jay

So...I suck at life.

2006-08-28T18:18:00.000-07:00

OK, so I´m super shitty at writing in here, but just bear with me guys. Anyway, what has been happnening to Jay Dicke in Argentina that he hasn´t been a very good blog writer? I´m sure this is the burning question in all your minds. Well, I´m going to tell (and I hope everyone thought of The Holy Grail when they start singing the He´s Going to Tell song right there):

Well, first of all, my classes here in Buenos Aires have started. My classes with international students are, to be honest, a little disappointing. It´s like they were made for people in 8th grade, not in their third or fourth year of college. Whatever, screw them. My class with Argentine students (Social Psychology) is actually pretty intense, so that´s a lot of fun at the very least. Also, tomorrow I start German classes at the University of Buenos Aires. Really, I´m not entirely sure why I´m taking German, but it just seemed like a good idea, so I´m going to do it.

Other than class, not much has happened here in Buenos Aires. I continue to marvel at the fact that I go out until 4, 5, or even 6 a.m. (ok, sometimes 8) and yet feel a strange sense of normalcy about the whole thing. Buenos Aires is really starting to feel like home to me. I think it´s because I don´t just live here, but I have a gym membership, a movie club membership, I have a home to come home to, not just a dorm room. All of these things make it feel like a real place to live, not just a place that I´m visiting. That´s going to make it all the harder to leave. Not to mention, when I get home, almost no one I know has had the same experience, so I´m not really sure how to relate it. Whatever, I´ll figure it out then.

I also went to Mendoza one weekend and had a pretty sweet ass time. Mendoza, for those of you who are geography defficient (yeah, Spud, I´m talking about you) is just over the Andes from Santiago, Chile. It´s a beautiful, dry place and is the heart of Argentine wine country. While there, we spent one day cruising through the bodegas (winery) tasting the wine and seeing how it is made. The next day, thanks to some encouragement from a Swedish friend I met, four of us decided to go paragliding off of the top of a mountain. It´s an absolutely amazing experience. You start off at the top of a mountain and it´s not quite a cliff but a steep enough hill that if you would fall you would break a bunch of bones before you stopped. Anyway, you just start running as fast as you can with a parachute behind you. The parachute catches the air and lifts you off the ground and you just start floating down until you reach the base of the mountain (about 20 minutes).

The next and final day we went white water rafting down the Mendoza River. It wasn´t as exciting as if we had gone in the summer, when there is more water, but it was still a lot of fun. After that we did a little bit of trekking around a mountain and then raced against time to make it back for our bus trip home to Buenos Aires.

All in all, I am absolutely loving my time here. I am making friends from all over the country and all over the world. I now, as I count it, have friends in at least 14 states where I can stay completely free as well as 9 countries in the Americas and Europe. By no means do I feel that that is a bad thing. I hope everyone reading this has enjoyed this rather lengthly entry. Hasta luego, un beso grande.

Jay

Un breve resumen de Córdoba

2006-07-31T18:49:00.000-07:00

Hey loyal readers...

Last week I went to Córdoba with my friends Ben and Derek. It is a really cool city; it used to be the throne of the virrey here in Argentina until 1880 when, during some wars and stuff, it was moved to Buenos Aires. It´s near some mountains (not the Andes, shorter ones) and we went hiking for 7.5 hours one day. We also went to a town settled by Germans, which was just down right weird. Something about a bunch of German beer, German food and all that in the middle of Argentina just isn´t right, but totally fun. We also went to a beautiful small town called Alta Gracia where Che Guevarra grew up. We stayed at a really cool hostel with mostly a bunch of Europeans and it was a lot of fun. Classes started today, and they seem like they shouldn´t be too hard. Let´s hope so anyway. Hasta luego.

Jay

Bueno!

2006-07-24T18:45:00.000-07:00

So, I haven´t written in a while, but really, nothing much has happened in the last week and a half. I finished my intensive month class, got an A! Watched my bi/lesbian friend make out with some Argentine chicks, that was interesting. Went to a bar clearly inhabited by vampires, and now my friend Derek himself is a vampire (though he controls it well with the use of sunscreen, so we´re all cool). Other than that, partying until way to late at night, walking around the centre for four hourse, and other random shit that goes down in Buenos Aires. This week I´m going to Córdoba with Ben and Derek, should be pretty sweet. Hasta luego!

Jay

El primer fin de semana libre

2006-07-16T18:00:00.000-07:00

Finally, after three weeks of being here in the city, we got an entire weekend free with no obligations. That isn´t to say that I haven´t enjoyed the activities we did the last three weekends, but it´s just nice to have some freedom. Friday night we went to Chinatown (which is about four blocks long mind you) and ate there. It was pretty much delicious, though the people who ordered something spicy were a little disappointed (it´s BA, nothing is spicy!). After that we all just went to Plaza Serrano and hung out for the night. I talked to some random Argentine people, whose names I don´t know, but who were really cool.

Saturday Henry and I, after almost getting lost several times, went to San Isidro and el Tigre. In San Isidro we visited a little touristy beach on el Río de la Plata that was pretty and very tranqui. After that we went to el Tigre and met up with this guy that Henry met on his commuter train named Nicolas. We at pizza, went to the casino (lost 20 pesos), and played some pool. It was really refreshing to get to speak with several native speakers this weekend. It really makes me look forward to starting my classes with Argentine students. After we left el Tigre, we came back to Belgrano, got lost again, and ended up in Las Canitas until 5 a.m. just hanging out. All in all, it was a good weekend.

More to come

Jay

Otra semana pasó

2006-07-10T15:36:00.000-07:00

Sorry to everyone who obsessively reads this and has been awaiting news (that´s like, what, two people?). This last week was pretty average for the first few days, I went to class for five hours a day and chilled at night, not much else to report. However, this weekend I went to the Cataratas of Iguazú and they were amazing. If you want to see photos, their on my facebook profile. This week is pretty normal as well, just more class. I think this weekend I´m just going to hang out here in Buenos Aires, maybe go to a museum or something like that. I hope everyone is having a great summer.

Jay

First week down

2006-07-02T16:18:00.000-07:00

Well, I´ve officially been here a full week. On Saturday, we went to this place called el Tigre which was pretty cool. A bunch of rivers meet up there and make all these little islands that people live on. There are no land bridges that connect them so they have boat taxis and grocery boats that go around and take/bring people whatever. It was pretty cool. Friday night I went out to a pretty cool club and was there until 5:00 am. It´s so weird that here, that´s getting in a little early.

Hasta luego

I like it here, a lot...

2006-06-27T16:44:00.000-07:00

Well, things are going well here now. I´m starting to get to know the places around here, learning the names of streets and figuring out the transportation system. Yesterday we had to take a test to determine our level for classes and I´m in the advanced class, which makes me happy. It´s a lot of grammar, but that´s ok I guess.

I have a cell phone here. If you call from a land line, it´s free for me, so if you feel like spending money on me the number is:

54911-5975-1477

I haven´t taken to many pictures yet, but there have been lots of clouds and rain these first few days. I´m hoping to take some nice photos soon and then post them here or on facebook, or both.

This weekend we go on our first excursion and I think it should be fun, then next weekend we´re going to Iguazú Falls.

Hasta la próxima

Jay

The first day

2006-06-24T19:36:00.000-07:00

Well, this is going to be pretty quick because I´m tired, but my first day here was pretty much awesome. My host mom is really nice and she won´t stop trying to feed me pretty much all the time. We talked for like three hours today (after I´d had a nap, thankfully) and then I had an orientation meeting with ISA. The meeting was a little boring, and a bunch of people weren´t paying attention but then asked questions about stuff that had already been said.

I´ll write more in a few days.