Week 7: Mendoza, Cordoba and adios Argentina!

For July 14^th-July 22^nd

We left El Calafate at noon on the Tuesday the 14^th, after running all over the town looking for an ATM that actually worked, so that we could pay our hostel which only accepted cash. It would be about 46 hours before we reached Mendoza, directly to the north of El Calafate, about 3,045 km away. We first had to go further southeast to Rio Gallegos, to catch a transfer bus that would go non stop to Mendoza. The bus ride itself was pretty chill. I had my book on the Bushes, which I enjoyed reading greatly, and got through about 600 pages during the bus ride. However, just as my traveling luck goes, there was a 2 year old kid, Rodrigo, sitting in front of us for the whole trip. Sporadic wailing was common, as well as smelly diaper changes. Little Rodrigo took a liking to Isaac, who of course encouraged him, and spent a good amount of his waking hours standing on his chair looking back at us and saying ‘Hola nene’, and ‘dame dedo nene’, and trying to grab our fingers. Our bus made a lot of stops at non descript little Patagonian towns. Through Wednesday, I think I peed in about 5 different towns. There was one moment of extreme panic for me. It was evening, and we had made a 10 minute stop at some random bus station. Isaac and I both got off the bus to use the bathroom, and buy something to eat. I returned after about 5 minutes. After a few minutes, the bus started moving, and Isaac hadn’t returned. I ran to the front to tell the driver to stop the bus (in Spanish). He smirked, told me that he had a schedule to follow, and to say bye bye to my friend. After I pleaded in panic a bit more, he stopped the bus. I got out and ran all over the bus stop looking for Isaac, but couldn’t find him any where. I came back to the bus to check if for some reason he had gone to the upstairs, but he wasn’t there either. As I came down, Isaac calmly entered the bus, totally oblivious to everything that had happened. It took a while for my heart to stop racing as I contemplated what would have happened if either of us were left at a bus stop in the middle of nowhere in Argentina as our luggage lay in the bus.

There was no shortage of things to do in Mendoza, and I think it would qualify as my favourite destination in Argentina. The first day, we walked around the city. The Parque San Martin was beautiful and sprawling. Isaac got his first haircut in Spanish. Looking to find a wine appreciation class, we somehow stumbled upon a wine and cheese event at the Hyatt, which we crashed, and felt sufficiently awkward in, though the wine and cheese were great. That evening we were invited to the house of the president of the local AIESEC (for those wondering what aiesec is, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIESEC) chapter in Mendoza’s for an ‘asado’, or barbeque, where I met Colton, a Yalie doing an internship through AIESEC there, and Bruno, who I had been in touch with in the past few months to organize that internship, as well as a lot of others. Most conversation was conducted in Spanish, though at times I was lost, especially when some of them started arguing politics in rapid Spanish, which was quite discouraging.

The next day was an active one. In the morning we went horse riding, just outside the city, in the Andes. It was my first time riding, and was pretty fun. It was amazing how well trained the horses were. One tap with the foot on their side and they start walking. Another tap, and they start trotting, and one more and they gallop. Pulling the reins to the left or right means they turn, and pulling the reins back means they stop immediately. I also discovered how cliquey horses are in their social tendencies. Our guide explained to us how horses spend all their times in small groups, and feel uncomfortable with other horses. Among the five horses with us, three of them were very friendly to each other, and clearly antagonistic to the other two, who seemed intimidated by them, and didn’t like to get too close. After three hours of riding though, my body was aching a bit. Trotting was more uncomfortable than galloping, as my body was made to jump up and down while trotting. In the afternoon, we set off for a bike tour of various wineries on the outskirts of the city, and visited a chocolate factory as well. We found out that we had been charged much much more than some of our friends who did the same tour, so at the end we returned to the bikeandwine office defiantly, hoping to get our money back. We were unable to, because of the complex web of responsibilities between the hostels who promote the tours, and the company which actually organizes the tour. Nonetheless, we argued for a good amount of time, and I enjoyed myself thoroughly, being sufficiently sarcastic and rude. It isn’t very often that you can feel entitled to be that rude and not feel bad about it.

The following morning Isaac and I parted ways, as he set off to Chile by bus. I on the other hand, set off for a ski trip to Los Penitentes with Bruno, Colton and Emanual, a friend of Bruno’s. We rented all our ski equipment for about $12 per person, and somehow fit all of it in Bruno’s tiny car. I had never ski’d before, and the four hours that we had on the slopes before it got dark weren’t enough for me to come even near to mastering the art. I fell about a hundred times. Nonetheless, it was fun going whizzing down the slopes with no control whatsoever over myself, and falling and skidding in the soft snow.

After staying a third night in Mendoza, I head off for the last leg of my journey to Cordoba by myself. I was there two nights and one full day, and found out that I didn’t really enjoy traveling by myself all that much. One of the main differences was that I had a tough time making any decision, as I was always second guessing my self. For some reason I have much more confidence in general when I’m with other people. I spent the day roaming around the city center of Cordoba, which was quite beautiful. It was full of churches and grand buildings from colonial times. Unfortunately, I was there on a Monday, so all of the museums were closed. The hostel I was staying at was particularly crazy, or atleast all the other people staying at the hostel were pretty crazy. There were some people who had been traveling for the last two years, going all over the world, and others who were students like my self. I went to a play in the evening which I had found out about during the day with some Americans, and later went to a club with pretty much most of the people staying in the hostel, French, American, Canadian, German, Irish and British (it was notable that in all the hostels I stayed at, I didn’t meet even one other traveler from a developing country), as well as the owners. It was friendship day, and so entry to the club was free, which was very welcome, being at the end of my travels.

Before I left Buenos Aires on the evening of the 22^nd, I had a final day in the city. Lucas’ lovely family very kindly allowed me to stay with them, and had a wonderful dinner, and even drove me to the airport the next day. I used my last day to run some errands, returning DVDs to the embassy, meeting with my host parents one last time, and getting back a book which I had lent to Pablo, the professor who helped me out with my article research. By the end of my almost two months in Argentina though, I felt I was ready to go home and relax for a bit, having constantly been on the move for a while. I reached Palo Alto, California, where my parents are spending 6 months at Stanford, on the morning of my 20^th birthday, and have been enjoying the laziness in the 4 days since, procrastinating writing this entry, and working on my article.

Week 6: Waterfalls, Glaciers, and last few days in Buenos Aires

This is the coldest I have ever been in July. El Calafate, the small town I am currently in is at about 55 degrees south latitude, a good deal below South Africa and Australia, and just about level with the southern tip of New Zealand. The town itself is tiny, with a population of about 7000 people. I have been travelling with Isaac, a fellow Yalie who also took part in the same study abroad program as me, as Admin had to abandon our travel plans due to crazy visa issues that she’s dealing with. (apparently she resembles one of Argentina’s most wanted to an eerie extent, and argentinian immigrations services are unwilling to let her enter their country)

The reason I am in the wonderfully (that’s right, I’m bringing wonderful back) quaint town of El Calafate is that it is an hour away from the Glaciers National Park, one of the world’s natural heritage sites. El C is a town that gets most of its business from the tourism industry. Even though its low season right now (in the dead of winter), the hostel that I’m staying at is full of tourists, mostly young students. We’ve had two full days here, and have made the most use of them. Yesterday, we went on a tour of the national park, that included a 1 hour bus ride to and from the park, a short 1 hour boat ride to the south face of the glacier Perito Moreno, and then a 2 hour walk around the different balcony viewing points of the same glacier. The glacier itself is huge, with an area of more than the whole city of Buenos Aires, and towering up to 60 meters. The last time I felt as cold as I did when I was on the boat was at the Yale Harvard football game, and that was very very very cold. The day trip was a lot of fun, in a large part because our whole tour group was students. There was a Spanish girl who was travelling alone who we befriended, two Americans who were also studying in Buenos Aires, and four British guys on a gap year after school who all thought each other was hilarious, and called each other ‘ol chap.

Today we took a boat tour of all the glaciers in the region. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see the biggest one, Upsala, because the path to it was blocked by a number of large icebergs, which had broken off from the glacier, and didn’t let us get any where near it. Nevertheless, along with seeing all those awesome bigass icebergs, we saw two other glaciers. First was Viedma ( I think that’s what its called), which was an awesome sight. The glacier is surrounded by ice capped mountains on both sides, and on one side it actually extends up three quarters of the mountain. The different colours on show were spectacular. The sea was a shade of turquoise, the ice capped peaks were white, the bases of the mountains were brown and green filled with trees, and the glacier was crystal blue. Crazily enough there was also a waterfall on the opposite side of the mountain. Why some of the water decided to freeze and form a glacier, and the other decided to remain liquid and fall down the mountain side right next to the glacier, I cannot explain. We then went to see the north side of the perito Moreno glacier, which was as beautiful as the south side. The crowd on the boat tour was very different from that of the previous day, with everyone being much older, probably because it was quite a bit more expensive.

We also happen to be staying in one of the most awesome hostels I’ve been in. The view from the common room is just spectacular, as it looks out to the crystal blue lake argentina, with snow capped peaks in the distance. The hostel is full of young people, and the common room is alive with people meeting each other, reading, playing music and eating at all times. Because the touristyness of the town makes it really expensive, we decided to cook by ourselves (well Isaac did most of the cooking while I watched and gave a few words of wisdom off and on), and created a yummy pasta with chorizos, which lasted us for two dinners. We’ve been living a pretty healthy lifestyle too, waking up at about 7 in the morning to make the tours, even though the sun doesn’t rise here till about 930 am. Unfortunately we couldn’t quite get to see the sunrise today, because it was too cloudy and misty by the time we made it on to the boat. Tomorrow we head to Mendoza, the wine capital of the country, by way of a 48 hour bus ride, covering over half of Argentina’s length. I have a sort of trashy biography of the Bush family that will keep me company. Needless to say, we also stocked up well at the supermarket, with bread, jam, biscuits, and the cheapest wine we could find ($1.7). Luckily I can’t tell a good or bad wine apart, so I think I should be fine, though I plan on taking a wine appreciation lesson once I get to Mendoza.

Before flying down to EL Calafate, I divided the last week of my program (during which I didn’t have classes) between Iguazu Falls and Buenos Aires. The Iguazu Falls were of course beautiful as well. Thankfully everything wasn’t as much of a tourist trap as I found things to be in the Niagara Falls. The boat ride that took us close to the falls completely drenched us. While on the boat, we were about 10 meters away from the Braziian coast. I met an Indian lady on one of the viewing points closest to the falls, and lost ten pesos in the process, because I had bet with one of my friends that she wasn’t Indian, saying ‘of course I would be able to recognize an Indian if I saw one’. As I spoke with her in Hindi, Spanish words unconscioualy came tumbling out at random moments. I guess the second language compartment of my brain is kind of confused at the moment. Once I go home though, I need to set that right, lest my mom disowns me.
My last few days in Buenos Aires included a lot of going out and making the most I could of the city. As it happened, some muwci folk: Dianita, Lieke, Ellen and Sara, were in town for a day. We spent one whole night together, gossiping about muwci (muwci gossip never gets old), going to bars, cafes and a club. And when I say one whole night, that’s literally what I mean, from 7pm to 7am, in real porteno style. We went to a café at about 5 in the morning, and it was absolutely full with people who were putting an end to their night (Tuesday night that too) with some tea or coffee. How Argentinians manage such a life style I will never know. As Isaac puts it, ‘they’re absolutely craaaaazy’.

Having been in touching distance of the border with Brazil in the northeast, and the border with Chile in the southwest, I now have a week left of travelling before heading home.

Week 4 & 5

This post was written on Saturday, the 4th of July, in a bit of a hurry..

I am now officially done with classes in Buenos Aires. And pretty good timing too, as two days before my last day of classes, most of the universities in Buenos Aires decided to shut early for winter break because of swine flu. We thus had to have our final day presentations in the IFSA butler office, rather than our usual classrooms in the University of Buenos Aires. We even had to have our last AIESEC meeting in a park, since the universities are closed. Swine flu has suddenly become common conversation everywhere I go. The number of cases in Argentina shot up a day or two after the elections, as apparently the government had been keeping it quiet before the elections so as not to lose votes. You can see people on the bus and subway wearing face masks pretty often, despite the fact that the virus is actually small enough to go through the pores of the mask.

Now two and a half weeks of traveling in Argentina lie ahead of me. Tonight I head to the Iguazu Falls, by an 18 hour bus ride. Next week I plan on heading to El Calefate, way down south in the province of Santa Cruz, in Patagonia, which is famous for its awesome panoramic views and glaciers. I also plan on going to Mendoza, which is famous for its wine here in Argentina, and time permitting, Salta, in the north of the country.

The last week and a half haven’t been the most exciting of my time here in Buenos Aires. A good part of them was spent trying to research and write my papers for school and my article. My laptop decided to act up just when it was most inconvenient, which made it impossible to research online. Research for my article about student political activism in Argentina on the other hand did not require the internet, but more talking to people. Because of this, I had the opportunity to meet and talk to some very interesting people here. I had meetings with three different professors at UBA, as well as with a few activist students. They were all extremely generous with their time, even though they had nothing to gain from doing so. Luckily for me, they all had a lot to say on the topic as well. Over my time here, and through these interviews, I’ve come to learn that there is a tremendous mistrust and vast ideological differences between economic classes here in Argentina, or at least in Buenos Aires. I believe that it stems from the sense of entitlement that the poorer classes have, which isn’t common in most other poor countries, where the poor have given up hope for bettering their lot. Ever since Peron’s first presidency, as he put his populist rhetoric in play, and made it a point to accord workers with rights they had never before dreamed of, these classes have made it a point to demand from the government and the local elite what they feel they are being deprived of, and to point out perceived injustices. From this stems the culture of strikes, which are an every day sight here. This, in turn, has led to frustration and a feeling of being threatened by factory owners and the upper classes, which has resulted in sustained animosity.

Last Saturday I accompanied my host father as he went to cast his vote for the legislative elections in a local school. To my surprise, no long lines greeted us, probably because there are ample voting centers in the city. The volunteers at the poll station even permitted me to enter the ‘dark room’ with my host father, where he picked the leaflet of the candidate he voted for, and deposited it in a little box outside. That night we heard the results, and they were what most people expected. The party of the Kirchners, the current president and her husband, the ex president, who are of the Peronist progressive left, suffered a major loss. They lost their majority in both houses of the parliament, and will now have to negotiate and compromise with the opposition if they wish to get laws passed. The rightist Pro party expectedly won in Buenos Aires city, though with a lower percentage of votes than last time, as well as the province of Buenos Aires, which was more unexpected. Most people think that these elections have to a large extent sealed the fate of the next presidential elections in two years, with the Peronist right thought to have the best chance of coming to power. Though some people are elated at the prospect of an end to the ‘inward looking’ ‘anti modernization’ left leaning government, others curse the return of neoliberal rightist policies which historically haven’t done the country much good. As you have probably sensed, everyone here is pretty passionate about the subject, and think that their opinion is the right one (leading to much confusion for me).

Day before yesterday I set off for the Sheraton Hotel, where the Indian Embassy was hosting a ‘seminario de negocios’ or business seminar to improve business relations between Latin American and Indian firms. It seemed to be a pretty big event for those interested, with the Indian embassies from Colombia, Mexico, Brazil and Chile sending representatives. In the audience, I saw many times more Indians than I have seen in the last 5 weeks here in Buenos Aires. Though of course Indian and Latin American business relations aren’t at the forefront of most people’s minds, there seemed to be a fair amount of Indian businessmen interested in forging ahead in this previously unchartered territory. I had a number of interesting conversations with different people: diplomats and businessmen. Since interest in Latin America isn’t very common among Indians, they were very pleased to meet any one interested in the topic. Among the different people I met, some were particularly interesting. One was the young second secretary of the Indian embassy in Bogota, who was one of the few Indians to give his speech only in Spanish, and crack a few jokes too. He was originally a doctor, and specialized in forensic medicine in India, even publishing a book in the subject. After a few years he decided to learn Spanish, join the Indian Foreign Service, and give speeches about why India and Latin America should expand their trade activities. Another was a businessman with a small start up firm based in Uruguay, who is hoping to initiate agro products trade between India and Conosur countries, as he sees a lot of potential in this. He previously lived in Venezuela and Russia too. At the end of the seminar was an amazing Indian lunch, and having been starved of Indian food for so long, I ate a lot more than was good for my stomach.

In other news:

- I haven´t shaved in over two weeks, and I´ve got quite a bit of scruff going.

- I tried mate, the traditional herb drink here in Argentina a few weeks ago, and I absolutely can´t stand it.

- Since I´ve reached Buenos Aires, I´ve spent about $550.

- I tried my best not to use ´lovely´and ´wonderful´in this blog.

I’ve run out of time now, and need to rush to the bus station, so apologies for the abrupt end.

Week 3: Uuguay and more

This post was written on Wednesday, 24th of June.

Delay due to laptop problems..

Before coming to Buenos Aires, I was dreading the fact that it would be winter during my time here. After about 5 months of cold weather in New Haven, and then a month of sunlight, I cursed the fact that Buenos Aires was in the southern hemisphere. However, on getting here, I found that the winter here was nothing like the winter that I experienced in New England. That is, till today. I stepped out of the house at 8:15 in the morning to be greeted with a gush of wind and a temperature of 1 degree celsius. Luckily I had been forewarned by my host father about the terrible weather, and was suitable dressed, donning my white beanie, as well as my pea coat, which I had not previously used here. What is a relief, however, is that it can only get better from now on (marginally at least), as today was supposed to be the coldest day of the year here.

I am two days late with this entry, the reason being that over the extended weekend, I made a trip to Uruguay, and since coming back, I have had to catch up on work that I had previously ignored. A small price to pay for the great time I had over the weekend.

Over the last half a year, I had been in touch with the AIESEC chapter in Montevideo to try to create a partnership with Yale to send Yalies to do internships there. This partnership succeeded, and we ended up sending two Yalies to do internships during the summer vacations. As such, I got in touch with AIESECers from Montevideo and told them about my visit, and they enthusiastically offered to put me up and show me around. I set off for Montevideo on Friday evening by boat, and on arrival, was greeted by John, a Yalie doing an AIESEC internship there, along with 2 Uruguayan AIESECers who were waiting for me at the station. They drove me to the local committee president, Alejandro’s family’s apartment, where I was to spend the night. Alejandro’s family greeted me warmly, and they seemed pretty used to having strangers from random countries arrive at their doorstep. Some more AIESECers arrived, and we hung out and talked over beers (which I actually somehow liked). We then proceeded to a bar, where there were more AIESECers: trainees doing internships from all parts of the world, as well as the local AIESECers from Montevideo. All conversation was conducted in Spanish, which was great. Everyone seemed to be pretty intrigued by India, and had many questions, and I tried my best to explain the caste system in Spanish. Another common question, which I have got from most people when I meet them, is whether I have seen Slumdog Millionaire, and what I thought of it. My reply would often be, ‘of course, I was in it!’, which would cause ‘wows!’ and ‘reallys?’. My first joke in Spanish. And my second, and third…

The following day some of my friends from my study abroad program arrived in Montevideo, and we checked into a hostel in the center of the city. With John guiding us, we roamed most of the city. Montevideo isn’t really a city of spectacular sights. The most notable one, is ‘Mercado del Puerto’, or market of the port. It consists of a number of stores and traditional restaurants housed in an old warehouse next to the sea. We had lunch there, and ordered a big plate of meat. It turned out to be the most meat I’ve ever eaten at a meal. The dish that came had every single body part of an animal that you could think of, from intestines to liver to thymus. Check out the picture attached! As for the city of Montevideo itself, I wasn’t too impressed. On both Saturday and Sunday, most streets were deserted. Granted, it was terrible weather (raining), and it was an extended weekend, which gave many people the opportunity to get out of the city to travel, but it seemed more like a ghost city. Used to the bustling streets of Buenos Aires, this was a world apart. Though the capital cities of the two countries may seem totally different, Argentina and Uruguay share much in terms of culture. The food in both countries is pretty much identical. You greet everyone with a kiss on the cheek. Both countries share the ‘rioplatense’ Spanish accent, where all ‘ll’s are pronounced as ‘sh’s, and you say ‘vos’ instead of ‘tu’ for ‘you’. In terms of measures of wealth, such as GDP per capita etc, both countries are equally well off (or not well off) as each other, though it may not seem so if you take Buenos Aires to be representative of Argentina (which it is not).

Sunday morning I woke up after barely 5 hours of sleep to head to a slum just outside the city with John and some other local AIESECers. We went as volunteers for an NGO, ‘Techos para mi País’ (Roofs for my country), which exists in most countries in Latin America, and works to construct houses in slums for the underprivileged. The weekend before I arrived, a number of AIESECers had volunteered to spend their weekend building and reconsolidating houses in the slum. This weekend was a more relaxed trip, with the aim of just visiting the families for whom the houses had been built. Because of the continuous rain, the ground in the slum had been turn into a slush pit, with trash strewed everywhere, and dogs running to and fro. The major problems in the slum are sanitation and health. Though most inhabitants have gotten at least high school education (it is free and compulsory in Uruguay), and almost all houses have TVs, basic knowledge of health is lacking, with children growing up not being taught to brush their teeth, and no doctors in the vicinity. We spent a few hours chatting with the family in their newly built house, and patched up some leaks that remained in the roof.

For what the city of Montevideo lacked, the people made up for. I don’t remember having met as many people in two days before. We were taken very good care of, being shown around everywhere, to the extent that we did not need to make any plans of our own in the city. I had a number of very interesting conversations, including with a university student staying in the same student residence as John, who asked my American friend what he thought of his imperialist government, and asked me whether Indians shower every day.

Sunday night and Monday were spent in Colonia, a small, picturesque port town. It is about an hour’s boat ride away from Buenos Aires, and serves as a nice tranquil getaway for many Porteños in the summer months. There wasn’t all that much to do in the town, but roaming the pretty cobbled streets and old buildings was quite relaxing.

In Buenos Aires, I unconsciously shifted my focus from sightseeing to meeting different people through connections, be them close ones or distant. Last week I was invited to dinner by the former host brother of my sister’s colleague’s husband, and his wife. A few nights ago I attended a class in the university about the history of social movements in the Americas, because I wanted to talk to the professor about an article that I am writing for the Yale Globalist about student involvement in politics in Argentina. He was really friendly, we talked for about half an hour, and fixed a time to meet this coming week to talk at length. He also gave me the contact information of some students involved in political parties, who I have gotten in touch with, and hopefully will interview soon.

On the roads one can feel the build up to the legislative elections being held this Sunday, with the political parties stepping up their campaigning, with posters plastered on almost every single visible wall, and loudspeakers blaring campaign promises.

The coming week I need to buckle down a bit, and do research as well as write two essays for school, and my article.

Today I made a trip to the Indian embassy here in Buenos Aires, because as luck would have it, a friend of my dad’s knows the ambassador here. Ambassador Vishwanathan turned out to be a most interesting man. He loves everything Latin American, and has previously had postings in Venezuela and Brazil. Something quite rare, as Latin America is a region in the world that isn’t given much importance in India. He even has a blog on random subjects related to Latin America, and makes for pretty entertaining reading: http://latinamericanaffairs.blogspot.com/. Everyone at the embassy was most welcoming, and I spent over two hours chatting with different people in the office. Listening to Indians speaking Spanish was lovely. The embassy had a wonderful collection of movies and books on Argentina, and I think I will use it as a library during my time here, having already taken the opportunity to borrow two of the movies they had. I was also invited to a seminar on Indian businesses that the embassy is holding in a few weeks time, and I definitely plan on going. My visit ended with the ambassador himself driving me home.

Over the last week I tried to continue my sightseeing in the city, though at times to no success. After extensive research (in my lonely planet) I picked out two museums I wanted to visit: El Museo de la Casa Rosada (the museum of the presidential palace) and ‘La Pasión Boquense’, a football museum in the stadium of the local team here, Boca Juniors. As it happened, both museums were closed on the days that I made trips there, much to the chargrin of the friends who I had led there enthusiastically. I did manage to however successfully visit the Recoleta Cemetery. This is a cemetery that houses the mortal remains of the rich and powerful of Argentina, and has a nice little free tour. The graves aren’t merely graves however, but are housed in plushy tombs. Most of the ‘big’ families of Buenos Aires have one tomb for their family, which guarantees place for most of their members. The bigger the tomb is, the more wealthy or influential the family tends to be. The whole concept of the cemetery seemed pretty interesting to me. On the one hand, you have the beauty and architectural brilliance that the different tombs offer. On the other, you have a sort of competition of material wealth and influence that seems to have been carried on to the afterlife. Either way, I did enjoy the tour, and getting to see Evita’s grave, which was adorned by bouquets of flowers from admirers.

Day before yesterday, I made a trip to the theatre in the theatre district of Buenos Aires, Avenida Corrientes, to watch a play called ‘Marat Sade’, about post French revolution life in a mental ward. I have difficulty understanding Spanish when sung and spoken very excitedly. The play had both a lot of singing and animation in dialogue, and it turned out to be difficult for me to understand most of it. Though of course I did follow the jist of the plot, the subtleties of relationships between characters and debate and dialogue were lost on me. I did however enjoy the spectacle that the play was, with brilliant acting, wonderful music, and an amazingly done set. The Porteños (citizens of Buenos Aires) take their theatre quite seriously. There was even some opera balcony-like seating on either side of the stage, and at the beginning, I wasn’t sure whether the people seated there were just audience or part of the play. They turned out to be audience, but it must have been quite a viewing experience, as the play took place a few centimeters away from them, and the actors often acted as if they were part of the happenings on stage!

I also had the chance to attend a Salsa class last week. Things seemed to be going pretty well until the instructor finished with the basics and got to the more complicated stuff, at which point most of us were lost. Once the class finished more experienced salsa dancers took the floor, and put on the moves. The ease by which they seemed to do it led me to resign myself to acknowledge that I would never be able to dance like that. You never know though….I’m considering joining a salsa class.

Yesterday I made a trip to the ‘Jardín Japones’, or Japanese Garden. It is the biggest such garden outside of Japan. There was a 5 o’clock special tea and performance of Japanese drums, which was great fun. The garden was really crowded with families on their Sunday outing. There is actually a rather sizeable Japanese, Korean and Chinese population here, and almost all the supermarkets and Laundromats are owned by Koreans and Chinese. Quite in distinction with the Indian population here, which is almost non existent. Before going to the Indian embassy, I had encountered only 2 other Indians here. I went to an Indian restaurant last Friday with Lucas and Alejandra, his girlfriend, called Tandoor, and it was hilarious to read the names of Indian dishes in Spanish.

Over the last two weeks here, I’ve also picked up a thing or two about Argentina culture. - Argentineans are very conscious of their appearance. You will almost never come across an overweight Argentinean. In the square block around my house, consisting of four streets, there are almost 8 hairdressers. The mullets are a particularly popular look among the young men.

- Argentinean men are very aggressive when it comes to courting girls, almost to the extent that the courtship is eliminated. It’s perfectly acceptable to introduce yourself to a girl in a nightclub by taking her hand and starting to dance with her. It seems that I have much to learn…

- The café culture is a staple of the city. As long as you order something, you can go on sitting in a café for as long as you like, without being troubled. I’ve currently been sitting in this café for the last 4 hours.

I’ve also come to realize the vast network that I have, thanks to UWC, AIESEC and Yale. All those communities put together, there are probably over a 100 students who I have something in common with in Buenos Aires at the moment. Last week I met Sara, a friend of mine from MUWCI, who has been in Buenos Aires for the last 4 months, doing volunteering work and promoting an experiemtnal theatre production. I bumped into a girl wearing a UWC sweatshirt on the subway the other day, who graduated from the Adriatic UWC last year. I’ve met over a dozen Yalies and AIESECers doing different sorts of internships and volunteer work.

Clearly, I’m not alone…

I've been in Buenos Aires just over a week now, and it's about time I started this blog. I finally take the chance to do so as I sit in 'El Ateneo', voted as one of the 10 most beautiful bookstores in the world. Today was the first time I opened my books, and got some homework done. The main reason for this being that so far my classes haven't been too stressful. I've instead been spending my time roaming the city, interacting with my host family, reading, and of course trying to get a grip on the political landscape of Argentina.

I arrived on the morning of Friday, the 29th of May, on a group flight along with a number of other kids doing the same program as me. We were received most graciously by the director and assistant directors of the program at the airport, and packed off into cabs to go to the homes of our various host families. I was welcomed to my third floor apartment in the upper middle class 'barrio' of Palermo by Cecilia and Freddie, my host parents for the next six weeks.

As the week has gone by, I have found them to be most cultured, educated and artsy people, and I have thoroughly enjoyed all my interactions with them. Freddie is a freelance photographer, and has exhibitions of his work in the city from time to time, while Cecilia is a psychologist, and receives patients in the house. There apartment has a definite artsy tinge to it, with paintings donning all walls (a lot of them done by friends and some by Cecilia), and books on philosophy covering most of the bookshelves. I have also been lucky to have two host sisters. Well, not real host sisters, but two American students, Shanna and Kindra, who are taking part in different study abroad programs who are also staying with Freddie and Cecilia. Since they've been here for longer, I've been able to get tips on the city from an outsiders perspective, that have certainly been helpful.

After eating my first lunch with my host parents, I set off for our first orientation meeting which involved a language aptitude written and oral test. Having just flown for about 15 hours, none of us were in the best state to write an exam, but we got through it, and were afterwards treated to a sumptuous welcome dinner for our troubles. The next day, we were taken early in the morning to an 'estancia' (somewhat like a ranch, or farmhouse), about 60 km from Buenos Aires, for a two day orientation. This proved to be a good way to get to know the others in the program, and we attended a number of sessions dealing with academic expectations, life in the city and security etc.

In the last week, I have really come to appreciate the city that Buenos Aires is. It is full of wonderful cafes (in which you can sit for as long as you like wihtout being bothered, as long as you order something), well maintained parks, national landmarks, street fairs and bars. Being as large as it is, and holding one third of Argentina's population, it is remarkably safe, though of course there are a few areas that are known to be best not visited alone. Argentinians are known for their crazy lifestyle when it comes to going out. Dinner is usually had at around 9 or 10, and most clubs only open at 2 am. Coming home after a night out at 6 or 7 am is considered pretty standard. I've mostly been making use of the subway (subte) system, which is the easiest to figure out. Buses are useful some times, but are not as inconvenient as they only accept monedas (coins). I have found to be true what we were told during our orientation: You will find a constant game being played in Buenos Aires, that of trying to accumulate as many monedas as possible. This consists of customers constantly paying with large bills at stores, and shopkeepers eternally alleging that they have no change. He/she who can hold out for longer wins.

During the last week, I have also found time to get involved with the local chapter of AIESEC here in Buenos Aires. Luckily, I already knew a member before coming: Lucas, who came to Yale the past semester for an exchange for 6 weeks. He showed me around the city during my first few days, helping my buy a cellphone and figure out the public transport system. Since then, his lovely parents have hosted an elaborate dinner for me in their apartment, laden with steak and wine, of course, along with a discussion on Argentinian politics. On my third day here, I attended a meeting of the EB of the LC at a local university here, where I tried to keep up as much as I could with the rapid Spanish being spoken. A couple of days ago I attended the local committee meeting, where I was given a rousing welcome, along with a welcome package, which included some yerba mate (the most popular drink here, made of some kind of bitter herbs..I actually have no idea what it's made of), along with a guide book to Argentinian slang.

One of hte highlights of my trip so far has been attending a world cup qualifier football match between Argentina and Colombia. This was particularly special for me as I have followed the sport for a long time, but have never had the opportunity to actually attend a match. Though the game itself wasn't too dramatic, there were some moments of magic from Messi, and the overall atmosphere in the stadium, because of the passion of the Argentinian football fans, was magical.

And lastly, I have been trying to wrap my head around the current political landscape in Argentina. One thing is for sure: it's very complicated! The traditionally main parties of the countries are the Peronists, Radicals and Conservatives. However, over time, each of htese parties have become fractured and split up, into rightists and leftists wings. So much so that the leftists wings of the Peronists and Radicals have more in common with each other than with their respective rightist wings. The current government of President Kirchner belongs to the leftist progressive wing of the Peronists. At first, I was rather impressed with it, based on the little knowledge that I had. Being socially progressive, using a capitalist system but concentrating on social welfare schemes such as education, enable the government to have friendly relations both with the US, as well as leftist regimes of Venezeuala and Cuba. However, after speaking with more people here, I have come to find out that the current government isn't all that popular. Its incessant populism leaves much to be desired in long term planning for the sustainable success of the country, as well as rampant corruption and ineffectiveness.

I'll end here, and will be back with more later, as I explore more of the city, meet more people, and learn more in class about Argentina's history and current polity!