Polo, milonga, la vida
Trip Start
Aug 03, 2008
1
13
23
Trip End
??? ??, 2008
Buenos Aires,
Capital Federal District,
Argentina
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
I talked briefly about this in my last entry (I think), but my trip to Bolivia planned for the beginning of October has been officially struck down. After the Bolivian government's dismissal of the US ambassador, the Peace Corps have been withdrawn and the country is quickly moving closer toward civil war each day. (As in it could start tomorrow) What an inconvenience!
But in all seriousness, the problems in Bolivia are pretty grave. To give the most simplistic explanation possible, (because I am such an expert) there's major stratification between the majority indigenous (and largely impoverished) population and the minority rich white population. The indigenous people succeeded in electing a president on their side, but the leaders of the rich white areas are sort of refusing to recognize his power, angering the impoverished indigenous people who elected him.*
IES proposed an alternative of a week of hiking/trekking in Cordoba. If you know me, you could guess that I'm not down for that. Not only do I not own proper apparel for such an excursion, but I don't believe in hiking for days on end
The happenin' carpeted van to polo
. A day or two of hiking, fine. But several? That's why God invented Jeeps. As such, I'm putting together a trip consisting of 3 cities along the Rio Parana. I don't know of anybody else interested (most of my close friends have plans to go to places I've been or Rio de Janiero, Brazil which I can't afford) so I may be embarking on this alone, which I don't really mind. Like I've said, hostels are great experiences and I'd be forced to mingle in such a case. Not a whole lot else, just went to school this week. I'd have to say that I'm really struggling with the Spanish (or Castellano as it's referred to by the people here). I went to another movie in Castellano called "Motivos Para No Enomorarse" (Reasons Not to Fall in Love) and I probably understood 30% of the dialogue, although the plot was much easier to understand than the first movie I saw.
My difficulty lies greatly in the fact that I have such good American friends here. It's easy to say "that's not why I went abroad" or "I can hang out with Americans after the program", but these kids are a different crowd than St. Thomas. The other kids in my program are a lot more like me (though not quite as strange!) than the average student at UST, and have similar schedules, so it's a lot of fun and much easier to work around their schedules than my native Porteño friends who have jobs and (real) university to conflict their schedules. But it's coming along.
I decided to start reading more in Spanish, so I bought two children's books (for kids aged 8-11, says the back)
a bit kitchy.
. One is a short version of Moby Dick which I've never read, and the other is some crazy kids fiction book that's pretty interesting so far (as of page 15, five brothers are digging a hole to Australia). I've also been watching more TV in Spanish, which is sort of an accomplishment because I never watch TV at home. The news is too difficult because there are no context clues. I prefer South Park, which is full of context clues, and the voices are outrageous.
Hmm.. que mas? Friday I went out to Job's bar and then after went to a Milonga club. I think Milonga is about the same thing as tango. The place was beautiful.. it looked like a big open warehouse but the lighting and décor were super romantic with the dancers and saxophone players. Totally a date place! And only $5 to get in, and $7 per bottle of wine.
Saturday I went to a polo match, which was pretty exciting as I've never been. Being of the trailer park caste as I am, I compensated for the fact by wearing my nicest cardigan/collared shirt combo, which was a perfect fit. These were some rich ass people! For example, the bar only sold Stella Artois, which is typically out of my price range (except for when that's the only beer offered), and there was a polo-attire boutique/tent set up with like, $2000 leather jackets. I still couldn't really tell you the rules of polo, but it is definitely more fun to watch than other rich people sports (ehem... golf?)
Not much else... I'm still getting along great with my host mom, still having fun, everything is going really, really well. A girl named Viviane who is from Switzerland but was in South Africa with me (a bit confusing I know) is going to come hang out for the three weeks that I'll be in South America after my program ends, so I think she'll be coming with me to Peru and possibly Brazil if my residual financial aid allows. Fingers crossed!
Can't think of anything else! Hope you're all doing well.
*I think this is about right, but keep in mind that I get my news from watching the news in a foreign language.
