summaries.

Here begins my series of weekly summaries before delving into more random (and most likely out of order >.<) topics. Man, looking at my planner of notes from each day overwhelms me with how behind I am on blogging...Whee!

Saturday, 6/5. We arrived at Ezeiza Airport (the international airport of Buenos Aires) at 8ish a.m. After passing through customs, we met up with Dra. Demello and Bea (from the Fundacion where we're taking classes) who took us to the Fundacion, which is a building adjacent to/inside Centro Cultural Borges and Galeria Pacifico, a shopping mall! Hehe. There, I met my host mom, Andrea, and she drove me back to my home for the month. Then we dropped by the store she owns (a libreria, which sells office supplies and the like, called DDesk), where I met Fede, my host dad. Belen, my little sister, dropped by, and we went walking in search of an English copy of Treasure Island (which still eluded us after three bookstores, bleh). However, I got to talk to her (she's 14), which was pretty fun, even though I'm sure my Spanish was super poor, since it was my first day here. Back home, I met my other siblings, Fede (yep, same as my dad) and Sofi. I chilled at home all afternoon and later went to Freddo, where I got my first taste of Argentinian ice cream! Strawberry (which goes by the name "frutilla" here, instead of "fresa," which I learned in Texas XP) and dulce de leche.


Mmmm.

Sunday, 6/6.
In the afternoon, I met back up with the other students and Dr. Demello (UTD professor for our cultural class) for an urban orientation of the city. We walked down Florida Street, a really famous pedestrian street filled with shops :D



and we visited the Casa Rosada (Pink House), which serves kind of the same function as the White House in the States.



We also visited Puerto Madero, the newest barrio ("neighborhood"), before heading back home.

Monday, 6/7.
Our first day of class! And I overslept, how sad :( For some reason, the alarm on my sister's watch (which I brought to Buenos Aires in lieu of my normal Swatch) didn't go off, so I was awoken by my mom knocking on my door. (In the setup of our house, my room is separate from the rest of the building...like I exit the kitchen to enter my room. It's kinda cool and actually really convenient for host students like myself :D and since it was my brother's room, he's sleeping in my sisters' shared room for the month XP)
Anyway...Eep! I took the bus to the Fundacion (although it's normally close enough to walk to, and it only takes 15 minutes or so), and I turned out to be the second one there (out of 5), so it was fine, praise God. :) Bea was our Spanish teacher, since our real teacher was feeling under the weather.
(Regarding our classes (which run Monday to Thursday, praise God for free Fridays :D) : the first two weeks, we had Spanish class in the morning from 9:30 to 12:10, followed by a lunch break and cultural class in the afternoon with Dr. Demello. The five of us were divided, 4 and 1, into two Spanish classes based on our levels of Spanish and the teachers' availability. The cultural class had more flexible of a schedule, and each week we focused on different things.)
Week one was human rights, so we had Professor Troisi, a professor of history in Argentina, come to speak to us about the modern history of Argentina (late 1800s to 1980s ish/present-day). It was...pretty overwhelming, to say the least. More on human rights later...I feel a long ramble coming for that one >.< After class, Maija and I went to a cafe to finish our grammar homework before heading home for dinner with the family.

Tuesday, 6/8.
We had a fire drill during Spanish class! Throwback to middle and high school, haha. Since we're linked to the Galeria, everyone who was shopping had to evacuate as well, hehe XP But we all just poured out onto Florida Street, which is crowded all the time anyway.
For our cultural class, we went to Memorial Park (Parque de la Memoria), which commemorates the "desaparecidos" (the disappeared) who were kidnapped during the aforementioned military reign in Argentina. The memorial there was reminiscent of the Vietnam War Memorial...interesting.



On my way home, I walked down Corrientes Avenue, which was full of bright lights and lots of theaters--fun! And...I got my first alfajores. YUM :D



Wednesday, 6/9.
We met Cecilia, our real teacher for our Spanish class, since she was thankfully feeling better! She's pretty awesome--really helpful and friendly. After Spanish class, I went with the girls to a tango class! It was fun and definitely different. XD More on tango later...
For our culture class, we watched the film La Historia Oficial, which also focused on the time period of the desaparecidos...it was good but pretty sad.
For dinner, I ate by myself! The only time that happened...and only because my family got a kinda last-minute invitation to eat at my mom's parents' house for one of their birthdays. I ate at El Cisne (The Swan), and it was pretty good. Got a bit lonely after a while, only because there was a lot of food that I was trying to finish, and it took me a while :X haha. But it was an adventure all the same, especially figuring out what to order (and it wasn't all a problem with the language, haha). My waiter was really friendly, although the English menu he kindly provided me with (after the one in Spanish, thankfully) was ridiculous XP and not useful at all. They translated desserts as prostrates (LOL) from "postres" in Spanish, most likely.

My dinner from that night XP

Thursday, 6/10.
We got to talk to Elia Espen, one of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, whose son was one of the "desaparecidos"...pretty sad. And intense. So many emotions linked to all that we saw and learned that first week in culture class...Afterwards, we went to the Plaza de Mayo to watch the mothers march, as they continue to do every Thursday afternoon.

Friday, 6/11.
We went to the ranch, Estancia Santa Susana! We got to ride horses, eat asado for the first time (at least for me), and watch some tango and live music during lunch :) More on that day here.
Picture of a picture, but still XP Horses!



Whewwww. What a mouthful. And that was just one week o.o
More posts tonight? Hm...