First week of classes and being sick

Hola familia y amigos,

This last week did not go as expected to say the least. That being said, there was still a lot of positive that came from it. I try to be a glass half-full type of guy.

Health care - Lets start with the worst and try not to dwell on it. As you may recall I blogged about having terrible stomach cramps. Sparing you the details, it´s safe to say I didn´t heal quickly. Low on energy and motivation to leave my bed, I got through my first week of attending classes and saw a doctor on Monday (3/14). All in all I took it to be an immersing experience because I got to see the Argentine health care system on a firsthand basis. I´m not sure of the details because I have health insurance through my study abroad program but apparently healthcare here is semi-centralized with many relying on public healthcare for service while others are covered by private HMOs. I´m not quite sure of the model but it sounds very similar to the one adopted by Obama in which the goal is for everyone to be insured although there are certain loopholes that still exist.

As far as my experience, I waited in line, told a receptionist about my problems and handed her my insurance authorization and was given a number, I then sat and waited and waited and waited for about 2 hours before finally I saw a doctor. Its safe to say she was also gorgeous like many other Argentinean women (porteñas = women from Buenos Aires). She asked me some questions and thank god I at least have a basic understanding of Spanish. I did a little google translate research of some medical terms before my visit so she knew exactly what was wrong and told me I had an intestinal infection. I was regulated to a strict diet of water, gatorade, fruits, veggies, soup, rice, beans, wheat bread, and mashed pumpkins (a very popular and tasty dish here). Also she gave me some enzyme to take daily and after a week of taking it easy, watching plenty of college basketball (how great has this tourney been!! - not to brag but my bracket is in the 92nd percentile in all of yahoo), and a bunch of movies. All in all, I was better in a week just like the doctor said and now I´m back on my feet. I´m not gonna lie though, it was tough sitting in bed when everybody else was doing all this fun stuff (St. Patricks day, sports, music festivals, exploring the city and meeting new people). Self-control is very important in life though and one should always try and look at the bigger picture and plan for long-term happiness instead of indulging in the short.

Sports - Obviously soccer (futbol) rules here and Maradona (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maradona ) is god. Its a shame I really don´t care about soccer though (save the world cup) and people are automatically disappointed in me when I admit that to them. Am I better off lying? I do my best job as a poser though by rocking an Argentina national team jersey in the streets and receiving high fives from strangers. Pretty empowering I have to say. The two biggest teams here are River and Boca. Everyone chooses a favorite, but once again I don´t really care. I still hope to make it to a game though just for the experience. Basketball is probably the second most popular sport here although it is quite a distant second. Manu Ginobli is on a bunch of billboards around Buenos Aires and is considered a hero in the bball world. I´ve played a lot of street ball around here and it´s really fun but I´m at a huge advantage being 6´1´´ because most people here are really short. I´m actually in the process of trying out for my school team right now. I might be able to call myself a collegiate athlete when all is said and done which is hysterical considering how bad of a beatdown I would get if I stepped on the same court as Jimmer Ferdette. Practices are 2x a week and we play on saturdays if I make the team. It is a mix of Argentines and Americans and overall I´d say the Americans are better but I´ve only been to one practice. I´ll be sure to update more as this topic progresses.

Classes - I could go on and on about my classes but I´ll keep it short. Here is a list and a brief summary of how I feel about each one.

Political and Social change in Latin America (taught in English) - So far really basic and kind of boring. Most of what we have talked about is colonialism and enslavement of the natives. I feel like it is taught at the level of a high school class and my professor doesn´t really give off any detailed facts which is sad because this is a really interesting topic, especially since most of my history classes thus far have been taught from a US perspective and this one finally is not.

Tango (taught in Spanish) - Awesome class. I am still in disbelief that I am allowed to have so much fun in school. So far we have learned about the origins and history of Tango (did you know it originated from an African slave dance brought to Argentina) and the first 8 basic steps. I get too much practice because the ratio of guys:girls in the class is about 8:24 so I get too much practice. I still have to look at the ground when I dance, but for any dance there is a white-boy learning curve which I think I´m really on the verge of surpassing.

Argentine cultures and traditions (Spanish) - very interesting class ranging a whole range of topics specific to Argentina. I really should be doing my homework for this class right now and starting up on my semester long research project through interviews, observations, and studies one specific aspect of Argentine culture. I´m not exactly sure what I will choose yet, but I´ll get back to you...

Latin America in the global economy (English) - probably my favorite class. Taught by Jose Gustavo Roger (http://www.ub.edu.ar/studies/palas/CV/Roger_ingles.pdf) who has worked for the UN and world bank, we study macroeconomics (I have mostly studied micro so this is all very new and interesting) and the Latin American world. He is very critical of populism and Argentinean government. He says the US won´t invest here because they know Argentineans are lazy and their money will go to waste. He agrees with this statement and calls all of the government here liars. Also, he doesn´t do email because it bugs him, doesn´t make students write papers because he thinks everyone cuts/pastes from google anyways, and ends class a half hour early everytime. I´m a fan. I am very excited to see where this class goes.

A few other points of interest about my school (University of Belgrano). School is a lot easier here than Berkeley. I would put it around the same difficulty as my community college class at COM. Luckily everything transfers for general credit and my spanish minor at Cal. This bodes nicely for me as I look to make the most of my free time. The campus consists of one big modern building of about 20 stories although the elevator only stops on the 7, 12, and 17 floor. From there you take the stairs. Not the kindest of situations for disabled students (I have yet to see one). Teachers are frequently 5-10 minutes late to their own classes. I have seen used cigarette butts on the floors of hallways which leads me to believe that Argentines smoke inside the building. There are outstanding views of the city from each classroom above the 10th floor making it harder to pay attention in class. All of my classes unfortunately are with international students so I am not getting the full on immersion I expected. For that, I´ll have to strike up random conversation with porteños in the hallways.
Nightlife - This past weekend once I became healthy I had my first experiences really going out here. It´s quite different here. Most clubs, bars, nightlief establishments don´t open til 1 AM and people don´t really start coming in until 3 AM. This allows for elongated pre-games "previas" where you meet up with a group of friends and drink. You have to prepare in advance though because you can´t buy liquor after 10 PM. Popular drinks here are Quilmes (national beer) which you can buy a 40 oz of for about $1.25. This has been my favorite drink so far. Also, fernet con (with) coke is really popular as a mixed drink. You can find jsut about whatever you want down here though. Wine is abundant with a varied selection as Mendoza (one of the most renounced wine producing regions in the world) is only a 5.5 hour drive away from here. My program takes me there next weekend. Should be fun touring the wineries so I can come home a yuppy snob and pretend like I actually know something about wine.

Anyways, so last saturday I went to una fiesta de la luna (moon party) in a village just to the north of BA called tigre. I went with my friends Zach, Adam, Tyler, Tempe, Clara, and their 2 argentinean friends. We really had no idea what to expect other than to celebrate the biggest full moon in the past 30 years on the river. So we took a 45 minute train to tigre and then walked over to what looked like an abandoned port only to see a small boat waiting for us to take us 15 mins up the river. We arrived at a rickety old dock (Zach got a little too hyphy and broke one of the planks and almost fell in hahaha) paid 80 pesos and then entered one of the funniest, wierdest, surprisingly entertaining fiestas I´ve been to in a while. Heres the setup: basically a campground scattered with tents, hippies, a DJ spinning electronic music, colorful walls of psychadelic lights, and a rustic shack with a bar that served beer and shwarma (so random). People there ranged from little kids around 5-6 year olds to adults over 50 to everyone in between hanging out on the island. We met Americas, Germans, Argentineans, and people from all over the world. It was like power to the peaceful argentinean style. It was a legit setup for a party but lacked human bodies. The people who seemed to be having the most fun were most likely taking acid because their dancing was too weird and they seemed trapped in their own world. We enjoyed it for most of the night until about 4 am when we decided we had done just about everything we could there. We aren´t true hippies and we weren´t on drugs so we knew it was time to go. Sadly they would only take us back if we could fill a boat with 10 people. We were a group of 8. It took about 2 more hours to convince them to let us go after unsuccessfully searching for 2 more people to leave with us. I actually ended up falling asleep (it was soooo cold) from 4-6 before finally waking up and being told we were leaving. I got home at about 8 am and slept until 2. Conveniently college bball started this time as well. Thank you CBS for streaming online! All being said, I need to start taking more naps  if I want to party like Argentine.

Odds and Ends - Luckily gatorade only costs about $1.50 here. Unfortunately I cannot find anywhere to recycle the bottles. I went to an outdoor ferria (open air market) this past weekend and saw some of the most impressive breakdancing of my life. At first it looked like the dancers were fighting but then you could visibly see they were play fighting and not hitting each other. Then all of a sudden they were doing flips and crazy dance moves. It turned into a show, but I didn´t stay for the whole thing. From what I saw though they amazed with flips, spins, and crazy acrobatic poses. The street art here is gorgeous and you can find some really amazing stuff. And also, I saw a puppet show. Tonight I am going to la bomba del tiempo which is a crazy drum/percussion show that happens every monday night with a lot of dancing. I can´t wait.

I´ll try my best to update next week but I feel like I always end up writing too much. Oh well. Hasta entonces...
Un abrazo muy fuerte a todos,
Lew