Definitely a different feel and sense of patience then I have experieced in the US, but instead of getting annoyed or frustrated its been a lot easier to enjoy and accept it. That being said, I've changed my eating habits, sleeping habits, and some social habits. I eat a lot of meat/carbs but eat less. I go to bed later and siesta if I plan on staying up late that night. And the whole dynamic of meeting a girl here is both funny and unorthodox for me.
Two words I would use to describe it: persistence and confidence. Never will a girl come up to you here, and more often than not you will immediately be rejected / not fully engaged when you attempt to talk to a portena. This doesn't necessarily mean she's not interested in you but you should push to keep the conversation going and throw in some really ridiculous sweet nothings (comments about their beauty, their country, or how glad you are to have met them) but if you push too hard they will know you are coming off as fake and you will immediately be labeled as a "chamushero" = player. Very different then the push/pull relationship structure of the states in which often times a boy/girl fight to make the other person want them more while showing more subliminal signs of interest. Here one will do best if they can act directly. Also of note, you don't really see too many boys and girls as just plutonic friends - boys mostly hang out in large packs of guys and girls stick to their own as well.
Mar del Plata - So this has probably been the highlight of my trip. We had a day off school, a weekend forecast of decent weather and wanted to get out of the fast life of BA. Anthony, Adam, Zach, and I (the four amigos) booked some bus tickets to MDP - a touristy rather large beach city. We wanted to take advantage of the end of summer and this may have been the best decision we've made so far. Long-distance busses here are very popular a whole different situation than taking a greyhound in the US, and I was quite pleased. The seats reclined about 40 degrees, we got a few snacks for the ride, and their was a bathroom and water fountain. Pretty comfortable and not a bad deal at all. We also met a hilarious aunt/nephew combo. This lady was about 50, caked in make-up, and had fake hair extensions. Her nephew was a ginger 10-year old named Darlis, but I definitely would have called him Dudley if I could've named him (based on his looks). Zach and I innocently started talking to them in Spanish and the next thing we know she busts some laminated photos out of her purse. I kid you not, these were like 10 year old photos of her and Ricky Martin that she has held onto and brings everywhere with her. At least she always has a conversation starter. She continued to profess her love for Ricky and further went on to tell us she was one of the best tarot card readers in BA. We could barely understand a word coming out of Dudley's thick accent but eventually he gave us his 20-year old sister's name for facebook so we could befriend her later. We still haven't found her, but after this encounter with Dudley and his crazy aunt, we had a feeling this was going to be a good trip.
We arrived mid-day, made our way to the hostel which was super laid back and filled with a lot of surfers (can it get any more chill, bro?), but also a whole melting pot of Germans, Colombians, Venezuelans, and Argentineans. We tried to do our best representing the good ol' US of A. We hit the beach for the day and then came back to the hostel to socialize. It was a good night of hangin at the hostel and we made some solid friends named Cecilia (portena), and Diego and Alejandro who lived in the provinces just outside of BA. From my experiences I definitely would say that the "proviniciales" (people from the provinces) are much friendlier than the porteños (ppl from BA who are more often than not quite arrogant). The next day we hit the beach again, played some beach soccer - Team USA vs. Team Argentina and inevitably lost 6-5. Still a lot of fun. Then we sat on the beach, relaxed and sipped on maté for the rest of the day. Maté is a popular herb drink (a tea I believe) that is extremely popular here. It originated in South America and is packed with caffeine. To drink it you place the shredded maté herbs in a special gourd and mix it with hot water. Then you use a special straw that strains out the herbs so you just get the tea. It can be mixed with sugar but I prefer it straight. It is a social activity and is an awesome way to converse and pass the time with friends.
Made some more friends at the hostel and the nightlife was exciting - kind of like a dorm party of international sorts. Always a good time sharing playlists off iPod speakers and learning about new music/dance moves and also showing off yours. The rest of the weekend was just a lot more beach - soccer, maté, meeting friends and friends of friends, and even watching some crazy locals pull off some insane parkour flips. A lot of fun and great to finally meet some Argentine friends that I knew I could keep. We also invented some new lunfardo (argentinean slang) perro (dog) + heróe (hero) = perróe (super hero dog). Examples include: lassy, old yeller, air bud. The term was coined after we befriended a really friendly stray dog and combined our immaturity and affinity for making up words. Some interesting notes about the beach - trash everywhere (cigarettes, plastic, whatever else could be littered), all women wear thong bikinis, and half the beach is public while the other half of the beach is littered with privates cabanas that can be rented out for like 20$ a day and include a manmade pool that are all a real eyesore when looking at the coastline.
All in all, great weekend. Great people, plenty of time in the sand, and some of my best memories thus far.
Mendoza - So included with my study abroad program are 2 trips - 1 to Mendoza (famous Argentinean wine country) and 1 to Iguazu (World famous waterfall). I went with half the students in my program which was a group of about 35 - only 8 guys. Another weekend, another bus ride. Except this time you got more of an "American" experience if you stick 35 Americans on a bus on a thursday night. Suffice to say, we had the bus attendant (think flight attendant) taking shots with us minutes after the bingo game ended. Javier loved us until he had the unfortunate fate of cleaning up somebody's puke. I think we did a great job of changing a foreigner's perception of Americans... Our program hooked us up with an amazing set-up. Cabanas (5 bed condos) right next to the river at the foot of the Andes mountains. Absolutely gorgeous - we laid by the river, hiked around the mountains (and made a sick rock tower), rafted across a lake and swam around, and finally took a boat tour around the same lake. All of the activities were awesome until I had to go and ruin it. On the last day we were on the boat and the boat pulled up and anchored so people could swim around the lake. Being the "boludo" (dumbass) that I am, I couldn't have fun just swimming around in the kiddie pool, I had to make it interesting and do some jumps off the 2nd story of the boat. I was killin it, until I tried to get fancy with a flip. Let's just say I'm no gymnast and when I tried my flip I failed. I somehow landed right on my ear and popped my ear drum. It really hurt until I was able to get water out, and now I have a perforated ear drum and wont be able to hear well out of my left ear for the next few month. Luckily there shouldn't be any permanent damage. I feel like this blog could be posted on WebMD titled "Failures in Argentina". We also toured 2 wineries which was fun, but to be honest I only can taste 2 types of wine on my pallete - good and bad. The second winery was awesome though because they had a whole farm full of pigs, llamas, crazy field dogs, and 2 of the cutest kids who loved playing with us. Plenty of pix of this excursion on facebook. Rough getting back from the bus ride back home from Mendoza to BA at 8 am before a 10 am class.
School - Finally have homework. A few essays I'm putting off as I write this. Best classes are Argentinean culture and traditions, econ, and Tango. I used to think I suck at dancing but after a lot of failing at tango, I think I only kinda suck at dancing. I got some spins down and stuff but theres still a lot to be done. The hardest part about that class is that there is about 20 girls and only 7 guys so I never get a break. My econ professor continues to be awesome and can hardly go 5 sentences without going on a tangent. We start by talking about the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis and then 2 minutes later were talking about the migration of whales in southern argentina.
New apartment - This past week was exciting as I finally moved out of my craigslist sublet with my really nice roommate Imran into an apartment with my longtime friends Zach and Sean (who's couchsurfing our couch for the next month). It's a really nice furnished apartment in a perfect location, next to Plaza Serrano - the heart of the city for young people. I'm surrounded by parks, street fairs, public transportation, bars, cafes, museums, and so much more. The apartment has everything we need - 2 br 1 bath with a living room and good sized foyer. Clutch also that it came with wifi, utilities included, and a washing machine. Everything for $1000 (being the charmers we are, we negotiated 200$ a month off our rent). Now all I have to do is house train zach who has never lived in an apartment before. We had our housewarming party saturday night and it was a huge success - our friends from the hostel came, my basketball teammates came, and people from our program came. We had portenos speaking english, "yankees" (gringos) speaking spanish, and sean killin it in both languages (he didnt know anything besides hola before coming down here).
Volunteering- Tomorrow I start volunteering with an organization "portencialidades" helping under-priveledged children at an afterschool center. I get to play games and sports with them and teach them about environmentalism. It's located in a province to the north of BA, so wish me luck in getting there.
Check it out, and practice your spanish skills! (or just use google translate) http://www.potencialidadesweb.com.ar/
That's all I have for now. More to come - my next stops are Iguazu and Patagonia. I can't wait.
