So some differences between the USA and Argentina that I have noticed thus far:
-Greetings: girls greet guys and other girls with a kiss on each cheek. Guys typically greet guys with a hand shake. It is important to kiss/shake hands with everybody upon arrival to and departure from anywhere.
-The ice cream is served in cones, but with spoons, which works well for me seeing as I am incapable of eating from a cone. It's also ridiculously inexpensive.
-The napkins at restaurants are more like wax paper, not paper, so they don't work as well.
-Facebook is used even more here than in the US, as hard to imagine as that may be.
-CocaCola (aka Coca) is very common, and most ice cream stores, hardware stores, you name it, have a refrigerator. It is the typical beverage of lunch and dinner.
-Instead of knocking on doors, some people clap their hands outside.
-Going barefoot indoors is strange. Shoes are more appropriate.
-Very few people have phone plans. It is common to just charge credit onto your phone every few weeks.
-The SIESTA! Between 2 and 6pm, many people take a siesta, a nap for a few hours. I take a siesta on Saturday and Sunday usually. It's the way the people here manage with going to sleep at midnight or one in the morning on weekdays. Also, between about 3 and 5, the city is a ghost town. Almost all the shops besides supermarkets close down. Which is kind of annoying because that is the time slot that I am always home looking for something to do.
-There is no peanut butter.
-There is no school transportation. Students walk, bike, get rides from their parents, or take city buses. The student rate is $1.25 pesos, or about 25 cents.
-In school, all the students stay in the same classroom and the teachers change rooms. Students cannot elect their classes (although they can elect tracks, for example natural sciences, humanities... in my school, things like construction, electricity, etc.)
-Students do not eat lunch in school. They either have morning classes, from around 8-12, afternoon classes, 10-2, or night classes, 6-10. Or in my case, 11-2 afternoon classes.
-The moon here is sideways. It looks like a smiley face.
And that's just the beginning. More to come.
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Swimming and other water related events...
So lots of things have been happening recently. I´ve continued with field hockey, but yesterday I also started swimming! It takes place at one of the private schools, but on the team there´s kids from all different schools. Practice yesterday was from 7 to 8 and was great! The coach said we could come at 6 to do distance, so today I went at 6, did 2000 meters, then rested until the practice started at 7. It was a little chilly outside so it was actually nicer to stay in the pool. Practice ended at 8 and I needed to get to field hockey, so I ran from the pool to my friend´s house, 8 and a half blocks, in under ten minutes. Pretty impressive for after a swim practice. Then we got crafty and tried to make grilled cheese to eat before practice, but because we lacked butter we used eggs and did a french toast grilled cheese combo that wasn´t the height of American cuisine, but food is food, and we were hungry. Then, we left for field hockey, from 9 to 10:30. Lots of running. So I'm falling asleep while writing right now. But, I'm really happy that I'm getting out, doing things, and exercising.
On to other water related activities. Ironically, one morning last week I was looking up Formosa Weather in Wikipedia because it seemed odd that in the subtropics there hadn't been any rain for a month. Except for one time we heard it raining outside for a few minutes. I wondered, how could there be so much rain, as Wikipedia says, if it has been so dry? And later I found out.
Analise, the girl from the USA, and I were sitting outside of some arts building. We have to go there to take tango classes, but I will go into detail on those another time. We had 400 pesos (or 80 dollars) worth of documents with us that we had to give to our director for a refund for our doctor's visit. And 400 pesos is a lot to us, that is enough to last weeks here. Anyway, we were sitting on the windowsill of the building, waiting for our director's exchange students to pass the papers to them. And then the lampposts flickered on. Ok. Nothing weird there. Until they flickered off. Ok. Guess whoever turned them on changed their minds. And they flickered like that for a few seconds. And decided they wanted to stay off. And then, the man walking by in the street looked up, then walked faster. Ok. Then it began to drizzle. But just a little water. Analise puts the papers under her shirt, to keep the water off. And the people in the street begin to full out run. Ok. Come on guys, it's just a little rain. Honestly. And all of a sudden, it seemed like Niagra Falls had been transplanted right on us. Analise and I are the only ones left on the street. And we run. Full out book it. But the kioscos don't let us inside, because already we are absolutely soaked. Our favorite bakery is packed full of people. All the stores are locking up. As we run, Analise has an idea. Call a taxi! But of course. We pause under an overhang and I call a taxi. The phone disconnects. I call the other taxi number. The phone disconnects. Ok. Great. So, we look at each other. And we are in a perfect movie moment, with that perfect look without speaking, which means "We're in this together. Either we make it, or we die trying." And we run. Nine blocks to Analise's house, in the rain, hail, eight inch deep puddles, flying tree branches, mud, honking cars, and who knows what else. Finally we arrive to her house, our shoes fully soaked, not a dry inch on our bodies, and of course we take out our shoes on the street because god forbid we track water in the house. We proceed to the kitchen and take out the papers, our money, and our phones, and assess the damage. The papers, more or less legible but ripped beyond repair (AFS didn't accept them, we have to get more next week). Our money, completely soaked, but eventually dried. And our phones, suprisingly, worked. So no serious damage. And we get changed, get food, and watch movies on Analise's computer in the dark, because of course the power is out. So later, I go home, while I'm walking, observing all the destruction in the streets. And when I get home, who is my host mom Skyping with but my mom! Unfortunately the connection cut, but how funny that while they were Skyping I was running across the city in the downpour. Looking back, there were many things that would have made this situation better. Like just staying under an overhang in the street. Or calling someone to pick us up. Or actually listening to various host parents and friends that said it would rain. And how funny that earlier that day we were talking about how odd it was that they don't go to school when it rains. Well, I for one would not want to be outside more then five seconds in that weather. So now I get it. When it rains, it pours.
On to other water related activities. Ironically, one morning last week I was looking up Formosa Weather in Wikipedia because it seemed odd that in the subtropics there hadn't been any rain for a month. Except for one time we heard it raining outside for a few minutes. I wondered, how could there be so much rain, as Wikipedia says, if it has been so dry? And later I found out.
Analise, the girl from the USA, and I were sitting outside of some arts building. We have to go there to take tango classes, but I will go into detail on those another time. We had 400 pesos (or 80 dollars) worth of documents with us that we had to give to our director for a refund for our doctor's visit. And 400 pesos is a lot to us, that is enough to last weeks here. Anyway, we were sitting on the windowsill of the building, waiting for our director's exchange students to pass the papers to them. And then the lampposts flickered on. Ok. Nothing weird there. Until they flickered off. Ok. Guess whoever turned them on changed their minds. And they flickered like that for a few seconds. And decided they wanted to stay off. And then, the man walking by in the street looked up, then walked faster. Ok. Then it began to drizzle. But just a little water. Analise puts the papers under her shirt, to keep the water off. And the people in the street begin to full out run. Ok. Come on guys, it's just a little rain. Honestly. And all of a sudden, it seemed like Niagra Falls had been transplanted right on us. Analise and I are the only ones left on the street. And we run. Full out book it. But the kioscos don't let us inside, because already we are absolutely soaked. Our favorite bakery is packed full of people. All the stores are locking up. As we run, Analise has an idea. Call a taxi! But of course. We pause under an overhang and I call a taxi. The phone disconnects. I call the other taxi number. The phone disconnects. Ok. Great. So, we look at each other. And we are in a perfect movie moment, with that perfect look without speaking, which means "We're in this together. Either we make it, or we die trying." And we run. Nine blocks to Analise's house, in the rain, hail, eight inch deep puddles, flying tree branches, mud, honking cars, and who knows what else. Finally we arrive to her house, our shoes fully soaked, not a dry inch on our bodies, and of course we take out our shoes on the street because god forbid we track water in the house. We proceed to the kitchen and take out the papers, our money, and our phones, and assess the damage. The papers, more or less legible but ripped beyond repair (AFS didn't accept them, we have to get more next week). Our money, completely soaked, but eventually dried. And our phones, suprisingly, worked. So no serious damage. And we get changed, get food, and watch movies on Analise's computer in the dark, because of course the power is out. So later, I go home, while I'm walking, observing all the destruction in the streets. And when I get home, who is my host mom Skyping with but my mom! Unfortunately the connection cut, but how funny that while they were Skyping I was running across the city in the downpour. Looking back, there were many things that would have made this situation better. Like just staying under an overhang in the street. Or calling someone to pick us up. Or actually listening to various host parents and friends that said it would rain. And how funny that earlier that day we were talking about how odd it was that they don't go to school when it rains. Well, I for one would not want to be outside more then five seconds in that weather. So now I get it. When it rains, it pours.
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