So long sweet summer

I registered for classes on Sunday at midnight and they started Monday. The best part is that they are only Monday - Thursday and in the afternoon. :-) perfect!

I should be on the brochure ;-)

So far they seem to be interesting ... Although my social economy class was cancelled on Tuesday because the professor was in France. I can see my tango class easily being my favorite and my political class the worst. The teacher mumbles in a monotone voice and is very open about what party he belongs to and has said that the class may or may not bash Americans.... Not to mention that half the class are native speakers from Spain or Mexico.

They don't buy textbooks here...just photocopies. And since this is Argentina, the professors told us to go to specific copy shops, but they never had the material for the classes (or it was material from 2 years ago). After checking all of the different copy shops they sent us to, no luck. There were literally hundreds of foreign students trying to figure out where to get their materials. I finally got one of my class materials ordered yesterday and it was only $25! I could get used to that :-)

I also joined the volleyball team and that has been fun! Note to self: don't go months without exercising and then decide to play volleyball 2 days a week and run the day in between. Your body will not be happy with you...

 

Empedrado and Education

One of the things I really love about Argentina is it´s natural beauty. Sunday and Wednesday I had the opportunity to go to Empedrado - a small city about an hour and a half from Santa Rosa. Sunday I went with Gaby and her parents and Wednesday I went with Nora, Lucia, and a bunch of aunts, a few cousins and family friends. It is a relaxing city that has a wonderful beach - nice and clean. Sunday we went to the city beach and Wednesday the private beach. I was impressed by the lifeguards at the city beach because they actually kicked some guy out that was creeping on people and trying to sell some bracelets he made, or something of that nature. It´s disappointing that Iowa has no beaches...

As busy as I am in the States, it´s a good change of pace here. I get up around 10 and pretty much have nothing to do all day. I don´t even have to make my bed. :) I typically go to the deposito (office for Santa Rosa Refrescos) and try to learn how they do business here. They are a Coca Cola distributor and a lot of people who come in to visit them, or ask for dental advice (Nora is a dentist at the hospital and has her own office at the house.) I have already learned a variety of things - from how to become rich selling honey to how the education system functions here to P.A.M.I. (aka Plan de Asistencia Medico Integral) and public vs. private healthcare. 

What I haven´t figured out is why people don´t let their kids go to school, or why teens choose not to get a college degree. The elementary schools give the students everything they need for free - breakfast, lunch, a snack and teachers who care about them and their education. When kids come and don´t have shoes or appropriate clothing, the teachers bring used clothes in from their families. If the students miss class frequently, the teachers have to go visit them at their home. If it becomes a problem, they let the police know because it is illegal to not go to school until you are finished with high school. In talking with a teacher, she told me that it doesn´t really matter though because at the end of the day, the parents never get in trouble. Often they make their kids stay home and watch their younger siblings or go with their mom to the bank to wait in line. (More on that later...let´s just say that if you need to go to the bank, plan on being there for an hour +) 

But back to the education part...even college here is free, if you go to a public institute. Often times, the public institutes are better rated than the private institutes. I understand having to work, but if you have a family that doesn´t need you to work right away, why wouldn´t you go study something you liked?? It´s free! When students stop going and then decide to go back 2 years later, they don´t even have to re-apply. They can just start up where they left off. However, what I don´t like about the education system here is that if you don´t pass a class, you may miss an entire year because of it. Let me explain...

• You graduate from high school and pick your future career. (Beware, as you can´t decide to change half way through the semester. When/if you do change, you have to start over from scratch.)
• The career you choose has a pre-determined schedule of classes for you to take. For example, you want to be a public accountant? In the first semester, you will have fundamentals of economy, math, accounting 1, business administration and philosophy 1 with everyone else who wants to be a public accountant.
• If you don´t pass one of those classes, you have to try to take the final exam again later, in 6 months. If you still can´t pass it, then you just lost a year because you can´t move on to the next set of classes. 

No wonder why many students get frustrated and give up half-way through their college career. One could waste years and years trying to achieve something that seems impossible. Add on to that the embarrassment of being left behind when the majority of your classmates are moving on to the other classes. Although, it could all be easily avoided if they properly prepared for their exams in the first place.