Vamos a Decirnos Adios, Como Se Debe (Let's Say Goodbye, like We Know We Should)

For those of you that know me, I stress... When I travel it's 10 times worse. I was scheduled to fly out of Buenos Aires Tuesday night, so naturally I had my bags nearly packed by Sunday night. :-) I just needed to figure out how much of my papers I could or wanted to being back and do some last minute shopping - aka get another suitcase and figure out what I could purchase with any remaining pesos. (on a side note, I spent all of my pesos with the exception of a few cents - yay!)

Sunday I finally went to the reserva ecológica (ecological reserve) in Puerto Madero and spent an hour or so walking around enjoying the gorgeous 65 degree 'winter' weather. I ate my last choripan (grilled sausage on a bun) in costanera norte (northern coast) and found a great green space  with tons of families enjoying the afternoon. Too bad I hadn't discovered this say, 6 months ago...

Monday I went to Parque de la Memoria (Memorial Park) in the coatanera sur (southern coast) which is dedicated to los desaparecidos (those who disappeared during the dictatorship.) it was a grey day and really brought a somber feeling to the already touchy subject. (most argentines never talk about the dictatorship nor mention Menon's name.) 

Last time I was in Argentina, I never discussed this subject nor heard anyone mention it. This time around  I got a much better picture of why things are the way they are currently in Argentina, as we heavily discussed the topic in my literature and political classes. 

Monday night I went to La Bomba de Tiempo - a drum show. It was a lot of fun.. and I couldn't believe they played for 2 hours solid! Afterwards we went to someone's apartment for dinner and then attempted to go to Frank's Secret Bar in Palermo.... However the girls who wanted to go there hadn't checked to see if it was open and sure enough it was closed. Epic fail. 

Tuesday I got up and went to the aduana to get information for my senior honors project. (I almost forgot I was supposed to be researching that while in Argentina - oops!) I was able to get a lot of pertinent information, so that was wonderful. For my last meal I went to Desnivel in San Telmo to eat my last asado (grilled meat) and finished off the day by getting ice cream with Bianca. I love ice cream and Argentine ice cream is no exception. Think soft serve with hundreds of flavors and add-ins. Every shop has a few of their own special flavors, so I tried a white chocolate ice cream with orange and  cookies covered in chocolate. It was delicious and tasted like an orange dream-sickle, but better. 

Carmen and Orlando graciously picked me up at 5 to head to the airport and we arrived around 6. There was a short line to check in for Continental, but tons of people for other airlines and more would be coming later. We went to a cafe and I had my first and last (at least this time around) submarino (steamed milk that you put a bar of chocolate in to make hot chocolate) 

I made my way to migrations and the scan of my carry on luggage - there were a TON of people and about thirty 15 year old Argentine girls in front of me traveling to the US in celebration of their quince - 15th birthday. (think sweet 16) An hour+ later I was waiting in my terminal and headed home. :-)

I sat next to a young guy who was born in the US, but his family is from Buenos Aires. During the dictatorship his parents moved to New York where he and his siblings were born. (so he has an American passport) they all studied in the US and he is the only one who stayed to work here. His parents and siblings  now live in Buenos Aires. I had never personally met anyone who moved to escape the dictatorship, so that was neat. It was also nice to talk to someone in Spanish and ease into the whole speaking English deal..

I cleared customs and went to claim my luggage, only to check it in again. I had minutes to spare by the time I reached the scan for the carry on luggage and walked quickly/ran to catch my connecting flight to Chicago. (I wouldn't have run except for the fact that they had 2 last calls for my flight and I was definitely not there. So yes, I was one of those people) 

I seem to have bad luck with traveling - last time the travel agent booked my ticket from Buenos Aires to Corrientes when I was in Corrientes needing to get to Buenos Aires. When I finally arrived, Carmen and Orlando rushed me to the other airport on the other side of town and I arrived 30 minutes prior to take off. (not to mention that there was a paro - protest - that day and one of the streets that cut the city in half was inaccessible.) While Orlando went to park, Carmen took charge and helped me skip the long waiting lines to check my luggage and saw me off to the migrations area. I was definitely the very last person on my flight!

Either way, I made it home!! :-D The next 3.5 weeks will be ridiculously busy as I start work on Monday and the move back to school at the end of the third full week to start training for my CA/RA job. However I still have a lot I want to blog about, so stay tuned if you're interested. If not, thanks for reading up until this point and sharing my journey with me. I hope my posts weren't terribly boring and they shed some light on Argentina, it's people and it's culture. 

A Series of "Lasts"

Well my Argentine adventure is coming to an end, but not without it's last surprising (or not so surprising) moments...

Saturday night I enjoyed a delicious dinner of fish and guiso (similar to a casserole, but not really) for Maria's birthday with the family before heading to Bora Bora with all the cousins for one last night filled with dancing until the wee morning hours. Sunday was spent sleeping and recovering with a traditional locro (soup) and staying warm by the fire. 

Tuesday night the electricity went out for a few hours in Santa Rosa and all the surrounding towns. Not to worry, you can still drink mate with the help of a friend's dual purpose cell phone (comes with a built in flashlight) and of course any planned party still takes place. :-) 

I couldn't leave without taking my last cumbi (like a 15 passenger van) to Corrientes at 4:30am the next morning to re-live all of my previous trips between Santa Rosa and Corrientes from my other exchange year. 

While in Corrientes, I was able to visit my old host family where one of my host sisters now has a 6 month old baby. I also had my last helping of homemade  gnocchis (noodles made out of potato) at a friend's old host family. It was fun to catch up with everyone and talk about the good ol' days ;-)

The rest of the days were spent in all of my favorite spots: Cabana for a ham & cheese panini with a peach smoothie, walking the centro (open air shopping area) eating chipacitos (bite-sized cheese bread) from La Reina and enjoying ladies night at Cristobal with a delicious pizza with hearts palm and salsa golf - mm!

In addition, I had some new experiences which included going to the police station (no worries - I wasn't arrested or harmed in any way), watching Argentina play in La Copa America, getting a hair cut (more on that later) and eating at *gasp* McDonalds. In all fairness, I only broke my rules  because I was told it has a distinct taste since they use Argentine beef ... However I don't frequent McD's enough in the States to really know.

My final trip to Santa Rosa/Corrientes ended with a customary stop at the Lezcano's house to say goodbyes and snap a few pictures with the adorable Pilar. I flagged down my last Apipe remis (taxi)  and I was off to the (bus) terminal. 

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this, but I really hate goodbyes and leaving the familiarity of a place that I feel so much a part of... But who knows, someday I will probably be back and will be able to go to all my favorite spots once again :-)

Traveling for Le$$

Who doesn´t love traveling and who doesn´t love saving money? I´m always surprised by the number of young people don´t know of some simple ways save money and still do what you wanted to do, so I thought I would share some of my tips and tricks..

If you´re a student in Argentina, you can actually use that pesky student visa we had to apply for. (Shocking, I know!) As you will quickly find out...museums, theaters, tours and other tourist attractions have different prices for residents and foreigners. However, with your student visa and residence paper you are in fact an Argentine resident :-) for example, you can visit Iguazu waterfalls for $10 instead of $25

If you aren´t a student, you can still get a discount by going on the free or discounted day of the museums. Most have a day every week that they don´t charge admission to anyone, but some only have this for students. In other cases, they have a 50% off discount on certain days of the week. Try combining this discount with the resident discount and viola - double the discount! If you tour Teatro Colon on a Monday it's half price, so only $8 or if you're a resident, $2.50

Be sure to check out the free cultural events put on by the government. (http://www.buenosaires.gov.ar/areas/cultura/) There is always something exciting to see instead of taking an afternoon siesta. 

Want to travel around the country? No problem - public transportation is great AND you can save money by using it. The colectivos that go to other parts of the country are housed in Retiro, but you can check their schedules online at Plataforma 10 or Omni Lineas

Students get a 20% discount when traveling by colectivo by showing a letter from the university saying you are a student there (certificado de regularidad), your passport & university ID card (and bringing a photocopy of both)

If you prefer flying (not advised with this volcanic ash), reserve your tickets online and go to an Aerolineas Argentinas office with your passport and visa. If you have a student visa (thus you have residency), you pay the same price as an Argentine. 

If you're planning on staying awhile, you will probably purchase a cell phone. Since 90% of cell phones here are pay as you go, you will spend a significant amount on communication. Texts to someone with the same service provider are around 50 cents and more expensive if someone has a different service provider. Calls are $1+ depending on the person's service provider, area code and if you are calling a land line - which I would NOT advice unless you have tons of prepaid credit on your phone. For calls to land lines, go to a telecabaña, as they are significantly cheaper.

However, you can sends texts for free via the company's website. For example, if Susy has a phone with personal, go to www.personal.com.ar to text her. If Bobby has claro, go to http://www.claro.com.ar/portal/car/  Most service providers also have favorite numbers (números amigos). So if you put on a certain amount of credit each month, you can call one number for free and text another for free. 

A Bittersweet Realization

Today as I was passing through migrations in Uruguay to get on the boat back to Argentina, I realized that today is June 12th...Thirty days until the day I have been dreading for the last five months - July 12th. Why you ask? The very day I will be in Ezieza International Airport boarding a plane to return to Iowa.

Maybe "dreading" isn't the best word choice, but pretty much. Let me explain... Unlike most college students, I'm not dreading living with my parents for 3 weeks. And I am definitely not dreading seeing my family, boyfriend or friends, but that comes with the realization that I don't know when I'll see my Argentine friends and adopted family again (or my study abroad friends for that matter). I can't even begin to explain how sad that makes me.

Many talk about culture shock when going to new countries, but few people know of reverse culture shock. I have never had a problem with culture shock, but reverse culture shock gets me every time. Summer 2007 is still a blur to me.

Don't get me wrong, I definitely have a list of things to do and places to go when I get back, but going from a life in a city of 14 million people to one of 300,000 or 50,000 has no comparison.

I found a good explanation of reverse culture shock from the study abroad student handbook (http://www.studentsabroad.com/reentrycultureshock.html):

Reverse culture shock is usually described in four stages:

- Disengagement
- Initial euphoria
- Irritability and hostility
- Readjustment and adaptation

Stage 1 begins before you leave your host country. You begin thinking about re-entry and making your preparations for your return home. You also begin to realize that it's time to say good-bye to your friends abroad and to the place you've come to call home. The hustle and bustle of finals, good-bye parties, and packing can intensify your feelings of sadness and frustration. You already miss the friends you've made, and you are reluctant to leave. Or, you may make your last few days fly by so fast that you don't have time to reflect on your emotions and experiences.

Stage 2 usually begins shortly before departure, and it is characterized by feelings of excitement and anticipation - even euphoria - about returning home. This is very similar to the initial feelings of fascination and excitement you may have when you first entered your host country. You may be very happy to see your family and friends again, and they are also happy to see you. The length of this stage varies, and often ends with the realization that most people are not as interested in your experiences abroad as you had hoped. They will politely listen to your stories for a while, but you may find that soon they are ready to move on to the next topic of conversation.

This is often one of the transitions to Stage 3. You may experience feelings of frustration, anger, alienation, loneliness, disorientation, and helplessness and not understand exactly why. You might quickly become irritated or critical of others and of U.S. culture. Depression, feeling like a stranger at home, and the longing to go back abroad are also not uncommon reactions. You may also feel less independent than you were while abroad.

Most people are then able to move onto Stage 4, which is a gradual readjustment to life at home. Things will start to seem a little more normal again, and you will probably fall back into some old routines, but things won't be exactly the same as how you left them. You have most likely developed new attitudes, beliefs, habits, as well as personal and professional goals, and you will see things differently now. The important thing is to try to incorporate the positive aspects of your international experience while abroad with the positive aspects of your life at home in the United States.

Obviously this process is different for everyone and not all steps will apply to each individual, but in googling reverse culture shock I came across a comment from a girl that I completely identify with...

"Reverse culture shock sucks. It's so hard to sum up an entire semester abroad in a conversation let alone as an answer to 'so what exactly did you while you were in Argentina?'"

I also enjoyed some sarcastic advice from: http://www.women-on-the-road.com/reverse-culture-shock.html

"Fill your backpack. Carry it around with you every day, even to work. Then lock it to your desk and look back furtively each time you take a few steps away."

So in a month if you see me with my backpack or struggling to find the right word in English, you'll know why :-)

Humahuaca

We arrived Tuesday mid-afternoon and set out for the hostel. After checking in, we reserved our spots on four excursions and went exploring before dinner. At the feria artesanal (craft fair) we looked around for a bit and also tried some foods traditional of this part of Northern Argentina -- tamales and humitas, which come wrapped in corn husks.

We proceeded to take a cable car up to Cerro San Bernardo, where we got a wonderful view of the city as the sun was setting. On our way down we could see all the city lights against the dark and cloudy mountain backdrop. 

Wednesday we got up at 6am - yes, 6am - to go on our first excursion, Humahuaca. It started off by driving through the yunga forest. (Yunga means dark and closed.) I learned a lot of interesting things - half of which I can't recall because it was 12 hours worth of information, but nonetheless I will do my best to share some...

If anyone has ever studied Latin American culture, you probably know that many people suck on coca leaves - particularly in Bolivia and Columbia, but also in other parts like Salta and Jujuy. A small bag of leaves is around $2.50. It's interesting to note that Argentina doesn't cultivate coke plants. Instead, it is brought into the country illegally from Bolivia and then sold legally in northern Argentina. 

In order to cocear, the person packs 20 or so leaves between their cheek and teeth and lets them sit there - no chewing involved. Every once in awhile the person may put a bit of baking soda on the leaves to bring out the flavor. The coca leaves curb your appetite, is a natural stimulant and has nutritional value. All of our tour guides had coca leaves packed into their cheeks.

*To clarify, these people are not drug addicts. It takes 100 kilos of coca leaves and multiple chemicals to make one gram of cocaine. (In any case don't worry, I did NOT try it.)

We stopped at the Cerro de los Siete Colores (Hill of Seven Colors) and various Andean pueblos (small villages) - including Purmamarca, Maimara and Tilcara - whom still preserve traditions and customs of ancient times. I took countless pictures of old churches, adobe buildings, cardones (similar to the cactus) and the breathtaking mountain views.

For lunch, I ate more food typical of the region - milanesa de llama and pumpkin in almibar (a sweet syrup). It was delicious! After lunch I checked out some stores and found the coolest pair of slippers ever -- made out of leather and alpaca fur. The best part was that you could take the inner part out and wear them as socks in bed and the  put the outer part back on to walk around your house. Unfortunately I have large feet, especially considering the average height of Argentineans, thus they did not have my size or any size close to mine. :-( oh well it was still a fun day!

Traveling In Style

Usually los colectivos aren't worth writing home about. If you're lucky you get food and in some cases, even a cup of pop. There are hundreds of bus lines and service varies depending on the line, the length of the trip and what kind of ticket you purchase. Since most buses travel overnight, you have the option of a semi-cama or cama seat. Semi-cama seats recline halfway and cama seats go practically horizontal. (not to mention that they give passengers more space in general)

I recently was told about a bus line that goes to Corrientes and has amazing service...Not to mention that the price is the same as other bus lines, so I had to see for myself. Let me tell you - it was everything they told me and more. I still can't believe that nobody told me about it before now!

Once on el colectivo, I got comfortable in my large comfy seat - complete with pillow and blanket. I looked up to see my own LCD screen and then one of the workers appeared, offering me a caramelo (piece of hard candy). Not five minutes later, she appeared again offering me crackers and five minutes later a glass of champagne. Yes, you read correctly, champagne. The only other time I have been offered champagne while traveling in Argentina was on an airplane in first class. Talk about traveling in style!

A few minutes later she came around to hand out bingo cards - although these "bingo" cards were not what i was used to. Either way, an entertaining way to pass the time. A movie started shortly after and then she came back around to take drink orders - water, pop or wine. Sadly, dinner was better than at my host family's house and consisted of a hot and cold dish. The dessert was delicious and after dinner we were offered coffee... And then whiskey or Tia Maria. Just when I thought I'd seen it all, she handed out bottles of water and toothbrushes.

Plus, they had wifi so I was able to check email and facebook while on the road. Needless to say, I think I will be booking my trips through this bus line whenever possible! Absolutely wonderful :-)

Weddings are my favorite

Once again I find myself way behind on blogging... not that there are a lack of topics to discuss - quite the opposite. Everyday blogging material seems to multiply exponentially! This weekend I'll be crossing off another activity on my bucket-list by attending a wedding in Corrientes!

Hopefully I'll have time to blog about these other events in detail, but here's a quick run-down of things I have experienced in the last month:

Feria de libros
Trip to Mendoza
Visit to Teatro Colon
Internship mishaps
College graduation celebration
Mid-terms
...and other random cultural activities

Despite saying that I enjoyed the slower pace of life here, I'm not sure I've slowed down all that much. In the city, it's easy to stay busy 24/7 and my schedule is quite similar to that in the States. Not to mention that it takes time to get around in the city - more so when there is traffic or they are protesting. (Unless your colectivero is crazy) However, public transportation is quite affordable thanks to the government subsidy, so I can't really complain.

We'll see if I can get my act together in start blogging in a timely manner. But as a fair warning, I'll be going on a week long trip to Salta and Jujuy next week, so this goal may be slightly delayed...I'll keep you posted :-)

Traveling in Argentina

For the most part, traveling in Argentina is pretty affordable (by bus). Plane tickets are super expensive for foreigners - that's right, foreigners pay a different price than Argentines.

Either way, traveling within the country is always an experience. There are twenty or more lines of buses and each have distinct time tables, not to mention that there are different types of seats -- semi cama or cama (semi bed or bed). Typically the buses run on-time, except my bus to Mendoza. We were supposed to leave at 8:10 pm, but the bus didn't show up until 9:40. There were massive crowds considering we had national holidays Thursday and Friday and everyone was traveling. It was an obstacle course trying to reach your bus when it arrived because you couldn't move even if you wanted to.

Of all the buses I've been on you always get served dinner (and sometimes breakfast). Dinner has ranged anywhere from ham and cheese sandwiches to a milenesa sandwich (similar to a tenderloin), in addition to dessert of an alfajor and pepas (a type of sugar cookie with jam in the middle) or hard candy.  Usually they don't provide drinks, but sometimes you get a tiny glass of coke.

On my recent trip, we got zip...before I knew it we were reaching midnight and everyone was sleeping and the colectivero was not handing out food. Thankfully I always bring snacks since 12+ hours in the bus can make you quite hungry...or it's just me that's always hungry :) We did stop for breakfast consisting of coffee with milk and croissants. On my current bus back to Buenos Aires, we got multiple ham and cheese sandwiches, pepas and our own 12oz of coke. It's impossible to know ahead of time what you may or may not get served.

Then there's the fellow passengers... Interesting would be a good word to describe them. Since public transportation is so great, everyone utilizes it. Young parents with their infants or toddlers, older people, students, middle-aged people and foreigners. I've only had one bad experience with the person I had to sit next to...

He was probably in his 40's and creepily staring at me from the seats in front of me. The people who were supposed to sit in those seats came and he sat next to me in what I assumed was his actual seat. He continued to look at me and into my purse when I opened it to get something out. If he was trying to be non-obvious by looking out of the corner of his eye, he failed miserably. Then he cracked open a can of beer... As if things couldn't get any worse. He already made me super uncomfortable and we had just started the trip. We stopped at a gas station and I politely asked the colectiveros if all the seats were full because I wanted to change if at all possible. All the semi-cama seats were filled, but he kindly allowed me to move to the first level of the bus with the cama seats. They are more expensive than semi-cama seats because they have more room and recline further, so my seat swap was on the dl and I could travel in peace.

I have a bucket-list of places I still want to visit, so I'm sure I'll have more interesting travel stories in the near future.