Tandil and Pride

Oh hey look, an update! Aren't you proud?

Tandil

The Derechos Humanos (Human Rights) Concentration I'm in here took a trip to Tandil and it was AMAZING. And....adventurous, to say the least. Luti, the leader of the concentration, told us we would be having a nice "tranqui y relejado" (peaceful and relaxed) weekend in nature, strolling and biking through the sierras.

SHE LIED.

I swear it was exactly like climbing the Aggro Crag in Guts, except instead of falling glitter and big fake rocks we had to contend with rain and mountains of animal shit.

Pretty much as soon as we got to Tandil on Saturday it started POURING rain. This put a damper on our plans to go trekking, so we decided to move the trek to Sunday morning and go biking Sunday afternoon. That left all of Saturday afternoon free, so we went to our cabins (which were GORGEOUS, thank you IFSA) and were prepared to spend all day hanging out in front of the fire in relative leisure and warmth.

...Except we couldn't get the fire going well, the heat didn't work and then the power went out, plunging us into darkness. Obviously, we did the only thing a group of college kids could do in a situation like this: drink by cell phone light.

After that we went out to a restaurant in town for dinner. Not only did it have lights, but also the most amazing cheese and cold cuts I've ever had in my life. When they told us we'd be having quesos y fiambres for dinner (the specialties of Tandil) I was slightly worried, but turns out Tandileños have mastered these two simple dishes to a point I never knew was possible.

The next morning when we awoke the power was back on, the cabins were warm and the rain had stopped. All good omens that only served to lead me into a false sense of security.

We went hiking and the ascent was awesome, we saw lots of animals, heard some stories about the history of Tandil and generally got to feel pretty bad ass because it was MUCH more difficult than Luti made it sound but we were doing fine.

Then, the rain started again. We had to climb down the sierras on wet rocks and over newly rain-made streams all while avoiding the cow and horse droppings that seemed to always be in the unlikeliest of places (we all almost broke our necks climbing down some parts, but the animals not only made it safely, but felt so comfortable they had time to leisurely stop and take a shit).

It was a harrowing adventure but we all made it out, with only a few minor injuries. We all felt bad ass for completing such a difficult task and relished our victory...but then we remembered the day wasn't over yet. We still had to go mountain biking.

After a short lunch break (the only tranqui and relajado part of the day) we headed out to go biking. As I've missed biking terribly, I thought it was awesome and not too bad, but the others tell me it was a bitch and even more physically strenuous than the hiking, so idk. Either way doing it after we had just spent all day hiking was difficult, to say the least.

What's really strange about the trip though is that even though the individual parts (power going out, no heat, rain, having to do more exercise than I've done in months) sucked, we all unanimously agreed that the trip as a whole was AWESOME. No one complained or gave up on the hike or bike, the night w/o power actually ended up being really fun and generally everything was just made better by the spirit of fun and adventure everyone had. It was probably the funnest trip I have taken so far in this country and I highly recommend Tandil to anyone who travels to Argentina, even though it's not one of the typical tourist spots.

Marcha Del Orgullo

Argentine Pride was AMAZING. I've never been to a Pride in The States before so I can't really give a comparison, but I couldn't have asked for a better time.

One of my friends here does his internship at Comunidad Homosexual Argentina and while at a Trans festival with him a few weeks ago, a guy came up to me and asked if I'd like to march with a group of afro descendants in the parade. Not wanting to turn down an opportunity to finally meet other black people in this country, I readily agreed and it was the best decision ever. It was nice to not only be at Pride but really in Pride, and the other people in the group were really nice. Especially the leader of the group, Carlos, who is probably one of the coolest men on earth.

This years pride was focused on two things: celebrating the equal marriage law that got passed just a few months ago and continuing our fight for the Ley de Identidad y Genero, which would give trans people the right to have their preferred name and gender on their ID. I personally think we did both things pretty damn well.

The event started with a festival and fair in Plaza de Mayo (a really important and historic location right in front of Casa Rosada, the Argentine white house...except pink, where all the protests and stuff happen) which was tons of fun. I bought a crap load of rainbow stuff and was treated like a CELEBRITY. Argentines are legitimately amazed every time they see a black person, so to have a whole group of black people together was news worthy for them....like literally news worthy. We got interviewed by two different news channels and were constantly posing for pictures, sometimes with a group of ten or more people standing around snapping photos and asking to pose with us. It was interesting, to say the least, and I can't help but wonder how many people out there now have a picture of me and are telling all their friends about the black people they met.

Overall it felt really awesome to be supporting not only the LGBT community, but also the black community and increasing the visibility of the Afro-LGBT community so that in such a seemingly homogeneous country people don't lose sight of the fact that not only is the country diverse, but the LGBT community is diverse and everyone has to be included in the ongoing fight for equal rights.

Our organization had our own float (which are really just trucks in this country) and basically, like all the trucks in the parade, it was just a moving boliche (dance club). It was CRAZY, with our own DJ, fog machine, lights and more people then should be allowed on an open moving vehicle. Thousands of people marched/partied down the street along with the trucks from each organization, starting at Plaza de Mayo and going to Congreso, where we ended in front of the Congress building and partied some more (in the case of my truck) or had a slightly more tranqui time listening to some music and all hanging out in the plaza.

I only stayed at Congreso for about six seconds because I was RIDICULOUSLY tired from going out the night before and spending all day decorating floats/posing for pictures/maneuvering through crowds/dancing in a truck, but regardless it was really really fun. After this I'm definitely gonna be sure to go to more Pride Parades in the states and, if life permits it, I'd love to come back to Argentina again for pride. Like I said, I've never been to a pride in the US, so I can't compare, but I feel like, at least for me, there's something special about Pride here that can't be replicated anywhere else. If only just the extraordinary connection I feel towards the amazing LGBT community here.

That's pretty much all the interesting stuff that has happened in my life lately. I'm going to Mendoza this weekend so hopefully I can keep this blogging thing up for my last month here and tell you guys about it.

Besos!

Update

Sooo I'm clearly a failed blogger.

Awesome things that I never updated about:

Puerto Madryn:

Basically, we saw TONS of whales. We stayed in an amazing hostel right on the beach and in the morning while eating breakfast I went out on the balcony and watched the sun rise over the sea while whales lazily dipped their heads back and forth in the water. Also, I got sea sick on a whale watching ride and threw up VERY close to one of the bigger ones. It was pretty sweet.

In the town was this picture which perfectly represents Argentine spanish and the struggle I faced in my first weeks here.

(For those unfamiliar with Argentine Spanish, notice that they've crossed "eres" out and written "sos," changed "tienes" to "tenés" and put an accent over the e in "haces." Welcome to the vos form.)

Iguazu

Basically, we saw TONS of falling water. It was spectacular and one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. I recommend that everyone add Iguazu to their bucket list immediately. Also, there was a house made completely out of bottles and we saw Brasil and Paraguay.

The Brasilian and Paraguayan coasts are on either side of us.

Argentina vs. Spain

Pure awesomeness.

'

Besides that it's been pretty much same old, same old. My class at USAL has already ended (FREEDOM!!) and I planned out everything and realized I'll be completely done with everything by decemeber 1st. That gives me only 18 days to travel, any recommendations? I'm kind of freaking out realizing that there's still a lot more places I wanted to go and pretty much no time. I'm thinking Mendoza, Machu Picchu and one more thing. Salta? El Calafate? Also, in Machu Picchu I probs wont be able to do the Inca Trail cause you have to reserve way in advance for that and it's hella expensive. Should I just wait until my inevitable south american travel tour for that and replace it with something else for now like Chile instead of half assing it?

Today is the census day and in this country instead of filling out a form and sending it in they have people go around to every house in the country and ask the residents the questions in person. This means that EVERYTHING is closed, as people just pretty much have to sit in their house and wait until the census people come. This morning was the first time since arrival I didn't wake up to car horns or hear drunk people yelling and stumbling home in the middle of the night. Very odd.

Also, the ex-president (and current presidents husband) Nestor Kirchner died today. The news is, of course, being greeted with a mix of sadness and celebration. Argentine politics are very confusing and impossible to follow, so I don't presume to know anything about Nestor or his policies, but regardless, unless he was a complete dictator (which he wasn't), I don't think it's ever really appropriate to celebrate a man's death. But you know, who am I to tell the Argentines how to feel?

Oh, speaking of widely hated presidents. Yesterday, my Castellano teacher compared Argentines' feelings about Bush to peoples feelings about Stalin. ♥ Argentina

Anyway, I'm gonna try to update more often, but I wont promise anything cause if I did I'd probably be lying.

Chau!

La Inseguridad

Besides the presence of dog shit on almost every block, the thing that bothers me most about Buenos Aires is the problem of safety. Now, before I embark on trying to describe the problem, let me first make it clear that I am not going to die, Mom. My life is probably in less danger here than it is in Durham. However, being robbed is a completely different story.

I suppose robberies happen in every major city, and you'll find most of the same problems in Boston or NY, but I moved out of Boston when I was 11 and I'm not accustomed to the big city life. I, as of yet, have not been robbed or pick-pocketed *knock on wood.* But I have plenty of friends who have been and I hear about it on the news every day, and while none of these robberies ever turn violent, it's actually more of annoyance to me than anything. I'd like to be able to walk down the street w/o looking over my shoulder every second or checking every five minutes to make sure my money is still in my pocket. I'd like to not have to consider "well if i get robbed today, will i still have enough money for..." before I make any major purchase. And I'd like to be able to take the bus home at night w/o worrying about the half-a-block walk from the stop to my door.

Most of these fears were assuaged by the assurance that I live in a pretty nice area; however, today, two blocks from my house, there was another home robbery. These happen much more often than they should and are an endless source of worry and lecture material for my host mother and even my maid. Every time I leave the house I am reminded that I must "take the utmost caution when entering and exiting the building."

What happens the majority of the time is that robbers wait near the entrance of a building, and then when they see someone coming in or out, they run up and direct that person to take them up to their apartment and the robbers then take everyone in the apartment hostage and of course steal all the money and anything valuable in the apartment. Now, as I've said I haven't heard of one of these incidents ending in violence yet, but they are, of course, very scary and not very fun.

When discussing this at dinner w/ my family (and making up secret code words to use if we ever happen to be held up by a robber) I started to think about how in the US, this problem hardly even exists, even in the biggest cities. In general, I wouldn't say I'm against the second amendment, but I do think it causes a lot more problems than it solves. However, this is clearly an instance in which we should thank it for our safety. Home invasions are rare in the US and when they do occur, the robber generally tries to plan them at a time in which the victims wont be home so as to make it as easy as possible. I think a very large part of why this is, is because in the US you never know who's "packin' heat." Armed robberies in any location, be it a home, convenience store, or bank are VERY difficult because many people in the US are armed and most times it's just not worth the risk. Here, any criminal that can get his hands on a gun from the black market can rob anyone and as long as he can get away before the cops get there he's fine. While you can get a license to own a gun here for hunting and target shooting and such, it's not a very common practice and in general the people here have no way to defend themselves and the robbers have nothing to be afraid of.

On the flip side, however, there are much fewer violent crimes and shootings here. I can't say exactly how I feel on this topic because, as I said, I think the second amendment causes more problems than it solves and we need much stricter gun control laws in the US. However, it is definitely interesting to get a glimpse of life w/o the right to bear arms.

VAMO, VAMO, VAMO, VAMO, VAMO, VAMO MILIONARIOS!!!!!

Like a good Argentine, my life seems on its way to being consumed by futbol. I'm not a huge soccer fan at all, and I've pretty much never played the game before, but of course that was bound to change the moment I stepped into this country. Every Sunday the program organizes a soccer game with program students and some Argentines and though I suck at soccer, running around getting completely pwned by people that are barely even trying is oddly fun. Who knows, maybe by going every week I'll pick up some tips and become beast by the time I get back to the states.

Also, yesterday we went to a watch River Plate vs. Tigre at el Monumental, Rivers home and what's considered to be the national stadium of Argentina. I'm not gonna lie, I was bored most of the game. I was sitting there, surrounded by thousands of crazy futbol fans and the most interesting part in my opinion were all the cheers and playing jewel quest (a ridiculously addictive game that most of us extranjeros have on the very cheap phone we all bought). However, my whole outlook on futbol changed in the 91st minute when River scored and the entire stadium went absolutely MAD.

I never understood the appeal of soccer, they run around for hours and no one ever scores, but w/ that goal I kind of realized that what to me seemed asinine is actually the whole point of the game. The goals that are scored are worth a thousand times more than the ones in basketball or american football because they have to work sooo much harder for it.

I wish I could accurately describe the madness in that stadium when River scored. It was like nothing I've ever seen before. I really wish I had brought my flip camera, but I of course didn't because I've heard soccer games are like pick pocket prime time and the chances of you walking out w/ everything that you came in with are slim to none ( however, we got seats in a nicer section to avoid most of the crime and didn't have any problems, so I'm thinking I might bring it next time. Even if it gets stolen it doesn't really matter because there's really no point of having it unless I'm gonna use it).

So anyway, I'll have to rely on this shitty youtube video that someone else took to give you guys an idea of the madness that ensued. Beware of motion sickness.

I'm proud to say I was much closer than this guy. The exchange rate really works in our favor for football tickets. 60 peso tickets in the lower level= about 15 bucks.

River and Boca Jrs. are the two main futbol clubs here, w/ about 70% of Argentines supporting one of the two. They're huge rivals and since River was the first soccer game I ever went to and the turning point in my appreciation for the sport (and they have better colors) I'm thinking I'm gonna be a River fan. I'll have to wait until I go to a Boca game to say for sure though, but my host family are Boca fans so this could become interesting. I wonder if they make a River/Boca version of those UNC/Duke "a house divided" flags.

No matter which I end up supporting, I'm hoping I can get tickets to the Superclasico, the game where they play each other, which is supposed to be AMAZING and is on the Observers "50 sporting things you must do before you die" list, but even with the great exchange rate I doubt I'd have the money or the luck to score one of those tickets.

In other futbol news, Diego Maradona is mentioned EVERY day in this country. I'm ashamed to say that I didn't know who he was when I first got here, but now I am well versed in his entire life story. You should really see the news headlines. "Maradona visits Chavez" "Maradona gets fired" "Maradona takes a piss." I hear more about Maradona then I do about the president.

Anyway, that is all for now. Chau loves!

P.S. The title of this blog is a piece from the chant they're singing in the video, it just says lets go millionaires (they're nickname given to them after they made some VERY expensive trades in the past and based on the fact that many of their fans are upper class while Boca has much more fans in the poorer classes). It's my favorite chant along with one that goes "mira, mira, mira, sacale una foto, se van para avellaneda/la boca/rosario(or wherever opposing the team is based) con el culo roto" aka "look, look, look, take a photo they're returning to (wherever the opposing team is based) with a broken ass"

Boring post about classes for those that care

Classes have begun! And oh what a merry time of year it is.

Right now we're in the shopping period, where I can try out classes from each university and decide which two classes I want in the end (I'm also doing two classes w/ the program and an internship).

So, last Monday was the first day and I had a class at UCA at 7:45 am. So, of course, I woke up at 7:40. I got there pretty quick and professors are often 30 mins late in this country anyway, but long story short, I walked around for about 45 mins looking for the class and by the time I finally found it I decided that there was no way i was walking into a class that late, so I went back home. The class was from 7:45-1 on a monday and since that's just downright inhumane, I doubt I would have stuck with that one anyway, so no huge loss.

So far, I think I'm going with an Audiovisual Production class that's on Tuesdays at UCA from 7:45-9:15 and then again from 7:45-1 on Wednesdays (Argentine universities are friggin crazy). The whole semester is basically one huge group project where we make a commercial for a small business of our choosing in the area. So basically, it's pretty sweet and I don't think the workload will be terrible.

I'll also probably do another class, Latin America in International Politics, at the same university from 6:30-8 on Wednesday nights. I haven't been to that one yet, since that major doesn't start classes until this week, but I've been to the other classes that I could choose to take instead, which are at USAL, another one of the universities which is about 12x shittier than UCA, so the one at UCA would have to completely suck for me to choose USAL instead.

The program classes that I want are also on Tuesday and Wednesday, so if all goes well those will be the only day I have classes, which would just be downright amazing.

Anyway, that's my class situation, I'm sure you were riveted.

La Vida Diario

I'm finally starting to get set into a rhythm here in Argentina. A normal day starts with me speed walking the 7 blocks from my house to Circolo Italiano, where we have orientation, both because I'm usually late and because the faster I move the less piropos I get. When I arrive we have some sort of lesson where they teach us about all the ways we could die in the city, what classes to take, etc, then we have a break where I wander around the area with my friends, and then it's back for another few hours of riveting information. After orientation is over for the day I usually head home, where I hide in my room and try to make as little noise as possible so that the family wont know I'm there until dinner.

Now, don't get me wrong. I LOVE my host family. They're absolutely amazing. However, I have no idea what they're saying. After dinner every night we usually sit at the table for hours and just talk and so if I was to spend too much time w/ them before dinner my neck would be sore from nodding and pretending like I understand. I am proud to say, however, that today I understood the majority of the conversation at dinner and I think I'm getting a lot better. Therefore, I've been trying to spend a little more time with them, watching tv and playing cards, because I don't want it to seem antisocial or anything (....though we all know I kind of am.)

Then, if it's a good night I'll go out with friends. Now, I've only done this once so far, and it brings up an area that I'm still not comfortable with here: Public Transportation. Since I live so close to the Circolo and that's pretty much the only place I go every day I usually don't use the taxis, subtes or collectivos. However, the majority of the bars and boliches are in Palermo. I live in Recoleta, the next barrio over, however it's definitely not a distance I would want to walk, especially at night. On Wednesday when we went out I tried to call a taxi and I was supremely unsuccessful.

Initially, after fumbling a lot trying to understand what the operator was saying and make myself understood, I was told the taxi would be there in about 10 minutes. Right on schedule, the taxista called and said he was downstairs, so I go down.... and the taxi isn't there. I tried to call the taxista back but I'm assuming he used a phone in his taxi because when I tried to call him it connected me to the company's main menu again, and I had to go through the arduous task of explaining my predicament to the operator in broken Spanish. Eventually, she connected me to the taxista and apparently he had the wrong building number, so I told him the address and his response was "we don't have any taxis in that area." Now....this seems a little odd to me, since he was presumably on the right street, just a few buildings down and, unlike most streets in the city, it's a two-way street soo I'm not sure why he couldn't just drive down to the correct building...but you know....whatever. So anyway, from there I tried to call a couple of other taxi companies and again I had difficulty understanding them and being understood, and eventually, before I could secure a taxi, my phone just stopped working.

I'm not really sure what happened, however I still haven't gotten my phone to work. I had just bought 15 pesos worth of minutes that day, so there's no way that short call to the radio taxi used up that many minutes. I tired to call the help service to get it fixed, but of course I had a bitch of a time trying to explain my problem, and then the woman just kept saying I needed to buy more minutes.

Anyway, with the help of my host family I eventually got a taxi and went out, however it's still not something i'm comfortable doing on my own (to get back home me and a friend that also lives in Recoleta had the bouncer at the bar call us a taxi)....and really it's not even possible until i get my phone fixed.

As far as the colectivos and subtes are concerned, the colectivos worry me because for one, if I've never been to an area before, how would I recognize it to know when to ask the driver to stop? Also, apparently the amount you pay depends on where you're going, but i don't really understand how that's determined. Like do you tell the driver right when you get on? And really how would the driver know if you really got off at the stop you said you were going to? I'm sure he can't monitor every person on the bus. In general, I just want to wait to use it w/ someone who has already done it (and definitely not at night) so that I don't get lost or look like a spaz or anything. The subte seems simple enough, I just haven't had cause to use it yet.

Anyway, that's pretty much the gist of mi vida diario and some problems that I have yet to conquer. Oh, and highlight of my week thus far? Walking into a couples table at the bar and knocking their glass bottle off, causing it to smash on the ground and break into a thousand pieces, ushering the entire bar into shocked silence.....closely followed by laughter.

Yeah....

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Piropos: Catcalls which are very common in latin american countries and don't really mean anything. I'm pretty sure the men just hit on women out of a sense of obligation.

Subte: subway

Colectivo: the city bus

Boliche: A club/discotheque

barrio: neighborhood

Bienvenido a Argentina!

Hey guys! So this marks day 4 in Argentina. For the sake of brevity, i'll just recap the most interesting part so far, my arrival.

When I first arrived a taxi driver was assigned to drive me to my host families house. This was the first taste I received of how really different the Argentine accent is. I thought I was prepared for this anomaly, but apparently not. Every other word out of their mouth involves a "sh" sound that, for us normal people, is usually a "ya." If you study spanish you know what I'm talking about, not to mention the fact that their intonation is closer to Italian than any spanish I've heard before, making it hard to differentiate between and recognize common words. Anyway, so in addition to just trying to translate from spanish to english, I have to translate from Castellano (what Argentines call their version of spanish, of course pronounced Casteshano) to regular spanish and then to english. It's a bitch.

So anyway, back to this taxi ride. Once we got into Buenos Aires I experienced another first: my first time experiencing the crazy Porteño (BA resident) style of driving. The sole rule here is don't hit anything. If you can accomplish that it doesn't matter if you stay in your lane or cut people off or randomly stop in the middle of the road or anything of that nature. The pedestrians are just as bad, walking out in front of cars anytime and VERY narrowly avoiding being hit. Bikers ride in the street but ignore the traffic lights, riding bikes as far into the intersection as they can be w/o actually getting hit (some while texting) and then, when there's a break in traffic, they speed across trying to beat the oncoming bus. In a kind of related way, yesterday I saw a person standing on the sidewalk while their dog, which was on a leash, squatted in the street in front of oncoming traffic and took a shit. The cars just drove around him like this was a normal occurrence and the owner didn't look the least bit concerned that the dog might get run over.

Anyway, so when we finally got to my apartment the taxi driver went out to buzz up and have them let me in. Well, he stood there for about 10 minutes and no one answered. Eventually, a random man walked up and they began conversing. After a minute the taxi driver came back, said something to me that I couldn't understand, and then handed me and my suitcases over to this random man. Randoman initiated a besito, that weird cheek press kiss thing that they do in a lot of European countries and apparently do here, and I pretty much jumped back from him before I realized his intention. I had heard that they do that here but to have a random man that I didn't know pressing his face against mine within my first hour in the city was pretty disconcerting.

So, then the taxista leaves and I'm alone with Randoman, who I'm sure is trying to introduce himself but I don't understand anything he's saying. The apartment building has a really nice marble and glass front entrance where respectable people are entering, and then a very shady kind of garage-looking side door. Of course, Randoman takes me through the side door. So I enter and it's this empty warehouse type place and there's a random shady teenage boy hanging out in there who says something to Randoman. I couldn't understand, but at the time I assumed they were talking about how they were gonna murder and rape me. Randoman then puts me on the tiny elevator and tells me to press 4, which I really don't want to do because I'm pretty positive that there will be drug lords with automatic weapons up there (I clearly watch too much television.) So, I'm standing there, preparing to die, when I reach the 4th floor and lo and behold my host sister is waiting for me in the hall, sans automatic weapons.

Turns out, Randoman is actually Juan the Janitor. I don't know for certain, but I assume I offended him greatly by mistaking his kindness for a murder attempt.