One day, while the power went out while I was working on something (for absolutely no reason... Hey, it's the Tina!), I decided to make good use of my time... I emailed Billy a list, and here's what I came up with.
I'm contemplating reasons why I love the United States of America:
1. You don't have the electricity cut out for no reason
2. Cars aren't ALL fuming with smog
3. Eggs/ham/tomatoes aren't put on top of every item of food (they are rarely lacking in protein)
4. CHICKEN WINGS
5. Domino's pizza, Papa John's pizza, Pizza Hut. (aka variety)
6. The president can't screw us over as easily and blatantly. In return, we don't kick the president out every few years for kicks.
7. Easy access to internet in your house
8. Real mattresses and boxsprings
9. Air conditioning. Even better: central A/C
10. Heating. Even better: central heating
11. Cell phones with plans instead of cards
12. Mexican food is Mexican, not Argentine
13. People understand you when you say "Wal Mart"
14. Caesar salads are delicious in America
15. People obey traffic laws 80% of the time, as opposed to 20%
16. People put their children in seat belts
17. School administrators give a crap about organization
18. America speaks English
19. Americans speak English to Spanish speaking foreigners (trust me, it gets annoying when you're trying to speak Spanish and they try and speak English back to you. It's kind a hit to your self esteem. So I am never speaking Spanish to a foreigner in the States unless they tell me they would prefer I speak Spanish.)
20. Americans know how to construct toilet seats that don't spit at you when you sit down.
21. Americans have change and don't yell at you over 50 cents or even 10 cents
22. Every third American isn't pregnant
23. Mullets are sported only by a minority
24. Dogs are trained
25. Dogs are bred on purpose instead of by wandering down the street
I am sure I could think of more.
And I did:
JUICY STEAKS WITH A LITTLE PINK IN THE MIDDLE!!!!!!!! mmmmmm
salad dressing
stop signs
Screens on windows instead of bars. Damn mosquitos eat me UNDER MY COVERS at night!
Real doorknobs
Friday, May 23, 2008
I'VE BEEN HERE FORRRRRR EEVVVVV ERRRRRR
I find it really annoying when the taxistas (the men who drive the... ding ding ding!: TAXIS!), or really anyone, like your host mom's friends... ask you how long you've been here. And you say, "4 months." They inevitably always reply, "¡muy poquito tiempo!" and you inevitably reply to that, "¡¡¡¡NI ES POQUITO!!!! Es una eterniDAD" Four months in another country with a culture soo different from your own is far from a small amount of time. The amount of effort it takes to process what is going on, that is not a small amount of effort. 4 months can suck the life out of you.
It’s a funny thing, going abroad. I think the funniest thing is how much it requires going inside your self. I know when I saw on LaurieBeth’s Facebook profile, that infamous quote “To know another culture is fundamentally a journey inside yourself,” ("Conocer otra cultura es fundamentalmente un viaje interior.") I thought I bet it’s true… But I didn’t understand how. I couldn’t understand how until I had gone through the experience, obviously.
I have learned that I am so imperfect. That I am an amazing candidate for Grace. I am in desperate need of Grace.
I am often:
impatient
blunt
loud
hypocritical
selfish
lazy
impulsive
self-absorbed
monomaniacal
argumentative
head strong
stubborn
gluttonous (surprising but true)
first (Kanakukers get that)
I have never noticed these qualities as much as I have here in the Tina.
I mean, I think I have some good qualities too.
I am also:
resourceful
creative
energetic
enthusiastic
nurturing
a linguist
willing
a dreamer
mothering (this can be a negative sometimes when it turns into smothering. whoops.)
funny (depends on the day – but sometimes I am really funny.)
smart (I am. I don’t think I’m stupid. However, I have realized how much I DON’T know while I’ve been down here.)
It turns out I am not a natural Rider. That was a disappointment maybe. Or maybe it’s because the teachers here like to get the horse riled up and then send you off sprinting on him right after he throws his head back so that the spit coming out of his mouth flies onto your face right before he takes off running and you grab onto his mane so you don’t fall into the dirt that makes your allergies flare up every time after class because you’ve been breathing it in the whole time. That was an overwhelming sentence. It was supposed to be. Equitación is overwhelming. I hated trotting for a long time. Having to post was definitely something new compared to the Western riding I’ve done. Turns out they’re quite different, Western and English. But the other day I realized that all of a sudden, when they ask me to trot, it doesn’t take as much work. Do you know that I’ve trotted on a horse with no feet in the stirrups? It’s true. I would have NEVER thought that I could do that. So I guess equi really has stretched me. I’ve been asked to do a lot of things that I have not been comfortable with initially, but I think that was definitely a good thing. (I still would like a teacher who explained what was going to happen before it happened and also didn’t make everyone come over and look at the girl who just fell down on the ground off of her horse and say what she did wrong. She probably needs a little time to recover.)
I also got a tattoo while I was down here. (Surprise, Dad!) I have felt the need to stop being afraid of living, of taking chances. I have always been the kid who only rollerbladed on surfaces with a good amount of friction; while Frances and Jack squealed over a neighbor’s new smooth concrete driveway, I watched from the friction-filled grass, afraid to bust my butt. So I decided to dive in and get a tattoo. I think it was part of a desire to feel like I was embracing my chance to be 20 years old and do things I could possibly regret in the future. The good kind of regret. The “oh well, guess I can’t do anything about it now” regret. Not like screw up my future kind of regret. So I’m glad I did that.
I learned that it is possible for me to be friends with a group of girls. I know, I know, I’m in a sorority, but there aren’t 5 of us stuck together all the time. It has been rough. Roughest for me, because I’m not used to doing it. Lately, I hadn’t spent as much time with the 4, but the past couple of days we’ve hung out, and it has been so refreshing. I am not really good at it. All my friends have always been spread around, not in a group setting. So I have had to take a deep breath and step back a few times, but I think I have grown a lot in that area. So thank you so much, Alex, Abby, Caro, and Chris. I know I’ve been the stubborn one that’s retreated to Billy a lot, but I wouldn’t trade the experience that I’ve had with you girls for the world. I am sorry I didn’t make it to Iguazu, I know it was amazing, but ya’ll have done so much for me that you don’t even know! Haha ya’ll sure have got a good dose of my stubbornness and argumentativeness…
I have learned also, that I love America. I used to defend the argument that “America” is not a country, but a region. But you know, it’s also a country. If you can have a city and a state named the same thing, then you can have a country and a hemisphere named the same thing. No one here calls their self “American” so they can get over the fact that it’s what we call ourselves. It’s in songs, it’s in our NAME. So we can be Americans. I love the fact that I can breath clean air when I walk down the road and not have to cover my mouth constantly so I can breath. I love that there are so many things that happen here that could NEVER happen in America, because of the stability of our government. We have so much stability that we don’t realize it. I know our economy may be playing “recession” right now, but we’ve got it so good. There aren’t road blocks all the time in protest, no one is in threat of not having food because the farmers won’t let the food get to the cities. We’re safe of that threat. I mean we’re not perfect. I know we’re not. We’ve got problems. Everyone has problems. A lot of people don’t like our country these days. That’s okay. Because I’ve never loved America more. I never really was very patriotic – I’ve always been convinced that we’ve been so self-absorbed and selfish and set on our own materialistic agenda that we had it all wrong… But the thing is, every country is prideful. There are issues in every country that the people choose to ignore because of their pride. There are so many people here who think that what they do is the best in the world, and a lot of times I want to giggle because we do it in America too… Like criollos. They’re like biscuits, but harder. I swear if these people could taste a hot Southern biscuit they’d change their minds. I was introduced to a criollo with the idea that what I was about to eat was unavailable in any other part of the world… ha! So it’s interesting, you see? The Argentines are proud of things in their world just like we’re proud of things in our world. Sometimes we just only see through the eyes of our own world. I’m sure we could improve our PR in the States, but I am convinced right now that we’ve got a lot of things right. Like Domino’s pizza. And chicken wings. And police that actually care to give you a ticket for doing something illegal. That’s a nice thing to have.
I think this trip has been invaluable, really. I am sure that when I get back to the States I will realize all of the things that I really did enjoy about Argentina, but at the moment I’ve got my one track mind working… the “get me back to the US” track… It’s been a long, exhausting road. There has been a lot of drama, a lot of frustration, a lot of annoyance with the fact that there is a total lack of organization (hmph), and a lot of time on our hands that we haven’t known what to do with. But I’m glad I came. I’m glad I didn’t go to Europe to tour around and be immersed in typical Western society. This really is a society of its own. Heck, their grammar is different in Argentina than other places in Spain and even other Latin American countries! But I’m glad that I was forced to look at myself and my country the way I have. I hope every time I eat Dominos or chicken wings I remember what it was like to be in Argentina and have the same pasta sauce 5 times a week.
It’s a funny thing, going abroad. I think the funniest thing is how much it requires going inside your self. I know when I saw on LaurieBeth’s Facebook profile, that infamous quote “To know another culture is fundamentally a journey inside yourself,” ("Conocer otra cultura es fundamentalmente un viaje interior.") I thought I bet it’s true… But I didn’t understand how. I couldn’t understand how until I had gone through the experience, obviously.
I have learned that I am so imperfect. That I am an amazing candidate for Grace. I am in desperate need of Grace.
I am often:
impatient
blunt
loud
hypocritical
selfish
lazy
impulsive
self-absorbed
monomaniacal
argumentative
head strong
stubborn
gluttonous (surprising but true)
first (Kanakukers get that)
I have never noticed these qualities as much as I have here in the Tina.
I mean, I think I have some good qualities too.
I am also:
resourceful
creative
energetic
enthusiastic
nurturing
a linguist
willing
a dreamer
mothering (this can be a negative sometimes when it turns into smothering. whoops.)
funny (depends on the day – but sometimes I am really funny.)
smart (I am. I don’t think I’m stupid. However, I have realized how much I DON’T know while I’ve been down here.)
It turns out I am not a natural Rider. That was a disappointment maybe. Or maybe it’s because the teachers here like to get the horse riled up and then send you off sprinting on him right after he throws his head back so that the spit coming out of his mouth flies onto your face right before he takes off running and you grab onto his mane so you don’t fall into the dirt that makes your allergies flare up every time after class because you’ve been breathing it in the whole time. That was an overwhelming sentence. It was supposed to be. Equitación is overwhelming. I hated trotting for a long time. Having to post was definitely something new compared to the Western riding I’ve done. Turns out they’re quite different, Western and English. But the other day I realized that all of a sudden, when they ask me to trot, it doesn’t take as much work. Do you know that I’ve trotted on a horse with no feet in the stirrups? It’s true. I would have NEVER thought that I could do that. So I guess equi really has stretched me. I’ve been asked to do a lot of things that I have not been comfortable with initially, but I think that was definitely a good thing. (I still would like a teacher who explained what was going to happen before it happened and also didn’t make everyone come over and look at the girl who just fell down on the ground off of her horse and say what she did wrong. She probably needs a little time to recover.)
I also got a tattoo while I was down here. (Surprise, Dad!) I have felt the need to stop being afraid of living, of taking chances. I have always been the kid who only rollerbladed on surfaces with a good amount of friction; while Frances and Jack squealed over a neighbor’s new smooth concrete driveway, I watched from the friction-filled grass, afraid to bust my butt. So I decided to dive in and get a tattoo. I think it was part of a desire to feel like I was embracing my chance to be 20 years old and do things I could possibly regret in the future. The good kind of regret. The “oh well, guess I can’t do anything about it now” regret. Not like screw up my future kind of regret. So I’m glad I did that.
I learned that it is possible for me to be friends with a group of girls. I know, I know, I’m in a sorority, but there aren’t 5 of us stuck together all the time. It has been rough. Roughest for me, because I’m not used to doing it. Lately, I hadn’t spent as much time with the 4, but the past couple of days we’ve hung out, and it has been so refreshing. I am not really good at it. All my friends have always been spread around, not in a group setting. So I have had to take a deep breath and step back a few times, but I think I have grown a lot in that area. So thank you so much, Alex, Abby, Caro, and Chris. I know I’ve been the stubborn one that’s retreated to Billy a lot, but I wouldn’t trade the experience that I’ve had with you girls for the world. I am sorry I didn’t make it to Iguazu, I know it was amazing, but ya’ll have done so much for me that you don’t even know! Haha ya’ll sure have got a good dose of my stubbornness and argumentativeness…
I have learned also, that I love America. I used to defend the argument that “America” is not a country, but a region. But you know, it’s also a country. If you can have a city and a state named the same thing, then you can have a country and a hemisphere named the same thing. No one here calls their self “American” so they can get over the fact that it’s what we call ourselves. It’s in songs, it’s in our NAME. So we can be Americans. I love the fact that I can breath clean air when I walk down the road and not have to cover my mouth constantly so I can breath. I love that there are so many things that happen here that could NEVER happen in America, because of the stability of our government. We have so much stability that we don’t realize it. I know our economy may be playing “recession” right now, but we’ve got it so good. There aren’t road blocks all the time in protest, no one is in threat of not having food because the farmers won’t let the food get to the cities. We’re safe of that threat. I mean we’re not perfect. I know we’re not. We’ve got problems. Everyone has problems. A lot of people don’t like our country these days. That’s okay. Because I’ve never loved America more. I never really was very patriotic – I’ve always been convinced that we’ve been so self-absorbed and selfish and set on our own materialistic agenda that we had it all wrong… But the thing is, every country is prideful. There are issues in every country that the people choose to ignore because of their pride. There are so many people here who think that what they do is the best in the world, and a lot of times I want to giggle because we do it in America too… Like criollos. They’re like biscuits, but harder. I swear if these people could taste a hot Southern biscuit they’d change their minds. I was introduced to a criollo with the idea that what I was about to eat was unavailable in any other part of the world… ha! So it’s interesting, you see? The Argentines are proud of things in their world just like we’re proud of things in our world. Sometimes we just only see through the eyes of our own world. I’m sure we could improve our PR in the States, but I am convinced right now that we’ve got a lot of things right. Like Domino’s pizza. And chicken wings. And police that actually care to give you a ticket for doing something illegal. That’s a nice thing to have.
I think this trip has been invaluable, really. I am sure that when I get back to the States I will realize all of the things that I really did enjoy about Argentina, but at the moment I’ve got my one track mind working… the “get me back to the US” track… It’s been a long, exhausting road. There has been a lot of drama, a lot of frustration, a lot of annoyance with the fact that there is a total lack of organization (hmph), and a lot of time on our hands that we haven’t known what to do with. But I’m glad I came. I’m glad I didn’t go to Europe to tour around and be immersed in typical Western society. This really is a society of its own. Heck, their grammar is different in Argentina than other places in Spain and even other Latin American countries! But I’m glad that I was forced to look at myself and my country the way I have. I hope every time I eat Dominos or chicken wings I remember what it was like to be in Argentina and have the same pasta sauce 5 times a week.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
My Favorites in Argentina
So I only have 36 days left here in Córdoba, Argentina, and I decided to make a list of my favorite things and places here for future Clemson Cordoba peeps.
1. American food: Johnny B. Good - handsdown the best attempt at American food here. I'm obsessed with the chicken quesadillas (it's the only place that understands that there is a difference between a quesadilla and a taco)... And their drinks are pretty fun too! It can seem a bit pricey for Córdoba, but translated to dollars it's pretty inexpensive...
2. French fries: Luna India - they're almost like steak fries, they're PERFECT for when you're craving home!
3. WiFi hotspots: Johnny B. Good (there are two locations, Rafael Nuñez 4791 and one in the Centro) has WiFi, and if you're looking for somewhere early on a Sunday, they're probably going to be the first business open. Luna India is also a great place to go, there's only one table with a plug, the big table to the right when you walk in (Recta Martenoli). Sepia Fotocafe, also on the Recta, is a cute little café that also specializes in photography, printing, etc... So for those of you who end up taking photography, it is a good resource when you have to print for projects.
4. Chinese food: Dragon Restaurant on the corner of Nepper and Ricardo Rojas... It's pretty quiet in there, never seen more than 4 or 5 tables occupied, but their food is legit and they have sweet and sour chicken (agridulce) which makes my life much happier.
5. About the buses...: You never want to take N11 accidentally. You will end up in the middle of nowhere that also happens to remind you of the projects and is apparently a pretty dangerous area of town. We had to stand there on a corner for a few minutes while the bus driver took a break, and we're pretty sure we were not going to survive. So don't take N11.
6. A good place to hang and get a drink: I think all of the UBP international kids learn this quickly: Contender's... Around Rafael Nuñez 3900 - 4000... Especially after a tough parcial
7. About McDonalds: It's seriously amazing. I'm not kidding. McDonalds here is way better than in the States (hate to admit it) Cuarto de libra con queso... Mmmmmm and! Fountain Coke with ICE!
8. Alfajores: de Maizena are the best. The ones at the UBP are the best of these, in fact. Some fall apart when you try to eat them...
9. Boliches: I am not the Boliche expert. I don't really like them. But I will tell you that Zar was filled with high school boys who tried to grab every part they could get to on our bodies. So avoid that.
10. SUSHICLUB: My FAVORITE restaurant in Córdoba! There's also a location in BA... The sushi is soooooooo good - and it's fun because they always bring you a little drink they've concocted and a small appetizer in a shot glass... My absolute favorite are the Buenos Aires rolls, and the Honey are pretty awesome too... And the dessert is sweeeeet - I love the Blends, three little desserts made from different kinds of tea... black tea creme brulée, a green tea, and a biscuit soaked in earl grey... out of this world.
11. Mexican food: this is difficult in Cordoba. All of the quesadillas I've tasted still taste like Argentina (you'll know what I mean, has a lot to do with three ingredients: ham, oregano, and carrots...) but Guacamole on Rafael Nuñez (5800 or so...) has awesome guacamole (go figure), queso, and salsa if you are craving chips. They also have pretty cheap drinks, which happen to be pretty strong so watch out. They can be almost unenjoyable.
And specifically, as far as teachers at the UBP:
Cande is nice, has a few sarcastic quips that will catch you off guard... She's very understanding and a cool lady. (advanced level in the intensive month, argentine literature...)
Jose is one of the smartest professors I've ever had... He seems to know everything about everything... Including more about the United States and our own citizens know... He's very jolly and also very understanding. (history of latin american thought, argentine history...)
Lili- Lili is the bomb.com. She's hilarious, loves to joke, loves to draw, and is just supercool altogether. (intermediate during the intensive month, DELE prep, basic spanish...)
Roberto - the man loves to sing and talk and dance. he can be a little hard to swallow, un poquito "pesado" if you will... Knows his culture... (special clases during the intensive month, culture...)
Clara- she loves to disect the language, which can be a little bit overwhelming and confusing... but she has a good sense of humor, especially if you make an effort to get along with her. (advanced spanish)
Margarita- what a woman. she eludes cool. she is always dressed so in style, she's young and hip and... VERY demanding. she expects great things out of her students, which can be a little frustrating at times, but she is very eager to teach and gets very excited when she sees participation and students eager to learn... she will help you if you go to her. (cultura a traves de las manifestaciones artisticas)
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