Subte Metro Subway

First the public transportation is amazing in Buenos Aires. The subway is called Subte and it is a wonderful way of traveling if you don't want to deal with the stop-go of the colectivos haha.
It was actually my second time using a subway. My first time was when I used the Metro in Paris, France.

The subway can be either a good experience or a terrible one.

1. You could be robbed
2. You can watch the performers on the Subte
   
3. People sell an array of items on the Subte stickers, pens, hair clips, and whatever else you need
4. Know your spot before you get on the Subte

The reason I'm doing this blog is because every time I think about the subway I can't help but to think about Elaine, from the sitcom Seinfeld, experience on the subway. ONLY twice have I had her thoughts while riding the Subte hahahahah! Please watch the video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vyq9MMcLsv4

The Renowned Dance

So yes, I never did a blog about Tango!
Terrible, I know but here goes it...

Tango is a very precious gem of Argentina.

Funny thing about it is that Tango didn't become popular until it went to Europe and became famous there! It was born in the Río de la Plata area and is spoken about in numerous poems of famous writers like Jorge Luis Borges who is also from Argentina! When I first came to Argentina the only experience I had with the dance of Tango was from movies like "Shall We Dance" and "Take the Lead". One of my good friends in Texas told me that I HAVE to learn Tango so I could teach her hahaha.

My first week in BA, Gaby, one of API Buenos Aires helping hands took our group to La Viruta which is off in Palermo Viejo. La Viruta is a modern milonga which are places where Tango is danced solely usually. However since it is modern and not traditional other dances are danced later in the night like Rock & Roll, Swing, little bit of Salsaaaaa WOOT! At a traditional milonga ladies sit and if man wants to dance there is a sort of eye contact that must me made first...then they just know it's time to dance. It was so much fun to learn the first simple steps...it kind of stunk that I didn't know everything that was being taught because of spanish haha. Overall, we had a wonderful time!





My next experience with the infamous Tango was when, my buddy, Patrick and I stumbled upon an amazing Tango band called El Afronte in the center of San Telmo Feria. We liked them so much we wanted to see them actually play and watch some Tango too. Pat and I enjoyed some wine, I danced some Tango with some old ladies, and listened to a wonderful band. Also, we got the amazing chance to meet the lead singer, Marco Bellini! He was a pretty funny and we had some good conversations about the tour he we about to go on in Europe and the band show we was actually their last.
Lucky us!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2svCHk9ZO4

My final experience was getting the chance to see the Tango Buenos Aires Festival! This was a week long festival before the World Cup of Tango. My girl from the Bronx, Cristal, and I went to watch an orchestra play and see a huge group from young to old dance Tango. In August, every year, this event brings together a whole community of note worthy musicians, incredible dancers, and entrepreneurs who work on Tango-related activities all year long.
Long live Tango and the influence it has on the generations to come :^D

Giving a helping hand

Hola chicos!

I apologize for giving y'all some late blogs but times have been BUSY lately here in Argentina. Lets talk about some exciting community work I got to be apart of with Academic Programs International (API).

At the end of October, the Baires group the chance to participate in helping the computer out! He visited a barrio (neighborhood) of Buenos Aires called La Boca. This place is known for the Argentina's favorite local futbol team, the Boca Juniors, and known by tourists is the colorful strip of apartments called El Caminto. All of that in mind, this neighborhood is extremely poor. It isn't for anyone... not just foreigners...to be there late at night.

We took a stroll through El Caminito and went to this small shop to an organization called Porteñitos or little porteños. This organization does some amazing things!
1. They reach out to the unemployed and children in the community and teach them how to cook traditional dishes like empanadas and alfajores.
2. They paint these boxes that show the colorful El Caminto
3. They sell their home made alfajores! YUMMMMM!
These profits don't go to themselves but goes a back to the community!


Now, our job in helping this awesome organization was to repaint a shop that is around block from the original shop. This (soon to be repainted) place is where some of the classes occur for the children and adults. I think we spent basically all day painting and luckily got some lovely snacks/lunch to motivate us to keep work! Also since I am the tallest person at day, my duty was to get all the hard-to-reach spots hahaha.

Lunch!!!! Pizzzzzaaaa!

Tall man's work!

The colors, of course, were royal blue and bright yellow = Pride of La Boca! We truly enjoyed this amazing opportunity to help out the people who do so much for Buenos Aires especially La Boca. Hope is something Porteñitos are able to keep alive through every action they do!

Bright yellow!

*Cool blue*

Painting away!

Hard at work or hardly working? haha

Finish product!

El Tigre...not the tiger

El Tigre is a town in Argentina were everything is on the water just about! El Tigre is situated on the Paraná Delta. The neighborhoods are located on islands in the Delta. Early in the morning, we took the train in Belgrano to take all the way to Tigre. Once we arrived, the plan was to go rowing! I haven't done this since my times in Boy Scouts. We rowed with Club Nahuel.Our row boat had a few issues with rowing together hahah but its all good! And rowed or in spanish (remar) to el museo de Sarmiento. Next, we took a colectivo but on water!!! It's called Lancha-colectivo.

Going through neighborhoods on the water bus, one can notice something interesting....
No... not that we are riding a water bus
No... not that people's houses are on islands
No... not that you don't see anything cars
Sí...You can notice that everyone's house has a name... not really an address.
The house we were going to for lunch and relaxing by the river is called El Pato! This family graciously made us el almuerzo y la pasteles!!!

We spent the rest of the day relaxing and exploring en El Pato :^)
Luck for us, it was suppose to rain and it turned out to be a beautiful day!

Lancha-colectivo!

Riding the colectivo!
(Erin, Carmen, Patrick)

El Pato

Mueso de Sarmiento

The wonderful set up for lunch!

Our row boat... intense stuff!

Grande mate hahah!

Chilean Fun in the Sun

What's up everyone?? I hope everyone back in the States fall season is going great! Spring here South America is quite a joy so far. The students at Belgrano just finished midterms and now time to start school again! Booooooo...is too true. However, I would like to share my adventure to the west side. Not of the Buenos Aires or my Barrio but further! I'm talking about this amazing trip I took with some of my friends to another country called Chileeeeeeeeeee! Well, actually it's spelled Chile but I enjoy the emphasis :D.

This trip all started with first buying at ticket to Chile. Luckily, the infamous Alina, scoped out some sites and found a great one! We all planned to leave Thursday night Sept 29th, but Alina also happen to purchase the last cheapest seat from the website for that day (great job Alina haha). Everyone else including myself, thankfully, were able to get the first flight out Friday morning which was leaving at 7:15 am...(I'm in my room thinking this is the first flight yes! But that means I would need to leave my apartment earlier than 7... LET'S DO IT! haha) Next we needed to find a Hostel to stay at in Santiago. After, looking at few sites and looking over some reviews as well as prices we ended up settling with Atacama Hostel.

1. Flight - Check
2. Hostel - Check
3. All systems GOOOOO!

So, Thursday finally arrived and Alina & Scott both were leaving that night. Everyone else that being Erin, Patrick and myself were going to leave Friday morning. Since, Erin and I live fairly close to each other we decided to try to meet in the morning to take a taxi together to Aeroparque Jorge Newbery. I woke up at 4 am............. (terrible, I know) then went to Erin's house to pick her up then we headed to the airport. The amazing thing about flying to Chile is you MUST fly over the Andes Mountains!

It was just so incredible to see and say "oh yeah, we just flew over the Andes no big deal" haha. It is quite a sight for soars eyes like ours. Finally arriving in Santiago, we hit the ground running! We took a taxi to where we thought our hostel was... Román Diaz 31...well, yeah it doesn't exist. So we sat there in the taxi wonder what went wrong and God must be/is always looking out because a few minutes after we get to the street Patrick spots Alina and Scott walking toward us! Erin, Patrick and I sat our backpacks in the lockers and then went out to explore Santiago. There are many great things about this city: surrounded by the mountains...but not just regular mountains but the FREAKIN ANDESSSSSS, metro system and cleanest is amazing (in comparison to BA which is really stank), and the Chilean peso bills go all the way to 20,000 (yes, we were all speaking in thousands or hundred 500 pesos equaled 1 US dollar so you can do the math; all I can say is that is was funny and thinking oh I don't need more then 9 thousand right now hahahahaha.)

Any way, we continued day by walking toward a meeting point in the city for a free tour (we are all about free-ness). On the way, we stumbled upon this awesome place called Cerro Santa Lucia and stayed there for a while then continued our meeting point. We finally made it to Plaza de Armas which is Santiago's main square and where the city was founded by a Spanish conquistador Pedro de Valdiva. In that same plaza one can find street artist, chess matches, and just everyone relaxing around. Also in Chile there are many protest for free public education and they can get pretty violate but we didn't let that thought stop us for enjoying this place!

Now, in Chile, we wanted to try Chilean typical foods like Churrasco which is a beef sandwich from a street stand with avocado, tomatoes, and mayo (Soooo good). Then we had tried Moto con Huesillo which is cooked dried peaches and stewed wheat served as a drink (It was pretty good). On our tour, our guide, told us and showed us something that only happens in Chile : Cafe with legs or Cafe con Piernas. This were basically a tinted window coffee shop where you (usually men go there) can get served coffee from basically a stripper...this all started from a cafe owner who wanted to get more business hahah. Yeah, it worked... also if your lucky the manager of the shop will lock the door and "Happy Minute" begins. In regards to drinks: our tour guide (none of us can remember his name) told us we had to try Pisco Sour and Terremoto which is Pipeño (a type of wine) with pineapple ice-cream served in a one-liter glass.

The next day we started bright and early yet again because we were going to go to the coast! I was super excited about this because first I've never been to Chile and also I've never been to the Pacific Ocean at all. So, I can say now that water is icy cold but from the coast it's mighty fine :D. We rode the metro then took a bus to Valparaíso, Viña del Mar and Reñaca! The bus ride was about a hour and a half then from there we decided to chose a tour company to take us around.

In Valparaíso, we got a chance to one of the house of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda in Cerro Florida called La Sebastiana. He has two others called La Chascona and la casa de Isla Negra. These three houses all have a ship shape which is pretty cool. We got a great view from his house and then went down to see the naval shipyard which was really cool too.

In Viña del Mar, we got to see something really just mind blowing. We got to see one of the statues from Easter Island!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I, seriously, was like I can't believe I get to see this in person. The statues are called moai craved by Rapa Nui and only 3 have been take from the actually island. One is where we were in Viña del Mar and the two others are in London and New York. Also went to the Parque Quinta Vergara which has tree planted there from all over the world. Then to see the Estadio Sausalito. And we ended our trip there with going to beach, watching the sunset and having fun in the water!

In Reñaca, we saw some of the buildings built by different nations like France and Germany. Then we got to seen a HUGE rock mount with sea lions just chillin hahaha. We also had lunch at a restaurant close to the coast which had great seafood but not so great dessert.

Once we had returned to Santiago, we made it right in time to be able to take the metro home and not a taxi (YAYA us!). Then we went out late that night for dinner and was looking to try the Terremoto drink. We found a great place called A Punto Rojo! Patrick and I had a steak with these awesome amazingly cooked rice with cheese and mushrooms! It was so goooooood we meaning Alina hahah ordered just a plate of that rice! Sunday morning we were off back to east side...not like the Jefferson's but to Buenos Aires hahaha. In addition, we got on an earlier flight that went straight to BA luckily us!An amazing experience yet again with friends and a trip to Chile was T-O-T-A-L-L-Y worth it!
p.s. The Chilean flag closely resembles the Texas flag! It definitely warmed my Texan heart :^)

The 14th Lama

That's right peeps I got to go see the Dalai Lama last Wednesday Sept 14 at 10 am and I still made it to school on time!!!!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!

This is actually his fourth time visiting Argentina. The talk I went to was called "Encontrando la Felicidad en Tiempos Difíciles" or in english : "Finding Happiness in Tough Times". If you didn't know he is the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet.

His comfy chair on stage!

People crowding in!!

Yes, I was super excited and lucky to be able to see him speak in Luna Park.
The only things I knew of the Dalai Lama were that he is a Tibetan spiritual leader and a laugh that makes you laugh. I didn't really have any expectations but I thought it would be a really neat experience. I also can say now I've seen him in person too (not many can do that). However, I hoped he would say something so profound and he did say a few things that I thought to myself (wow, I've never approached a situation like that).

Something I read in the Clarín newspaper article is that the official translator of the Dalai Lama, Gerardo Abboud, is from Argentina and loves milanesas! Also, you would think the Dalai Lama knew a bunch of language...well, he may but Spanish is not one of them. He spoke English to us and Gerardo translated in. In addition, I was looking at the crowd of people and I saw a lady signing to a group of women but she wasn't signing English, she was signing Spanish!!!!! How cool is that! (I didn't get a picture of her but still pretty awesome)

Patrick and I waiting for the Lama to arrive. We were pretty close too!

Finally on stage!!!!

"What is the purpose of our life? is to be happy... From the very core of our being, we desire contentment. In my own limited experience I have found that the more we care for the happiness of others, the greater is our own sense of well-being." - Dalai Lama

My Love & Hate Relationship.

Love.
So... I wanted to spill my guts about how I feel about a particular thing, which is a constant love in my life while in Argentina... that is...SPANISH or Argentine Castellano, which pronounced, caste-SH-ano, is significantly different from all other forms of Castellano (this means Spanish language). Unlike the Castellano spoken in Argentina other Latin American countries like Mexico, Chile, and Spain for instance, the "ll" makes a "ye" sound instead of a "sh" sound. For instance, the verb llover in most places is pronounced "Yeo-ver" and here in Argentina it is pronounced "Sho-ver".
One can definitely say it's quite peculiar...

Is Argentina trying to copy the Italy???

Is Argentina trying to get massive attention for pronouncing regular Spanish words strangely?

I, believe, now being apart of/ having the Porteño lifestyle (a Porteño is a person that live in Buenos Aires) that Argentina is being Argentina. They are not mimicking anyone or trying to get notice by the world. Within the rich history of Argentina and the mixing of cultures from Europe and the indigenous people this interesting, different, and refreshing caste-SH-ano appeared.

Some other differences in Argentina Castellano from other Castellano is using the Vos from. However, please do not get confuse Vos with Vosotros. When speaking in the 2nd person singular from usually a person would say "Tú" but in Argentina, they use "Vos". In addition, conjugating is slightly different as well.
Examples:Vos comés – tú comes, Vos querés – Tú quieres, Vos hablás – Tú hablas
In Vos, the emphasis is on the last syllable of the verb which is why an accent is added. Also the stem changing verbs like querer, do not change in vos from. I just wanted to share some of my knowledge about this amazing culture I have come to love.

Hate.
Listen, I'm going to be real with y'all. Most days I get so damn fed up with Spanish.
People talking to me in Spanish...
Me trying to talk in Spanish...
Hearing the word "Spanish" even ticks me off!

Sometimes, I will just come home exhausted from the long day of classes. And I'll just want to listen to my music (mostly in English) and drown out ALLLLL the Spanish spoken around me. I hate the fact, I am not able to understand people once I have add a question in Spanish. I also hate the fact that sometimes can't add anything... I said anything...to a conversation if my host parents or any family comes over.
Sooooo infuriating! I hit a wall, so many walls and it feels like I can't climb/jump/grapple/whatever over the dang thing!!!! ughhhhhhhhh!

I hate not being able to speak/understand simple Spanish like if a person were to ask you "Hey! How was your day?" Or "What are you plans for the weekend?" There are some many ways to say one thing it is very difficult to remember all the way. Sometimes I even get lost in the translating in my head and there will be one few word I don't know which causes me to be stumped. Many days, I don't even want to try...or give anything thought toward... that word...
Something I found out while studying here in Argentina, is that when a person has class that is spoken in another language it forces your brain (usually) to focus more since you may not understand. Unlike in English spoken classes, an US breed American would have to been dosing off and not even paying attention (this happens not just with me but a lot of my friend). Now, since my brain is being forced to focus more... it just becomes a huge OVERLOAD.

Then I start to scream inside...
shouting random cuss words...
become just cold and get irritated easily...
I feel overwhelmed and can't help to think...I'm not cut out for this.

Learn.
All this said and done, I try to remember a quote my Aunt Lori wrote in a card she sent me.

"There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there; you most go beyond them." -Bruce Lee

Lesson 101: Sometimes all you can do is "keep on, keeping on" when things like life, homework, relationships, family, friends, work and especially language get tough. One must have that faith that your headed in the right direction and moving forward. That is all one can hope for as well. My love/hate relationship with Castellano may be frustrating A LOT of the time but if I keep on trying something will give and it won't be me.
Now this is when someone says "Mira vos" which is the equivalent to "Well, look at you!" :D