nuevo hogar = nueva vida

I am currently typing from UNIVERSITY OF BELGRANO! Hoy es mi primer dia! A lot has happened over the past 4 days...

Feb 4th

 I moved into my new home. My Señora greeted me with a big smile and welcomed me in. I am living with an older woman, her 28 year old son (normal in argentina to live with fam until you get married) and another student just joined us on monday... so not really a family as in mom, dad and kids like I was expecting, but any group of people with some love mixed in makes a family! So it´s all good. Rosario (host mama) has had many exchange students, like 15 before me, so she knows how it goes. She too doesn't eat meat except at her son Diego´s big asados every sunday (like a big bbq with loads of meat).




All of BA, Recoleta is the dark part. Where I live.



We live in Recoleta which is the fanciest neighborhood in BA and our apartment building has a glass and gold door. The house as a whole is classy. Very white and clean with just the right amount of artsy knick knacks to make it stylish without going even close to that "clutter" border. Very simple.

We eat dinner together every night at 9pm and a lot of spanish is practiced at the table.

Veggie Tart: Veggies, eggs, some cheese and thats about it

My first day she took me out for some coffee and helped me find the nearby yoga studios and gyms. It´s a beautiful neighborhood, very close to the Recoleta Cemetery where Evita and almost all of Argentina´s elite are resting in peace.

I have a nice clean white room with a twin size bed and lots of closet space and a pretty sketch of an Asian woman framed on the wall. It is simple, but good for me. Feels nice to not be traveling and staying in hostels and hotels. This will become my place for the next few months. Definitely not the same as my Catalina home, but perfect for this time in my life. After unpacking all my things, I made the room feel more cozy by placing a rock I found at the glorious hike in Ushuaia on the nightstand, hanging my mom´s sarong over the door, putting a bag made by meg with pretty hand-stamped flowers on the coat rack, and laying out my favorite shawl from david and angela over the bed. Just a few little things to make it feel more like home.

Welcome to my humble abode

That night I went for a long stroll down Av Santa Fe which is lick shopping stores and restaurants galore. Fun to just walk around town and get comfortable navigating the streets. After returning home to dinner with Rosario I christened the room with some midnight yoga and fell sound asleep.

Feb 5th

Today all of us UC kids got together again to head off to an estancia (ranch). The whole ordeal was a little turisty but enjoyable none the less.  Gauchos serving empanadas, horseback rides, and then  an asado! Round after round of meat of served (meat in shapes and colors I´ve never seen come from a cow before...) Me. I delighted in my salad, bread and pasta with some other wonderful veggie friends of mine :)

A typical asado

After lunch there was live music and dancers representing many different Argentine traditions. Then we ventured to the field to watch the Gauchos perform some tricks. One with horses in formations and the other similar to a medival knight jousting (except the hoops were much smaller and the poles more the size of big pencils). My favorite part of the day... YOGA!

Alex, a friend of mine, asked if I wanted to do some yoga. Por supuesto! So we got down and I lead a little mini group yoga, starting with just Alex, Li and I. Sure enough, more and more people joined us until we had about a group of 15 (with another 10 or so just observing from behind)! I love how yoga does that, it´s contagious. And the great thing is anyone and everyone can practice it.

I love practicing on my own but having the opportunity to lead others through the asanas is truly incredible. I feel honored that people trust and follow along with me. Also, the power that resides in collective energy, focusing on bringing the good to ourselves (body, mind and soul) as well as collectively attracting that good for all of the world, is powerful indeed.

We closed with a little massage circle (another one of my favorite things) and a short meditation. Everyone loved it. Soon enough we will be doing yoga in the park at lest weekly if not bi or tri weekly. Could be a good way to make some Argentine friends too!

That night I attempted the public transportation system. I took 2 and a half buses (it is possible...) and after failing a third time to get on the right bus at 12am at night, I hitched a cab. My first bar in BA called Sugar. Turns out it was an all American bar (not ideal for me seeing as most people were speaking english and the argentine culture was not flourishing there) but seeing my friends in the nightlife was good. Next time: a more laid back local place.

Feb 6th

Sunday and I went to my family´s asado! My host mother is divorced and step-host papa came to pick us up and drove us all out to Diego´s (the oldest of 3 sons) house.

Meat is the mans duty.



Every home has an asado in the back.



He lives in the provencia of BA (not the capital, center area). It was wonderful. I was welcomed in and although I didn´t understand every word that was spoken, I did get the general idea. I practiced a lot and played with the children. Felipe (2), Juana (2 and a half) and Segundo (6 years). All of whom never stopped running the entire time I was there (noon to 8pm).

¡Que Linda! Baby Juana







chorizo, blood sausage, steak, intestines...





There was a lot of meat as well. Blood sausage, intestines, chorizo, steak and other parts. I had a veggie tart. They were kind and only a tiny pushy as they asked around 15 times if I wanted any meat. I said no thank you. I have spent some time thinking about whether or not to eat meat during my time in Argenitna. I have decided that I will eat it if I want to. No reason to hold myself back if I desire to try it. But as of now, I have no interest. And for the most part people understand. Vegetarians are more common now than they were in the past (but still a rare find down here :)



The extended fam at the the sunday asado (Mama Rosario at the head of the table)



It was wonderful to see a real family from the inside. I was welcomed in and spent the day sitting by the poolside, eating and drinking with them. They practiced some english with me and I practiced Spanish with them. A long day indeed, but this is normal for Sundays here. Get the whole family together to simply eat and talk all day long. No work no telephone no tv. Just each other. A wonderful tradition. Perhaps I´ll create a weekly veggie friendly asado when I return to the states...

Feb 7th

Today was my first day going to school. Semi intimidated by the public transportation system and semi just wanting to move my body... I walked 3.8 miles to school. Side-note: I grew up in a one square mile town on an island only to move to a one square mile town known as Isla Vista in Santa Barbara and now I live in a city of 80 square miles. It´s going to take some practice :)

About one hour later I arrived at the Universidad de Belgrano! We took a short one page (front and back) placement exam and that was it for day one.



Mi escuela!

A little exploring around the city, scoped out a friends sweet pad in Belgrano and got caught in the rain.  Thanks to a woman in a magazine booth who pointed me towards the right direction, I caught the # 60 bus home... or at least close enough to it. Once I realized that the bus took a right 4 blocks before my stop I jumped off at the nearest exit. Only to land in shoe heaven!

Buenos aires really is the "Paris of South America" as they say. The people are beautiful and they do not cut back on style. Despite the trash in the streets, the puddles in the road, the unfinished sidewalks and the various potholes... women wear these twisty turney brightly colored and highly decorated heels! They do not look you in the eye as you walk by, they look at your shoes. Now if my shoes could smile the way I do when I see I stranger I would be making friends no problem. But they don´t. So I did as many porteños do when things go south. I shopped. 5 stores later, many shoes sampled, 3 purchased and only 62 american dollars spent! Muchas gracias invierno- summer sales everywhere!

Now these shoes smile at the passerby.

(statistical analysis on how many friends I make daily now in comparison to my old mary janes soon to come...)

All out in my size...

I walked home with a bit more pep in my step and met my new host sister! Her name is Erin and she goes to school in New York and is very sweet. I´m excited to have a fellow friend under the same roof. Rosario, Javier, Erin and I all enjoyed a home-made family meal and got to know each other a bit more. It really is a crazy thing, like picking a name out of a hat and then saying "ok, now you are my family!" But that´s the way it is and so far so good.

Humans are incredible. Or should I say our minds are incredible? The ability we have to mold our lives and the world around us never ceases to amaze me. There has to be about 200 students in total from various programs in the USA studying here in the same classes as I. We all left everything that was comfortable and familiar- we left home- to venture into an unknown land... ok not that extreme but really everything is new.

A sweet merienda (afternoon snack) with sweet Li

Having to make friends and a family again. Learning the streets, language, food, style and customs. Being the minority in the country, the city, the house. For one example, I talk- a lot. Here I do not know everything there is to know about this language (just yet) so naturally I talk much less than I usually do. I am the listener. A great opportunity to see and experience the same world, just from a different angle. Slowly but surely, with the power of our minds we are each adapting to this new life.

Feb 8th

Today was my real first day of school. Researching and going over it repeatedly in my mind last night, today for the first time, I successfully took the bus! I even got off at just the right stop *pat on the back*

Now there are four levels of classes here and much to my surprise I was placed in basico. Tragic. "Yo hablo muy bien en español y conozco muchas cosas, pero la gramatica es mas dificil para mi y ayer la examen fue muy corto y solamente la gramática y nada mas..." I said in my best spanish this morning to my teacher. She agreed. After looking at the basico book and seeing worksheets for numbers, colors, and the alphabet, ect... I knew I was in the wrong class. My conjugation skills were just a little dusty that´s all :)

My beautiful classmates!

So I switched to the intermediate class and I love it! It is just the right level for me. I have studied spanish in the past but it has been on and off. Now I am ready and really excited to get focused and study todos los dias, todo el tiempo!

Class will be from 10am to 3pm with 2 short breaks 5 days a week. Then in 4 weeks we will switch to a new location (just an 11 minute walk from my home!) where class will be just 3 hours a day for 5 days a week. There we will finish the remainder our 8 weeks in the third level of spanish studies. My time here sounds so short when I break it down like that, and I´m sure it will feel even shorter in just a few months when I look back at this moment.

So that´s that. Kind of at a loss of what I am supposed to do now... the work load is VERY small in comparison to my typical amount of duties back in SB. Loads of classes, clubs, friends and things to consume my time there. Here I have much less on my plate. My to-do list is something like: eat, sleep, shower, do yoga, see friends, make friends, walk, go to school, study and open your eyes. A whole city to get acquainted with.

mucho amor.