Friday, May 9, 2008

Middle Ground

So I'm a little more than halfway through right now and it's very hard to believe. I'm trying to think of how much I've changed since I've been here, and I honestly can't say that I've noticed anything within myself. I have learned a lot since I've been here, both about myself and my abilities. However, as of right now I'm not at all happy with my level of speaking, but my comprehension is miles ahead of what it used to be. I don't think my mentality/maturity has changed a whole lot, though I will admit I feel differently about a lot of things, if not at some points pretty apathetic. Life here is still a day to day struggle, a struggle I wished to have surmounted, but I guess there are some things about trying to live in another part of the world that aren't so simply overcome. A bad day can be made by something absurdly simple while a good day can be made by something as minute as a compliment on my Spanish speaking abilities; though half the time I'm not sure they're actually complementing my abilities, as much as they're just surprised that an American can speak Spanish. In all reality, everyday seems to be better than the last and it hasn't been an uphill struggle as much as an extremely fun and interesting learning process. That said, I've set a few goals for myself for these last couple of months in Argentina, and hopefully life will continue in the same manner as it has.

AsĂ­ es la vida.

I went to Montevideo last weekend with my friends and all around it was a pretty fun time. Montevideo definitely has a different feel to it than Buenos Aires, and to me it feels a lot more like what I thought South America would be like. Buenos Aires feels more like New York City, with its huge high rise apartments, city block sized parks and the hustle and bustle noises of busses and cars while Montevideo has fewer high rises and many of the buildings have fallen into disrepair. It feels much more relaxed and not so caught up in time as Buenos Aires. I think one solid symbol of this idea is that EVERYONE in Montevideo drinks mate EVERYWHERE. Everywhere they go, they carry their thermos under one arm, and the gourde in the other. The cartoneros (or people who dig through trash to recycle goods; common in Buenos Aires too) use donkey/horse drawn carts. Overall, there's not a ton of touristy things to do in Montevideo, thus our lack of research and hope for springing out monuments like Buenos Aires failed us. We still managed to find interesting things in Montevideo, i.e. a mausoleum with the ashes of the national independence hero, Jose Artigas, underneath a huge statue of the previously named. The city also had a pretty impressive cathedral and port area. I went with a group of 5 girls and 1 guy and we had a ton of fun, the trip probably would not have been so good amongst other company, but I think you could probably say that about a lot of things in life. We entertained ourselves the entire trip being goofy under the spell and caffeine of our yerba mate (which we had handy at ALL TIMES). I'm not disappointed that I went to Montevideo, but I definitely have no desire to spend another weekend there.

After Montevideo, we took the bus to Colonia, Uruguay to meet up with the group. The trip was a planned excursion to the house of our program coordinator, Mario, in Colonia, we just decided to change our tickets and head to Montevideo early. I went to Colonia with my family while they were here and we felt there was little to behold within the small colonial style town during our visit. This time, however, was different. Our program, COPA, put us up in pretty nice hotels (though I'll admit the one Esteban, my roommate, and I got put into was by far the nicest) and we had a lot of time to relax and roam around the town. It was an extremely welcome change from the continuously stressful life of the city and we spent a lot of time hanging out on the streets. On Monday the whole group (by whole I mean the whole half of the program that was there; 65 people) went to Mario's house for an asado, or barbeque. His house is absolutely gorgeous. It's a vacation home that also acts as a bed and breakfast set in the Uruguayan countryside. It's a beautiful white building with ivy running up the walls and faces two large ponds. Beyond the ponds and some brush is a swimming a pool and a huge lemon orchard (if that's what you even call it). A short walk away rests a huge beach. It was really nice to be in the countryside and have the ability to think without the noise of thousands of cars on the streets at all hours of the day.

With that trip in the past, it's time to plan the next trip which is…drum roll, please…Las Cataratas del IguazĂș, or Iguazu Falls. They're located in Northern Argentina on the Brazil/Argentina/Paraguay borders and are way bigger than Niagara Falls. They're the second biggest falls in the world, second to Victoria Falls in Africa. I've been looking forward to going to the falls for quite a while now and it's pretty exciting that the trip is finally piecing itself together. I think I'll be leaving a Thursday night, probably the 22nd and returning that Sunday night on a bus. It's about a sixteen hour bus ride, but hopefully I'll be able to get some studying done on the bus.

Today I had to go get a yellow fever shot in preparation for the trip. If there's one thing that Argentina does better than the United States, I discovered today, it's the distribution of vaccines. Before I came to Argentina I tried to get the yellow fever shot in Lubbock and was told that I needed three other people to even be considered for the shot, as they come in four pack vials. This was after I waited in a waiting room to get another vaccine for three hours with ill people whose ailments interest me not. Today I budgeted about 4 hours for the process. I arrived at the building walked in, was asked for my passport, told not to take aspirin for 7 days, then directed to a room. I walked into the room, watched a man take a needle out of a package fill it with vaccine as he said "Relax. Sting. Hurt? All." In English. "Todo?" I asked; he nodded and sent me on to the next room where a woman stamped a piece of paper proving I've received the vaccine and I was on my merry little way. This whole process took less than 5 minutes. It's no wonder I've been so scared of needles my whole life; who wouldn't be when you have to sit in a waiting room for 60 minutes thinking only about that sharp piece of metal someone's going to inject into your arm in a matter of moments. As I left I was in complete awe of what had just happened, but extremely happy. It's amazing how difficult we tend to make things back in the states, especially in the medical field. Gotta love insurance companies.

I also got a haircut today. It was kind of sketchy and I picked the emptiest, nice looking salon in a row of three others. He actually did a pretty good job but he totally tried to give me a mullet. He didn't even touch the back of my hair and I had to tell him that that party in the back was going to have to go. Regardless, it's shorter now and a huge relief.

Anyways that's all I've got for now. Here's the links to the albums of the pictures I took in Uruguay:

Montevideo

Colonia

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

halfway through or halfway started....its up to you to decide