Argentine Accent: Slacking

Hey Guys,

I've been slacking on this blog a little. ^^; Some of the reasons why is because I suddenly didn't feel like doing it anymore and then Mr. Bloggy called me back. Then I had to find time. lol

I feel I haven't done anything too exciting here. Some people question me and ask if I have done this or that and I'm like kinda >>; Sorry. I guess I should start going out places more but I'm also a student and I have to study a lot in Spanish. Honestly, if I don't get to go out much I won't be upset but I should prolly take the opportunity while I have it. I guess I assume I can come back down here another time.

The last two weeks I was getting use to school. I had to do a presentation in Spanish for my Sensors class so I worked on that for like three days.  After I did the presentation people congratulated me so I must have done better than I thought. I should have had more confidence doing it. I practiced before hand but the reason the confidence was a bit down was because another group had the same presentation I had and they used flash and it looked soo cool while mine was just in powerpoint with no design no coolness. But the teacher appreciated mine because I emphasized different points and added formulas for everything.

How is the Spanish going?? It's hard. I think the reason I'm able to understand most of what goes on in class is  because of taking 5 years of spanish class. However, that didn't help in speaking at all. I suck at speaking. I can understand well enough and when they speak a bit slower but either no one can understand when I speak or I just don't know how to but it into words.  I have a friend, Victoria, who have been helping a lot with the language and the accent. ^.^ She is trying to teach me how to roll my rr's and I actually got it a little bit. I also always shy away from speaking if I can. I guess I have to stop doing that and practice more. Boooo

Did I mention that my classes are five hours long?? Have you ever had a class for five hours long?? At Uconn I think at most, unless there is a lab, we spend 3 hours a week in class. I have one five hours class per day. My Sensors class is the hardest to understand but the teacher is the nicest and I get along well with the students there. Unfortunately for me, we are changing teachers next class. ;.; We have four different teachers in the class. The only work I've done in the class so far in presentation. I haven't gotten much assigned hw from any of the classes actually. I guess because they are no TA's but the classes are so small that I don't think I would need a TA. It looks like I only have two exams in all the classes except for Biomechanics where I have a mini exam (thank God).

Biomechanics have been the most interesting class so far. The reason I'm glad for an exam is because in three classes I have learned soo much frickin information. The first half of the class in Anatomy. So the professor talks non-stop about anatomy and it's relation to biomechanics while we have to write down all the important things she says. She uses slides too but she usually just starts talking independently and tells us what's important. And then after 2 and a half hours we take a little break and go to the "lab" part of the class. In this part another teacher (the teacher changes everytime)  goes through a bunch of bones and the name of every bone and the name of everything on every bone. This part is interesting however because while she is doing this we get to look at the real bones and point out the parts she is talking about. The first lab was boring until the end. She literally just when through bones and we sat and listen for 2 hours and then she pulled out a real pieces of a human body from a formaldehyde tank. It was a bit scary. lol I wasn't excepting that lol. The body and all the bones and muscles and it really was a real human body.  It had a tongue and eyes and everything. The teacher pointed out all the bones she went through on the body and we got to play with it a bit. lol The second lab we got to have discussions while the teacher went through the bones which is better than sitting there watching her. We also had the real bones to look at so we helped each other point out the parts and know the name of every single part. Needless to say it's a lot of memorize. And the lab part is 3 hrs long.

There is nothing much to say about Probability and Stats class. It's not as exciting but I know most of the students there and some of them can speak English so they help me out a lot.

On the third class of Biomechanics I got to meet a bunch of people. I met a Colombian who I knew was Colombian mostly because of her Spanish. She lives close to me so I'll prolly hang out with her sometime. I found her interesting because she thinks Argentines are cold while I thought they were friendly.  And I got invited to sing a choir after class which I did. I kinda felt bad because even though I had fun I'm not going have time to do that. I was just there because I was invited. I feel bad not coming back. It seems like they wanted more people too.

Let's see a few updates: Officially going to Chile next Thursday on a mission trip, officially volunteering at the engineering conference here, officially going to the gym every week, officially going to La Boca to hang out with another friend from church, officially hung out at a friend's house, Victoria.  It was really nice of Victoria to invite me over. I should return the favor.

Yes I will take pictures. I've also been charged to eat Argentine food. I haven't eaten any real dishes here yet. Only Argentina desserts, coffee, sandwiches, empanadas and pizza. Pizza and empanadas are really big down here so I think that should count as a dish actually. The pizzas are not as greasy and they have a different style to them. The also always but an olive on every slice. That's the style apparently. They have these sandwiches called miga that are very thin and come in a variety of flavors. The are mostly used for social gathering. Alfajores are a popular chocolate uhh candy like thing with dulce de leche inside. Nomnom I guess I'll try more dishes soon.

That's all for nows
Peace

One of them: First week

My blog is begging for another entry. I feel if I don't start writing then it would grow obsolete. First of all I'm going to post pictures on facebook before I forget. Please take a moment to ponder while I post these pictures. ~La la la la~ Ok guys I actually have a lot of things to say and I do not know if I will remember everything.

First of all I realize my pictures are a bit lame. Or to me they look like they are missing something, people. It looks like I am all by myself taking pictures of objects that does not have anything to do with people. To be honest that is a bit true, not completely. When I am with people I do not take pictures because most of the time I forget and the few time I remember I feel too embarrassed to ask people to take a picture with me. I guess it's understandable though. If I just met you and want to take a picture of you for my friends to see how would you feel. I won't go overboard with pictures I just felt bad because you have not seen the people I met yet.

So last time I wrote I was looking for an new place to live. Let me quickly explain what happened. I went to the church Tina Colon recommended and they were very very nice and I got to meet a lot of people there and they were concerned for my welfare and also wanted to know if I could sing or play the guitar. Lol They really needed musicians. While I can play the guitar, I have not practised for a while and only remember one song by heart. However, I ended playing ( or trying to) play the guitar anyways. A lot of them told me about Argentina and asked me about Hollywood (the movies). A lady I met there, Carolina, had an apartment and said I could share it with her if I wanted. And it is a nice apartment (see the pictures on facebook) so I agreed. Later I also got to hang out with Carolina and a friend and another exchange student from University of Texas. We saw Oliver Stone's documentary called South of the Border. It is very good. I recommend it. It basically uncovered the truth behind the leaders and political movements in South America. It showed how the U.S. interpreted a lot of thing wrong and told the public lies (What's new).  After we went to a cafe and ordered hot chocolate. Honestly it was one of the best cups of hot chocolate I ever had. The hot chocolate in the U.S. has nothing on that. It was soooo rich with chocolate. I feel really bad for someone who grew up on that chocolate and then moved to the U.S. They would have been severely disappointed. I also had churros which were the best churros I ever had. I never liked churros until I had them here. It was a bit oiler but wass sooo good.

I began wondering how Argentines stayed in shape with soo much great food around them. There are so many panerias that sell bread and pastries. I guess they are not greedy. Soo much good food. Is it bad that I want to spend most of my money of food?? lol I'll try not to gain weight while I'm here. In fact, I'm about to sign up for a gym. Also, I feel that most people here are between fat and skinny. I haven't seen obese people but I haven't see really skinny or much fit people. I feel that in the U.S. people tend to be more on the extremes: obese or skinny. Just an observation. Also there is not a lot of darker skin people here. Not that I mind. Some people told me Argentines are racist but I have not had any problems so far.

The night before I moved out of Milonga too my new apartment I meet a lot of people. It had to be the night befor I moved out didn't it. There was this British guy there who was travelling and we spoke for at least two hours about places he traveled to, good places to go in Argentina and how to get there. He was interesting and I got to speak English again. He asked me if I saw any Argentine boy I liked lol. The boys in Argentina tend to be shorter. And no I haven't seen any I liked. lol Did I mention a lot of people smoke here. I never breathed this much smoke in my life. I also meet people from Colombia, Puerto Rico, Chile, and Venezuela. A lot of travelers at this hostel too bad I was leaving.

The apartment I moved to was a bit closer to school. It was a 15 min walk. So the first day of class when swell. My mom was worried about me doing engineering in another language. Turns out they use the same terminology and explain things similarly. Of course the words are in spanish but most of them were very close to the english word. The classes has less people and it is more personal. My first teacher was very nice to me. He was more like a teacher in highschool than a professor. He introduced me to people and showed me his office. The second teacher was a bit more formal like regular profesors. I have one class per day but each class is 5 hours long. I still have probablidad and estatisticas to start tomorrow. Did I mention how Argentines kiss each other to greet people. I know a lot of Hispanics do it but I never had to do it so many times even with my professor. Honestly, I prefer it to a handshake. I never liked handshakes before they are too formal to me. That's one thing that shocked me when I went to Uconn. In highschool I didn't shake people's hand when I met them why did I have to do it at Uconn?? Anyways, I usually shake people's hand if they want to shake mine. Also to wash clothes in the city I have to go to a lavadero where you pay them to wash clothes for you. Different huh??

I guess these fews day I began to feel more adjusted and more comfortable especially with moving into a new apartment. Places began to look familar (which sometimes still doesn't help when I'm lost). I haven't been really lost though, only a little. lol Now I'm worried about not spending too much money on stuff and trying to get in somewhat of I routine which is actually normal things for me to worry about while at Uconn. I also want to travel to different places every saturday and I'm trying to help out with a student group at school and at church. Well I guess I'll keep you posted.
~Ciao

Second Days??

Now that I'm wired on coffee. I think I can continue to tell you how the rest of my week was. Right now I'm in a coffee shop. So far it's my fav cafe. They sell coffee and Ice cream here. I haven't tasted the ice cream yet though. I took pictures. Which I still have to put up. This coffee shop has much better internet than the place I'm staying. So while I'm still staying there, I think I'll come here to get internet. So where was I??

My first night at the Milonga Hostel was horrible. The showers are in separate room but at least this have hot water. After searching for other place friday and today (saturday) I found out the Milonga is actually ok for it's price. I probably could have gotten another place with better quality and cheap if I had known where to look when I was looking for apartments earlier. Milonga is one of the cheapest hostel around here for a decent price and the location is pretty good. I think I drank too much coffee. I'm not sure what exactly she gave me but it was good and I feel like I'm spiraling. Weeeee!!

Okies so the last three days I have been looking for other places to stay and I visited my school. The first place I visited was a bit more expensive than Milonga but good enough. The only thing I didn't like about it was that it was farther away from school. So I decided to look for better places. Then the next I decided to visit my school. One of the staff at Milonga, Pablo, he's my favorite,  he told me which bus to take and everything so I got on the bus and got off at the right stop. Yay Then I spent a good 45 minutes searching for the office. To make things worst it was pouring raining outside!!! I only had on my new green rain jacket but I was soaked everywhere else. My school is also part hospital and it was integrated throughout that section of the city. So I would go to one office and they would send me to another office and then they couldnt understand me or I couldnt understand them and they would send me somewhere else. Something I found weird was I ended talking to this guy who thought I was registering for college and I could understand most of what he was saying but he couldnt understand me at all. I found it weird because his accent was different. Anyways I manage to finally explain to him what I wanted and I was sent to this other building which it turns out I passed because I didn't see the entrance. I got there and I'm trying to explain to the security guard what I wanted and he doesn't understand either so he makes from phone calls telling everyone that he calls how I can't speak spanish well, which is true but he didn't have to say it in every phone call. He was like " Hi, I have this girl who can't speak spanish well who is looking for blah blah" He could have just asked for my name... anyways it turns out that was the right building and they gave me the syllabus for my classes and I got to meet Dr. Damien Craimen.

He's basically the guy in charge of me. He's awesome. He speak three languages english, spanish and french. Anyways I feel like he's the only friend I have in this place because he is the only one who actually understands my situation. I guess he could relate because he has been to the USA and UCONN before so he knows where I'm coming from. He showed me around the school and showed me places I should go to and how to get a phone and other useful things like how to find other places to stay.

So at least I know how to get to and from school now. My next trip was to one of the hostels he recommended me. I did that earlier this morning. I was 10 minutes from where I was staying. I had a little problem with spanish here mostly because I wasn't sure what to say. What seems to happen to me is that once I start speaking spanish badly it starts to go down hill. lol And then they try to speak english to me which makes me upset so I continue to answer them in spanish. Anyways she showed me this small but decent room with a bathroom where the shower was weird. The shower wasn't sectioned off it was just between the toliet and the sink. Then she told me it was for  1000 USD per month. And of course I said no and then she told me I could have a smaller room for 545 USD per month. I told her I'll think about it and left. After thinking about it, I thought I should have yelled at her for selling me that room for 1000 USD per/month. Which person in their right mind would do that?? I wonder if she just did that because she knows I'm a foreigner. You really would have to be either desperate or stupid and naive to pay that much for the room when you could get apartments here for cheaper.

Things I notice about Buenos Aires so far are: a lot of people smoke, a lot more small business here, they call buses collectivas, this city is really huge. A lot of people smoke but I heard that's not unusual for Hispanic countries. The cigarettes here smell stronger than the ones in USA. I don't see much billboards so far but I guess I haven't been around much. I'm planning to go to a different place in the city every saturday. Today however, I'm busy looking for places to stay and I have to figure out how to get to church which is in a different part of the city. So the city have different sections. I'm in Recoleta. The church is in San Telmo and my school is in Congreso.

Hmm other interesting things. I need to upload thoses pictures and I saw an accident. Not sure how it happened but this car hit the right front light of  another car. It was one of those accidents that shouldn't happen because it was at a traffic light so somebody wasn't paying attention to the light. I heard then crash then I turned around. Nobody was hurt though. The cars here are generally the same and crossing the road is not as scary as crossing the road in Spain aka no cars have almost hit me. The garages are underground. I saw somewhere that Argentina was the leading country in something about being green. I cant really see how. There aren't any smart cars here and unlike Spain there isn't any push to recycle.

Have I met any friends yet? I'm alone at a cafe.... There seems to be a lot of people at Milonga about my age. There is one girl who says hi to me when she sees me but I haven't spoken to any of them. They probably think I'm anti-social lol. Actually, I'm not alone because there is a lot of old people here. lol  I guess I should be friendly. Initially I was afraid because my spanish wasn't that good but now I don't really care lol. I guess I'm more focused on getting use to things at the moment.

The best thing about living by yourself in a city is having the freedom to eat whatever you want when you want. lol I had a cappiccino frappe for dinner =D (Don't tell my mom) I've also been eating empanados for lunch.

Other part of my room

I guess that's all I have for now. This coffee was really good.

On side of the room I'm staying in.

Another wall in my room.

 

The coffee I drank before I typed this.

The coffee place I'm at right now

The capuccio frappe I had for dinner one day.

The first days

It's about time I started to write something in this. I waited a long time because I wanted to get adjusted but here goes.

So plane ride from New York. There was a flight to Korea at the same time and there was a lot of Koreans there. I wanted to talk to them sooo badly. After I learn spanish, Korean will be the second language I learn.

Anyways, I slept most of the flight so the six hours seemed short. I flew over Cuba and Jamaica. That made me happy. I know how my country looks from above. It reminded me that I moving on to bigger places. Once I reached Colombia, my first goal was to get my luggage off the first plane (Avianca, I recommend this airline. They had a lot of movies and games on the plane for entertainment) to Aerolinas
Argentinas. I got my two heavy bags then I was told I had to wait three hours to check in because Aerolinas Argentinas didn't open this early ( I got to Colombia at 5 am Colombian time). I found it funny that I could actually go out in Colombia and come back for my flight which was 6 hours away. I didn't though. I sat down in the airport for 3 hours. After a little problem with overweight bags and exchanging USD to Colombian pesos I got to the gate and waited for another 2 hrs.

The flight to Argentina seemed soooo long. It also took 6 hrs. I was impatient by that time. I slept for the first three hours. They gave us a good amount of food which was good. They played two movies. I don't know the name of the first one but the second one was Date Night with the guy from the Office in it. I miss watching the Office. The cool thing about this flight was that I flew over south america so when I looked I could see many mountains and rivers. It was really cool. Too bad my camera was dead. =( Flying over Argentina at night was the most beautiful. It was surrounded by golden lights. Soo prettty!!! The landing was kinda bumpy but I was glad to finally arrive after a whole day of traveling.
I got into Argentina ok. Yay being a Jamaican citizen. Americans have to pay money to get in. The lines were long to get out of the airport though. My first disapointment was the the place where I was staying didn't pick me up. These taxi guys saw me and helped me get money at an atm and took me to the place. Sounds sketch right?? I was a little scared but they kept assuring me they were from this taxi company and they were safe. So I had a nice conversation with the driver while seeing Buenos Aires for the first time. This city is HUGE and they have highways and tolls like we do. I passed the Obeslica, which is a monument to their independence. The driver also showed me famous shopping and theater places.
At the hostel I was staying I checked in, because I reserved my spot and now for my second disappointment. I'm going to put pictures of my room up. It's pretty bad. It made me really upset but I was too tired to do anything or to think logically about it. It made me want to go back home after being it for 2 minutes. The bed is really hard, there is barely a mattress on it. So it was hard to fall asleep that night and there were a lot of people up talking until like 3 in the morning. So my first night sucked and loneliness was seeping in. I was beginning to understand how crazy I was and how alone I was. I've never stayed in a country with no one to go when I needed support or help. I have family in a lot of countries Jamaica, USA, Canada, England. Ok maybe that's not a lot but I have support there. Anyways, you are also probably wondering how I handled the spanish. I've taken five years of spanish and I've been to Spain. So it was a little hard because my spanish was rusty and I forgot a lot of things. I also didn't practice much before here. So before school starts I'm going to review some grammar. Colombian accents were also easier to understand than Argentinan. That's probably because I'm use to Colombian though. Anyways in my next blog I'll give details on they days before school started.