I've made a good amount of friends in the CIEE program so far, and here's the link to a blog of one of them. Rachel is like a dictionary...when I don't know a word, I turn to her first usually. She knows what's up. And after poking through her blog, I can see that she has something of a similar experience here; we're both more comfortable and at home in the rural life. Haha. Anyway, for more awesome Buenos Aires experiencias: http://unasaventurasargentinas.blogspot.com/
So it's about time I said a thing or two about the aforementioned items.
Lets begin with my host family! They're pretty awesome. There's the madre, Cristina. She has a small leather business with a friend of some sort. I've seen nothing to do with it so far, but it means we have WIFI in the house, and that I can appreciate very much. Cristina has had something like 3 students already, or I am the third...I don't know exactly. Something like that. In any case, they have taken great care of me because they KNOW what they are doing. They know that the biggest challenge is getting around the city, at first, haha. There's also Enrique, Cristina's 'partner' who doesn't live here but is hanging around a lot of the time. He's pretty cool though, a really smart and knowledgeable guy that knows a lot about sports. We've talked sports a lot.
My brother and sister are Axel (14) and Victoria (10). Axel loves video games and, as far as I can tell, spends most of his time playing them. He's way into Modern Warfare 2, and I've had a good time discussing games with him. He's a nice kid. Friendly. Victoria is more subdued, for sure, and she spends a ton of time watching the Disney channel. I really haven't talked with her for more than a little tiny bit. Oh well. She's kind of a funny, tiny little girl.
I also have two pets here; Esmeralda the cat and Luna the turtle. Esmeralda seems pretty wary of me, but she's a really nice cat in general. Luna is...very lazy and doesn't do much. She only really moves to get out of the sun when it washes over the balcony where Luna spends a bunch of her time. Just the other morning Luna somehow snuck under my chair at the breakfast table. I was VERY surprised. I hadn't ever seen Luna move, let alone pop up under me unannounced. Cool turtle, fo sho.
Okay, Argentinian food. is. amazing. My family is very italian in heritage, so I've gotten a good taste of both traditional argentinian food AND Italian foods. Italian food is really part of Argentinian cuisine, actually, but yeah. I haven't actually had any steak, however, not yet. Also of note: my host mom, Cristina, feeds me a TON. She won't let me leave the table until I'm DEFINITELY full. I couldn't ask for a better attitude towards food! Empanadas de carne are very common here, and VERY good. My favorites are the ones with cheese and ham inside. Amazingly good and easy to eat. I love them. In the morning I've eaten an omelet, fruit loop-like stuff, bananas, and this little sweet bread thing that I forgot the name of. The other night, when we had company, we had pasta. AMAZING pasta. The noodles were cooked to perfection, and the sauces were ridiculously good. There was this tomato-y sauce that went WITH the white sauce stuff, and the combination blew my mind. Also amazing was the pesto plus Parmesan. SO GOOD. I had Flan for dinner a different night. Flan is very...different. I need to have more before I decide how I feel about it. Also really common here is "Dulce de Leche," which translates to "Sweet of Milk" or something like that. It's this carmel spread stuff that goes on a LOT of stuff. I guess it's kind of like the Peanut Butter/Nutella of Argentina. I like it a lot. It's VERY sweet though.
Last thing of MAJOR importance regarding food: Argentinian Coca-Cola is GOOD. I have like 2 every day. Bottled in glass, made with only sugar...it's amazing. I LOVE it. Soda in general is way better here.
Argentinian Spanish. Ooohhh. Well, unless you're into Spanish, this section is probably going to be rather boring, or at least it won't mean much to you. The accent here is VERY strong. I'm sure that it is probably similarly strong in all Latin american countries, but this seems pretty incredible. There have been times when I felt like I knew NOTHING of Spanish, and that I was totally incapable of communication. It takes some boldness, courage, and willingness to fail real hard to talk to people sometimes. My accent IS adapting though, and I'm learning how to carry your tone like a "porteño." This Spanish is very "cantado" or sung. It rises and falls in a really Italian-sounding way. VERY important is the double L and Y sound. Usually they are the same in Spanish, with the Y sound filling in where there is a double L. It isn't that way here. Instead of the Y sound, there is a "shh" sort of sound. It's hard to get used to, but it sounds really pretty in my opinion. It makes the spanish sound even more slurred too, but I love it. Things are a bit softer because Rs aren't rolled as much, they are usually just passed over quickly. Also, people don't really pronounce the "s" at the end of most words. If I am going to say the tree is green, it sounds like "El árbol e (instead of es) verde." I LOVE the Spanish here.
There's a big difference in conjugation of the "tu" form, as well. You don't use "tu," actually. Instead there exists "voseo," in which you refer to "you" as "vos" and change the conjugation a noticeable amount. Instead of "tú tienes" you would say "vos tenés." Or instead of "tú eres" one would say "vos sos." It's hard to adapt to, since "tú" is easily one of my most comfortable forms of conjugation. I like how it sounds though, so I'm doing my best to pick it up, along with the accent and the slurs. Voseo only exists in Buenos Aires and the surrounding area, a bit in Uruguay. There are a TON of everyday words that are different here, too. It's called "rioplatenese spanish." One example I can think of is the word for "here." Instead of saying "aquí" you say "acá" to mean the same thing.
A small note on the customs: Argentines are much more affectionate. When you meet somebody and when you say goodbye, you kiss each other on the cheek. You always go for the left cheek, and you don't actually touch your lips to them. It ends up being more like a kiss BY their cheek/ear. It's kind of cool, but it's definitely way closer than the US. You also do a sort of hug thing when you do that kiss greeting. It's interesting. People aren't afraid to put their arm on other people though, I don't think.
That's all for now, I think. I'm finally caught up! I look at classes tomorrow, and hopefully FINALLY take care of getting a cell phone. It's just silly how long I am taking to get that out of the way.
OH, yeah, and the weather! How could I forget? It's between 70-80 every day, sunny with a few clouds. It's not really my climate, but I'm loving it, even with 75% humidity. The humidity is like Florence, the temperature is wonderful (It's summer here). You can't go anywhere without sweating, and it makes sleep hard...but it's still incredibly enjoyable. Especially since I've heard that it's raining like crazy back home.
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