Some pictures for the last post

So here are some pictures of the things I was talking about in my last post. The one with the pink (presidential building) in the background is a picture of the marching mothers. I also included a picture of the kosher Mcdonalds in our negihborhood as well as a big mall (which used to be a market place) near my dorm.

Buenos Aires

If you are reading this and there are still no pictures you should still read it but also check again later because I have every intention of adding pictures to this post.

After just over a week in Buenos Aires I believe I am really starting to like it. Not to say I didn´t before but in such a large city at least understanding where I am in relation to a few points counts alot to me. It is exciting to be in a place for more than a few weeks, I will be studying at a university here for four months and therefore have been able to unpack my suitcases for the first time in awhile! I don´t know where to start, although I have only been here for just over a week it feels like much more time has passed.

I guess I will start with where I live. Buenos Aires is big, by most measures at least in the top 20 biggest cities in the world. I live close to the Microcentro, around me are a number of plazas, old buildings, and large avenidas. More specifically my neigborhood has a large jewish population (hence the KOSHER Mcdonalds which i will hopefully post a picture of!), with alot of people wearing the orthodox outfit. I live in a dorm like building with 10 floors. There are alot of international students in the dorm but also local students. There are typically 3 beds to a room (my two roommates have not arrived yet but they are Argentinian and I am excited to meet them). The students here are not all from my university but go to 4 or 5 different universities in this area. The dorm rules are pretty strict as far as alcohol, visitation, and noise but i guess i will say people dont follow the rules very well given that my floor frequently smells like weed.

I am attending Universidad del Salvador. It is not a campus proper but rather a collection of buildings in like a 20 block radius that the university owns. Most buildings are 12 to 18 blocks from my dorm, i guess I am saying that it is pretty spread out. The student body at the university is bigger than Whitworth at 16,000 but it is divided into different schools and the different majors really dont interact at all. Most of my classes will be in the International Relations and Political Science building. I had my first class today! (some classes dont start until next week but others start this week, the whole registration process is different). I will be taking 5 classes, 2 or 3 (depending on a scheduling issue) with the general student body and the others with other international students (of course all classes are conducted in Spanish).

What I have been up to- Other than trying to work my way through the Argentinian burearcracy to get my student Visa I have enjoyed exploring little pieces of Buenos Aires with new friends. Crafts fairs and pretty plazas. We watched Las Madres de Plaza Mayo, who still March around the Plaza Mayo near the presidential building (which is famous because Madonna playing Evita Peron waves from it and sings in that movie). The mothers are part of an organziation protesting the disappearance of their children during the ´dirty war´of the late 1970´s in Argentina (the government says 9,000 people disappeared but the mothers say 30,000). During the dirty war the government made leftists and leftist sympathizers disappear. It is very touching as the slowly walk around the plaza carrying pictures of their children and reading their names outloud.

I guess that is a little taste of where I am, what I am studying and what I am seeing. Hope to keep you updated!

CHOQUEQUIRAO

On the third day of hiking we were descending into the valley. The day before we had visited Choquequirao, the ruins of an ancient Incan city high in the Andes mountains. I was hiking along in a good rhythm of descent, we were approaching the loud river at the bottom of the valley. Due to the roar of the river and the fact i was singing Aladin"s "A Whole New World" to myself I did not hear the large rocks crashing down the mountainside towards me, but i did hear the guide running down the trail yelling at me "corre! corre!" (run! run!). I was naturally obedient and began running, at this point i did hear the crashes of rocks. "A la pared!" (to the wall!), the guide yelled, so i threw myself against the side of the mountain bordering the trail (the idea here being that the rocks would pass over you if you were against the wall the rocks would pass over you), in doing this i sliced my hand on the rocks. It was a close call, but other than my hand the guide and I were fine. Jordon had been farther ahead on the trail and witnessed the whole thing and had to things to say. First that a very large rock had come very close to hitting me and that it had crashed down the hill where I had been and second that I looked really funny when I ran (given that i was running for my life I thought this was a strange observation). My hand was also taken care of very well and it was really a minor injury. There were two Spanish medical school students hiking with us who gave it the best care I have ever received for a cut.

In all the 4 day hike was challenging (given the altitude and constant steep hill up or down) but extremely interesting. The ruins we visited were very impressive (we were not able to go to Macchu PIchu because of the flooding last month), this ruins had unique things and experiences that Macchu PIcchu wouldn"t have given us. For example these ruins can only be reached by hiking whereas Macchu Pichu has a train running to it, for this reason they are also much less crowded. These ruins are 5 times bigger but only one third of the ruins are uncovered. The ruins were very interesting with incredible terraces. The hike was also breathtaking and very enjoyable but challenging.

Tomorrow we begin our trip to Buenos Aires where we will begin international student orientation at La Universidad del Salvador.