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!