the "fam"

I realized I never put up a picture of my new house or Liliana sooo here is one! Liliana is the one in the middle. She is really amazing--teaches me new words and expressions every day, knows a LOT about politics (which could not be more loco here), and just in general is a very wise woman. The woman on the right is Liliana's cousin (wow i cant speak english--i literally first typed "the cousin of liliana" and then upon proofreading it realized it sounded slightly awkward)
she is the shiz--i helped find her a boyfriend on facebook. kind of a weird story, but basically it involved me finding her 60-year old childhood boyfriend who had moved and they never had each others phone numbers and then the whole dictatorhsip happened and everyone disappeared...anyways she calls me "cupida" now and says im "divina" (which we all already know...por favor....) :-)

New Democratic Media Law in Argentina!!

It only took 26 years after the military dictatorship ended for the media to be democratized, but on Saturday at 3am the new law was finally passed. The debate lasted for over 18 hours in the Senate. I went to Congreso around midday to see the manifestaciones (demonstrations?) in favor of the new law. It has been a huge controversy here ever since the dictatorship ended here because all of the media is controlled by about 4 groups of private owners. Because they have so much power and lobby, the law that was made during the dictatorship hasnt been able to be overturned yet, despite the fact that 75% of all the news comes from one source, which isnt very democratic now is it...



CONGRESO







This is flag of the indigenous groups. Jimena and I interviewed their spokesman for our UBA Radio. He had marched to Congreso all the way from Neuquen (over 1000 km). He said that it is an embarrassment on the entire country to still have in place a law that was made during the times of a military dictator, and that freedom of speech and freedom of press haven't been actually observed yet in Argentina and that hopefully this new law will change that.

Libros de Cartoneros

Recycling of reusable materials in this country is done primarily by homeless people. Every night, you see them in the streets, collecting and sorting the massive piles of trash into bottles, cardboard, paper, etc. which they then sell back to the government for a few centavos each. The people who sort through the tremendous amounts of cardboard (cartón) are called cartoneros. After the 2001 economic crisis here (caused by the government lying and essentially making up that an Argentine peso was equal to a US dollar), there was a huge increase in cartoneros. They just barely make enough to eat.

This lady in the blue and yellow was a cartonera until 2 years ago. She now works for this incredible organization that makes books out of the cartón and pays the cartoneros almost double what the government pays them for the same amount of cardboard.



I went to their store with my derechos humanos (human rights) class and I was blown away by what they do.

Located in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Buenos Aires, Boca, the majority of the books they make are sold for a few pesos (at most 2 US dollars) to children to read and use for school. They hand paint all the covers, using these stencils and neon colored paints.






This is me with the 2 books I bought. They are 2 really famous Argentine books. It's cool because the operation helps out so many people, and the book is exactly word for word as though I had bought it in a bookstore.

Escuela

Bueno, now that things have calmed down a bit, I am finally finding time to go on the internet once again. The last 2 weeks have been completely LOCO, because the university classes were having "shopping" periods...meaning I was trying out all these different classes trying to figure out which ones I wanted to take (aka which professors I could understand the least bit of what they were talking about, haha--How do people talk so ridiculously fast?) I also spent a lot of time being completely lost in this massive and confusing city, what with getting on the wrong bus, or trusting my (pretty much always wrong) sense of direction..But anyways, now things have settled down a little. I finally (semi-)figured out the bus system.
I have been assigned a lot of reading in every class, and reading in Spanish takes double the time than English, though I am fosho improving. But its really exciting for me, because for the first time in my life, I actually LIKE my classes! I know it sounds weird to you, but for me it is a revelation--"Waitttt you mean I dont have to feel like I want to shoot myself in the face every time I sit down to do my homework?? You mean I can actually learn things in school that interest me?!" I had no idea...I always thoguht people were just lying to me to make themselves look cool or something, when they were like yeah man, i looove my classes! id be like, yeah right. stop lying.
This is a photo I took a couple weeks ago, of people dancing tango in a park in San Telmo, one of my favorite neighborhoods. Im starting a tango class tonight! Very excited...Il let you know how that goes

Thank you and SOrry

Thank you to everybody for the brithday wishes, emails and phone calls. Sorry it has taken me so long to write.

I have been incredibly busy with moving (the other woman was CRAZY!) into an amazing new house with an amazing new host mother, Liliana. Shes a million times better than the other lady in every way possible. Just a few ways: she actually talks to me, like we have really deep and interesting conversations. She used to be a sociology professor at UBA (the school i go to here--its awesome!) and shes really intelligent.

I will elaborate on all of the above when i have time tomorrow, now i am passing out on the keyboard. SOoo tired!! Mucho tango dancing...

here are the pics of my trip to mendoza!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022084&l=bf427bf29d&id=1244220143

much love to everybody!

Feeding children should be the government's responsibility

Any of you who have ever been to a poor place (3rd world country) know how hard it is to resist giving money to children who are pulling at your sleeves, and heartstrings, with their pleas for help. Here, they are everywhere, especially outside the boliches (clubs/bars) at night, begging. It is really horrible to see, and even though some of them dive to see up your skirt or try to light you on fire (that was only one night...) for the most part they are really cute kids that are visibly malnourished and homeless. Obviously, we've all seen Slumdog millionare, that stuff doesn't just go on in India. I have seen a few times now an adult man walking with these beggar kids away from their begging spots late at night (or early morning). So I figured out what I can do to help them, because clearly the money doesn't go anywhere good--buy them food! Obviously theres not always a hotdog or empanada (little dumplings of heaven) stand nearby, but when there is, it is 2-3 pesos out of my pocket (about 60 or 70 US cents) and a lot of food in their little 7-year old stomaches. Just now I was at the grocery store and 2 girls who must've been about 5 approached me and asked if I would buy them a yogurt. How can you say no to that?? They looked so dirty, and poor...so i bought them each a yogurt. I hope one day this governemnt can take care of its people...every day there are articles about how much the people here hate the government. Today there were reports of intense police brutality against workers in a factory. There are huuge rallies and demonstrations every single day. You can feel it in the air. The proverbial shit is about to hit the fan soon, for sure. My professor today told us, "you guys are in Argentina at a really important time. You are about to see some intense stuff go down..."

Delicious Sandwich and La Bomba

Ok I know what you think when you see this street-side hot-dog /hamburger stand with sketchy man grilling up some meat in what appears to be the middle of nowhere. You're gonna leave here with either: a) swine flu, b) all of your belongings mugged from you by a street gang of 12 and 13-year olds, or c) explosive diarhhea. But, let me assure you, it is actually none of the above!
So let me set the scene for you. You've been out for a few hours getting your groove thang on. All that dancing you've probably burned a good 4 thousand calories. at least. Its time to replenish all the nutrition you so desperately need. The only way is...load up on a chicharrón! (Basically a grilled chicken sandwich with peppers, onions, pico de gallo, mustard, ketchup, mayonaise, and mad other stuff on a delicious grilled baguettte!) Best thing ever. And oh so nutritious at 5 in the morning! Dont worry I went there with a big group of people (and my pistolo in my pocket).



<---heaven in a sandwich. (A little grease never hurt anyone)











Me in my cool new leather jacket. How cool is that jacket? Possibly the coolest thing youve ever seen in your life. The leather here is incredible. So soft and nice and cheap! Oh and I guess there are a few other poeple in this picture. Theyre all my friends from my program except the dude in the back who is an Argentine who invited us to a party w a bunch of Argentines which was fun. Im so sick of going to bars here and hearing everyone speaking english! So it was definitely nice to get away form that whole scene last ngiht and go to this house party.


This is definitely one of the coolest things Ive done here so far. Its called "La Bomba del Tiempo" and its basically an illl drumming circle in a huge warehouse and everybody is intensely dancing. They invite different local guest artists to join in every week, and this week it was a SICK guitarrist from the band Los Pericos (theyre from Buenos Aires). He was reallllly good.




I think I sweat(ed?) more dancing here than I did running outside in the New Orleans summer. My friend Kate was visititing and we made our way into an Argentine dance circle where we proceeded to bust out our best moves and make up some great new ones. Sooo sweaty....

Busy busy busy

I know I know you all feel neglected. The internet in my house officially died so after a brief mourning period, I realized I had to move on and now do all my blogging in the blogosphere of cafes near my house. Which is very classy of me, I know. But hard to do every day. So im sorry peoples!

Ok now im gonna do an extra good extra informative post. Get READYYYYYYyyyyyyyy!
(Yes, Im on a lot of caffeine.)

FIESTA!!

More pics for u to soak up the Recoleta atmosphere a little...

Park where I run every morning. Its really cool. In the afternoons high school kids hang out there...thats how you know its cool. haha





RE-CO-LE-TAAA
This is a string of cafes and bars next to my house.







Mi barrio, che?

Fotos de Recoleta

Evita Peron's gravesite.





A girl from my Spanish class who lives a few blocks away from me, Kari. We went for a walk through the Recoleta cemetery together. This cemetery is where all the famous Argentines have been buried; and apparently it is one of the most expensive places to be buried in the entire world. It is like a city in there, with each grave inside its own little house (or in most cases, church). It's very beautiful indeed, but so unncesary and even a little disgusting, when you think about all the homeless people in this city, and how the dead aristocracy are in a much better place than live people. Anyways, the day we were there (26 July) it just happened to be the day Evita Peron died (57 year anniversary). We had had no idea. The place was packed with mourners. Crying, praying, and yes, a lot of prostheletizing. Very beautiful flowers. Some of the people here believed she was actually a Saint. I dunno what that even means...hahaha


Inside one of the graves. Some of them are open to walk inside and people put flowers, candles, etc all over the place. This one had a cool ceiling I thoguht..



















Is this not the cleanest, classiest McDonalds you've ever seen?






Me and Sam (from California) eating some delicious BIFE. CARNE. LOMO. mmmmmmmmmmmhmmmmmmm. Ohhhhh yeahhhhh.

Sorry a todos..

I thought it would be much easier to get the words out of my head and onto the page...Im at a point right now here English and Spanish are jumbled inmy head to the point where it's hard to formulate sentences in either...I need to walk the 20 feet out of my apartment to the cafe on the corner to use their wifi in order to upload all my pics. The internet here is slower than the one the cavemen used.....
¡boludo!
its a great word.

Leave me comments!

I still feel like I am talking to myself.........hahaha...am I?

Funny story:

Ok. So there are about 70 kids in my IFSA program. Every morning so far, all 70 of us have sat for about 2 hours in this huge lecture hall with Mario, the hilarious (and flambuoyant) director of IFSA. Every morning, he goes over various things, such as rules, and things to expect with our host families and Argentine customs in general. Today, there were 6 or 7 kids who were extremely participatory during the lecture. And spoke impeccably good Spanish (but that is normal for this program--there are a lot of kids in the program who are fluent speakers). These kids exchanged names, email addresses, and phone numbers with some of the other kids (still normal). They were cute and well-dressed (also normal). They sat through the whole 2 hour lecture, and at the end, a few of them approached Mario to ask him more questions. That's when the rest of them grabbed the projector (value: $2,000 USD) and walked out of the room! Turns out they were just a bunch of Argentinians disguised as part of our study abroad program! Which also explains the 2 missing purses from yesterdays' lecture!! I know I know, terrible people. But you gotta hand it to them, they are creative!

"The Paris of the Americas"

We were given a walking tour of Recoleta today (where I live), and it was sooooo freezing!! Numb-body-freezing.
The Plaza de Hoteles, built by the Spaniards -->











My group, freezing our asses off listening to architecture talk









Welllll my apologies bc I didn't really have anything of substance to write today. I guess I could tell you about the cold and how I'm still not thawed completely from this morning's walking tour...but that's boring. Or how I watched "los Simpsons" in Spanish tonight. But then that's as far as that story goes...Riveting! Hmmm. Writing in a blog is like talking to yourself but sociably acceptable. As if being crazy on the internet is less crazy. Wellllll that's all I got tonight. Estoy muy cansada. Buenas noches mis amores! CHE!

Long and very rainy day of Orientación...

Tanya (from Wyoming) lives in Recoleta too, so we walked back together from the program office, where our orientation was held all day (about a 30 min walk to our neighborhood). On the way back, we had two very different lookatthe2gringas reactions: one man yelled "SHAN-kee [yankee] devils!" out the window of a car at us, and another one invited us to a "bomba" (bomb? uhhh, terrorism?) party. Which was too sketchy for even me to try to go to..haha




Avenida Santa Fe (where there is a leather boot/purse/belt store every 5 feet and the powers of temptation are overbearing. I need to buy horseblinders to walk down this street).



I had the best lunch today w 3 other kids from IFSA. Amazing steak, and cheesy fries, and Argentine WINE! All for less than $10 USD! I love this place! (How do they stay so skinny? I haven't seen one fat person yet! Maybe there is only one and he doesnt leave his house because he knows hes the only one. Poor little dude. Or, big dude rather.)



Jane and Amanda, both from phil-ee.

mas fotos...very slow to load...

my host, Sara del Monte, at the cafe where we had lunch









the view from the balcony on the other side...You can see the famous Recoleta Cemetary just a block away










Sara's cat, Cleo. She is muy bonita.








The living room








The kitchen... and office in the back

the view from my balcony

my new room

Por fin llegado!

Well, it was a long journey but I finally arrived in Buenos Aires at 6:30 this morning. I was mad that I bought one of those "travelers' pillows" (the U-shaped ones) that people put around their necks while walking around the airport because they think they make them look cool. I wanted to look cool too, dammit! Anyways, I bought one, wasted 13 dollas on it, nly to discover it doesn't fit my neck and the entire flight I used the free pillow that every passenger gets anyways. Score one for me! 8 hours, and 45 minutes later, things were about to lo0k very much up.
Landing in Buenos Aires was gorgeous. Despite my aisle seat, I could see the entire city through the window above the 3 children seated across from me, and it was amazing. The sun was rising, and through the clouds, the glittering lights of LA CIUDAD was like a brightly lit-up welcome sign to me.
Having breezed through security, aduanas, and picked up my 2 giant bags, I was the very first of the 40 or so other IFSA students from my flight to get through to the outside. A gray-haired but young looking man approached me immediately, arms outstretched, yelling my name. "Naomi Martin! ALOO! Bienvenidos!!" I was so relieved for a hug, and to have finally arrived that I embraced this stranger and cheek-kissed him. "Hahaha, como me conoces?" (how do u know who i am?) I asked him, and he told me that he was a psychic. I love psychics. Sometimes I think I am one. (Turned out he was one of the directors of the program, and had just studied everybody's passport pictures, but oh well.)
Anyways, he gathered me, and about 5 other students who were almosttt as speedy-gonzalez as me and brought us over to a line of taxis vying for our patronage. He put me in the first one, gave him a pre-paid voucher and my address, and told me not to pay anything at the end.
I made small-talk with the driver the whole time, and at the end he asked me if I was Brazilian. Best compliment EVER! Brazilian accents are so cool, and apparently I sort of have one. Very excitando.
My host mom, Sara del Monte, is the best. She is so welcoming, friendly, upbeat, and interesting. The apartment, on the fifth floor overlooking Recoleta (and the well-known Recoleta cemetary where Evita Peron is famously buried), is so cute. It is small, being in the heart of the centro, but very cute. Sara's daughter, who I'd guess is in her forties, lives here as well, but works all day so I only met her briefly. Sara served me the breakfast of champions, and then we went for a walk around the city.

Trying to figure out how to add pics...