August 30

So... modern dance is amazing. I love the dance classes at the art institute (IUNA) here. They are CHALLENGING! I am the worst dancer in both my ballet and my modern classes, but I am learning fast and it is becoming easier. In anycase, it´s probably plenty beyond what I could get out of the dance classes at UNC. Plus each class is six hours a week, so including my modern class at the cultural center and the tango club I´m in I have some 18 hours of dance a week which is amazing! I feel fine, I´m not even sore anymore... but I really hope I don´t get injured because that would really cramp my style. I´m being careful. But sometimes luck plays a large part in injury. Sigh. Also, in both my IUNA classes we have in room musicians who play the music to which we dance: piano for ballet, and drums for modern. I think it is amazingly brilliant.

Too bad I have a headache.

August 27

Today is the first monday I´ve had of a week that will be completely full of all my classes. Mondays are not actually going to be too bad because I don´t have class until 3 pm. Tonight I´m going to try Modern II instead of Ballet II because ballet is turning out to be far over my head and I think that I look like an idiot enough around here, I don´t want to look like a complete idiot in dance too. The only problem is that Modern goes from 7-9pm monday, wednesday, and friday. That´s pretty late for me... and on fridays it´s going to be a pain. Oh well, dance is more important than anything else while I´m here so... there you go.

Let´s see... I guess it´s been almost 5 days since the last time I wrote. I got my student visa fine, though it took hours of sitting, staring blankly around the room. We had to be there at 8 am and I did not get enough sleep to utilize the time to study... so I did the stupor thing. But it was fine. On friday I went out with the austrian and met some more Argentines who were very nice. It was fun. So I slept most of the day on Saturday before going out to dinner with Lauren to a restaurant in my neighborhood. It was the first time I´d eaten in my neighborhood and it was a fabulous choice. We got free bread and empanadas before we ordered, then a real salad with lettuce (rather rare around here), corn, potatoes, tomatoes, and eggs on it. We also shared what they call a tortilla which is kindof like an open faced omlette. It was very delicioius. We won that round of the never ending adventure with food. After that I went home because my family was having a party in our living room. I sat around for about two hours because it didn´t even start until after midnight. It wasn´t really a party per say, it was more like a free concert of my roommates and all their friends in my living room. The music was good for the most part and definitely interesting, but I was really tired for some reason and hermitly went to bed at 1 am. I was so tired I could sleep through the loud music and all the clapping and whistling. I woke up at about 6:30, shortly (I assume) after everyone else left, to use the bathroom. It was raining really hard and I could hear it very well through my skylight, so I stayed up listening to it for some time and had a text message conversation with one of my argentine friends who was just getting to bed and was very confused why I had a) gone to bed at 1 and b) woken up at 7 am on sunday morning. shrug. I did go back to sleep for a while though.

Last night I went to the WORLD TANGO CHAMPIONSHIPS with Lauren. It was very cool. It was the sala competition which means it was more like social tango than stage tango. It made me think that I would probably actually like doing this tango thesis idea. So, I´ll follow that for a while and see how it goes.

It´s weird to me that classes at UNC started today and I wasn´t there. It´s also weird to me that Spencer´s huge beautiful appartment has never met me and that Katiana is tanning and wearing long skirts on a beautiful beach in Africa and that Emily is sharing the only home I´ve know as an independent adult with three other people and that Royce went to the hospital and I didn´t know about it until just now. My mom went on assignment, my brother has a girlfriend I´ve never met, and my dad´s bike broke. Molly is starting school and should be back from a trip to california by now. I don´t know where Mindy is or what she is doing. Dan is going to be a father any day now. Did the Colorado Eagle season start yet? This is the long way to say that it´s so easy to forget that the world keeps moving even when you´re not there to see it. This is a little comforting and a little more disconcerting. Stay safe friends. I´ll see you again soon.

August 23

I am so sore. I had Modern on Tuesday and Ballet on Wednesday. The Ballet class is way over my head but I think that the teacher just thinks it´s because I can´t speak spanish, so I´ll fake my way through it and learn a lot. But I am so sore!!!! I haven´t danced really since May and my body is not used to the stretching. However... in two days I went from about 8 inches from fingertips to floor to touching the floor... these people will make me bendy. YAY!!!

August 20

I think I just gained about 5 pounds. I just had breakfast, lunch, and dinner in one sitting. It’s my fault really. I should have gone downstairs for breakfast at 9 am when I woke up, but I wanted to finish dreaming of my abandoned loved ones. So I determinedly remained in bed with my eyes closed reliving my happy memories for an hour before sitting up and reaching for my computer in order to (and this is going to sound really lame) work on my budget and schedule, which oddly enough happen to be two of the most satisfying activities that I spend my time on. I think it makes me feel like I’m in control of my ever changing life. Not that I mind that it’s always changing. I just take out my anal retentive side on my Microsoft Excel. In any case, I didn’t get down to the kitchen until after 2 pm when I foolishly fed myself, before accepting the vegetable soup dish from Vero and the milanesa dish from Sebí. Silly me. It was delicious though. I just won’t eat ever again…

I haven’t written in a while because I have been too busy. Finally. I had three classes this week: two International Relations of South America classes and my first Contemporary Dance class. OMG. Dance! It had been 3 and ½ months since I had set foot in a dance class, and I thought I was going to die. It was fun. We did a lot of things I had done before in Modern I, but without all the thorough explanation. I think there was some explanation but as I couldn’t understand it, I followed along and tried to use the principles I had learned in Modern. When I told the teacher after class that I was from Alaska… he looked REALLY concerned that I probably couldn’t understand what he had been saying. I had this experience when I did Tai Chi with my roommates Tuesday morning also. I wish they wouldn’t worry about me. I’ll be fine just following along until I pick up the language enough to understand them. I don’t want to feel like a problem. I have to deal with that enough just trying to communicate socially.

Thursday night the Austrian’s roommates invited me to their house for a Chocolate Fondue party. I brought a bottle of wine. Tangent on wine: I love it. This makes me think about Spencer every time I drink or buy it (and it IS really nice to be able to buy my own wine). The wine here is EXCELLENT! And CHEAP! I went to the store and bought one of the more expensive bottles I could find, 11 pesos instead of the 3 pesos that were the cheap bottles of wine. That’s about $4 for one of the better wines I have ever tasted. Anyway, back to the party. There were a ton of people there, everyone seemed to have brought a bottle of wine, and the table was full of bowls of sliced fruit and a pot of each dark chocolate and white chocolate. It was delicious and really fun. All the people who live in William’s house are from abroad as well, there are like 12 of them, mostly from Europe, and so most of the people at the party were from other countries. I met people from Canada, the U.S., Columbia, Mexico, New Zealand, Germany, Spain, England, and the Netherlands, to name a few. I was there until 5 am. It was great.

Saturday, Lauren and I walked around a few different parts of town with Tracy from CIEE before taking the Subte to the edge of town to have dinner and ice cream with on of Laurens friends from school. We ate at a Mediterranean restaurant. It was good, if a little expensive. Later, I’m talking around 1 am, Lauren and I met up with a couple Argentines who we’d met before and hung out in a pretty nice bar (Asian themed with a huge blue and orange lighted disco ball) until around 5 am. It was very fun and good Spanish practice. And I honestly slept until 2:30 pm when my phone rang. I think that has to be an all time record…

After I pulled myself out of bed in mid afternoon on Sunday I voyaged to Laurens house to bake our first banana bread and watch House, Moulin Rouge, and Bruce Almighty. The banana bread was fabulous. Especially with Dulce de Leche spread on it. And we ordered in some empanadas which only cost me 7 pesos. Ordering in is something really common here that I am finding I really like. Especially since I can’t cook.

Today is a holiday so there aren’t any classes.

I miss the sky.

I was going to say something I missed and then end with something I love about this city… but I can’t think of anything I really like about the city. Not really very surprising considering my background and lifestyle. Oh well. I’m learning, and I love that. And although they don’t have peanut butter… they do have Nutella!

August 13

A lot has been going through my head since the last time I posted but I haven´t had access to the internet in a while. On Saturday I couldn´t get anyone to go anywhere with me so I went across town by myself to an area called Recoletta. It was fun because on the weekends they have a huge street fair with really cool stands. The jewelry is the most gorgeous ever... and it´s cheap for our standards... not that that means I have money to spend on it but hey. There is also a cemetary where all the famous people are buried. It wasn´t like a cemetary... as I think of it. The place is just packed full of large elaborate stone tombs. People aren´t really buried, they are put in coffins and the coffins are placed in their families tombs. The difference in family wealth is very apparent. I didn´t really like the really rich elaborate ones... the really interesting ones were the poorer families with 13 some coffins stacked in them. Most of the doors to the tombs were clear glass so you could easily see into them. The whole thing made me think of Emily. I think she would have loved it. I walked around and imagined what she would say about different cool or creapy or artistic things I saw, and I imagined what I would say back to her, and how we would laugh about the large number of cats running around the place. Everyone talks about how Eva Peron is buried there like that´s the only thing worth seeing. I didn´t see it. I decided that her tomb probably has about the same significance to me as any of the others... and like I said, the old poorer ones were cooler.

After I walked around the cemetary I walked around the art portion of the fair and this strange old man started talking to me. It was fine for a minute until he started trying to get me to go get coffee with him. He asked me a bunch of times. And I was deffinitely not going somewhere with this guy. Then he said we could just walk together and practice spanish. Umm... okay. Creepy. I couldn´t figure out how to get rid of him. It was scary. After a while he just said caio, goodbye and left. Whatever.

Yesterday, Lauren and I walked around a fair in San Telmo and checked out the street performers. We both have colds so after a while we decided to go back to her house and watch 10 Things I Hate About You. On the way home we stopped at the grocery store. OMG. The store by her house is like a mini walmart. It was the most fabulous thing I´d seen in a long time. The grocery stores by my house have like 5 things. I was floored. Okay so you´re probably not as excited about the grocery store as me... but try buying groceries in a foreign country for a month in stores with no variety. Anyway... so I'm still spoiled. Oh well.

Last night I went to a bar with the Austrian and his roommates. It was really fun, particularly because the german guy brought me some empanadas so I didn´t have to buy food and when I told the bar tender I wasn´t sure what I wanted... he made me something for free. YAY! Didn´t spent any money.

I had my first class today. It was good. I'm really excited about it. International Relations from the South American perspective. I understood about half of what was said. But that´s okay. I recorded it on my MP3 player (good choice mom) so I can listen to it again. I also got internet in my house today so I can upload pictures and such to the internet soon. I´m trying to decide if 18 hours of dance a week would be too much for my body... I´m just so tired of being bored. But I don´t want to get injured that´s for sure. hmmm.

I think I´m going to Uruguay next weekend with some girls from CIEE. Costs money... but how many times in my life will I be able to take a ferry to Uruguay? I still miss my house... which makes me think of Emily a lot because it´s her house now. I think I will probably always miss our year of Glory. But I´m in a good mood. I'm glad I'm here. A couple tweaks to the situation would make it perfect. Some of them will come with time. Some of them will forever be lacking and I will always be casually aware of their absence. I guess that´s life huh. Peace to your hearts and minds. The world is beautiful.

August 10

I discovered random fabulousness in the sandwich world today. As there are few choices of food in my house and the only thing I could find at the store for lunch were a couple small packages of salami and some unknown white cheese, my sandwich prospect looked pretty grim. I needed some mayo or something to relieve the dryness of the bread and some lettuce to add some crunch. Not having those on hand I improvised. I glazed both pieces of bread with peach jam and put a couple crackers in there for the crunch. I was PLEASANTLY surprised. It was very good. I suggest the combination.

On a less exciting note... it occured to me today that perhaps I don't actually like travelling as much as I thought I did. Or more specifically I don't think I enjoy venturing solo into the unknown for extended periods of time. I should have realized this when I decided to go to Colorado just because that was the state where I knew people. And now that I think about it, whenever I talk about wanting to go somewhere, it involves seeing someone that I know who lives there. When I decided that I wanted to study abroad, it was because I wanted to have the amazing experience that everyone talks about. I wanted to force myself to grow. Well, I'd better do some growing quick because I'm getting bored and lonely. Mind you my classes haven't started yet. But still... I've just realized unsurprisingly that my loved ones are the most important things to me. I think I would be having a blast if I had a friend with me. I have made a couple friends here... but it's not the same as being with someone you love. And I don't really want to get used to being alone and not having loved ones around. I'm sure that would make me stronger in some sense... but I think vulnerablility is valuable. I don't want to grow cold. Everything is more fun when you have someone to share it with. Anyway. I'm not complaining really, just taking note of an interesting personality trait I chose to overlook so I could be one of those amazing people who studied abroad. I suppose by this time next year I will be telling everyone I meet that they absolutely have to study abroad because it is AMAZING! But right now I miss sitting in my living room with my various families laughing about something silly the cat just did.

August 9

I accomplished a fair amount today considering I didn´t really have anything to do. I´ve spent almost the entire day by myself. I don´t do that often. It was fine really. It made me feel competent and independent. I felt like people were more willing to listen to me and make allowances for my poor spanish. But walking around the city doing errands by myself also made me feel a little bit separate from the world. Like I was an alien... studying something first hand, but not really being part of it. I don´t know if it is because I don´t speak the language... or because I´m not used to big cities... or just because that´s how I feel when I´m alone. But it was interesting. I could write in my notebook in a very field notes kindof way about what I am learning. Doesn´t really feel like a life though. I think I´m okay with that.

I found out Royce also has a blog today. I love the way he writes. I also realized that I haven´t talked to Molly in almost a month. It´s so hard to keep in touch with people the way you want to and also experience all you can where you are.

August 6

I've had the worst cold for the past three days... It just seems to be getting worse. I've spent the last two days laying on my bed... braiding my hair and listening to Harry Potter... from the beginning. I'm almost done with the second book. I wanted to listen to something in spanish but as I don't have internet and I can't figure out how to turn on the TV... good old HP. Sebi made me tea and soup yesterday. He also made me a home remedy for congestion... onion in sugar water. It wasn't that bad actually, but I don't really know if it helped at all. I started feeling sick on Friday so I didn't go out that night... but I couldn't get out of going out on Saturday. At 10 pm we went to a bar that you have to ring the doorbell to get into. It was interesting. It was actually really fun... but I didn't feel super great. We met up with some Argentines that we'd met the week before. I have one of their phone numbers. I think me might be friends in the future. As it got later, it got really crowded and loud. And smokey. Since my throat was irritated anyway the smoke just tore it to pieces. It was horrible. So I went home about 4 feeling rather ill. I probably shouldn't have gone out at all. Oh well.

William and Lauren are turning out to be good buddies. Though I haven't talked to them for a couple days.

I have a flash of inspiration last night over dinner about my Thesis. I want to choreograph an American Tango by studying and contrasting how Argentine culture relates to and expresses emotions and how they are represented in the Tango. Then I will translate the moves to American culture and see what happens... That's the rough outline anyway. I'm really excited. Now I have something to think about and write about for the rest of the year.

I applied for my student visa today. Now I won't be an illegal. YAY!

August 3

So, it's been a few days since my last blog. I've been going out and making friends.. no real stories. I just spent the last three days furiously reading Harry Potter. It was excellent! Very exciting.

I managed to contract a cold last night. Just in my throat... but it's annoying. And all the smoke doesn't help. At. All. But hey, I can't change the social customs of an entire country... and I'm not supposed to try... so I'll just take the punishment.

I'm actually in a bad mood because it's been cloudy all week... and rainy... and cold. I've been very disconnected from everyone at home for quite some time and it's starting to get to me. I really wish I had internet in my house. Oh, well. I'll write again soon... when I'm in a better mood. :)