crissy gardner's blog

neal cassidy and kerouac aka sal paradise and dean moriarty

“There are some who have crossed deserts, floated on ice caps and cut their way through jungles but whose souls we would search in vain for evidence of what they have witnessed. Dressed in pink-and blue pyjamas, satisfied within the confines of his own bedroom, Xavier de Maistre was gently nudging us to try, before taking off for distant hemispheres, to notice what we have already seen.” *Having crossed deserts, floated on an ice cap, and traversed through a jungle this semester I was particularly struck by this paragraph. (see my my entries entitled “Traveling Around” and “Sifting through back and front”) Even though I’ve had quite the adventure here, the past month I have been anticipating more than anything else my journey back home. Though I have more than enjoyed my stay here in Argentina, I am ready to go back home to the comforts of my family and native culture. This part of the chapter made me think about all the things that I have taken for granted or may re-experience upon arrival in Los Angeles and then New York. I think that having been away for so long will immediately bring my attention to things I haven’t noticed before. The weather seems an obvious element. How will I judge the wind, rain, snow, and general winter season of North America after coming from summertime?

My kinda Turkey

As most Americans were bundling up with sweaters and mittens, coats and boots; heading over to their neighbors and relatives houses in frosty cars, as they were playing hockey and cooking up a huge turkey, cranberry sauce and other such Thanksgiving feasts, I was enjoying the lovely hot weather of Buenos Aires’ summer. Flip flops and summer dresses were in order when I sat down to eat a catered meal at the university center here. The turkey, mashed potatoes and green beans were there. But where was the cranberry sauce, the yams, the candied carrots? What they called pumpkin pie was not pumpkin pie. Given the fact that cranberries are very rare down here and this holiday seems to perplex people, I was having a wonderful Thanksgiving. For me at least Thanksgiving can be a holiday of stress and drama. My parents still like to fight over whose house my sister and I will go to for Thanksgiving. Aunts and Uncles, Stepmothers and Ex-Husbands will have verbal confrontations. Babies will cry, siblings will throw up, and dogs with knock over whole tables of food. Needless to say I was a bit happy to get away from all of this. The evening went off delightfully. We ate our grilled bell peppers and spicy potato wedges with glee. The customary Turkey Tiredness was not avoided and in the morning there was nothing to clean up, no leftovers to eat for a week, and no hurt feelings.On Black Friday, a day that has even less significance here, I was not clambering around department stores trying to get clothes at half price or a TV for free. I decided to go to the horse show. My Argentine friend Jessi was showing her horse and had invited me to come see him.

The fair in San Telmo
Buenos Aires is a beautiful, exciting, and friendly city. Known as the “Paris of the Americas”, the city is home to many museums, theaters, art galleries, gardens, and other places of interest. The people here take a distinct pride in their European ties. Many residents are descendents of Italian or German heritage; also the princess of Holland is an Argentine.
I think for anyone wanting to learn Spanish while saving some money, Buenos Aires is the place to go. The peso which once was on par with the dollar, uno por uno as the saying went, it is now about 1 dollar for every 3.4 pesos.
I would recommend the site, the staff here is really helpful, there’s a lot to do in the city, the classes are more or less agreeable.
The weather here is also a plus. Since the seasons are flipped you will end up with more summer than you would normally and the winter here is mild compared to that of NYC. Imagine wearing flip flops and sundresses or shorts to all of your Christmas parties.
At first Argentine Spanish is really difficult. The accent is very different and they even have a unique way of conjugating the second person! I still have difficulty understanding male speakers, really not sure why, but perhaps it is tied to their slurred accent and vocabulary. After a while though it becomes much easier and since there is a healthy mixture of Spanish and English in the city it’s really easy to learn and to be understood by almost anyone.

Comings and Goings

Breaking Barriers Through Tourism

ny times article

storming the beachI remember on my first day in Buenos Aires I that my host mother was an artist. Once I walked in the door to the apartment she showed me all of her paintings. She told me about the studio she had gone to for years and about all the art she had created.

portenos

I was invited a few days ago to have dinner with the children of a friend of my host mother. There were five children in all that ranged from 30-15 and they were a very welcoming family. They’ve extended invitations for me to go out with them on the weekend and I feel that I am finally making some real friends with people who live here. I think that with a month left in the semester this is both exciting but also frustrating. I don’t know if this is happening at the other NYU sites, but because we are only interacting with NYU students it is quite difficult to meet people our own age that live here. Had come to Buenos Aires with the hope that I could learn Spanish and know the people here, but because I am constantly surrounded by Americans this is very hard to achieve. I wonder why NYU doesn’t attempt to integrate the students more and perhaps this could be the biggest set back of the NYU study abroad model. I feel that on the whole students that study abroad don’t want to create a little piece of America or even NYU in their chosen city but want to experience it. Yes this model provides some comfort but it definetly limits how we can interact with the culture. My home stay mother had two male students from Chicago before I arrived and they had no Spanish experience before coming here. She said that in seven weeks they had become fluent. The program they had been in was only with Argentine students. I know that I am far from fluent and it’s sad to think that I have only been limited by the type of program I chose to attend.

I think it’s fair to say that I’ve been traveling a lot. I’ve hardly had time to do the blogs with traveling somewhere new every few days and my internet being particularly shotty lately. I think that the best part about being here these last few weeks was getting to see so much of the Argentine country.
I’ve been to the end of the earth- Ushuaia the southernmost city in the world- which was very cold but very beautiful. I’ve been to the tip of Argentina in Jujuy. This province borders Bolivia and Chile. I got to take a day trip to Tigre a summer town about an hour away from Buenos Aires. I went skydiving in La Plata the capital of the Buenos Aires province.
What I’ve done and seen has only reaffirmed my belief that in general people all over the world are the same. They have the same courtesies same desires and same senses of humor. The landscape too is very similar to that of Norte America. There are forests, glaciers, deserts, salt flats, jungles and swamps. Argentina is a rich country and has many unique attributes, but the more I see of it the more I see the similarities it shares with home.