Blogs
Yes, hazlo
L'Etang De No, 1958: surreal indeed
Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4
To every one but especially those with classes they need to take in London or jobs they want to get n Shanghai:
Try tango. People stare will stare at you on the streets, in cafes—people-watch, and, as a veteran of this program told me, look back. In the weeks before you go it would be helpful to keep up with you blog posts; I didn’t because I was a bit scholastically disoriented but I think it would have prefaced my trip in a different way. And yes this is a trip. Did I live here? Yes. But it was travel, constantly travel, if very subtlety so.
If you want to see more disco balls than appear in Saturday night fever go to Museum in San Telmo on Peru. If you want to see Frida Kaulo with a parrot on her shoulder or a painting called “The Disasters of Mysticism” and so much more go to the malba in Palermo. If you can’t stand the site of mass quantities of meat don’t go, Argentina thrives off cows, ham, and feed. If you want to see villas fifteen minutes away from the capital where Peron made most of a country fall in love with him what you should do is look behind the Retiro bus station. I have yet to visit the Holocaust museum because I found out about it yesterday but I would bet its worth seeing too.
You may not see more than an eighth of the barrios in Buenos Aires. NYU is situated very centrally and the building is beautiful. It also used to be Angola’s embassy here. I don’t think they pay the guards enough to work there as some have to stay overnight but that is normal for Buenos Aires.
If you can speak any Spanish at all I would recommend trying the home-stay option. I lived in Retiro, relatively far from most everyone else in the program. This made it somewhat more difficult to meet up with people and I was always the guy holding everyone’s money at the end of a cab ride with multiple stops. But it was great. I’m not going to guarantee a thing but living with Argentines is different than living with people (like you might be) traveling through Argentina. Try to remember, you’re not staying here. But that doesn’t mean you can’t feel comfortable.
Get to know the bars, the cafes, the monuments that strike you, the customs that puzzle you. Make argentine friends. Get to know indie kids, scenesters, club-goers, travelers, dancers, people who talk to you, and people who you want to talk you. Learn who Sarmiento is and if you meet someone named Facundo it won’t be interesting unless you have read about Civilización y Barbarie. It’s a big theme here. Leave Buenos Aires. See, if not touch Perrito Moreno which s growing at the same rate that it is disappearing.
Almost everyday has clear blue skies which makes it difficult to get used to the weather here. I will miss the weather so much. Drink the wine. Know what telos are. Its ok to be a little jubilant. Study Abroad is an idea that you will get but shouldn’t cling to.
If I don’t come back here I will regret it.
