My dear friends,
Hello. Hope you all are doing well. So, yeah, I am still in Buenos Aires. Sorry for my long absence. Unfortunately I don’t have any particular excuse for this delay. I am constantly distracted by all the things that are new to me in this city and a lot of the times don’t even realize how days and nights go by.
I am taking 22 credits and I am incredibly behind in my readings. The amount of readings that we have in here is Unreal. I mean there is no way I could even read ¼ of my assigned readings. Honestly, I still don’t even understand their methods for teaching. The most challenging classes that I am taking are my two classes at the University of Buenos Aires. The buildings of this university are very old and in general everything is very old in la UBA (that’s what they call it here). I wish you could come to one of my classes one day. It’s quite an experience. First of all, all the walls are literally covered with socialist, communist and revolutionary posters and notices. Although it’s very interesting, it could be very overwhelming at first. Classes are huge and NOISY. They have humongous windows and you could hear buses, trucks, ambulances and etc. passing by. Most of the classes have one main professor and two TAs. So at times three people talk at the same time, get into arguments with each other and let me tell you it’s confusing. Classes are usually 3-4 hours and different student groups go around, come to each class and talk forever about their upcoming events, fundraising, protests and etc. Also, you never know if you are going to have a class since UBA students and professors go on strikes every other day! Apparently UBA is the best or one of the best universities of South America and now it is very poor and not in its golden age. All in all, things are very confusing and interesting…
What else? Oh yeah, so the lady whom with I live and I don’t really get along which is really sad. It’s not like we fight every day or anything like that. I think that we have very different personalities and we also didn’t click from the very begining. In a way I think our interactions are a hidden mess. As a result, I could claim that I live on the streets of Buenos Aires. I only go home to sleep. It’s actually kind of awesome. I go from one internet café and book store to another and sometimes walk for a very long time. Since I rarely go home, I always carry a big bookbag with me. My friends tease me for carrying a bookbag all the time and for walking everywhere. Here is an album we made to demonstrate my state of being in Buenos Aires:
http://oberlin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2005045&l=f3123&id=4301685I have started to really love all kinds of red wine in Buenos Aires. There is a brand of wine here in Argentina that is pretty popular which is called
Malbec. My firend, Hillari and I usually end up going to Argentine style diners 3-4 am and share a bottle of wine. All in all, life is pretty good.
Today Jenn, my Oberlin friend who is also in Argentina this semester had her first rugby tournament. I went to watch her play. It was very far away, but it was an interesting sports club. Oh, Jenn, I am proud of you…Jenn and I both miss Oberlin very much and talk about our beloved Obie Land all the time. Last weekend we stayed home and watched Sex and the City till 5 am and pretended to be in Oberlin. I feel very shallow for saying that, but it was very comforting to watch a few episodes of Sex and the City after having been away from the US for almost 2 months.
Next week I will start working with a prominent NGO. It’s called
Las
Abuelas de la Plaza del Mayo(The Grandmothers of the Mayo Plaza) . They are basically the mothers of those who were kidnapped and disappeared during the coup during the ´70s and ´80s. They are in fact, the mothers of those who were pregnant when they were kidnapped and tortured. These pregnant young ladies would give birth either in unknown detention centers or the military hospital. The military families would adopt many of these babies. Now, the adopted babies are 25-28 years old. Many of these young people don’t even know that their real mothers are among the 30,000 people who were disappeared. As a result the grandmothers´ search for their grandchildren is a very sensitive and hard task. Many of these old ladies have been looking for their daughters and grandchildren for ee2 decades…They are now very old. Some of them have passed away and some of them are very sick and old. But they are still fighting. They are still searching and I can`t even begin to tell you how much I respect them… I am very nervous, though. I hope this internship will be a good experience for me and I hope they don’t regret having me work with them!
I miss you all. Take care of yourselves and drop me a line once in a while.
