Submitted by Kimberly Tomlinson on the 2012 fall semester program in Buenos Aires, Argentina…
In the few weeks since my previous post a lot of little things have happened. I haven’t meant to fall behind, but somehow I keep losing track of posting in my blog!
Quick update on the group activities:
Friday August 31–>We started this BEAUTIFUL morning by going to an appointment to prepare our visas…I am not a person who enjoys large crowds, add in the stress of speaking Spanish, and then imagine the crankiest DMV workers and then you have the Argentina Visa office. It was an all around awful experience, but I suppose if I want to live in a country for four months I should do it legally and not complain so much about it. Fortunately, following the miserable morning we were going on a mini (and rescheduled) excursion with the group including Alfredo, our program director. We strolled up to Florida Street, a very popular place for shopping in Buenos Aires. It was incredibly crowded, but was relatively pleasant because it was such a beautiful day outside! Alfredo treated us to lunch which was positively incredible (especially for “mall-food!”) and then we did our own thing for the afternoon! Later that evening was Universidad de Belgrano’s International Night. A select number of students from the Tango class I am in performed at International Night, (I would have liked to have performed as well, unfortunately there are a LIMITED number of boys in the class so only a small portion of the students performed). International food was served and naturally the food disappeared quickly (college students are poor no matter what country we are talking about! Free food is never ignored).
Saturday September 1–>My GSE group went to the Ateneo bookstore which was very cool. This bookstore is filled as though it were any old Barnes and Noble or Borders, however, the bookstore itself used to be a theater! The stage is now a cafe, and where there were once seats, there are now shelves upon shelves of books! I am looking forward to returning to the bookstore when I have more time to browse, but very much enjoyed our short time there!
We were scheduled to go to a Museum last Friday, the 7th, but due to Alfredo being sick it is in the process of being rescheduled. That mostly sums up my specifically GSE related news.
However, there is something else I am very excited about. I recently joined a group called Voluntarios Sin Fronteras (Volunteers Without Borders). The group is very well established in not only Argentina, but also in various parts of Latin America. VSF has lots of local (as well as long distance) projects, but I have gotten involved in one called Galletitas Con Juegos (Essentially “Little Cookies with Games”). This programs works in one of the very poor barrios in Buenos Aires, Villa 31. Every Saturday from 10-12 volunteers go into the neighborhood and work with kids (ages 6ish-13ish) with various topics including English. I have gone two Saturdays so far, and have absolutely loved it. My first week involved a lot of miming with not only the kids, but the other Spanish speaking volunteers because the game the kids were playing involved translating animal names! I NEVER realized how limited my animal vocabulary was until playing this game (although, seriously how often do you use the word newt in an essay?!?!) It was outrageously fun! The little girls I was working with were fascinated by me and asked me countless questions about my life and family. The second week I attended there were less kids, and the girls I worked with were a little older and didn’t need as much help with their work, but it was stillĀ a great experience. (Although, I can only explain so many times that, even though I am from the United States I have never personally met Selena Gomez… š I’m looking forward to continuing to work with this program until the end of my trip!
Ok, last but not least…
Somehow, it is already the halfway (ish) mark of my trip. I can’t believe it because I feel like I literally JUST got here. But (unfortunately for me) it is now midterm season. For whatever reason, I didn’t fully anticipate that having school in another country would ACTUALLY mean having school including countless group projects (groan), essays (double groan) and starting next week exams…This weekend is going to be devoted solely to preparation for the three exams I have next week, and next weekend (thank goodness its a holiday so EXTRA time to study, write, and meet with groups) I will be preparing for my final two! Yuck!
Wish me luck!