Yep, it's me!
Turns out my charger was totally fried-- despite almost everyone saying that you did not need a power adapter/stabilizer for a mac charger, despite almost everyone else not using one and having no issues. When I told the repair people that I wasn't using un estabilizador/protector, they looked at me like I was crazy, and I found out that apparently Córdoba has random power surges that only some people know about??
Anyways, it cost me almost as much as my trip to Salta, but I am so happy to have a functioning computer again and I have learned my lesson to never use a charger in Argentina without first plugging in my new protector de tension (these things have a million names-- power adapter, estabilizador, protector, protector de tension... I'm not sure which is the most official, but the basic idea is they feed your charger a nice even electrical currency no matter what is coming out of the wall).
That said, what else have I been up to?
I have felt a lot happier each day going to work at my institute. I'm on a Whatsapp-chatting basis with most of the professors, I really enjoy working with the students, and I am learning a lot about English from a foreigner's point of view as well as a whole bunch of Argentine slang. I swear the people here are more intent on teaching me phrases I can never say in polite company than any actual vocabulary.
Okay, now I have to share a few...
My favorite so far is the use of the word pedo, which means "fart." But it can also mean a lot of other things depending on context. For instance:
a los pedos -- really really fast, in a rush
de pedo -- just barely, by luck/chance
en pedo -- really drunk (more accurately "wasted" or "shit-faced")
estar al pedo -- standing around doing nothing, "farting around"
cagar a pedos -- to scold someone or tell them off (literally to shit on someone while farting... lovely)
So there you go, a taste of all of the very important and necessary Spanish language skills I am acquiring. Be careful with those prepositions around the word pedo!
But actually, I feel like I have gotten to this weird point in my Spanish speaking-- at first everything was overwhelming, and then I was like 'hey, I got this, I'm learning so fast, I'm communicating what I need to,' and now I am realizing just how much I DON'T know, and people speak to me more naturally and sometimes I am like oh boy, I understood maybe half of the words that you just said and I don't even know what clarifying question to ask...
My favorite comprehension practice, though, is the voice message function on Whatsapp (which literally everyone here uses to communicate, regardless of whether or not they have a phone plan). People tend to use voice messages quite frequently, so I get them from students, professors, my Airbnb host-- people of many different ages, voices, and accents. With voice messages, I can hear people speak at their regular speed, using regular vocabulary, but I can replay the message to catch a key conjugation that I missed that told me the tense/subject, or to listen closer to a word I didn't understand and figure it out from context. In that way, Whatsapp voice messages have been invaluable.
On the flip side, I am able to provide in English what the Argentine Spanish speakers are able to provide for me in Spanish: a native speaker to practice with. For them, this is rare. Even in Córdoba, the second largest city in Argentina, most of the people I have met have never heard a native English speaker outside of TV and media. And yet, these people-- the students at the institute-- are training to become English teachers, to demonstrate the language to other people. This is a huge challenge, and I can tell it really does mean a lot to them to have the Fulbright grantees as a resource.
This past week, I had a one-on-one English practice session with one of the students (I'll call her Victoria). She's older than some students-- she's married and has three kids (the oldest is 12)-- but it's not unusual for people to attend the institute as a mid-life career change. (And of course I have mostly made friends with the professors and the moms... Argentina really is making me feel like I am secretly in my 30's, because I act a lot more like that age group than my own.)
Victoria invited me over to her house a couple hours before school so that she could practice having a conversation with me in English. She talked about how she gets very nervous about talking because the professors constantly correct her on her pronunciation, and while she is comfortable reading and writing, having the self-confidence to speak fluidly is a continual struggle.
I tried to communicate with her just how much I empathized, because I have spent the past 8 years in Spanish classes feeling exactly the same thing. It's scary! Especially for those of us who are naturally more soft-spoken, building up the confidence to speak a second language is incredibly hard.
Victoria was an incredibly kind host. She had baked something actually quite similar to the no-bake chocolate oatmeal cookies I've made a few times, but with some key differences to turn it into an Argentine dish: it was laid flat in the pan over a bed of galletitas de agua (like saltine crackers, literally "little water cookies," don't ask me why) and instead of using melted chocolate, of course the recipe used dulce de leche. It was super yummy, and we nibbled away while we drank mate dulce (mate with sugar added) and discussed a wide variety of topics in English.
Two of Victoria's kids were home, and they seemed excited to see me, a real life citizen of the United States. Despite not understanding much of what we said, they sat around the table and ate the no-bake oatmeal bars and listened to us speak in English. Occasionally Victoria's daughter, the twelve-year-old, would ask me a question in Spanish, which I would then answer in Spanish, as a chance to get some of my own language practice. She was really a remarkable twelve-year-old, not shy at all and very curious, and it was fun to talk to her and talk about the similarities and differences between our cultures. Her Spanish was very clear... although now that I think back on it she was probably making a special effort to speak slowly for me (I often have more trouble understanding kids, but rarely struggled to understand her). I asked her about school and sports, and she asked me about typical breakfast foods in America, which led to a long discussion about food in general-- my favorite topic. ;)
Victoria is in her second year at the institute, which usually spans a total of four years. I have actually been very impressed with how fluent most of the students are in English, especially for never having lived in an English-speaking country. While speaking with Victoria, I found that having an accent doesn't matter so much for intelligibility-- what matters is consistency, and a few words where mispronunciation will change the meaning (for instance, "ran" and "run," which can sometimes be hard when the short "a" sound is not natural). While I could hear the Argentine accent in her voice, Victor's English was actually quite easy for me to understand, and I would like to continue working with her to help her feel confident, because she does speak well!
Overall I really enjoyed having the chance to work with someone one-on-one, and I'm hoping that I can continue to do that more and more throughout my time here.
I haven't gotten farther with my plan to start a Cooking Club (although one of the students brought it up with me again and asked me if I was still doing it, so I think there will be interest!)-- I haven't had a chance to talk to my Airbnb owner about having 4-5 people over at a time to cook in the rather small kitchen...
Aside from classes at the teaching institute, I am continuing to take aerial rope lessons (which are great-- I adore my instructor, she reminds me of my dance instructor from college in the way that she creates a class atmosphere that is simultaneously calm and intense, relaxing and passionate). I've been going on runs to Sarmiento park, around a lake that reminds me a little bit of Stow Lake back at home. I've been cooking, of course (cheesy broccoli quinoa casserole, fajitas with seitan and fresh guacamole, gnocchi with corn on the cob and halved cherry tomatoes). And I finally found a Farmer's Market about a mile from me on Thursday mornings, which is definitely where I am going for my produce each week-- it has a way wider selection than the supermarkets, and everything is fresher and usually better priced.
That's life in Argentina at the moment. The frustrations and inconveniences of everyday life-- hang-drying clothes in my room, broken chargers, late-night buses-- are all things I am adapting to and finding effective solutions to, but the hardest part of being away is that I miss my family even more than I expected. I didn't realize how lucky I was to live so close to so many members of my family, and to have many others just a short plane ride away. I miss knowing that I share a city with my cousins, that I can visit my aunt and my grandparents over the weekend, that I can hug my sister as soon as she gets back from college, that I can see even more of the family by going to Idaho over the summer or popping one state over to Arizona. And yes, I really miss having my mom and dad right there... I am so grateful to have the technology to be able to talk to them from the other side of the world.
So thanks again to everyone who reads this blog occasionally, or who has shared their support at some point during this whole process. <3 I really appreciate it.
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| Jogging home at dusk |
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| View from my current apartment |
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| Okay... this ad is at literally every bus stop I wait at, and usually I think babies are super cute, and but I have been staring at this one while waiting for the bus and it is... just... kinda ugly?? |
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| Where I start my run around the lake at Sarmiento Park |
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| More bridges at the park (and some nasty water... like Stow Lake!) |
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| View from the top of the stairs as I finish my run in the park and get ready to jog back to the apartment |
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