On Monday last week I built up the courage to plan a spontaneous trip to see another town in Argentina. My hotel roommate from our first week in Buenos Aires is doing her Fulbright in Salta, up in the north of the country-- she visited Córdoba already, so I figured I could go visit her!
The moment anyone says "Salta," everyone responds "Ahh, que linda!" -- "How pretty!" Salta is definitely more photogenic than Córdoba and I had a fantastic time exploring it this weekend. I am exhausted from traveling constantly-- between moving from city to city and apartment to apartment, I haven't stayed anywhere for more than about 10 days straight for the last month and a half, and I am SO ready to settle down somewhere...
BUT this weekend was Semana Santa, a holy week for pascuas (Easter). We had no class on Thursday and Friday, and I was in the middle of moving apartments in Córdoba, so it seemed like the perfect time to take a trip and not have to keep paying rent in Córdoba while I was gone.
Speaking of Córdoba and classes, let me take a brief interlude before I tell more about my trip to Salta and announce: I have finally started observing classes!
Last week I actually had work in the evenings, and it was fantastic to begin getting a sense of what I will be doing at the institute. I haven't started planning or leading lessons, just observing so far. I've observed four teachers all with very different teaching styles. One reminds me a lot of my high school Spanish classes-- playful and joking class atmosphere, we only speak in the target language (English) during class, there is lots of discussion and laughter. One is more lecture-focused, and the others are a mix of the two styles.
As observer, it is my job mostly to just take note of the teaching styles so that I know what expectations are in each class. But I am also available as a sort of walking pronunciation dictionary, and most of the professors will throughout the class pause and ask me "how do you pronounce the word 'genre'?" or "would you say 'he entered the cave' or 'he got into the cave'? Is enter too formal?" or "what are the different connotations of sparkle versus glitter or shimmer?"
This question about connotation is one of the most interesting for me. In Spanish, they don't have (or don't use) as many different words to say the same thing. For instance, we spent about 15 minutes in one class discussing the word "glow" and similar words-- shine, shimmer, glimmer, sparkle, glitter, gleam-- and what made each of them different...
Just take a moment and think about how you would explain the difference between each of those words.
It's fascinating! I didn't want to say any word was limited to any one context, but as a native speaker they DO have different connotations, and using them outside of those norms can be strange. For instance, the professor pointed out that sparkle has a positivity to it, that shimmer often indicates a sort of partial light (like moonlight or dusk), that glow usually indicates heat but can also have to do with emotion or personality when describing someone's face... And as a native speaker, it was actually really difficult for me to identify the differences between these words and accurately explain their connotations!
Anyways, since the school is now actually part of my life I wanted to give you an idea of what it was like- I am sure that I will be able to go much more in depth as time goes by and as I move deeper into my observation and into a more educational role.
After classes on Wednesday, I got back to my apartment around midnight, slept in, and the next morning packed everything up to head to Salta for the weekend.
I stayed in the same Airbnb home as my friend-- they rent out multiple rooms, almost like a mini hostel, and it's a great location in the town. The host family introduced me to my new favorite tradition in the world: after lunch, have a piece of fruit with A GINORMOUS FREAKIN' VAT OF DULCE DE LECHE:
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| mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm |
On my first day we spent the afternoon just walking around, and Salta is gorgeous. Córdoba definitely is pretty at times, but it is a city-- everything is kind of a jumble, all mixed together. Salta feels has a very distinct vibe and is lovely to just look at, filled with beautiful public parks and squares, cute little antique shops, churches and cathedrals, artesanal street vendors, and even a teleférico (aerial tram) to see the town from above.
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| A little subdued on a cloudy day, but still beautiful colors... |
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| The inside, too |
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| Don't know why but this empty street and row of buildings had a really interesting atmosphere |
On Saturday, we made our way out to San Lorenzo by bus, which took less than an hour, and then we were able to begin exploring up into the mountains. After a couple detours through sketchy not-quite paths, fording a river several times, and doing a lot of uphill hiking, we finally made it to this fantastic view of the Salta area:
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| Quebrada de San Lorenzo Hike |
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| With the mist over the mountains and the jungly vegetation, it really hit me that I am actually, for real, in South America |
Now, the one issue with this trip is that I was on everyone else's schedule, and everyone else was on an Argentine schedule, and that means that "breakfast" is a cup of coffee and a little piece of bread... and we decided to hike before lunch, and the hike took a lot longer than expected, meaning we didn't eat an actual meal until 4:30pm. Luckily I have learned to be prepared, and I went through my entire stash of snacks and granola bars on the hike.
The lunch place we went to after the hike was also, of course, beautiful, located right next to a river with a clear view of the mountains. We stopped by the small feria (craft market) on the side of the river and I decided to get myself a souvenir that would remind me both of Argentina and of home, San Francisco:
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| Rainbow! <3 |
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| But actually, it does really pretty, interesting color things when you put it on. |
Update about that bus ride: I'm posting this now, at 1:30pm on Monday, because the bus got held up for a couple hours by the national police who apparently needed to look through everyone's bags and IDs, and what was already a long 12-hour trip turned into a very long 15-hour trip... but I made it to my new apartment in Córdoba, I am going to attempt an aerial arts class this afternoon, and then I have regular classes at the Institute until 11pm this evening... so I am really jumping right back into things!
Sorry this post feels a little less coherent than some of the others, I am beginning to realize how sleep deprived and out of it I feel... I think there will be a lot of sleeping in this week.
Oh, and one more pic that I just got from last week:
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| Me with the high school class I visited two Fridays ago- I stand out because instead of wearing black, I'm in the same turquoise shirt I happen to be wearing today ;) |
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