Where I Am: Life Update and Deets About My Living Situation

So this past Monday, I got a message from my advisor at the school I work at saying that there was a bus strike happening that day, and I was not expected to make it to school.

The bus strike, or paro de colectivos, was not just a one-day event, but actually lasted all week.

Every single city bus line shut down.

Well, apart from one that tried to run for a few hours on Tuesday but had to stop because it was too dangerous for the drivers.

If you read Spanish, here's an article about the strike:
http://www.perfil.com/cordoba/caos-de-transporte-por-paro-de-colectivos-en-cordoba.phtml

Despite checking in with my advisor and professors and trying to find a carpool, I wasn't able to go to classes at all this week (apparently they don't really carpool much here/no one who drives to the school lives close to the City Center). I had even planned to chaperone a field trip for one of the high schools I've visited, but so many students have been unable to commute to school that our outing was cancelled, too.

So instead, I went to my aerial rope class (which is within walking distance), I researched and created a presentation of LGBTQ Pride to share that piece of US/San Francisco culture, I met up with one of my students who was also stranded in the city center for an afternoon merienda (afternoon snack) of mate and medialunas (croissants), I walked a mile and a half to the farmer's market to pick up some fresh produce, and I found a nice bookstore + cafe where I bought the third Harry Potter book.

Because I've been spending so much time at home, I thought it might be nice to describe in more detail where I live (the apartment itself and the surrounding area).

I share the apartment with two other people: the owner who runs her own art gallery here, Geo, and another young, artistic Argentine who studies at the University, Vicky.

Our apartment is on the fourth floor, and there are some (very old) elevators (like the kind where you have to manually open and close the outside gate and then the inside gate), but I always take the stairs because hey it's good exercise, and 4th floor is exactly as far as I get before starting to feel tired.

You open the wooden double doors to a long hallway, the walls all painted white...

If you take your first left after entering the hallway, you find yourself in the kitchen, which is actually really big for Argentina standards:

When you turn right out of the kitchen, you enter the dining room/Geo's work space, where Monday-Friday I usually find Geo and her team sitting around the table working on design, sales, organizing, and everything else they do:

Through the archway is the gallery space, which you can also enter by continuing straight through the main hallway:

It's bright and open, dark blue curtains hang from ceiling to floor, the stark white walls are split by strips of color, and a few photographs from the last showing that have not yet been sold are still up.

The gallery space continues far to the left in another room, and from that room there is another long hallway:

All of our rooms, as well as the main bathroom, branch off of this hallway. Geo and Vicky's rooms are at the back, behind the curtain, and the bathroom is right before the curtain:

Yes, the bathroom that has been the location of many an ice-cold shower... complete with bidet (like most bathrooms here, although I question whether anyone actually uses it).

The first room off that long hallway is my room:

It's a bit of a cluttered mess at the moment-- I just got out of bed and am working at the desk, so you can see the orange peels and other remains of my breakfast. The closet doesn't have hanging space, so I have dresses and jackets hung up next to the window (which is also where I hang my laundry to dry).

My room has two doors. When I took this photo, I was standing in the doorway from the hallway at the back of the apartment, and the doorway that you see in the picture leads back to the living room/Geo's workspace.

My room is probably the nicest after Geo's-- it's super spacious and I have a huge queen bed, and there is artwork lining the walls:

Sorry, mom, I usually make my bed just haven't gotten to it yet this morning...

I've really grown quite comfy in this room, and the apartment as a whole. I know a lot of people were questioning why on earth I would stick through three weeks of cold showers and no stove... but it's largely because I just really like the vibe of this apartment. I think all of the open spaces and hardwood floors and big windows and natural light remind me of my home in San Francisco-- and my first home, my dad's studio. Also the location is great:

Map of city center, according to Lizzy

Avenida Colón is one of the busiest streets in the city, and my apartment building is right on it, which means that commuting to and from work is quite easy-- when the buses are actually running, that is.

I think the city center itself technically extends more below this map, to Plaza España, but Plaza España is more of a traffic circle, whereas Plaza San Martín is actually a beautiful plaza to just chill in, and all of the streets around it are pedestrian-only walkways lined with shops, so it's a great place to just walk around and feels more central to me.

Yesterday, I considered staying home all day and continuing my pattern of cooking, eating, reading Harry Potter, and watching shows (alternating between American Gods, The Handmaiden's Tale, and Chef's Table). However, my sister encouraged me to get outside (thank you, Bear), and I ended up going for a long walk to attempt to find empanadas and/or churros. Most of my regular places were closed (because it was the weekend), so I ended up with disappointing cold empanadas and tough churros, but afterwards got some good-quality ice cream and sat in Plaza San Martín and enjoyed the weirdly hot weather.

Seriously, it is the middle of June, which should technically be winter, and it was over 20˚!! (in the 70s ˚F)

Sitting in the plaza was wonderful. It was filled with families enjoying the sun and lots of toddlers chasing pigeons, and I realized as I leaned back and ate my ice cream that I felt totally and completely at ease.

I also realized that I actually understood the snippets of conversation I overheard, for the most part.

One of the many things about not being a native language speaker is that understanding words out of context is soooo much harder... but I've actually gotten better at picking things up! Someone's radio was saying something about "...affects the United States too," "Barack Obama," and "the crisis in Syria." The mom sitting next to me with her baby kept complaining about how hot it was. Two people walking down the street seemed to be discussing opinions on a show they just saw. It's no longer like I'm walking around with incomprehensible background speech-- I actually understand most of it.

So it felt really good to get out (and the ice cream was so good... I got one scoop of banana split flavor and one of dulce de leche granizado, which has like chunks of chocolate in it, and I got this one HUGE chunk of chocolate, and I had to actually remove it because it was starting to crush the cone, but this was like GOOD chocolate! mmmmm).

When I got back home, I opened up the windows in the main area of the apartment, sat in the corner right next to them so that I could feel the sun and hear the city sounds outside, and just read Harry Potter for a while.

Happy to be reading HP but sad because Harry's broom got destroyed by the Whomping Willow and also Lupin is my fave I love him so much and him trying to help Harry with the dementors (i.e. depression) when he struggles with it himself is the most emotional thing ahhhhhh

I could have just stayed home the rest of the evening, but everyone I know has been talking about Wonder Woman, and the other day my dad and I were talking about how I should go out to a movie here... sooo I walked around the corner and bought tickets for the 10pm showing of Mujer Maravilla... not subbed, but DUBBED in Castellano (Spanish).

I got to the theatre early and ordered some popcorn, and the popcorn vendor was super nice and we had a short conversation, and his daughter was there with him and when she found out I was here to see Mujer Maravilla she got excited because she was going to see it, too.

I sat down in the theatre, and as the previews were starting, the popcorn vendor and his daughter came in and sat down next to me. :)

The movie began... and I actually understood the entire thing. I missed a few words here and there, and I couldn't understand half of what was said by one of the villains at the end of the movie because they distorted the voice a lot, but I understood it! In Spanish! No subtitles! (And I also understood the questions the little girl was asking her dad throughout, which was cute-- "What is happening?" "How will she survive that?" "Who is that guy?" Her dad was clearly a superhero fan, because he could name a lot of the characters before their names were actually said, and he was definitely familiar with the lore).

After the movie, I chatted with the popcorn guy and his daughter as we exited the theatre, and it took about a minute or two before he asked "Are you from here?"

So I actually passed as a native speaker for a little while! Which was really exciting. And when I did tell him I was from the U.S., he was surprised and said that I spoke Spanish really well. :)

So, while I haven't gotten to do much work at the school this week, I have still tried to be engaged with where I am, both spending some quality alone time in my apartment and continuing to explore my Cordobés neighborhood, and I am finally beginning to see progress in my Spanish language skills.