Orientation Week 7.29.2013

The last blog only really hit on the very first bullet point, hopefully this post will go better.  Also mail me stuff!!! ( yea my mailbox is labeled Joel, so send stuff labeled Joel.

Joel Nafziger

555 Ayacucho

Buenos Aires, 1026

ARGENTINA

Back to the list from the last post:

-Meeting host "family" ✓ 

-Spanish placement tests 

-Fiesta 

-Getting around (SUBE, Colectivo, Guia"t") 

-Host Meet and Greet So spanish 

Placement tests consisted of a written exam we completed the week before arriving to orientation that asked us questions in spanish about our previous knowlege in Buenos Aires and Argentina as a whole, as well as questions that just forced us to use different tenses to test our ability to conjugate verbs. Then the Friday we took a very short written test consisting of fill in the black verb conjugation, specifically testing Subjunctive (When I mentioned something about the imperative tense my mom was exteremly supprised that I knew what that was, and I said "Yes, MOM, I know what the imperative form is"and so now I say, YES MOM, I KNOW SUBJUNCTIVE). Finally we all had a short interview as an oral exam. Supposedly tomorrow (tues. 30th) I get my test results to be placed in one of four groups, the lowest isn´t recomended to take any classes immersed with local argentine students, while the most advanced is required to take two classes in immersion minimum. Only today did I learn that classes can be anywhere from 4-8 hours a week, and I´ll be recieving 3-4 Credit hours, so lots´O´Lots of class hours should be fun.

 ---------Update from when I wrote that this afternoon-----------

I am in the third level of spanish out of four. Basically by the programs standards it says I have to do things that I already wanted to do which is take more classes in the local universities (with argentine students) and less with FLACSO which is the university that CIEE uses as its primary university for international students. I will find out slightly more about classes tomorrow and choose some to look into as a tentative schedule.

The next point I wanted to make was that some of my fellow students have started pissing me off with their english/spanglish. I swear when ever we are in a group of at least 6 people one of them has to shout a loud curse word in spanish poorly pronunciated in the middle of the english conversations they continue loudly. Sticking out like a sore thumb and looking like an arrogant group of tourists is not the way I would like to spend this semester, so I really look forward to meeting the people in my meeting tomorrow which consists of the top two levels of Spanish. the basic level meets first, then two separate groups of level two, followed by the last meeting consisting on the top to groups which I assume has the least amount of people even when the top two groups are combined together. So I look forward to walking with people who choose to speak spanish more often. *sigh* I'm getting tired of it. 

OK SOOO!!!! Back to my second night with in my new host, Luciano. So I first heard about the party in the cab on the way to the house the first night and was delighted to hear I would get the chance to meet some of Luciano's friends from his University years, with whom he has clearly maintained contact. 

--7pm. So back to saturday night, I got back to the house after walking around with ciee friends all day and Luciano was asleep. 

~~9pm. Luciano wakes up and tells me he just finished sleeping and that he was going to make a few phone calls and remind/invite more people. So I decided to go ahead and get my own nap, and wind up in bed by 9:30 to start sleeping. --1am. Forgetting to set my alarm, my other house-mate Susie wakes me up with a knock at my door because people started arriving. And then we partied.

~~3am. Luciano, preparing to blow out the candles while we all sing happy birthday. 

~~4:45am. People finally trickle out to only leave 5 or so people in the house. I stay up chatting.

~~7am. We split up and call it a night.

--10:00 am Wake up, drink a tall glass of water

--10:03 am Sleep.

--2 pm Wake up and start my day.

So the next topic is the Guia"T" which is my new best friend. The Guia"T" is a guide book to help get around on the public bus system.

You can look on the map, which is divided into quadrants, each corresponding to the left which has a list of numbers which signify the busses that pass through the area. So looking at the above image there are around 28 pages like that of the city. So you would find one quadrant on such an example and pair a matching bus number from where you are, to where you want to go. and Boom, your there as soon as you comprehend the route.

In the back of the book is a list of every bus and the route it takes to and from the destination which obviously changes slightly due to oneway streets. So you find the quadrant then look up what the actual street is that is running through the quadrant in the direction you want to go. 

Lets just say the I have already spent multiple hours looking through about 3 bus lines in my neighborhood to figure out where they can take me. Flipping back and forth between all of the pocket sized pages. This is a huge life saver, if you want to get around the city for ARS$1,70 (21cents USD). Takes some time, but its well worth it.

Well, meet and greet was on my todo list, but I'm going to make it short. I was able to meet two of the ciee students who live in my neighborhood and their hosts. So it's really nice to know who lives around me and who I can share cabs with when I need to get back to my house after a Porteño (pertaining to Bs As) night out.