It occurs to me that while recording my quasi-philosophical musings about this country and about myself might well be fulfilling for me and possibly of interest to others, a lot of people back home reading this blog probably want to know more about what I'm actually doing. Since that was at least part of the purpose of this blog, I'll try to write about that more (at least once a week) as well as just writing more in general.
So first to catch everyone up a little bit on the past three weeks or so.
For the most part my life here began very structured as the IFSA-Butler program has a two week orientation where you have to go to this building near downtown and sit in on seminars about various topics--Argentine history, how not to get robbed, how to comport yourself with your host family etc. Most of these things were rehashings of things we'd already been given information on, things that our host families would later discuss with us, and things which we were told to refer to the website for anyway. Nonetheless the orientation period was valuable in other ways by giving us a chance to get to know how to get around the city, to meet other people from the program, and to get into a kind of schedule.
During our orientation period we also had the chance to visit Bariloche, a small , touristy town in Patagonia near the border with Chile. It was a good experience and a welcome contrast to the noisy, busy city that we'd be spending the next several months in. We did a lot of hiking and I got to go cycling up and down some of the mountains (tiring as all hell). The town of Bariloche was founded by the Swiss, which was evident in the architecture, which combined with the constant presence of mountains made you feel like you were in the Alps (or I suppose, it would if I'd ever been to the Alps). Dad would have loved it there.
The orientation is now over and we're getting into classes now. However because of the way we take classes through the program--we're encouraged to take about three times as many classes as we intend to keep during the "shopping period" and then drop all but about four--it's a really weird and stressful time (at least for me). Anyone who knows me is probably aware that I like knowing what's going on well ahead of time so I have a chance to get comfortable with the idea. I'm not opposed to spontaneity in all things, but class selection is certainly not one of them. And no matter who you are sitting for three hours in a class that you will in all likelihood not be taking, is just an odd experience. As things stand today I'm enrolled in classes at two universities, waiting to hear back about my Argentine language and culture class and have yet to sign up for classes at another university. In addition, a friend from Case is in town for the week. And I badly need a haircut. It's a busy time.
On the other hand busyness does let you forget certain things that might be far more painful if you were bored. Like that I'm thousands of miles away from home and the people that I love and that care about me and that I'm not going to see those people for a long time. Or that I'm never going to see my dad again and tell him how the trip went. So maybe busyness is not so bad.
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