first visit to a different school :)

So today (Thursday, Day 7) was my second day in my school placement. It was very interesting. I really liked today. We were only there for 2 blocks of classes but it was very interesting. I first sat in a math class for the 6th year (12th grade for us) where the teacher was the principal, Annalisa. One of the girls switched seats with a classmate so that she can translate for us but Annalisa told her not to. She basically said that in America we will have students who do not speak the language that the lesson is being taught in so we will have to learn how to deal and that math is a universal language so the should understand it anyways. Which I did so I felt so proud of myself. They were learning about functions. They were basically doing domain, image, constant, increasing, decreasing, is this graph a functions (vertical line test), etc. I could follow all of it which was very cool. It was weird because not all the students pay attentions so they are talking to their friends but the teacher does not really do a lot of classroom management. We stress classroom management so much in the states but it is not hugely present in Argentina classrooms. Some times teachers try but there were a few classes where the teacher just kept teaching over the talking students. The students talk softly and the teacher never raises their voice to talk but I still think there should be a little bit of classroom management. After each 80 minute block (two 40 minute classes) there is like a 10 minute recess. All of us observers would be completely surrounded by students. Almost all the students would be girls but some guys were there. The guys seemed to want to stare at a distance and look cool more than they wanted to talk to us. lol.

After the first block I went to a English language class. That class was really cool and I really liked it. They were learning present continuous grammar and the weather. They got to listen to a CD to hear some native speaker but the person had a British accent so I am thinking that its not really American English but English from England/Britain. The funny thing that happened in this class is that I got asked if I was born in America by the teacher when the students were working in their workbooks. She also asked me if I knew Spanish and if I was from the same city as Callie, the girls I was observing with. I feel a little insulted but not much. They just must think that I am from another country and moved to America. Sorry to disappoint but I was born and raised in America with a dad who was born and raised in America.

We got to leave around noon again but it was because at 1pm we had to meet up with our classmates going to other schools to go visit those schools. We had a quick lunch at the hotel and I went off to El Anglo with my roommate. She is in a 1st grade class and the kids are SOOOOO cute! There is this one Asian boy that was sitting right in front of my. I wondering if he realized we have the same heritage. Probably not because he doesn't see a lot of Asians in Alta Gracia. It probably didn't phase him. At El Anglo I felt like more of a rock star than I did at the other two schools. I was always crazy surrounded by students during recess. Most were really little kids asking me the same questions: "What is your name?" "How old ar you?" "What color is this (points to something)?" The kids were really adorable. Some spoke English and some didn't. I felt bad for the ones who didn't and kept asking me questions because I did not know how to respond. In the first class I sat through was basically an evaluation of the previous days math and just sitting around as the teacher graded their homework. During the first class the teacher showed us her planning binder. It was so intricate with each page decorated like a scrapbook. The second class was a gym class so basically watch little first graders run around like crazy. It was so sweet. The first graders were so cute. I am going to have to visit there again and sit through some different classes.

Day 7: First day of observations

Wednesday (Day 7) was the first day of our observations in our placement. Like I said I am placed at Misericordia at the high school level. It is a Catholic school so the students where uniforms. I think at most schools they have some sort of uniform. The first class I was in was a technology class. They were learning about alternate forms of energy. It was very interesting but the only reason I knew what we going on because one of the doctorate students was translating for me. I feel bad being dependent on the doc students but they said I didn't really need Spanish but you kind of do... Oh well. I am just going to have to try to learn Spanish. I understand more than I thought. I found that out when I was in the next class. It was a 2nd year of high school (so our 8th grade) math class. They were learning about fractions and I understood everything. Math really is a universal language. The only time we needed something translated is when the teacher was talking to us about other things than the lesson and at that point she had a student translate everything for us. I thanked her a lot for translating. I liked being in the math class because I learned some neat methods on how to teach adding fractions. If I ever teach a class at that level I could really used what I learned in Argentina, which is pretty cool. After that math class I went to a drama class and they were working on death scenes. First they act out the death scene from shakespeare as it was written then they were suppose to change the ending. It was very interesting and kind of funny. We got to leave after that class since we started at 7:45 and it was noon by the time the 3rd class ended.

In the schools it was really interesting because the students kept wanting to try speaking english to us so we got asked a lot of questions. Towards the end of the tech class, me and my classmates were surrounded by students getting ask questions about our lives. I felt like a celebrity.

We had a long free time after that. I was free from 12-8pm. It was a nice siesta. I took a 2-hour long nap. For dinner around 6:30, I went to get that chicken sandwich again from the cafe right by Misericordia, El Meson. It is a really good sandwich. I could probably eat it at least once a week.

We were a little late to the meeting with our professor because the waitress didn't get us our check when we asked for it. We asked like 5 times before getting it. You you are a rush in Argentina you can basically expect that you will be late. Its hard to be in a rush when eating at a restaurant.

After our meeting, we went back to the teacher school and sat in a class. They were talking about the laws for education in Argentina. It was very interesting. Then we got to get in groups and work on this mural together. The group I was in was too busy talking and taking pictures to really work on our little section of the mural but that's okay. I made some new friends. :) It was fun. After that we just took taxis back and I set up a facebook for one of my classmates. It was really funny. So I was up until like 1am and I knew I had to get up early the next day, not as early as today because they pushed our time back to start at the second block of classes. A lot of people couldn't sleep so we were all facebook chatting on our little study abroad group. ;)

Day 6: May 29

On this day we had a morning visit to Misericodia which is the school that I have been placed in for observations. It is a catholic school. It was very interesting. Not as many students speak english, I think. Or at least that is what I observed when we saw the kids at recess but when we met with part of the senior class we were told they took english for 2 years. So theoretically they should understand us if we speak slowly. Some of our answers still had to be translated. There are two students who speak English as their first language, one was an exchange student from Texas while the other lived in England for most of her life but moved back to Alta Gracia because that is where her mother lived.

After the Misericordia visit, my classmates split into groups based on which school we were placed. So we talked to the principal a bit before we went to lunch. For lunch we went to the cafe right down the street from Misericordia. It was a good cafe I got a chicken sandwich and it was really good. Then we had free time so I just chilled at the hotel reading a book and watching some tv.

At night we went to the technical college for teachers. So this is a night college that people who want to be teachers become teachers. We got to observe a science class that was having a guest astronomer come and show them some stars. We got to see the Alpha Centauri star(s). You can only see it in the Southern Hemisphere so I think that was pretty cool. It looks like one star but it is two really close together that you can see through a telescope. It apparently the closest star after the Sun and it is 4 light years away. They were celebrating the birthday of the school so there was a special show that we watch and afterwards we had bread/pastries and Mate.

So the teacher thing ended around 10pm and we took taxis from the hotel to the teacher school so we were taking taxis back to the hotel. But 6 of us took taxis to the Cafe De Los Viejos Tiempos. Last time I was there I got pizza and hot chocolate but I got completely different food this time. I got the Lomito sandwich and it was better at this cafe than it was at the other cafe. I also got a Torta e Chocolate or something with those words in the title. It was chocolate cake and it was so good. I shared both of those with a classmate since we had a lot of bread at the teacher school. Not much happened after that since I had to get up the next morning really early to start observations.

School Visit and Tango Lesson

On this day we were suppose to have two school visits, El Anglo and San Martin, but the principal of El Anglo was not here so we get the morning off which is very nice. After the general lunchtime we got to be presented to San Martin. That's an elementary school that some of my classmates are placed at. We were there when they had their big starting meeting for school and it was really cool. I felt so important. They really wanted to try to speak English with us and we wanted to try and speak some Spanish to them. We had a tour of the school to see all the classrooms. We went in the younger grades and let the kids ask us questions. Then the students had recess and we were like rockstars. Hordes of students were crowding us and it was so cute to see the little kids try to talk to us. I didn't talk to a lot of students but I took some nice pictures of my classmates talking to a bunch of people. One boy came up to me and asked me if I spoke English and I couldn't help but laugh and say yes. I guess he was expecting me to speak Chinese or Spanish or something. It was very interesting. Kids kept giving us candy and little gifts. These kids were great. All the guys in our group were a billion times more popular then us girls for the fact that many of these kids don't see male teachers.

After our school visit we went to a gym to have a Tango demonstration and lesson. It was very interesting. I like learned new dances and it was really fun. It was a bit awkward because we only have 3 guys in our group so I learned both the male and female parts. I feel like that happens a lot when I am learning a new style of dance. The Tango demonstration was the best part. I have videos so I will try to post them on facebook or here on the blog later. Probably when I get back because the internet here is kind of slow and might die if I try uploading a video.

After that we had the whole night off. We really didn't do much but sit in our rooms. A group of us had dinner at La Rosa which is a restaurant that is around the corner from the hotel. I had a steak. It was sooooo good. I felt like a pig because most of the people in my group got salads while one got pasta. I just really wanted a steak. I was really happy after eating this. There was a lot of fat but it was still really good once I cut out most of the fat.

Culture Differences...

The culture in Argentina and very different from the culture in America. It is a lot of getting use to but I do like parts of their culture. This might be a series of post as I keep learning about the culture but we will just have to wait and see. I'm just going to mention what I remember now as cultural differences.

Timing: Argentines have a very long day compared to Americans. They have breakfast and lunch around the same time as Americans but then they have siesta from around 1-4pm. Which is like the greatest thing ever. It's a scheduled nap time or rest time. So I either nap or just chill on my computer watching TV and such. Then they have a little pastry and coffee snack time around 5pm because dinner is really really late like around 9pm at the earliest. If it is a weekend, most of the younger people go out to a discoteca. Those normally open around 2am and close around 5-7am. Yes their clubs open at 2am which is the time they close in America on a college campus. It's just absurd. This is why siesta is so important. They also take forever at dinner. Like its just a social event where you spend hours eating and everything is a sit down and enjoy kind of meal. Unlike in America where we have fast food and eating is something we do because our bodies need nourishment like an inconvenience to people. Like in America if we could go without eating we probably could because we want to get back to whatever else we were doing. Unlike in Argentina when a meal is a time to enjoy your company so you can take your time at a restaurant talking and just chilling. Argentines are also not huge with time orientation. So they do set times for things but really they are all approximations.

Food: The food isn't too too different but the norms are not the same. Argentines' are in love with ham and cheese. You can get something with ham and cheese for every meal. I know I eat it for breakfast every day so far. lol. They also eat a lot of pizza but it does not have as much sauce and no matter what kind there is a green olive on every slice. Its great for people like me who love olives but not that many people love olives. There is a lot of pastries or carbs in general which is horrible for someone on a low-carb diet. So I kind of ditched the diet for this trip. They also eat a lot of steak or at least the steak is popular. Like the sandwich I had called Lomito and a breaded steak called Milinase. It is all really good. Restaurants are very different. The waiters are not all about turning over the tables as fast as possible like they are in America. In Argentina, its all about enjoying your meal so you have to flag down the waiter at the end to get a check. You can just take you time and enjoy your company and the meal. Restaurants are also different because you have to pay for water so it comes in bottles. Plus you have to order water without gas/carbonation. They love their carbonated water.

Greetings: Argentines' personal bubble is basically none existant. It is kind of difficult for me because I do have a personal bubble but I think I am getting use to it so I kind of like it. When you say hi to someone you just don't say hello and keep your distance. You say hola and kiss them on the cheek. I think it is suppose to be the right cheek because every time we have met someone new it has always been the right cheek. It could just be because everyone goes to the left and that is the norm of the world but I am not exactly sure. Apparently for guys saying hi to guys it is different they basically do a bro hug (grab each others hand like you are shaking it then you do that one armed hug). You also do that same thing when you are saying adios or ciao. That is something else I found weird... They say ciao (hello/bye) and prego (you're welcome). Which is Italian but they don't really use anything else that is Italian but whatever.

Social Gatherings: There are different types of social gatherings and I wish we could bring them back to America. Like I mentioned the other day about Mate and how they just sit around sharing Mate and eating little cookies. I think it is so cool just to chill with friends sharing Mate and talking. I also like the little coffee time they have at 5pm, that is also a time to meet up with a friend and catch up or something like that. There is just a different atmosphere of people being close compared to distant. Like people stand closer together when they talk. People are just more open with sharing and being a close compared to America where we are distant and there is a personal bubble.

Pictures!

As I promised here are some photos from my first 4 days. The majority of the photos will be put on facebook so look for an album later!

Airport in Cordoba

 Public Clock Tower in Alta Gracia

 Church in the center of the town.

 Lucas, the grandson of my professor. He thinks he is our tour guide.

 I think this is San Martin school walking in the Independence Day parade.

 Some random school that swung their arms like being in the military to look professional.

 Traditional dresses from Alta Gracia.

 An organization to save the abused, abandoned dogs.

 Aren't these kids cute? They are part of a dance group in Alta Gracia.

 Adorable!

 Traditional dress from a dance group.

 An other club in Alta Gracia. I think it is just a drumming group.

 Tae Kwon Do, anyone?

 Gymnastics.

 One of the many Soccer clubs.

 Motocross anyone?

 Police. Isn't it cool that police is backward so that people can read it in the review mirror cool?

 Firefighters

 Firefighters on ATVs.

 Firetruck. There were kids riding it in.

 At the end there were a lot of horses.

 Donkey!

 More horses.

 At night there was a little concert in the plaza with bands and traditional dancing.

 Hot Chocolate!

 Some drink my classmate got...

 Pizza! They eat a lot of them...

 Entrance to a park near our hotel.

 The alter with the Saint Mary shadow.

 The river where I had my first taste of Mate.

Class photo at the river!

 Group photo at the party!

Cordoba Street Market

I think most of my blog post will be at least a day behind what I do if I keep getting back late and the internet not working.... But day 4 was really chill. We had a meeting around 11am to talk about what exactly we will be doing in the schools and what schools we are going to be placed in. We are going to have to do some field notes and case studies, which will be interesting but also a bit difficult. I got placed at  Misericordia which was my second choice but that's because no one else, at the high school level, wanted to be at El Anglo. That's okay. I would rather be placed where my classmates are placed than be placed at a school by myself. I'm not really picky on the subject because learning about how their school runs is more of my concern than learning how they teach an actual subject.

We had most of the day off so we just chilled at the hotel. I even at lunch in the hotel and it was surprisingly good. You fill your plate with food and they weigh it then charge you for that weight. I ate mashed potatoes with spinach, mushrooms that were seasoned, and empanadas.

Later in the evening or around dinner time, we met up to catch a bus to Cordoba to go to a street market. It was very interesting. There where booths everywhere and it covered 4 blocks. It was just a place for people to sell hand-made products and such. A lot of my classmates bought Mate cups and straws or jewelry. I bought this cool cup that is made from an Absolut Voka bottle. The group I went around the market with all got at least one of these glasses. I added the photo just so all of you could see the awesome cup I bought!

Day 3! Mate and partying it up!

First thing of the day was exchanging money. The exchange rate here is pretty cool. We got 5.3 pesos for every American dollar. So everything is really cheap here for us which is really awesome because even if it looks like a lot of pesos, if I divide by 5 then the prices look really really reasonable. After exchanging money we went of a bus tour of Alta Gracia. It was really interesting to learn briefly about the history of the city and the different museums here in this town. Then we went to a church and we got to look around. What is really interesting at this church is that there used to be a statue of the Virgin Mary in an alter but they removed the statue to fix it or clean it or something but this shadow of the statue is there. You can’t see this shadow within the first row of the alter but as you back away from the second row, the shadow is more prevalent. It was really cool. I have a picture. I’ll try to post it somewhere. After that we went by a river and drank Mate. It is some kind of green tea that they put in this special cup and everyone shares it. Drinking Mate and eating little cookies is a very social thing to do so it was very interesting. It tasted like green tea with sugar added. Without the sugar it was kind of bitter but I did like that. I wish we did something like drinking Mate as a social thing. We don’t really share drinks a lot in the United States but in Argentina they share stuff all the time. Germs are germs you mind as well share things. I just find it really funny because I don’t share drinks with friends from home that I have known forever but the first night that I was here I was sharing drinks with my classmates. I don’t have a problem with sharing drinks but I think it has to do with if anyone is sick or not. A lot of people are also germ phoebes at home. Okay, enough of a rant, back to my actual trip… After sharing Mate (Someone has a picture of me drinking it so I will have to get that from them…), we went to a restaurant near by and ate pizza. The pizza was not that good but then again I just think its because the pizza is different so I am not a huge fan of this pizza. Then we just took a bus ride back for siesta so I took a nap on the bus… naturally. J

Siesta is probably the best thing every invented. I might put one in my daily schedule in America. America really needs to have Siesta. It is just basically nap time and rest time so you get to sleep and hang out with your friends. Its makes you more refreshed for the nighttime but then again the Argentine night time is very late compared to ours. They eat dinner at 9am at the earliest, which is really hard for me to get used too. We had a little meeting after siesta to learn about some more history of Argentina but then we had a whole night of freedom!

First we were going to the market and just walking around because a bunch of us were not that hungry. We ended up running into Ignacio, the son of the principal of one of the schools who is the daughter-in-law to our professor. It was really cool because it was him and two of his friends and their brought Mate. So we drank more Mate and it like woke up everyone who was in the group because it is tea. We are not really on the Argentine schedule yet so we are normally really sleepy at night but I was wide awake after drinking Mate. We walked around the town with them so it was fun because we were just talking and walking. We ended up meeting them up later at night to have a party at one of Ignacio’s friend’s house. It was just a giant dance party. We were suppose to go to a discoteca around 4am because that is what they do here on the weekends but apparently it was dead due to a concert in a far away different part of town so we just stayed at the house until like 5am. It was awesome!

One thing I found kind of awkward was the kind of kissing on the cheek greeting thing that they do. They also do it when saying goodbye. I guess I didn't really realize how weird it was until we were saying bye to all the guys we hung out with all night because there were like 8 of them and it was just weird kissing the cheek of a bunch of guys that I hardly knew. I know it is custom here so I am embracing it. Hopefully I won't bring that back to America because people have personal bubbles in America... lol I do but I'm trying to embrace this culture.

I’ve only been in Argentina for 3 days but it feels so much longer. It’s a great new experience and I hope the rest of the month is a great as these first 3 days have been.

Independence Day!

Happy Independence Day for Argentina!

So apparently May 25th is Argentina's independence day so it was very interesting. We got to see Alta Gracia's parade which is very different that the parades in Naperville. In Alta Gracia, all the schools and all the children march where the student with the highest score gets to carry a flag and the top three highest score students get to be recognized on a stage with the mayor and the principal and vice principal of their respective schools. I think that is really cool. Then all the clubs and whatever you can do gets to march too. Close to the end was the paramedics, police, volunteer firefighters, veteran firefighters, and firefighters. At the very end there is a lot of people all different ages riding horses. I guess horses and a popular well-known thing in Alta Gracia. I saw toddlers riding horses, of course they weren't steering the horses but then were riding them. All ages and all different types/sizes of horses. It was crazy but really cool. There was also some dancing that we got to see right before the end of the parade, so before the horses.

Then we had a really nice lunch with some people who work in schools. One of the relatives of our program director is the principal of one of the schools we will be observing in. Then we had the vice principal of that same school, the husband and son of the principal, and an old friend of the principal that use to be an English teacher. And when I mean English teaching I mean she taught English to people so her English was a lot better than she gave herself credit for. It was a very good and interesting lunch. I had a typical Argentine steak sandwich which is called a lomito. It was really good. So good I might have to go back sometime this month and get another one. Or I will try it at many other restaurants.

Siesta time! After lunch is Argentine's siesta. So basically it is free time where most stores are close but today since everything was closed because of the holiday some things were open during siesta time. I took a very short 15 minute power nap but when I woke up I was really energized for the rest of the day. That is probably why I can write this post at 3:30am. That and my roommate isn't back yet but that will be mentioned more later. I literally woke up at 6:30 from my nap. lol I should have not taken that nap. Oh well. It's the culture and I am trying to experience as much of Argentina as possible. I am even trying to learn Spanish. It's not going so well but that's okay.

After siesta we met as a class and went to the plaza to see some traditional folk dance and hear some bands. It was very interesting and different. It was also really loud. After the concert was dinner time so around 9pm. Yea they eat really late here. We had our first assignment of splitting into groups and going out to different restaurants to write reviews. It was fun. I was in a group of 6 and we went to this little cafe type place that I think is called Cafe De Los Viejos Tiempos. It was a good restaurant. I would definitely go again. I shared a pizza with a classmate and had hot chocolate which they call submarino. It is basically warm milk with a piece of chocolate put in it to melt. There is no sugar in it so I had to add one packet of sugar. It was very bitter before I added the sugar. I also tried some of the chocolate cake and it was really good, very moist and chocolatety. 

Dinner was great then we went back to the hotel because we thought we were going to meet with the other group but they didn't come back until 3:30am hence why I am up because these hotels only give one key and my roommate was in the other group. No worries. I'm not mad or anything. They could go do whatever they want. I wish we could have gone with them because they went out to a bar and that would have been a fun experience. Next time. I still had a fun time talking with the group I had dinner with until 2am.

This whole one key to a room thing in foreign countries kind of bugs me. It was the same in Italy except if you left the room it automatically locked so you don't have to worry about anything as long as one person leaves the room with the key. Here you can apparently lock people in because that is what happened to me last night when my roommate went out to the courtyard area to play catchphrase with some of my class. I had to text her to come let me out... lol I guess it is one way to punish your roommate if you don't like them...

I have lots of photos from today. I think I will put them on facebook and post them here in another post another day. They are a lot of photos of things I see, not my classmates but that is soon to change. :)

First Night

After our 30 hours of traveling we finally got to our hotel and checked in. We got to our rooms and had a short break before we had a delicious dinner made by the people who run the hotel. There was all sorts of food like empanadas, little sandwiches, prosciutto on bread, something that we potatoes and eggs baked together and a few other things. The food was really good. I am excited to try all sorts of different dishes here is Argentina.

After dinner we took a nice stroll around the town to see some of the major buildings/sites. I can't wait to walk around in the daytime. We then walked down one of the major streets and found a super market which will be very helpful. There are like 10 ice cream places in short walking distances from where we live and that could be a problem. What is really nice is the schools are not that far away. Two of the schools are basically right around the corner. One of them is a little bit of a longer walk but we were told it is no longer than 10 minutes which is nice.

While we were on our walk some of us were just talking on a street corner when two argentine high schools students decided to say hi. They were working on their english and one of my classmates was talking to them so she was working on her spanish. It was really interesting. They go to one of the schools that some of us will be places so maybe we will see them around.

Its been a long great day and I can't believe I've been awake this long when I really only had like 3 hours of sleep because it was hard for me to sleep on the plane for some reason....

Studying Abroad / Traveling

After 3 planes with 2 layovers and a bus ride, for a total of 30 hours of traveling, I am finally in Argentina! This is my second Study Abroad through the University of Illinois. What makes this study abroad way better than the first one I went on it the fact that is under the College of Education so everyone on this trip is an education major, minor, or grad student. Which means we have a lot in common and we can totally nerd out to talking about schools and what we are going through as education people. I think everyone is great and I am excited to learn something from all the different majors.

So this 30 hours of traveling that we did. First we flew from Chicago to Dallas. Then we had around a 4 hour layover before we flew to Santiago, Chile. That was our longest flight. It was about 10 hours. After that we had a 5 hours layover until we flew from Santiago to Cordoba, Argentina. This is where we had to go through customs which is completely a different experience than American customs. Then after that shorter flight (about 2 hours) we took about an hour long bus ride to Alta Gracia which is where I will be living for the next month!