1. Notes: 1 / 2 years ago 

   BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA
   
   From Stockholm to Buenos Aires, Europe to South America - and it only took me 20 hours! To say it was a long day would be an understatement, although I really didn’t think the 14 hour flight was all that bad, but I wasn’t in much of a state to take in my surroundings during my first few hours on the new continent. But I couldn’t help but notice one thing - it wasn’t only warm, it was humid. Sweaty even.
   
   Fortunately I had a Saturday night’s sleep and a lazy Sunday before language school on Monday to acclimate myself, but of course those first impressions are quickly and easily drowned out by the numerous experiences that have inevitably followed. I live in a neighborhood known as Recoleta, which is quite a posh and ritzy area as it turns out, but more importantly it’s rather centrally located.
   
   I live with a woman who is an architect and her 23-year-old son, a graphic-design student here in the city; they don’t speak much English, which is proving good for my Spanish, and they really are overwhelmingly generous and excellent hosts. I am definitely afforded all the independence I need here, but at the same time she is always warm and friendly, an excellent cook (maybe too excellent, a lot of heavy food around here), and is patient with my Spanish. I suspect that she enjoys hosting students not necessarily because she wants to learn about and experience different people and cultures, but because she enjoys being a part of our experiences by lending a helping hand when needed. My first week I shared the host-family with a medical student from Columbia, and for the next two weeks we have a traveler from London passing through.
   
   My language institute, Expanish, is an excellent place as well - free sugar cookies (also probably a bad thing really), wifi, terrific couches, and of course a variety of interesting people. They always have activities and it’s a nice community of people and resources to have access to in this sprawling city, although I’m not particularly thrilled with the language curriculum; true, Spanish I think is much easier than German, but there is far too big an emphasis on grammar here when really I need a lot more situational and conversational speech practice. In Germany we trained to be able to speak in common situations: shopping, ordering, eating, traveling; here, we spent three days on reflexive verbs. Either way the responsibility is on me to practice speaking outside of class and become comfortable with the language.
   
   Having said that (yes I still do watch ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’), there are a number of Germans at the institute and I’m impressed that my German seems to be handling itself well enough; I’m quite relieved that I’ll continue to be able to practice here so as to not lose whatever modest skills I’ve acquired in the next last months.
   
   But now to the city: Buenos Aires is nothing short of incredible. To say the least of its size and variety, there is literally an endless supply of wonderful places and go and things to see. But beyond that even, there is always something to do - an event, a concert, an opening, a local tradition, an annual festival, each an every week something new and exciting.
   
   And the weather - it is lovely to be back in spring and away from the cold of northern Europe. No, it doesn’t rain infrequently, but much more often the sun shines brilliantly and the air is warm, and a few clouds in the sky always looks nicer on camera. Of course all that wouldn’t be quite as significant were it not for the fact that scattered everywhere throughout the entire city are numerous parks, with abundant green grass and trees. It’s really amazing here, a kind of greenery that I’ve never seen before in my life.
   
   But of course what would a city be without its culture and customs. The Argentineans seem to fancy themselves European enough, though I can’t say it’s anywhere near the same over here. Things are tons more mellow in this part of the world, which is a welcomed change of pace. People tend to sit around on the grass in the sun, sharing their mata tea - a local staple down here - with friends just relaxing and enjoying the day. The rumors about the unwritten dress code are also rather accurate - nobody (except me and the other tourists) really wears shorts, although I do think that as summer approaches the portenos will start to embrace the added comfort of shorts.
   
   They eat a lot of meat here, which is absolutely wonderful, because I love steak. And it’s not only very tasty but rather cheap and convenient. There are parillas, barbecue places basically, on nearly every street ranging in prices but rarely too much in quality, as my experiences would have it. Salads are fairly popular, but besides that vegetables do not seem to be. Just more meat.
   
   And lastly a funny observation (first pointed out by a friend) about this place is that no one seems to respect the notion of a “line” in this country: waiting at a counter or in a store, the portenas just go and do whatever they want with complete disregard for everyone else. And it seems to be accepted. However, one area where the rule of the line is rigidly observed would be in line at the bus-stop - not sure why that is. Speaking of which, the bus system in this town is absolutely wild - each bus driver owns his own bus (so I hear), and basically runs his own line, so that means that there are random bus stops and bus lines all throughout the city, making it extremely difficult to coherently navigate using them. But I suppose as in all things time will mitigate that problem. To the pictures:
   
   My Daily Walk to School:
   
   I walk to school from Recoleta every morning, along Santa Fe usually and then down the Avenue de Julio, the widest avenue in the world. It’s a lovely and relatively short walk. Enjoy.
   
   Central, Lunch, Plaza de San Martin ////// Ave del Libertador, Recoleta
   
   So the camera came with me and some people on a bit of an afternoon exploratory adventure - we grabbed some lunch in central, enjoyed the sun and shade of the San Martin plaza, and then headed up Avenue del Libertador into upper Recoleta. We passed the site honoring the terrorist attack against the Israeli embassy some years ago, the law school, and of course the Floralis Generica (giant steel flower), in all it’s glory. Brilliant day, just a taste of what I’ve been doing here so far outside of class.

2. Notes

   1. hostelcolonial liked this
   2. seankesluk posted this

So I, Sean Kesluk, left Los Angeles for a 6 month adventure abroad in Europe and South America. After a few weeks studying the Deutsch in Freiburg, Germany, it's two months up north in Hamburg working for the city's Jewish community center. After a brief foray into Sweden, I'll head South to Buenos Aires for some Spanish classes and volunteer work in a La Boca soup kitchen. After that it's back home to the States and national service with AmeriCorps NCCC. With a month of training at the VA medical campus in Perry Point, MD, it 's off to Baltimore for my first project, two months working for The Samaritan Women, a non-profit renovating a hundred-year-old mansion to use as a transitional home for women in recovery from heroin addiction and human trafficking, in addition to expanding a farm/urban garden to distribute produce to soup kitchens, shelters, and those in nutritional poverty. The second project will see us down in New Orleans, LA doing post-Katrina work with The Phoenix of New Orleans, a non-profit which renovates homes for Lower Mid-City homeowners who can't afford to do so.

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