Classes started!

So, classes have started, and this is what I've signed up to take: Monday & Wednesday 1pm-2:30pm: Narratives of the monstorous in Latin America. Monday & Wednesday 2:30pm-4pm: Gender Studies in Latin America. Tuesday & Thursday 1pm-2:30pm: Latin American Social Movements. Tuesday & Thursday 2:30pm-4pm: Contemporary Argentine Art. Tuesday & Thursday 4pm-5:30pm: Argentine Cultural Studies. I am excited and looking forward to meeting the kids in my classes, and getting into the material of these clases, most of which are extremely interesting to me.

Beautiful Bolivia

My visa into Bolivia. It was a mad-dash process, me and 3 other Americans on our bus full of mainly Peruvians, Bolivians, and Chileans crossing into Bolivia, had to get off at the border, run from office to office to get checked out of Peru, then into Bolivia, fill out an applications, pay the fee and have it be reviewed within 30 minutes before the Bus left us. Luckily we even been some of the Peruvians back to the bus. The fee? $135 USD. The experience in Bolivia? Priceless. La Paz was a surprise, it was an extremely beautiful city, the Highest capital in the world. Snow capped mountains off in the distance. The second day, I ate at an iffy restaurant (as I was warned, that Bolivia isn't the most heigenic when it comes to food and to be very carefulo), I ended up in a La Paz hospital with an intestinal infection on an IV. However, once I got to see the city I fell inlove. The people, and the culture are so different from what I had seen (except from Northern Argentina)which is cultural similar, but much higher quality of life and better economy really stands out in comparison. http://laalbicelestesoleada.blogspot.com.ar/2011/05/northern-argentine-road-trip.html

(A Chola, typical native woman of Bolivia, generally from the country side, but that have moved to the city)

In La Paz, I met up with Jonatan, to continue the rest of the trip through Bolivia. Our next stop would be Cochabamba, the birthplace of his father. This city has the largest Jesus Statue in the world, even bigger than the most famous one in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. Cochabamba, was beautiful, as Uyuni, a city in the south where the world's largest salt flats are located. We took a 4x4 into the middle of the flooded Salt Flats to explore, which was completely beautiful. After 24 hours of no sleep we left Uyuni for Potosi. Potosi was the capital former Viceroyalty by the same name which occupied the majority of the lower part of South America. This city was a gold mine for the Spaniards... literally. It was the city of the largest gold and silver deposits ever discovered by the Spanish, almost the real life El Dorado.

Finally, we ended the trip in the most non-Bolivian city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. I say non-Bolivian city, because its nothing at all like the rest of Bolivia. Its a city that finds its self in the low-land tropical jungles of eastern Bolivia, instead of the High cold mountains like the majority of Bolivia's cities. Santa Cruz is the most economically developed city in Bolivia, and has the largest population. The people here have almost nothing in common with the inhabitants of their capital in La Paz, they speak with a completely different accent, they have different ways of life, they eat different foods, wear different cloaths, and are all in all, very different. The city was a nice change from the cold weather we'd been experiencing in the rest of Bolivia. The coolest part of Santa Cruz, was that in our Hostel, there was a pet Tucan, that would let you hold him, pet him, and in the morning would jump on your breakfast table and still your fresh fruit.

A dream of mine came true in Peru...

Last night I arrived from my travels to Peru and Bolivia. I first visited the surprisingly beautiful, clean, and modern city of Lima that felt strangely like a Southern California city. Modern malls over looking beaches of the Pacific Ocean complete with Starbucks, TGI Fridays, Domino's pizza, and all the American products that aren't as common to come by in Argentina due to their own internal industry, somewhat stronger than that of Peru's, and strong economic ties with imports from Europe and Brazil. However, one of the coolest "Made in Peru" products, was the delicious, yet super sweet INKA KOLA , the Peruvian answer to Coca Cola (which oddly is now owned by the Coca Cola company).

Two days after my arrival to Lima, I got on a iffy looking "Peruvian Airlines" flight with a very old plane for an hour flight to Cuzco, Peru, the Incan Capital. The flight was practically Verticle the whole time due to the fact that we were going from sea level in Lima to very high up in the Andes Mountains. Cuzco was flocked with tourists from all over the world, as expected. All heading to the famous Machu Picchu. The Andean culture started to be more noticeable, nothing at all like Lima, with a clear accent when speaking that marked that we were in the Andes, and artesans featuring llama and alpaca whool to keep warm in the high and cold altitude. Machu Picchu was a dream come true, although complicated to get there. One has to buy the tickets to get into the sanctuary park of Machu Picchu, then by train tickets to go to the town of "Aguascalientes" also known as "Machu Picchu pueblo." To get to the train station, you must first take a 2 hour taxi ride from Cuzco to another city, going 50 or so miles an hour around winding and narrow andean roads. But in the end, it was worth it (despite getting altitude sickness at the top of the mountain, I barely remember that part, it was so beautiful).

After Machu Picchu the next stop was the town of Puno on the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca. Spent a few days here, in a comfortable yet very cheap hotel room, trying to keep warm, and recovering from altitude sickness. The last day in Puno I headed out to the Lake and took a tour to floating islands where the Aymara people live, indigenous people that created man made islands out of Straw and Sea Weed on which they've buit their homes. They welcomed us to their Islands, and offered us food, artesans, and the kids were especially playful:

Next Stop: La Paz, Bolivia!

Decided to go to the Andes

Well three days ago I decided to take a spur of the moment trip to Peru, I'm writting this from Lima, Peru I got here last night.

Haven't explored at all yet, but going in a minute. I'll be traveling by Peruvian Airlines in two days to Cusco and Machu Picchu, then off to Puno and lake Titicaca before heading to La Paz, Bolivia and ending in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.

A 3 week trip through these 2 Andean countries before classes start, should be a great experience!

Rain Storm and Power outtage

So the other day I thought I'd take my computer and get some skyping in at a cafe in San Telmo, a cool "bohemian" like neighborhood about 30 minute busride south of Belgrano where I live.

When I arrived at the cafe, it started to rain, and when it rains in Buenos Aires, it poors.

I waited about 4 hours in the cafe and I decided right before close I should try and venture back to my apartment. I set out with my umbrella and backpack to the bus stop. I got on the bus and as the bus started to head back north, it began to fill up with tons of people escaping the rain. I later found out because of the downpoor the Subways and Trains weren't running. At one bus stop, a line of people waiting for the bus I was one, were denied to get on because the bus was already too full, the bus driver tried to explain to the people that more back up busses were on their way but they didn't care, they wanted out of the rain.. many start banging on the windows of the bus yelling obscenities at the driver, and one man got so angry he kicked the front door of the bus, breaking the glass window...

We set off again in the bus and every bus stop we passed and didn't pick up the long lines of people, the bus driver got an ear full of bad names.

The rain was so bad that some streets had flooded and there were power outtages.

When I arrived finally after 50 minutes to my apartment building, I found a dark, lightless street. The power was out in my building.

I decided to go to the starbucks around the corner on one of the main avenues and wait it out until 1am when the starbucks closed to use their internet.

I was there a little while when suddenly, the whole place went black.

I was in the back and around the corner of the entrance, it was dark, but luckily one of the starbucks employees came and got all the customers out with flashlights.

Then I went to an icecream shop to wait since I obviously couldn't stay any longer at the starbucks. The icecream shop closed at 1am as well, and I came to my darkened apartment,

however for the complete darkness, I couldn't sleep also because of the heat and my fan not working properly, so I left and found an open cafe and drank tea and ate a grilled cheese sandwhich and hungout there until 5am when I came home, the power finally came on at some point in the morning while I was sleeping because I woke up to a working fan.

Quite an interesting experience.

The Coast!!

I recently returned from Villa Gesell (featured in the last X-men movie by the way, very poorly shown as a mountainous German-like village when in reality there are no mountains in sight, very flat coast line).

It was beautiful, however windy and cooler than the city. It was great to get out of the city's hot summer heat and cool down.

We spent a lot of time in a calmer resort neighborhood just south of Villa Gesell called Mar de las Pampas, full of cool modern shops and cafes, streets of Beach sand, and resorts and private huge vacation homes.

It was a beautiful 8 days with my friend and his family!

Ironically, I'm writting this at a Starbucks

So my first day, I met up with some old friends, one was actually leaving 3 hours after I got there for the airport to leave the country for a month, but we got to catch up and have lunch...

Later I met up with Jonatan, and walked around a good part of the city and had a coffee at one of Buenos Aires' many emblematic cafes.....

One thing I noticed was an increase in American chains, one being starbucks, the last time I was here, (only six months ago) I could count the amount of Starbucks in Argentina (all of them being located in Buenos Aires) on two hands and have fingers to spare. Today, Buenos Aires is looking more and more Seattle-ish, with more than 44 Starbucks locations in the entire country, in various cities, and quite a few being here in Buenos Aires.

Another surprise, two blocks from my apartment, was that a Wendy's opened up, a company that left the country in 2001 with the Argentine economic crisis and just now returned opening their first location near my house.

Another thing I noticed was the Christmas decorations around the city. A giant Christmas tree in the Plaza infront of the Government's "Pink House." Here Christmas decorations aren't traditionally taken down until the 6th of February.

MY BIRTHDAY:
So December 29th was my Birthday and I spent it with Jonatan in a city just 20 minutes away called Quilmes, its practically a suburb of the capital, but it was a nice change, a little bit quiter with a cute pedestrian only street. It was a nice outing to a place I hadn't visited yet. The city is known for a Brewery, and the beer they produce by the same name, the most popular beer in all of Argentina.

NEW YEARS:
I spent New Years at Jonatan's house with his family also in part of Quilmes, called Berazategui. It was great, we had a typical Asado (BBQ) with all types of meet and food and drink with Jonatan's big family... all interested in asking me questions about things, I had a blast and at midnight, fireworks went off all around us.