La Primavera

Here in Pilar, we are in the full swing of spring officially - I´m starting my fourth week here in Argentina and the sun is shining bright through the window in front of me. Yesterday was Mother´s Day and we sprung forward with Daylight savings. So, for those keeping track, Buenos Aires is now five hours ahead of Pacific Time.

My week or so has been paradoxically eventful and uneventful. Last Monday the boys in our grade took on the teachers in a game of soccer, sadly we were defeated 3-2. But we followed up with some lunch at a local asado restaurant. Then, throughout the rest of the week, the relative placidity sank in, and routine stayed the same. Primarily consisting of going to school, going to my host grandparents home, and then back to my home, the days follow a similar pattern. Despite the apparent tedium, life is rich with culture and new things. I continue to learn Spanish and that is my primary focus throughout my days.

Although school gives me a place to associate with friends, some classes are quite beyond me, so my time is passed reading. So far, I have read in English A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson, The Life of Pi, and Of Mice and Men, all fantastic reads. I am currently reading A Wrinkle in Time and afterwards plan to start The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in Spanish. However, I do participate in some classes such as math, and English class, where I passed our last test with flying colors. Also, we have a debate class on Thursdays in English, so I did pretty well due to my native tongue!

Hopefully these little anecdotes will help paint a picture of my school days, I am hoping to slowly provide a picture instead of telling you all at once. After all, I need something to write about in the future!

Anyhow, my weekend resurrected eventfullness and Saturday morning, Alex, Patricia, Guillermo, and I went up north a ways to a farm set up where a new Rotary Club was having a kick-off party. Along the way, we passed the only golf course in Argentina that has golf carts which was designed by Jack Nicklaus coincidentally. Upon arriving at the party, we were greeted by members from our Rotary club and shortly thereafter presented with a feast where I think the goal was for every guest to eat their body weight in meat. Being the steak lover that I am, I saw nothing wrong with this and happily strived for the goal. (But in all actuality I heard a stat today that said the average Argentinean eats 80 kilos of meat a year, which equates to about 175 lbs. So by the end of my time here, I should have realistically attained that far-fetched goal.) Anyway, the party was enjoyable, complete with performers during the meal who entertained us with folkloricó and traditional pampas dancing. There were complex rhythmic drum routines, which was added to by an extremely entertaining stomp dance in which a man used boleadoras, which are old hunting tools consisting of long ropes with balls on the end. He would swing these in circles all about them and strike the balls on the stage, keeping an ever-changing beat, and meanwhile his partner was beating a drum in a very unique way all the while both were making complex stomps with their feet. Pretty awesome to tell you the truth.

Soon after lunch ended, I was introduced to a German boy who is currently in a city about 20 minutes away from Pilar. Together in our lack of understanding a lot of what is going on, Jonas and I got along quite well and he filled me in on all that I had missed amongst the exchange students. Apparently there are only five of us with my recent addition - Jonas, myself, a Danish boy, a Swedish boy, and an American girl. Everybody communicates in English primarily which makes things easy for me, but also is kind of disheartening as I realize that Jonas is striving to become trilingual. But, between talking to Jonas and my recent communication with a friend in Brasil, I realized that I am really quiet lucky having studied Spanish for three years back home. My friend in Brasil says that people have shown surprise recently as she has started speaking to them in Portuguese. Luckily I have had this luxury my whole time here and have strived to augment my vocabulary and work on pronunciation.

Anyhow, Jonas and I got along well like I said, I told him of the only German band I know, a heavy metal, electronic band called Ramstein, who are apparently kind of a joke in certain circles in Germany. After chatting for awhile, we went and played some Bocce ball with Guillermo and Alex (where we won of course.) Soon after, we were invited over to an arena where they had a horse show, complete with races and a bilingual narrating gaucho. Games were played and boleadoras thrown, and eventually, it was time to return home.

Sunday here in Argentina was Mother's Day as I mentioned, so we came over to the grandparents house for an asado. Guillermo´s parents and daughters were all here so it was a big family gathering where I again tried to eat my body weight in lomo and asado. After the meal I had the nice privilege of speaking to my mom via the incredibly useful Skype and saying hi to Uncle Keith, Aunt Vonnie, Tami, and Izzy who were all at the house in Yakima. Of course I wished her a happy Mother's Day although that probably didn't quite register as it is currently fall in the Northern Hemisphere. We had a lovely chat, but then I had to run off as it was also the day of Superclásico which is basically the match up of the two most revered club soccer teams here in Argentina. Boca Juniors (who I saw two weeks ago) vs. River Plate (all club names are in English for some reason and River Plate is the translation of Rio del Plata). Everyone in my household are avid Boca supporters, so I have fallen into their line of thinking or I risk estrangement. Superclásico is a huge event as it only takes place twice a year - think of it as the Yankees and Red Sox meeting only twice each year, about 40 years ago when baseball was the sport in the US. It gets pretty crazy to say the least. Luckily for all of our sanity, Boca managed to prevail 1-0 in a nail-biter, but everyone went home happy. Last night we ate some leftover steak and retired to bed for school this morning.

Fun fact: I start off my mornings with a bowl of Zucaritas which are actually Frosted Flakes, so even though I am half a world away, I can still find my favorite cereal!

Right now I am sitting in computer class, preparing for lunch in a bit, with the window open in front of me. The sun is shining in with a nice breeze carrying a smell that distinctly reminds me of Hawaii and leis. I am really shocked at how much the olfactory senses can recall memories, and actually I just went and pulled some freshly bloomed flowers from the plant and am currently relishing the memories of hot Hawaiian sun.

Life is going well for me here, thinking of times past and times still to come, and I hope all of you can be found in a similar state of mind - thanks for reading.

Day 10!

The title of this blog is day 10 as most keen readers can ascertain. But to me this is strange indeed, I feel like I have been here for much more than 10 simple days. My schedule and routine has lulled me into a sense of things always being this way. It is a strange sensation to say the least.

Well as is apparent from my comfortable attitude towards life here, the last week has gone very smoothly, and I have adjusted well to life in a foreign country. (It is quite surprising how quickly one can become adjusted to not understanding anything being said around them.)

My first weekend in Argentina was a full one. After school Friday, my host brother Christian and I went and played some tennis, and boy did it feel good to get some of the rust off. Then, the whole family went into Buenos Aires for dinner around 10 (things run on a different clock here). Saturday I woke up, played some video games with my host brother Alex and then went horseback riding with him on some horses from the farm just down the road. That night, Christian and I went over to a friend's house from school and relaxed there for a while. Then, the group was going dancing, but Christian and I called it an early night around 1 because we had the good fortune of going to Buenos Aires again on Sunday.

Sunday consisted of waking up to the smell of meat on the grill. Here in Argentina it is very typical for families to have an "asado" for lunch on Sundays. A barbecue essentially, it consists of chorizos (sausages), lomo (tenderloin), and asado (a sort of ribs). It was all very tasty, and soon after lunch, Christian and I departed for a Rotarian's home here in Pilar.

The Rotarian lived in perhaps the nicest home I´ve yet to see in Pilar, and to my good fortune, it turns out that they are my next family here in Argentina. The father then took us on a drive to Buenos Aires and ended up in a suburb called La Boca. For those Spanish knowers out there, it is called La Boca because it was the first major port to the city due to its access to Rio del Plata. La Boca is a rich historical neighborhood, the originator of the tango, and the home to the country´s most popular club soccer team - Boca Juniors. The game had all the crazy fans dressed head to toe in blue and yellow, and a decent game. Sadly, Boca lost 2-1 but is still in contention in the league.

That was the highlight of my weekend for sure, and other than that, I have spent most of this week getting even more comfortable with my routine here, going to school, etc. Another event worth noting was my first Rotary function. The Pilar Norte Rotary club hosted a golf tournament Tuesday, but sadly I couldn´t showcase the amazing Swanson athleticism that is innate to all that bear that name as I was in school. But afterwards, I joined the Rotarians and participants for a nice dinner in the clubhouse and I got some great practice with my Spanish.

Life goes on here in Pilar as I´m sure it does elsewhere, and tonight there is a fiesta honoring the graduating class at my school. It will be a bit of a late night, but there is no school Friday or Monday so I should be able to catch up just fine.(On Monday our grade at school has a soccer match against the male staff members followed by an asado. It should be a great time.)

I hope this finds everyone well, and thanks for reading.

Day 3

Just to let everyone know, I am sorry that this blog did not come out sooner, there is so much to tell and not a whole lot of time to simply sit and write. This blog has thus been pieced together with three different computers over two days and hopefully paints an accurate picture of my world here in Pilar.

I have travelled so far in the last few days, physically, emotionally, and metntally. Culture shock has definitely been the phrase for my initial time here in Pilar. But, for those of you who don´t know the details, I will give a brief recap.

I left Seatac airport at 800 in the morning on Monday and flew to Atlanta. This was an exceptionally fun flight as Delta had installed personal screens in the back of every headrest. You could rent movies, access free music, or play games which consumed most of my time. There was one game which was a trivia game where anyone on the plane could compete against eachother. This was right up my alley and I spent mostof my time involved with that and competing with the guy behind me.

Then after a 5 hour layover in Atlanta which primarily consisted of watching Family Guy on my iPod, I embarked on a 10 hour flight from Atlanta to Buenos Aires. I sat next to a young woman from Sweden who was on her way to Argentina for a study abroad program. Luckily, I managed to catch some sleep on the plane and I woke up Tuesday morning at 600 Buenos Aires time. We were treated to the lovely smell of bagels in a microwaved bag and packaged cream cheese.

Upon arriving, I made it through customs a-ok and found my host family waiting for me with a sign with my name on it and all. The first thing they said to me was to communicate how surprised they were at my height. Apparently this will be a theme for my stay here. Luckily or unluckily, I´m still not sure which, my whole family, mom, dad, and two brothers, can speak English with a high degree of fluency. My host mother, two brothers, and my host mother´s father then proceeded to drive me back to Pilar which is about a thirty-minute drive north of the city. The grandfather was actually raised in England, so he mantained an English conversation in the car and he pointed out different eccentricities of the city.

To get home, we drove all the way through town, and proceeded down a dirt road for about half a mile and arrived upon a quaint cottage-like home. I was then given the tour, complete with satellite TV and Playstation 2. I have a spacious room, a comfy bed, a fan!, and my own bathroom, all the amenities one could desire. Life was settling in and we had beef and rice for dinner. Just what I was hoping!

The next morning I woke up early (715) to go to school with my host father and brothers. It was a half-hour drive through town, and down a lot of dirt roads. When we arrived at school, my host brother introduced me to the class and a lot of very fast Spanish flew my way. After getting settled, I was able to explain to them that I could understand them if they spoke very slowly. I am actually quite surprised with my language skills at the end of my second day here. I have found that I can communicate my ideas fairly well to someone with enough patience and if someone wants to talk to me, I can usually catch the gist of what they are saying in a slow tone. However, conversational Spanish here, with the speed and unfamiliar Castellano accent, is lost on me almost entirely. Luckily, most of the students speak English and if necessary I can communicate in my native tongue. In these episodes, I have been told that I speak Spain Spanish with an American accent. Apparently there is some work to do.

The school set-up is different entirely than anything I´ve ever witnessed or heard of. The students stay together in one class for the whole day and teachers come and visit the class. The structure in the class is almost non-existant, with kids shouting as they please and there is a general lack of rules in the class. However, there are 22 kids in the class and all very close and also very welcoming of me and ready to talk, albeit slowly.

My days here have been very full of excitement and new things. Here on the night of my third day, I finally feel as if I am settling in to my new environment. I think this is largely due to my use of language as tonight I have finally started to track the general gist of some (not all) conversations not directed towards me. This has given me a lot of hope, and my family was whole-heartedly embraced suffering my broken Spanish. I plan on watching the vice-presidential debate tonight with my host father Guillermo thanks to our satellite TV. Guillo as we call him was a Representative in the Argentine House of Representatives and takes an active interest in world politics.

I am feeling good about my decision to be here, and my family is very supportive. Tomorrow I will go to school and then play some tennis with my brother Christian and some kids from school. Hopefully I can tackle the clay courts! I hope this finds everybody well and I will try to be more prompt with future posts. Chao mis amigos y mi familia!