Almost done with Orientation!

I am almost done with orientation! It´s very exciting - I´m ready to move on to something else besides actually learning about the city. However, it has certainly been very interesting. Yesterday we had a really fascinating discussion about the difference in freedom between us and our Argentine peers. From what was explained, it seems that most students my age still live at home and are dependent on their parents for their daily needs and often require their permission to go out and do things. However, they work and earn their own money, and are often completely economically independent. In contrast, American students are usually financially dependent on their parents, but live separately and have almost complete freedom in their daily activities. I´m curious to see how true this stereotype is, and how it differentiates me from my peers here.

Today´s orientation focused on newspapers. Besides looking through it(and presenting the horoscope section to my class!), my group also had a really interesting discussion about the difference in the portrayal of Chavez in the US and Argentina. In the US he is usually portrayed VERY negatively, but here the portrayal does seem quite as strong. He is not strongly liked, but he is not shown in the same negative light as the US. We then got into a discussion on his economic ideas, and contrasting them to Reaganomics. Trying to figure out how to explain filtering down "en castellano" was very difficult!!

Last night I went to my first movie, called¨"Los Incorregibles" (lit the Incorrigibles, which means the Unreformables). It was VERY funny - in some ways the humor reminded me of The Inlaws. However, the porteños don´t have the same ideas about laughing loudly as Americans, and I certainly stood out in the theater! We also got "pochoclo," popcorn. However, you have to pick between sweet and salty. We tried to sweet, which tasted a lot like carmel corn. It was good, but I prefer the stuff in the US.

Next I have my first on sight orientation at one of the universities. It should be interesting, mostly because I haven´t visited any of them yet. This is a small private school (University of Tocuato Di Tella) which is known for its economics and political science. I´m not quite sure if I´ll end up taking classes there, but I figure it is good to visit before going.

That´s it for today! I hope everybody has a good day and a nice weekend. We don´t have any orientation tomorrow, and I have plans to go to the mall with a few girls - there are major sales in Buenos Aires now because it is winter vacation, but they end August 1. Hopefully we´ll also make it to one of the "ferias" (fairs) this weekend, if it´s nice outside.