Another busy week

I'm taking a break from work, between writing an essay (which I just finished!) and editing it. It's for my film class at UBA - the huge, free, public university. The class is just okay - the professor is very different from what I'm used to. As Mom says, I'm really not at Penn any more! We saw a really interesting movie, Tango Feroz (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108291/). It was a really interesting movie, had great music, and did an interesting job representing and fictionalizing the life of this singer. I had to write an analysis of the movie, synthesizing my own analysis with the work of a few articles we read which deal with film in general. It was an interesting assignment - let's see how I do! One of those things where even after I outlined, more ideas kept coming to me as I wrote the actual assignment.

This week/weekend was very interesting. Friday night my friends and I went to the synagogue that we're going to go to for the High Holidays (its B'nei Jeshurun in NYC's sister synagogue). Afterwards I went to a friends apartment where we watched "The Motorcycle Diares" - IN SPANISH! For those of you who haven't seen it, I highly recommend it - its an excellent movie. Saturday night I officially "went out" for the first time in Buenos Aires. I think I made a good choice by going out with a friend who is a "local" - the place we went to was very laid back and a lot of fun. The difference is that where in the US places CLOSE at 2 AM, here the club didn't even open until 1! We showed up at 1:20 and were the first people there. I planned ahead and took a nap, but I had to leave early because I was tired - lots of people stay out 7 AM. And, as luck would have it, I actually ran into a group of girls I'm friends with from my program at the same place and we shared a cab home. Before going out I went out to dinner with my friend from Hillel and her group of friends. I love social encounters where I am the only American - while its strange to be the only one speaking with a thick accent, everyone here is so warm and friendly! The girls were lovely and we had a really nice and delicious dinner (grilled fish - woo hoo!).

Sunday I went to the Hillel "Friendly Group," a Sunday night hang out activity. They attempted to teach us how to play the classic Argentine card game (I think it's called Trucho) and we had burgers. Overall, a very fun night. A quick funny story - the guy in charge was giving directions, and tried to do it bilingually so that everyone would understand. I ended up getting up and translating for him. He was very silly about the whole thing, and sometimes we swapped languages - he would give the directions in English and I'd translate them into Spanish. We got a bit wacky and everybody was laughing by the end.

In other news Spring has Sprung! It's finally getting warm out, which we've been celebrating by walking everywhere, hanging out in the plazas, and wearing short sleeves. It's such a nice change, though it makes me miss the fall. While the flowers are just growing here the leaves will soon be changing color at home. The change of the seasons makes me realize just how long I've been here - almost 2 months. It seems strange that 2 months ago I was living in the US, speaking English, and living with friends/parents. Now I'm in South America, speaking mostly Spanish, and living with Bocha! So little time and so much has changed. Sometimes it feels like I've been here an eternity, and other times it feels like nothing.

I'm off to edit this essay once more before bed. I leave on Thursday to go to Mendoza (http://www.welcomeargentina.com/mendoza/index_i.html). I will once again be traveling by bus - I think I'm going to borrow Harry Potter in Spanish as bus reading! I'm hoping to take a tour of the Andes and see some of the bodegas, the local wineries. Seeing as I know NOTHING about wine, this should certainly be an adventure! A few friends of mine went and said that they give you lessons along the way. Uncle Sandy, we'll have a discussion about Argentine wines when I get back ;-)

That's all for now. Goodnight!

Love,
Becca