Argentine Death March

I'm starting to feel like I know where I'm going when I walk down the street. Until yesterday, I hadn't been out of my neighborhood (Palermo) much, but after orientation I went on a death march around Buenos Aires through Abasto to Parque Centenario, at left. I was starting to think everywhere looked the same, but it turns out that Palermo just looks like Palermo.

Abasto's main claim to fame is being the home of the largest shopping mall in Buenos Aires. It has no fewer that three McDonald's, including the only kosher McDonald's outside of Israel. It also has eight billion stores, none of which I've ever heard of, six million restaurants, including a fondue stand, an amusement park, and an exhibition area that's showing the Bodies exhibit with people that don't have skin. This picture doesn't even begin to do it justice.

By the time we got on the subte (the BA metro) it was almost nine. I thought I was going to go to bed after dinner, which isn't as early as it sounds — I usually leave the dining room at about 11. But I was distracted from my mission, first by super flan gelato and then by a cute Chilean boy who couldn't pronounce Connecticut. I finally went to bed sometime after two.

Today orientation was finally not useless, which helped me stay awake. We learned about the classes we can take at UBA, the Argentine national university. It basically involved the CIEE program leaders — who are mostly also students there — telling us that it's impossible to pass classes, that the bathrooms are disgusting, and that the professors are paid so badly they have second and even third jobs.

And somehow I still want to take most of my classes there. It's far and away the best university in Buenos Aires, the students there are supposed to be the smartest and the most interesting, and the classes sound like my favorite classes I've taken at Yale, with a combination of theory and literature. And my grades at Yale don't transfer except as passes or fails, which is going to come in handy. A 5 on a scale of 10 is pretty much average, I think, and it translates to a low C. (It's making me miss Yale humanities classes, where everybody is above average!)

Also, Mom: in answer to your questions: 1) My roommate is a chemical engineer, and she couldn't get work in Cordoba. She's not going to be my roommate anymore, though — she's switching rooms. I'm not sure why. I think my feelings might be hurt, but I'm not sure. 2) I eat mostly sandwiches, fruit, salad, chicken, beef, and lots of candy and gelato. The Argentine diet is made up mostly of really healthy meals and really unhealthy desserts. Which is my idea of heaven. 3) It's hot and humid as fuck.