life in BsAs

Wow, has it really been a month since my last post? I blame it on a combination of busy-ness and laziness and I'll try to get back in the swing of things. 

The past month has been interesting, wonderful, thought-provoking, frustrating, anxiety-inducing, breath-taking...it's been up and down, and just about everywhere in between. It's life in BsAs, and in my third month here I'm getting used to this range of experiences that have come to define my experience as an English teacher. 

As for the wonderful and breath-taking...

...paragliding over the Andes in the outskirts of Mendoza. Ever since I went bungee-jumping last year in Italy I have wanted to try another you-have-got-to-be-crazy extreme sport. Mendoza, a city located in the shadows of the Andes near the Chilean border, provided the perfect opportunity. After spending a day biking through the wine country, visiting several bodegas, and tasting wine and olive oil (also wonderful) my friend and I decided that we wanted to see the mountains; we soon found ourselves in the back of an old truck, barreling up a narrow mountain path. My fear of heights was mitigated by the breath-taking view of the Andes, which I tried to focus on - rather than look over the side of the truck into the abyss.

Once we reached the mountain top, we were quickly thrown into the harnesses and ready to go, or at least our expert guides (with whom we would jump) thought. Needing specific instructions, I began to drill my guide in a mix of broken Spanish and English made incomprehensible by the 'what the fuck am I doing about to run off a mountain?' thoughts running through my head. "When I say run, you run" was the only instruction we received. Ok, fair enough, I can do that...

Though it took us about ten minutes to get the perfect gust of wind, eventually we were off. I immediately understood why more specific instructions were not necessary - you pretty just run until you hit the edge of the mountain, and then you are swept off your feet - literally. Then it's just a matter of sitting back, relaxing (as much as that is possible) and trying to take it all in. The ride itself probably lasted about 15 minutes, my favourite part being the end, when we did some "acrobatics" in order to lose altitude. Being a novice and huge clutz, and I fell forward on my knees on the landing. But lack of grace aside, it was truly amazing. Indescribable. If ever you have the opportunity to go paragliding, ignore the rational voice in your head and run off the side of a mountain. You're not likely to regret it. 

As for the interesting...

I almost have a full-time teaching schedule - ideally I would like to teach between 20-25 hours per week, and right now I'm at 18 or so. In addition to the two institutes I have been working for since April, I have started working for a new, small tutoring company started by an American. My boss, Lindsay, understands the frustrations and limitations of working for a big company - namely the travel time needed to get to classes, low wages, and lack of connection between students and teachers - and has started her own company based on her own philosophy of teaching, one which I agree with. So far I have three students through her and hope to start with more in the near future. Most of the students come to my home for lessons, which is brilliant - though I have conquered the collectivo (bus) system, the lack of monedas sometimes makes a bus trip impossible. As for my students themselves, I'll have to save that for another post. 

As for the frustrating...

I don't want to dwell on the negatives too much; I'll preface this by saying that after living abroad for several months you begin to notice the many little things that bother you, the cultural differences that just don't seem to make any sense, and a certain nostalgia always seems to lurk in the back of your mind. For me, it's a nostalgia for things that never were; or rather, I, like so many others, forget all the things that frustrated me, that were suffocating, about life in the 'burbs. Really, when I stop and think about it, I'd take Argentine idiosyncrasies over the humdrum routine of Phoenix, MD any day. Yes, I'm not as comfortable as I was back home, but what was so great about that comfort anyway?

But enough with the ambiguity, the generalisations. 

The most frustrating thing in the past weeks has been my house. Remember how I said that considering the low rent, there were bound to be many little surprises along the way? Well, occasionally not having running water has been one of those surprises. Ok, so it's only happened twice, but in both instances we were without water for an entire day. It's never to good to start your day seeing several workers in your kitchen, dirty water everywhere, and when you ask, "¿Hay un problema?" they respond, "Claro...no tenés agua." My response, "Motherfucker!" I'm pretty sure they understood that. My other big concern is the lack of heat in my room. I could not ask for better weather right now, but as it's fall, the nights are starting to get chilly, and I've already woken up several nights shivering. Ok, so I exaggerate. But a space heater is needed...and soon.

As for the thought-provoking, anxiety-inducing...

...I've been thinking about my future. I've realised that sooner or later, I will have to move back home and find a job (easier said than done) to save up money for my next big step (which, without going into too many details, involves getting back to Italy and studying gastronomy...) So I'm trying to mentally prepare myself for this while at the same time thinking in the present and enjoying my time in Buenos Aires. Because, despite the downs, life in Buenos Aires is good. 

aprovechando el tiempo

The weather the past few days has been beautiful - after a heat wave early this past week (as a result of which I have sworn off taking the subte - I'm still a bit traumatized after a some-stranger's-sweat-dripping-on-my-arm incident), it's been consistently in the mid 70s, sunny, and clear blue skies. Not wanting to stay inside, I went on a photo-taking stroll through Palermo yesterday. Here are some highlights...

These three were taken at El Rosedal, a rose garden, which is inside El Parque 3 de Febrero in Palermo. Thousands upon thousands of roses...I took a lot of pictures, but you get the idea. One of my favourite parts, though, is the security: if you so much as look the perfectly manicured lawn,  a man with a whistle and shirt that says "Guardian" will yell at you. 

A couple friends and I spent the afternoon here...not a bad day.

Most of the streets in Palermo are lined with these kinds of trees...whose name I should probably look up.

Che: el musical argentino. It worked with Evita, so why not Che?

There's a lot of cool graffiti and artwork all across the city - these are just some that got my attention.

teaching, de nuevo

It's been one week since I started teaching. Right now I have two classes, although since there is only one student in each class, they're more like private lessons. One of my students is Brazilian and he's preparing to take the TOEFL iBT (a test which determines one's English proficiency) in order to apply for a Master's degree program abroad. I was a bit nervous going into my first lesson, as I had no idea what to expect and wondered how I would manage to create enough material for a two hour lesson. But once we got started I got a sense of what he needed to work on, and went from there; before I knew it the two hours were up and I had plenty of ideas for activities for the next lesson. He's a good student, probably at a low intermediate level, and his dedication makes the lessons more enjoyable. Also, since he is preparing for a standardized test I have been giving him tips on how to write more effectively, recognise what the reading comprehension questions are asking for, etc - I feel as though I'm preparing for the SAT again, and being a bit of a nerd, I kind of like it. 

I started my other class yesterday, but already I can tell it will be a bit more tedious. I have to travel to Belgrano, which is an outer, more residential barrio that's about 20 minutes away by bus (if you get off at the right stop, that is.) The student is 23 years old and has just moved to Buenos Aires from South Korea, so his Spanish is non-existent and his English is limited to the most basic expressions. With no common language between us, the lesson got off to a rough start: he spoke to himself in Korean and laughed quite a bit; I'm hoping he found our initial inabilities to communicate comical, and not my feeble attempts to explain "My name is Julia. No, your name isn't Julia; my name is Julia." I'll be teaching him three times a week, and now that I'm more familiar with his level I'll be able to adapt my lessons accordingly. 

Along with these two classes I hope to start a third private lesson sometime this week. My Spanish tutor's brother-in-law was looking for an English teacher, so we met up several days ago for an "interview" - I explained how I would run lessons, gave him a placement test, and we had a brief conversation. Being a doctor, his schedule is a bit difficult to work with, but obviously I'm going to do my best to accommodate it - especially since I can name my own price. 

So busy, busy, busy again. Well, sort of. Yesterday, for example, I taught from 10-11.30, then I had my Spanish lesson from 1-3, and then I taught again from 7-9. Not a crazy schedule by any means, but figuring in transportation time with actual lesson time, my day went by pretty quickly. And now that I have responsibilities again, I spend less time dicking around and more time planning lessons, etc. It's a good thing. 

I find it a bit odd to go from teacher to student back to teacher again, all within the course of one day. It's definitely keeping me grounded, in the sense that I am continually reminded of the difficulties of learning a foreign language and can thus empathize with my students. One is less likely to become frustrated and consequently ineffective as a teacher when they remember their own personal struggles as a student. Yesterday, for instance, I had quite the mental block and said, "Cuando regreso a casa tengo que hacer...¿como se dice 'nap'?" My teacher looked at me, smiled, and said "siesta." Oh...yea...I knew that. 

Also, since my Spanish tutor has a lot of experience and, in my opinion, is very good at his job, I find myself conducting my lessons in a similar style, and adapting some of the activities that I have done for my students. Moreover, at first I almost felt guilty or stupid when I couldn't effectively answer a student's question. I had to look up an explanation in my reference book, and after a little research the matter was cleared up. Obviously teachers aren't expected to know everything, particularly all the complexities of grammar. But I still couldn't help but feel a bit inadequate, and hated the silence between us as I scrambled to find an accurate explanation. But then I remembered that my Spanish tutor has done this several times, that it's quite natural, and did not make me doubt my Spanish tutor's abilities in any way. Rather, I would have questioned his methods had he not double-checked the reference book. So while a bit disorienting at first, the whole simultaneously-student-and-teacher bit has been working out for me. 

finally, a job

I got a job today!

Ok, so right now it will only be about six hours a week, until my other class (or rather, one-on-one lesson) starts in a week or two. And it's on Thursday nights and Saturday and Sunday afternoons - not the best schedule. But it is a job. And I won't have to go all the way downtown to teach - the business is about ten minutes from my home. I start this Saturday, and am meeting with the current teacher tomorrow to discuss the student's level and what he's been studying. 

Starting Saturday, I really am a teacher. Odd.

Oh, and Happy Birthday Mom!!

Photos of Cementerio de la Recoleta

Evita's tomb

 

A body-snatcher's paradise...?

Buenos Aires sin trabajo

It's been a while since my last real blog post, partly because I've been lazy and partly because I haven't been up to anything terribly exciting or blog-worthy. 

I've been job hunting since my TEFL course ended nearly three weeks ago. I was under the impression that English teaching jobs would be relatively easy to find, as long as you accept the reality of a 25-30 peso/hour salary (with an exchange rate of $1 US =  $3.6 AR, this comes out to about $7 US/hour). I wrote my CV and sent it out to about 20 English teaching institutes, and so far I have only heard back from a handful of them. Last week I went door-to-door to about seven institutes and tried to explain, sometimes in English but more often than not in Spanish, that I was an English teacher looking for work, and that I would be interested in any vacancies they were currently trying to fill. I've had two interviews, and though they both ended somewhat ambiguously, I'm trying to remain optimistic. Both were very relaxed and lasted about ten minutes; at the end I was told that I would be contacted once the director had assessed the needs of the institute and created a schedule. Tomorrow I have another two interviews, one of which would start immediately. Hopefully it will go well, because I need a job. Badly. 

 I'm not sure why I've been having difficulty finding work. And it's not just me; my friends from the TEFL class all seem to be in the same position: they've had some promising interviews, and now are just waiting to hear back about starting dates. I think the most likely problem is the economic downturn: most of these institutes hire teachers to teach at different businesses, many of whom have been forced to review and scale back their budget. Not surprisingly, English lessons are often considered expendable. I'm going to start looking for private students in the next couple days, which can be a much more lucrative venture. 

I'm almost embarassed to say that my life has been somewhat boring as of late. Embarassed because it's still summer (or at least it still feels like it) and I'm in Buenos Aires, and I'm sure many people back home would gladly be where I am now. Don't get me wrong, I've still been exploring the city and going out at night. But it's all been at my own, slow pace; when I have no where I have to be it often takes me a while to get anywhere. Now that I'm in Palermo, it takes me a while to get to Microcentro or San Telmo, or other areas with more attractions, such as museums, places of historical significance, etc. Palermo has only been recently developed; up until a decade or so ago it was residential district. Now, upscale boutiques and restaurants dominate the streets, and while these are all well and good, as an unemployed teacher I have to find other ways to spend my time. And I do exaggerate when I say it takes me a while to get anywhere downtown: it takes about ten minutes to get the Subte (metro), and then about a ten minute ride to get downtown. But ten minutes in the oppressive heat and cattle-like crowded cars seems an eternity. Yes, I hate the Subte. With a passion. But I've still not mastered the collectivos (buses), so I find myself on the Subte more frequently than I care for. 

But when I do get out and about, I have been enjoying myself. Yesterday I went back to the Cementerio de la Recoleta, a huge cemetery in which many of Buenos Aires' patrician residents and several famous historical figures are buried (including Eva Perón, of Don't Cry for Me, Argentina! fame). I had walked through briefly during my first week here, but wanted to go back to really explore and take pictures. The place is huge: one is easily lost in its labyrinthine paths, although I for one was not complaining. It sort of reminded me of the cemetery in Paris where Jim Morrison is buried (the name escapes me now). It had the same grandeur and inspired the same awe and contemplative mood. It was a beautiful day yesterday and it was not too crowded; I often walked up and down several lanes without seeing another person. It made for a perfect afternoon. I took some pictures of which I'll post just a few - for anyone with any interest in photography I highly recommend spending several hours there. Or really I would recommend everyone in Buenos Aires check it out; it's definitely been one of my favourite parts of the city. 

Yesterday was a national holiday in Argentina: el Día de la Memoria, or Day of Memory, which marks the anniversary of the military coup of March 24, 1976, which established dictatorial rule and resulted in tens of thousands of disappeared persons. I'm currently reading a novel, Imagining Argentina, which combines the devastating history of the era with magical realism to make for an interesting and unique read. I'm also trying to finish Félix Luna's A Short History of the Argentinians. When reading about the Dirty War, it's almost difficult for me to imagine that it began only 33 years ago. One normally associates atrocities of this nature with the Second World War; it's something your grandparents could remember, but not your parents. As it's an issue still shaping Argentine society, I hope to learn more about the Guerra Sucia during my time here. 

On an entirely different note, I bought tickets today for a football match (soccer game) this Saturday. Argentina, with Diego Maradona as the head coach, is playing Venezuela in a World Cup qualifying match. Though I expect the Argentina fans to be united (there's a bitter rivalry between two teams - River and Boca Juniors - in Buenos Aires) it should be pretty intense and amazing. 

algunas fotos de mi casa

Since I finally took some pictures of my place, I thought I would post them. Also, I have nothing to do before going out tonight, so this should help to pass the time. 

My bed: modest, but comfortable.

Wall facing my bed. Yes, that's more a coffee table which functions as a desk. Not the most comfortable position for working on my laptop, but I can manage. 

My street - El Salvador - as seen from right outside my building. 

Terrace

More terrace - and the reason I can put up with all the minor inconveniences.