Some photos from San Martín

(visiting Bariloche, after an interview with Darío Duch, a lawyer/government official)









(below: San Martín from the hill above it)

Today, for the first time since being here, I realized what a luxury it was to study abroad. That sounds silly, but it's true. By "luxury" I don't pretend to mean that I never realized the privilege I had by being able to study abroad nor do I not value my experience here in any way shape or form.

I was talking to my host dad tonight, (who finally came back!) and we somehow got lost in another political discussion about why Argentinean society doesn't trust government, and no one truly believe that it's a representative democracy despite the fact that on paper, it appears one of the best functioning in Latin America. And as we sat there together, talking about history, and past presidents, and social events that have affected the vision and path of Argentinian society, I realized for the first time what a wonderful luxury it is to live in another place, and truly experience what it has to offer. I think I spent the first few months here trying to catch up- facts, stories, classes. All seemed to wiz by. Tonight, for the first time, I applied it. I had a fluent conversation about socio-political factors that affect society today with an argentinan citizen, and I find that so amazing. I feel like I'm not really conveying what I mean to say here. How to best describe it (oh language barriers.. haha).

Not everyone is afforded the luxury of going to another place and truly throwing themselves into it. I've been lucky enough to travel before, but I have never felt something click the way it did tonight. I think there's definitely a period of time necessary to truly understand where you are, and the implications of what you see. You pass through stages: at first everything's new, clean, and shiny. You're a tourist in a new place. Then it starts to become "normal" and the little things stop jumping out at you. Then you begin to miss the comforts of home. Then, finally, I think (if you're lucky enough) you start to be able to reconcile the two and understand how your world comes into play with the other world you're experiencing living in a new place. Tonight, for the first time, I realized that not many people get that chance. How often can you essentially pause life and go somewhere else and start anew? Study what you want. Learn the ways of a new people, of a new city, of a new way of life?

It's strange- going into this ISP period I really was dreading the experience. A full month to do research on your own has so many potential drawbacks, frustrations and also benefits. For example, I KNOW my spanish has gotten worse since living with two Americans for the better part of two weeks. (It's visible in how semi-decent my grammatical structure is at this point). But I also think this period taught me the most about myself. With the freedom to do what I want, or rather to use my time the way I wanted, in order to see what I wanted, I was really able to gear the experience towards what I wanted to learn. And I have. And I love that.

12 days left? Geez. Where'd the time go?

Street racing?

My colectivo just street raced another around Plaza de Constitucion today, in the middle of rush hour. I kid you not, there was engine revving and everything.

Conclusions from Lake Lácar

So I'm sitting here in this little cafe, on the lake Lácar in Patagonia on my last morning. Got up early to attempt to do some of this looming work that will all be turned in less than two weeks now. Crazy how fast it's all going.

But I came to wonderful realizations. I'm copying and pasting from an email I sent out this morning:

Basically, I'm working on the conclusions of my research paper and for the first time really sat down and thought about what politics and political involvement means to me. Let's see if I can put this into words. I've been sitting here talking to youth for the past two weeks about why they're involved in politics in this tiny town. After my interviews I try and analyze similarities- are they involved because its good social network? Because they want to reclaim public space? For personal reasons of transcendence? ect. I really entered into this experience trying to compare it to my own involvement with the Obama campaign and obviously, it's impossible to do so based on the pure logistical differences between their political system and ours. But it hit me today that it's so much more than that. I was involved because it was fun, it was social, ect but more so than that-- it was a way to promote a cause/ideal that I believed it.

What I've found from my research is that here in San Martín, politics is a necessity. People are involved because the whole town is focused on that which the tourist wants and they don't pay attention to the neighborhoods that have been pushed off to the peripheries (both physically and socially). They are involved because the only other option is to lay down and accept social/economic marginizlacion. And to me that is so sad. There is no basic belief in the power of the system, and honestly, I feel lucky to both have been involved when I was, and to have grown up under such a belief system. Obviously, its something that was intrenched in me long before I signed into work for the campaign, but sitting here-- thousands of miles away from home, and realizing such a strong, and wonderful belief in the power of a person to change the world is pretty incredible to me. It makes me sad that due to historical/social history of this place, its inconcievable to most citizens.

Obviously reading my paper and understanding the social/historical context of this small mountian town is important to understanding the true implications of what I came to realize today - but I just feel like this is the culmination of what I've been wondering here in Argentina. Since that first time sitting down with my host family and getting chills as I showed them Obama and JFK's speeches, explaining to them why one would "waste" their own time to promote the career of a politician, I feel like I've come a long way to here.

I find it ironic that studying someone else's system and reasons for being involved led me to understand myself even better. Nonetheless, it's quite interesting.

A strange realizaiton

In a few weeks (yep, we're at less than 6 now, crazy!) I'll be be back in the States, for the foreseeable future. As funny as that sounds, I think it will be the first time in a very long time when international travel is not on the horizon. Strange.

San Martin de Los Andes

Well we made it to San Matin de los Andes after 28 hours on a bus more or less. Winding roads through the back country, but we are finally here. We have our own mini cabin, which is gorgeous. It has a full kitchen, a grill, is cosy and warm and is really quite perfect. The only two downsides: the jacuzzi is actually a bathtub with jets, and the wifi only works towards the main lodge, which means to use it I have to be outside. Unfortunately, it's rained almost every second since we've been here and when it's not (like now), it's dreary, cold and wet. And yes, by cold I do mean that's its 43, foggy and drizzling. Ah winter (ish) in Patagonia.

More later.

While going through my stuff packing tonight, I found some American money I'd left in the back of my wallet for emergencies. It looked so foreign to me, I actually check to see if it was fake.

I'm off

Well tomorrow starts the adventure of ISP. I don't really have a topic yet, nor do I have an advisor where I am going but I am excited. I leave tomorrow afternoon and take a 21hr bus to Bariloche, and then another 4 hour bus to San Martin de Los Andes. (http://maps.google.com/maps?q=san+martin+de+los+andes+argentina&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&split=0&gl=ar)
It's pretty far, remote and small but I think it's going to be wonderful to be in a little town, away from the choas of the city. I am sharing a log cabin with two friends. We have a kitchen, fireplace and even a jacuzzi. What could be bad about that?!

And some research topic will emerge.. I hope.

I'm off. I'll update when I have more info.

More Mendoza Photos

Mendoza

I am exhausted and have an absurd amount to do, but I just wanted to write about my trip before I forgot. This weekend was honestly one of the best I've had here in Argentina. Despite all the bad luck I've had down here (you know, the parasite, the fact that for a day and a half we were sure my identity was stolen - more on that later- the fact that my bike was the only one that broke, twice, during our biking wine tour, the fact that I am the one that has spent the most time researching and making contacts for my ISP and it's falling apart faster than I can seam it back together). I was talking to one of my friends in the cab on the way home tonight, and for both of us this weekend was so cathartic. It was like it finally hit us that study abroad is wonderful. Of course, it's an incredible experience but just being able to go, travel, be away from the group dyanmics (for better or worse) and just cheaply tour through wine country on our own pace was so... freeing. Travel with SIT has been wonderful, don't get me wrong. But this weekend was like a true vacation. No classes. No schedules. No rooming assignments. Just what we wanted to do. Amazing.

Thursday night we left Buenos Aires after presenting our final exam paper and flew to Mendoza. The hostel we book at ripped us off (they tried to charge us for a room that didn't have keys or a lock. Not only did it not have a lock, in fact, the door was too wide for the frame so the door wouldn't close). After arguing for 30 minutes, we finally got our money back and at 11:30pm embarked to find a new hostel. 6 hostels later, more or less, we found this wonderful backpacker's hostel that was super nice to us. The insides all had interesting signs and designs. It was very laid back and located in the equivelant of Lincoln Road- shops, bars, outdoor restaurants. It's was lovely.

Friday we woke up expecting to do the bike and wine tour, but since it was feriado (holiday- again!) in Argentina we wound up just walking around the city. We tried to go to the zoo, but that too was closed, so we wound up randomly finding a national monument to General Martin in the middle of a huge park and walked around and looked at some art work. That afternoon we took naps, chatted with some british people we met at the hostel and went to the town feria. As much as I love outdoor markets, I think I am feria-ed out. I think this must have been our 9th or 10th feria since coming to Buenos Aires and I just can't buy more of the same stuff. Still tempting though..

Saturday we woke up super early for the main event: bikes and wine tours. In pure argentine fashion it took about 2 hrs more than expected to get to the city, Maipu and get our bikes. When we finally did get riding though it was just such a wonderful experience. I hadn't been on a bike in years and years and I wasn't sure I could hack it. Especially that long of a distance. Especially after touring vineyards. But the program was wonderfully spaced out and throughout the course of 11am-6pm we toured a few vineyards, went to an olive oil plant, lunched at a close vineyard (two course meal and a wine tasting for about $8UDS- amazing!) and biked over 20 miles. It was surreal it was so wonderful.

This morning we woke up and the group split up: half went paragliding (no thank you, I value my life and don't trust argentine safety very much) while a friend and went white water rafting and rapelling. The water was calm for this time of the year (class 2 rapids) but it was so nice to be out in the mountains, away from cars and noise, and just be on the water. We also wound up sharing a raft with a friend of a friend that's studying abroad in Chile right now. He was just in for the weekend-- what a small world! After an hour of rafting, more or less, we sat outside and had lunch by the river. I took a 2hr nap in the sun and enjoyed the unseasonably warm weather (it was about 75 during the middle of the day!). Finally got some color so that's nice.

I'm incredibly exhausted and need to figure out what in the world I'm doing for my ISP proposal due tomorrow morning. Still no contacts from this organizaiton so it's time to panic, a bit.

The weekend was wonderful. I want to go back, already. It really made me realize that as much as I love cities and the motion that comes with them, that I really am happiest when I'm outdoors. Immediately, upon being back in Buenos Aires I am stressed again. I'm glad I now know that about myself