Sábado 16 de noviembre 

Hola a todos! We have made it to our final destination of Global Semester: Buenos Aires, Argentina. We spent 26 hours flying from Beijing to Dallas and then from Dallas to Buenos Aires, but we are happy and excited that we are finally here. A lot of us weren’t able to sleep on the plane ride or had very little sleep, so we are looking forward to catching up on our sleep. As soon as we arrived, we met Hernán, who is part of the CIEE program that we will be part of this month. CIEE is a non-profit organization called the Council on International Educational Exchange and they promote international education and exchanges abroad. Hernán picked us up at the airport, we had our hotel check-in, and went to a local restaurant for lunch. The restaurant had very delicious food and typical dishes from Argentina. A lot of us got the “milanesa napolitana con fritas” which is a very traditional dish consisting of a breaded and fried piece of meat with ham and cheese on top and fries on the side. Since Argentina is known for its dulce de leche, a lot of us ordered a flan with dulce de leche for dessert. Another typical dessert in Argentina is “dulce de batata y membrillo con queso” and we were able to try this at the restaurant. Dulce de batata is made of sweet potatoes and it is similar to a jelly and dulce de membrillo is similar, but it is made of the quince fruit. Both of these jellies are served with cheese and it adds a savory spark to it. We concluded the day with an orientation on safety and transportation with CIEE, which is a program that is hosting us this month. Afterwards, we all went to bed really early in order to catch up with our sleep!

Domingo 17 de noviembre 

Buenos días! We started our morning doing a city tour with our tour guide Gabriel who gave us a glimpse of this amazing and vibrant Latin American city. Buenos Aires is the capital and the largest city of Argentina. It is a city that has many things to offer such as 160 museums, 287 theatres, 380 bookstores, 7000 restaurants, and many other attractions. Buenos Aires is located on the shore of Río de la Plata, which is located 150 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. Locals are referred to as “porteños” because historically most people arrived here by boat from Europe. Buenos Aires has many neighborhoods and we were able to get a glimpse of some of them. Each neighborhood has its own personality, but they all make up the beautiful city of Buenos Aires. There are 48 vibrant neighborhoods in Buenos Aires and some of the ones we were able to see are: San Telmo, La Boca, Recoleta, Puerto Madero, and Microcentro. San Telmo is one of the oldest neighborhoods and it has a tango and arts scene. There are weekly antique markets, cobblestones, galleries, and beautiful old buildings–this all adds to a Bohemian atmosphere. La Boca is a very colorful neighborhood that offers the famous soccer stadium of ‘La Bombonera,’ and ‘Caminito’ which is a colorful artists’ street by the water. Recoleta is the neighborhood that we are staying in and it has a lot of historical and architectural interest. It has many iconic buildings and a lot of Parisian style architecture. This neighborhood has many restaurants, cafes, boutiques, malls, parks, and plazas. Puerto Madero is a neighborhood right on the water that has many restaurants, malls, and many office buildings. Microcentro is the downtown of Buenos Aires. Here , you can find landmarks such as the ‘obelisco’ and Teatro Colón. These landmarks are along the busy Avenida 9 de julio, which is the widest avenue in the world. Other landmarks here include: Plaza del Congreso, Plaza de Mayo, and Casa Rosada (the office of the President of Argentina). These are just a few of the many neighborhoods that make up the city of Bs As and I am excited to explore all of them during our one month stay! On another note, we also had a welcome dinner and celebrated Ryan Torbenson’s 22nd birthday, so happy birthday Ryan! 

Lunes 18 de noviembre 

Today was a national holiday in Argentina, so we were able to relax and sleep more. Today was the celebration of the National Sovereignty Day (Día de la Soberanía Nacional), which commemorates the Battle of Vuelta de Obligado. This battle happened when an Anglo-French navy came to the Parana River on November 20, 1845 against the will of Argentina and the battle ended with an Argentine defeat. It was a very relaxing day and most of us prepared or bought food and had a picnic at parks near our apartments. We are getting used to our neighborhood and figuring out where the grocery store is and what restaurants we have nearby. Today was also a good day to explore and get more familiar with our neighborhood, overall it was a peaceful and relaxing day.  

Martes 19 de noviembre

Hoy es el primer día de clases! Today was the first day of our month-long course entitled “Arts in Argentina: Transition and Transformation.” In this course we will look at Argentine art through history and social aspects, and we will examine different trends in culture and politics. We are also continuing our “Education in Global Contexts” class in Buenos Aires, so we will soon be visiting schools as part of that class. After our two classes today, we had an excursion to the “Museo Nacional de la Inmigración,” which is the national immigration museum that highlights the various waves of immigration that arrived to Buenos Aires. This museum is located in the “Hotel de los Inmigrantes” which is an institution that gave free housing, orientation, and training to immigrants that arrived to Buenos Aires from 1911 to 1953. The museum highlights the importance of the various waves of immigration from Europe, Asia, and Africa at the end of the 19th century, but also the waves of immigration from Latin America that have happened in the 20th century. The exhibitions show every stage of immigrating to Buenos Aires, including the journey itself, arrival to Buenos Aires, and integration into society. We were able to see examples of the beds where immigrants slept, the documents they had to fill out once they arrived in Buenos Aires, photographs of different people, and testimonies. The same building also has the Center of Contemporary Art, so we were able to see art exhibitions from various international artists. For example, we were able to see different art exhibits from the artists Martha Rosler from USA and Diego Vivanco from Argentina. I really liked Martha Rosler’s art exhibit called “puede que esta vez sea diferente” which translates to “maybe this time will be different.” This art exhibit is the first one she has done in Argentina and as part of it she has created a library and the topic of her art exhibit is feminist art. She collaborated with universities and museums in Argentina in order to create a library where all the books are in Spanish and from Argentina. The books that were chosen are heavily focused on feminism around Buenos Aires and the books can be easily accessed by the public. There are comfy couches and people are able to make photocopies of the books. This museum visit was rich in art and culture and it just makes me more excited about all the other site visits that we will do as part of our arts class. 

Miércoles 20 de noviembre 

Today was a very fun day, after our arts class we had our very first lessons of tango! We talked about tango in class and how it has evolved over the years. Before, most tango songs didn’t have lyrics to them and there had to be a man leading the dance and the woman was the follower. Now, there are many tango songs that have lyrics to them and two people of the same gender can dance together. We went to a tango club called ‘La Viruta’ where they offer tango, milonga, salsa, and bachata classes. We had a lot of fun in the class and it was a class open for the public, so we were able to meet and practice our dancing with other people from Argentina and visitors from other places around the world. We will be taking tango classes every week, so I am very excited to become better at this beautiful and traditional Argentinian dance. 

This sums up our first week in Argentina! With time moving way too fast it is important to remember that we still have one month left to enjoy each other’s company and to see new things. I will sure be savoring and enjoying every moment of Global Semester, thanks for reading. Gracias y hasta luego!

— Laura Garcia Pimentel ’20