Tips for Future Travelers

I came back from Peru and Argentina having grown a lot. I was able to experience so much and change my views of those places, of the world, and of myself. To keep track of how I grew, to make sure I could share my experiences when I got home, and to ensure that I could apply what I learned to my life in Dallas, I took certain measures and learned new things I could do during and after my trip. Here they are:

• Bring a camera!!! And extra batteries. If possible, download pictures each night in case something happens to the camera 
• Take said camera everywhere with you, but be careful not to be a flashy tourist or there will be no more camera!
• Bring jackets and coats with inside pockets: you won’t have to carry a purse and all your important things are close to you 
• Write down what you did every day and how you felt. Even between the beginning and end of the trip, you’ll find places that you want to go back to! That being said, it’s always a good idea to have a small notepad and pen to write down names, addresses, and emails of people you meet.
• Keep a blog…it’s a good idea to keep in touch with family and everyone, so this makes it a lotttt easier than writing individual emails to different people 
• Tell your friends about the things you’re seeing and doing and how it changed your views 
• Bring back lots of things to show and share with your family and friends. I wish so much that I hadn’t hesitated a second on what to buy and bring back. Seriously, it’s probably cheaper than you think and you will want to share a small piece of your trip with everyone, so come back prepared!
• Keep practicing the language when you get back or look up the national news from that country 
• Make the most of each experience and do all that you can because you’ll never know what it could have been 
• Budget ahead of time and look up schedules for things you want to see so that you can fit everything in 
• Take lots of pictures as memories!
• Make sure you bring back something for yourself to remember your trip in addition to gifts for family and friends More than anything, be okay with being uncomfortable! This whole experience is about getting out of your norms and trying new things, so assume that you will be in awkward or surprising situations: that’s how you learn :) 

Good Luck and have a wonderful trip!

Centro, Buenos Aires in front of Rodin's El Pensador

Argentina group at Iguazu Falls in Argentina. The 18 hr bus ride each way was entirely worth it!

Highlights from Irene's trip to Argentina

Photo: Marissa and me jumping and attempting a "Whoosh!" in front of the Floralis Generica

During my first weekend in Buenos Aires, my friends Marissa, Husain, and I all went to the Buenos Aires Zoo together. Upon entering, we were surprised and pleased to discover that many animals were just wandering around loose on the path, including ducks and some strange animal that looked like a combination rabbit and dog. After holding out on spending the money for awhile, I finally broke down and bought a bag of food, which all three of us shared. It was a good purchase, as we proceeded to feed zebras, llamas, goats, deer, lemurs, giraffes, and several other animals. We had the most fun with the giraffes, because if you threw the food far enough away from them, they would extend their super long and flexible tongues to get it. Overall we had a great time; the day wasn't too hot, and the zoo was very pretty, although a bit run down. Later when I discussed this excursion with my Spanish teacher, she suggested I check out a larger zoo called Temaiken, where the visitors can supposedly pet most of the animals, including wild animals such as tigers. Unfortunately I ran out of time to explore this other zoo, as it was a bit of a trip to go there, but I had a great time with the animals in Buenos Aires nonetheless.

During my first week in Buenos Aires, I began attending Spanish classes at the Fundacion de Ortega y Gasset. My Spanish teacher's name was Juliette, and it was just Lye-Yeng and me in the advanced Spanish class, so we received lots of personal attention. Juliette was by far the best Spanish teacher I have had in my life. She was incredibly knowledgeable about linguistics and therefore was very good at explaining things. She spoke in Spanish the entire time during class, but she was very easy to understand and had lots of insight on Argentine Spanish and culture. The first day of class we discussed differences between Argentine Spanish and Latin American Spanish that I had been totally unaware of, such as pronouncing "ll" as a "j" and changing verb conjugations in the second person singular. We also spent a lot of time in class discussing differences between American, Argentine, Malaysian, and Moroccan culture, all in Spanish of course. I could tell my Spanish was improving every day, and I was glad we had so many oral exercises in class. It was also helpful and exciting that Juliette also taught Latin at the university in Buenos Aires. Sometimes she was able to better teach me a concept in Spanish by relating it to Latin.

I had some good times with friends in Buenos Aires. One Saturday, Marissa and I went to Recoleta together and wandered around the large weekend market they have there for several hours. Afterwards we attempted to enter the cemetery, but it closed right as we approached the gates. To make up for this unfortunate event we walked to the nearby Floralis Generica, a large metal flower sculpture that opens and closes its petals depending on the time of day. We felt it was necessary to take some cliche tourist photos in front of the flower, and we proceeded to do so for almost an hour, having way to much fun in the process. The flower is very amazing and beautiful and is a nice touch to the city.

During the middle of the trip the group found out about an upcoming concert at the famous stadium Luna Park. La Fuerza Bruta, an Argentine acrobatics team that is similar to the American Blue Man Group was giving performances over several nights there. The entire group eagerly purchased tickets for the show, but unfortunately I was a bit slow on the uptake and did not figure out my plans for that night until it was too late to buy a ticket. I was extremely disappointed, especially when I heard reports from the others the next day about how awesome and interactive the show had been. I determined that I would make up for my situation by buying tickets for a later performance, even if I had to go alone. Based on tips from my friends, who were disappointed in the seats they had had, I purchased tickets for the pit. While I would have to stand during the entire show, these "seats" would be more exciting because the acrobats would enter and perform in the pit. Sure enough the performance was very exciting! The show was a combination of percussive music, inscrutable acting, and acrobatics. It featured movable stages and cranes that were constantly being driven in and out of the pit, forcing the audience to have to move out of the way continuously, as well as a large plastic beehive sheet that was thrown over the audience on which the acrobats ran, and two large clear plastic swimming pools that were lowered close enough over the audience's heads, so that they could touch the girls that were swimming in them, through the plastic of course. At one point water was dumped on the audience in the pit, and the entire pit routinely became a mosh pit. Needless to say, I was soaking wet and a bit dirty by the time the entire show was over, but I had a great time and enjoyed talking about the show with some new Argentine friends as I took the subway home.

As the end of the trip drew near, some friends and I realized that we had been to only one milonga, La Catedral, and that even this milonga probably wasn't representative of most Argentina milongas. Determined to remedy this situation, Jessica and I headed to a new milonga one evening. We arrived, and the place seemed crowded and very fun. They were alternating between tango music and other kinds of music such as salsa and rock-and-roll. We eventually found a table, and I ordered some lemon ice cream. While I was happily eating my lemon ice cream, determined that I would never dance, but hoping that Jessica would get asked to dance, so she could show off her tango skills, an older man approached me and asked for a dance. I was horrified. I immediately declined and told him to ask Jessica instead, but this cute old man was very insistent and told me he would wait till I finished my lemon ice cream and then we could dance. Despite my continuous protestations, I soon realized that my only option in this situation was to dance with the nice man, which was unfortunate for me since I knew no tango whatsoever, or any kind of dance really. Luckily this man (I think his name was Eduardo, but I don't remember for sure) was very patient and kind and taught me a few basic steps and one more fancy step. I could tell that he was a very good dancer, as I always knew where we were heading on the dance floor and I never got stepped on, even when I was not doing the steps correctly. While I'm sure I was horrible, I had a very fun time and enjoyed the tips he gave me ("Don't look at your feet"), as well as the stories he told me about his daughter who lives in Florida. To my surprise, after that performance, he asked me to dance again for some rock-and-roll songs. At this point I started to feel bad, because I, with no dance experience and really no desire to dance, was getting asked regularly, while Jessica, with tons of dance experience and a huge desire to dance some more tango before leaving Buenos Aires, had not gotten asked yet. The situation was only exacerbated when I was asked to dance again, this time by a different and younger guy. He was not as good and kept running us into other dancers, but I appreciated that he too provided me some lessons on basic steps while we were dancing. We must have been a humorous dance couple, as he was much shorter than me. Once again I had more fun than I thought I would, and I left the milonga in a good mood.

Buenos Aires: First Impressions from Irene

Photo: Irene in front of the Casa Rosada (Pink House), which is where the president of Argentina works

As I entered the city of Buenos Aires for the first time there were two things I immediately noticed: traffic and trash. These things make the city very different from most US cities.

As my fellow travelers and I quickly discovered, crossing the street is a matter of life and death, and you often have to "play Frogger" with the cars, especially if you're crossing a road with two-way traffic. Luckily most of the roads here are one-way only, and there are several pedestrian streets on which you will only be bothered by the occasional moped. Interestingly enough, however, the city of Buenos Aires is still much more pedestrian friendly than most US cities. There are plenty of sidewalks and crosswalks, and there are other people walking everywhere, so you always have the protection of the masses when crossing a street. And when it comes down to it, the cars here will not actually hit you. I have already had several brushes with death while crossing the streets here, but the cars have always stopped and given me room to pass, even if I was the one "breaking the law" and even if they were angry about doing it. I put "breaking the law" in quotes here, because traffic laws seem very lax here. Stop signs are nonexistent; at many intersections cars just slowly nose their way forward until they can see if someone else is coming or not. And while there are lanes painted on the streets, no one stays in them, and mopeds are even known to drive up onto the sidewalk in order to pass some glut of cars that is in their way.

Another noticeable aspect of the city is the trash that is everywhere. In the US we have a mentality that it is almost morally reprehensible to litter, and that if you have some trash in your hand you have to hold onto it until you find a trash can where you can dispose of it properly. That mentality does not exist here. People drop trash onto the sidewalk, into the gutters, out their car windows, into the subte tracks, and the trash is anywhere and everywhere. In addition, people do not clean up after their dogs, probably because the owners are not usually the ones walking the dogs; a dog walker is. So the city is very dirty, and you constantly have to watch your step. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that the garbage collectors will occasionally go on strike (This happened once while we were visiting), and the uncollected bags of trash will simply lie around for days on end until they begin work again. Buenos Aires does not really have a recycling program in the way a US citizen would think of it, but they do have very poor men and women who root through the trash for recyclable goods that they can sell for money. This is a very sad sight to see, but is an appropriate image of the economic plight of the city combined with this other waste collection problem.

As I spent more time in the city, I quickly realized that traffic and trash were not the only distinguishing characteristics of Buenos Aires.

The city is very busy and runs around the clock. If you want to buy a bag of milk (Yes, they sell milk in bags here) at 4am, you can do that. And the interesting thing is, you probably won't be the only person doing that. I don't know if this is the case in big US cities like New York, but I know that this is a huge contrast to a city like Dallas. In Dallas proper, almost everything will be closed by 10pm, and in Richardson, where UTD is located, most businesses are closed by 8pm, if not earlier. I love the late-night rhythm of Buenos Aires. The people here tend to stay up very late -- talking, dancing, clubbing, buying bags of milk, working -- and then sleep in late as well. It seems that most jobs do not expect their employees at 8am sharp as in the US. In addition, if you do go out late to party, the scene won't get very exciting until at earliest 2am. This is hard for us US citizens, who are used to heading home from the clubs at 3am or 4am, while here they are just getting started at that time.

In addition, the public transportation system here is very good, better than any public transportation I've experienced in the US. Marissa and I ride the subte (subway) to school every day, which is a crazy experience. In the mornings, the subtes are jam-packed with people trying to get to work. When I say jam-packed, I mean more jam-packed than anything someone from the US could imagine. Standing on the subte during rush hour, your body will be touching the bodies of at least five other people. With so many people around you, you cannot tell if the guy behind you is feeling you up, trying to pick your pocket, or simply touching you unintentionally. I feel like the subte is a living organism. It arrives at the platform, and everyone presses their bodies together toward the opening doors. Then once you make it through the doors you are swallowed by the subte, and your body is not your own anymore. You have no control over where in the car you will end up, because you cannot move; the crowd moves you. However, despite the highly cramped conditions, the subte will get you where you want to go. The city of Buenos Aires is HUGE, but the subte covers a good chunk of it, and what you can't reach via subte you can reach via colectivo (bus). Colectivos are just like buses in the US, except they go faster and farther, and there are hundreds in the city of Buenos Aires, so there is always one to get you where you need to go. The don't run on a schedule; you just wait at the stop until one comes, but you usually don't have to wait more than 15 minutes, unlike in Dallas, where I have spent more than an hour waiting for the bus I needed to arrive. You do have to be careful not to miss your stop, especially if you are not familiar with the city. When in doubt, take a taxi. I disagree with the advice we were given and think it is perfectly OK to hail a taxi from the street, so long as you know what to look for to make sure the cab is safe. All you have to do is tell the driver the address, and he will know exactly where to take you, and it will probably only cost about 24 peses (6 USD).

The city of Buenos Aires, as well as the nation of Argentina, is definitely in a severe economic situation right now. Many people are without work, and the people you see on the subtes or walking in the streets look very somber. Everyone wears dark colors, and one of the primary ways foreigners stand out is by the bright clothes that they wear. The peso is worth much less than the dollar, and the public has not gained back the morale it lost during the economic crisis of 2001. It is depressing to see a country that was once so great in such a slump. Even the architecture manifests this situation. Grand old European-style buildings are crumbling throughout the city; it is as if the people don't care about preserving these architectural masterpieces, or don't have the money to do so, or both. I wish I could have seen Argentina in its initial days of splendor around the turn of the century, when it was one of the top economic powers in the world, but instead I am viewing the product of decades of coups, dictatorships, human rights abuses, and corruption. It is an important lesson for all nations, including the US, about the impact that bad government can have on an economic superpower.

Prisha is "fortunate to meet so many people."

Although it is a weekend, my roommates and I woke up early today to make it to Casa Rosada on time for our tour. It’s still surprising to me that foreigners like us could visit the executive branch of the Argentine government with such ease. Though we were only allowed into a few of the rooms inside the building, it was a very unique opportunity, and after today, we could all say that for a brief moment, we stood on the same balcony that Eva Peron used to address the crowds gathered outside during her husband’s reign.

After the tour, I visited Husain’s host family while my roommates left for a spot of shopping. Though it was the first time we met, Husain’s family invited me to join them for lunch, and I had a great time talking to the kids and learning about their day-to-day lives. After lunch, we shifted to the living room and watched a very important club football game against River Plate and Belgrano. Although the family’s favorite team, Boca Juniors, did not play in the game, it was enough that Boca’s arch-rivals, River Plate, lost the game for the family celebrate with hilarious songs and cheers.
By the time we were done with the merrymaking, it was time for evening tea, and I got a chance to once again talk to the parents about Argentine culture, and later, play catch with the kids. Although I did not initially plan on staying so long, I had a great time with the family and learned so much from them. It was not easy to say good-bye, but I promised to return before leaving. After numerous hugs and kisses on the cheek, Husain and I headed over to my host family’s house for dinner.
Our host mother had a dinner party that very night and gave my roommates and I permission to invite a few of our friends. However, we were in charge of cooking dinner and fortunately for me, my roommates are talented chefs and only required a very little of my assistance to create a thoroughly American meal consisting of rice, gumbo, potato salad, chocolate chip cookies, and ice cream. It was during dinner, while talking to our host mother’s friends, that I realized how much I have come to appreciate the way of life in Argentina.

I’m truly fortunate to meet so many people who continue to make my experiences in this country so wonderful. Overall, today was a fantastic day, and I am thrilled that I had a chance to meet so many such incredible people and learn so much about their culture and day-to-day lives.

Husain ends his trip to Argentina

The last week in Argentina has been great. We went to Tigre, a city north of Buenos Aires with beatiful river tributaries. We were able to talk to members of the Buenos Aires Rowing Club, and also toured the river by boat. There were many beautiful houses lining the river bank along with lots of shrubbery and trees.
We were also able to experience walking the streets of the Once neighborhood, which was lined with clothing stores and busy people. I also got to spend some time with my host father, talking about all sorts of topics. He has helped me very much in settling in the country and in learning the language. It has also been very fun to joke with him, as he has a lot of good humor. I will certainly miss living with the Carroll family; living with them has made this trip a wonderful experience.
Tomorrow will be the last day of classes, and will be a day full of goodbyes. Looking back, we've learned several things about Argentina's history, culture, and language that has enriched our knowledge. I'm glad to have completed this course and experience, and hope that future students in this program have a great experience as well.

Argetina group thoughts

Jessica H---
Meals have been one of my favorite parts of Argentina, and not just because my host mom is a great cook! Meals are always an interesting mix of Spanish and English (and sometimes even French, since I took it in high school) in order for me to accomplish basic communication. The first week, dinner took about 3 hours every night. We started around 9pm and finished close to 12am, when our host mom, Mama Catalina as she has us call her, finally shoos us out of the kitchen when we try to do the dishes yet again.

Mama Catalina, Jess, Prisha, and I have had some really fun nights. One of my favorite memories is the time I mixed up wedding and deer, and no one could stop laughing long enough to explain what had happened! I have learned so much about Argentine culture around our dinner table and I think that our family dinners will be memories I cherish the most when I leave here

Husain M --
The Buenos Aires experience so far has had a myriad of meaningful sights, sounds, and smells. A walk in the Plaza de Mayo has shown us the Casa Rosada, the Cathedral, and buildings of varying architecture. We saw the Madres de Mayo (mother's of victims of the Dirty War) in their weekly demonstrations as well. Visits to the Parque de la Memoria and the ESMA (a former detention center) have also helped us understand the dark details of the war.
A day trip to an estancia (a ranch for Argentine gauchos) has given us another view on the culture here. The environment was serene, with a vast blue sky and a wide expanse of flat, green land. Riding horses, eating asado (barbequed) beef, and talking with the gauchos made this a memorable day.
Other great places include the Buenos Aires Zoo, the Botanical Garden, and the Teatro Colon. Daily life on the streets has been fun with perusing through markets, eating pastries at confiterias/panaderias, and appreciating the ubiquitous street art.
A full weekend at Puerto Iguazu was incredible with viewing the waterfalls at the National Park. A raft ride through the falls got us all soaked, but we were able to dry off on the sun-exposed beach of Isla de San Martin. The next day we went to the Iguazu Forest to do rappelling and canopying. We were also able to visit Tres Frenteras, the point from which we could see Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina all at once!

Prisha G--
Although the thought of living with a complete stranger was initially daunting, I am very fortunate to have “Mama Catalina” as my host mother. With her kindness and generosity, she has made it possible for my roommates and I to feel right at home in her 10th floor apartment in the middle of Buenos Aires. Though we were strangers to her just three short weeks ago, Mama Catalina has embraced us with kindness and dotes on us all of the time.
While we are busy during the day and spend most of our time far from the house, all of us look forward to returning just in time for the nightly dinner and the hilarious conversations that ensue. Spending time with her and other families has enabled me to realize that this is the way of life in Argentina. Families are of the foremost importance, and the people here cherish spending hours at the dinner table sharing stories of misadventures and even day-to-day occurrences.
Through Spanish, English, and a little bit of gesturing, I have learned about the importance of family to the people of this country, and it’s a lesson I want to take back home with me.