Going Dutch

It's been another very long day- I woke up at 7:00 to walk to the Hospital, it's now 1:30am. I've walked for a little less than three hours of my day and I was just dropped off at my apartment after a very late dinner.

I should really sleep, but if I don't write now I'm going to forget. So...

The hospital was much better today, though I was still practically falling asleep for most of the morning. I haven't been getting much sleep. But even though it was a struggle to literally keep from hitting chin to chest as I was nodding off, I stayed in the patient's room throughout the whole exam- so that's a win in my book. Also, because I don't know most of the medical terminology Paige has been translating for me and explaining the different diseases/treatments which has made it a lot more interesting.

After the morning in the Hospital I went to a fruit & vegetable street market with Cami that is about three blocks south of the apartment and only open on Thursday mornings. From there I walked to class, which was once again slow. Verrry slow. But I like my teacher Jose more and more; he's hilarious and incredibly laid back. Every day he works into the conversation a joke about how his American students should make him chocolate chip cookies since he can't find them in Argentina. I think maybe over the weekend I'll try and find the ingredients and make them for Monday.

Sometimes I think he makes jokes at the expense of one of the guys in my class who is friendly, but gives off a very strong only child vibe. It's a little frustrating, he brags in a way that seems like he is completely unaware of what life outside of prep-schools and the private-liberal-arts-bubble is like (...sounds familiar). Every once in a while Jose will say something that I think only I catch. I can tell Jose is very liberal, and after a very political class yesterday I think that he probably realizes that my classmate who he has been joking with is conservative. Conservative by American standards doesn't really exist in Argentina. Northern Europe is considered very moderate and in Jose's words, "In Argentina, the far right end of the political spectrum is where the left of ends in America". I don't think that factors into their interactions in a very direct way, but I can tell by how they both speak that they have entirely different perspectives on life and I wonder how much of that has translated into politics...

While on the subject of politics, I was pretty surprised when the doctors told me that healthcare and education are completely free, even for foreigners. In the set of 5 vaccines I got before leaving the U.S. last month I somehow never got the basic flu shot. This is problematic when you're working in a hospital specializing in infectious disease where the flu (H1N1) can be lethal. I told one of the doctors that I never got the shot and he pointed me down the hall to a line of people. I stood in line for five minutes, told a nurse I needed the flu vaccine, they pricked my arm, I wrote down my name, and that was everything. I didn't need to pay, I didn't need an ID, they just gave me the shot.

The flip side to this is twofold; the lines are typically long, especially if you're looking for something more complicated than a flu shot, and the equipment and technology available is not what would be expected in the U.S. or even in some of the expensive private hospitals. Yesterday one of the doctors was drawing blood from a patient and asked if we used the same sort of needles in the U.S. His had a plunger and looked basically like what you probably think of when you imagine a clipart drawing of a needle. He told me that in the U.S. he thinks they typically use negative pressure (in english they might be called vacuum tubes or vacuum tube needles, I'm not positive) and that it's a much safer method because they aren't prone to user error the way his needle can be. Thinking back to the times I gave blood, I confirmed this, but because my medical background is so minimal I really couldn't say if it's the norm. In response he said that it's not important since 'jeringa básica' is what they have, it's what will be used.

From class I came home, and skyped until about 9:00 when I went to meet Paige, Eric and Sultana (the other students at Hospital Rawson, all of whom I like a lot) for dinner with one of the head doctors of the hospital. He had told Eric and Sultana that he wanted to take us out for Asado, which more or less translates to Argentinian steak at a nice restaurant.

It was one of the nicest places I've ever eaten. He ordered wine for the table, a number of side dishes and we all got HUGE portions of different cuts of meat and desserts after. We talked quite a bit and didn't leave until about 12:30 in the morning. It was a much nicer restaurant than we expected and much more expensive too, but I think we were even more surprised when the doctor who had taken us out for Asado asked us to pay when the check came.

140 pesos each. Not that that's an enormous amount of money, but it comes out to about $30 per person, so I'd consider that an expensive meal for college students. Especially in Argentina where dinner at a nice restaurant rarely exceeds 70 pesos. I wouldn't mind splitting the bill, but where he had driven us to the most expensive restaurant in town, ordered for us and never mentioned money beforehand, I think it was definitely not the best start to a month or so of working with him. Then again, like Eric said afterward, how could we ever go out like that in the U.S. for 30 bucks? And aside from a bit of an uncomfortable situation at the end of the night, it was fun.

Anyway, time to sleep. I've got some pictures I'll upload in the morning. Buenos noches.

Some Pretty Places

Here are a few photos from the past couple of days- most of them are taken right off of Plaza San Martin in the downtown part of Cordoba, but a few are from other parts of the city. Plus me before going to the hospital this morning.

Memorial for those who 'disappeared' during the dictatorships of the 70s/80s. 

Plaza San Martin.

I liked the prominence of th McDonald's sign because the Argentine
gov is opposed to supporting American businesses (most American products are heavily taxed).

Blurry, 7am selfie before my first day.

Parking garage lift in downtown.

Whining

With the exception of running in the park with Paige, this has been kind of a crummy day. I've been trying to skype with some family and friends all week and no one has been able to, I got nauseous on my first real day at the hospital and (twice) had to leave a patient's room to lie on the floor of the bathroom, and at Salsa I had a partner who barely smiled, barely talked and didn't dance well- not that you need to be a good dancer to have fun dancing (I'm awful) but it wasn't a particularly fun night... Anyway, all pretty trivial problems, in reality I don't have anything to complain about but I'm whiny and I'm feeling pretty homesick right now and don't have too much to report. Aw well, mañana será mejor.

P.S. I'll upload some pictures soon.

El sonido de Argentina

The biggest difference in the Spanish spoken here as compared to the Tex-Mex I'm used to is that 'll' isn't the english sound "yah" but a softer sound somewhere between a "Shh" "Zhh". For example, calle isn't "k-eye-eh" but "ka-zhh-eh". I think I'm starting to get the hang of it- or at least understand what's going on around me.

For some reason, I find this difference really funny- and apparently the rest of Latin America does as well; Carlos told me today that when he went to Mexico people would come up to him and say "ohhhh, speak Argentinian to me! Hahaha.". But I think the zhhh sound is really ...pretty. Aside from being different and confusing, I think it softens the sound of Spanish- here it sounds a bit more like French or Italian than the Spanish I know.

Which makes sense considering that the Zhh sound comes from Italian. More than 60% of Argentinians are descended from Italian immigrants and so it's had a pretty substantial effect on the culture. In fact, in the 1980s there was a failed attempt to switch the national language to Italian.

It also has a bit of the lilting tone of Italian and (I can't explain this one, because I speak absolutely no French, but) I've noticed that some Argentinians speak English with what sounds to me like a mix of a Spanish and French accent.

So far it's proved pretty difficult to stop myself from reflexively saying "k-EYE-eh" (or "poy-yo" or "yah-vehs" -pollo or llaves) but I'm going to try and speak like a native while I'm here and acquire the Argentine accent.

P.S. They also pronounce the "j" similar to the English pronunciation "jcha" and although they definitely don't speak with the stereotypical lisp of a Spaniard, they do soften or drop the "s" at the end of most words. But I think those are more common throughout different parts of the Spanish speaking world.

P.S.S. Non-American friends: What does the American accent sound like?

Over the past few days I've been reminded of how American I am. I know it by the fact that any Argentinian looking at me seems to know I'm foreign, by the Spanish that goes over my head and the mannerisms I'm just not used to. A simple example; in Argentina most people greet and say goodbye to friends with a kiss on the cheek. Though it's probably closer to brushing cheeks with someone. When the first friend of Cami's I met was saying goodbye, he kissed her on the cheek and then tried me, I tried to hug him, and the result was a very awkward nudge to the ear.

It went something like this.

But more than little mannerisms like personal space or hello kisses, being abroad has shown me how much my mentality has been affected by where I am from. I spent most of Saturday and Sunday feeling very American.

I'm also starting to see how Beijing has affected me also. When I got to China I wasn't prepared for it at all. I was 17 and had just graduated high school, I felt like I was missing out on a fun semester with my friends and boyfriend. I wasn't focused on learning Chinese or genuinely experiencing life in another country the way I now wish I had been. I spent a lot of time hiding in my dorm room.

Right now, I'm ready.

And meeting the other American students on the program last night drove that point home.

Last night, after two days with Cami and her friends and some time to contemplate how completely American I am, I got a text from one of the other CFHI interns saying that the group who would be here for June was meeting for dinner and would I like to join? I was pretty eager to meet the people I'll be working with, so they picked me up at the apartment and we walked to the main square for dinner.

We ate at an expensive restaurant (although the bill only came out to about $14 USD per person), spoke English the whole time and more-or-less spent the night introducing ourselves. Two of our group had already been here for 3 weeks and were 2nd year medical students at UT Galveston. The other three had also just arrived. Two are rising pre-med juniors and one is a 2nd year med student at U of Tulsa. Except for Paige, the U of Tulsa student, ALL of us were either from Texas or went to school there (really strange coincidence!).

In fact, there were a lot of strange coincidences, but maybe I'll write more about that later. All in all, I really liked the group, they were friendly and easy to talk to and I think they'll be fun to work with, although there was definitely some med-student style competitive bragging >_<. Also, I think I'll particularly like Paige, the girl I am paired with for the next few weeks. As a bonus, our skills are well matched; she has the medical knowledge, and I think relative to the rest of the group, my Spanish is pretty good.

Anyway, by the time we got up to go I didn't feel so American anymore. Or rather, I felt like I could see how much China had changed how I think by comparison. I can see that some of them are repeating parts of my Beijing experience- like focusing on foreigners and staying shut in. I don't think that's a bad thing depending on your personality or what you're looking for in your time here. But I think that what I am looking for from this summer is different from what they want, and I'm pretty sure it's completely because of how I acted in Beijing.

An example of the opposite experience in China; One of my good friends in Claremont (Evan) went to China last summer, worked at a tech company and stayed with a host family. He left the states not speaking any/much(?) Mandarin, but when I met him on a camping trip before the start of sophomore year, he spoke better than I could, and I had spent triple the time in the country. Now, Evan definitely has a knack for languages and is the sort of person who talks to/is loved by everyone. But what he told me when we met is that he didn't spend time with the other international students on his program, he spent all of his free time with his host family and spoke Chinese as much as possible.

So that's more or less my plan for the summer. I don't want to spend lots of time with other international students. I think really lucked out with my host sister and want to hang out with Cami's friends, go out all night, go to the park, drink mate tea and above all else really finally learn Spanish.

So I guess this blog will record how that works out- maybe by the end of my 2 1/2 months here I'll be mistaken for an Argentinian? Well, that's doubtful, but maybe I'll leave speaking decent Spanish.

Photos of the apartment

Here are a few photos of the apartment. Today I met another one of Cami's friends, Milena. She's in her 5th year of medical studies and we walked around the city together so I could get a feel for the area. Tomorrow I meet the other American students at the language school to go on a tour of the city. I don't start at the hospital until Tuesday because on Monday they have the annual elections for hospital committee positions. I'm still not certain what I'll be doing day-to-day, but I now know I'll be working at hospital within walking distance of the apartment called Hospital Rawson.

Beer and toupees: First Day

First: Be forewarned, this is a really long post; the past 24 hours have been pretty nuts and I haven't slept for more than three continuous hours since Wednesday night. It's about 3:30am on Sunday morning and Cami (my host sister) and I just got back from going to a club with some of her friends. Apparently this was really early because most people don't leave until about 5:00am on weekends. Haha, I'm a geezer; I'm not sure I'll be able to handle that considering that I generally wake up before 8:00 every day...

Some of the highlights of the remainder of the trip included:

• A plane ride that went through a storm over the Amazon and where I was lifted about 5 inches out of my seat by turbulence. The man two rows in front of me lost his toupee in the process. That sounds like something out of a bad sitcom, but it really happened.
• On the same ride the menu choices were "Carne con papas" or "Carne con pollo". In other words "beef with potatoes" or "beef with chicken". When I asked if I had heard the second option correctly my seatmate just answered "Welcome to Argentina".
• Because the plane didn't arrive until about 1:30, I stayed at a hostel near my apartment last night. It was pretty similar to some of the places Christopher and I stayed in China, but for the fact that my room was immediately above the bar and at 2:30 when I arrived it was still packed with people. Haha, so aside from the noise, no hot water and the spider I found in my bed, it was a pretty cool place; really colorful and with a central room where people were playing instruments and board games in the morning.

When I woke up I met Carlos, one of the program coordinators for CFHI, and he took me to get café con leche and croissants (called medioluna in Argentina, meaning 'half moon') and went over some basics of the program and of Argentinian culture. I'm pretty excited because it sounds like I'll have some choice in where I work, and depending on how much my Spanish improves I'll be able to switch to more clinical work next month.

That said, over the course of the day, I've come to realize that my Spanish level is a lot lower than expected. In Nicaragua, my speech was broken, but I could understand most of what was spoken to me. Here, I can tell that my speech, and particularly grammar, is practically non-existent and my understanding isn't far behind. I'm hoping that part of that is because I'm rusty and the accent is unfamiliar and I haven't picked up on the regional slang yet, but regardless of why, I'm really glad I'll be taking some language classes while I'm here.

After breakfast with Carlos he took me to Cami's apartment a couple blocks away. It's on the second floor of a high-rise and it's pretty nice; really bright, exceptionally clean and I even have my own room. I'll take some photos tomorrow morning when it's sunny. Cami is really friendly and I spent the rest of the day with her. She's 23, studying audiology, has three brothers and is from a small town called Pupullo about 12 hours north of Cordoba (though I think I must be butchering the name, because it didn't come up when I searched for it). Cami lived in Virginia when she was younger and is fluent in English, which I see as a mixed blessing. Today she has translated for me a lot, which has been extremely helpful, but I think I'll have to be really careful not to just revert to English around her because it's easy.

First we went to get groceries- fruit in an open-air market a lot like Beijing and then food staples at a store a couple blocks away. When we got back she made a torta, which in Argentina is something like quiche without eggs, or a pie filled with corn and beans. Afterwards I unpacked and passed out until about 6:00 when one of Cami's friends came over. He's studying music and he hung out and we drank mate (a bit like green tea, but minty) and beer and the three of us talked for a few hours. He was really funny, we talked a lot about Argentina and the U.S. and by the time he left I'd promised the two of them I'd teach them how to play beer pong (Haha, a real ambassador for CMC).

Mate mug

                                                           
I also told him that I brought my guitar in hopes of being able to play it by the time I return to the U.S. and he said that he has a lot of friends from school who give lessons and he'll give me their contact information once I'm more settled. I think that sounds really good considering how challenging I find anything/everything musical.

Around 10:00 Cami and I left the apartment to go to another friend's place for dinner (pizza and beer) and then to the club with her friends to celebrate a birthday (where they were also serving pizza and beer). Her friends were all very nice, although at that point I was pretty tired and I don't think I said much at all. The pizza I was surprised by, but I've seen it a lot today I'm guessing it's part of the Italian influence here. Also, it's good pizza, so I don't mind. The beer is less welcome since I still have absolutely no taste for it and no real desire to acquire one. In fact, it's pretty common for me to cringe while dinking it and I'm pretty sure I embarrass myself in the process (Haha, does that cancel out some of those CMC ambassadorial points?).

 Whew, if anyone but my mother makes it here, all the way to the end of this post, I'll be glad and maybe a little surprised (love you mom!) but all in all it's been a really good first day. Awkward and unfamiliar, but definitely a great start.

P.S. A motorcycle alarm just went off right outside my window and I feel like that's the perfect cue to go to bed. And strangely enough, it's kind of comforting, it feels like I'm back in Zijing #20 at Tsinghua.