It is Orientation Week at UCA, and every afternoon we've had activities to do. Yesterday they brought in two professional tango dancers who have toured around the country to give us awkward exchange students a beginner class. We started with walking. Walking, you say, I do that everyday, it can't be that hard. Nope, in tango there is a specific standing pose you start from (shoulders forward with your chest out, feet together) and move forward with your feet following your hips. I lost my balance a couple times and couldn't help laughing at myself, but imagine my excitement when finally I got a "muy bien!" However, then we had to pair up. I was asked to dance by a Frenchman who smelled like cigarettes and hair gel and who told me he only came to the tango class because his friends were. This was disappointing since I had been looking forward to it all week. We practiced walking for a little before one of the teachers intervened and had me dance with him for the rest of the time. This was much better, and I was able to concentrate on getting it right rather than making conversation, which sounds rude but is true. After getting the walk down pat, it was time to move on to a "paso clasico," apparently one of the most basic steps in tango which involves one step to the side, two steps backward, one step where you cross your feet and another step to the side. At this point I was paired with another Frenchman who was a much better dancer, and we got the hang of it quickly. We even got another "muy bien!" In all, it was a very successful first tango experience and I cannot wait to learn more. We got a recommendation for a tango club in Palermo from one of the teachers and plan to check it out soon.
Today was course registration, which was an... experience. I am used to the GW way of doing it which is all online and done from the comfort of your dorm room. Here, they herded all the exchange students into an auditorium where each facultad, or department, had set up a table. From there you had to go to each facultad you wanted to take a class in to find out the time and days of the classes you wanted. The schedules with the timetables were unique as well. The classes are organized by year (out of 4 years), and then by "tema," or section, A B or C, and then by whether the class was offered in the morning or in the afternoon. Any given class could have been on 10 different sheets, but you don't know which one until you've looked at them all. Then you had to fill out a registration sheet with your first and second time choices and the code of the class, give it to the advisor, and hope he doesn't lose it. Ayayay. Anyway, I went to the Political Science & International Affairs table, the Communications table, and the History and Literature table before I found a few classes that fit with my required Spanish class and a Spanish literature class that I had already chosen. I am only going to end up staying in one of them since I only need 3 classes to transfer to GW but since we have a 2-week shopping period before we are locked into our classes I thought I'd go to a few and see which ones I like best. Right now the one that sounds most interesting is a poli sci class called "Politica Exterior Argentina," which loosely translates to "Argentina Foreign Policy." It also works nicely with my other two classes, giving me mainly afternoon classes.
Next week we have off for a week before classes start on March 10, and some friends and I are going to Mar del Plata, the biggest resort town in Argentina. I am really excited to go to the beach and get a tan, as well as see more of the country. I don't know what the internet situation will be, but I'll update when I get back as well as upload pictures of the last month.
Besos!!!
N
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