Happy St. Patrick's Day!

There are actually a surprising amount of Irish pubs here in Buenos Aires, but that is besides the point of this blog post. Classes started last week, and everyone's been asking me how they went. So here you go:

My first one, on Tuesday, was "Argentina en Palabras," my class that follows modern Argentine history through literature. I was super excited for it because I have already taken History of Argentina at GW and wanted to get a different perspective. The class is at 12:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so Sailee and I met up at 12 for a cafe before class. We wanted to recap the night before, which had been our friend Laura's 21st birthday. No matter what country you're in, birthday nights call for recaps. We finished our coffees and headed to the first UCA building, where we had been told class was. Little did we know that classes are not usually in the first UCA building since it is where most administrative offices are. When we tried to climb the main staircase to the third floor, we were stopped by a security guard. Now, I have tried to avoid these security guards as much as possible because though they are rent-a-cops hired by the university to enforce the dress code and generally keep order, I have no interest in contact with any type of law enforcement during my time here. Except maybe to ask directions. Needless to say, when we were asked who we were and where we were going, and for our UCA IDs, and then told to turn around and go to the information desk, I was a little shaken. We went to the desk and she whipped out a list and asked us for our names. I thought, Great, a list, we're going on the list. Maybe of American exchange students who can't find their way around. Wrong, we were already there. Turns out it was the class roster, and we had to be swiped up a special elevator to where our class was. We have to check in, and get swiped up, every time we have class. 

Obviously this is not normal Argentine class procedure. The reason this particular class was in a restricted area of the school was because it is in the PEL program, the program that is geared toward exchange students though all the classes are held in Spanish. These classes apparently get the short end of the stick when being assigned rooms. 

My other class, the advanced Spanish one, is going to be great. I have already spoken more in that class than I think I did the entire intensive course. I am still trying out Political Science classes, they start this week so I'm going to my first one tonight. Wish me luck. 

Most of the girls from GW and I are going to Chile for Semana Santa since we have 5 days off from school!! We are spending 2 days in Valparaiso and 3 days in Santiago, coming back on Easter. Hope everyone is enjoying Spring Break!

Besoss,

N