El Inicio de las Materias

One thing that has definitely been confusing in the past few weeks is that the word commonly used for class (as in I am going to take classes this semester) is "la materia" and not "la clase". Yesterday marked the beginning of las materias at La Universidad Católica Argentina and Universidad del Salvador, both schools where I am planning to take classes.

My first class yesterday was a Cambios Sociales en Argentina durante los Años 60 (Social Changes in Argentina during the 1960s). This class is in UCA's Progama de Estudios Latinoamericanos, which is basically a set of classes taught in Spanish but geared towards exchange students. This way, it is possible to take classes in Argentine history, etc. without being expected to know the same information as someone who has spent their whole life here. Unlike most of the universities here, UCA has a beautiful, new campus and great facilities, but it is still very much like the other schools in a lot of ways. It is a VERY Catholic school with pretty close oversight by the church and is known for having a great art collection but, overall, a more closed-minded attitude. It is difficult to characterize students at any university here, but from what my host mother tells me, UCA students are generally upper middle class/on the slightly wealthier end of the spectrum here. In typical Argentine fashion, the professor showed up about 30 minutes late, but she was just a substitute. The actual professor (who also will not be around for the entire month of September) had a conflict but didn't want to leave us alone on the first day. Despite this, the class was really interesting--we talked a lot about the social influence of Europe on Argentina, especially in the form of new political ideas, comunism, capitalism with government intervention, etc.

After class, I was able to explore the Puerto Madero neighborhood of the city, which is a recently developed waterfront district. My host mother said that it is just Buenos Aires trying to look like Barcelona (the focal point is a bridge designed by Santiago Calatrava), but it reminded me most of Canary Wharf in London (and, like Canary Wharf, it even has its own light rail line!). There are some pictures from that walk at the end of this post.

My second class yesterday was Psicología Social (Social Psychology) in Universidad del Salvador. This is a required class in the school of Sociology, so I was expecting a large class of Sociology students who already knew each other. (Sidenote here: Argentine universities are very career specific, and there is no such thing as a liberal arts education. If you go to school for sociology, then you take only classes required for sociology. No biology, no art classes, no electives....just the sociology track for 5+ years.) Instead, the class was 6-strong, with two Argentine students, 2 American students (myself included), 1 French student, and 1 Equadorian student. The two professors were at least 70 years old, and, while very pleasant, didn't seem to run an efficient classroom. After two hours of "What do you think Social Psychology is?" and writing our answers on the small, graffiti-covered chalkboard, they decided that was enough for the day and sent us home. I was really hoping to meet other Argentine studenst in this class (and hoping to have professors who would actually teach me something about the subject rather than ask for my thoughts on an unfamiliar subject the entire time), so I left somewhat disappointed.

This morning, I tried again. A different USAL Psicología Social in a different school (this time Administración de Recursos Humanos...basically HR management, I guess). This class was much more what I was looking for. The professor only showed up 10 minutes late (aka early), and the class consisted of ~40 Argentine students (who all knew each other from taking the same classes together for 2 years), 1 other student from my program, and myself. This was exactly what I was looking for--it was a bit harder to understand, but this was a much more authentic argentine classroom that was not centered around exchange students. Despite my being an unfamiliar face intruding on a group of long-time classmates, the other students were extremely welcoming, friendly, and curious to talk to two americans. They even came with me to purchase the packett of readings (which, by the way, was less than $10...all of the readings for the whole semester!). As an exercise in Social Psychology, we played a bingo game in which each blank space has a statement and you have to get the signature of someone who fits that description. The blanks included clues like "has travelled to another country" and "can play a musical instrument", and as the only vegetarian in the class (that was one of the clues), I was extremely popular for about 15 minutes. Now pretty much the entire class knows that Jacob, de los Estados Unidos, es vegetariano.

In this facultad (department), one requirement for exchange students is that you interview with an administrator before being allowed to take the class. During the mid-class break, my American friend and I set out for the office, assuming we were about to face a long, bureaucratic process of setting up appointments, etc. Instead, we were welcomed into the office, kissed on the cheek, and had essentially a two minute conversation about where we were from. This was actually just a chance for this guy to talk about his trip to New York last year ("¡Me ENCANTA New York! Es la ciudad más linda en todo el mundo."). I don't think he quite understood when the other exchange student said she was from Rochester, but he was not impressed with Charleston ("Ehh...no conozco esta ciudad."). Oh well...

Anyway, more to come later this week. Enjoy the pictures of Puerto Madero below!

Jacob



So this is the front of UCA. They have 4 (I think) buildings behind this one, most of which are converted warehouses from the port that was in this area before.




Here's the Santiago Calatrava bridge...kind of like the centerpiece sculpture of this whole area.



Lots of high rises, condo buildings, office towers in this area.