Two for the price of one

It's been a while since I have actually written anything, so I am giving you not one but TWO entries here:
1) Mi nueva amiga Lucia
2) Universidad de Buenos Aires

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1) Based on my experiences so far, people here are a lot friendlier toward strangers than in the United States. This is pretty surprising given the relatively high crime rates, but just about anyone on the sidewalk will happily give you directions when stopped. As I discovered a few days ago, this dispensation of advice is not limited directions and not limited to direct requests.

On Monday afternoon, one of my friends from my study abroad program and I decided to take our work to a neighborhood café with the hope of getting more reading done than we would with the distractions in our apartments. A few minutes into our work, an older woman at the table next to us spoke up, offering a great pearl of wisdom: "If you slide your coffee over, there will be more room on the table for your book." This was followed by the requisite "you have an accent, so where are you from and what are you studying?" conversation. With the hope of getting back to work, we ended the conversation and complied with the request to re-arrange our table.

It didn't end there, though. A few minutes later..."You are studying social psychology? Well there is a book you have to get!" I listened to what had to have been a cover-to-cover synopsis of Diccionario Filosófico, and the conversation ended when Lucia (my new friend had introduced herself at this point) wrote the name on a napkin so I wouldn't forget the book. That was it.

...but it wasn't. Five minutes later: "You know, there is a really great used bookstore that would definitely have some books that are relevant to your classes." A few more minutes of her talking at me, and the conversation ended, this time, with a page ripped out of her notebook: detailed instructions on how to get to the bookstore as well as Lucia's name and phone number if I get lost.

...five minutes later. "So why did you decide to study in Buenos Aires?" "To learn spanish." This was the wrong answer. "Why do you need to learn Spanish? You already speak it! (not true) You can understand everything I am saying! (because you are very old and talk very slow) I only speak Spanish and it has never been a problem in my life. I once had a friend who spoke 5 languages, but she was the most boring person in the world. What's the point of learning 5 languages if you have nothing to say in any of them?" Feeling like I now had to justify my 5 months in this country another way, I said that I was also hoping to do some travelling in South America. Also the wrong answer. "Oh, but there is NOTHING worth seeing in South America! What you need to do is make a stop in Germany before going back to the United States." Practical, no? The only place worth travelling to in South America, I learned, is Rio de Janeiro, una ciudad muuuuuuyyyy precisosa..el más lindo en suramérica. The conversation ended, again, with a page ripped out of her notebook: VIAJE A RIO DE JANEIRO, 1 SEMANA (travel to Rio de Janeiro, 1 week). Just in case I couldn't remember the name of that city...yeah...the little one that is going to host some sports thing or something.

...five minutes later. "You know, you should definitely call me if something happens to you while you are here. I know the name of a very good lawyer." "Thank you I will, but hopefully nothing will happen to me while I am here." Not a good response. This lawyer is the best in the country, but he wasn't always a lawyer. Actually, he is from Syria, and if you think that the woman is the head of the household in Argentina, then you should see Syria! His mother wanted him to become a chemist, so that's what he did. For 10 years he was a chemist, but that wasn't how he wanted to spend his life, so he went to law school. He finished in 3 years and has been a lawyer since then, AND he doesn't charge for a phone consultation! I should call him if something happens and mention Lucia's name so that he will know SHE referred me. And I was given another sheet of paper with every bit of information she could remember about this lawyer.

After about 2 hours in this café, minimal reading completed, 4 new sheets of paper to my name, and more information than I had ever wanted about Lucia's life (she has lived across the street from this cafe for 32 years, is 78 years old now, her son lived with her until he was 40, she once travelled to France with her mother, she once took an English class but all she remembers is "STAND-UP-SIT-DOWN-STAND-UP-SIT-DOWN"), I decided to call it quits. Hopefully my next café trip will be a more productive one.

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2)Universidad de Buenos Aires

UBA is definitely regarded as the most prestigious university in Buenos Aires. It's open to the public, everyone attends at absolutely no cost, has the best known professors, has true diversity in the student body, and its graduates are really well respected (partially just because they were able to get through school there and navigate the bureaucratic nightmare that this place is)...definitely an interesting place (even though it isn't a place at all--it has buildings all around the city) and something that I am glad I am experiencing here.

I tried two seminars there this week (one of which I am going to stick with), and experiencing UBA first-hand was still pretty shocking even after being told all about it. First, it is nearly impossible to walk into the building without being handed some sort of political flyer or getting caught in some type of demonstration. The lobby of the building I visited was completely plastered over with posters in support of (and mostly criticizing) political figures. This is the kind of place where Che Guevara's head means actual communism and not hipsters making a fashion statement. The entire place was wall-to-wall with people and smelled strongly of cigarette smoke. This includes the classrooms...some kids go through entire packs of cigarettes in class! The classrooms themselves are also completely covered in graffiti, and the only climate control appears to be opening and closing the windows.

I was finally able to find a list of the Sociology classes and their rooms on the third floor. It took about 10 minutes to find my class, as the list was not in numerical or alphabetical order and had literally hundreds of classes. Instead of a classroom number, I found the word "INSTITUTO" (which means instutute, exactly like it sounds). In the next 20 minues, I discovered that people think you are really confused if you walk around a university building stopping people in the hall and asking "Where is the institute?" (especially in heavily accented Spanish). This usually leads the the question "What institute are you talking about, idiot?", and unfortunately I had no answer. One girl suggested I go upstairs to the "oficio de alumnos" (student office), so I tried that...but when I saw the 150+ person line outside the door, I decided that it probably wasn't the best idea since the class started in 10 minutes.

Luckily, I was able to find someone who did know what institute I was talking about. Getting there involved going outside, around the corner, entering the same building on a different side (?), and walking up 8 flights of stairs (the elevator was broken, and it looked like it had been for quite some time). I think I got lucky though, as this classroom was relatively graffiti-free, and there are very few smokers in the class. It's basically an urban sociology class that will deal with global issues as well as Argentina-specific and Buenos Aires-specific questions. There are 3 professors for about 35 students, and it seems like there will be a lot of discussion in the class. The coordinating professor began the class by saying that her department respects the individual political views of professors, so if there is a strike (which happens pretty frequently), we may or may not have class depending on how many of the three choose to support this cause, etc. I defintiely have never had a class begin like that!

I am pretty pleased with this class, though. One of the professors spent a lot of time explaining that the lack of an Urban Studies department (that is my major at Penn) at UBA is a hole in the curriculum that exits because the trajectory of their social sciences program was thrown off during the Argentine dictatorship. Our first assignment involves doing ethnographic observations in a public space somewhere in the city. I have had similar assignments in Urban Studies classes at Penn, so it will be really interesting to see how the responses here differ from what I am used to hearing!