shock?

Hola! ¿Qué tal?

Estoy bien, mas o menos. I'm going through some version of what the Macalester study abroad office might call "culture shock". I would not say that I’m going through culture shock per se, but the honeymoon does seem to be over and certain realities are setting in. I often feel lonely, in the surrounded by strange people way, but I am not unhappy; I refuse to let anything spoil my time here. There are some things that could be improved and I intend to do what I can to make that happen. in the mean time, I am dealing with some interesting circumstances.

Funny how you don’t realize that you have expectations until whatever is in front of you disappoints in one way or another. My “home-stay” situation, for example, involves staying in someone’s home, as in her house where she lives, but does not really feel like a home in the comforting, familial sense of the word. It's sort of too much to ask, right? Paying to be in someone’s family? It’s a strange concept, but that is what other people are experiencing, and I’m disappointed or maybe jealous to be missing out on that component. During orientation they gave a long discussion about how you might not be used to sitting for hours talking at dinner, chatting about your day, etc. As he went along, nothing matched my experience with Marta. As it is, the other American and I have dinner together while she does whatever else. I think she might eat alone in her room. I guess I wouldn’t mind except that I’m here to be speaking Spanish and learning Argentine culture… So I mentioned this to an IES guy, asking if there was something I could do to help the situation, and he said that he would call and “remember” her to eat with me or something… which, first of all, was not advice and, second of all, did nothing. So I’m considering about switching, but also not, because I imagine it might be an unpleasant process. In the mean time, I’ve been trying to talk to her as much as she’ll let me and enjoy what I do have, which is basically fine. Still loving the view….

So anyway, culture shock….not really experiencing it I don’t think, or not in the traditional way, maybe because my Spanish is pretty solid, maybe because I’m not totally immersed in it. I don’t know. One thing that’s taking getting used to is the safety situation. You just have to be on your guard all the time, basically. I’ve already been robbed…sort of. I was in this café way towards the back with some other Americans and out of nowhere, there are these kids in the place, kind of yelling. All of a sudden we realize they’re robbing it – they’ve grabbed this one woman’s purse off the chair and are rummaging through it. Then this one kid notices us in the back and walks over yelling who knows what. We can’t understand him and are stunned, grabbing onto our purses. I had left my phone on the table in the confusion and he grabbed it. I guess he had gotten some cue that it was time to book so he walked away as I was yelling something along the lines of, “shit! no!” And by some supernatural power of Buenos Aires, he turned back towards us, threw my phone at me, and ran out. They definitely took things from the women in the front and from the waiter/cash register, so we concluded they must have been armed. No one was physically harmed or anything, so as crimes go, it was mild I guess. The police came soon after. Thank the almighty powers that my phone here is a complete piece of crap. It all happened in what felt like 30 seconds, but when I think about it now it seems to go in slow motion – him stealing my phone, me realizing it, and then feeling something beyond relief when he un-stole it.

I don’t know if I’ve succeeded, but I mean to tell this story - about some teenagers robbing a café - and make it not about the crime at all. That to me is a whole other issue. Buenos Aires, much like any major city, has problems, theft being one of the more rampant, but, arguably, one of the less significant ones. It has rich and poor people. It has crime… Anyway, one of my Spanish teachers tried to describe how, to people living in Buenos Aires, “magical realism” is not so magical after all. Their “reality”, she explained, doesn’t always reflect the logic that we might associate with that word. This is a city where a shortage of coins, which are almost exclusively used for the bus system, has created a black market. It is a city where, when I had been robbed, my stolen goods were magically returned to me.

The coin thing is an interesting and unavoidable topic here. You need coins to ride the bus and you usually need the bus to get anywhere. Businesses don’t want to give you coins because they have to pay more than their value to get them. The shortage results from some combination involving the bus company hoarding them to sell them, and other people melting them down for their metal, which is worth more than the value of the coin itself...essentially. So to get coins you have to buy certain things more than you might otherwise at kioskos, etc., where they are sometimes already out of them. Once in a while they'll give you a candy worth a couple of monedas instead of the actual moneda. Most people find this irritating because they often don’t have enough coins to use the bus. I find it fun because it’s super bizarre and because I’m a natural hoarder/collector. So far, I always have enough coins like it’s my job. I might start selling them to people if I’m feeling low on cash. I feel like I’m in competition with myself, other people, and the powers that be, and I’m easily winning. My glittery turquoise moneda purse is so heavy right now. Not to brag or anything.

So here I go again with the long blog entry…sorry. Writing is actually fun because I get to pick out the positive for you, when it often feels very difficult for me. Whatever works I guess. I’ve been spending a lot of time getting lost, which means I get to see more of the city. So even when I’m having a hard time with other things, I realize that I still have so much to discover here, and that’s very comforting. It’s only been what - like a week? I’ve done some other things that were fun, a couple involving alcohol. I got to go to this amazing fair with Marina. Might go there every Sunday. It’s full of crafts, antiques, music, dance - everything that a girl could want. When I put it all down I’m reminded of how lucky I am to be here. Wish you could share it with me.

Love, Sarah