I have been in Resistencia nearly 3 days and will attempt here to provide a glimpse of life by presenting some of my first impressions of the city. Likewise, as I have been here for so few days, I feel like I have only a glimpse of what my own life will be like over the next eight months. I most definitely am still on an information/language/cultural/stimuli overload and simply expect to be in said state for an indeterminate length of time. :-)
Resistencia is known most widely as the city of sculptures. In recent decades, the city has proudly become the home of a biennial international sculptures contest. Artists from around the world come here to create these works of art, large and small, which are displayed in public places throughout the city after the contest. The sculptures truly are found throughout the city as I have seen them already in residential and commercial areas, along pedestrian thoroughfares (street width passages exclusively for pedestrian use), in parks/plazas of the city, even one in my hotel's lobby!
Resistencia's population is somewhere near 500,000 people (although I'm having trouble reconciling this number in my head with what I'm processing visually. I'll return to that later); I say "near 500,000" here because while one of my referentes claimed the city has 600,000 citizens and is "a city of a million people, but not a million people" (still wrapping my head around that one. haha), my other referente estimated the population to be somewhere close to 400,000. Thus, I think I'll just take the middle ground on this one for now to provide an estimated head count. The fact that this city is so big is yet rather difficult for me to comprehend due mostly to my perceptions of its architecture and layout. There are very, very few buildings of significant height in Resistencia. Probably no more than a dozen, maybe even fewer, are more than 3 stories tall. This, combined with the fact that roads and avenues are laid out so cleanly (unlike many other cities in which I have traveled); four main avenues commence in the city's central plaza (La Plaza del Mayo): Avenida 9 de julio, Avenida Alberdi, Avenida 25 de mayo, and Avenida Sarmiento. Street names change on each side of these avenues and every five blocks there is another more minor avenue. Riding in a car, it is a bit more difficult to mentally track where I have come from/where I am headed not only because everything is new but also because every street is one way (albeit many of the avenues that have a small boulevard running down their center). Another interesting thing about traffic here: with the exception of the most major intersections at avenues, there are no street signs. No stop signs, no yield signs, nada. Cars, small motorcycles (of which there are many), bicycles and even some horse and pullcarts simply pull up to their intersection at varying speeds and slow down or proceed based on how fast other vehicles may be approaching the intersection. I think I've only seen one accident since arriving...
Other important things: Siesta! A typical day here in Resistencia commences with going to work around 8 o'clock. Work continues throughout the morning but the city pauses for siesta shortly after noon. Businesses and schools close and families generally eat lunch together at home. As it is very, very hot here in the summer (remember, it's fall here now. Heading into winter soon.), siesta is necessary to escape the heat of midday. Around 4 o'clock, places of business reopen and remain so until around 8 p.m. Dinner follows anytime between 9 and 11 pm. Nightlife here has its own timetable different from its counterpart in the US. Friends gather sometime shortly after midnight to socialize before heading out to the clubs at 2 or 3 am. Partying lasts throughout the night with a typical ETA home of 6 or 7 am. All the more important to have siesta with these chronological expectations for populating the discos until this hour!
All the chaqueños (Resistencia lies in the Chaco province) that I have met thus far have been super, super nice and helpful. ~I have received rides from numerous members of my referente's family (even though they only have one car, they have never hesitated in assisting me to get from place to place) and several friends of my other referente.~ Lunch everyday has been spent at my referente's home conversing with her family.~ During an adventure to purchase a pair of shoes this morning (btw, I'm a size 39 here. lol), the salesman who assisted me was both patient amidst my ongoing efforts to fully/consistently comprehend the Argentine accent and inquisitive of where I'm from and why I'm here.~ Thursday, one of the secretaries at the university took me to the classroom where I could find my referente, even though she was in exams, and have her point me in the direction for a meeting I was to have with another individual.~ The list could go on, but my point is that everyone I have met has been exceedingly hospitable. Of course, this doesn't mean I don't field stares everywhere I go as I am probably one of the fairest skinned individuals in the city, but no complaints are to be had for the interactions that I have had with anyone.
There are, of course, more first impressions of everything but I will pause here as I commend you if you have in fact read (or even skimmed) this entire post. Hopefully my next post will include news of an apartment...
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