Feliz Cumpleaños a Mi!

My students laugh, and laugh hard, when I tell them that Argentines don't make plans for anything ... except birthdays. They laugh because, without even realizing it most of the time, they know this is true. Of course, there are plans made for major holidays like Christmas, Easter and 25 de mayo. However, there doesn't seem to be a great explanation that I've encountered yet for this difference in cultural tendencies regarding advance preparations. My best observations would simply point me toward the fact that family and friends find great value in gathering to celebrate the anniversary of one's birth. That said, despite the fact that I think about my schedule and plan a week (or more) in advance for many things in the United States [and often here too], I made hardly any concrete plans for my birthday. Maybe this will come as a surprise to my students and maybe not (guaranteed they will all laugh again at this :-P). Thankfully, this approach of spontaneity worked in my favor and I enjoyed a fabulous weekend with some beautiful people, celebrating the beginning of my 23rd year of life....

My birthday fell on Sunday this year (the 29th) but my celebrations began on Friday when I went to pick up my friend, Cassie Feesler, from Resistencia's airport. While she speaks little to no Spanish, Cassie decided to visit me as part of her life's bucket list to make a visit to each continent. Already having conquered Africa by traveling to Uganda two years ago, South America was the next landmass on her list. She jumped right into life with me here in Resistencia, going to my basketball practice and making pizza at my house for dinner. Most notably though, we headed out to dance the night away with a couple of my friends at a boliche. A great mix of music kept us going til the wee hours of the morning, typical Argentine style.

Saturday afternoon we headed to Corrientes. Primarily, I want Cassie to have as broad an experience as possible in the two short weeks that she will be here visiting. Thus, visiting a nearby city only made sense. Second, I wanted to spend some time with my dear, fellow ETA Hannah in Corrientes to celebrate my birthday. Or vice versa on the reasons. It's debatable; you pick. ;-) Hannah surprised me with some alfajores and even had "2" and "3" candles to stick in our delicious treats. She proudly lit them so I could make a wish for the next year and blow the flame out (we also humorously repeated this tradition, under Hannah's insistence, at midnight for me to officially welcome in my birthday). 

Hannah lighting the candles on our alfajores

We spent a few hours on the costanera, just chatting and enjoying life. As night arrived, I was amazed by likely the most beautiful sunset I have experienced since arriving here....

Dinner and drinks were enjoyed at one of Hannah's new favorite local spots. This restaurant was rather interesting as all of its memorabilia featured American actors and singers. We heard some great (and some not as great) tunes from the 80's onward and reminisced about some of our favorite childhood favorite bands and singers as there were countless artist photos and album covers on our table (see photo below). Cassie enjoyed her first lomito (steak sandwich with lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise, ham and a fried egg). I had a chicken crepe that was absolutely divine....

Honestly, after living it up on Friday, I was beat and barely made it to midnight on Saturday. Nonetheless, we relit the number candles and I did a little dance to ring in my birthday as the clock marked the new day. Sunday morning soon arrived and, with it too came my second basketball game in Corrientes. Our game was a bit less exciting than last week as we pretty easily won against the opposing team. Nevertheless, I couldn't have asked for a much better birthday with a chance to be with friends, in brand new uniforms, playing a game I love...

After returning to Resistencia and cleaning up, we were off again to have mate with one of my friends Roxanna. I went for the first time with her and Cassie to Paseo de los Artesanos, a small "street fair" of artisan crafts that happens each Sunday evening in Resistencia. We listened to some folklore music, drank mate, and enjoyed the company of other friends from church who met up with us there in the park. The grand finale of my birthday was family dinner. We had pizza but the highlight of my evening was cooking pancakes for everyone. Weeks ago when one of the guys that I live with helped me go to buy my cell phone, we made an agreement that I would make pancakes for him. Y'know, a cultural exchange: the Fulbright way. :) I finally made good on my end of the deal, cooking regular, banana and chocolate pancakes for Chabela's family with some help in the kitchen from Hannah and a couple others who wanted to learn. While we don't have maple syrup here in Argentina, modified toppings of strawberry marmalade, dulce de leche or honey all seemed to be well appreciated.

Everyone around the table for dinner.

My referente, Chabela, and I

After all this activity throughout the weekend, I was, not surprisingly, mildly exhausted. However, I don't think I could have asked for a better birthday in this city that I am coming to know and love. Throughout the day I received hoards of gracious texts from new friends. Plus, rather than being spanked 23 times, I had my ear tugged on for good luck in my next year while someone sang Feliz Cumpleaños to me. Few plans, lots of friends and adopted family, excellent food, jubilant dancing and a new year ahead of me, full of possibilities. 

"One day your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it's worth watching."

-Unknown Source (at least as far as I could find...)

¡Viva la Patria!

According to the age-old adage, "Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning. Red sky at night, sailor's delight," today should have been a beautiful day. In all honesty, I captured the following image last night from the balcony of my room...

However, the gray, drizzly skies this morning forecasted weather conditons very different than what Resistencia might have hoped for on such a historic day. 25 de mayo is an important national holiday that celebrates the start of Argentina's revolution against Spain in 1810. Each year in Resistencia it is celebrated with a parade in the city and other memorial demonstrations. This year, however, was especially notable as Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner honored the city of Resistencia with a visit for the holiday's memorial celebrations. You can imagine how excited I was several weeks ago when I found out that President Kirchner would be visiting the city. Since then, I have witnessed lots of "sprucing up" happening throughout the city, in roadwork and other aesthetic elements, the construction of a stage in Plaza 25 de mayo, and, in the last few days, the barricading of countless streets throughout the city marking the president's entrance route from the airport. And so ensues the tale of my 25 de mayo....

Being the overzealous American that I am (and simply super excited at the chance to see Argentina's president in person), my day probably started a little earlier than necessary. I was in the central plaza shortly after 8:00 am for ceremonies that wouldn't begin until a few hours later. Here, you see the stage with just the first few dozen spectators standing along the barricades.

I figured that finding a place to sit would be my best bet for remaining comfortable over the next couple hours but abandoned my seat and meandered across the plaza when I heard some music playing. This music came from a police band playing some patriotic tunes at a flag-raising ceremony. Several tunes were played, a few words of remembrance spoken, and general announcements made about weather-related ceremonial changes. You can see from these pictures taken at the flag-raising ceremony that skies were less-than-pleasant and even rather foreboding this morning.

After the ceremony, I headed back across the plaza to find a place to sit again and wait, and wait, and wait... While I was able to sit for some time, I eventually migrated toward the barriers when crowds began to grow. I made a pledge to myself that no matter how long I had to stand, my getting up so early from bed on a holiday was going to be made worth it. The next few pictures show a progressive growth of the crowd of people in Plaza 25 de mayo. In the following picture is one of the first large flags that a political group carried to the plaza for this day of memorial and political significance. This flag became one of many that flew over the plaza this morning.

Part of the 25 de mayo festivities include a special Catholic mass called the Tedeum. In typical Argentine style, this mass that was supposed to begin at 11:30 am started just minutes before noon with a beautiful rendition of Ave Maria. Outside Resistencia's cathedral (situated on Plaza 25 de mayo just to the side of the stage set up for President Kirchner's address), the throngs that had gathered heard a healthy mix of the religious service blaring from the outdoor sound system and the drums, singing and chanting of youthful political groups gathered and waiting in the plaza. You can see in the picture below that a large screen had also been set up outside the cathedral so that spectators might be able to see and hear the religious proceedings: a televised view that was mostly blocked for me by some of the countless flags waving in the air. Despite heightened tensions amidst the continuously growing throngs of people, a laugh was shared when the bishop announced that we should "sit/kneel and pray," something that was absolutely impossible at that point outside with the quantity of people that had gathered.

I also laughed when the Tedeum mass' conclusion was marked with a choral singing of the most famous movement of Handel's Messiah, "The Hallelujah Chorus." I felt like this song couldn't have more accurately described my thankfulness that the ceremonies would be moving soon toward the day's most anticipated event. Finally, eventually, the VIP's headed for their seats on the stage in front of the plaza. As if on cue, this was also when a steady drizzle began to fall from the massive sheets of clouds overhead. Thankfully I was buried enough in the crowd and beneath a couple trees that I became the victim of only a minimal amount of rain. After a brief welcome, a military band played the national anthem and a couple other patriotic tunes. You can see all the VIP's in attendance on stage in my next photos, including President Cristina Kirchner and Chaco governor, Coqui Capitanich to her right.

Capitanich was the first major political figure to take the microphone. In a typical politician's style, he talked about how Chaco was growing and improving in education (with students' achievements and the important government investment in student scholarships), in agricultural production, and in technological capabilities as one of the province's largest current projects involves extending a network of fiber optic technological capabilities to more rural areas of the province. He was enthusiastic, resoundingly positive regarding the province's progress and extremely complimentary of President Kirchner and her actions that, he says, have made these changes possible in Chaco (i.e. typical politician). Finally, President Kirchner took her place at the microphone to address the eager crowd. It was eight years ago nearly to the day that she sat in her senator's seat and saw her husband be sworn in as president. This memory was at the forefront of her thoughts today as she remembered her husband, Nestor Kirchner, who passed away after suffering a heart attack last October. Her voice cracked and her intonation fluctuated with this emotion and yet she spoke with great passion about how she has seen, and aided, the realization of his dreams especially for this region of Argentina. She briefly empowered the women of Argentina to continue working for positive change and called for Argentines to come together for the good of the nation's future. She urged that God's aid be sought to realize a different society: one in which qualities like humility, solidarity, and strength, among others, will allow Argentines to construct a better country.

Following President Kirchner's address, a parade of celebration processed around the central plaza. Floats and parade units included: a tree with acrobats (dressed up as various wild animals) on its branches doing all sorts of crazy movements, a staircase with two couples dancing and what might have been a local/city/provincial "Cotton Queen" waving at the top (or something of the sort as she was wearing a "Miss America" type sash), active and veteran military units, reenactments of fighting against the Spainards in honor of the holiday's revolutionary focus, a young woman who was swung around above the street as she was strapped to a crane (While she focused on graciously saluting the crowd, her presence was marked by an air cannon close to her feet that scattered into the air both cotton and confetti. Believe my description or not, I do not jest about this matter), and large truck beds filled with 20+ large speakers and amplifiers to blare the music for specific floats (I also kid you not about the quantity of speakers on these vehicles...crazy!). Despite the fact that it is an election year, I am happy to report that this parade was not [over]filled with local politicians and businesses soliciting the general public's attention when they would rather just enjoy the holiday and a parade of celebration.

I watched a bit of the parade as I walked, but after my crazy morning, I was honestly ready to get out of the square and out of the city. This proved much more difficult than I could have imagined as a ridiculous number of streets had been blocked off either for the parade or to assure the president's safe transit route. Eventually, I made it to the bus stop and was happily on my way to Puerto Tirol to celebrate 25 de mayo with Viviana and her family and friends. I enjoyed locro, the infamous dish of 25 de mayo, for the second time (although I just can't force/accustom myself to eating the plentiful pieces of solid beef fat that are left alongside the wonderful meat in this stew) and spent the rest of the afternoon chatting with Vivi who never fails to make me feel at home and relaxed and rejuvenated from our conversations. 

Oh, and Argentina beat Paraguay, 4-2, in the big soccer game this afternoon in Chaco. A favorable, memorable 25 de mayo. As I heard so many times joyously shouted this morning...¡Viva la patria!

...and then, sometimes you just don't need words

As promised, my writings today will be a sort of continuation from my most recent post. More specifically, I'll be describing why I chose the second half of that particular blog title that you find reposted as my title today. Plus, I'm going to attempt and do a recap of a full, exciting weekend and provide a sneak peek into potential excitement of my life this week. Shall we? I backtrack at this point, all the way to last Thursday...

I'll be honest, I'd had a relatively rough day between missing people from home, feeling like class activities did not turn out how I'd hoped, and making some scheduling decisions that made it impossible for me to go to basketball practice, my number one, go-to stress reliever. On sort of a last minute whim, I remembered that my referente had sent me a list of Semana de Mayo events (May 18th-25th). Thus, in an earnest attempt to fight both homesickness and being angry with myself [for potentially sitting around, sulking in self-pity], I found myself back out the door for a dance performance at the Domo del Centenario (image number 7 on this linked webpage). Truthfully, I don't know that much about dance but I"m thankful that this has never impeded my enjoyment of a dance performance that I have attended; the results of my choice on Thursday were no different. I was simply astounded when I entered the Domo. An amazing facility only a year or two old, this performance venue features an expansive stage, intricate light design capabilities, large projection screens on either side of the stage, very comfortable seating, and an impressive sound system that draws you in and doesn't let you go. I had the joy of watching the Ballet Folklórico Nacional, Ballet Nacional de Paraguay, Compañía Nacional de Danza Contemporánea, and Ballet Contemporáneo del Chaco in this single evening's performances.

One of the dance companies and its choreographers taking a bow after their performance in the Domo.

There was, of course, one performance that struck me with the realization that: "this dance shows exactly how I feel!" The piece was titled Con(fe)fia, confia meaning trust and fe meaning faith in Spanish. The dance featured six young women (if I remember correctly), five of them wearing dresses of vibrant colors like yellow, blue and a deep purple and the sixth in a dress of a similar style but markedly different as it was a pure white. From the beginning, the performance's choreography made clear that this young woman was to be identified as the "oddball." While she began her own dance movements, the others maintained a certain distance and watched with curiosity. While the group participated in seamlessly synchronized movements, she was found completing some unique movement of her own. While the piece's "oddball" seemed to express a desire to blend in with the at-large movements, she seemed to be able to do so only when the others consciously acted to guide her steps. In this way, the young woman eventually drifted closer to imitating the others' synchronized movements until, at the conclusion, they all joined together in a circle around the "oddball" and watched her pour a pitcher of water into a separate basin at her feet. While I haven't developed my own interpretation for what the pitcher of water might symbolize at the end of this performance, I certainly felt like I could relate on multiple levels to the relationships that were developed in this artistic piece. Coming to Resistencia and having my own way of "being" (distinct from the culture to which I have relocated), trying to synchronize my own movements, mannerisms and actions with this new culture [and failing miserably at times], experiencing little bits of success here and there as I am guided by new friends, and hoping that my own relationships will be marked by some natural climax of acculturation (highly unlikely) are just a few of the ways that I saw my own life mirrored in this dance piece. As I mentioned, I have no official training in the history nor practice of dance. However, I think it's important to recognize that sometimes you just don't need words when a performance like this one communicates so vividly with its own language of movement and feelings.

In other news, I had a great, great weekend. Let's title this next segment "My Weekend in Photos:"

Making BLT pizza with friends from church

Or a modified version of BLT pizza anyways that included salami rather than bacon..

On Saturday, returning to Puerto Tirol (small nearby town) to have an English conversation hour with people there. I also saw the streets lined with booths for the festival of Santa Rita happening the next day (22nd).

Buses lined up in Resistencia to go to Puerto Tirol on Sunday. Apparently over 200,000 people visit this small town (population 5- or 6,000) every May 22nd for this festival. Crazy!

Saturday evening I went to the nearby city of Corrientes to see a Chamamé performance, have dinner on the costanera and just generally hang out with Fulbright ETA Hannah who lives there.

These are both photos of the Chamamé performance, a kind of folk dance in Argentina.

Despite the fact that it was an early, out the door at 8:00 am, morning in Corrientes, I couldn't have been happier to be up and about. The day was GORGEOUS! Note: We're well into autumn here and enjoyed 80 degree days Saturday and Sunday.

I made my way to the gym where my team, Club Sarmiento, had our first game in a tournament ...

Argentine basketball games definitely resemble something closer to soccer games, especially in the intense emotions and style of play that are brought to the court.

Crazy stuff happens during games. For example, one of my teammates went to shoot a layup. However, she was directly under the basket. The ball went straight up through the bottom of the hoop and then straight back down through the net. The referees counted this as a basket. No joke. The other team went bizerk that we were given the points.

Later, some of my teammates jumped off the bench in anger at a call that was made and they all were thrown out of the gym (i.e. they had to go stand in the doorway that was almost directly in front of the court where they probably made more noise than before, pounding on the door. haha)

But, we won! I'm learning to love the style of the game here and just go with it. These are a couple of my teammates on the bus ride back to Resistencia.

So there you have it, my weekend in pictures. Tomorrow is an important day in Argentina and super important here in the Chaco province. 25 de mayo is celebrated here as the day that Argentina began its revolution against Spain. I'm told there will be a big parade that goes through town tomorrow as well as special dishes like locro (a beef stew) and pastelitos (special pastries made in bunches on this day). However, most exciting for Resistencia is that Argentina's president, Cristina Kirchner, will be here to speak! Much of the main plaza has been closed off the last week in preparation for this visit. Additionally, in the afternoon, Argentina's soccer team will be playing Paraguay at a stadium just outside Resistencia. I wish I was going to be part of that grand sporting event but I suppose I shall just have to be excited from a distance. Life is exciting would actually be a grand understatement...in honor of the holiday: Viva la Patria!

Language has a profound beauty and then, sometimes we just don't need words

The intricacies of language absolutely fascinate me. This same enchantment is surely one of the driving forces in the ways that I have tried to describe my life in Resistencia through this blog. And yet, because I write this blog in English, there are limitations to the ways that I can show what is happening on a daily basis in my life that is (mostly) "conducted" in Spanish. One of the best examples I can give involves the verb costarse; this word literally means (in its English translation) "to cost." However, as Argentines most commonly use this verb, costarse  refers to how difficult a person finds it to do something. For example, if a friend here asks me, "¿Te cuesta mucho hablar el castellano?", they are asking, if we translate literally,  "Does speaking Spanish cost you much?" Of course, this translation makes little sense to a native English speaker and a more accurate representation of what is being asked might be, "Do you find it extremely difficult to speak Spanish?," or "Do you find it stressful to speak Spanish?" In English, we can ask, "Is that difficult for you?" but I love that for certain words, like costar, there is no simple English equivalent. Here are a few more simple examples of some phrases that can easily be "lost in translation" from Spanish to English...

• When playing a board game, your turn "touches" you
• In asking someone's name, you ask "which" is their name, not "what" is their name
• When talking about the weather, it "makes" rain, or heat, or cold, not it "is" hot, rainy or cold
• Likewise, when referring to your age, you "have" a certain number of years, not "you are x years old"

Of course I could go on and on with this but I think you've probably got the idea. Obviously I think about this on a daily basis as I navigate my way between English and Spanish in my work at San Fernando and in the rest of my life in Resistencia. Most recently, however, I have dealt with this concept in two distinct, memorable conversations. The first of these was at work Friday morning at San Fernando. As part of the conversation hour that I direct with my fourth year students, we watched the following TED video that I stumbled across a little over a month ago (you should really watch this video!). Basically, Patricia Ryan outlines in this TED talk that our world should be careful about the ways it urges, or even insists, that scholars, scientists, writers, and people generally should communicate universally in English. Indeed, English has a profound international presence in education, politics, economics, news, etc. and has allowed people from all different kinds of cultures to come together and share their thoughts, feelings and discoveries. Unfortunately, as Ryan outlines so strongly, many other languages around the world are dying at an unprecedented rate and with them disappear, too, certain communicative strategies, ways of understanding the world, even medicinal practices among other important qualities.

At this point you're probably thinking, "But Teresa, you're an English teacher right now! What are you doing? Trying to eliminate your own job?!" Let me reassure you that I am no less than ecstatic to be employed right now and elated likewise to have the honor of teaching English in Resistencia. I think I love this video's cautions about English teaching so much because it reminds me in unavoidable ways that I have been entrusted with an extraordinarily delicate experience: an organic mix of cultural exchange and teaching both heavily focused on the sharing of language. Indeed, my students recognized Friday in our discussion about the video that, sometimes, there is just not a good way to express in English what they have grown up learning in Spanish, and vice versa in their attempts to understand or express in Spanish some of the concepts they have learned in their English classes.

My second most recent real life incident with this linguistic cultural reality came Friday afternoon in my time volunteering at the local junior high school. One young lady asked me to check some of her workbook exercises and I found myself amidst this phase of being "lost in translation." I tried to explain to her that while Spanish uses "which," English uses "what" to ask someone what their name is. Originally confronted with a rather confused face, I continued with a few other examples when suddenly this young woman's face lit up. She said to me, "Ooohh, so they're different?!" I imagine that I too was beaming from ear to ear in this moment of linguistic realization. Because the truth is, sometimes there is no easy way, or maybe even no way at all, to express some thought, some discovery, some object in a language other than where we encounter it in its native context. That, my friends, is the profound beauty of language.

Coming full circle to this post's title, I have a recent experience also to share about a dance performance I have recently attended. However, I think I have rambled on long enough today and will just leave you on the edge of your seats for further life news.

Information Superhighway

Since settling in here in Resistencia, I have had the opportunity to connect with a history professor at the other larger university (Universidad Nacional del Nordeste) in the city where I work. Further, I’ve had the good fortune to encounter a contemporary Argentine history class in this same academic department that aligns with free time in my schedule. For the last three weeks I have been both intrigued and challenged (theoretically and linguistically) by the material that has been presented in this course. However, my post today primarily comes from the fact that I need to file a complaint about my professor's usage of class time. Yesterday in the 90-minute class, our professor spent literally 25 minutes simply listing books and articles that she would advise her students to use as comprehensive and credible resources. The first time this happened in the class (actually, it occurred on my very first day of attendance and was even longer) I restrained myself from writing anything, positive or negative, regarding this investment of time. During today's "resource reading," however, I found myself practically bursting at the seams with commentary on how this recitation was neither engaging nor productive for students of the class. Plus, I'm fairly certain that none of the students will ever actually have time to investigate all of the sources that have been outlined by our professor... Sorry about the pessimism but thanks for letting me vent. :) Now, to a more intellectually critical, slightly less rant-like discussion on what I have experienced and observed regarding books and other class materials...

The world of “information access” I live in at this moment, in Resistencia, is totally different from that which I grew up in in Ohio (or even the one I graduated from most recently in the university setting). A lover of reading at an early, early age, I would come home from the library with as many books as my little arms could carry (yes, I was a nerd even as a child). Here in Resistencia, there are libraries, but the sense I have gathered thus far is that they're much smaller than those that I have frequented in the United States and not as widely used/appreciated among the general population. I don't have a conclusion yet on what that equates to in the general population's education (if one could even begin to make such a generalization between these two things...) but I do think I can say with some certainty that literature availability has a totally different, seemingly less present dynamic [compared with my own background].

Let's get to some specifics, shall we? Many student materials that I have witnessed being distributed thus far have been illegal photocopies. One professor shared with me that because it is so difficult to get a company to safely and securely ship a large amount of [English] books here, the photocopies are truly the best way for her to effectively assure that students have the necessary literary tools for the program's curriculum. I've seen another professor distribute a burned cd of “illegally” scanned literature to her students for the class’s materials. Each of these scenarios of course leads us back to the larger questions of capitalism's egalitarian ethics (Note: I'm certainly not claiming that illegal photocopying of academic materials does not happen in the US. It does. In my opinion, access to any particular literature in the US doesn't depend as heavily on these actions). Those [cultures] who have the money, who have publishing warehouses, who have established transit systems for delivery, etc. also hold the power of this information distribution. Resistencia's intellectual culture is directly challenged by this system, is overtly challenged in many efforts to have diverse, new literature amidst its shelves for reading and integration into the public psyche.

And so, while I have always been an advocate of protecting intellectual property rights, my conscience and love of learning screams right now that literature should be distributed in whatever way possible to my students.  Without dissemination in some way of all that has already been written, in English, Spanish, whatever language, we cannot learn from and challenge the past in order to change our future. My hope is that an acquired love of literature, of learning would bring its recipients another step closer to pushing back on any oppressive system to enact change. Meanwhile, I need to find a way to pair up with a local library....

Community in Unexpected Places

When I was first shown around San Fernando Rey nearly two months ago, my mind was spinning...classrooms, cantina (snack bar), offices, small library and computer lab, patio, auditorium area...where is the student culture actually cultivated here? Equally so were my thoughts at the larger UNNE where I have been attending a history course. Where do students have time to sit and really connect with one another? Where do they go beyond "Well, such-and-such happened in my life yesterday" to being able to theoretically question the socio-political systems that guide and govern the professions for which they are studying (teaching, economics, architecture, etc)? So accustomed to the living-learning community at Denison that was my home for four years, I knew before starting this experience that I would encounter a totally new student culture. And so, initially, I pondered where students truly got to know one another without a gymnasium to go and shoot hoops or exercise, without the Bandersnatch (Denison's on-campus, student run coffee shop) to grab a pizza bagel or listen to some jazz, or without your best friend's room conveniently down the hall for sharing the best new YouTube video you found while procrastinating on your latest essay assignment. It's not that I entered with the mindset that any/all of these characteristics are necessary to form a distinctive and valuable community. Strangely, all the things that I listed above have little to do with academic studies at Denison. Nonetheless, it was amidst these situations of everyday life that I found myself engaging in profound ways with my peers during my undergraduate education. Thus,these places and experiences had defined my own acculturation to a unique academic community; here in Resistencia I knew time would be a necessary component for the discovery of my new environment's unifying qualities for students.

View from the second floor of San Fernando down into the school's patio

Since this first introduction to San Fernando, I've had opportunities to witness countless interactions at the institute, socialize and converse with students beyond the school's walls and observe young adult/student culture more generally throughout the city. As these experiences begin to intertwine, I've [only] begun to understand that the students' academic community stretches far beyond the walls of San Fernando Rey. Honestly, if the culture is to thrive, I think this must happen as a result of student efforts to connect with their academics, their peers, the larger discipline of teaching to which they aspire to be a part. Students must carry their academic pursuits beyond the walls of San Fernando Rey with a certain dedication. In the particular program where I work, students spend each morning together in the classroom but the guiding educational philosophy (due to large class sizes, Argentine educational traditions, or other contributing factors. The roots of classroom culture construction is certainly up for debate...) is one in which the teacher is the source of knowledge and students are primarily [passive] recipients. This is a drastic change from my liberal arts experiences that encouraged, and often demanded, students' active participation, dialogue, and research in the construction of knowledge. But I digress... the students of San Fernando are creating their own unique academic community: while sharing a Coke and some bizcochos at a kiosko somewhere in town, working on extra language practice at my house, having mate in the central plaza, creating a Facebook group to share questions, concerns and advice about homework assignments, and coming to extra roundtable discussions on weekday/weekend afternoons to practice their English speaking abilities and discuss cultural interests. Students are engaging in ways that are unexpected for me, an outsider of their culture, but fully logical, appropriate and effective for the context in which they live, work and study.

Community is probably a word that is overused in my vocabulary, but, I stand by the statement that this is what I, and arguably most every other individual of the human race, search for whenever I enter a new environment. We always share some aspects of the context in which we meet and struggle to reconcile the differences to understand one another better. Amidst this give and take of cultural values and community building, I believe, we march toward a better understanding of how we can contribute positively to the lives of those around us. Too theoretical or optimistically biased? Maybe, but it's also how I try and conduct my life :)

On a lighter note, a futbol game featuring the country's biggest rivalry is being played right now: River vs. Boca Juniors. A game of a magnitude like OSU vs. Michigan football or Duke vs. UNC men's basketball, but 100 times more heated/energized! Boca is up 2-0, twenty-three minutes into the second half. I can't wait to hear students' commentaries on the game later...

Rites & Rituals

Every cultures has its own set of rites and rituals. Those things that we treasure and participate in to feel more closely connected to a particular group or institution. Argentina is certainly no different and I'd like to dedicate today's post to describing a few of the rituals that have I have either observed or already integrated into my normal flow of life here...

Siesta. Although not quite as important now, in autumn, and in the coming season of winter, siesta allows residents of Resistencia to escape the extreme heat of summer. Around 12:30-1:00 pm, the vast majority of businesses close for siesta in Resistencia. Families eat lunch together in their homes (lunch being the primary meal of the day, much like dinner is understood in the US) and afterwards, people may sleep or simply relax and do other things in the home until approximately 4:30 pm when the city reawakens to its bustling life. Siesta is a ritual that marks midday for the vast majority of places in Argentina, save Buenos Aires and a handful of the country's other largest cities [that operate on a more 9-5 schedule]. Also, it's occasionally a lifesaver when I'm drained from an intense morning of classes and interaction at the institute.

Sunday and Family. Sunday is well-known as a day where people spend time with their families. Whether this is a family lunch or dinner, a mid-afternoon asado or meal together out at a restaurant, many extended families gather each week to spend time with one another. I am so thankful that this happens every Sunday with my referente's family as it is not uncommon that I am nearly rolling on my side with laughter at the conversation happening around the dinner table. To be noted, however, is that this tradition is actively evolving in Argentina. I have had several students tell me that they no longer get together with their extended family each week and that they are conscious of this cultural change of a distancing and (lesser) time investment among their families.

Graduation. Finally, in honor of many of my closest friends who will be graduating from Denison University this coming Sunday, a word on what happens when students finish their university studies here in Argentina. Yes, graduates have a final ceremony where they are honored with their peers on their accomplishments in the program. However, each student is also awaited by friends immediately outside their final exam  by friends bearing gifts of water, eggs and flour (Note: Nearly all Argentine university exams are administered with the single student answering in-person before a panel of two or three professors. Still not sure what I think about this evaluation process). These messy ingredients are poured all over the new graduate and men often shave off all their hair in celebration of their accomplishments. I have seen this ritual in action and it is surely as crazy as it sounds. A paparazzi-like photoshoot often follows in which the ritual's "givers" obviously try and avoid the debris that they have newly bestowed on their friends. Hilarious.

To my dear friends at Denison, be glad that I am not there this week to celebrate the completion of your four years on the hill. I would definitely find it necessary to try and start this messy tradition in the United States, beginning with each one of you. :-)

Welcome to San Fernando Rey

While my primary purpose here in Resistencia is teaching English at San Fernando Rey, I realized today that I have written little to nothing yet about the teacher training institute, its students or my responsibilities in the classroom since I started working nearly a month ago. Today, this post shall aim to fill part of this hole with some of what I have learned thus far interacting with the students and instructors of San Fernando's English teacher training program.

San Fernando Rey houses several teacher training programs, including courses of study for those who want to teach: mathematics, individuals with disabilities, deaf individuals, and English. The English teacher training program in which I work has nearly 400 students (I'm learning names little by little but I think it might be a minor miracle if I could actually learn everyone's name in the program...). The students are divided into 5 levels; the first of these is propedeútico, the level that precedes year one of "official" studies. At this level students have only English language and grammar classes to improve their language skills to the level required for official entry into the program. Then, students are distinguished in 4 groups according to their year of study in the program. Looking holistically at the program, classes include: Language & Grammar, Phonetics, Education in Argentine Society, the science of learning, Linguistics, Culture of English-speaking societies, Pedagogy of teaching a foreign language, theory and practice of curriculum development, Linguistic Textual Analysis, Cultural Diversity and integrative workshops that combine elements of several classes for comprehensive language practice. My apologies if the class listings are a drag to read; my point in including them is only to to emphasize that once matriculated into the program, students are locked into taking the courses assigned to their specific year. Unlike my own education at Denison, students cannot choose from among a few dozen disciplines, a couple hundred professors, and even more classes in each semester's schedule. No, they are locked into the classes, the professors, and the hours assigned to them according to their year in the program, which at times I have discovered can be less than favorable. A product of Denison's liberal arts learning philosophy, my wheels are constantly turning regarding the advantages and disadvantages of this training program in which I am working. More thoughts soon on those pro's and con's relative to the context of these students' learning environment and the conditions in which they will eventually work...

The school day at San Fernando begins at 7:30 am and ends at 1:00 pm for all students on most days. Thankfully I have the freedom to arrange my schedule in a way that 9:00 am is the earliest that I arrive on any given day at the institute. :-) Students basically have classes the full duration of these 4 1/2 hours (with some short breaks throughout, of course), but also usually have a 40-80 minute scheduled break once or twice a week. During these respites for students we encounter the first of my primary classroom responsibilities. I hold fairly informal "conversation hours" in which I independently plan and execute some sort of lesson/activities or lead a discussion on a topic of cultural relevance. So far, these lessons/discussions have included American idioms, leisure activities, Osama bin Laden's assassination, Resistencia's colectivo system and writing anecdotes, etc. A major benefit to my job is that I am not assigned with the task of assigning grades to any student. Thus, when it comes to participation in my conversation hours, I think students generally find themselves a bit more at ease to participate and less apprehensive about the consequences if they say/present something wrong. Now, if I can just alleviate their nervous nature regarding participation in front of their classmates; I don't know how many times I've heard since starting my work that, "I'm shy in class because all my classmates speak/write/communicate better than me." These fears are nearly always unfounded! Maybe I'll revert to making my students say enthusiastically, "I can speak English well!" at the beginning of each class. At the least, I'm sure I'd get some laughs...


Besides my conversation hours with students, I also sit in on several of the aforementioned classes with regular professors of the school. Here, I help students with in-class activities and participate in discussions and will be helping professors plan parts of their lessons in various classes. One of these first lessons includes analysis/discussion on Ray Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451, a science fiction classic that I adore. Also on the list of lessons is writing development, something I'm nearly jumping out of my chair to assist with soon.


Fact: Education at all levels, even universities, is free in Argentina. (more thoughts on this to come...)


Random cultural observation: It is someone's job here in Resistencia to drive around a van with a HUGE speaker/amp cabled to its top. From this speaker, music and announcements blare, advertising a local radio station. I hear it on average at least half a dozen times a day. I'm thinking this job would be pretty boring, however, today I also saw a plane flying fairly close to the ground and I almost swear that it had a speaker that was doing the same thing. Cool job?: probably. Fulfilling for me?: probably not. All the same, whoooaaa.