Argentina Tour, "Fulbright" style: Stop III Córdoba (Villa Maria & Río Cuarto)

*Written on Monday evening, August 8th

I arrived on Saturday morning in Villa Maria and was sleepily greeted by not only Jen Dooper but also Fulbrighter Alex Gibson who was also on his vacation from his teaching assignment in Bahía Blanca (several hours south of Mar del Plata in the Buenos Aires province). Jen’s close friend Silvana joined us for lunch and then I got to see a bit of Villa Maria as we all went to have mate along the costanera. While I didn’t see a lot of Villa Maria, I was pleasantly surprised with that which I was able to take in on my short visit. A rather small city of just over 100,000 people, Villa Maria appeared both quaint and rather well-maintained, relative to many other cities and towns that I have visited throughout the country.  Unfortuately, I didn’t have a chance to visit Jen’s university in Villa Maria because we left later that afternoon for Rio Cuarto, another town in the Córdoba province where Fulbrighter Grant Berry is living and working for the duration of our grants. However, Grant did inform me later that Jen works at an extremely nice, newly constructed, well-equipped university, thanks due quite possibly to the fact that Córdoba's present governor is good friends with Argentina’s president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. While it really shouldn't come as a surprise, the blatantly showy monetary influences/bribes/“public projects” initiated by politicians at all levels of government still amaze me at some level. I certainly don’t think it’s a bad thing that Villa Maria has a new university, and I’m happy that Jen has a place to work hopefully more equipped at multiple levels than many of the institutions where other Fulbrighters are working in rather less-than-ideal conditions. Nonetheless, it’s hard for me to escape the notion that the fulfillment of needs could be so heavily, and transparently, defined by which politicians are friends with each other mostly in their interests of career advancement.

Picture-perfect day: three Fulbrighters, drinking mate along the costanera, Argentine flag flying boldly in the background.

Jen scaling a tree on the costanera, her favorite spot in Villa Maria.

Anyhow, Jen, Alex, Silvana and I traveled on Saturday afternoon to Río Cuarto, another Córdoba city of just over 100,000 people, to visit the infamous Grant Berry. Upon entering Grant’s apartment, we were greeted with the most wonderful smells of fried empanadas which easily won the title of "empanaughties" that Grant usually attributes to his empanada creations. Post-dinner, we had the pleasure of meeting a variety of Grant’s students and friends who came to his apartment for a party that carried on in fine fashion until…well, I’ll just leave you with the knowledge that we partied well into Sunday. Interestingly enough, the entirety of the party had to take place there in Grant's apartment because Sunday was a voting day in Córdoba. You might ask what our partying has to do with voting; well, as voting is obligatory in Argentina, boliches are closed the night before elections and stores cannot sell alcohol after a certain hour leading up to election day (i.e. Argentina's preventative measures to avoid drunken young folk at the polls). 

Unfortunately, Silvana and Jen had to leave early the next day after pulling themselves out of bed; Silvana because she had to return to Villa Maria to vote and Jen because she had to prepare a variety of things for her classes that commenced again on Monday. As Alex and I were staying in Río Cuarto, we enjoyed some wonderful breakfast burritos (made, again, by Grant) of scrambled eggs, peppers, and cheese wrapped up in (drumroll, please…) flour tortillas! *Tortillas essentially do not exist here in Argentina, at least as far as I have experienced life thus far. Grant informed us that the tortillas have been a recent addition to the larger supermarket near his home, only on the shelves for the first time in the last month.* Then it was off to the Andino, a deserted train station, to have mate and do what Argentines do best on a Sunday afternoon: nothing. 

Photos from the Andino. Pretty cool even if it is rusting, deserted and relatively covered with graffiti

The rest of our day consisted of having an ice cream with one of Grant’s students who I had met the night before at the party, going out for dinner at an absolutely divine restaurant in town and seeing a movie at the local “shopping.” First, it should be mentioned that “shopping” is the word that Argentines generally use for what we refer to in the U.S. as a mall, only said with a Spanish accent. Second, you’ve probably noticed that most of my activities this weekend in Río Cuarto have revolved around food. I won’t deny this, nor say that it was necessarily a bad thing as Grant is both a superb cook and knowledgeable connoisseur of his city’s eating establishments. 

Finally we reach Monday morning and my visit to Grant’s university. After approximately a half-hour bus ride to this institution situated on the edge of Río Cuarto, I had my first glimpses of the third institution that I have had the honor of visiting on my self-made tour. Arriving a little early for his first meeting, Grant took a few moments to show off the comedor (university cafeteria) which, as he remarked, gives off sort of a U.S. high school cafeteria vibe. Then we headed inside the humanities building where I had the pleasure of exchanging greetings with several professors in the English program. I sat in with Grant on two short meetings, visited the university library, and was the happy recipient of a very brief guided campus tour, which also houses facilities for veterinary science and equestrian studies, among other things. 

I just couldn't resist including a photo of the back of my bus ticket to Grant's university. Sort of like what we might expect on fortune cookies in the United States, the back of the tickets in Río Cuarto have short sayings or "words of wisdom." I've never seen this on bus tickets before in Argentina. My particular ticket said, "I experienced grief because I did not have shoes, until I saw those who didn't have feet. -Anonymous" Deep. I know. :)

 In visiting this campus, I was thoroughly impressed with their library facilities. Up to this point, anything I have experienced in Argentina pales in comparison with even the smallest libraries I have visited in the U.S. (As you may have inferred from some of my previous posts...) However, the libraries at both Grant and Maja’s universities were exponentially more comprehensive than that which I find at my institution in Resistencia. Given any sort of opportunity, I know that my students would change this about their facility in a heartbeat. What student doesn’t want literature and reference materials that are both relevant and updated in a communal resource bank like a library? I find myself becoming a stronger believer in this issue of resource access every day that I live in Argentina. On my own running list of characteristics that I find less-than-favorable in the educational institutions I have encountered, resource availability is one of the primary things, if not the first, that I would alter.

Grant’s university also featured some interesting graffiti. Here, you see Grant proudly standing in a courtyard as we enter the humanities area and me blissfully embracing some “welcoming words” for individuals from the U.S.

This graffiti basically says, "Get out Yankees!" Grant informed me that it is mainly in response to North Americans who are buying out large tracts of land in Patagonia, not in retaliation of people like Fulbrighters. A relief in a way...I suppose.

After Grant concluded his logistical tasks for the day in meetings and we both socialized with some of his friends in the comedor, it was back to his apartment to make a quick lunch and pack up my things before making one last important Río Cuarto stop. Just in case I hadn’t eaten enough all weekend, Grant urged that café Luis Maria was a must as a result of his previous encounters with their fine desserts. To our delight, we encountered on their menu a plate titled “Disgutación-something," which meant that we were brought (*imagine stereotypical infomercial voice announcing the following…) twelve small pieces of various cakes, tarts and other fine desserts accompanied by two great coffees, all for the low, low price of forty pesos, or the U.S. equivalent of five dollars per person, as the dish is crafted to be shared by two. Clearly Grant and I enjoyed our sweet feast and welcomed Alex to help us finish off the desserts well-worthy of the praise that Grant had lavished on them prior to our café visit. 

If you think this looks pretty excellent in the picture, you should have seen/experienced it in person. Cafe Luis Maria stole my heart, and my stomach.

We’d again arrived at Río Cuarto’s bus station, which would ultimately lead me to where I am now, on a bus back to Resistencia. I imagine some of you might be asking, “But Teresa, you’ve only visited five of the seventeen cities where there are Fulbrighters this year and only three of the universities/terciarios that you said were to be a part of your “Grand Tour!” What happened? Why is your “tour” being cut so short with two weeks left of vacation?! To be perfectly honest, I’ve come to a point where I dearly miss all the people I’ve come to know as my colleagues, students and friends in Resistencia; I would rather return home in this moment than be out traversing the country (and spending lots of hours in buses). 

I’m ready to have mate with friends again, live in my own room rather than out of my backpack, invite people to my home to cook together, plan things for the upcoming semester (that doesn’t start for another two weeks…), play basketball with my club team, and enjoy life in Resistencia where I still have so much yet left to learn and experience. After my two weeks away, I imagine the next few days will be full of happy reunions and catching up on life. My adventures are certainly not ending with the conclusion of these vacations. I can’t wait.