Okay, so I went over a month without updating… Perdón. Life kind of went a little crazy. I’ll do my best to summarize the past month and a half.
So it took a while for the classes in the Peninsula to really get rolling and steady, but eventually they did. By the end we had divided everyone into four classes: young beginners, younger beginners, adolescent intermediates, and adult beginners. Each class met twice a week. Apart from that I started building a base of private students I’d meet in different areas of Bariloche.
I started taking private Spanish lessons at a school downtown called La Montaña. I had been thinking about it since before I came to Bariloche, but I wanted to get settled and see how the work situation and everything else played out. Well, I am SO GLAD I started going to La Montaña! Although I had/have many goals in mind for this whole adventure in Argentina thing, my biggest objective was to become fluent (or as close as possible) in Spanish. I figured just living abroad alone eventually could do it for me, but I’m just such an avid studier… even though I graduated from college I still love formally studying things. I figured the classes could help me learn/review advanced grammar, vocabulary, and give me more speaking/writing/reading/listening practice. Well… that they are! I have a one-hour lesson twice a week. I also told my teacher (her name is Sasha… yes, the same as Walter’s dog, haha) I really wanted to study the phonetics of the language and work on my pronunciation. It’s really difficult to 100% acquire a native-speaker accent, but I mean, why not try to get as close as possible? Anyway, all I can say is that I really am learning and improving, which I absolutely love.
Another advantage of being a student at the school is that, well, I get to meet other students at the school! At this point in my Bariloche life I’m still quite open (although I try not to be desperate) to making friends. My first week there, I met another American named Dylan. He came to Argentina to live for a long time too, and wants to teach English, although he hasn’t taken a certification course yet. He plans to, but right now he’s just enrolled in Spanish classes for a couple months. Anyway, I can happily say he’s become a good friend :) In fact, we took a trip to Chile together this past weekend (…more on that trip in a bit!)
I will admit, I would prefer making friends with Argentines... but at the same time, there's a lot of comfort in having a friend from your own country who speaks your native language.
Dylan and I met at a free cooking class at La Montaña. It’s offered every Wednesday afternoon (2 hours of private Spanish classes plus a weekly cooking class? Heck yes, that’s why I signed up to be a student here!!). I LOVE trying foreign foods and I LOVE cooking, so this class pretty much makes my day every Wednesday. And our instructor, Gabbi, is absolutely wonderful. Dylan usually comes, but I’ve met other students from all over the world that have come too. We usually have 2-5 students in the class. So far we’ve made a form of Argentine cornbread, empanadas, pasta frola, alfajores, and tortitas negras. Yummm.
Nuestra clase de cocina (from left to right: Dylan, a couple from
Australia, Gabbi, and me)
close-up of our alfajores
More and more I
definitely feel like I’m getting acclimated here. Carolina definitely has a life in
Bariloche. I LOVE the church I’ve been
going to, I’ve become good friends with some of my students, and I’ve met more
and more people.
But to every story
there usually is a dark side… In early
September there was a lot of tension in Walter and Miriam’s house. Having guests and the English classes in the
house, along with whatever big work events, was really getting to Miriam. And the thing is, with Walter and Miriam,
they go a week or two without working at all, but then all their work comes at
once—parties, lunches, dinners, all jammed together in a row.
There have been a couple really packed weekends at the house. And when that happens, they both just get
really stressed. And the atmosphere of
the whole house feels stressful… which was getting to me. I loved my first month living there, honestly
I did, but... I’ve had so many host family
experiences, and they’ve all been great, but I’m at the point where I’m kind of
over it… ya know? So a few weeks ago I
started looking for a different housing option.
And I found one. I’m now moved into a one-person apartment in
central Bariloche. It’s located in the
neighborhood Belgrano, which is a really nice and safe neighborhood. It’s about a 15 minute walk to what I
consider downtown, so, it’s quite perfect.
So far I really really like this place.
It’s comfortable, and safe, and the heat and hot water work really well…
haha yeahhhh.
The unfortunate thing
is that because I'm not living in the house, Miriam doesn’t want to host the
English classes for the Peninsula community anymore. It’s really unfortunate… but the truth is
that we see the situation differently.
To her, her house is her work, so the fact that people come into her
space and she doesn’t get paid for it irks her.
But to me, it seems illogical to charge me to use the house, because…
well, I’m teaching her kids! What I think, if someone called me and wanted
me to teach English to their child and their friends, and I came to their
house, it would be an at-home convenience.
They wouldn’t have to transport their kid to some distant place; they’d
be glad to pay me for the service and charging me to use the house would be
dumb. But whatever. It is what it is. We have different mindsets and come from
different cultures and I’m not going to try to fight it. It is really sad though… All the kids are bummed that they can’t go to
English anymore. If we can find another
location in the Peninsula for the classes (that was free or didn’t charge very
much to use the space), then I would love to commute there to teach those
kids. I’m on the lookout… we’ll see.
Luke left for his epic
bike trip. I have no idea where he could
be right now… but I believe somewhere
in Chile?
One of my students drew it for me :)
Birthday party—Minnie Mouse themed
Me
with some of the kids at the party. Note the red scarf—yes, I dressed festively
too!
Ainhoa and me being models
Me with Aymará (isn’t she cute???)
Grrrrrrrrr
(this is what we do for fun in Patagonia)
This is all a mixed
blessing I believe. I’m so excited to
live in el centro… really. I’ll be able
to actually hang out with the friends I have, it won’t be a chore to buy
groceries… and I honestly think it will open up doors. I’ll be able to meet people more easily (including
possible students) and explore the city more and have fun… which is one of the
reasons why I’m here, right?
So there’s my recent
Argentina chaos. Now about my Chile trip
:) Dylan and I left last Saturday
morning (the 29th of September). The trip was a six-hour bus
ride, which sounds bad but it wasn’t at all (especially compared to Luke and my
24-hour journey from B.A. to Bariloche…).
We talked almost the whole time, and the scenery was great. We had to go through a mountain pass to get
into Chile. That was really cool to
see. We went from the Argentine
Patagonia spring to really snowy mountains to the Chilean climate—rainier but
greener (although Chile and Argentina are neighbors geographically, the Andes
mountains separate them, which block winds that come from Chile and thus give
the two countries different weather).
When we arrived to
Puerto Varas, the guy we were couch surfing with, Christian, picked us up. He was really really awesome. He´s 40ish years old, and lives alone because
he and his wife separated. He used to work as a captain in the fishing
industry, traveling between Chile and Norway (he can speak Norwegian!). Now he´s the chief director (or something
like that) and works out of the office in Puerto Montt. Thus, he has a good salary and a really nice
house. And he was such a great host, he
wouldn´t even let us help pay for groceries when we made meals. And his English is pretty similar
ability-wise to Dylan and my Spanish, so we fluctuated between the two
languages, which was pretty cool. He
really really enjoys having guests, because it´s a change of pace from his
usually solo lifestyle. I was afraid
staying with a 40 year old man might be creepy, but in this case it wasn’t, haha. (And actually, Walter is 42...)
El Capitan (Christian’s dinner table centerpiece)
Sunday we were going to
go on a hiking excursion and see the Osorno Volcano, but a) when we got to the
excursions office Saturday to confirm, they were closed, and b) Christian
thought it was supposed to be stormy. So
instead, Christian took us to visit Puerto Montt. We went to the mall (first time in a real
mall since I was in B.A.!) and then we went to the local market where we bought
some artisan souvenirs as well as a bunch of mariscos (shellfish)—which we had for dinner that night!
Yummm. After dinner I whipped out my
famous Bananas Foster, which everyone thoroughly enjoyed :)
Christian, our chef!
We left the following Monday morning
and returned in the afternoon. Overall
the trip was awesome. And to be honest, a weekend getaway was kind of exactly
what I needed…
There was a lot that
really attracted me about Chile. First
of all, everything seemed a little cheaper there than in Argentina. And Chile actually has a stable economy--in fact, it’s doing pretty well right now.
And their government functions well…
I love Argentina and I don’t want to harp, it’s just that they have
plenty of room for improvement…
So I got back from
Chile on Monday and moved into my new place Wednesday afternoon, and Wednesday
evening I had a house-warming party (well, more like a “gathering”). Dylan came over and so did my Argentine
friends Diego and Maia. We had some
drinks, I made dessert, and Dylan and Diego had a guitar jam session. A big success :)
Mis amigos músicos
My quite delicious fruit pizza
Homemade chocolate truffles
Unfortunately,
almost as soon as I got settled into my new centro home, Dylan left Bariloche… His bus to Buenos Aires left Saturday at
noon. He plans to spend a month in
another Spanish school there. He originally said he
doesn’t plan to stay there, maybe he’ll come back to Bariloche, maybe not… Ah,
us gringos, we never know our future plans!
Anyways, we made the most of his last week—we had some despedida drinks in La Montaña, hiked
to Cerro Campanario (one of the best views in the world, as claimed by National
Geographic), and Friday night we went out—had dinner at a local cervecería (brewery), then went to hear
two bands play and have some drinks.
Dylan’s goodbye toast in La Montaña
View from Cerro Campanario
Okay so, sorry for the
long lapse without an update. Hope you
enjoyed the glimpse of my recent Patagonian adventures!
