Hello, Hello...
Reporting in from Buenos Aires! My classes have begun and everything is going well. Let's see what all has happened since I last wrote. I've settled in quite nicely. Everyone in the dorm is very nice and I've been able to speak a lot of Spanish, which is wonderful for me. I've enlisted a few friends as my Spanish teachers, so that makes life fun. Julio (from Peru) is constantly for mixing up pensar/creer (to think), ser/estar (to be) and saber/conocer (to know). It's confusing because all of those pairs mean the same thing in English, so I have to work extra hard to differentiate when I need to use one over the other. I can already tell that I'm getting better and he tells me that I'm doing well, so at least we're making progress.
Today I started my class and after a bunch of difficulties with the program that I'm in, I got it all worked out. My program (GIC Argentina) sends its TEFL students to the TEFL International classes, but they never told me that or where to go or when. It's all sorted out, so no need to worry about me. The other people in the group seem to be very nice. As far as I can tell the daily routine is classes from 10-1, lunch from 1-2, then classes from 2-5. The school is about a 25 minute walk from my dorm and is pretty much a straight shot. There is one Argentine and one Brit and the rest are Americans in my 14 person class. There are 2 older women (in their 40s-50s probably), 2-3 people in their 30s, and the rest seem to be in their 20s. We went to lunch together in several different groups so it was nice to get to talk to a few people then. It seems that the last bit of the day is set aside to prepare the lesson that we present the next day. So basically, they teach us one way to teach vocabulary/grammar/etc and then we create a lesson to give to the class the next day. The lessons seem boring to me, but I guess it will all work out.
It looks like I might be getting an apartment with 3 other people from my dorm, which would be wonderful. They are the 3 people that I like the best here, so that would be awesome. They are Katherine (from England), Francisco (from Columbia), and Julio (from Peru). We've just started the search, and once we get some things figured out between us and figure out the system, it should work out well.
That's all for now. I'll post some pictures soon!
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Arrival - check
So I'm here and fairly settled in. Everything on the airport end of things went very well. No delays, I had an extra seat to myself and I was able to get a decent amount of sleep. I'm getting to know some of the other kids at the dorm and they seem very nice. Apparently, I'm going to go with a bunch of them to a local amusement park tomorrow. It's about an hour away and we're going to take the train. I'm not a huge amusement park fan, but hey, I need to meet people, so why not.
I ate lunch and dinner at the dorm. There is a supermarket right across the street and several more in the area, which is very nice and convenient. I didn't get too exotic off the top, just a turkey sandwich for lunch and pasta for dinner, but it worked. I was curious to see what everyone else does and there seems to be a wide range, but the general consensus is that its a lot cheaper to eat in, so they do it. I've watched a lot of TV today. The TVs are in the kitchens, so that's where people tend to congregate. There is a lot of American TV and English movies, but all have Spanish subtitles, so that's really helpful because I can hear the English and read the Spanish. The people have a wide range of Spanish abilities. About half of the residents are native Spanish speakers, mostly from Argentina and Colombia from what I can tell. The rest are mostly Americans and I've met one British girl as well. I've been able to follow a good number of Spanish conversations, even catching a few things and having to help some of the other Americans, so that's a good sign. The accents are definitely different and young people talk fast, so those are both barriers that I'm going to have to learn to deal with. The dorm's website is: http://www.azul-residencia-universitaria.com/ and there are pictures there. Here is a picture of the building. I'm on the top floor.
Things went pretty slowly today. I went on two little walks around the area, just searching out what's here. I also took two naps for a total of 2.5 hours, which was wonderful. My bed is comfortable and has a really soft fleece blanket that makes me want to curl up and go to bed every time I sit on it. It's chilly here, but not really cold. When the sun went down and the wind started to blow it was brisk, but after walking around I warmed up enough to take off my scarf again.
Apparently this is a party dorm, so we'll see how that goes. Some people were talking of going to Palermo (the hip district) tonight, but that won't happen til midnight probably. This is why afternoon naps are key according to my roommate. I did have this really weird feeling when I woke up from my first nap that I had forgotten where I was. I figured it out quickly, but it was funny. There is enough English spoken here that it feels a lot like a hostel. Everyone is here to have a good time, they just hang around more and cook more.
I've written a lot now, so I'll stop, but I'll be sure to update after the amusement park adventure.
I ate lunch and dinner at the dorm. There is a supermarket right across the street and several more in the area, which is very nice and convenient. I didn't get too exotic off the top, just a turkey sandwich for lunch and pasta for dinner, but it worked. I was curious to see what everyone else does and there seems to be a wide range, but the general consensus is that its a lot cheaper to eat in, so they do it. I've watched a lot of TV today. The TVs are in the kitchens, so that's where people tend to congregate. There is a lot of American TV and English movies, but all have Spanish subtitles, so that's really helpful because I can hear the English and read the Spanish. The people have a wide range of Spanish abilities. About half of the residents are native Spanish speakers, mostly from Argentina and Colombia from what I can tell. The rest are mostly Americans and I've met one British girl as well. I've been able to follow a good number of Spanish conversations, even catching a few things and having to help some of the other Americans, so that's a good sign. The accents are definitely different and young people talk fast, so those are both barriers that I'm going to have to learn to deal with. The dorm's website is: http://www.azul-residencia-universitaria.com/ and there are pictures there. Here is a picture of the building. I'm on the top floor.
Things went pretty slowly today. I went on two little walks around the area, just searching out what's here. I also took two naps for a total of 2.5 hours, which was wonderful. My bed is comfortable and has a really soft fleece blanket that makes me want to curl up and go to bed every time I sit on it. It's chilly here, but not really cold. When the sun went down and the wind started to blow it was brisk, but after walking around I warmed up enough to take off my scarf again.Apparently this is a party dorm, so we'll see how that goes. Some people were talking of going to Palermo (the hip district) tonight, but that won't happen til midnight probably. This is why afternoon naps are key according to my roommate. I did have this really weird feeling when I woke up from my first nap that I had forgotten where I was. I figured it out quickly, but it was funny. There is enough English spoken here that it feels a lot like a hostel. Everyone is here to have a good time, they just hang around more and cook more.
I've written a lot now, so I'll stop, but I'll be sure to update after the amusement park adventure.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Receive Blog Posts by Email and Skype
I figured out a way to receive blog posts by email that I wanted to pass on to you. This way, you won't have to check the blog to see if I've posted. It will be delivered directly to your in box.
I'll outline it in a few easy steps:
1) Go to the bottom of the page to the link that says "Posts (atom)". Either right click on it and copy the address, 0r click on it and then copy the address (URL) for that page.
2) Go to http://SendMeRSS.com
3) In the box that says "RSS Feed URL" paste the address from my blog
4) Enter and confirm your email address (and click that you agree to the terms)
That's it! The posts will be delivered directly to your inbox!
Also, there is a great online phone service called skype that is free and will be a great way to keep in touch with me while I'm in Argentina. My friend Alli has just left for a year in Israel and she posted very specific instructions for setting up skype on your computer. Go here to see her instructions: http://allichatool.blogspot.com/2008/08/s-is-for-skype.html. Then you can search for me by my name "Stephanie Berman" or by my skype name "waterat901." Then we can talk just as if we were chatting on the phone.
Hopefully that will help us keep in touch while I'm away!
I'll outline it in a few easy steps:
1) Go to the bottom of the page to the link that says "Posts (atom)". Either right click on it and copy the address, 0r click on it and then copy the address (URL) for that page.
2) Go to http://SendMeRSS.com
3) In the box that says "RSS Feed URL" paste the address from my blog
4) Enter and confirm your email address (and click that you agree to the terms)
That's it! The posts will be delivered directly to your inbox!
Also, there is a great online phone service called skype that is free and will be a great way to keep in touch with me while I'm in Argentina. My friend Alli has just left for a year in Israel and she posted very specific instructions for setting up skype on your computer. Go here to see her instructions: http://allichatool.blogspot.com/2008/08/s-is-for-skype.html. Then you can search for me by my name "Stephanie Berman" or by my skype name "waterat901." Then we can talk just as if we were chatting on the phone.
Hopefully that will help us keep in touch while I'm away!
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