August 25, 2010 Orientation

Nothing terribly exciting today. No breakfast provided by NYU. That was tough. Rosario thinks I will make myself toast, but as I explained in the Apartment Tour entry, that's sort of impossible because I am way too afraid of her stove. Also, she doesn't have BUTTER. No butter, anywhere in the fridge. What is toast without butter? I grabbed a banana, drank a cup of tea, and decided to tough it out until NYU fed us lunch.

I was a bit late to the first orientation event. Starting to think it's more of a twenty-five minute walk, minimum, since I ran out the door at about a quarter of and was somehow an entire ten minutes late even after I alternately jogged and speed-walked there. I wasn't even close to the latest, though, so I felt better. :)

Program topics today were 1) how not to get mugged, 2) an extremely academic discussion of our summer reading assignment, Julio Cortázar’s Blow Up and Other Stories, and 3) “Survival Spanish.”

How not to get mugged was actually pretty entertaining. A bunch of guys from GermanBoris, NYU’s security company in Buenos Aires, came and talked to us, using one of our faculty members as a translator. Essentially we just need to be alert and aware, but there were also other, more specific tips. For example, it’s a common scam to have someone “accidentally” spill something really gross on you as you’re walking down the street. They stop and are extremely apologetic and try to help you wipe it off while their accomplice walks off with the bag or purse to which you were no longer paying attention. Also in crowded spaces, people on your one side might sort of stumble into you or jostle you. You’re on alert for something to go missing from your pocket or your bag on that side, while someone else easily pickpockets you from the other. If someone drops their wallet or a money clip in front of you while you’re on a bus or something, you have to be careful that no one snatches your bag while you’re reaching to get it for him. Lots of little gems like that. Oh, and you have to be aware that thieves come in all shapes and sizes. Older men and women, teenagers, well-dressed adults, children. There’s apparently a little girl in Palermo who continually pickpockets people but supposedly can’t be punished because she’s too young to lock up (their words, not mine).

They showed us a bunch of security camera footage. A kindly looking old couple stole a briefcase from a man at a bank while he was distracted talking to the teller. Some women out to dinner put their purses under the table, which is normally the smart thing to do, without noticing the ease with which a thief could pull their bags right through the railing bars of nearby staircase. On a pretty but unpopulated street, a girl listening to her headphones and staring at the ground walked towards two men standing and talking. As she passed, they grabbed her on either side and pushed her up against a wall, yanking her backpack off and leaving with it, all in broad daylight. She pursued them, but they shoved her hard enough that she finally stopped. Her mistakes  were 1) walking on such an empty street, 2) not crossing the street to the other sidewalk when she saw the men up ahead, and 3) generally being so unaware looking – the headphones, the way she didn’t make eye contact, etc. Muggers really want the element of surprise and will generally change their plans  if they see they won’t have it. This really goes for any place I think, not just Argentina.

Near the end of their presentation, they asked if we were missing anything. While we had been watching the presentation, some of GermanBoris’s people had stolen purses and backpacks and scarves from unaware NYU students to emphasize their point about being alert. :)

Lunch was delicious. I had a yellow rice with veggies in it… and of course, bollos again! And vegetarian EMPANADAS. They are sooooooo yummy! They brought out an awesome-looking fruit cocktail dessert, but I was too full to try it.

Our discussion of Blow Up and Other Stories was led by Professor Stahl, our assistant dean in Buenos Aires or something like that. She was a really fantastic speaker, very entertaining, and a huge literature nerd, so also quite adorable.

“Survival Spanish” really just ended up being an explanation of “vos,” an informal, second person grammatical form unique to Argentina. (Everywhere else in the world, the informal, second person form, “tú” is used.) It’s not difficult to understand and sounds very similar to “tú,” but you won’t really sound Argentine until you get used to using it when you talk.

Then  began day two of the epic quest  for a cell phone! It actually wasn’t very epic. The big Claro had some in stock! I have a cell phone!! Very exciting. It cost me $179 and I bought $20 worth of minutes for it, which totaled about $50 US. Pretty reasonable. Also, I did finally remember to stop at Farmacity and buy shampoo and conditioner.

[Farmacity is a huge drugstore chain down here. Most pharmacies in Buenos Aires are only pharmacies. They have over the counter drugs and drugs on shelves, but no junk food or hygiene or makeup aisles. I actually think a lot of them also lack basic first aid supplies. Farmacity, though, is much more like a CVS in the States, much to my relief. Where else DO you buy shampoo? I was pretty sure that most of the grocery stores, los supermercados, here didn’t have a hygiene aisle either, and really big Kmart or Target-like stores don’t seem to exist.]

Also, I stopped in every supermercado on the way home in search of cereal. I really miss cereal. It wasn’t until I went into supermercado number four, the largest one I tried, that I found cereal. There were maybe five U.S. types from which to choose (Frosted Flakes, Raisin Bran, Cornflakes, and… I can’t remember any others. Maybe there were only three?) and then a bunch of cereal “knockoffs,” which were essentially just the U.S. brands but cheaper and with funnier names (¡Bocaditos!). I grabbed Argentine cornflakes (Copos de Maíz) and some little bite-sized shredded wheat looking things to be healthy (those were the Bocaditos).  This supermercado also had a tiny area with two brands of shampoo and conditioner, proving my assumption that none of the supermercados have hygiene products incorrect. Each of my bags of cereal cost a peso or two each, 30 cents USD maximum. ^.^

When I got home I told Rosario about my shampoo victory and asked where I should put the cereal. She scolded me for buying the cereal for myself. “Compro las comidas para desayuno” – I buy the breakfast food. I had sort of expected that but I had no idea how else to show her what she should be buying.

Rosario and I had company again for dinner. A friend of hers whose name I kept missing. Anyway, she was very nice, and we sat and talked mostly in English for a while. I kept trying to at least speak in a Spanglish that Rosario could partially understand, but I think her friend was enjoying the opportunity to practice her English and instead preferred to occasionally translate for her. There was wine, malbec again, and cheese and crackIers. Rosario kept putting the cheese on a cracker for me and handing it over whenever I finished the one  I was already working on. I was almost full by the time I finally managed to start politely refusing it.

Dinner for me were some very thin, breaded tofu patties crisped on the stove. The others had breaded chicken breast prepared the same way. There was a bowl of shredded lettuce, too. (I think that might count as a salad.) And more wine. Rosario refilled my glass twice before I figured out that the trick to stopping her was to keep it at least half full.

We had really great dinner conversation. Somehow we got from politics to education to health. Highlights:

- No one likes Cristina Krischner, the current president of Argentina. (Don’t ask me why. I get the feeling that people just love to hate her, sort of like Hilary Clinton.)

- I learned that a degree from one of Argentina’s public, free universities is actually more coveted than one from the private universities. The public schools are just better, but those who can’t get into them or won’t be able to maintain their grades attend one of the private schools where standards are slightly lower and they can still obtain higher education.

- I told a story about an NYU student, who earlier today bought a Sprite and really didn’t like it. I asked to see the ingredients and realized that Sprite in Argentina has only three components: carbonated water, sugar, and lemon. I thought that was really cool and made more of a point of looking at Argentine food labels. I have yet to find any kind of artificial sugar – azucares sintéticos - in anything! I related this to them as something I really, really liked, and Rosario disappeared and returned with all the sauces and dressings and drinks from the fridge. We checked them all . Sure enough – no azucares sintéticos. This started the discussion on general health and differences between the Argentina and the States. Rosario’s friend translated that Rosario is really impressed by the fact that I‘ll eat salad plain or with only a tiny bit of vinegar and spices. ^.^