In the last two weeks I have visited some amazing places in Argentina! Primero, fui a Tigre: una ciudad muy pequeña al norte de la ciudad de Buenos Aires. There, we had a boat tour of the city and spent the day on beach. The atmosphere is very laid back and relaxed and you see people seeing fruits and vegetables from their boats!
Last weekend we traveled for a two-day trip to Rosario, which is about 4 hours north of Buenos Aires. En Rosario vimos el Monumento Nacional a la Bandera.
The monument is a tribute to the flag of Argentina and its creator: Manuel Belgrano (the university I attend here is also named in his honor). Beautiful statues and sculptures surround the monument on all sides.
Rosario is a beautiful city with a ton of outdoor shopping, sightseeing (such as the monument to Che Guevara) y por supuesto helado (Mi sabor favorito es Dulce de Leche Granizado)! Of course, we could not resist going to the beach so we spent the whole next day laying out and playing fútbol with some locals.
To get you up to speed on the language here: the dialect is very different from normal “textbook” Spanish. For example the double L (LL) makes a “shhhh” sound and a Y is always a Z sound. The language here is officially called Castellano, not Spanish. ‘Vos’ is used almost constantly here also. At first I thought it was a form of vosotros, but it is actually Porteños’ way of saying ‘Tú’ (the vosotros form is never used here)… ‘Vos’ always replaces ‘tú’ in conversation. The most common phrase used to greet someone is “Que tal?” (Hows it going?) and the most common way of saying goodbye is “Chau!”
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Because of their Italian decent, Porteños are always talking with their hands…here are some of my favorite hand gestures
Sweeping your hand under your chin means: No sé
Pulling down your lower eyelid means: “Ojo!” and is used to mean ‘be careful’ or to simply get someone’s attention and tell them to listen.
Making a pinching motion in the air at a restaurant gets you a small cup of café cortado which is espresso with a little bit of milk.
This common gesture means: ‘Que te pasa!’ and is used to imply ‘what happened to you?’ or ‘whats wrong with you?”
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Feel free to ask me any questions you guys have!
I will be doing a ton of exciting things in the next two weeks: my birthday is Sunday, we are going on a Graffiti tour, and possibly planning a trip to Uruguay or to Mendoza(wine country) for our Spring Break!
Sara Smoter
Classmates Connecting Cultures
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Spring, 2012