Two things to start out.
1) I'm pissed because Snakes on a Plane doesn't come out here until september 14, and they're calling it "Terror on Board". Balderdash.
2) My host dad works in film/tv and was the producer of the family film "Secret of the Andes." John Rhys-Davies was in this movie. John Rhys-Davies is a 7 foot tall actor, so they had to buy him a special big bed for him to sleep in during the week they were shooting in northern Argentina. When they were done filming, my host dad volunteered to take the bed home with him and he and my host mom are currently sleeping in it. Who is this John Rhys-Davies? You may know him as the actor who played Gimli in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, or more importantly, the voice of MacBeth from Gargoyles. That's right, my host parents sleep in Gimli's bed.
Ok now that the important news is out of the way, onto boring things:
Classes started for real. My schedule is ok - I only have class tue, wed, thur, so I'll be able to travel on weekends, but I have more hours of class than I would have at Tufts taking 5 credits. I'll get over it. My classes are Psychology of the Personality, Argentine Literature, a Spanish class through my program veiled with the title "Human Rights in Argentina since 1973" and Problems of Argentine Literature, which is sort of like a satire class. The first three are going to be a piece of cake cuz they're at private universities, but the Problems class is going to destroy me because it's at the public university (It's backwards here - the public universities have a higher academic level than the private ones). It also assumes prior knowledge of Argentine literature. And it meets 6 hours a week. All at once.
UBA (University of Buenos Aires, aforementioned public university) is a real interesting specimen of culture. It is chronically underfunded by the government, so the building is really run down and the professors barely get paid. It is quite common for the professors to strike because they haven't been paid in months, or for students to strike for whatever reason. It is also a very political place - there are posters and signs and picketers and pamphleters everywhere. The police and military are not allowed to enter the school, so it creates an interesting atmosphere. I'll eventually take pictures and post them to better illustrate.
I think I'm going to a dude ranch this weekend. Let's see if I can get it organized tomorrow. If not, it will have to wait for a couple of weeks because next week COPA is going to Iguazรบ
That's enough blogation for now. Chauchau
1) I'm pissed because Snakes on a Plane doesn't come out here until september 14, and they're calling it "Terror on Board". Balderdash.
2) My host dad works in film/tv and was the producer of the family film "Secret of the Andes." John Rhys-Davies was in this movie. John Rhys-Davies is a 7 foot tall actor, so they had to buy him a special big bed for him to sleep in during the week they were shooting in northern Argentina. When they were done filming, my host dad volunteered to take the bed home with him and he and my host mom are currently sleeping in it. Who is this John Rhys-Davies? You may know him as the actor who played Gimli in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, or more importantly, the voice of MacBeth from Gargoyles. That's right, my host parents sleep in Gimli's bed.
Ok now that the important news is out of the way, onto boring things:
Classes started for real. My schedule is ok - I only have class tue, wed, thur, so I'll be able to travel on weekends, but I have more hours of class than I would have at Tufts taking 5 credits. I'll get over it. My classes are Psychology of the Personality, Argentine Literature, a Spanish class through my program veiled with the title "Human Rights in Argentina since 1973" and Problems of Argentine Literature, which is sort of like a satire class. The first three are going to be a piece of cake cuz they're at private universities, but the Problems class is going to destroy me because it's at the public university (It's backwards here - the public universities have a higher academic level than the private ones). It also assumes prior knowledge of Argentine literature. And it meets 6 hours a week. All at once.
UBA (University of Buenos Aires, aforementioned public university) is a real interesting specimen of culture. It is chronically underfunded by the government, so the building is really run down and the professors barely get paid. It is quite common for the professors to strike because they haven't been paid in months, or for students to strike for whatever reason. It is also a very political place - there are posters and signs and picketers and pamphleters everywhere. The police and military are not allowed to enter the school, so it creates an interesting atmosphere. I'll eventually take pictures and post them to better illustrate.
I think I'm going to a dude ranch this weekend. Let's see if I can get it organized tomorrow. If not, it will have to wait for a couple of weeks because next week COPA is going to Iguazรบ
That's enough blogation for now. Chauchau
posted by Steve at 1:45 AM
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