Kelly Miller

Reflections - Part 1 - Low Point

2011-11-09T16:06:00.000-08:00

It's weird trying to wrap up four months into comprehensible thoughts and words. Especially when most of it's in English but some of it's in Spanish. While I was picking up one of my 20 peso loads of clean, dry, and folded laundry, I began (more like continued) thinking about the last 16 weeks. Anyone who was with me, in contact with me, or who read my blog, knows that I wouldn't describe this experience as the best time of my life. Don't get me wrong I wouldn't have traded it for anything -- but more on that in later posts. But I got to thinking about when I was at my worst, a time that made me think I might not make it, and which shortly after I began looking at flights home. Well if we're being fair I might have looked a couple time before this experience. But this is when I lost it:

Myself and five other friends headed to Mendoza in the middle of August. I decided to go last minute and just attached myself to their trip which was arranged through an office at our school which acts as a travel agency. I didn't do any research, but I knew it was wine country and was pretty sure it had mountains. Being a Colorado girl, I would have paid a lot to see mountains after a month away from home. When we got off our 15 hour bus ride, we were in a city. Not in the foothills as I had dreamed. But really just a small city. A welcome break from Buenos Aires, but again.. not the Mountains. And it was cold - a "you need leggings under your jeans, but I hadn't prepared for this" kind of cold.

As a consolation to not being able to walk out my hostel door and onto a hiking trail in the foothills, we had an excursion to the Andes planned for that Saturday. I mentioned it was cold but when our guide picked us up in the morning wearing four coats - Columbia, Patagonia, and Northface brands, with snow pants on I knew we were in trouble. Anyway we made our way in a small bus winding to and through the Andes for three hours. After making it to our last destination and seeing the peak of the tallest mountain in the America's we headed back. We stopped at a lunch spot where the smart people could return their rented cold weather accessories. I sat down and began eating a sandwich. It wasn't very good, but I was hungry and cold so I ate. There were a few stray dogs wandering around and in the building, trying to avoid disease or an aggressive dog I had done my best to ignore them. But then one came and put his head in my lap and looked pleadingly at me. I saw "I know you want to pet me, and I will be loving and willing in exchange for a bite of that dry looking sandwich". I broke down and reached my hand to ragged fur. And then I really broke down. Sitting there scratching the head of this dog my eyes filled with tears. I tried to blink them back, slightly embarrassed at the time that my new friends would judge me for crying over a dog, and I eventually ran to the bathroom to wash my hands before I rubbed my eyes. I missed home. I missed my dog. I missed having friends who would instantly understand why a dog could bring me to tears.

Every now and then I'll see an adorable dog running happily just a little too fast for it's owner. And again I'll miss home, I'm in a better place emotionally so no tears come, but a longing to be with my pup tugs at my heart. And ultimately I think back to that stray dog in the restaurant in Mendoza, and I thank him for being there for me and teaching me a little bit more about myself; but mostly I feel guilty that I never owned up to my part of the deal, too busy with my emotional self I forgot to slip him a bite of a sandwich I didn't even finish.

Things I Won't Miss // Things I'll Miss

2011-11-09T15:48:00.000-08:00

Note: I wrote this on 11/9/11 and am not rereading it or adding before publishing.

Things I Won't Miss:

My host mom's cooking
My "bed"
The smell of the sewer on a day warmer than 60 degrees
Celsius
The sporadic internet
The months my host family spent at war with each other
Men's sleazy catcalls on the streets or in clubs.
Waking up at 9 am on a Wednesday to a crying 2 year old
Listening to a 2 year old cry all Wednesday
Falling asleep to the sound of someone laying on their horn at 2am
Tang like juice
Realizing I'm exhausted at 11pm knowing I'm supposed to go out in a couple of hours
The chemicals I breath all day everyday, from buses etc
Construction. Everywhere. Including two floors above me. 8am-7pm every weekday for all four months
Actual school work
Suzanna's tv talk show watched during dinner every night

Things I'll miss like Crazy:

My roommate.
The amazing friends I've made
My host family - and their ever improving English
Paying $5 to have a ton of laundry washed, dried, and folded.
The professors at my school
Being able to walk anywhere needed! Or pay 25 cents to get anywhere a little too far.
My host sister's "que frio yo tengo" and other adorable phrases.
Going out on a "Thursday night" even if I don't leave until 2am Friday morning
Persicco Ice Cream
Cuevana.net
Being able to get out of unfortunate situations by simply "not understanding"
"It's okay" - Host mom
The adorable (when not crying) three little host nephews who stole my heart.
Not carrying a cell phone.
The parks and ferias
Empanadas
The slightly less sleazy catcalls -- who doesn't need a confidence boost every once in a while
"Chau!"

The "Study" in Study Abroad

2011-11-09T15:17:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer: this post is mostly for people out there thinking about going abroad who like me scavenge the internet for information, from first hand experiences. And this post is purely about the academic life.. Not the experience as a whole.

People ask me all the time why I choose Buenos Aires for study abroad and I honestly don't have an answer. I walked into my university's study abroad office (CU-Boulder) trying to decide between studying abroad in Latin America or Australia, and left with an opened application to Universidad de Belgrano through a program called ISA (International Studies Abroad). After initially applying very early I then kind of slowly made many deadlines, but ultimately got everything together and an acceptance email. Three to four months later I landed in the City. For more information about the city please refer to other blogs.

After a week of days filled with orientations and tours and nights full of being disoriented and dancing, classes began the first day of August. The first thing that struck me about these classes was that there was no homework. Grades were in general, two tests, participation, maybe a paper, maybe a presentation. Granted many of my classes at home are math and science and therefore homework oriented. It became very easy to ignore the little voice in my head reminding me I should keep up with reading the book, and if we're being honest it ultimately didn't matter. The teachers here were awesome. Two of them tie as my favorites and compete with my favorite professors back home: see "My Psychiatrist" and "I am a Human Being". In general I would say the professors here are more openly opinionated, less hesitant to your curse words, and have very entertaining English expressions/accents.

As I have mentioned there wasn't a lot of work to be done. I had two papers which I stressed out about and cranked out in roughly a day each. Some tests which required a fair amount of reading and praying it soaked into my short-term memory. And ultimately there is no denying my teachers were easy graders. Regardless of the number of times they tell you to keep up with the reading or not write your paper the night before they also understand you're here mostly for the experience and secondly (or thirdly or lastly) for school. The grading system is 1-10. Everything you do gets a grade between those numbers and they all get averaged in with your teachers "feelings" to become your final grade. No crazy curves to figure out, unless you count the teachers opinion as a curve in which case don't even try to figure it out, they're crazy and they own it. Keep in mind these are PALAS/PEAL classes, not classes with Argentines.

The actual academic part of school here in the end was not that important. What will stick with me isn't how the MERCOSUR formed.. although I do in fact know more about that then I would have thought; but instead the debates had about the current economic state of the world. You see while I didn't have classes with Argentines, I did have plenty of classes with foreign students from all over Europe and other parts of South America. And while my econ professor tried to explain that Europe had become a hospital when it let in sick countries such as Greece, the students from Germany firmly disagreed, and they had good reasons. I expected to have my eyes opened up to Buenos Aires culture, but I did not know I would leave knowing that my German peers usually party on weeknights but avoid the cities in their country on weekends because things often get out of hand. And I'll probably never forget the first time after being around too much Spanish I thought I'd lost my ability to comprehend English only to realize it was German or Dutch.

My other favorite part of classes was listening to professors share their experiences. Buenos Aires is unique in my perspective because if people who are born and grow up here, stay. Sure being a nerd I enjoyed reading about the "Dirty War" in my history book, but that simply can't compare with the true stories my teachers painted about their memories or those of their parents. My economy teacher doesn't keep much money in Argentine banks, because in 2001 people who did lost everything, he loves the "bastard" of a country he lives in but is cautious of the government and the corruption.

This is a lot longer than I had anticipated and got more sentimental too. I leave in three days, can you blame me? But one more very important comment to make before I end this thing. If you happen to be lucky like me and have your grades transfer back pass/fail, be aware that graduate schools will request original transcripts from all universities attended including this one. And they often recalculate gpas to include abroad. I got this little email about half way through.

I hope you decide to study abroad! In future posts I'll explain why!

redefining graffiti

2011-11-05T16:13:00.000-07:00

Graffiti is EVERYWHERE in Buenos Aires. And they are in general very proud of it. Most people claim that it is all political, which is not far from the truth. Especially being down here during the elections one saw a lot of graffiti endorsing the government or speaking out against it. And a lot of that graffiti resembles what one might see in the US. Spray painted words done in a fairly quickly fashion perhaps in the cover of the night. One might argue that most graffiti is done at night, in order to not get caught of course. But here's the thing, in Buenos Aires graffiti is actually not illegal. The person who owns the property can make a formal complaint regarding damage to property but until that is done no crime is committed. And for the most part people don't complain, since artist are given however much time they choose, and can work during the day, a lot of the work is more mural-like and really remarkable. Graffiti artist will ask people or businesses if they can paint a wall and sometimes a person or business will ask someone to paint something for them.

How do I know all of this? Well it's probably all on google, but my roommate and I chose a much more fun and interactive way of gaining this no doubt valuable knowledge. We embarked on a graffiti bike tour of the Palermo neighborhood. The tour is run through graffitimundo and Biking Buenos Aires. They give you everything you need, cruiser bike, helmet, water, a bike guide, and a graffiti guide. There was also obviously a break for mate and crackers. I would highly recommend this tour to anyone in the city!

Our guide outside of a some public buildings

We were lucky enough to see an artist working on a house!

Two political pieces, the first on the disappeared and the second in support for the President Christina.

disappearing act

2011-11-01T20:58:00.000-07:00

sometimes things in my host family's house just go missing. most inconvenient was the light bulb in my reading lamp. most frequent is a new roll of toilet paper from the bathroom. while it is possible that little gnome-like looking creatures come in a steal the most inopportune things at the most inopportune times i believe it's more likely my host mom doing some "redistributing". it seems that when something is needed more urgently in one part of the house it is acceptable to take it from another. in the past i've responded in a way i considered most acceptable. that is buying a new light bulb and my own stash of toilet paper. but today after the brand new roll just up and disappeared i simply went into the common restroom (used by no one as far as i can tell) and grabbed the roll from there. because after all my bathroom had a more urgent need at the time. perfectly logical really. kind of like musical chairs. maybe the argentine way (or at least my host family's way) is rubbing off on me. maybe tomorrow i'll grab the light bulb out of the hallway and put it in the overhead light in my room that went out sunday. maybe.

Puerto Madryn

2011-10-25T18:48:00.002-07:00

So the second (and slightly larger) half of my sister and Dan's present to me was a trip to Puerto Madryn. A coastal city in Patagonia. For a more factual account of the trip I'm going to refer you to my sister's post, because after reading it I figured why bother trying to compete: http://erinashleymiller.com/2011/10/23/trip-to-argentina/

When Dan and Erin first began planning their trip to visit me in Argentina I was asked if we could find a way to visit a winery and penguins. The wine for Erin and the penguins for Dan. The best place for wines is west and north and well as you might have guessed the penguins are found down south. I looked into it fairly seriously, figured that if we spent over half of their week long visit on a bus, with a day at the winery and a day with the penguins we'd still be one day short of making it back to the city for their return flight. So instead I sent Erin a list of wine tastings we could attend in Buenos Aires and as much info as I could on buses and planes to Puerto Madryn. In reality I don't know how much help I was, Erin did all the work when it came to eventually booking the plane tickets. I do think I helped steer her away from the bus which is a 20 hr drive each way, reminding her that she would then have to board a plane for 10 hrs the night we got back. Anyway it all worked out and the plane ride was an interesting experience. We went through andesonline.com Andes airlines are a new company and much much smaller than aerolineas argentinas, and although at times we questioned their legitimacy everything turned out very well. Not only do you get unlimited Coke, Sprite, and Coffee refills, you also get a package with three snacks in it for a 1.5 hour flight!

We landed in Puerto Madryn, the airport has exactly one terminal, one baggage claim, and is about the size of the apartment I'm staying in. But everything was nice and rather efficient. Unlike my sisters recollection of the European airline Ryanair, everything here is handled much like an airport in the US, which baggage being checked and transported to plane in carts and then unloaded and put on a carousel. The driver my sister had arranged to pick us up and take us to our hostel met us with a sign and we were off. As we drove down the hill from the airport to the city I had a little epiphany (cue heart swelling music playing in the background), I felt more at home in this small little town than I will ever feel in Buenos Aires. The town was absolutely adorable and with a little map provided by our very friendly and informative hostel employee we were able to find three ATMs there is a phenomenon in Argentina where ATMs will just run out of money, it happens in Buenos Aires too, so it was good to have three pointed out to us on the map, we needed them! After settling into our hostel (Chepatagonia - highly recommended) and "nesting" a little we were off.

On Thursday we were picked up by our tour guide at 8:00am and began our wildlife tour of the South. We had labored for awhile the day before about whether we wanted to tour the peninsula which has a greater variety of wildlife, but all of which must be viewed from a distance, or do the Punta Tombo tour of dolphins and penguins where you get to walk among the penguins. We opted for the second choice and then ultimately settled on the group tour not a private one, although it didn't matter because we were the only people to sign up for that particular tour that day. To say the day was amazing would be an understatement. We debated skipping the dolphin watching inlue of us staying warm, dry, and keeping our breakfasts down. But since it was potentially a once and a life time experience to see this particular species of dolphin we took the plunge. I was slightly nervous about being under dressed in a tshirt, sweatshirt and Northface but was not about to complain since I hadn't prepared adequately and had actually bought the sweatshirt the day before in an attempt to not freeze. Turns out my fears, probably spurred by the fact that my sister had at least five layers on top and probably three on bottom, were unnecessary. And best of all Erin and I both managed NOT to get boat sick, although at times I was unsure I'd be so lucky.

Walking with the penguins is something I will brag about for the rest of my life. Oh yea, I've seen a penguin, no not in a zoo, on one of their nesting sites, we just walked around with them, saw the eggs they were keeping warm, saw some in the process of fertilizing said eggs, had one try and take my sock back to his nest to impress the ladies, no. big. deal. Again for specifics about the species of penguin (they were small little guys) and their life cycles visit my sister blog! This blog is as vague as possible so.. Oh did I mention that one tried to take my sock?

As we left the city in a taxi, my thoughts were mostly of how glad I was not to be getting on a 20 hour bus ride, how excited I was for the snack pack on the airplane, and whether or not I had left my passport in the locker at the hostel. For the record it was in my purse. It wasn't until I landed back in Buenos Aires, that I realized my epiphany was more true than ever. I was coming back to my "home" of the last three months but it felt less like home than the city I had just spent three days in. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't like Buenos Aires, there are even parts I've begun to love. But it will never be mine in a way that my sister says New York City was never hers the way she feels DC is. When I signed up for this experience I thought that maybe somewhere deep down there was big city girl waiting for a chance, and I guess now I can say without a doubt I do not belong in a big city - probably the most valuable lesson study abroad could have taught me.

That got more personal and profound than I'd intended. Anyway now for the fun part: Pictures!!

la gran 21

2011-10-25T18:15:00.000-07:00

I'm going to stop calling them "catch-up" posts now that I'm no further than two weeks out on any major event. In fact this post is about a little event that happened exactly two weeks ago.. my big 21st birthday. Had I been in Boulder I'm sure I would have found some friends to take me out bar hopping along Pearl getting beyond dizzy drunk along the way, and perhaps ending in my first getting sick from drinking experience. And that would have been a great way to begin the year no doubt, even if it did have an unfortunate ending. But exactly how that night would have gone no one can be certain because as it is I am still abroad in Buenos Aires. A city where they hear you're turning 21 and shrug it off before remembering its significance to those of us de los estados unidos. But the truth is here it just wasn't that big of a deal, and I can go out and do that anytime. So instead my wonderful sister and Dan let me throw an apartment party in their rented apartment (oh yea did I mention they came down to visit me for my birthday week? :)) It is almost pathetic how much I missed having a place where my friends and I could just hang out listen to music, and of course drink. Dan and Erin made a fantastic pasta dish with plenty of vegetables (the number one thing I miss in my food), and Erin trained me in city life by taking me to two separate cheese shops, a small ethnic grocery store - for the vodka (my drink of choice which is roughly pronounced as bowed-ca here), and three confiterías on a quest for the cake. With some girl friends I danced, drank, ate, and partied the night away!

Oh and my totally amazing roommate "roasted" me!! The chorus:

Que alta que sos

Oh, but you don't use the vos

Our host mom thinks you're mute

and all you eat is fruit

The portanos love your legs

But all you want is some fucking

Scrambled eggs.

The apartment had a roof terrace which provided wonderful photos!

Also thanks to Dan and his camera for a majority of these photos, and my friends who grabbed the camera for the others!

Catch Up #2 - family visit

2011-10-18T17:50:00.000-07:00

My wonderful family made the 13 hour flight from Denver to visit me down here in Buenos Aires. We had planned to spend the first weekend in Costa del Este, a beach resort town. This turned out to be quite the adventure. It was difficult to know until I had gotten down here (which was long after my mom booked the hotel) and had a feel for the travel how exactly impossible it was to reach the city by anything other than a car. There is one bus from Buenos Aires that runs on certain days but it doesn't leave from Retiro (the main hub) and it only leaves at 23:59 meaning we would have to try and do it the Friday they arrived after their flight and our sleep would be less than ideal on a bus. So we decided that we'd rent a car and drive down Saturday morning. I hope I have mentioned how driving in this city works, but if not let me just say it's nothing I'd like to try, ever. In the little streets it's just a kind of a make up your own rules system. People drive aggressively defensive. Approaching intersections very quickly but always with enough time to slam the brakes and honk their horns (no matter what time of day or night). If a car wishes to pass without slowing at all it'll just lay on its horn, telling people and cars that they better make way because he is not. Luckily after looking at a map I deduced that the drive from the rental car place to the province only required large street navigation, where there are at least stoplights that people choose to follow more often than not.

Along with the driving problem my mom had been diligently working into my mind that the hotel was not going to be like the hotel in Vail, but more like the hotel in Puerto Rico. This was a trip taken when I was seven (I think) and my only two memories of it are it being colorful and a cockroach crawling out of the toilet paper roll. That should have been enough to warn me, but I went into the experience thinking plush. For those that follow my blog you know that this experience hasn't been terribly easy for me. Although I'm very glad I'm here, at times I've wanted nothing more than to pack up and go home. Basically I was dying for some luxury. My host family is very nice, but the food sucks, the bed is slowly ruining my back, and the 8am construction wake up calls leave me with day long headaches. (Think one person hammering into one side of your head and another person drilling through the other.)

Anyway, so we survive the trip down in our rather small rental car that my dad expertly navigated through the city, onto the freeway, around a round-about given my failure to give directions, and to the town. First impression of the resort was seeing the pool. Not the pool from the website but instead a pool far filthier than my mom's pond on a bad day. But to be fair it was the first weeks of Spring and they hadn't cleaned it for their summer season yet. Not to mention Buenos Aires where I live is pretty far South, much further than I knew before I arrived on a very cold July day and much further than you reading this are probably aware, honest look at a map it's no paradise by the equator. But to get to Costa del Este we traveled another 5 hours South! It was certainly not beach weather in September. I swallow this sad pool discovery thinking at least with a couch and a kitchen and a real bed this will be a quiet weekend of relaxation. Not the pina coladas by the pool or beach I'd pictured but a tea and beer in the room sort of deal. But it would not be so simple: enter the room - see the "couch" - much more of a futon with no back cushion - swallow the disappointment - see the "beds" - which were the smallest twin sized beds I've ever seen - barely swallow the disappointment - walk back into living room - look at the nice and modern kitchen - look at my family - feel better - hear the sound of a drill or a jack hammer next door - breakdown.

However after recovering from the disappointment my mom tried so hard to keep me from feeling, the weekend turned out really very good. We went for fondue dinner, a few walks through some wooded areas, quick spurts of walk along the beach although the wind made it almost unbearable, a lot of tv - switching between the five or so English channels catching bits and pieces of movies, and some cards playing. I also had to study for midterms but hey at least the beach wasn't a distraction. And aside from that one unfortunate timed construction I don't even remember if there was any more, I think maybe a bit but certainly not as bad as at my apartment in Buenos Aires.

We spent the rest of the week in Buenos Aires, I unfortunately had two days of midterms and had to turn the family loose on their own but they seemed to have a good time. And the hotel we stayed at there was actually quite nice. Although simply by serving me scrabbled eggs in the morning I was practically ready to beg them to let me stay and work for my room and board. The best part was that with my parents' wallets (and my brothers too actually) I got to experience some very good restaurants, renewing my faith that this city cares about what they eat. My mom and I did a little bit of birthday shopping where I finally bought the bag I'd been staring at everyday on my walk to school. And I had an absolutely amazing time just being with people who understand me (as well as anyone can), based off of years and years (I guess all 21 of mine) and not just the last three months. Don't get me wrong though I absolutely love my friends here and they have kept me from packing up and heading home. But I do look forward to being with my family again and saying goodbye for six more weeks was extraordinarily difficult.

Pictures! I was being especially difficult this week in regards to letting people take my picture so you'll see more of me when I blog about my sister's visit...

"volcanic ash"

2011-10-18T17:31:00.001-07:00

I was having an innocently lazy Sunday when my roommate and I decided to go for a walk. Quick check of the weather to determine if I could stay in my running shorts and tshirt, not that it mattered because I didn't have one piece of clean warmer clothing anyway, and weather.com kindly informed me it was 73 degrees and 'volcanic ash'. huh.

Fast forward 5 minutes: no kidding, they really meant volcanic ash.

I should have been thankful that my sister and Dan's flight made it out Saturday when so many didn't (the work-o-holics would not have been pleasant company any longer had they feared missing Monday) but really I was just sad that the volcanic ash from JUNE was making it even more difficult to breath, as if I wasn't already having enough trouble with my cough and cold.

Oh well now I'm going to brag saying I survived the repercussions of a volcano while in Argentina. Even if if it was merely a foggy day.

Cordoba Trip - Catch up #1

2011-10-15T07:37:00.001-07:00

I'm playing catch up. So hopefully a few posts to come over this next week.

Cordoba Trip: Sept. 8-12th

Notes:

We didn't actually go to the city so I can't advise there.
Stayed in an estancia where the people were amazing, the food better, and the bed was the best of all.
Horse back ride, salt flats, and mini hike.
Words really cannot describe this trip, I'm not even going to try. Instead I will put in a plug for the amazing tour guide who made it happen. His name is Juan and his company is La Isla Viajes, here is his website and if you're ever in Argentina for an extended period of time do one of his trips! http://www.laislaviajes.com.ar/

Pictures:

Salt Flats

More Salt Flats

Mini excursion to some caves and a scary climb over them!

Horseback ride leading to this view!

i'm not feeling Migueletes.. perhaps we'll take Campos

2011-09-16T22:25:00.001-07:00

I loved listening to my sister talk about all her amazing travel experiences and whether she knew (knows?) it or not I hung on to everything she said, and thought to myself (still think to myself?) I will never live up to that. One of my favorite topics of hers was the bus system in Honduras. What could she possibly mean there are no schedules? I mean while it seems the 204 in Boulder really comes whenever it feels good it at least pretends to follow a schedule. Enter Buenos Aires, Argentina -- no bus schedules. Ok this is cool I'm getting the experience my sister had. Wrong. My sister would describe sitting on the dirt road possibly for hours waiting for the next bus, here I get agitated after 15 minutes. The longest I've heard of is 45 minutes and that is for this one less popular route that happens to go right by my house. But today on my way home from volleyball I precede to wait at the bus stop for what seems like forever. I am not alone. There are lines and lines of people waiting, I think hmm maybe this is just a crazy night for going out. Or maybe I haven't hit this rush in this part of town before. Finally maybe 45 minutes later the 64 (the less popular route) comes, 15 anxious hands fly out flagging it, it passes by packed. I am at the second stop this bus makes, how could it be packed? Not too much later another comes, same story. Ok that's it, I walk the two whole blocks to the first stop the bus makes. There is a line for ages. But I manage to get on the next bus. Phew. It passes by 14 anxious outstretched hands. I start looking at the street signs... we're on Campos, a lot of buses I take go on this street, but the 64 is not one of those buses. We get to a cross street near my house I press the button repeatedly and laughing the bus driver tells me "está bien" and lets me down. I've heard this happens occasionally, but it was a first for me. Buses aren't supposed to just change up the route, that is simply "not okay". But they can, and they do. I head home slightly bitterly walking the four blocks instead of the one to my house. As I pass a group of people waiting at the stop I had planned to get off at I pity them and say "el colectivo tomó un otra lado" translating poorly to "the bus took another side" because I couldn't think of how to say "route" or "way". However less foreign to the idea of buses drivers changing their minds they understood what I was saying and thanked me as they headed to a more popular stop.

SO maybe I wasn't on a dirt road with chickens waiting for hours for a bus to show up. But I did get a taste of how things can just lack the same rigid structure I am used to in the US.

Oh and the reason for tonight's adventure? Not a broken down bus or chickens crossing the road as I picture it might be in Honduras.. but-

Ricky Martin.

Wait! I thought this wasn't the real world...

2011-09-14T18:05:00.000-07:00

Dear Professors,

I may look up from my computer occasionally, and fake some interest or participation, but we both know that I'm just reading blogs and skyping people. So if you wouldn't mind testing me on travel, Spain, recipes, yoga, or fashion instead of your country's history and economy that would be great.

K thanks!

Sincerely,

Are midterms seriously next week?

Same Language, VERY Different Dialect

2011-09-06T09:53:00.000-07:00

Step 1: Get through customs.

Step 2: Immediately seek out a volleyball playing opportunity.

For those of you who know me, this probably isn't any surprise but the above was my exact 'MO'. If we're being honest I even researched whether my host university had a volleyball team before I go here. In the midst of orientations in the first week I nice man got up and verified my findings. Yes they had a volleyball team. Yes they allowed international students to play.

Fast forward to the first day of classes (about a week into my stay). I finish my last class, run home and get ready. Still a stranger to the colectivos (bus system), I hail a taxi and shakily give him the address of the practice facility. My university is a 17 floor building with just classes and offices, so practice is held at a private primary/secondary school nearby. I pay the 16 pesos for the taxi (about $4) and go inside. After struggling to communicate in Spanish/sign language I get directions from and check in with the lady in the office. I climb maybe 5 flights of stairs and enter the gym. I see the net. I see the volleyballs. And momentarily all my culture shock and stress disappears.

This relief was short lived. The 'professor' speaks almost no English. The level of play if fairly elementary. The balls sting my arms in a way that I never remember feeling before. I miss my team. I miss my rec center. I miss my volleyballs. I miss my coach. I miss my language. As I leave I realize how much I miss home, and I vow not to come back. Well three emails from the coach and two weeks to adjust and I realized I can't stay away.

I am so glad with my decision to continue playing. It's given me an opportunity to stay in some form of volleyball shape, make some new friends, but most importantly given me a whole new perspective. The gym is concrete. The floor is painted green but full of cracks. There are plugged holes and raised areas; I will be shocked if I make it another two months without a sprained ankle. Our "ball cart" is a box on a table. And the balls look older than me. I often catch myself thinking of how many times I've complained about having to use the broken or crappy ball cart at home. How when we're down to 12 or so nice balls we immediately start talking about putting in an order for $500 worth of new ones. I've learned to be patient with my coach and teammates. It has been a great experience. I'm sure I'll come home and with time will begin to complain about the ball carts and such but for now I'm just grateful.

Here are some pictures of the experience:

Chau!

ps. CU volleyball team - if you're reading this I apologize (especially to the setters) in advance for my lack of skill when I get back.

"My Psychiatrist"

2011-09-05T12:46:00.000-07:00

First of all as an update I'll let you know that the scene from my last post played out again today... I even attempted a loud 'hello' at the first go, but the overall performance was poor and we were asked to try again. Maybe one day.

My last post reminded me of another teacher I have who is quite a character. From the first class I realized that my Latin America in the Global Economy professor was going to be very opinionated and in your face. He loves the US, hates Argentina, doesn't trust the bank, and thinks countries of the EU are idiots. I could devote a whole blog to this one man but that has already been done. One of my favorite things about this teacher is his constant referral to his 'psychiatrist'. Now who is this psychiatrist?

His chocolate Labrador retriever.

Finally I have found someone who understands my relationship with Waldo. My 60-something eccentric economic professor in Buenos Aires:

"When I look in his eyes, I see love. Not in his tail, but in his eyes."

"But he can be a real bastard, he tries to sleep with me and my wife doesn't like it."

"He has a great bark, but if a robber gave him a cookie it would be over, because anyone who gives him a cookie is his friend."

Chau!

Kelly

"I am a Human Being!"

2011-08-31T11:08:00.001-07:00

I think in one of my first posts I talked about the beso greeting that is part of the culture here. It means that every time you see someone you know or meet someone new or walk into a room full of people you're supposed to go up to everyone and kiss each other on the cheeks. EVERYONE here does this. Guys when meeting for the first time sometimes go for the less invasive handshake but if they know each other they two kiss. No doubt it's been something that is hard for me to adjust to but it's what they do here it's part of their culture.

Today my Latin American History professor walks into class and says "Hello", she receives in return some smiles, nods, and utter silence. This provokes a small rant: "hello, a human being just walked into the room, I am a human being!" then she tries again... "hello" and all 30 students obediently respond with loud "hello"s. And with this my professor is satisfied. This is not the first time this scene has played out. It is not the second. It is approximately the sixth. It made me think back to my lecture halls with 300-400 hundred students. Professors in the states often greet the students as well, and usually I can hear only a hand full of people reciprocate.

Today I had this realization that it's not necessarily the "beso" that defines the cultural experience of a greeting here. It is the fact that you are expected to acknowledge everyone in the room because well they are human beings and it is a way of respecting each other as such. I wonder if my professor will be able to break us of our habits, and get us to show her respect she is accustomed to and deserves.

Chau!

Kelly

The Street That Keeps Me Sane

2011-08-29T11:36:00.001-07:00

Since I actually remembered my camera on the way to school, which is something I've been trying to do for weeks, I'm going to go ahead and post twice today. There are many different streets I can turn up to get to school, and all of them have little perks: an atm, fro-yo, mcdonalds, flower venders, you get the idea. But there is one street that has stood out as my absolute favorite. It's just a regular two way street (actually that's kind of a rarity here). But the median is amazing. It is a small park in the middle of a busy street. I have never seen anything like it on a street that wasn't pedestrian. But with my iPod turned up loud and my eyes either down on the bushes or up in the trees I am at peace:

Chau!

The Little Things

2011-08-29T09:15:00.000-07:00

For those of you who have been following my time here in Buenos Aires I am happy to report that I don't really feel homesick anymore. Sure it's hard when I skype my family right before dinner and they are busy getting the cookies out of the oven or the squash into it, but I no longer want to jump on the first plane home. I'm here for 2.5 more months and I am determined to make the most of it. Part of that meant deciding what I want, I came here with everyone saying how this is such an amazing opportunity for growth and discovery. But how am I supposed to accomplish that when I'm busy trying to avoid gnocchi night (a complete failure by the way) or rushing off to volleyball? SO I took the pressure off. If I come home completely unchanged and just as ignorant or naive as before, so be it. After a chat session over Persicco (best ice cream place ever!) I realized that this simply won't happen. I'm already changing - whether I recognize it or not, but that I CAN and will stop worrying about it. This realization somehow made it much easier for me to figure out how to make the most out of the time I have left here.

One thing I've always done is looked for the little things that make any day better. Or bring me just a bit of happiness. I'm not a huge tourist, and I might never make it to a museum while here. But so be it. I have found a favorite route to school that makes me smile, an ice cream place that sounds good no matter the time (it's open late) or the temperature (it's inside who cares if it's almost freezing out?), a restaurant that lets me escape to Boulder for an hour, and yoga classes which leave me feeling good about myself (who would have thought I would leave Boulder and discover yoga?). I go to volleyball and miss my team but love experiencing the sport in a completely new way, language, gym, etc; I get to go to school and learn about things I was taught years ago but from the opposite perspective. These are the things I want to share with you, because these are the things that make me happy. I'll be sure to share big experiences and excursions too but expect a lot more posts like the one that follows.

Chau!

Mendoza, a nice break from the city: Real -

2011-08-23T07:41:00.000-07:00

This weekend five friends and I escaped the city life for a breath of fresh air in Mendoza. With two 15hr bus rides ahead of me I downloaded The Hunger Games onto my kindle and having just finished them I decided this blog would be in the format "real or not real":

15 hour bus rides go by faster than one would think: Real - I was amazed at how I was not dying by the end. Certainly having a bathroom (however disgusting) helps.

The difference between semi-bed and Bed Executive (or suite) is probably not that big: Not Real - for the difference of about $25 each way one can go from a decent recline and two tvs, to chairs that recline 180 degrees and personal tvs. Upgrade if at all feasible.

Mendoza is a quite little mountain town: Real AND Not Real - a complete lack of research left me with misconceived expectations of where I was going. While Mendoza is much more like a college town than a big city it is most definitely not in the mountains.

The Andes are worth the 3 hour bus ride from Mendoza: Real - I admit, I'm biased and love my mountains. Growing up with the Rockies in my backyard so to speak did not detract from the breathtaking experience seeing the Andes was. However it is an ALL DAY activity and can be quite draining.

Mendoza is wine country: Real

The wine was amazing: Not Real - we did a wine tour through our hostel and on whole I wasn't incredibly impressed with the wine. Not that I know anything about wine. However the tour included an organic winery and an olive oil factory, both of which I enjoyed a lot.

The hostel we stayed at HostelSuites was perfect for a first hostel experience: Not Real - although clean and nice, the hostel was much more like a hotel. It was also for an older crowd than college students. Better suited for family types than kids looking to rage.

Full day tours leave one too tired too party: Real

And lastly, starting a fast paced, hard to put down series on such a trip probably detracts a little from the vacation: Real - however I highly recommend The Hunger Games as a quick read.

Chau!

Kelly

The City Pound

2011-08-09T12:44:00.000-07:00

I've been in Buenos Aires a little over two weeks now and it took me most of that time to figure out the smell of the city. In my experience (limited I'll confess), many big cities have a unique odor to them: New York City happens to smell like urine. Well at least the subways. And Buenos Aires undoubtly has its own special scent. A couple days ago it hit me, I was walking around and I flashed back to walking through the Boulder Humane Society. The city I'm living in smells like a pound.

Now this really shouldn't have come as a surprise to me. The city is FULL of dogs and that's absolutely one of my favorite parts of it. But in return for getting to gawk at men walking 10 (or more!) dogs at once with leashes tied to their pants, or little miniature Waldos running around, I navigate a minefield of little brown droppings and yellow puddles constantly.

The city is concrete. There are a decent number of parks mixed in, but if you're not in a park good luck finding any grass. Sure there are trees lining parts of the sidewalks but even here there is no grass, and usually not much dirt either. This is perhaps my current least favorite part of Buenos Aires, I never realized how much of a concrete jungle a big city can be. And quite frankly I miss the green (ok so it's usually brown) life that is found almost everywhere in Colorado.

But back to my point: Just as animals in shelters are forced to do their business on concrete in their pens, the dogs here must to the same on the sidewalks of their grass-less city. And this is the smell of Buenos Aires.

While I make this comparison I also have to point out that I have not seen many strays here, which is remarkable because as far as I can tell not a single dog here is neutered. However I must just be in the wrong areas because I'm told stray dogs are a problem here. On top of everything they are all soo well behaved! Truthfully my standards are not high in that category but even my fellow abroad students have been impressed with these good mannered dogs.

Chau!

Kelly

Week One

2011-07-31T12:47:00.000-07:00

Today is a good day. Maybe the culture shock is starting to wear off or maybe it's because I found somewhere that would serve me vegetables for lunch, but I'm starting to feel better about being here.

A (not so quick) recap of my week, and forgive me if I forget anything:

Saturday: I arrived and went to orientation number one for my program
Sunday: Orientation number two for my program and city tour. The city tour went by so fast and I was unable to orient myself for any of it. It seemed very touristy but some highlights were a cemetery in Recolleta, La Boca: the only "South American" feeling town with bright colors. Many, many different markets on the streets full of cool soveigner type things, Plaza de Mayo and a few other hot spots. On the way back to our school a few of us jumped off to watch the final game of Copa America between Paraguay and Uruguay in a park with hundreds of locals. It was fun but navigating home was an adventure.
Monday: Spanish placement exam followed by an orientation for the school after which we had the same orientation again only in English this time.There was a Tango demonstration which was very cool.
Tuesday: A day of adventuring with a couple of friends. We hit old Palermo which is a nice bar scene and had lunch there. Did a little shopping North of there which is cheaper than the area I live in and then wondered around by my house. Las Canitas is by far my favorite place so far in Buenos Aires, and is conveniently located seven blocks from my house. It is very trendy and full of cool Cafes, restaurants, and bars. It reminds me a little bit of Pearl st. in Boulder.
Tuesday Night: This was my first night out in Buenos Aires. We started with live Reggae music in a bar and eventually went to this club (Boliche) that was playing dubstep and North American hip hop from five or so years ago. It was fabulous, especially on a day that I was struggling with some homesick feelings.
Wednesday: Alseep at 3:30am and up at 6:30am to start the paperwork for my student visa. Currently we are here on tourist visas. Then I had a meeting with my adviser during which I picked classes. More on that later as I don't actually register until tomorrow morning. After a long siesta three other people from near my house and I went to a bar in Las Canitas and just relaxed. It was called Cafe Soul and was decorated like something out of the 70s but was very fun.
Thursday: Explored the area around my house some more, on my own this time and then went to a Tango class with my whole program that night. Such a cool experience! Thursday night I participated in a pub crawl, that was free for North American study abroad students. Although the idea was fun, four bars and then free entrance to a club, the way it actually worked was you got a mixed drink shooter at each bar and then had to wait for an hour before moving to the next. My roommate and I, hungry and tired, bailed before the last bar and just went home. We hope to go to the club (LOST - a hip hop club) soon though!
Friday: another relaxing day and then the last orientation of the week. We met with a rep from the US embassy who scared us all by talking about crime and such, and then a psychologist came in to talk to us about adjusting to the culture and any problems we had.
Saturday: At 9 am half the group went on an excursion to Tigre, a city just outside of Buenos Aires. It was a 40 minute bus ride and then we got to ride in a boat and see the culture there. Everything is on this canal like system and there are even supermarket boats that go around to the homes. Very cool. Free time was spent eating and spending pesos at the local flea market.
Sunday: that brings us to today. So far it's been rather relaxing and I've been catching up on all the little things I need to do before school starts tomorrow. I'm currently looking for a gym to get a membership to and am looking at joining the volleyball team here, which will hopefully be a good way to meet locals in an environment I'm more comfortable in. We'll see.

That's it for now! I might go see Crazy, Stupid, Love tonight (in English with Spanish subtitles). Class tomorrow!

Chau,

Kelly

PS. My mailing address is:

Kelly Miller
Av. Cabildo 875 #1
(C1426AAI) Buenos Aires
Argentina

Please be aware that anything you send me has only about a 20% chance of making it to me!

Beso, beso, beso, y empanada, empanada, empanada

2011-07-25T17:58:00.000-07:00

Well I'm here, in the beautiful city of Buenos Aires! The prospect of a blog post that catches you up on all my activities for the past three days is just too daunting. The best way to describe the activities is by comparing it to college orientation, and the social scene is eerily similar to the first weeks of college. We have traveled all around the city going to meetings, lectures, and on tours. We get up before the rest of the city and return to our homes late at night. It is exhausting but has been so much fun. The city is amazing, although I feel like I've barely gotten to experience it. In time that will come but for now the lovely weather that caught my roommate and I in a down pour on our walk home will keep us in tonight and the night scene will have to wait.

Hopefully when I am less overwhelmed by the culture shock and feel like I can be productive for more than a few minutes at I time I will begin posting pictures (or taking them for that matter).

The language is very difficult although I feel like it is coming back to me slowly. I am still too "timida" as my host family says to speak much. But I'm working to speak a little more each day.

For this short post I will tell you what has stood out the most for me, the besos and the empanadas. Every greeting is a beso (kiss) on the cheek. Some people here seem to take to that more naturally than others.. me being the other. Those of you that know me, understand that I like my personal space and don't really care for being touched, especially by strangers. Well it took about two minutes for me to realize that personal space doesn't exist here. Luckily I'm warming up to this notion more quickly than I would have expected but subways and buses still scare me. The other recurring theme of my weekend has been empanadas. To me they are like mini calzones, filled with either carnes (meat), ham and cheese, or occasionally some cheese and veggies. I have been in Argentina for seven meals now not including breakfast and four of them have been empanadas. Luckily they are quite good but I have been craving more fresh vegetables and fruits. Tonight for dinner my "mom" made a VERY good pasta dish with a little union and tomato, which was good but tomorrow I plan on buying some vegetables while out on the town.

Tomorrow is my first day with no structured activities. I plan on sleeping in (for the first time!!) and exploring the city while acquiring everything I need to have to apply for a student visa. I'll hopefully let you know how it goes (and in more detail)

Ciao!

Kelly

Five Years Time

2011-02-09T10:15:00.000-08:00

Since I'm on a hiatus from facebook and I really wanted to share this welcome back to my blog. Erin and Dan I don't know why but when I saw this I thought of you.

Alarms...

2010-07-11T22:45:00.000-07:00

So I thought of this post a long time ago but today when I set a new alarm on my new phone I remembered it. Throughout college my alarm times got more and more unusual as well as more in general. By the end of the year I probably had eight or nine alarms.
8:50am -- Wake up..
9:10 am -- Ok now it's really time to wake up, you're either late or going to be!
10:00 am -- Wake up..
10:15 am -- Ok now it's really time to wake up, you're either late or going to be!
12:15 pm -- Regardless of what happened last night, get up and go to brunch!
3:22 pm -- Wake up and get to your 3:30 class (luckily this one was in my dorm)
4:50 pm -- Get ready for practice
5:05pm -- Be on your way to practice or you're late!
These are just the ones I remember, some fondly some not so much. But by the end of the year my alarms told the story of my week, which I thought was pretty cool.

Spring Semester and The Beginning of Summer!

2010-06-24T14:31:00.000-07:00

Well I'll be honest I forgot about this. And if hadn't been for my dad asking me about it, I might not have ever come back. Anyway my last post was at the very beginning of Spring semester, and a lot has happened since then.

My first year of college was great! At the beginning of the year people would ask the ever common "How do you like school?" and I would respond the obligatory "It's great! I love it!" But that wasn't always the truth. I found the transition much harder than expected. I realized that I took having good friends for granted. It takes a lot of time to feel comfortable opening up to people and I found that tough. But by the end of the year I honestly could say college is the best! And I can't wait to go back in the fall.

Some highlights of spring semester include:

Traveling for volleyball to: Davis, CA, Las Vegas, NV, and Dallas, TX.
My team and club did really well at all the tournaments. Including taking 3rd in Davis and at nationals in Dallas.
A trip to DC to surprise my sister and my best friend on their birthdays!!

Post surprising Erin at work.. If only I had opened my eyes, too happy I guess! Thank you Dan for all your help!
Ivana and I after I surprised her by showing up at her birthday dinner!! Thank you Mary Margaret and Michael for the help!

Friends birthdays and cabin trips.
And ultimately figuring out college academics - for the first time ever studying over four hours for a test! It paid off and my grades were good :)

Team in Davis
Me playing!
Breakfast at nationals!

The beginning of my summer started of with a bang.. or at least a pup! Which brings us to why I'm blogging. The first weekend home from school I drove out East (close to Kansas) to pick up Waldo! He has proven to be trouble but I love him. He also gets along great with the two standard poodles living at my parents. In fact he and Bella get along the best, which was a surprise for everyone. Here are some pictures of the little guy (He is a miniature labradoodle and gets cuter everyday)
This is Waldo the day I picked him out.
First day home!
Dirty Waldo! He likes to mess up my mom's gardens and pond...
All three "puppies" on the couches in living room.
Waldo "Wally" today!!

Whirlwind

2010-01-28T19:13:00.001-08:00

Hey!

It has been a crazy few weeks since I last updated. Spring semester of school has started and I am actually really enjoying my classes. Currently I'm taking Chemistry 2, Calc, Shakespeare, and Spanish. By far Spanish is my favorite class right now, I've decided to take it pass/fail as I have no real need for the credit I'm only trying to eventually become fluent. It has been four years since I last had any Spanish and I'm in second semester so I'm doing some catch up but just really enjoy trying to think in a different language. All of my classes are actually pretty awesome, Shakespeare is taught by a cute old professor who came out of retirement just to teach this honors class. Never having been a fan of Shakespeare I was skeptical but with the right teacher his work really because funny and enjoyable which is awesome.

Volleyball has also started back up. In the spring semester my team will travel and I currently feel quite poor having purchased three round trip tickets to Davis, Vegas, and Dallas, but know that it will all be worth it. I've also joined an intramural basketball team and we have our first game tonight. Words cannot describe how excited I am to play again so I won't try; but it has been 2+ years since I played so this could be interesting.

Besides school and volleyball I've mostly been hanging out with friends in my dorm. I went up to Fort Collins to celebrate my friend Emi's birthday and it was really cool to meet all her friends and put faces to names. I've also been looking for jobs and internships to apply for this summer. I've applied for two and won't hear back until March and although I'm not too hopeful that I'll be accepted it would certainly be nice. If anyone knows of any jobs or internships (something science or medicine related would be awesome but any experience helps) let me know!

That's about it for now, I'll let you know how basketball goes at some point.
Kelly

Catch Up!

2010-01-06T23:42:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I haven't exactly done a great job keeping this updated. And I don't really feel like a lengthy post at this point so I'm going to bullet point the last month or so:

After Thanksgiving I had two weeks of class followed by finals.
First semester of college officially ended for me December 16th.
I "moved" back home for my three and a half week long break.
Read a couple of books (For fun!)
Hung out with friends from High School.
Jon and Erin and Dan came home Christmas Eve.
The week of Christmas was spent with family celebrating the holidays and a couple of birthdays.
Watched a few movies at home saw a few in theaters.
New Years Party with some good friends from college
Cabin Tip V (I've been to IV and V) with those same friends.
And today I started helping my mom paint our basement.

It's nice to finally share some of this. Maybe I'll go more into detail later (or just work on not getting so behind :) )

Some pictures from Christmas and the Cabin:

"Try it on! Try it on!"

My favorite picture of them :)
Puppies!
Best Gift of Christmas in Use
Dad loves his calendar
Future housemates! (minus Megan)
Friends!

Thanksgiving Success!!

2009-11-29T20:59:00.000-08:00

This past week was a fall/Thanksgiving break combo for my college. It was a much needed week off school, and I had a blast hanging out with my family and friends from high school.

Monday I spent a couple of hours volunteering at the Tennyson center with my roommate Sam. The center is a residential school where abused, neglected, and at risk children are sometimes placed. The game night was with the five to nine year olds, and the kids were so full of energy and life it was remarkable.

Wednesday night my group of eight close friends reunited to play some intense rounds of Apples to Apples, attempt pyramids for pictures, and go back to our elementary school days with ever popular game "Down by the Banks." Overall it was a really really fun night, and I really enjoyed catching up with everyone.

Thursday (Thanksgiving) was a day of being with family. It was low key with cooking, football watching, eating, and tennis. One of the less followed traditions at my house is Thanksgiving basketball. This year we chose to play tennis instead. My sister spent the holiday with her boyfriend, Dan's, family and sent us a video of her shooting a football into a basketball hoop on Thanksgiving and in the pouring rain just to keep the tradition alive. I will admit I feel guilty for not playing after seeing her go through all that effort. Other than that it was a great day.

Friday I went shopping with my best friend Ivana, who goes to Georgetown great seeing her for the first time in three months! I then attended a T-2 party (Thanksgiving-2, leftovers and friends) at my friends house, which was a great start to hopefully an every year event. After that my family went to our friends house in Lakewood for dinner. It was fun to see everyone. I finished the day by meeting up with a friend from college and hanging out with her and her friends from high school. It was awesome to meet the people she talks about a lot.

ith all of that and the countless sports on tv, I managed to accomplish very little school related. With two big projects due at the end of this week and finals coming up quickly, it's looking like this week might be very scholastic. But I suppose that make sense as school is a part of college, even if it's not necessarily the fun part.
I hope this update wasn't too long! Time for homework and sleep!

Kelly

An Experiment!

2009-11-22T21:45:00.000-08:00

"Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better." Ralph Waldo Emerson

This is the first post in what will hopefully (eventually) become something I update frequently enough to keep family and friends current on my life.
I'm going to begin with some goals for this "experiment".

Firstly, this is a place for my family and friends to stay connected to my life, even when I fail to call or email.
As many people know I'm not a huge fan or writing, so this is a place where I can work on my writing and hopefully begin to enjoy it.
This will serve as a journal, providing me a way to organize my thoughts and look back at past experiences.
Expand my knowledge on technology: I imagine that this blog will evolve with time.
Eventually obtain the level of awesomeness my sister (the inspiration for my starting this) has.

Well when I made the decision a couple of hours ago to start this blog I had a few more goals, but have since forgotten them. I do think I managed to hit on all of the big ones.