(no subject)
" in mallorca (spanish island) and am so infinitely happy... not only because of the landscape, but also .. " (last draft of an entry i was going to make last march when i was with philip & some of his family in mallorca!)
so it's been a while since i have updated LJ, but i felt the need to now since so much has happened/changed the past month. each year of my life gets better and better; it's truly amazing and i feel very blessed. in april i started a master's program based in the south of germany (freiburg)... it's called "global studies" and is a mixture of sociology, politics, economics, georgraphy & anthropology to study global governance and globalization. everything is a bit broad and my academic interests have not been narrowed down at all, but i've still taken some very rewarding classes and have had to do sooo many presentations, that i'm finally starting to feel a bit more comfortable w/ public speaking (though not completely). i finished the semester in july, stayed for a few weeks with philip in berlin and then headed to buenos aires in the middle of august for my second semester.. now i'm wrapping up with my semester in buenos aires and will be heading to berlin, then DC for christmas and new years (with philip!) and then i'll be heading to BANGKOK for my third semester. i'm infinitely excited for what awaits.
buenos aires has been quite a life-changing experience. most importantly: i got engaged in montevideo, uruguay! philip visited in september and we traveled a lot (uruguay & the wine-region of mendoza near the andes). we had spent the weekend traveling around uruguay and on saturday evening, sept 12th, after a nice home-cooked dinner at the breathtaking antique house we were staying at, philip took me outside and proposed to me. it was a very beautiful moment and we were surrounded by the dogs that lived at the house and also the housekeeper had put on a CD (as philip asked him to ;)) from an uruguayen folkloric band that we had seen earlier that day at the streetmarket and fallen in love with. it was very romantic, and i'm so happy to be philip's fiance. he makes me feel like the luckiest girl in the world, and now i really know that i believe in soulmates. it's been 2 months since we last saw each other, and i can't wait to be reunited in a few days!
i'm a bit nostalgic and sad to leave (i'll be leaving december 1st), but at the same time, i've had such a well-rounded, rewarding experience here. i feel like i've seen everything i wanted to see in this city, but at the same time, i'm not exactly "ready" to leave since i feel that i've finally become comfortable/familiar with the city (especially navigating it) and i've finally fallen in love with all of the rough sides and edges of this city. i lived in a very middle class neighborhood my first two months, but after some issues at the house i was staying in, i moved out closer to the university and am living with german, dutch, irish, brazilian, and mexican/american students... very multi-cultural and everyone is so kind... i've had the best time in BA since moving here and feel much more safe/secure in this neighborhood. that's not to say that i don't feel unsafe; every tourist i've met while traveling has gotten robbed in buenos aires, and a few people in my program also got robbed. it's very common here, especially if you're a tourist (but i've also met a lot of argentinians who constantly get robbed too), but it's better to just always be guarded and not carry around too many valuables.
while the violence and crime can be pretty high here (as in every part of the world), i'm most fascinated by how resilient the people are here and how they have a passion and thirst for political and social mobilization. from riots on the streets in front of the presidential palace asking for justice/transparency in the assassination of a 20-something year old protestor, to the occupation/taking over of a closed factory (a lot of factory workers here refused to stop working even if their factory was closed down), to the public trials of human rights violations from the dictatorship-period (1976-1983) where 30,000 were murdered, to the social cooperatives that are formed to work against slave labor/sweatshops, to the outpouring of people in the streets to remember & mourn the death of the ex-president kirchner, and lastly (what i'm especially moved by and most thankful for), the people who come into the city from the rural areas and work day and night on the streets scavenging for recyclables from the trash (doing the dirty work that the state does not take care of) to make an honest living. the way things work here is so different, especially in contrast to germany (the last place i was living). 2 specific differences that stand out the most: there is no consistent city collection of trash, so the trash piles up on the streets, there is no recycling (except for the cartoneros whom i just mentioned -- ranging from young men, to little boys, to old women); the buses run all night but don't have a schedule, in order to get a bus to stop you have to run out into the middle of the street hailing it and hoping you won't get hit by a speeding car (never seen crazier drivers in my life, except for in montevideo).
also, this past week i saw, for the first time, someone die... i'm still shaken up from this experience. basically, i was saying goodbye to a friend at my doorstep, when i was distracted by a guy on a moped going RIDCIULOUSLY fast passing by (i'd say 60-70 miles per hour, or more) on a small city street. while i've gotten used to crazy drivers here, this guy really shocked me and i stopped the conversation with my friend and said "FUCK that guy is going fast," then not even half a second later we heard a loud crash. i didn't connect what happened right away because it was so surreal (with the timing), but my friend immediate ran over and other people had gathered on the street. basically the intersection i live at is one of the only really busy intersections here that does not have a stoplight, and the guy was going fast (and while he had the right - of - way), the car on his left must have not seen him coming and they collided. the guy was flung out onto the street and died right there. the thing is... we were all waiting for an ambulance to come, but it took over 20 minutes for an ambulance to come... in the meantime 3 different police cars had arrived, and there was nothing they could really do to help him. the man still had a pulse.. but by the time the ambulance came, he was gone. i was happy to see the ambulance arrive and was trying to be optimistic since i heard the man still had a pulse, but then a few seconds later, the ambulance drove away and i noticed the man was still lying on the pavement, but now with a black cloth over his face. it was all so surreal and so so so sad. the guy wasn't wearing a helmut and was speeding so fast, so i'm not sure if he could have been saved anyway... but it sucks to feel so helpless and to just wait for an ambulance, even though there was a hospital 2 blocks away. i saw the last couple of seconds of this guy's life as he rode by, he was young, wearing all black (adidas sweat pants that were later ripped off after the impact), and his facial expression seemed fine (not scared, not worried, just normal)... it was strange because when i noticed him, he had put out his right arm (it almost seemed as though he was signaling to someone that he was going to turn right onto the next street), but he went straight through the intersection, only in the end, he ended up going right since the car hit him in the intersection in that direction. really strange. really sad. why was he in such a rush?
aside from this shocking experience, that i still can't get out of my head, i feel very fortunate to have the chance to be here. i've met some of the most positive, brilliant & caring people in my program. this past week, i had a nice thanksgiving dinner with some other students (very non-traditional with mashed potatos from holand, chicken dish from iran, latvian dish, etc... though i made my first pumpkin pie from a real pumpkin!), then the next night we had our farewell party on the rooftop of an apartment building in the most charming part of buenos aires. then tonight, we had a spokenword/poetry night where we all sat in a circle and created poems together and just discussed life/things in general. i've met some of the most inspiring people in this program.
could write a lot more, but just wanted to write a brief summary of my experiences the past months now that the buenos aires experience is coming to a close. it's been a CRAZY past few months -- a good kind of crazy that makes life 100% worth it. i hope to be able to come back here (maybe can do some thesis research on the human rights trials here and compare it to what is going on in chile -- chile is one of my top countries to visit! definitely have to the next time).
so it's been a while since i have updated LJ, but i felt the need to now since so much has happened/changed the past month. each year of my life gets better and better; it's truly amazing and i feel very blessed. in april i started a master's program based in the south of germany (freiburg)... it's called "global studies" and is a mixture of sociology, politics, economics, georgraphy & anthropology to study global governance and globalization. everything is a bit broad and my academic interests have not been narrowed down at all, but i've still taken some very rewarding classes and have had to do sooo many presentations, that i'm finally starting to feel a bit more comfortable w/ public speaking (though not completely). i finished the semester in july, stayed for a few weeks with philip in berlin and then headed to buenos aires in the middle of august for my second semester.. now i'm wrapping up with my semester in buenos aires and will be heading to berlin, then DC for christmas and new years (with philip!) and then i'll be heading to BANGKOK for my third semester. i'm infinitely excited for what awaits.
buenos aires has been quite a life-changing experience. most importantly: i got engaged in montevideo, uruguay! philip visited in september and we traveled a lot (uruguay & the wine-region of mendoza near the andes). we had spent the weekend traveling around uruguay and on saturday evening, sept 12th, after a nice home-cooked dinner at the breathtaking antique house we were staying at, philip took me outside and proposed to me. it was a very beautiful moment and we were surrounded by the dogs that lived at the house and also the housekeeper had put on a CD (as philip asked him to ;)) from an uruguayen folkloric band that we had seen earlier that day at the streetmarket and fallen in love with. it was very romantic, and i'm so happy to be philip's fiance. he makes me feel like the luckiest girl in the world, and now i really know that i believe in soulmates. it's been 2 months since we last saw each other, and i can't wait to be reunited in a few days!
i'm a bit nostalgic and sad to leave (i'll be leaving december 1st), but at the same time, i've had such a well-rounded, rewarding experience here. i feel like i've seen everything i wanted to see in this city, but at the same time, i'm not exactly "ready" to leave since i feel that i've finally become comfortable/familiar with the city (especially navigating it) and i've finally fallen in love with all of the rough sides and edges of this city. i lived in a very middle class neighborhood my first two months, but after some issues at the house i was staying in, i moved out closer to the university and am living with german, dutch, irish, brazilian, and mexican/american students... very multi-cultural and everyone is so kind... i've had the best time in BA since moving here and feel much more safe/secure in this neighborhood. that's not to say that i don't feel unsafe; every tourist i've met while traveling has gotten robbed in buenos aires, and a few people in my program also got robbed. it's very common here, especially if you're a tourist (but i've also met a lot of argentinians who constantly get robbed too), but it's better to just always be guarded and not carry around too many valuables.
while the violence and crime can be pretty high here (as in every part of the world), i'm most fascinated by how resilient the people are here and how they have a passion and thirst for political and social mobilization. from riots on the streets in front of the presidential palace asking for justice/transparency in the assassination of a 20-something year old protestor, to the occupation/taking over of a closed factory (a lot of factory workers here refused to stop working even if their factory was closed down), to the public trials of human rights violations from the dictatorship-period (1976-1983) where 30,000 were murdered, to the social cooperatives that are formed to work against slave labor/sweatshops, to the outpouring of people in the streets to remember & mourn the death of the ex-president kirchner, and lastly (what i'm especially moved by and most thankful for), the people who come into the city from the rural areas and work day and night on the streets scavenging for recyclables from the trash (doing the dirty work that the state does not take care of) to make an honest living. the way things work here is so different, especially in contrast to germany (the last place i was living). 2 specific differences that stand out the most: there is no consistent city collection of trash, so the trash piles up on the streets, there is no recycling (except for the cartoneros whom i just mentioned -- ranging from young men, to little boys, to old women); the buses run all night but don't have a schedule, in order to get a bus to stop you have to run out into the middle of the street hailing it and hoping you won't get hit by a speeding car (never seen crazier drivers in my life, except for in montevideo).
also, this past week i saw, for the first time, someone die... i'm still shaken up from this experience. basically, i was saying goodbye to a friend at my doorstep, when i was distracted by a guy on a moped going RIDCIULOUSLY fast passing by (i'd say 60-70 miles per hour, or more) on a small city street. while i've gotten used to crazy drivers here, this guy really shocked me and i stopped the conversation with my friend and said "FUCK that guy is going fast," then not even half a second later we heard a loud crash. i didn't connect what happened right away because it was so surreal (with the timing), but my friend immediate ran over and other people had gathered on the street. basically the intersection i live at is one of the only really busy intersections here that does not have a stoplight, and the guy was going fast (and while he had the right - of - way), the car on his left must have not seen him coming and they collided. the guy was flung out onto the street and died right there. the thing is... we were all waiting for an ambulance to come, but it took over 20 minutes for an ambulance to come... in the meantime 3 different police cars had arrived, and there was nothing they could really do to help him. the man still had a pulse.. but by the time the ambulance came, he was gone. i was happy to see the ambulance arrive and was trying to be optimistic since i heard the man still had a pulse, but then a few seconds later, the ambulance drove away and i noticed the man was still lying on the pavement, but now with a black cloth over his face. it was all so surreal and so so so sad. the guy wasn't wearing a helmut and was speeding so fast, so i'm not sure if he could have been saved anyway... but it sucks to feel so helpless and to just wait for an ambulance, even though there was a hospital 2 blocks away. i saw the last couple of seconds of this guy's life as he rode by, he was young, wearing all black (adidas sweat pants that were later ripped off after the impact), and his facial expression seemed fine (not scared, not worried, just normal)... it was strange because when i noticed him, he had put out his right arm (it almost seemed as though he was signaling to someone that he was going to turn right onto the next street), but he went straight through the intersection, only in the end, he ended up going right since the car hit him in the intersection in that direction. really strange. really sad. why was he in such a rush?
aside from this shocking experience, that i still can't get out of my head, i feel very fortunate to have the chance to be here. i've met some of the most positive, brilliant & caring people in my program. this past week, i had a nice thanksgiving dinner with some other students (very non-traditional with mashed potatos from holand, chicken dish from iran, latvian dish, etc... though i made my first pumpkin pie from a real pumpkin!), then the next night we had our farewell party on the rooftop of an apartment building in the most charming part of buenos aires. then tonight, we had a spokenword/poetry night where we all sat in a circle and created poems together and just discussed life/things in general. i've met some of the most inspiring people in this program.
could write a lot more, but just wanted to write a brief summary of my experiences the past months now that the buenos aires experience is coming to a close. it's been a CRAZY past few months -- a good kind of crazy that makes life 100% worth it. i hope to be able to come back here (maybe can do some thesis research on the human rights trials here and compare it to what is going on in chile -- chile is one of my top countries to visit! definitely have to the next time).