First Monday

Monday was quite a busy day!

We had a placement exam in the morning at the University of Belgrano. It was an interview with Sofia Loren about her life and we had to fill in some verbs. Very informational.

The University of Belgrano is off a main avenue, Cabildo, down Zabala. It's a very nice 10 story building in a residential area. There are, interestingly, elevators for professors only. The rest of the elevators only go to the 7th, 11th, and 17th floors. Important to remember that is South America the ground floor is the planto bajo and the second story is counted at the first floor.

(This is the fancy first floor lounge I was politely kicked out of, apparently it's not for students. They should put signs up...)

Monday I also went on an adventure trying to recharge my phone. My host mom has hosted another girl so she gave me a phone to use while I was here, I just needed to put minutes on it. First I went to my specific phone company kiosk, but he couldn't recharge phones. Then I went to another corner store (kiosko) and he said the system wasn't working. Just to check we also tried to recharge it at a pharmacy. System was still down and they suggested we try later. On our wanderings I did find a nice knit cap and gloves. There's a beautiful bakery next to the ISA office (my study abroad program). They had all the pastries laid out in glass containers and on tiered dishes. I bought a few mini ones to try and they were all so good.

At ISA we had a meeting with a psychologist who is from Argentina but had worked in the US for a few decades to talk about cultural difference. She mentioned the tendency towards physical contact when communicating (always a kiss on the cheek when meeting someone new or an old friend) and less personal space in daily life. Meals are leisurely and a time to talk, the waiters never rush you by bringing the check unsolicited. The time after the meal when you talk to others is the sobremesa, which is also the word for dessert in Portuguese. She mentioned that sometimes Americans feel they're not getting things done and they feel unproductive after a day. This definitely happened to me trying to buy minutes for my cell phone. She also mentioned relationships were very deep and strong. Someone might have the same group of friends from childhood to old age and their children would then be friends also. Also many people will live in Buenos Aires their entire lives and never leave. She advised us to be direct with service people in stores because customer service isn't always a priority.

Fourth attempt at putting minutes on my Monday was the charm. FarmaCity, a pharmacy with stores all over Cabildo, charges them at the register. This time it finally worked!

At our Orientation on Saturday Guillermo taught us how to recognize fake bills. Apparently it's a sneaky scam the taxi drivers pull where you give them a large bill (A$100 or $50) and they accept it and sneakily change it for a fake one and show you the fake one and say they can't accept it. Then you pay them again and they keep the first (real) bill you gave them. $100 and $50 bills have threads with the denomination on them, watermarks, and like all the bills, color changing ink on the top left number that is the denomination. Useful stuff to know.