Getting my vegetables...

...isn't easy around here! In a culture filled with empanadas, carne, pizza, pan, and more carne, I sometimes feel like I'm eating nothing but meat and cheese.

Part of the solution was that when I looked in my wallet a couple days ago, it hit me hard that Buenos Aires is not so cheap after all. Before I got here everyone kept telling me, "oh, it's so cheap there!" Yeah, well they were wrong. Apparently it used to be cheap, but now I feel like it's about the same prices I'm used to in the States, which is both unexpected and lame.

So I've taken to preparing my own food at home to save money, which is nice because it means I can make whatever I want. Within limits. The limits being that the kitchen here is tiny, gross, and unpleasant, so I don't want to prepare anything too lavish. However, it's perfectly suitable to make pasta, a sandwich or a salad.

I've been stopping by a fruteria every day to pick up what I need. They look like this, more or less:


The process is different than in the states, in the sense that you don't walk in and start selecting your own vegetables, but rather you actually go in and tell them what you want and they get it and bag it for you. I learned this the hard way, by walking in and grabbing my own veggies and having everyone look at me like I was the biggest jerk on the planet. Yup, the hard way. But now I know.

Today, I'm planning on whipping up a salad of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and avocado, with oil, lemon and salt. Simple and yummy. And you'd be hard pressed to get someone at a restaurant to sell you a salad here without an accompanying meat dish. For example:


That was my lunch on Monday. It's called milanesa napolitana, which is a piece of meat fried (milanesa), then covered in ham, sauce, and cheese (that's the napolitana part). Milanesa is a very typical Argentine dish, as the Argentines love their meat FRIED! It's usually served with french fries, but I finagled my way into a side salad. It was delicious, but I was stuffed for the rest of the day, and I didn't even finish it! That is a seriously heavy meal.

Anyway, tonight I will be teaching my very first English class! I will be teaching a real practice course every Thursday and Friday for the next 4 weeks. I'm really nervous! I have been working on my lesson plans for the past couple weeks, and stressing about whether or not they are going to work. Here's to hoping they will! My class tonight is an intermediate level, and I plan to teach about "apartment hunting" and the words associated with that. I'm going to have them role play some apartment hunting scenarios, and write their own "apartment for rent" ads. Then my class tomorrow is an advanced level, and I'm planning on talking about euphemisms. Hopefully they will actually be advanced, and will be able to get into an interesting discussion about how and why we use them.

Then I'm headed to Ali's house for dinner tonight after I teach! Yum! I seriously cannot wait for this weekend. I feel like all I've done is study since I've been here, and it's very tough. I don't feel like I have a super great sense of the city at all, so I am excited to do some exploring around town on Saturday and Sunday, and hopefully get some good stories and take some pictures to show all you devoted blog readers. ;-)

A new pillow (and other stories)

Today I got a new pillow. This may not seem monumental for you, but you have NO IDEA what I have been sleeping on. Picture the thinnest, most worthless excuse for a pillow you have ever seen, make it even thinner, and make the pillow case a little bit abrasive and NOW you have an idea of my former pillow. I asked around the dorm, and it quickly became apparent that everyone else was perfectly happy with their pillow, and thus I determined that I had somehow been screwed over by the Pillow Distribution Services. I was forced to take matters into my own hands. I noticed this afternoon that one of the boys was moving out today, and casually glanced at his pillow... nice and thick! SNATCHED!!! New pillow. I'm leaning on it right now as I type, and cannot express how thrilled I am.

ANYWAY, you are probably wondering much more about my first day of school than about my pillow... fair enough. It was good! It's a bigger class than I expected, 13 students in all, 8 men and 5 women. We're a big range of ages, from a couple years younger than me, to several about my age, to 4 men that appear over 50 (one is most certainly over 60). Everyone seems really nice, and we're all kind of in the same boat. Although there are a few people with teaching experience, it appears the majority of us anyway are new to the whole thing, and are here for similar reasons-- career change, and an opportunity to work abroad. And a bunch of travel-lovers all in one place can't be half bad! The teacher seems like a nice enough fellow-- he is a kind of aggressive Irish guy with an intense personality who may take some warming up to, but overall he seems to have a good head on his shoulders... we'll see.

The reeeeally intense thing is how fast paced this course is going to be. I can barely even believe it as I type it, but I am going to teach my first course this Thursday! And another one on Friday! With real students!! Ahhhh!!! I'm terrified, which is why I am up at midnight blogging and pretending to research lesson plans. My class on Thursday will be intermediate level, and the one on Friday will be advanced. Overall over the next 4 weeks, I will teach a course every Thursday and Friday, totally 2 beginner, 2 intermediate, and 2 advanced when it's all said and done. But who knew I'd be thrown in so quickly??

I'm nervous-- I have to write the lesson plans tomorrow, present them to my class on Wednesday, and then execute them Thurs and Fri-- but also excited! I figure it makes sense to just jump right in. I don't feel I've had enough instruction at this point (after all, it was only ONE DAY), and I have no idea what I'm doing (he left the assignment very open ended, so our lessons can be about just about anything), but I'm assuming their expectations are realistically lower for the first lesson, and I'll only have room to improve.

So yeah. I'm going to be a certified ESL teacher in 4 weeks. Whoa!

In other news, I would like to recount the story of my first experience at an Argentinian grocery store. I've been into a few smaller markets, but I'm talking about a 2 story monstrosity called a Coto that sells everything. Well, just about, with a few key omissions. Like beans. I must rant about this-- you cannot find a can of beans anywhere in this city!! They just don't sell beans! It's horrible. Not only can I not buy a burrito anywhere, but I also can't even make my own?! It's like I'm being tortured. You can only buy the dry ones that you need to soak and boil, and if you could see my dorm's kitchen you would know why that is absolutely not going to happen.

Anyway, other than not finding beans, oh man, what a way to spend nearly 2 HOURS of my life. Wasted! It's a mad house! You go winding through the aisles, and it's like every single person in the city is in there, crashing into each other, with not even an inch to yourself. I spent almost an hour steering through the crowds, picking up easy-to-cook-in-an-awful-dorm-kitchen essentials while simultaneously being fascinated by the selections of funny looking cookies, bizarre meat parts, and tubs of spices labeled "spice." Pasta-- check. Tomato sauce in a bag (hmmm)-- check. A loaf of bread (the only one that looked remotely multi grain, although it turned out to be oats)-- check. Some ham and cheese for sandwiches-- check (although I have no idea what kind of cheese I bought??). Cheerio's and milk (the only one that appeared to be slightly reduced in fat, though I'm pretty sure they don't have skim here!)-- check. A couple grapefruits and a couple avocados. Mmmmmmmm I LOVE AVOCADOS.

So then I go to check out, and the lines are THIS LONG. Like, REALLY LONG. I am not exaggerating, I was in the "15 items or less" aisle behind about 10 people and waited an hour!!! God it was a nightmare. Even worse, some woman who I thought was just kind of fat started cutting in line in front of me, and of course being the disgruntled, impatient person that I am, I was trying to subtly sort of cut back in front of her.. finally she shoved past and marched to the front of the line, cutting in front of us ALL, and it was only then that I looked up and realized I had gotten myself into the "handicapped and pregnant women" express lane-- ugh, she wasn't fat, she was with child. STAB. (Frankly I don't care if you're pregnant with quintuplets, I have been in line for an hour!!!)

When I FINALLY arrived back at my residence it was already about 10:30 PM and the only reason why I was remotely okay was the thought of a yummy ham and cheese sandwich with avocado smeared all over it. So you can imagine my misery when I realized I'd somehow managed to not pack the avocados in my bag!!! I'd paid for them. Oh yes, they were on my receipt, but not in my bag. Grrrr. I am going to bed hungry in protest.

Note to self: do whatever it takes, pay extra, eat out every day, go to every corner market in town, but NEVER GO TO COTO AGAIN.

xoxoxo Love, Erica

Homework already?!

I'm leaving the country in about 36 hours, and with my mind 100% focused on packing, getting my life in order, and saying good bye, you can imagine my surprise/ horror when I opened my email on SUNDAY AFTERNOON and found a pre-course homework assignment waiting for me-- one that needs to be completed and emailed to my school before class starts on Monday.

And as much as I'd loooove to spend my first weekend in Buenos Aires with my head in a book studying, ummmm hmmmmm yeah, I think I should get this done before I go. THANKS FOR GIVING ME LIKE NO NOTICE, JERKS! Could you not have sent this to me a week ago? Or a month ago?!

So it starts off easy: What is wrong with this sentence? I have seen that film yesterday. Alright, simple enough. Wrong tense.

Now which tense is it? Ummm...??? One simple google search later, and I've discovered they used the present perfect. Okay, good.

Now explain briefly how you would explain the error to a student and how they should correct the usage. Okay, fine. This sucks. Where is my wine?

Now do that 30 times.

Now, still think you're so smart? Try this one on for size! The reader who can tell me what the person is trying to communicate in this sentence wins a one year subscription to my undying affection: My hobby is keeping feet.

HELP! Do they collect feet? Do they like giving pedicures for fun? Is this a really messed up way of saying they are a runner? Am I totally stupid, because I have no clue??

Anyway, welcome to my new world of English as a Second Language. I hope you enjoy the ride.