Studying Spanish in Mendoza

Javier, Chacho, and Victoria in Barreal
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At last! Mendoza, Argentina the city where I will be spending 2 months living with a Mendocino family and studying Spanish. I don´t know where to start really, the last month here has been incredible and so much has happened.

I got to Mendoza on Sunday night before my classes on Monday and took a cab to the Nieva apartment. I had met some of them for about 30 minutes earlier when I was here with my family and had really liked them.Still, I was utterly nervous about how the experience would be and most of all how well I would be able to communicate with them. I didn´t have to worry. The Nievas, all 7 of them, are pretty much the nicest family I have ever met. And while my communication skills weren´t nearly as good as I wanted to be (as in they sucked), they were really sympathetic and embraced me as family before I even got to know them.

Julia and Gabby, Barreal
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The 8 of us, Martin and Patricia (the mom and dad), Victoria (23), Lorenzo (22), Julia (now 21), Ignascio "Chacho" (18), Ramiro (16), and the dog Lola (8 months)- live in a very small apartment with 4 tiny bedrooms a common space that´s living room, dining room, and study, and a small kitchen/laundry area. We make a really sweet family. In the words of Julia ¨la casa es chiquita pero nuestro corazón es grande." It´s funny I´ve talked to both the family and my Spanish teachers here about life and there´s such a contrast. For example, the 7 people in my family here live in a tiny apartment, without central air or ACs, warmish showers maybe, and don´t always eat the greatest food in the world, but for Argentina standards they´re well off. The kids of 23 years old are still in house and have no plans of leaving. Any my spanish teachers make anywhere from 150 to 400 pesos a month, that´s about 50 to 140 dollars a month, working with a college degree. So compartively food, bars, and boliche entrances are quite expensive, even though for me they´re very cheap.

Rio de Los Platos
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Anyway the first full day here Julia took me to her friends birthday party which was a wild affair. The next day I went with Julia, Chacho and their cousin Marcos who´s vacationing in Mendoza and also staying at the apartment with his friend (bringing our total up to 10) to the pool (keep in mind how beautiful Argentian women are) where I learned to prepare a good mate, and met  4 or 5 Mendocinians whom I would spend considerable time with.

It´s pretty funny, I go to school every morning for 4 hours of class and then have lunch with the students and often we go out and do something around town, and I feel all confident I can converse and talk in Spanish with the professors and students and the locals I talk too-its awesome. But when I go home I encounter the real Argentian spanish with accents, people who dont pronounce everything perfectly, and above all who talk really really fast. Lorenzo and Chaco in particular like to swallow there words too, I cant tell if Lorenzo sometimes does it just to get a kick out of it, but oh well its pretty funny. But even within that first week I lost a lot of my awkwardness with the family and started having a great time and picking up a lot of Spanish. Still large family dinners with 10 plus people is a struggle. In seriousness though, that first week I sweated more then in like 2 months back home; and even though, it was like 100 degrees every day that defintely wasn´t the only reason.

Me, Ramiro, Julia, Gabby, Marcos
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That first week, the days went slowly but the week quickly. I felt like I was totally a part of the family and that my Spanish was making strides. The Nievas were going on vacation for a week to Barreal, a tiny town on the Rio de Platos in a valley nestled in between snow covered peaks of the Andes and invited me as well- a week in the mountains, riding horses, playing in the river, getting sun, and being part of a family reunion of 16 Argentians. I thought it was better than class, so I skipped a week of school, and went up there with them.

The Family in the Apartment
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¿Was it worth it? Ìn short yep. The weekend before we spent going to Boliches (a term from Mendoza for a dance club) and hanging out on Aristedes (the street filled with bars and pubs, almost all of them mostly outdoor seating). It´s hard to describe the atmosphere on Aristedes without going there but next time I go i´ll remember to bring my camera to try to get a picture to capture how crazy it is. Anyway it makes a great people watching area as well as a great place to while away lazy days-nights. So the Week on the Finca (ranch) in the moutains was great. But the operative word for the experience was crazy. The days were spent eating, eating, eating, playing in the river (we made a natural pool by building a damn), riding horses, and playing lots of backgammon. The nights were spent playing cards, going to boliches, watching River Plate (the soccer team) play on TV at a bar, and generally just hanging out. The crazy part for me was talking and being a part of a 15 person conversation at each meal in which everyone talked at the same time. It was an adventure for my spanish and while I didnt learn many new grammatical forms, I definitely picked up accents and the ability to hear and understand Spanish. At times though, I was completely perdido and all I could do was laugh at the infectious nature of these Argentians! This lot I live with is definitely amongst the most happy, nice people I´ve met, and everyone in town I encounter seems to love life too.

Marcos, Chacho, Hiamey
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Going back to Mendoza was not at all a let down. Classes started back up and we did more real life situational things, like me going to travel agencies to talk to the people, and striking up conversations with the artisanas in the plaza as well as covering a lot of new grammatical knowledge. At home, oh tranquil home with only 10 of us in residence, we watched movies, I tried to beat Martin at chess which is pretty much like saying Marcus could beat me in Tennis (as much as you want to be able too), and we went out on walks and such. There is some changeover every week in the students at school which is both good and bad. Obviously new blood makes things stay interesting (usually) but I´ve had to say goodbye to several friends who have left to continue their travels. And of the 4 very cool girls I´ve met through the school, only 1 is still here. But that´s ok because through my family here, I have a base of Argentian friends to hang out with. Every night here one of the five kids has a party or an event that they´re going to and they try to get me to go with, and when I don´t say yes to all of them all of the time I get good naturedly called a bore. A small price to pay really for having the option- I also try not to get called a bore too often.

The Birthday girl (Julia) and Eliana
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My fourth week I spent a lot of time studying, a few afternoons walking around in Parque de San Martin, a 450 hectare park right smack in town, with pools and hikes and good places to picnic, and I went to a couple more boliches and bars at night. I´ve now signed up for another month of classes, and another month with the fam. Which should end up being very fun.

Of the tons of pictures I have I´ll try to get some more up soon, as well as posting a few pictures of Mendoza in general.