First full week in Buenos Aires~

Hola amig@s, familia, y al gente que no conozco! ~~

I apologize in advance for not updating my blog as frequently as you all would probably like... since I know you're all anticipating my next entry. Disculpa. :)

Okay, let's review my week so far:

I began classes on Wednesday, August 17. I am taking three classes at Universidad de Palermo (la UP): Relaciones Internationales, Literatura y Cine (film), and I am interning at Amnesty International in Buenos Aires -- an organization that works toward protecting human rights and has members and activists in more than 150 countries and territories who campaign to end grave abuses of human rights (for those of you who were unaware or who haven't heard of AI.)

My UP class (RI) is with other Argentine students as well as many other foreigners from other South American countries, because apparently Argentina offers really cheap higher education... I should have completed my whole college career here. Qué lástima! :)

So far, we have done so many things that it has been a little overwhelming to say the least... On Monday (before classes began), we went on a "City Tour" of Buenos Aires to get to know this enormous city a little better. The tour did not cover the entire area of Buenos Aires, but we saw what was considered most important to the tour guide.

On Tuesday, we had orientation and took a small tour around our Facultad (Faculty)... The UP 'campus' is more similar to that of Georgia State (very spread out) instead of one large campus where everything is together.

On Wednesday classes began... I just had my one UP class (IR), and it turns out there are a handful of American students in my classes...kind of weird, but cool. Anyway..

Thursday I had classes again and I also went to learn about my internship at Amnesty International and had to sit through a little meeting/orientation for that, which was pretty informative and interesting.

Friday: NO CLASS! EVER! IT'S AWESOME! We went to Tecnopolis-- not the coolest place in the world... it's kind of like an outdoor science park that is split up into different areas of science... maybe it could have been cool if it didn't rain the whole day... oh maybe if it was a little warmer than 45 F. :-) Not the funnest thing.. but not the worst thing in the world either.

Saturday we went to LA BOCA-- it is an area of Buenos Aires, Argentina where the houses are painted all sorts of bright colors, and where many imports/exports are transported through the Río de la Plata... you should look more into the history of the city because it is very interesting!

Today we were tourists some more and toured the National School of Buenos Aires – it's enormous and I guess it could be compared to something like a charter school in the States, because even though it is a public school, students must take an entrance exam and pass it before they can study there. It is very pretty! We went to the feria today around La Plaza de Mayo (also a very historical area in BsAs history) that takes place every weekend on Sundays only I believe... A feria is outdoors and it's kind of like our “fairs” or flea markets where people have booths set up and sell either homemade things or vintage things.. tea..coffee..desserts... very cool.

No school tomorrow (August 22) because it's a holiday!

I am having a really great time so far and I am excited to get into a routine with school and hopefully I will start making some friends with some locals :-)

I am sorry again that it has taken me so long to update my blog since I have been here... I will try to do so more frequently so that there is not so much to read all at once!!!

Hasta pronto.

~Morgan