Rotary = the reason I`m in Argentina and I owe tons to the Rotarians that have helped me both in Greensboro and here in San Juan. Here Rotary is very different from in the US, although the same commitment to service exists. The Summit Club of Greensboro has around 120 members (maybe more?) while here my host club has 16 members, frankly it`s hard to find professionals with both the time and money to commit to the organization here. The club here is only male while the wives form what`s called La Rueda Interna (Internal Wheel) and they also do service projects but always separate from the men. They have their meetings at the same time but at separate locations.... somewhat awkward for me but I`ve taken a different route. I participate in special projects and social events that both the club and the Rueda Interna have but on a weekly basis I`m involved with the local Rotaract club which is a young people`s version of Rotary, mostly students but some working professionals as well.
I first met all the Rotarians and their wives wearing borrowed clothing on the day the men were going to surprise their wives with chocolates and champagne at their weekly meeting (note that we didn`t arrive with the chocolates/champagne until 12 am and this was a weeknight!). Since then I`ve helped out at some fundraisers and have attended the District Conference in Mendoza so now I have a much better understanding of how Rotary works here... I now also know that Rotary normally only brings high school exchange students to San Juan so I always have to explain why the heck I´m here when I´m sooooooo old ha... although most people here think I`m 19, a step up from 15 that I was getting back home :)
I haven`t really done anything with Rotaract yet except attend some meetings, the group is extremely welcoming, so I`ll keep you posted.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Friday, April 4, 2008
School..... aka battling the photocopiers.
Long time no post, I´ll have to remedy that for the future. School started last Tuesday the 25th and has already gotten intense in just a few short days (and we even had a holiday on April 1st to commemorate the start of the Falklands War, as opposed to Vanderbilt we have LOTS of random days off). I have to say that attending class is what is keeping me most grounded and being the only exchange student has forced me to integrate myself extremely quickly into the university community... that and the fact that professors here all seem to be obsessed with group work so I´ve had to scramble to meet classmates since day one.
I´m taking 4 courses, a full load here, and have to be there from 8 to 1 everyday. Let´s just say that´s taking some getting used to as the last time I´ve had to get up at 6:30 on a regular basis was during student teaching.
....ok back... yes, I know tomorrow turned into two weeks later... each class is 3 times a week for about two hours. As opposed to the US, all students enter into a major (I´m doing teaching English as a second language, I know I know weird but really I don`t know anything about English phonetics or grammar I promise) from day one and only take courses for that major. The course schedules are all fixed so that all students in the first year of a major take all the same courses together and then stay together for each of the next 3 years... which means that it feels like high school all over again because we`re all together for 5 hours a day. Although I`m not sure this makes for the best classroom atmosphere, in terms of integrating myself into life here it has helped tremendously. At the beginning I think my classmates were scared of me since at this university being an exchange student is almost unheard of, but now that we`ve gotten to know each other much better I don`t feel awkward or any different from them. And I can`t tell you how many translation questions I`m asked each day (whenever the professors ask if everyone has their dictionaries all the kids around me just point to me and say they have the mobile version ;)
Photocopiers = the bane of my existence. Since here books are expensive and it`s hard to get really out of date material professors just leave books at photocopy shops and you literally have them copy the book for you... haha so very illegal. But it`s the only way. So standing in line for 45 minutes to copy 10 pages is quite a normal occurance and if you`re waiting for a book, plan to bring a book to read... and then you just have to hope that they copy all the pages for you. But now that I have all my material I`ll be good for a while!
At a later date I`ll have to write about professors... I could go on for pages. But for now school keeps plodding along.
I´m taking 4 courses, a full load here, and have to be there from 8 to 1 everyday. Let´s just say that´s taking some getting used to as the last time I´ve had to get up at 6:30 on a regular basis was during student teaching.
....ok back... yes, I know tomorrow turned into two weeks later... each class is 3 times a week for about two hours. As opposed to the US, all students enter into a major (I´m doing teaching English as a second language, I know I know weird but really I don`t know anything about English phonetics or grammar I promise) from day one and only take courses for that major. The course schedules are all fixed so that all students in the first year of a major take all the same courses together and then stay together for each of the next 3 years... which means that it feels like high school all over again because we`re all together for 5 hours a day. Although I`m not sure this makes for the best classroom atmosphere, in terms of integrating myself into life here it has helped tremendously. At the beginning I think my classmates were scared of me since at this university being an exchange student is almost unheard of, but now that we`ve gotten to know each other much better I don`t feel awkward or any different from them. And I can`t tell you how many translation questions I`m asked each day (whenever the professors ask if everyone has their dictionaries all the kids around me just point to me and say they have the mobile version ;)
Photocopiers = the bane of my existence. Since here books are expensive and it`s hard to get really out of date material professors just leave books at photocopy shops and you literally have them copy the book for you... haha so very illegal. But it`s the only way. So standing in line for 45 minutes to copy 10 pages is quite a normal occurance and if you`re waiting for a book, plan to bring a book to read... and then you just have to hope that they copy all the pages for you. But now that I have all my material I`ll be good for a while!
At a later date I`ll have to write about professors... I could go on for pages. But for now school keeps plodding along.
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