Catamarca itself is a very nice town. I´ve heard varying population reports but it seems to be between 250,000-300,000 people. It´s a nice size, big enough that I can take a bus to the center and meet friends at a cafe, but small enough to run into people in unexpected places. The climate here is the exact oppositte of Ohio, it´s very dry, hot, there are mountains everywhere, and at night the temperature drops sharply. Right now it´s spring so the view of the mountains with the flowering trees is very pretty. One word of advice to future outbounds to Catamarca or ones in a similar climate- bother to actually bring a coat. I didn´t, I thought it would be warmer, but you will be arriving in their winter and at night when you go into town to see a movie or do something with your friends you will be cold and need more than a thin sweater even though during the day it will get warm. The main thing is there is a LOT of wind here, so even when it´s relatively warm or cooling down it can make you cold.
There are many things very specific to Catamarca that I don´t know a lot about yet, we will be starting our Spanish course soon which will be about Catamarqueño and things about the city too. When I first arrived I thought that the people here spoke regular Spanish, but after being here and talking to my classmates I realized that the accent here is actually quite difficult to understand. My first host family is from Cordoba so they have a different accent, and I am now more adjusted to understanding them. One of the hardest things about the accent here is the traditional Spanish "rr" that we all know about in the states is not pronounced that way. In Catamarca rr becomes sh so perro becomes pesho (this is only in pronunciation as the writing stays the same). They also have their own language that I don´t quite understand yet, the English equivalent would be Pig Latin. My Spanish is improving, the only thing is that many words that we learn in the US aren´t used here. For example camiseta is ramera here, carro is auto. I think the way the Spanish has evolved here is more European, they speak like they are Italian. They also add issimo to words so bueno can also be buenissimo and they also don´t fully pronounce the end of words so it reminds me a little of French. There are also many other influences here that are very European. I think my previous travels have prepared me very well. The climate and architecture is reminiscent of Mexico to me, the food is very much French and Italian just with a much later schedule, and many of the products here are European here too. All of the cars here are French or German, practically no one owns a car from the US. We have a Renault, it also runs on Natural gas! Which is cool and becoming a big push here because to get Gasoline is very expensive and there is always a line, but practically every gas station here has a Natural Gas pump, so its cheaper and better. Catamarca is the oppositte of my life in Ohio in practically every way. I have been loving my time here, but I won´t deny that I do miss certain things (mainly food).
Here the food is very good, there is Milanesa which is like a large chicken nugget (Mexico also has this), lots of Coca cola, ice cream, asado (steak and sausage), various types of pastas, but one of the most iconic foods from Argentina is Dulce de Leche. An Argentinean created it, and it is used in EVERYTHING. I think all of the weight I will gain this year will be in Dulce de Leche. We eat a light breakfast of Hot Chocolate and French Bread with Dulce de Leche on it, which is also my afternoon snack at around 6 pm, but every desert has Dulce in it cakes, churros, cookies, ice cream, bread,and all of it is delicious. We eat four meals a day, this was an adjustment and at first I starved. Before school at about 6:45 we have a light breakfast, then we start school at 7;30 and are usually back at the house by 2:00 when we eat Lunch (the heaviest and most important meal of the day) then we have siesta- no shops are open at this time, so everyone either sleeps or watches TV. My sister and I usually sleep. Then at about 6 or 7 depending on how tired we were we have merienda or a late snack. This usually is coffee and croissants or maybe with some ham and cheese grilled sandwiches. Then after merienda is homework time, I don´t have very much since I am in the last year in school and here the hardest year is the second the last, so I don´t usually have homework. Then at around 10:30 or 11 we have dinner, it´s much lighter usually a build your own sandwich type thing. We eat lots of ham and French Bread. Then we have more homework time if we need it, but in reality after dinner we watch TV until 1 am or so.
School is very different. First of all one thing is that everyone here is much more loud here, all of my classmates are very nice and helpful, but they can be very loud in the classroom and since there is no carpet in any of the buildings here nothing absorbs the sound. When we have class there is a cacophony of sound and it´s still hard for me to process with that much noise. But other key elements of my schooling here are totally different. Here the last year of high school is easier because it is when they want you to bond with your classmates. They have all of these traditions for the people in the last year. There´s a special dance, there are trips. The kids in my class are going to Brazil for their trip, I can´t go with them but just the idea of doing something like that with your graduating class is very cool. I wish Granville did something like that. At the same time their graduating class is very small 60 people. There are two sections- Humanities and Art & Design. I´m in the Humanities Course. We stay in the room all day, it´s the teachers who switch rooms, another concept with school that is totally different. We also have a different class schedule for every day of the week, and since we´re a Catholic school before classes begin every morning there is a ceremony to raise the flag and read from the Bible. Some teachers have us pray before the class begins. I am catholic and I´m fine with doing this, but I haven´t learned the prayers in Spanish yet so I just stand there and smile. My classmates don´t study a lot, so when one of the teachers asked me to write an analysis of my sociology I did it. It ended up being 9 pages, but they all think that I study a lot, but in my mind I procrastinated and didn´t. They are also given a lot of time for one assignment, whereas in Granville you are not. The same assignments I had 6 days to do here was expected the next day at Granville. One teacher on my first day of school spent ten minutes of his class explaining his grading requirements, and then he sat down and played cards with the guys in the back of the class. This actually happens a lot and sometimes teachers don´t come, so I still don´t really know when I have to do what. When my teacher presented my sociology to the class they all thought it was fascinating. There are many things that I think are normal that they do not, because in the difference of the way we were raised. Here education is important, but not to the extent it is in Granville. Everyone who wants to go to College here can, and for free, so they don´t worry about grades because they are not a part of the application to get into college, it´s only one test. Here it´s very important to have a boyfriend/girlfriend. One of the first questions that everyone I meet here asks me is "Do you have a boyfriend?" I of course say "No". But its extremely important to have a boyfriend here.
Another big adjustment is the driving style, here it´s like Mario Kart, everyone goes and doesn´t really regard the rules of the road that much. There is also a ton of people who have motorcycles. I mean a lot of people, and the people who have them will push them to their limit. I´ve seen three people on one moto, or two men on a moto and the one in the back is balancing a bicycle on the moto. Drivers here don´t have the mentality that they pedestrian always has the right of way, it´s the exact oppositte.
Also here there are a lot of security precautions even though there is not much crime.
One tradition here that is really fun is "the election of the Queen" every school has an election, which is a dance with the whole beauty pagent thing. There are some joking traditions, but its fun to see tha difference between prom queen and queen of the school. Here also the winners of each school move on, and eventually they elect the queen of Argentina. They dont elect prom king though, but my schools dance was a lot of fun. It was my first outing with my classmates and everyone here dances to cumbia, and cuarteto. It was nice that I already knew some of the pop songs at the dances, so future outbounds once you know your country ask rebounds about the music. The music here is really good and my family always has the radio on. we´re always singing songs (granted not all of us sing well). But Music made my transition a little easier. I think all of the research I did really helped me, that and I talked with my brother on Facebook quite often before I came to get a feel for what people do, what kind of music and what kind of events are popular.
I´ve had so much fun with my family so far, they´re great and some of them remind me of my family members in the United States. My host brother is so much fun to be around, when we are sitting around for siesta or driving in the car, he´s always telling me a funny story. I also really love having a sister! Agustina is very nice and has helped me in so many ways, we also share a love for ice cream. Every day practically we debate about what flavor to get, but I think by the end of this year I will bleed ice cream and dulce de leche I eat so much of it. Santiago, my little host brother is 6 and sometimes he can be very loud, but I enjoy teaching him things about the world and learning things about Spanish and Argentina from him. My host mom is one of the nicest people, she´s a great cook and is very funny. My host dad is also very funny, so at meal times after eating we all talk about funny things or random facts like the history of scotland or that someone built a hobbit house in Wales.
My counselor is very nice, All of the inbounds for my club (14 kids), their siblings, and some club members went on a hike in the mountains the first week I was here. It was so beautiful but hard to do when you´re from a low altitude place and sick with a cold.
This month we went to Carlos Paz, Cordoba for rotary orientation with my district, for the weekend we were mostly seperated between inbounds and outbounds, but I had so much fun getting to know everyone. We played all kinds of games like three legged soccer, we had a costume dance party, and we got information about our trip to the south! One of the best weekends I´ve spent here. Today I had my first culture lessons in the center. I am taking guitar and tango. I had so much fun, but I have so much to learn! I´m really looking forwrd to mastering an art here.
Everything here has been very laid back so in my first month my schedule has been so irregular that it´s not enough time for any large milestone. Now is when the real work begins, but I have to wait until my club invites me to meetings because we are 14 inbounds for one club and our club wants us to go in pairs, and every time they say they´ll send an email one week its actually the next, so I dont know when I will actually go to a rotary meeting.
This month has been so incredible and I can´t wait to learn more. My advice to future outbounds is as soon as you have the country assignment research as much as you can about your new life there, it really helped me adjust quickly. Also whenever there is something very different or something you dont understand why its that way dont be afraid to ask, it has enhanced my understanding.
Love it Laura!
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