Volleyball in Belgrano

One of the first things I did once I arrived was to look for a volleyball team/club I could play with. This was not very hard because my university has one and I got a paper from orientation telling me all about it. I really had no idea what to expect when I showed up. It was a lovely 30 minute walk from my house, so I had a lot of time to freak myself out about the whole situation.

So when I got there I noticed two nets and saw that the girls and boys played separately. I thought it was going to be co-ed, which I was super excited about, but I was still just excited to play volleyball. Volleyball is a pretty popular sport here (fun fact: field hockey is one of the most popular sports here, for men and women.) and I assumed it would be pretty good volleyball considering everyones age as well. I started warming up with a partner and she was pretty good, so I was excited. I was really hoping volleyball would work out because I has been a really big part of my life for the past 6 years, but as the practice went on I realized no one really knew how to play. The first practice I was there, no one spoke to me either. It was not that they were mean, but they also were not friendly. I kept looking over at the boys because they were playing at the caliber I am used to playing.

Even though it was not what I expected I kept going back for about 2 weeks. Over time the girls started talking to me more, but it was really hard to communicate during plays. It was partly due to the language barrier because I was not sure what words they used for sports. The other part was, they were playing at a level that did not require much communication, so I also was not sure what to say. Every time I went I kept looking over at what the boys were doing and wishing that I could play with them. After two weeks I decided that I was either gonna play with the boys or not play at all. I love volleyball, but playing at that level, honestly, just made me sad. Every time I would play, I would just miss my team even more and not be able to enjoy my time playing volleyball. I asked the coach if I was able to play with the boys and unfortunately I got a no. So I decided to stop going because it wasn’t making me a better player and it was making me sad, as well. I was sad that volleyball did not work out, but I found something else I love here! But that topic is for another blog.

 

Emilee Pierson

Personas y Aventuras

I wrote about one of my days in Mendoza, but the whole trip was quite eventful. This was the first time I stayed in a hostel, and it was an experience. I did not think I would, but I loved the hostel I stayed in. One of the best things the hostel offered was free wine every night from 7-9, but the wine was not the best part. The best part was being able to meet people staying in the hostel. It was a great way for me to practice Spanish and for other people to practice English. I met so many people from around the world and learned all their stories. I even ended up hiking the Andes at night with a few of them.

One of the other great parts about Mendoza is the fact that Ashley is there! I did not get to see her as much as I hoped, but any time spent with friends is precious. I got to meet all of her friends and play soccer with them which was neat. I had not played soccer in a while and it was cool to just joke around and meet new people. Another night I got to go out to dinner with her friends and the family of one of her friends and it was nice to share a meal and stories with them as well.

Like I said, I had many adventures in Mendoza another one was rafting the Rio Mendoza. I do not know how to swim, but I love anything that has to do with the water so I was super excited. Unfortunately, the entire weekend was cold and rainy which is not ideal for water activities, but I was determined to make the best out of it even though the cold and I are eternal enemies. We got wetsuits, life jackets, and helmets and we were ready to go! They gave the safety talk in spanish, so I understood about half of it, but I made it work. During my time abroad I am actively trying to get out of my comfort zone, so when they asked who wanted to be in the front I immediately raised my hand. And I do not regret that one bit! This was one of the most thrilling experiences of my life! Honestly, it was below 30 degrees and raining, but I did not let that stop my fun. We rafted for about 13 km. The river was beautiful and the rafting was exhilarating. 

On the last day of my trip, I went on a wine and bike tour. I got to tour the Saletin winery. This particular winery believes in paring art, music, and wine, so they had a lovely art gallery that we got to see before the tour started. They showed us around the facilities and told us how they make their wine. From the vineyard to the french oak barrels, we got to see it all! Then we had a very informative wine tasting, where our guide showed us how to see, smell, and taste wine. Then we biked from our first winery to our second. It was a cloudy, slightly cool day, which was perfect for biking. The second winery had a six course meal with a specific wine pairing for each course. Anyone who knows me knows how simple my diet is, but I tried everything on the menu from the beetroot soufflé with gold goat cheese mousse to a pumpkin and toffee mousse cake. Both the wineries were gorgeous and the experience was pleasant and informative.

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Mendoza is a beautiful place filled with beautiful people.

Emilee Pierson

Mendoza, Mendoza, Mendoza!

Felicidades Pascuas!

Since it is Semana Santa (Holy Week), we did not have classes on Thursday, which meant this weekend was a five day weekend! So two friends of mine and I decided to take a trip to the beautiful city of Mendoza. The city of Mendoza is known for its wine and gorgeous countryside and I got to see all of that and more. (I had a extremely long and eventual weekend- with lots of pictures- so I will probably blog about Mendoza more than once)

If anyone knows me they definitely would not describe me as relaxed or laid back. I am very “Type A”. I like having a schedule and knowing what I am going to do, but Buenos Aires has brought out a different side of me. Honestly, one of the many reasons I went with the group I went with was because they wanted to do the same things I did and seemed like they had everything planned out already. (The key word in that sentence is SEEMED) In my head I was thinking, “Great! I can just chill out and they can stress out about all the planning for once it won’t be me”. I was so relaxed about the entire trip that I forgot what day the bus was and had to pack everything in less than an hour. Packing in less than an hour leads to multiple mistakes and forgotten items. My friends and I were late getting on the train and were afraid we would be late to the bus. Our bus left at 7 p.m and we arrived at the bus terminal at 6:45. Unfortunately, we had no idea which terminal our bus left from and because Buenos Aires is such a big city there are over 80 bus terminals. On top of that, because it was Semana Santa basically everyone was leaving the city, therefore it was extra crowded. We asked multiple employees and people if they knew where our bus was, but no one could give us an answer. We were looking for over 30 minutes. At one point, an employee told us our bus already left and subsequently we all started freaking out.

After about 30 minutes we got it all figured out and piled onto the bus. I did not sleep the night before (mainly because I thought I had another day before I left), so I fell asleep quickly and remained asleep for about 13 hours, out of a 19 hour bus ride. When I woke up I turned around and my friend, Jess, was no longer in her seat. Internally, I started to freak out. Finally we made a stop for food and the bus driver came and found my friend, Chelsey and I, and told us our other friend had to get moved to a different bus, but did not tell us why. Apparently, at about 3 a.m. there was a drunk man on the bus who ended up throwing up everywhere. Our friend, Jess, had to move out of her seat and sit up front with the bus driver for about 5 hours, until she got moved to another bus. When we finally got to the terminal after a 19 hour bus ride, we found our friend! This incident surprisingly led us to one of the coolest experiences I had in Mendoza.

There was another passenger, Pablo, who had to move because of the mess and was very friendly and told our friend Jess about the pink moon happening on Saturday. We did not have anything to do Saturday night so we ended up going on a night hike through the Andes with him and his friend. In all honesty I was very concerned, but we took some people with us for safety. There was another student from UB staying at the same hostel with us and we brought a few other people we got to know pretty well from our hostel with us including, a Brazilian student studying in Mendoza, and Columbian professional soccer player on vacation, and a portuguese traveler. There was a total of nine of us on this hike. At first we could not find the place, but eventually we did. We had to drive about 5 minutes up a dirt road to start the hike.

I thought the hike was 2 hours in total, but it was 2 hours one way. Either way it was beautiful. It was really cloudy so you could not see the pink moon necessarily, but the sky was light up by the moon. It was a really hard hike, but the view was so worth it. It was also amazing just to be with so many different people. Everyone had a different background and spoke different languages, but we were able to use a mix of English and Spanish to be able to understand each other. It was a really good way for me to practice my spanish outside of the context of a classroom. We did not finish the hike until about 1:30 a.m., so it was safe to say everyone was exhausted after. All around it was a beautiful night. I was quite nervous, but it was the most amazing view I have ever seen. I took pictures, but pictures do not do it justice.

There will be more to come about my adventures in Mendoza…

Emilee Pierson

Studying Abroad?

It has been about four weeks in Buenos Aires for me, and things are definitely a lot different than back home. One of the major ways I can see a difference is through my classes. I am taking five, three-credit classes, but it sure does not feel like it. I have readings for both of my political science and both of my history classes every week. The reading load for 2 weeks of classes at Belgrano is the equivalent of 1 week, sometimes even one night, of reading required for my classes at Wesleyan. I had my first ever assignment to turn in the other day and our professor was extremely laid back. During the class that it was due she said, “No worries guys, just turn it in by next week at the latest”. I was really surprised when she said that, even though I know academics and due dates are more relaxed here. Another big difference is the amount of time spent in class consecutively. First of all, every class here is an hour and a half long which may not seem like a big difference from 50 minutes, but it definitely does feel like a big difference. The other major change is I have three classes all one right after the other, so I am in class from 11:30 am to 4:00 pm on Mondays and Wednesdays. That is a very big change from Wesleyan classes where it would be very rare to have class for that long without a break. Honestly, it takes a toll on my ability to focus and participate in class. Going that long without food or even a mental break has been a bit difficult, but it is only two days out of the week so I can manage.

One thing that is highly unusual, to me at least, is that during my history classes my professor asks us to speculate quite often. She eventually tells us the right answer, but she really wants to know our thoughts without any research, which is different from Wesleyan. My professors at Wesleyan stress research and analysis and then you base your opinion, statement, or paper off of that work. I do not really enjoy just guessing what the answer is, as I would rather do my research and then be confident in my answer based off of primary sources or scholarly articles. Another quite peculiar thing is that my professor for Human Rights and Cultural Representations asks us about our feelings all the time. I do see the importance of how feelings can impact your interpretation of events, especially the one pertaining to my class because they are quite dark events, but it is just different. The best difference about this semester compared to all of my other semester is that I do not have to take any general education courses, which means all of my courses correspond to my major and my interests. All my classes deal with content about Latin American countries and I am really immersed in the history of those countries through my four major content classes. It is really amazing that what I am learning in one class can directly relate to 3 other of my classes and it is really giving me a comprehensive history of Latin America.

While there have been some things I have had to get used to there are a few things that are very similar. All of my classes are 20 students or less, which is what I am used to. They are all heavily participation based just like Wesleyan. Another pleasant similarity is that my professors are very personable and try to get to know the students because of the small class sizes. This was one of the selling points of Wesleyan for me and I am glad I get to enjoy that with a few twists here in Argentina. All in all, this semester is really laid back and is giving me a lot of time to explore the city and myself.

Emilee Pierson

2 Countries, 1 Day!

Last Saturday, I went on an excursion to the beautiful city of Colonia in Uruguay. Just a quick 1 hour ferry ride brings you back in history to a city filled with Spanish and Portuguese influence. Our group got both a bus tour and a walking tour with a local guide. The highlight of the bus tour was the bull fighting stadium. That took a lot of money to build and was used for less than a year. It has just been sitting there for many, many years. I thought it was pretty interesting that the government paid so much money, but also decided to let it just sit and decay for years.

My favorite part about the trip was being able to walk around the city and see the heavy influences from both the Spanish and the Portuguese. The Spanish and the Portuguese traded control over Uruguay many times and that can be easily seen throughout the city when you examine the architecture. One major difference between the Spanish and Portuguese were the way in which they constructed roads. The Spanish built roads with drains on the outside of the roads and sidewalk, while the Portuguese built smaller roads with drainage down the middle and no sidewalks. It was fascinating to see the two different types of roads next to each other. Another way we saw architectural influence throughout the city was through the houses. The Spanish built bigger houses with a pointed roof, while the Portuguese built smaller houses with a flat roof. Some Spanish houses and structures were even built on top of Portuguese structures.

It felt like the city was stuck in time in one of the most beautiful ways possible. The roads winded throughout the city, which reflected the not so organized city planning by the Portuguese. Walking along the wall of the fort (where I dropped my brand new camera down a flight of stair- but it survived) allowed you to see and feel what it would have been like hundreds of years ago. There was no driving allowed in the city, which allowed you to feel the full affect that this beautiful city had. This was by far my favorite excursion so far because I got to explore a beautiful city with my beautiful friends! We only had one day here, but I could have spent waaaayyy more.

Emilee Pierson

A Little Piece of Home

On Thursday, after about 3 weeks of being away from everyone I know, I got to see one of my best friends and fellow Global Scholar, Ashley! Although it was only a night, it was much needed.

I have not been too homesick yet, but as one could assume, I was pumped to see a familia
r face after three long weeks of unfamiliar faces and a foreign language. Unfortunately, I only had one night to see Ashley because of school, (I guess that is why it is called STUDY abroad) but I took full advantage of it. We went to my favorite Italian restaurant, Cosi Mi Piace in Palermo. Per usual my ultra healthy friend ordered a salad while I gorged on pizza, but both dishes were enjoyed over good wine and great conversation. We then went to a bar to get some drinks and meet some friends. While the plan was to meet friends, Ashley and I ended up just talking for hours.

It was really nice to have someone to talk to that is going through the same things I am going through and could give me advice as well. Sharing new experiences while reflecting on shared past experiences took up the whole night. Finally laughing with one of my friends was the highlight of my week. My mood was instantly brightened after that night. This is a quick post because what else can I say about this night other than it was nothing short of excellent?

Nothing beats old friends in a new place.

-Emilee Pierson