Weekend Excursion #1: Iguazu

This past weekend CEA took us on a wonderful trip to Misiones, Argentina. It's a state in Northeast Argentina, touching both Brazil and Paraguay.

Misiones, Argentina : the itty bitty red province

Walking out of the airplane and seeing the jungle that surrounded me, immediately I felt my heart whisper "this is the Latin America I know".

I love my big city experience of Buenos Aires, but I felt so at home in Misiones, Argentina. I looked much more like the Latin America I grew up around. Every sight, smell, and touch I experienced was both new and familiar at the same time.

Day 1: Haras Rancho Lodge

After arriving to Misiones we traveled to this beautiful Ranch about 5km (look at me, on the metric system now!) outside the city of Eldorado. This ranch is a tranquil tourism spot dedicated to the breeding of horses.

We had a huge lunch that consisted of meat, meat, and some more meat. I've discovered of all the parts of the Asado, blood sausage is my least favorite. My favorite part of the Asado is the Asado de tira, which is basically short ribs.

After lunch we ventured around the ranch, discovering what it all had to offer. Maia and I entered the owners home which was absolutely breath taking. It was the home of my dreams. It really reminded me of the carpentry my dad is famous for. I thought perhaps my dad could recreate the masterpiece, but then again he would make it his own. Walking around and touching all the furniture I promised the owner I would be coming back some day in the future.

Of course the moment I saw the horses I knew I just HAD to ride on one. One of the ranch-hands, Luis, introduced me to my newest friend, Gringa. Her name is quite humorous because a Gringo is a term Latin Americans use to describe white people. Gringa is white with blond hair, and I too am called Gringa by my friends in Mexico (I may be brown, but I'm still American!) We instantly bonded as I showered her in compliments. She was very well behaved during our ride, always wanting to be ahead of the pack: just like me! The ranch hands were pretty humored by how enamored I had become of her.

One of my favorite things about being in the countryside is the tranquility. There's a really good reason why city people can't make it in the countryside: they don’t know how to embrace silence. Once you embrace silence, you can learn how to listen.

Day 2: Iguazu Falls

I honestly have no words for Iguazu Falls. Unfortunately my camera battery had died in the morning and I didn't get to take any pictures there. Even if I had it, my photos would have done no justice to this natural wonder.

Here is a photo of Iguazu I stole from the internet, but even this photo fails to capture what Iguazu has to offer.

I did get the opportunity to be in Brazilian territory for this part of the trip, naturally I was I riding cloud nine. We took a boat that took us right up to the waterfall and Iguazu literally showered us in it's presence. Again, words cannot describe what it was like so I'm not even going to try.

Day 3: Guarani Village Tour

The Guarani are a group of culturally related Indigenous people of South America. They mostly reside in Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil, and Bolivia. Although their population was hindered during exploration and colonization, the people and the culture persist. They speak their own language and they have no written history. The Guarani continue their legacy through their way of life and song. Their tongue is the binding characteristic of their culture.

I held off posting pictures of them because before I do I want you to take off the western eyes you view the world through. 

While the Guarani people do not live in the same luxuries you do, these people are not poor. The Guarani are a rich people with a rich culture. I don't want you to pity them.

This website I found describes my sentiments of the Guarani people perfectly:

Along the last 500 years, the Guarani people have created and recreated their resistance strategies, sometimes facing military forces, like the imperial armies of Spain and Portugal, sometimes finding allies in the involving society, and sometimes simply being dispersed.
Against all these forms of dominance (educational, military, economical and religious), the Guarani were able to maintain their spirit free by using as a shield of protection the uninterrupted process of transmitting their language and culture from generation to generation and having as their principal arm the philosophy of the Search for the Land Without Evils.

“This free land, independent and sovereign, has to be based on the fundamental indigenous beginnings. Beginnings that overcome the personal interests and transcend and embrace the social, economic, cultural and political spheres. These beginnings are the fundamental essence of being Guarani, as the incessant search of the Land Without Evils and of Freedom. But, who answers me? ... Nor God answers me when I will be free...!!! Our essence is of being without owner "... our God is the Nature and not the Law...". Beginnings that impregnate being social, like Mboroaiu, Mborerekua, Yoparareko, this love, esteem, affection, solidarity, expressed in feelings for the person close by, that allows to overcome and to come off of being mean and individualist.” -- Wilson Changaray

Ha'evete is "Thank you" in Guarani 

Thank you to the Guarani for welcoming me and the rest of CEA to your home. I am blessed to have been given the opportunity to experience your culture and your way of life. Your way of life is beautiful and I have the utmost respect for you all. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Con un fuerte abrazo,

Julietta

Struggling with Mental Illness Abroad

I guess I'm getting real here people. 

I'm about to talk about something that I don’t feel like is talked about very much. And I'm going to get pretty personal because I'm not ashamed to talk about it. Instead I want you to learn from it.

I'm crawling up to my one year anniversary of being officially diagnosed with clinical depression/anxiety. Now that I know more about depression and anxiety I realize that this is something I've had in my life for quite some time.

Like I've mentioned before, I'm an International Studies major at Texas A&M. Part of my degree requirement to graduate is a semester study abroad that I am now partaking in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Knowing that I struggle with anxiety and depression, I knew that my study abroad was going to challenge me in many ways. I knew I was going to have to adjust to a new environment and I was going to be far away from familiarity.

It took about a week in BA for my first anxiety attack to come. I felt the build up but I ignored it (or tried to at least). I shouldn't of tried to suppress it… but I did anyways. And it imploded on me.

What does an anxiety attack feel like exactly? 
 Hmm. Good question. For me, this attack was much more internal than external. First, my brain and head all of a sudden feels like it can't breath. Then my heart feels like it is beating really loud and really fast. Soon after my brain starts telling me I'm going to die: this is a normal symptom of an anxiety attack. A panic attack is simply my body entering "fight or flight" mode the hormones that are released into my brain make me feel like I may die. Overall, I feel trapped in my own body and my brain is thinking of a million different ways to try and escape. This attack was pretty internal for the most part (I've trained myself to hide it) and externally I began to cry in front of Graciela and Rachel.

Graciela and Rachel witnessed me begin to crack. Behind closed doors I fell apart. I probably bawled for about four straight nights. During the day I put my "really, I'm okay" mask on merely just trying to make it to the end of the day. Throughout the beginning of last week I could feel the shortness of breath and my heart begin to speed up. I battled with myself trying to reiterate to myself that I needed to breath through my nose and out my mouth, that it was just chemicals and hormones in my body acting crazy.

Having Rachel and Graciela see me show emotion embarrassed me. I felt ashamed. I felt defeated. I felt weak. Once again anxiety wins and Julietta looses. Just when I thought I was starting to gain control anxiety showed me what a fool I was. There's the depression kicking in. The two just come together, with depression will come anxiety and with anxiety comes depression. I could feel the monsters spread throughout my body like a disease, attacking any sense of confidence I had built for myself.

Thankfully, Graciela (my host mom) is a psychologist. I was pretty open & honest with CEA about my condition in my housing application and when I was pared up with her I knew it was no coincidence. Thank goodness she was given to me because I needed her love and perception. Graciela saw right through my mask.

Graciela gave me a big hug, a kiss on my forehead, then she looked at me and said in spanish, "sweetie, you have to pick yourself up from this. I can tell you've come too far to go down like this".


When Graciela gave me my pep talk, I remembered some wise words from Barney Stinson… "When I get sad, I just stop being sad and be awesome instead".

[[**little back story** I watch "How I Met Your Mother" every single day. I use it to cure my homesickness because it just makes me happy to watch, as silly of a sitcom it may be.]] 

Honestly. That's the best advice I can give about anyone struggling with depression. It is all about attitude. If I sit, mope, and feel sorry for myself I'm not going to get any happier. Don't get me wrong, sometimes we need to just let out all the emotions (I recommend a good cry session occasionally). But if I want to be happy, I need to choose it. I also needed to remember I need to embrace who I am for the good and the bad. I'm a passionate person. With passion comes many, many emotions. That is a part of who I am, and there is no need for me to be ashamed of that.

So I started trying to change my attitude. I woke up saying "today is going to be a good day, I choose happiness" even if I didn't 100% believe it, I made myself say it anyways. Instead of being apart and observant, I forced myself to participate.

Eventually I woke up one morning feeling myself again. I forgave myself for having an anxiety attack, because hey, they happen sometimes. No one is perfect.

My condition is what I have, not who I am. Sometimes my brain gets the best of me, but there is no need to beat myself up over it.

I need to look at the positives of life. For one, I am living in Buenos Aires for a semester. WOW. I mean, WOW. Thankfully this was a requirement in order for me to graduate. If it wasn't, I would have let finances get in the way, but I found a way to make it work. I was also brave enough to come to a foreign country alone. I was brave enough to continue pursuing the best relationship I've ever been in 6,000 miles apart.

I could go on with the list, but the point is that even though I know I struggle with mental illness, I didn’t let it come in the way of me and my dreams.

If you didn't really take anything away from this post, then please pay attention to this: Anyone can study abroad. ESPECIALLY if you have issues with anxiety and depression like me. Just because you're in another country doesn't mean your problems back home wont follow, but there is always a way to overcome it all. In the words of my professor Blake, "when you study abroad you create yourself". I am not anxious and depressed girl: I'm Julietta, revealing myself one blogpost at a time.

con todo mi cariño y un fuerte abrazo,

Julietta

The sunset I received the first day I choose happiness 

Thank you for being a great host sister Rachel & thank you for your amor & cariño

Food & Culture Night

Last Wednesday was a beautiful celebration of the Argentine Culture. 

Everyone from our program went to Eldita's Residencia to take part. Everyone was also asked to bring something to drink and of course, almost everyone in our program brought wine to drink except me, haha. Due to my chronic migraines and the medication I take to keep them from coming, I'm really not supposed to drink very much because it can lead to more migraines. In Argentina, wine is cheaper than water, so you can understand why a bunch of college students would gladly opt out to buying that instead (I brought an apple flavored soda, yummm).

Pamela probably yelling "OYE CHICOS! Atención!" 

We all gathered in the living room and listened attentively as Pamela started her presentation about the food and culture of Argentina. Mate is a traditional South American caffeine-rich infused drink. Mate is prepared from the dried leaves of yerba mate (pronounced cherba in BA). It's served through a metal straw (bombija) from a hollow cup (gourd). This Argentine tea could easily be considered part of the epicenter of Argentine food & drink culture. It is the national drink of Argentina, and is a very common social practice.It was first consumed by the indigenous people of the area and of course spread during the arrival of the Spanish to Latin America. Mate also contains several vitamins and minerals important to human health like vitamin A, calcium, iron, and more.

To prepare mate is a simple, but time consuming process. As some of you may know Latin Americans use meal times and social gatherings like drinking mate as an opportunity to develop relationships. First, you fill the gourd with yerba, pouring hot water (NOT boiling) over the leaves. The straw (bombilla) acts as a filter so that you only consume the water, not the leaves. Some people (like me) enjoy a sweeter mate, so adding a little bit of sugar can add that sweet kick you may be craving. After the yerba is given more water you drink all of the liquid, pass it back to the server who puts in more water, and the mate is given to the next person in the cycle.

Mate: That green from South America

Like I said before, Latin Americans use meal/tea times as opportunities the develop relationships. We are an embracive, sharing culture. The same gourd and straw are used by everyone drinking mate. No such thing as germaphobes here. One person is the server which means their job is to refill the gourd after the water is gone and to keep track of who gets the mate next. Everyone continues to pass the mate around the circle until it becomes lavado (washed out). Then you just repeats the steps and continue drinking the mate.

Pamela, told us there are 4 major benefits of mate.

1. It has caffeine (keeps you awake!) 
2. It helps make you feel full (which would have been useful for the indigenous and poorer people of Argentina, it helps boost your metabolism) 
3. Aids digestion (cleans that colon) 
4. Enhances ability to focus (the study drink of students here) 

Rachel & I showing off our dinner

After drinking the Mate, Eldita (the house mama) served us some of the most delicious empandas I have ever had. Empanadas as you can see are a stuffed bread pastry that is usually baked or fried. Eldita's were filled with delicious beef. Once I took my first bite all of my taste buds roared in excitement "OMG THANK YOU" and my stomach screamed, "AWE MAN THIS STUFF IS GREAT. KEEP IT GOIN'". All in all it was a wonderful food & culture night.

One day at a time, I'm turning Porteño. Watch out chicos!

Con mucho amor, 

Julietta

"Burb" Girl Going City

I feel like a native and a foreigner. I feel comfortable and uncomfortable. I feel at home and at a new place at the same time.

Growing up in latin American culture, there are parts of BA that are not so new to me. But like every country in latam, there are new things I’m discovering as well. For me the “ch” when there is a “ll” and the usage of “vos” throws me off in conversation, but I’m starting to understand it. Usually when they ask where I’m from they assume another Latin American country, then I have to explain I’m a first generation American that speaks both Spanish and Portuguese. My Spanish accent is definitely Mexican, and I don’t know if it’ll turn Porteno. Part of me hopes it does, and the other part of me feels like it sounds so “weird” that I don’t want to adopt it. I suppose we will see what happens with that.

So far I love Argentina and I love Buenos Aires. When we arrived our guide, Nahuel, advised us to get lost because it’s the best way to learn the city. And let me tell you something… I’m getting lost a lot haha.

I’m from Dallas. More specifically, a suburb of Dallas. I’m not a city girl, I’m a “burb” girl. I’ve never lived in a big city, so you can only imagine how overwhelming Buenos Aires can be for me (remember how i said it´s the 2nd biggest metropolis in Latin America?).

Last Friday was our orientation and with that was a tour of the city. The tour ended at the University of Belgrano, in the neighborhood Belgrano. After the tour Nahuel looked at us and said “well… adios chicos!” and peaced out. Rachel (my roommate), Eleanor, Julia, and I went to a restaurant to buy our first glass of wine. It was delicious, and we sat there for a couple hours like the Argentinians getting to know one another. When it came time to go home, we all realized we didn't know how.

Booklet they gave us to navigate Buenos Aires

This city is HUGE, and the bus system is very complex. Once again, I`m from Dallas. To say we have “public transportation” is kind of a joke, because we really don’t have a great system, it kinda sucks. Now look at that map. The little numbers listed along the streets are bus routes. An entire map of the bus system doesn’t exist because it’s too complex to map out. So im trying to decipher this ity bity map on my first day ever in a big city. Did I also mention Rachel and I didn’t have a phone yet? Yeah. So no way to call Graciela to tell her we were pretty lost.

Rachel and I begin searching high and low for people to ask directions for. It took about 5 different people to direct us to the bus stop we wanted. Looking back, I'm pretty sure the first couple people we talked to were totally pretending they knew where it was (erghhhhh). Dinner time in BA is around 9pm, and that essentially was our curfew to getting home. We didn’t end up getting home until about 9:30 and Graciela (host mom) was relieved when she finally saw our faces. She was worried about us considering it was out first day in the city. The very next day our mom made us go put credits on Rachel’s phone so we could always have a way to contact her.

It's been a week since I landed in EZE and slowly but surely i`m figuring out life in a big city. I`m definitely not in Tejas anymore ladies and gents. Before you know it I will break open from the cacoon of the suburbs and come out a city butterfly.

Con mucho carino, 

Julietta

My first couple days in Buenos Aires...

Where do I even begin??! 

I've only been here for 5 days, and I already have too many stories to begin to tell.

My plane ride was 9 hours long. Thanks to my beautiful family that works for AA, I was able to fly business. I was put in the middle of 2 men, and quickly I noticed how business class is dominated by men (not cool dudez). I was pretty anxious during my flight because there was so much turbulence. Around 8AM I arrived to Buenos Aires, went through customs (which was kinda a joke compared to US customs), picked up my bags, and met with the CEA representatives who were there to pick us up. On the car ride there I met my new friend, Eleanor. Instantly we realized how much we had in common (admiration for Beyonce, secret phobia of pigeons, the list goes on). Our driver dropped me off to my home and finally I got to meet my new mama, Graciela.

Graciela has the beautiful heart I predicted she would have. She always tells us "tranquila, tranquila" which means "calm, calm". She is trying to show us the relaxed cultura of Buenos Aires and Latin America. My gorgeous roommate, Rachel, doesn’t speak much Spanish and Graciela doesn't speak much English. Playing translator with them I feel has helped my language skills along with becoming a better listener. I'm really thankful I was placed with the both of them to have as my family this semester.

My program is very small this semester, only about 11 or 15 of us. It's hard to tell exactly because some of us take classes at the global campus, some of us are from the early start program, and the other bunch are taking extensive Spanish at the local university. Plus I'm bad at math, so that will be my excuse as to why I don't have a more exact answer...

 For those of you who don't know much about the city of Buenos Aires, let me fill you in:

To the left you can see the province of BA, to the right is the city of BA

Buenos Aires is the largest city in Argentina and the 2nd largest metropolitan area in South America. So Argentina doesn't have states, it has provinces. BA is a province of Argentina. But the city of BA is neither part of the province or it's capitol, it is it's own autonomous district.

Plaza Recoleta

Buenos Aires is formally divided into 48 barrios (neighborhoods). I live in the barrio Recoleta, a downtown residential area in Argentina.

People from the autonomous city of BA call themselves as "porteños" meaning "people of the port".


Here are some photo's of my time here so far:

Instead of the White House, they have the "Pink House" & their President does NOT live here.

San Telemo- Calle Defensa : One of the coolest markets in town!

A mural in La Boca to commemorate the birth of firefighters in B.A. Street art really defines the city. 

Con mis chicas in la Plaza Recoleta (in my hood!)

I'll be back with more stories to tell :)
Con mucho amor,

Julietta