Classes Explained

So today was the first day of class.

What class, you might ask?

So I finally have a complete(ish) answer to that question, as NYU hadn't been especially clear on the topic, as they really didn't know until this weekend.

I take classes at the NYU Center/Campus/Mansion.  It's a fantastically beautiful corner mansion in around the border of the neighborhoods (barrios) Recoleta and Palermo.  2 blocks from a subway (subte) stop, which is only 3 stops from my residencia, or exactly a 3 minute walk and a 5 minute ride away from my bed.  Which is going to be clutch for 9am classes.  

In this beautiful mansion, there are three floors of rooms, decked-out mac computer labs (thank god) and a coffee bar/lounge.  Pretty posh, stained glass windows and all.

My first class was Intensive Intermediate Spanish, Monday through Thursday, from 9 till 11 in the morning.  Brutal adjustment from staying out till basically then.  But not too foreseeably bad, as it'll just require, you know, a real world/non-BA bedtime. 

Second class: Spanish for Health Professionals.  Sounds dry.  Sounded dry.  Sounded too pertinent to my academic focus not to take.  

THANK GOODNESS I ACTUALLY AM IN THIS CLASS.

It's two of us.  TWO!  With a professor from UBA (the University of Buenos Aires, here pronounced ooo-bah.)  It's part fascinating discussion on the latin/argentinean/third-world conception of health, part vocab expansion, and part private tutoring session from a university teacher specializing in the education of extranjeros (foreigners).

Which reminds me, I should mention that I am not, as previously asserted, taking classes at UBA.  NYU implied that we were.  In semesters past they have.  The program has so grown in size however that they've simply started hiring professors from local universities (UBA, Belgrano, Palermo, etc.) to teach classes at our center.  Pretty cool.

My other class was going to be Mass and Pop Culture of Buenos Aires; from the gaucho to maradona, but the amount of writing, and the level of said writing, in spanish, is currently beyond my abilities.  The professor was really quite spectacular though.  A grad school teacher at UBA, he specialized in the relation of cultures to their national sport.  However, as I mentioned in the above post, it was a little much; so....

I decided to take on english language class, called The Music of Latin America.  It's taught by a local classical composer and musician, from UBA as well, and focuses on the music theory that forms the basis of various south american styles, from Cubia to the Salsa to Tengo.  Just my kind of class, with a great semi-crazy professor.

Tomorrow I have my last class, which is a 3 hour conversation class about modern argentine history.  Wish me luck.

In other news:

-I went to the drum show again, "La Bomba de Tiempo" at el Centro Cultural de Konex.  I'm getting closer to perfectly describing the experience.  It's like a giant Brazilian, percussive samba-rave.  Too much fun.  Perfect for an early monday night.

-At la bomba I turned around an saw Emily Moyer walking up to me, to which I could only respond, "NO WAY."  No better place to catch up with an old friend that you haven't seen since high school graduation (literally, I have a picture to prove it) than half way around the world, at a wild brazillian samba-rave. 

-I found the perfect parilla near me, called Palermo Parilla (pronounced par-eeee-shyaa).  A parilla is basically a grill and a cash register, and this one makes a bunch of amazing and cheap sandwhiches; literally costing around 2-8 pesos (less than 4 bucks american)

Anyway, off to bed.  Another big day ahead.