Te Entiendo

The last few days have been so busy I can't remember what happened! Let us begin with Saturday. My friend Sarah and I finally had a chance to catch up over a delicious dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant that my parents recommended from when they visited. It was refreshing being in her company. Even though we live in the same city, it's so easy to lose oneself in classes, routines, and the hustle bustle of Buenos Aires. We shared a bottle of Malbec and dishes of hummus, falafel and fried eggplant. After dinner, we sporadically made plans with our friend Federico, the boy who sat next to me on the 16 hour bus ride from Mendoza back to Buenos Aires in March. His family lives in Mendoza but he is currently working here. We met his friends and had a hilarious time playing drinking card games at their apartment and listening them try to speak English. Afterward, we headed to a nearby boliche and had a lot of fun dancing to Latin music. Although it was hot and sweaty inside, this club thankfully had an outside garden where there was also dancing but with less risk of death by heat exhaustion. Inside there were two stages especially geared toward hormonal young adults. On one stage were young women dressed in outfits that would have made my grandmother gasp with disapproval. On the other stage were men dancing (if you want to call it dancing) who looked like they had just fallen off the Abercrombie gift bags right after hitting the gym for 10 years straight. Both the men and women were pulling lucky spectators on stage to dance with them. It seemed very superficially enjoyable.

I had a wonderful time dancing and making new friends. I can tell how much my Spanish has improved because when I first talked to an Argentine student, I couldn't understand a word that they were saying. I think this was caused by a combination of factors including: the speed at which they were talking, the conversational slang that they were using, and also the fact that I was so nervous and unfamiliar with conversing in this manner that my mind blocked all possibilities of comprehension. Now I hardly have to ask "cómo?" as we speak. It gives me so much joy to be able to have normal friendships in another language. It's something unexplainable. Like I have conquered my personal challenge of intersubjectivity. I finally get the feeling of "te entiendo"; I understand you.

In my psychology class, we read something by Spanish philosopher and existencialist Ismael Quiles in his book El Yo Psicologóico-Ontológico y La Transcendencia that expresses my feelings in an effective manner: "Las otras personas nos ayudan a descubrir características esenciales de nuestra personalidad, de nuestro yo. Parece que precisamente al contacto con ellas, y por ellas, descubrimos el verdadero y total valor de nuestra propia personalidad, de lo que es 'ser persona'. Este contacto se realiza, no por una mera presencia física o corporal, en la cual se puede tratar a las personas como si fueran cosas, sino por y en el contacto espiritual, sobre todo, por el amor. El sentido de la vida humana, el sentido del valor y de mi yo, lo descubro en relación con las otras personas" (174-5).
*Translated to the best of my ability: "It is other people that help us discover the essential characteristics of our personality, of our selves. It seems inevitable that from contact with others, we discover the true and complete value of our own personality, and what it is to 'be a person.' This contact is fulfilled, not just from mere physical or corporal presence, in which one can treat people as if they were things, but rather through spiritual contact, and above all, through love. The feeling of human life, my sense of value and of myself, I discover in relation with other people."

I met with a group of students from my Spanish Literature class on Sunday and we collectively wrote an essay about the complexities of Romanticism and other literary movements in Spain and related them to Spanish culture and literature. It is incredible to be able to relate on an intellectual level with people in Spanish; I feel worlds away from the Nancy that could only speak enough Spanish to tell the cab driver in Mexico that he should be sure to use his umbrella when it was raining while on a family cruise. Relating to people in their own language on a deeper level than simply that of relaying information makes me feel like more of a person. It makes me want to learn every language so I can have this profound connection with everyone in the world! As my Spanish is improving, I am finally learning how to let my personality manifest itself in my relationships with my friends. Learning how to make jokes, express my feelings and make someone smile is truly sublime. In the words of Charlie from The Perks of Being a Wallflower, "And in that moment, I swear we were infinite."

The epoch of midterms! I got my Structure of Subjectivity test back and was very excited to receive a 9! The grading system here is based on a numerical scale from 1 to 10. The professor read everyone's names off a list along with the grade they received. This included the students that did not pass (those who received below a 4). I thought this was very unnerving and would not prefer to have my academic performance broadcasted to the world. However, it's different here. 8 students of the 61 did not pass and 15 did not show up to take the exam. No one received a 10. As for the ones who did not pass, this did not seem to be something to be ashamed of as it is in the US, but rather a time of reflexion to figure out what went wrong, have a personal discussion with the professor, and understand the material so that you can learn it better the next time. I think this mentality is a lot healthier academically. It seems to me that in the US, students are more focused on passing classes than internalizing knowledge. Here, getting a perfect score seems much less valuable than understanding concepts and becoming a more well-rounded person from the process. I took my Psychology of the Personality test this morning before 8 AM.. There was un montonaso (a ton) of information to study! I only ended up sleeping half an hour the night before with the aid of cookies and two rounds of steaming and highly caffeinated mate. Thankfully there is a holiday this coming week (25 de mayo, when the first autonomous government was instated in Argentina), so I will have time to catch up on my studies, sleep, and have too much fun.

I love Argentine Rock! We are listening to so many excellent bands in my Urban Music class. I can't wait to bring my music home in order to share it with friends and think nostalgically of my travels. Luis, one of my favorite porteros (doormen) gave me a very weird, interesting and pretty necklace the other day without much explanation. He is one of the nicest people I have ever encountered and I was very flattered but also slightly baffled. Honestly.. how do you react when your doorman gives you a necklace?