Black to School

While you have just completed your first week of holiday (teaching colleagues and students in NZ) I have been going to two different schools a day. I know, I’m not sensing any sympathy over this.

For the past two weeks I have been going every day for a few hours to the CAE school which is a private school attached to a sports club with a rugby field and swimming pool. It seems most of the boys play rugby or football and most of the girls play hockey and most of the students are passionate about sports. The school is only about 8 years old and goes from kindergarten to high school. It has upstairs and ground level classrooms with an external staircase and a long verandah running the length of the school. As with all the classrooms I have seen in Argentina so far, they are smaller than those of NZ but the numbers of students are fewer and furniture is mainly desks and chairs so the need for extra space is not as great. There is a lot more echo in the rooms than I have been used to because the surfaces are concrete or other hard materials.
CAE is made mostly of concrete blocks, painted white, and concrete floors.

The school has a very wide door/gate which is locked and to get in I have to ring a bell. I didn’t see the bell the first time I went there by myself, so had to ring Marcela, my contact, to let me in. Sylvina, the secretary and English tutor elsewhere, was a fantastic help too, and was able to find classes for me to go and generally help me find my way around. I gave her a copy of Ellis´s 10 Principles of Second Language Aquisition and a copy of An Intercultural Stance - The 6 Principles of Intercultural Communicative Language Teaching and Learning so an intercultural and pedagogical moment was also shared .

I spent some time with English classes right throughout the school. One of the most confident speakers in English was a German exchange student (learning Castellano in a school in Argentina! – I thought that was amusing).

This school runs right throughout the day with no early closing or siesta break but has different times for each section of the school to have breaks. I taught several classes “My Roadside Goat”, a bit of a silly song which I’ve done with schools for years and which I had previously filmed (había grabo en video ¿Did I get the pretérito pluscaumaperfecto correct, Adriana?) amiga Viv singing with the kids at The Gardens School to show how it should sound. It’s great for learning the past tense – I need a similar song in Spanish – and is easy to learn because every line is repeated after the teacher. They had a lot of fun with it and I have filmed one group singing along with my computer, joining in with The Gardens School kids and Viv. Another intercultural gem!

These students speak English so well, at whatever level they are learning. They loved the chance to ask me questions and it didn’t matter if it was the same question over an over again, they all got a chance to use English in an “authentic context’. I have been asked what is my favourite colour, my favourite animal, my favourite number, my address, age and family statistics. And then I ask them the same question back. When asked my age, I used my grandmother’s standard response, “ I am the same age as my tongue and a little bit older than my teeth,” which takes a while for kids in any language to work out – and then I tell them I am 21 because they want to hear a number. Kids would come up to me shyly, often with a friend, and say, “Hello, What is your name?” or any of the aforementioned questions, and then I was swamped by a gathering mass of young students during recreo with the same questions asked again. They would have asked different questions but they, like me, were working on a limited set of formulaic questions, responses and vocabulary.

When I brought out my silver fern on black background flag, there was instant recognition and many of the boys just had to touch it, breathing “All Black Flag” in reverent and awe-inspired tones. There was no similar response when I showed them the official NZ flag, and I’m sure that must say a lot about the branding of NZ in Argentina, if not the rest of the world. I brought some stickers of NZ icons to give out randomly as we do in NZ and now I wished that I had brought more stickers of the All Black jersey as they are by far the most popular. Even in my adult English classes, when I gave people the chance to choose a sticker for their books/cellphone etc, the rugby jersey was the most popular, even if only to take home for a son or nephew who played or followed rugby.

I was able to sit in on some other lessons including geography, computer and drama (for classes the same age I teach in NZ), where the teachers spoke no English and explained to me what the students were doing and learning. I went to lunch with a group of students on one day, at the club restaurant, where I had two hamburger patties, some fried rice and an apple and a lot of interesting conversations. Some of the boys were pretty keen to talk to me because I tell them I like rugby- but then I am expected to tell them who my favourite All Black is. I usually ask them who theirs is first then reply, me too.

A drama class at CAE school . The boy with his arms out is a shower (and a passionate rugby player) and the one underneath... is showering.

These are some of the girls from CAE who had lunch with me.

I brought with me several of Laura’s “Smoke Free – Smoking, not our Future” posters and these are now on classroom walls around Paraná exhorting the youth of this city not to smoke. We have had fun translating them and some students can now say “Aye?” because on DJ Sir-Vere’s poster, he says, “It’s just not a good look, aye!” For once it meant I knew something in English that the English teachers didn’t know. The teachers of English here are so proficient in their knowledge of vocabulary and grammar, and fluently reel off the names and parts of tenses or speech when referring to them in the course of a lesson. Just about everyone who is brave enough to speak English with me has a better grasp of my language than I have of theirs. But, I know that I am learning and today I was able to use the past tense correctly without referring to my book for confirmation. This has not stopped me from attempting to use the past tense previously, it just means that now I am starting to make sense. I was able to say quite accurately that “I bought (Compré)…..and then I needed to look up the word for socks!”

On one day, I went with a lovely young teacher (also called Mélisa) to her second school which was a public school back in the middle of the city. We caught a bus and then went to a school which is two floors up in a large building. I think another school takes up the first two floors. These students, about Year 11, had only been learning English for a while and were a lot noisier and boisterous than other students I had come across – they were also a lot more facially pierced and did not wear a uniform. In spite of this, they were not rude or disrespectful to the teacher at all. Their English was quite basic as they had not started at primary school and not many were keen to have a go at asking me questions.
Melisa -the-teacher (not the Melisa with whom I am staying) and her class of English students at one of the public schools in Parana.

Mélisa brought out some of the Smokefree merchandise rulers and pens I had given her and if a student wanted one they had to ask me a question in English, or they had to say a simple speech about them self in Castellano and English for me to film for my students in NZ. All the merchandise went! These students were more inclined to follow football, and one was able to explain to me what Cumbia music was by letting me listen to his ipod which he found more interesting than me for most of the lesson. Teacher Mélisa, was absolutely lovely and I am so pleased I got a chance to meet her and go to a totally different kind of school.

Today, my host Mélisa took me to an amazing old school in the middle of the city. It’s like a cross between the Auckland War Memorial Museum, the Auckland Town Hall and a bit of Harry Potter – except in need of maintenance as so many building in Paraná seem to be. It’s called Escuela Normal, and it goes from kindergarten to university level and has, apparently over 5000 students through it a day. It is about to celebrate its 135th anniversary and boasts the oldest kindergarten in Latin America, originally started by teachers from the US. There are some cabinets of historical artefacts and trophies of past students who have achieved significance nationally or beyond. There is a grand marble stair case as soon as you walk in the door and the steps have worn down over the years though the amount of traffic over them. Some of the furniture is incredibly old and has been there for many years. There is the most glorious stained glass window and an internal courtyard.

The kindergarten playground, on the roof top at the Escuela Normal. Spot the differences.

This is one of the Junior Classrooms at the Escuela Normal Public School - it is several flights of stairs up.

This poster was on one of the notice boards - for any Oasis fans

This poster was on one of the notice boards - for any Oasis fans

This is some of the ¨antique¨furniture which is still used on some of the classrooms at Escuela Normal.



This is the view from one of the levels down to the ground level.,

This is the beautiful stained glass window.

There are so many differences between schools in NZ and Argentina, but teachers and students are pretty similar with the same stresses and challenges everywhere I think.

Random observations::
- Twink or white liquid eraser seems to be the graffiti medium of preference here.

- Students wear a lot of jewellery or accessories if they want to.

- I am now able to cross a road with reasonable confidence and do not need to wait for someone else to cross before I realise it is ¨safe¨for me to cross.

- I´m pretty sure I can find my way back home from at least three different points in town.

- I am starting to bump into people I know - after one month!

¡Feliz Cumpleaños Para Laura en NZ y Daniel en Parana!

It's the 17th of April in NZ and the 16th of April here in Argentina. In NZ it is daughter Laura's 23rd birthday and in Parana it is my host. Daniel's *cough, cough, cough, hand over mouth, sorry if you missed that number* birthday.

Please excuse this personal indulgence, dear readers.

So, Happy Birthday to both of you.

Laura you will have to wait until I get home for your present, but here is something which I hope will do for the meantime. It's your own personal greeting from a class of students at the Instituto del Club Athletico Estudiantes de Parana.

They are looking at our family photo on my computer desk-top. The general opinion is that you are very beautiful and that you look like me... join the dots on that one! (People also say that Julian is good looking and looks like his father.)

I hope you have a great day.

Getting Tense With Verbs - or Living in the Past

This is the second post of the day so make sure you read the previous one first. I seem to be having major troubles transferring blogs from my laptop via pen-drive to another computer to get the internet.

And now for the verbose part..

Daniel and Mirta (host family) have helped me so much to learn Castellano that I probably owe well over half of my working vocabulary to them. Daniel didn’t think he had much English but we frequently use a mixture of both English and Castellano and we occasionally resort to a French word when it can better explain our ideas or identify a word easier. Needs must when the flow of conversation and communication is more important than 100% accuracy, especially in a busy family with lots of comings and goings.

Melisa speaks English well and we use a mixture of both, although we usually use English when confirming comprehension of specific meeting places and times and when talking on the phone to each other. When people are busy, I am particularly mindful of how time-consuming communicating with me in Castellano can be! Mirta is very strict about my learning and doesn’t use English at all with me although she can speak a little. She speaks very clearly and slowly to me and has a really good way of keeping explanations or questions simple … and she doesn’t mind repeating things syllable by syllable if necessary and she has excellent diction. I can’t expect everyone to be so patient with me all the time, especially when they can get their meaning across easier in English when in a hurry, so I really appreciate her time and effort.

Although I understand the masculine and feminine endings of words, singulars and plurals, etc, I frequently make lots of mistakes in my efforts to speak a bit faster than laboriously word by word with “ums” and “arrs” in between. Daniel and Mirta patiently and tolerantly correct me and explain rules to me and off I go again. Likewise with verb endings in the present tense.

Note to self: The next time I go to tell a student, “I’ve told you this several times before…blah, blah, blah….” I will remember these moments of feeling really “dumb” because knowing something does not necessarily mean you can use it or do it spontaneously.

I have been using a small and invaluable phrase book to help me with standard and predictable vocabulary and phrases. The three pages on common regular and irregular verbs have been well thumbed and I frequently stop mid-sentence to open my book and search for the correct verb ending. For the life of me, I cannot remember them and I make the same mistakes over and over again. Paul-from-Hamilton-who-is-staying-in-La Plata told me that he frequently says, from his limited vocabulary, that his “head is broken”. I use the saying. “My disc is full” to indicate that I can’t take on board any more information.

So I have usually been talking in the present tense and use the word for “yesterday” or “tomorrow” or similar to indicate past or future. It must be excruciating for people trying to listen to me but, mercifully, it’s often a mutual arrangement as I spend as much of my time speaking in English to people wanting to practise with a “real” speaker, as I do in Castellano. It is a very small price to pay in return for all the help I have had. And then, sometimes things suddenly fall into place and I have a new formulaic phrase to use and off I go with a small burst of proficiency.

There is a 2 year old member (Sophia) of the extended family who is at that “sponge” stage of soaking up everything around her and then surprising people by coming out with expressions and opinions which totally stun everyone and she is now at the stage where the family think she is a wee genius, as does the family of most other two year-olds world-wide. I feel very much like Sophia, who has been watching, listening and processing, then making intelligible pronouncements when all the information makes sense. It feels great when people comment on how much better I am getting at speaking and understanding Castellano.

I have had 2 Spanish lessons so far with Peter, the AFS student and Adriana, who is a Spanish English translator and a teacher at STEP. She learned British English as opposed to American English that most other people speak here and she has the most beautiful ¨Spinglish¨ accent which I love listening to. I have been learning the past tense (pretorito perfecto y pretorito impefecto) as I have pretty much been stuck in the present tense since I have been here. We had a truly “intercultural language” moment when I was trying to explain something to Peter in English, and the word ‘leg’ was necessary. He could not understand me repeating, “leg…. leg … you know, leg.. L-E-G…” and in the end he said, “¡Oh, pierna!” which is Spanish for…leg. He could not understand my English accent and we had to move into Spanish for mutual comprehension. Such is the difference between American pronunciation and New Zealand pronunciation of the same word.

I also helped Adraiana’s English by suggesting she say, “Hang on” instead of “ Wait” every time she needed to pause. Peter said this was OK in American English too.

Update: I can now discuss rugby and colder weather with taxi drivers. My conversations were previously limited to expressing opinions on heat. I think I have discussed rugby more in Castellano than in English.

So, anyway, on Easter Sunday I went for a Sunday Drive with Daniel and Mirta to Santa Fe on the other side of the river. Just about all of the day was conducted in Castellano, including a description of how the tunnel under the river actually goes under the ground as well; and how there was a severe flood a few years ago which inundated part of Santa Fe but not Parana.

We went for lunch at a new shopping/hotel/casino complex and afterwards checked out the Casino. I am a “remedial” gambler in that I need help to get started rather than to stop gambling. After watching Mirta and helping her lose a few pesos, I frivolously parted company with 50 pesos (about $25NZ) and was lured into winning about $80 pesos… and I should have stopped there, I guess. I’m still not sure how the game worked, I just randomly pushed a few buttons which Mirta suggested…. until I lost the whole lot. However, I did learn a new word that day (I lost – perdi ) so all was not lost after all. My limited vocabulary could only come up with, “The casino ate my money.” (El casino comió mi dinero…note the correct use of the past tense!)

My lovely, generous and oh-so-patient hosts, Mirta and Daniel.

Some culture is universal....

Fast food in Argentina

Sunday was completed with an asado by Daniel and delicious-as-always dessert by Mirta – which was, I think made with bread, for a gathering of family and friends.

Random Observations

I have met so many young people who are so well-educated or in the process of their studies. There are doctors, lawyers, pilots, psychologists, nurses, bio engineers, computer software designers and so on come to STEP, or other private institutes to learn English. Also, university education is completely free in Argentina, apparently. Last night at the conversation class I met a young woman of 21 years old who is studying bio-engineering and working on a project to put implants into people to help them control prosthetic legs better –so people could run with prosthetic legs if they so desired … (that piece of information is for Clive – hope all is going well now that you are back home).

Toilet paper seems to be very thin in Argentina – and runs out very quickly (refer to previous warning to ALWAYS carry tissues).

And, while still on toilets…so to speak… teachers apparently use the same toilets as students in most schools. No preferential treatment.

And, moving slightly off the toilet… many bathrooms and some public toilets include bidets. These, (and I think I always knew this but never had a chance to prove it) do not make good footbaths as there are too many taps to operate and water coming from too many directions to successfully manage while balancing on one foot when the other foot is trying to hold down the water spurting upwards, onto the ceiling and the floor.

It is unsafe, and only slightly less suicidal than throwing yourself under a moving train, to use a pedestrian crossing in Paraná. Do not be fooled by the white striped lines -they are for decorative purposes only.

There are lots of small and large memorials to people and events, and many schools named after people of significance. Many roads are named after dates for example: 25 de junio is the name of a road.

Roads are not called roads – they just have names like: Nogoya, 25 de mayo, Malvinas, Nux, Panama, Belgrano etc. (You would appreciate the clarity and size of the road signs here, Mark.)

Interim Report ...

I´ve mucked up my settings somehow on this particular post and couldn't get my text or photos right... so I´ve started all over again! Grrrrrr! Hopefully it makes sense.

The river beach at Parana.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OMdqMo5iWw This is a Youtbe video of Parana... you might like to check it out and get an idea of wht it is like here.

Wednesday 15^{th April}

Feliz Cumpleaños to God Daughter Rhianon in Broken Hill, Australia,and to brother Dean for the 10th and sister-in-law April for the 11th. Anyone else I´ve foergotten?

All of a sudden my time here is nearly over and I have a dizzy social calendar for the rest of the week… even with a few double bookings. I have not been able to get near a computer recently and when I have... the internet wasn´t cooperating.

It was great to catch up with “mi mejor amiga”, Viv, at 8 am my time and 10pm her time this morning, especially as the 15^th of April is a special day for her for the anniversary of the passing away of her dear friend, Chris. Every 15^th of April we have a coffee together to remember her and this year, in Argentina, I was lucky enough to be having pastries and coffee for breakfast with the class of computer software graduates and to talk with Viv at the same time. So, to remember Chris and to share the moment with Viv, I waved the plate of pastries in front of the computer and by the miracle of Skype... she could see them. And, the students were able to help Viv with a word she needed for her Spanish assignment that she was doing at the time so, again, a spontaneous intercultural moment was had. I have been having an English conversation class with these people two mornings a week from 7.30 -8.30am for the past month. To start with, I talked to them about NZ or showed photos and for the last few times they have each brought photos of their favourite places in Argentina to tell me about. Mathïas brought photos of some of the fish he had caught in the Parana River and we all joked that he had more photos of fish than of his girlfriend.

I was also able to catch up with sister Lynn , on Skype, this morning my time, and she was able to say hi across the world to the class too and we late had abit of a catch up on family events.

A summary of events to date:

Easter was spent quietly and mostly indulgently. I decided I didn’t want to go on another travel jaunt as I wanted to see a bit more of Parana and just have a bit of a break, as I will go pretty much straight back from here into preparation for school when I get home. Also, much as the purpose of my stay here is to be “immersed” in the language and culture, it is really difficult relying on people to help you out when they are not expecting to find a non-Castellano speaker on a bus tour planned for Castellano speakers.

Interestingly, even though so many people here can speak some degree of English, I have only met one English-as-a-first-language speaker in Parana during my whole month here. There is an AFS student called Peter, from Iowa, at the Escuela a del Club Athletico Estudiantes that I have been going to for part of the day since last week.

On Friday Mélisa and I walked along the Costanera (the river front) Well, Mélisa jogged and I walked. There are several private beaches along the river side and other places where you can cook your own asado and have family picnics. Because it is a river beach, trees grow in the sand beside the river. I have difficulty getting my head around trees growing in the sand on a beach but I am used to ocean beaches, not river beaches. The water is quite brown and it almost looks as if the boats are sailing in milk chocolate as in the Cadburys ad on tv. A lot of soil comes down the river from Misiones where the earth is quite red so the river is always a brown colour.

Check out the chocolate river.... It´s not like beach sand at all. Couldn´t resist another sleeping dog photo... These guys clip clop around the city picking through the rubbish...and I think they might collect stuff for recycling. They do not appear to be well-liked or trusted.

On Saturday afternoon I visited one of the girls in one of my English classes and her friend. They wanted to practise speaking English with an authentic speaker and I was happy to oblige… there was a home-made cake and a cup of tea involved and Agustina, Luisina and her family were, typically, delightful. Agustina and Luisina both study international relations and political science at university. Luisina’s mother is an obstetrician at Parana hospital so we had some interesting conversations in a mixture of English and Spanish. They were able to demonstrate mate drinking for a film clip... see below and then Luisina’s friend, a medical student from university in Cordoba, dropped me back home in time to go out to another basketball match with the family.

How to drink mate.....

The basketball match was won bny a wide margin by Sionista (home team) and then, at 11.30 I went with Daniel. Mirta and Blanca (Mirta´s mother) for dinner. I could not, at that hour of the night, eat a large meal and I was tired so had a salad and chips. The town was full of people and, interestingly, quite a few really young primary school age children out and about.

First thing on Easter Sunday, I opened my little parcel from Viv, which she had left me with strict instructions not to open until Easter Sunday.... Joyful Day! Lindt Easter Eggs! I resisted temptation to demolish them there and then and put them on hold for the next family dinner.

A Very Good Friday

People are always wanting to ask me about my family (in English and Castellano) because asking for and supplying personal information is one of the first things people tend to learn in structured lessons in another language. I have to reply using simple vocabulary, because I only have a limited repertoire of Spanish, or they may only have a limited English vocabulary. So, one class was asking me about my son (Julian 18 years) and I was explaining that he has been at home playing and composing music on the guitar, drums and computer for most of the year, that he is a ¨good¨boy and helps out at home in return for this self-indulgent interlude in his career path. However, he is now staying with his godmother in the outback of Australia, helping her in her Motel. (See one of my earlier posts for more info. Not sure how to organise direct link).

Anyway, Roxana, the English tutor of the class, told me that Julian reminded her of her son, Juan, who is in a rock band (La Posta) on the point of releasing their first CD. (Again, refer earlier post for link to You Tube).

On Friday night, (Good Friday) Roxana invited me to her home for dinner (empanadas - very Argentine) with her delightful family. We then went, with the 83 year old abuela (rock-granny!) to a ¨gig¨at the local arts venue, which had once been the train station. Great place but my camera batteries had flattened, so no images. Juan, and Roxana´s son-in-law were to be guest performers at another (Astro Bonzo)band´s gig. Apparently when they are each playing in each other´s home town, they do guest spots for each other. It was a great performance... I realised that the main act must have been a band of some success as they had their own roadie to-ing and fro-ing with equipment. All the songs seemed to be originals until the drummer did an amazingly long and exhausting drum solo which very nicely segued into Led Zep´s ¨Whole Lotta Love¨. Now that I could understand. It was brilliant and the best version I´ve heard since seeing the original at Western Springs many years ago. I would hazard a guess and say that I would have been the only one there who would have ever seen Led Zep perform live. By this stage, I had run out of battery for my camera and I wish I had taken spares. However, Julian, I tried to get the Marshall amp in the picture for you.

Roxana and her 83 year old mother-rock-granny and I were standing and had a good view. It was a reasonably small venue (about the size of the Waiuku Town Hall, for those of you playing at home) and it wasn´t too crowded. Although it was loud, it was an excellent sound... and I´m sure Mark, Laura and Julian would have enjoyed it and been able to discuss the music´s merits far better than I could. The lead singer was fascinating to watch - a brilliant front man in a Mick-Jaggeresque way with postures and strutting and some potentially dangerous moves with a microphone stand. He looked a little Jesus-like (would be an excellent choice for JC Superstar) which seemed appropriate for a Good Friday gig. In my pursuit of investigating what is Argentine culture, I noticed that people didn´t seem to dance or move around to the music, they were more inclined to sit or stand and watch - although everyone was enjoying it and cheered loudly and appropriately as required. No one seemed at all surprised to see an obviously elderly person at the concert (the abuela, not me!).

I have a ¨hot off the press¨ copy of the CD by La Posta (Juan´s band) called ¨Raices¨which means roots ... I think, and I am looking forward to playing it loudly at home. It sounds excellent on my computer and I´m sure you will like it, Mark and Julian.

Spot the Marshall amp in the far right hand corner, Julz.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4AWIosJYP8 Here is a link to the band ¨Astro Bonzo¨ doing ¨Whole Lotta Love¨ somewhere else last year. It's obviously not at its best through a computer, but you´ll get the idea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhPlg6lcpZI Here is a link to You tube with the song that Juan and Licho from La Posta did with Astro Bonzo at a previous gig. My film clip is resisting uploading.

Sleeping Dogs:

On Saturday morning, I bravely walked by myself from home to Mélisa´s shop. It is only a few blocks away, but all roads and most houses look similar to me so Daniel drew me a map and off I set. I passed a few stalls of ¨artesanos¨along the way and bought a few bits and pieces and eventually safely arrived at the destination. I did a bit of shopping, which takes surprisingly longer than expected when things may look the same superficially but require careful examination before committing to purchase. For example, I thought I had bought a CD of children´s songs in Spanish, when in actual fact, I discovered later on that day, that I had bought a CD of ambient music suitable for young children. Fortunately it was not too expensive a mistake.

I walked back home with Mélisa at 1pm (her shop closed until about 5pm) and I couldn´t help but notice dogs lying everywhere, in the shade, in blissful repose. It was as if, suddenly at one o´clock, all the dogs just drop and sleep. There were quite a few more, but I couldn´t stop and photograph them all... but you get the idea.

The following two pictures were taken of dogs along the river side walk at Paraná. One guy was taking his dog for a swim in the fountain and I caught him just as he was pulling the dog out. The river side is faintly like Mission Bay in Auckland, especially in the way people use it.

Almost literally, every man and his dog walk or jog along there. Families have picnics and groups of people meet and many people are sharing mate. Mindful of my previous observations and comments on the local dogs, I couldn´t resist this photo of a dog, exercising himself. He looked as purposeful as every other two-legged jogger. Leashes? Owners? Who needs them!

A few random observations:

- How would you try to explain the word ¨sea lion¨, understanding that a literal translation just doesn´t convey the right meaning? Yup! Some things you´ve just gotta demonstrate. Now picture trying to demonstrate the difference between sea lion and walrus. Likewise, how would you say, with few of the specific words needed to accurately describe an anatomically correct pukeko, that it has a tuft of white feathers under its tail. Then, I was trying to explain hot cross buns to someone who hadn´t seen them before ... how would you demonstrate the reason for a cross on the bun? (Shades of The Life of Brian). And, my personal favourite: Mirta (¨parent¨¨ and owner of my address in Parana) described her extended family´s Passover gathering at her mother´s house as a br.........l (avert your eyes, students) because there were about 25 people including active preschoolers and their accessories, food, dishes, chairs, two different tvs going with two different sports games, noise and general merriment. When asked if I understood what she meant, the nearest vocabulary I had to suggest a definition was translated into Spanish as ¨A house of agreeable women?¨

- Argentina has the most beautiful and varied scenery. People in Argentina have the impression that NZ is a most beautiful country ... but, there is nothing on a scenic NZ calendar than can not be equalled or bettered by somewhere in Argentina - it just takes a lot longer getting there in Argentina.

- So many people want to learn English because they feel it is vital in their job or for their future, but few of them see travel as realistically achievable. I have met so many people in Argentina who dream of travelling overseas but it seems to be such an impossible dream because of the current value of the peso.

- Every single taxi driver I have encountered in Paraná has been pleasant, helpful and some have given me cheaper rides when I didn´t have the correct small change. I use up to 5 taxis a day and they have all been quick to arrive and not a single driver has had a word of English apart from ¨All Blacks. Taxi air conditioning consists of an open window, seatbelts are impossible to find and their Castellano is inevitably a gravelly mumble not requiring lip movement. I am almost fluent in discussing the weather with taxi drivers. Fortunately for my communication skills, it has always been perishingly hot. There are several ¨safe¨taxi companies and I have been lucky that there has always been someone around who could make a telephone call for me as my Castellano over the phone to a taxi company would be pretty time-consuming.

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Third Rock From the Sun ..Reporting in

There are many times when I have felt like the alien family in that tv programme, “Third Rock From the Sun”, and that my blog and observations are my reports to “The Big Head”. This is because, in return for this unique opportunity, I am expected to demonstrate or give evidence of improved language acquisition, knowledge and understanding of the culture of my host country – especially when it is related to language experiences, and to recognise and relate my experiences to language teaching/learning pedagogy. I am here “sola” (alone) so I do not have the chance to immediately discuss or compare or share new experiences with anyone else from NZ so it is much easier to fit in as a member of the family/school/group rather than as a tourist and I just try to work things out as best I can.

It was difficult not to make judgements in the first few days when everything was new and the differences leap out– especially ones which make you feel uncomfortable or unsafe or where you want to say, “You know, if you did this…..” or, “Why don’t people…….?” or “Why don’t the police……? “ or “Why do the police….?” or, (my personal favourite) “Are they allowed to do that…?” After the initial shock (just as well AFS gave us a few pages of information on how to recognise and be aware of the realities and implications of culture shock) everything starts to seem normal and the reasons for things being the way they are start to unfold.

Sister Lynn had a similar experience returning to NZ from the West Australian outback for the Easter holidays. She said that she was really surprised to notice so many trees in the suburbs, so close to houses, while driving to the North Shore… and her instant reaction was, “How dangerous would that be in a bush fire!” But we don’t have bush fires that wipe out towns in Auckland.

On the tour, there were several times when the young boy born in Paris, the young woman from Venezuela and I had a different price to pay for venues or needed something extra on our visas at the borders. For example, Argentine nationals had to pay only $20 (pesos) to get into one National Park, when the “extranjeros” (foreigners) had to pay $60 (pesos). I think I got into one venue as a National but Claudio, the tour guide, said that I shouldn’t talk because I would definitely sound like an extranjero. At least, that’s what I think he said because I never understood a word he said before or after. [Important advice to anyone who ever has to speak to someone with marginal acquisition of your language…. Clear enunciation is everything!] I decided that “extraterrestre” (extraterrestrial) was a much better sounding word so that is what I called myself from then on.

Our first stop, once through the border, was at a huge bus-tour-group dining room which accommodated several colectivos (double-decker buses). Because people eat a full sit-down meal in the middle of the day, there was an enormous buffet for $25 (pesos) each. I only felt like a sandwich or a bread roll and wasn’t going to pay that much for a nibble (I know, some of you can’t believe my non-appetite in Argentina, or, in this case, in Brazil) so I joined Susana and her family for a piece of pizza down the road. The next day, the bus stopped at a different location with no other eating option nearby. Again, I could not face a full meal ( yup… believe it!) and asked the manager, in my most polite Castellano, if I could just pay for a bread bun and a drink because I could not eat a big meal while travelling. He said no, I had to buy the full meal, they did not sell items separately.

I said, “OK, how about I buy a $10 drink and you give me a complimentary bread roll.”

“No” …..

“So, you are telling me I have to pay $25 for a bread bun, and then pay extra for a drink? ¨

“ Si.”

Reminding myself that I was an “extraterrestre” making observations, and not a NZer expecting to demand or comment on good customer relations, I stalked off to sit at a table with a group of others. I had to stay inside as I would have been desiccated in about 15 minutes in the heat outside, and took smug satisfaction in the knowledge that I was using his air conditioning without payment. I would not buy a drink and politely turned down offers of bread from other people, trying to explain the meaning of the word, “martyr” in broken Castellano. This was best done by trying to mime Joan of Arc with words like “fuego” (fire) and “muerto” (dead) and “creo” (I believe). I have since learned that using the word “mártir” would have been a lot more efficient and taken up a lot less table space. I kept thinking, ¨This would never happen in Argentina!¨ because I have had unfailing pleasantness, helpfulness and generosity above and beyond the call of duty in Argentina. At the next stop I bought a bottle of water and a small packet of peanuts which sufficed… although I did get a bit concerned when my malaria tablet bottle top came off in the same plastic snap-bag as my peanuts.

A random comment here, while I think about it, about movies. We had 4 DVDs all up on the tour. During the middle of the night on the way to Iguacu, there was some killer-thriller movie that Mark would have loved and I usually would avoid- but there was no escape. It is a lot easier to watch a violent film when the sound track, although in English, is turned down so much that you get no clues to assist comprehension and you have to rely solely upon what you see and can read at speed in Spanish. I didn’t catch the name of it ( I have since discovered it was "Transporter III") but it had a guy who had some wrist band on that would explode and kill him if he did the wrong thing, and some girl who had to take a car somewhere. Lots of people died suddenly and gruesomely along the way and the hero got to survive underwater for a long time by breathing escaping air from his car tyre, and there was a train involved. I’m sure someone will know it. We also had “Wild Hogs” with no subtitles but dubbed in Spanish. John Travolta and Tim Allen just aren’t the same without their own voices – but the visual gags were easy enough to understand. Then there was one called “Eagle Eye” with subtitles, which I slept through, and then “The something or other of Benjamin Button” which was in audible English with Spanish subtitles… it was quite a delightful but wacky movie and I picked up a fair bit of Spanish vocab along the way … but fell asleep before the end.

Random photo of street stalls at Puerto Iguacu at night.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind:

My mejor-amiga-since-we-were-born, Vivienne, spent a month in Puerto Iguacu in 2007 on the same AFS programme as I am on now. She stayed with a teacher called Monica in her bedsit and shared her life, very closely, for the entire month. When Viv found out I was going to Iguacu, she tried to arrange a meeting between Monica and me. So, a few emails went three ways (Monica does not speak English). At the last minute, I found out that the tour was staying in the Brazil side of the falls so it looked like it was going to be a case of “So Near Yet So Far”.

On the Saturday night of our trip, we had the option of going back across the border to Puerto Iguacu to go to the Casino. I got my delightful travelling companion/lifesaver/translator, Ana Laura, to use my cell phone to call Monica to arrange a meeting and it looked like it was going to all go ahead. But, the times had only been approximate and then the tour guide told us that we could go shopping in Iguacu first. Aarrrgh!!! I established a new e.t.a. for the Casino, and got Ana Laura to ring Monica for me – she said she was already at the Casino waiting and it was at this point that we realised there were two casinos and Monica was at the other one. She would head off and try to get to the one we were going to be at… except the group was going to stay a bit longer shopping. Aaaarh! We couldn’t contact Monica so Ana Laura, (Bless her) said, "Let’s walk to the Casino and get there before the bus group…. " We let people know what we were doing and headed off in the general direction, along mostly well-lit and well-peopled streets. Ana Laura asked directions a few times and eventually, after me stumbling over (it had to happen at least once in the story) on very uneven paving, and grazing my knee but, gotta love Caroline Eve trousers… no rips or tears to the clothing!

We ended up at the beautiful Sheraton hotel whereupon I bought us each a large and soooo refreshing Caipirinia while we waited… and waited… and waited. We couldn’t get hold of Monica by phone, the bus tour arrived and went into the Casino. I gave my $10 peso voucher to Ana Laura to use as I’m just hopeless in casinos and I was still keeping an eye out for Monica.

Just like a movie, when you think things aren’t going to happen before the time runs out…. and just as everyone was getting back on the bus, Monica roared up in a little red car and we just knew who each other was. So there we were, in the front of the very grand Sheraton Hotel, with the car parked in front and the door left open, hugging and crying and me talking in English, Monica in Spanish and Ana-Laura taking photos and translating, in the semi dark, while the bus is revving and getting ready to go. It was truly a very strange moment where two people who have never met before are in tears on the other side of the world because we both know Vivienne back in NZ. Gifts were exchanged - Viv had given me a US$5 note to spend on something special while I was here, and I had intended to buy Monica a drink but there was absolutely no time. Try to imagine the culturally sensitive tight-rope I had to walk to try and explain in gestures and a few words, in a few seconds, to someone who would not let Viv pay for anything during her entire month, that if Viv or I couldn´t be there to have a coffee or drink with her, then would she please take her friends out and have a drink on our behalf and tell the story about this evening... I think she understood in the end but it was definitely a moment of cultural negotiation over who would be offended the most if the $US5 was accepted or not. More hugs and then we had to get back on the bus. The whole episode was less than five minutes… but at least it happened and it was madcap crazy and ultimately successful and will remain a very special memory. ¡¡

¡Hóla, Viv!

Highway Robbery:
I have told several people in Argentina about the following incident and some who knew I was writing a blog said, “Don’t write about that because it makes us look bad.” Which in itself seems to me to be the essence of the Argentine people (that I have met so far). They love their country and are very proud of its culture, its natural features and their own personal stories of their families´ origins. But there is (trying to think of the right words here) a dissatisfaction, sadness, possibly an embarrassment and a resignation that this is just the way things have been, are now and probably will be and that change will happen slowly.

Anyway, we stopped at the Argentine border, returning on Sunday, and Claudio-the-tour-guide sorts out all the passports, visa etc at the border office. We had had no problems crossing the border two previous times for excursions. This time, someone in control at the border said to our guide that if each of us paid $4.00 (pesos) we could go through with out having our bus checked. Otherwise, we would all have to get out and every bag would be checked- taking Lord knows how much time. I could not believe this!

A fellow passenger collected all the money and everyone kind of shrugged their shoulders and said, “This is Argentina.” I was naively and thoroughly astounded and asked dumb questions like, “But won’t someone tell the police?” and “What if everyone called their bluff and every bus said, Go ahead, check us! There’d be buses backed up for miles….” and generally being gob-smacked and uncomprehending of what had just happened. The money was collected (I paid up, of course…. I don’t do political martyrdom and I had to remember that I’m just an extraterrestre) and we went merrily on our way.

After it was all over, I thought it was quite funny and tried to explain in broken Castellano that I have spent a lot more money in the past on legitimate transactions and had a lot less entertainment. So, as a cultural and learning experience, it was probably the best value for money I have had here.

Photos of San Ignacio, Misiones. I tried to find a Wikipedia link but the page is in Spanish only. See what you can find youself because I missed the really good touristy photo shots. This is a fabulous place and I would have loved to stay here longer. The story behind it is fascinating and I need to read a bit more about it as I couldn´t understand too much of what the tour guide said. There is a brilliant display museum and I find my ability to read and understand Spanish, at my own speed, is far greater than my ability to listen to it.

This is the lovely Ana Laura who helped me in so many ways. If it wasn´t for her, I would never have been able to catch up with Monica for Viv. On the other side of the world from NZ, someone I have only met two days before, goes out of their way to help me meet someone else I have never met before. Now THAT´S international relations!

Another .......Waterfall

I have done two posts as a bit of an Easter bonus. This one is a special Easter treat for Viv-who-lived-here-for-a-month-and-knows-what-it´s-like and because I know that in a few hours her family and mine will be gathered together at her home for home-made Hot Cross Buns ... without me (and because they will get the in-joke) Hope you are all able to read this together and that someone will have a really buttery hot cross bun for me. Make sure you check out the blog following this.

It´s impossible to describe The Cataratas and, although it is nigh on impossible to take a bad photo - photographs cannot convery the enormity of this phenomenon.

A waterfall ...

Another waterfall...

and the same waterfall ...

But wait, there´s more waterfalls ...

and more....

and with lovely young travel companions.

Another day, another waterfall.

The hat is a souvenir. This waterfall is THE biggie:








This is the guy who offered to take most of my photos of me.
Spot the waterfall...

And here, we have another ...waterfall...

and another view of the waterfalls...

A few things I discovered during my visits to The Cataratas:

Brazilian side on Friday and Argentine side on Saturday.

- All that pre-departure work in Jo and Brett´s Fitness studio paid off [A plug here for ¨You and Improved Fitness Studio in Waiuku.] I have been able to go up and down steps, (plenty of those if you observe the height of the falls) lug heavy bags and walk for miles.

-It was not a busy day for mosquitoes but it is easy to become paranoid every time you feel something touch your skin.

-It is always wise to make sure the bottle top of your malaria medication is screwed on tightly lest they spill all over the bottom of your bag.

- A wrist watch that boasts ¨Bath waterproof¨does not mean it can go under a waterfall.

- Sometimes you wonder what you are doing on a speed boat going sideways over rapids heading towards an almighty steep cliff ... in Brazil, and if your travel insurance covers death-by-waterfall.

- A $5 packet raincoat is not waterfall proof - and yet they still sell them at the point-of-departure. Neither do the raincoats hold great puddles of water in your lap while you are seated on a boat under a waterfall.

- You will eventually dry out.

- Some people pay a small fortune to have their photo officially taken, looking like a drowned rat, in front of a waterfall.

-It is difficult to see anything at all near a waterfall when you wear glasses. It´s like driving a car without windscreen wipers.

- It is very difficult to get a photo, up close, of a large spider or a small iguana.

- Most of the plants in my garden and house, including the weeds, have their origins in South America.

- It´s a good idea to familiarise yourself with the phrase, ¨I´ll take yours if you take mine.¨ People seem very happy to take photos for each other. And, it is easier to say, ¨Yes please¨ than try to explain that you have a photo of yourself in front of every possible view of a waterfall. The lovely guy in the photo kindly offered to take my photo at every new waterfall so I said it was about time I took a photo of him.

- The Argentine people are very proud of their waterfalls and those who haven´t been there have it on their ¨Öne day when I can afford it¨dream list. Everyone I have met is pleased and pleasantly envious that I got to go there. It´s like a pilgrimage and people on the tour were visibly and emotionally moved to be there. It´s almost as if it reinforces the good things about Argentina to make up for all the things they are unhappy with or are unable to change.