Iguazú mañana

Hola todos,

First, pictures!

Here are more pinturadas (graffiti) I like:

 

 "Fashion kills." I'm not positive, but I think this could mean: "Following the crowd kills."

  

 "REVOLUTION in the plazas, the houses, the beds."

 

 This is an empanada. (It's a bad picture. I'll post a better one later!) Empanadas are sweet, flaky dough filled (usually) with meat. They are cheap (5 pesos, about $1.25) and delicous! =) I eat them almost every day for lunch! lol

 

 This is a mall: Alto Palermo. The professors from our study-abroad program told us we'd feel completely at home there-- all malls are basically the same! They were pretty much right. The food court was even filled with fake Chinese food, just like at malls in the U.S. There were a lot of the same stores (Adidas, etc.), and even lots of signs and music in English. The one difference that struck me (although it probably can't be generalized, even for this mall) was that instead of peppy pop music in the halls, there was lighter, melodic music. I liked it! But other than that-- a mall is a mall is a mall!

 

"Vos" are here!

Now for the daily happenings: I asked my host mom today if she could help me conjugate some verbs. She, Ale(jandra) and Santi(ago) have been offering all the time to help me with any Spanish questions, and-- having homework now (and questions beyond "how do you say...?" which I've been asking them quite a lot)-- I took them up on it.

I asked Susana, "¿Puede ayudarme conjugar algunas palabras?" "Can you help me conjugate some words?" She didn't understand the "conjugar" part, and I thought it might have been the wrong word. She figured it out, though, and then spent ten or fifteen minutes trying to teach me how to say it. "'CON - JU - GAR.' No 'con - WHO- jar.' 'CON - JU - GAR.'" She called out to Santi, who was on the computer upstairs. "Santi! Is there any word in English that has 'JU' in it? I'm trying to teach Kaeli how to say 'ju!'" She said that Americans mumble everything. I have to make the vowels strong! "A! E! U! JU!"

All this was sort of a "My Fair Lady" moment. "Why do I need to say it again?" I was thinking. "I already said it! Conjugar! Conjugar! I need help conjugating!" I kept my frustrations to myself, though, and eventually understood the problem: I say "ju" like "who," with a 'w' sound at the end. "Who(w)." Frustrations, frustrations! It was really funny hearing Susana try to imitate American vowel sounds, though, and they did help me out with my homework (and confirmed my suspicion that it's very unlikely I'll use these specific conjugations or words, which are relatively obscure). So, even though it's frustrating, I'm glad they take the time to correct me sometimes! =) 

Another communication misadventure: On the colectivo (public bus) today, I heard someone say "¿Bajas?" "Are you getting off the bus?" I figured he was talking to someone else. I heard it again, though, and saw that he was looking at me. "¿Bajas en la próxima parada?" "Are you getting off the bus at the next stop?" I shook my head a little and said the name of my stop, which I'm sure I mispronounced. He sighed a little and got off the bus. After he left, I realized that he'd been inviting me to get off the bus at the next stop. "Do you want to get off the bus at the next stop with me?" Just yesterday our study-abroad professors told us that it's common for people (guys in particular) to ask strangers out for coffee and give pirotos (compliments/pick-up lines), and that if we want to (in a public place), fine, and if not, most Argentinians are very responsive to "No." This guy was really, really cute! Language problems suck, lol. 

But again (I'll probably wear this phrase out), I'm getting better! ¡Mejoro! 

I'm going to Iguazú Falls tomorrow. It will be summer weather there (it's been wintery in Buenos Aires). It should be really fun! 

Chau chau!

Kaeli