what my parents are paying for

This will be the first in a two part series on why I went from feeling pretty crappy early in the week to why I am feeling loads better now, as the week ends. It’s amazing what a difference a few days make.

I finally know which classes I’m taking! This is huge for a lot of reasons but instead of just telling you that, I will show you.

I registered for all of the following classes:

• At the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella: Comparative Politics and History of Peronism. (2)
• At the Catholic University of Argentina: New Latin American Cinema, Contemporary Short Stores, Nobel Prize Winners of Literature, Comparative Revolutions, Comparative Political and Social Processes in the Southern Cone. (5)
• At the University of Buenos Aires: Political Parties in Presidential Democracies, Forms of semi-directed democracy and political participation, and Political Leaders and Leadership in Latin America: A Study of Carlos Menem (Argentina), Fernando Collor de Melo (Brazil), and Hugo Chavez (Venezuela). (3)
• At the University of Salvador: Argentine Literature, History of Hispanic Art, Comparative Latin American Political Systems, and Comparative Politics. (4)

Of those 14 classes, for which registration took place at different times and in different locations and which take place at four different universities, I have attended seven with some degree of regularity. On top of that, my Spanish class has started.

Why, might you be wondering, would someone subject oneself to an unnecessarily large number of courses in an exorbitant number of universities? What a great question! It’s necessary that I attend as many classes as possible to ensure that the ones in which I end up have professors and TAs that I understand, students with whom I am capable of interacting, and reading that I am capable of understanding. This is no tiny feat, seriously. Furthermore, the registration process here has been a shitshow. As mentioned, registration took place at different times and via different methods. After registration, many of the schools have lotteries because they limit the number of spots foreign students occupy. Of course all of the foreign students need to fulfill basically the same credits and register basically for the same courses aka the classes which we all want to take are competitive and randomly selected. Again, it is important that one keeps his or her options open in case that Spanish language/culture course closes… understand?

At long last, my schedule is finally pretty settled and I have been to almost all of the classes at least once. In addition, que suerte!, I am pretty sure my courses fulfill the credits necessary for Tufts: Spanish language, culture/literature, and comparative politics. It is as follows:

-          Tuesday: New Latin American Cinema (UCA) – for foreign students

-          Tuesday: Nobel Prize Winners of Literature (UCA) – for foreign students

-          Wednesday and Friday: Leaders and Leadership in Latin America: A Study of Carlos Menem (Argentina), Fernando Collor de Melo (Brazil), and Hugo Chavez (Venezuela) (UBA) – difficult!

-          Thursday: Spanish Grammar and Popular Urban Argentine Music (IFSA)

In the mean time I will probably also continue to try out:

-          Comparative Politics at USAL (because I want to be sure I get a comparative politics credit while I’m here and need to confirm about UBA)

-          History of Peronism at Di Tella (because I LOVE the professor and would be sad to see him go)

This way I am a) pretty set course-wise and b) leaving my options open.

I am by far most excited about my UBA class, even though it’s already kicking my ass. He’s the hardest of my professors to understand – of all of the courses I have tried out! – and there is the smallest concentration of foreign students. By the end, I need to produce 30-40 page paper IN SPANISH about a particular case study, about which I am at present totally uncertain in large part because all of this history is totally new to me. But UBA (or la UBA, as I might also call it) is also the coolest thing about being here and I am certain it will prove to be the most authentic experience I will have in my time in Buenos Aires. I will post separately about UBA for y’all as soon as I get a chance to snap some photos because you seriously just have to see it to believe it.

Also, since I only sort of came here to work and don’t want to give you the wrong impression of my striving high, I assure you that my two UCA classes fall somewhere on the scale between completely manageable and absurdly easy. This is good because I have Mondays off and they meet on Tuesday, giving me plenty of absolutely true long weekends to travel or look up every other word in my UBA reading.

Finally, I really can lay off my academic neuroses because I thought about taking Portuguese while I was here and decided in the end against it. I am confident that it was the right decision.

 

A few regrets, when all is said and told: I will miss my comparative politics class at Di Tella and, if I really don’t continue with Peronism, I will miss Di Tella generally. It is basically like Tufts – small, wealthy, and with generally smart and amiable students. I have already made a friend from Di Tella with whom I can continue a friendship, even if we can’t continue class together. Also, as stated, I definitely will miss my Peronism professor. I also majorly lament that I really only have one class with Argentines, the UBA class. If I don’t continue with Comp Pol at USAL, which would be pretty stressful because I’d have less than a half hour to get from USAL to UBA every Wednesday, it will be only one Arg class. That’s a bummer.

 

If you have thoughts, please please please let me know! Right now, although I’ve really been putting it off, I think it’s finally time to start some homework.