Lesson Learned, Peru, Education, Film Shoot

Jesus Christ. Haven't updated in weeks. I've been super busy, this is the first free hour I've had in a long time. So much has happened. First things first. I turned 20. 20! That's so freaking old. At the stroke of midnight on August 24th I was eating dinner and watching a tango show with a small group of good friends. We popped open a bottle of champagne to celebrate. That Friday night we threw a huge party. It was a blast. One head count reached 42. Good music, every kind of alcohol you could imagine, and almost everyone I've met so far in Argentina.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times...: They say that wisdom comes with age, well on my 20th birthday I learned a very important lesson. I'm sharing this with you because I believe in learning from the mistakes of others. When it comes to dating there is a certain type of person that you need to watch out for. This type is the most dangerous companion and what sucks is that you wont realize the person you like is this type until it's too late. Until you've learned the hard way. The most dangerous person to be involved with is one who's really good at apologizing. Because this person will fuck you over repeatedly. Something happened on my birthday that made me realize how much of a sucker I am. This was the third time the guy apologized for doing the same thing. Hello! Christina! Wake up! He doesn't give a shit about you!

And once I realized this I looked back on a few of my relationships. I can certainly remember quite a few times when I thought to myself, "That's it! Enough! I am totally done with this person." I'd be all fired up, ready to chew him out, and low and behold before I could get a word in he apologize for whatever he did. The speech would go on and on, something to the effect of: "I'm so so sorry, I feel like an asshole. I understand if you don't even want to be friends with me ever again. I feel terrible." And of course I'd fall for it. I mean who wouldn't? Apologizing is never an easy thing to do. I'd think, "Wow, that was really nice of him to say sorry. He really does care. I can't believe I was ever that mad at him in the first place." The problem is that I've realized that I've fallen for the same act from the same people over and over and over. I don't know what it is that makes us overlook the obvious flaws of people that we're attracted to. It's dangerous.

Don't get me wrong. We all make mistakes. If you're dating someone who screws up and they apologize, I'm not saying that you should tell them to fuck off right away. Forgiveness is a powerful thing. But there's a limit. When this person screws up repeatedly maybe it's time to step back and reevaluate weather or not you're being taken advantage of. End rant.

Schooled: The education system in Argentina is worth mentioning. I've been meaning to write about this for a while now. In Argentina college is free. Yes, free. You can go to a top notch public university and pay NOTHING. There are private schools as well, like the one I am attending right now, that you pay to go to. The most expensive of which is $4,000 a year. Here's how the system works. When you graduate high-school you take a college entrance exam, and they accept everyone that scores above a certain percentage. There's no limit on the amount of students they accept, if you make the grade you're in, and you need to maintain the grade to stay in. This has some interesting effects. First, it means that public universities are ridiculously over crowded. They recommend showing up to class at least half an hour early if you want a seat. Because of the class size and because almost all the professors work at multiple universities, office hours are non existent. Chances are that you will never actually ever talk to your professors. So students who graduate are very independent, intelligent, and self motivated.

Now lets take a look at the private schools. No entrance exam. If you pay you're in, and as long as you keep paying you stay in. If you can't make the grade, you want to take easy classes, you need more structure to be successful, and you have the money, you're better off at a private school where the student teacher ratio is about 14:1. Needless to say, the private school students have a reputation for being lazy rich kids. The average behavior in class here at the Universidad Blas Pascal would be totally unacceptable at any school in the US. My film production class has 14 kids in it. People talk the whole time, at least 6 times in every class someone's cell phone will ring and they just answer it and have the conversation right there in the middle of the room. People wander in 20 minutes late. On the first day, half an hour into class one girl grabbed a cigarette out and a lighter of her bag, loudly asked the girl next to her if she wanted to join her outside for a smoke and then left class for a cigarette break. My jaw dropped. The teacher didn't even flinch. The faculty's behavior is not much better. The amount of classes that are cancelled here is outrageous.

There are of course students that defy the stereotype. My roommate, for example, is a law student and a bookworm. If she has an exam it she doesn't go out for the entire week before she takes it. And when we do get a chance to hang out she's totally down to earth. But for the most part I feel like I'm surrounded by snobs.

The free education system was implemented in 1992, and now because the amount of people with college degrees has skyrocketed over the past 15 years, they are having trouble finding people to do blue collar jobs. For example, there is a major shortage of electricians in Córdoba right now. Overall this has been a very different kind of college experience.

Inspired: While Ann and I were eating breakfast at the hostel in Iguazú on our last morning there, a television in the corner was blaring the latest update about the recent earthquake in Peru. Over 500 killed, 2,000 injured, and 40,000 homes destroyed. Just take a moment to think about those numbers. Hearing about this really affected me. I jumped on the nearest computer and searched for a way I could help. I was thinking about volunteering in Peru after the semester. I researched the Red Cross response and I was trying to find a way to contact them but The Red Cross is surprisingly difficult to contact. Their website kind of sucks, very hard to navigate. After reading about the reports of violent crime and absolute chaos in the disaster area I started to shy away from the idea, but I haven't ruled it out. There are a few organizations from the U.S. that are about to launch projects there now that the after shocks have died down. There is one group speciafically that I have been in contact with. You can check out the website below. We'll see where this goes.

http://www.hodr.org/index.php/2007/08/30/peru-announcing-project-pisco/

Anyways, so in the middle of all this I thought, 'Ya know, I shouldn't have waited for a natural disaster to happen for me to suddenly decided that I should volunteer. Volunteering should just be something that I do.' This lead me on a crazy search through tons of organizations looking for volunteer opportunities in Córdoba. Most of them turned out to be scams. "Charity" organizations that wanted you to pay them to volunteer. After a few fruitless days of researching I decided that I should just ask my academic director here if he knew of a place I could go. I was thinking about what type of work I could do, what skills I have to offer, then it dawned on me, "Hello! I speak fluent English!" So now I'm volunteering as an English tutor. I start this weekend.

Speaking of natural disasters: Yes, I did hear about God's wrath on Glenview. I'm sure you've heard a million stories like this recently, but here's what's going on at the O'Rourke house. Part of our neighbor's tree feel on our garage and my basement had nearly a foot of water in it, needless to say it was completely destroyed. Everything needs to torn out and replaced, furniture, carpet, drywall, everything. I would really like to know what happened to you guys. How are your families? How are your houses? How are you? Leave comments. I'm interested. My dad called me and goes, "Hey Christina! Happy Birthday! The house is destroyed." Great. I wanted to be home so badly to help my parents. I don't know what I could have done, but it felt wrong not being able to do anything.

In other news: The getting healthy thing has been working well. I'm actually starting to change my habits. Get this, a couple nights ago I actually turned down french fries. I know. Absolutely crazy. I've noticed a change in my mood too. I'm just more content in general.

However, I did have one bad day recently. One of our building managers was making fun of my American accent and saying how I didn't know any Spanish. I know he probably didn't mean it, but man did it sting. When you're in a foreign country trying to learn a language, that really shits on your confidence. It threw me off for the rest of the day. Ever had something bad happen, maybe you fail an exam, or you're super late to work for whatever reason, anything that seems like a big deal at the time but in the long run probably doesn't matter? And then once you get in that bad mood, it's like every little thing that goes wrong for the rest of the day pisses you off way more than it should. Yeah it was one of those. That night I sat outside and I made myself name five good things that happened to me that day. It worked wonders. Look for the good in everyday.

Back in production: I recently started my "internship" at the television station on campus. I say "internship" in quotes because the "interns" run the station, but we're all students and they don't pay us, so they call us "interns." I do camera and sound for professor presentations. I'll elaborate. Students that live in rural areas all over the country and don't have convenient access to a traditional university are able to watch their classes on TV and earn a degree. It's a pretty cool program actually. The students can even call in and ask the professor a question while were live on the air. I'm liking the job and it's a way to meet people.

In my film production class we were given an assignment to adapt Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell Tale Heart" into a short film. We shot all weekend. It was such a great experience. For one, it's been too long since I was on a set, so it was nice to feel at home again, and I made some great new friends because we've been spending so much time together. Also, my Spanish improved drastically because I didn't hang out with my American friends for a few days straight.

Punked: I got in a cab yesterday and after I gave the driver the address of where I needed to go he asked me to show him my palm. I had no idea why, but I decided to play along. I show him my hand and he goes, "You're from Chicago aren't you?" WHAT!?!? I freaked out! I had no idea how he did it. You should have seen the look on my face. Then he told me that he had given me a ride a few days before and I told him then that I was from Chicago. He got me.

All in all life is great. I'm still itching to travel. I actually had to surrender my Lonely Planet books to Ann. Now I actually do my homework. She's now addicted to them. I've been planning my next trip. Penninsula Valdez awaits. It's a beautiful place in Patagonia, southern Argentina. Gunna spend three days with penguins.

I miss you all mucho. Besos.