I arrived at la Universidad de Belgrano just as my class was starting, at 9:30 hs (hs is what follows times in Argentina, and they use military time, so there is no am/pm!). My teacher, Yael, seems really nice. She began the class by having us pair up to introduce each other (who knew that this was a standard ice breaker on every continent). We then learned how to use voseo (the second person singular form used instead of tú in Argentina) and some common vocabulary in both the standard Argentine dialect and lunfardo, which is a Spanish/Italian hybrid that gave birth to much slang used today. Its funny to think about learning slang in a classroom, it seems like that completely defeats the purpose of it! Imagine learning the word "dude" in your ESL class. Doesn't that just seem silly?
We had a break for lunch, and I got some fruit & yogurt from a nearby almecén (grocery store) and our day ended with some review of the past tense. Unfortunately, we did get assigned a little bit of homework. I need to snap out of summer mode! Its back to school time...
Since we got out of class at 14:30 hs (2:30 pm), we had the whole afternoon free! One of my friends and I took this opportunity to explore Palermo (the barrio we live in) in the daylight. We stopped in the botanical garden, got some delicious ice cream (the dulce de leche flavor is Argentina's specialty) and found Plaza Serrano, a happenin' spot nearby my house. It was great just to relax and walk around, trying to get the lay of the land. I really enjoy knowing my surroundings, and today certainly helped with that!
Around dusk, I walked home and Elina opened the door for me. I greeted her with a cheerful "Chao!" But she corrected me, saying that in Italy, chao or ciao is Hello and Goodbye, but in Argentina, its only goodbye!
No wonder all of those store clerks were giving me strange looks...
I guess ciao is no Shalom!
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