On to week three and still kickin'!

I've just began my third week here in Argentina and while everything is still a step from blowing me off my rocker, I think I have finally started to fall into the comfort of a routine.  Everyday at 9 a.m. I go into class until 1 p.m., have lunch, and then let the day unfold as it will.  What continues surprising me is how nice everyone that I have encountered is...

This weekend was spectacular.  It felt like it was one long day and I am tired as heck from it, but it is totally worth it after that experience.  On Friday, we hopped on a bus here in Cordoba to take the 8 hour journey to Mendoza.  Aside from generally being cleaner and the sidewalks being larger I didn't see a huge difference between the two cities.  It wasn't until we got on another bus and made our way into the country that I realized how magical that place is.  The Andes Mountains are incredible.  I have never seen anything so huge in my life and it helped put into perspective how small I am in the scheme of things.

I can't really say that we did a whole lot while we were up in the mountains but there really wasn't a need to.  It was best just to "be" there and soak in the view... I could literally stay out there for weeks if I had a cabin or something.  We did visit the Fuente de Incas, which is an Incan bridge up in the mountains.  There were tons of little tables set up with crafts and stuff.  I wanted to buy a cute little outfit made out of llama wool for my nephew on the way, but it was 60 pesos and I only had 45 on me.

Visiting the bodegas and vineyards was an experience I'll never forget, as well.  We went to dos, both just below the Andes with ridiculous views that I thought only existed in movies.  I have decided that my pallet must not be very refined as I tend think all wines taste similar to one another... aside from the fact that they are either sweet or bitter, flat or bubbly.  One of their favorites here is called Malbec.  It is very bitter to me, but I think I am starting to get used to it.  In any case, I could go wine sampling every weekend if that were an option.  Especially if I got to do it in Mendoza!

We were supposed to go rafting after wine tasting, which I look back now and wonder if that would have been a good idea considering how tipsy we all were...  Perhaps it was a blessing that the rivers here are running a bit slow as it is winter on this side of the sphere.  We ended up taking the money that we would have spent on rafting and going to a RIDICULOUS restaurant and shoving our faces until we looked like post-explosion Violet from Willie Wonka sans the purple tint.

This meal was out of control!  We walked into our private dining room where the entire table had been covered with every meat and cheese and random little dish that Argentina had to offer, and that was just our appetizer!  There was all you can drink Malbec and some sort of pot roast for the main course followed by pasta and cheese.  Then came dessert.  Vanilla ice cream with dulce de leche and some kind of wafer cookie and all we could drink champagne and whiskey... oh and last but not least, Cuban cigars!!!!!!!!!!  The cigars were gross I thought, but the rest was like heaven.

These little "excursions" continue to get more amazing and ridiculous.  Life in Cordoba is finally becoming normal-ish which I think is great as it relates to becoming more affluent in Spanish.  My classes have been extremely helpful and it is great that after I get done studying I get to walk out onto the street and put what I have learned into practice.  Flash cards are my best friends...

Could this get any better?!

Every time I begin to think that things are about the wind down or that I might achieve some sense of "normal" here, something happens or I see something that just literally hits me in the face and knocks me right on my ass... in a good way, though.  It feels like I am in some kind of dream.  An extremely vivid and wildly amazing dream.

The Food.  The People.  The Streets.  The Art.  The Land.  My lord, I could go on and on about everything that I love about Argentina.  Even at times when I am stressed and angry I have this overwhelming sense of warmth washing over me.  For instance, I had a full out panic attack today but I couldn't tell you that it felt bad.  Actually, as strange as it sounds I enjoyed every second of it.  I think it is because there hasn't been a single experience here that hasn't overwhelmed me.  I cried and my teeth clenched together so hard I thought one of them might chip.  But, when it happened it was like I was experiencing every emotion that I have felt over the passed several days, which have been soaked in wonder and amazement, in one instance.  Like an explosion.  I hate to sound vulgar, but it was akin to a very extreme orgasm.  The muscles in my stomach contracted.  Every hair on my body stood on end.  It was such an intense and pleasurable sensation, but I was crying and convulsing like a basket-case!

I think I am literally in denial that this is my life right now.  

I went zip lining in las sierras!  OMG, what an experience.  I thought it might be a rush like a roller coaster but it was surprisingly relaxing.  The land here is incomparable to any that I have seen.  About an hour and a half south of the city you start to see these gigantic mountains and they are nothing short of breathtaking.  Tons of trees and vegetation that I have never seen before.  Wild horses walking together on the same rural road as our bus.  A waterfall winding all the way down the mountain into a clear river at its basin all of which I got to see from a hundred feet in the air while flying down a wire at god knows what speed.  The sweet smell of the wind passing my face.  I was tempted to just brake in the middle and hang above everything for a little while, but the person behind me might not have appreciated that...

At times it is difficult to understand people when I am talking to them.  It is a little bit of a different dialect than I am used to, but it hasn't been much of an issue.  Everyone that I have spoken with has immediately realized that I am from the U.S. and been very patient with me.  It is actually kind of weird because we don't even have to speak and they already know we are from the states, but what exactly does someone from the United States look like?  I mean, it is a pretty eclectic mix of people there.  Why couldn't I be from Europe?  Somehow they just know and every once in a while we can hear the locals say to one another when we pass them, "Ellos son de los Estados Unidos!"  It is actually quite comical.

The food is very good.  My house mother, who is a sweetheart, cooks dinner for us every night and she is quite the chef!  We've had arroz con pollo, fried fish, and one night we had mashed potatoes with meat, I believe.  Yummy in my tummy without a doubt.  Meat is whats for dinner 24/7 here.  They are obsessed with ham and eggs and put it on just about anything that you can imagine.  I've had them both on hamburgers, hot dogs, and I hear that they like to scramble eggs and chop them up over pizza with beats.  One of the best dishes I have had was called Milenesa.  It was like chicken parmesan made with beef.  They also love french fries.  Beer, wine, soda (much more carbonated and many of them infused w/ fruit juice), and agua con gas which is like club soda are generally what we drink.

Last night I went to an artisan fair that goes on every Sunday evening.  They have so much cool stuff there and it is way cheap compared to the malls here.  Some of the clothes they sell on the street are really cute, also.  I will probably get all of my souvenirs there.  I actually knocked down an entire table filled with mates, which are the cups they use to drink yerba mate.  I intended on buying one at some point anyway so I went ahead and bought one from that vendor because I felt bad.  Mate is always shared when you drink it.  If you don't share it, it is considered rude.  The drink itself is like a tea with many pulverized leaves that are free floating at the top.  You drink it with a metal straw called a bombilla, which I found out the hard way you cannot move around once the mate has been prepared because it will get clogged with all the leaves.  It is also customary to make a slurping noise when you drink it... very interesting indeed!

Ciao Amigos!!!

Something Incredible

Wow!  I am about to wrap up my second day in Argentina for study abroad.  It is incredible how much information I have already soaked in and how much of a change I feel inside me.  It sounds bizarre- I know- but, this has been the most incredible two days of my life.  I have never been outside of the states in my life and while I thought that I knew quite a lot of Spanish, which I would still say that I do, just transplanting myself out of the U.S. culture has done so much for me... and not only with learning a foreign language.

I can't tell you where we were (although I might be able to take you there if we were in Cordoba), but today myself and a group of other students along with our trip coordinator found ourselves taking an impromptu tour of  a prison camp for lack of a better word from back around the revolution here.  I was literally moved to tears as a former prisoner, our guide, showed us around the camp which has been resurrected as a museum to remember what had occurred there.

As we walked down the street that lead to the museum, there were hundreds of flags hanging above across the buildings with people that had either been found dead or were missing from the time which I was surprised to find out was less than 50 years ago.  WHAT?!  It was a truly moving story and his willingness to take time out for us and his amazing sense of perseverance after what happened to him is a testament to the people in this city. They are fantastic to say the least... not one rude look or comment and in my mind I have probably done or said something stupid enough to warrant either of the two.

It might be that I am currently in the enamored stage of culture shock, I don't know, I just know that I can already tell you this is going to be real.  This is going to be life changing.  This is going to set the course for my future, which will hopefully be incredible... just like these past two days.

P.S.  I don't know how much I will be discussing PR related things, especially the business side of it all the next couple months (social media etc.).  I just want to take my time here and soak in the culture and let my experiences shape me.  PR out of context you can totally expect, though.  Do be expecting many more posts about this trip.  CIAO amigos!!

The Bad Pitch Blog: A Royal Pain in the Arse

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Making connections is not ALL about business

Say what you will about personal and professional relationships... the separation and the boundaries that exist, I mean.  My thoughts surrounding social media are changing and saying goodbye to everyone today after graduation has sort of lead to a realization and it is one that is painfully obvious to me now.  People are people.

Regardless of what kind of relationship you share with a person, in the end, the only way that relationship will continue to exist naturally is if there is a social connection between both parties and I believe this extends to work related relationships, as well.

I just left some of the best friends I have had and it is so strange to me now how those relationships developed.  We were classmates and colleagues in PRSSA.  We had common goals to complete and, at the beginning, everything we did with one another was work related.  Now, I feel this overwhelming separation anxiety.  It obviously makes sense that the people you spend the most time with are going to develop into social connections that inevitably extend outside of work.

Like I said, my previous thoughts surrounding social media and the separation of business and personal have changed.  Before I didn't take into consideration how quickly those relationships develop and now I feel like you can't truly take your personal life out of anything.  I guess what I mean is that by separating your accounts, or better, if you have that mentality of separation, you limit yourself and the extent to which your relationships can grow on both sides.  People are people and they like to be treated as such on both sides of the spectrum.

You learn a lot from the people you spend time with.

Standing out with Interactive Resume Videos

Last week, Stephanie Wonderlin, an alumni from EIU talked with my PRSSA chapter over Skype and gave us some really interesting ideas about how to make ourselves stand out with our job searches.  Stephanie runs the first interactive social media Youtube channel called Tweetheart TV.  Check out the link, it's pretty darn sweet.

Like I said, she gave us some cool ideas to help us stand out and one of them was to create an interactive video resume on Youtube.  That way, you can explain each of your projects and prospective employers can go through and pick out exactly what they want to see and the stuff that applies to the job directly.

Also, it adds a personal touch.  Being able to see who it is you might be working with and a glimpse of their personality and the way they "are" in general, I think, can go along way as far as impressions go.  Check out her channel for an idea of how you could set it up and just replace all the links with your own credentials!  Great idea.  I'm going to try to put one together one day soon.

She also has a website and blog at www.stephaniewonderlin.com.  It's good stuff!

How will you use your communications degree??

Hey ya'll.  Check out THIS article by Les Potter I found extremely thought provoking regarding the pros and cons of getting my degree in communications.  Considering I have two weeks left until graduation a lot of the advice is past going back, but I think it has some great ideas to consider for those continuing their education in the next couple of years and those, like me, who are wrapping up their degrees.  I encourage you to read his other posts too... very beneficial.