Happy anniversary to me!

May 15th, 2007, 10:26 am

Last Monday marked the third-month anniversary of my glorious trip to Argentina. Whoa. That’s a whole summer break! Time is going by way too fast. Sigh. If things continue to be like this, seven months will go by before I know it.

While most of you are enjoying the warm spring weather up north, fall is well underway down in Argentina. I’m in the Southern Hemisphere, remember? It’s like Oppositeland here. The highs have been in the 60s/50s and the lows have been in the 50s/40s for the past two weeks. That doesn’t sound too cold, but when you factor in the humidity, it’s freezing without it actually being freezing. Okay, you know what I meant. I find it far more pleasant than the steaming hot weather that greeted me for the first few weeks of my stay.

Speaking of weather, I should learn Celsius. Fahrenheit is no good here. Or anywhere outside of the US.

Unfortunately, it looks like the vacation period of my study abroad is finally coming to an end. The last week two weeks have been pretty hectic. I’ve been swamped with hundreds of pages of reading. If they were in English, I could read them relatively quickly. Sometimes it takes me five to ten minutes to read a page. En serio. It’s really frustrating. I usually understand about 85% or more of what I read, but it just takes forever to go through everything simply because I’ve never had to read so much in Spanish, especially in such complicated language. Still, the situation I’ve gotten myself into is completely my fault. I would probably be fine if I had kept up with the readings. No, not probably. I would be.

Yes, I actually intend to study during study abroad.

I nearly lost my debit card last week. As I was about to leave my place for class on Thursday, I realized that it wasn’t in my wallet. I furiously searched my drawers and found nothing. Then I remembered I had used it withdraw cash from an ATM at a bank a few blocks away that Tuesday. Luckily, I had the receipt for my last transaction in my wallet. I used that and my passport to prove that the card was indeed mine. Phew. I doubt that whoever turned it in to the bank didn’t write down my number, but I think I’m gonna cancel my card just in case.

Posted in Argentina | 3 Comments | Trackback

Y’all don’t speak Hindu, do ya?

May 11th, 2007, 08:56 pm

Not that I would have ever guessed this or anything, but the U.S. government has a severe shortage of intelligence agents familiar with the diverse languages of cultures of Muslims worldwide:

The U.S. government, in dire need of intelligence agents skilled in the languages and cultures of the Muslim world, is struggling to recruit from American ethnic communities grown wary of its policies.

Relations with many minority communities, first soured by a post-Sept. 11 crackdown on Muslim immigrants, have been further strained by uproars over the abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib prison, U.S. interrogation practices and President George W. Bush’s now-suspended domestic spying program, experts said.

I’m no expert, but I would say that America’s invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, the anti-Muslim stances of important political figures, and the growing Islamophobia in the media also have something to do with this mistrust. Yeah, given the political situation, it’s hard to believe that you won’t be betraying your own people by working as an intelligence agent for the FBI and CIA.

Posted in Islam/Muslims, Politics | 3 Comments | Trackback