"To See, You've Got To Believe"

This weekend, I went to see Metegol (Foosball), a Spanish-Argentine animated film with a group of friends.  We thought that a kids' movie was probably appropriate for our Spanish level-- even though I can take university classes and function in day-to-day activities, I have a hard time with slang words, adult humor, and fast speakers.  After dealing with the unpleasant ticket man ("¿Sabés que la película es en castellano? You know the movie is in Spanish?"), I found my assigned seat and put on my 3D glasses.  

The story follows Amadeo, a talented foosball player at a local bar.  (In Argentina, bar has a different connotation than in the U.S.- anywhere that sells food and where you can sit for a while can be classified as a bar.)  The town bully, Grosso (his name is Argentine slang for "awesome;" this is foreshadowing), challenges Amadeo to a game of foosball and loses.  This loss is the catalyst for Grosso teaming up with a local soccer manager and becoming a buff, futuristically-clad ladies' man/soccer player with a vengeance.  Grosso returns to the town and takes it over to build a giant soccer stadium, but in a strange turn of events, Amadeo challenges him to a soccer game to save the town from destruction.  A few scenes later, in a moment of desperation, Amadeo's tears bring his beloved foosball players to life, and everyone comes together for the soccer game.  There's also Laura, Amadeo's love interest and fellow foosball enthusiast.  

The film is important because it is one of the first animated films created in Latin America.  Last semester, I took a global animation class where we examined production of these kinds of films around the world.  It is prohibitively expensive to make an animated film, and a 3D one is a multi-million dollar investment.  Metegol is the most expensive film in Argentine history, and I can see why-- very little animation of this kind comes out of Latin America.  And the animation was excellent- to show age on the foosball players, each had little chips and other marks on their bodies.  Likewise, the story is very regional- they used Rioplantense Spanish (linguistic variation from parts of Argentina and Uruguay) and the plot elements were very local.  For example, in an American film, a bad guy can't just take over a town with no government intervention.  There was no police or governmental force in the film at all.  

The film also broke the bank, with the highest opening weekend box office totals of any Argentine film.  The proucers smartly chose to release the film on the first day of winter break here, and that investment has seemed to pay off.  (A similar strategy was employed with the release of Aladdin in Southeast Asia in the '90s.)  From news articles I looked at, they are working to get the film released in the United States soon.  

Overall, I really enjoyed the film.  While it did have the gratuitous 3D moments ("Whoa, watch out, here comes a soccer ball in your face!"), I thought it was visually very stunning.  I felt similar to Amadeo assessing his rag-tag soccer team, "To see, you've got to believe."  He uses this phrase to show his optimism that his team, made up of all the men in the town and one unfortunate-looking woman, can overcome the obstacles and beat the professional soccer players.  I came to the movie with a good attitude, and I was mostly just excited to be able to follow the story.  I didn't get all the jokes and didn't catch every word, but I followed a story!  I guess this puts my Spanish comprehension level around the level of a ten-year-old, but I'll take that for now.

Learning At and About School

I have hit the ground running when it comes to my courses.  I signed up for two classes at the Catholic university (UCA), Latin America in International Politics and Argentine Foreign Policy, to try this past week.  Since both were six credit hours (for reference, most classes at my university at home are three credits; I took a course designated as “intensive” that was four), I only have room in my schedule to pick one.  My plan was to attend both, and then make a decision about which to take.  Both meet two nights a week, are a forty-five minute commute away, and require lots of reading. 

My first class was one that my host Delfi’s friend had recommended to me, Latin America in International Politics.  Her friend said the class was good and that the professor was “a good teacher and tall.”  Both characteristics were confirmed on Monday.  While I didn’t understand why we were talking about the topics we covered, I knew what was being said.  After reviewing the syllabus (we received it after the first class), I understood what was going on.  On Tuesday, I returned and arrived early, which was lucky because unlike everything else in Argentina, this class began ten minutes early.  We had a different professor for night two, which I learned is normal here.  In Argentina, most professors have a day job and then teach a class or two as an additional activity.  As such, there are two or three different people who teach the same course and rotate who covers which classes.  I sat next to an Argentine girl who let me look off her notes during class when the professor was talking too quickly.  After class, she gave me her email and said to let her know if I had any more questions. 

The second class was on Wednesday and Thursday night.  I couldn’t believe how nice the professor was—he asked us all our names and why we were interested in the class.  Instead of having a second midterm, we would have a practical exam where we would be given a foreign policy problem and have to suggest what Argentina should do.  This guy was super friendly, and even took time after class to answer some of my questions.  I was concerned that I didn’t have the history and cultural background knowledge to do well in this course; the professor suggested that I come back for night two, in which we’d be covering Argentine history from the 1800s to 1870. 

Out of four exchange students, I was the only one who returned for the second class, which was an omen.  We had another professor, who, in order to cover seventy years of history in ninety minutes, talked so fast I couldn’t keep up.  I had heard of most of the historical figures he was talking about, but not the specifics (example: I know who Jose de San Martín is, but not in what order he went to each area in South America to help fight for independence from Spain).  I was, however, able to answer a question about the Monroe Doctrine, but only after I figured out they were talking about James Monroe, not “Ames Mon-roy.”  I admittedly struggle when terms I know in English are pronounced the way you’d say them in Spanish. 

So my gut says to take the International Politics class.  I think it will give me a broader perspective on the region as a whole, the time of the course is better, and I have a friend/someone who can help me.  My study abroad program will find me a tutor should I need help in the course, but I think I might take advantage of that anyway because our only grades are the midterm, the final, and attendance.  On Saturday, I went and printed all the reading for the first two weeks, which came out to roughly 200 pages.  The rest of the today I’ll be sorting through that.  Thankfully some of the readings are in English.

School These Days

A big portion of my time in Argentina will be spent at school.  Even though I would have come here anyway, studying abroad is a requirement of my International Studies major and is strongly recommended for my Spanish major as well.  Lots of students who come on this program can take really anything that interests them—their school just gives elective credit for the study abroad experience or their grades don’t come home with them. 

My academic situation is a little more complicated, since I don’t have room in my schedule for electives or other non-essential courses.  I will be taking the majority of my classes at Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO), which serves as the headquarters for my program.  My classes there will be with only other American students, but taught by Argentines exclusively in Spanish.   I anticipate taking courses to improve my Spanish, a film class, and a class about cultural questions in Argentina.  In addition to these courses, I have to take at least one class at a local university as a direct enrollment student.

On my program, we have the choice of attending three different universities for our direct enrollment courses.  The first is the Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA)—the largest and most prestigious university in the country.  It has 360,000 students (yes, you read that correctly) spread out at different facultads, which are like different schools within a university.  It’s a similar set up to Indiana University, where many different schools like the Kelley School of Business or the College of Arts and Sciences are separate entities within the same university system.  Except in Argentina, it’s much more complicated.  Each facultad is located in a different part of the city and has its own registration process and academic calendar.  Since UBA is a public school in Argentina, it’s free to all students.

Our next option is Universidad Católica Argentina (UCA) the most prestigious private school (read: you pay to attend) in Buenos Aires.  It has facultads, too, but all of its buildings are near to each other, much like a campus in the United States.  All the buildings are named after saints, and we get a lot of extra holidays due to saints’ days and births of important Catholic figures.  Its facilities are very nice.  The last choice is an arts university—I don’t know much about this one, as I didn’t attend the information sessions about it.  In addition to not having time for art classes, my art talent is limited to courses like Stick Figures 101 (Muñeco de palitos I would be the Spanish equivalent). 

To register here, you sign up for everything you think you might want to take, and then participate in what is called a “shopping period.”  You can try out the class for a week or two, and then drop whatever you don’t like.  Also, if more people sign up for the class than there is space, they have a ballotage or lottery to determine who gets to take it.  Likewise, when you make your schedule you need a map, as you have to account for how much time it takes you to get to each of the class locations.  Oh, and if not enough students sign up, they will cancel the class and put you in another one.  Needless to say, this has been a stressful process. 

This week, the two classes I’m trying out at UCA began, and I’ll write about that experience in another post.  Next week the rest of the courses begin, and then I’ll decide what I am actually going to take.  Registration here has been a logistical and strategic nightmare.  Yesterday, I even called my Spanish advisor in the United States with questions about what credits would count.  (Me: “Hi, I’m calling from Argentina right now.”  Advisor: “Oh!  How’s the weather?”)  So vamos a ver, as they say here, we will see.  Though I’m sure I will learn something meaningful and interesting from any course I take, I would greatly prefer to take classes that will come back as useful credits at IU.