New York, New York

On the last weekend, I traveled to New York with three friends. The trip was wonderful. I loved New York, except for the cold. It was 4-5 degrees Fahrenheit, which is equal to -15 degrees Celsius. I have never, in my whole life, felt that cold. We visited lots of museums, places and stores, walked during the whole day and took a lots of pictures. I also saw a friend of mine that she was working there during the winter.

With the little that I could see, people weren’t, not even close, as polite and friendly as they are in Austin. At the contrary, they were very unkind to me. The first person that we met when we arrived at the airport was a woman, who was an employee at the subway. She might have not been in a good day, but she treated us extremely bad with no reasons. We didn’t know how to buy metro tickets and we just asked her to help us. She not only answered us with bad manners, but didn’t explain much about how the system worked, so we were still pretty lost.

All this shocked us because we have been in Austin for several weeks and people are just the opposite. They are very lovely, polite and sympathetic. I can say, for sure, with all the people that I got in touch, none of them have treated me so bad.

Besides she was the first person we came across in New York, there were not many differences between that woman and the rest of the people that we met, except for a few. We always felt as if we were bothering them. And, in my opinion, in such a big touristic city, as New York is, that must not happen. The funny thing, and worrying at the same time, was that we got surprised when people were kind to us. For example, a garbage collector, who asked for a photograph while he was driving the truck and we were taking pictures of the city. Another example was a hospital worker who join us in the subway. He not only explained us how to go to a museum, but he also went along with us.

I know that I’m doing a generalization and maybe I am wrong with what I am saying, but this is what happened to us.

People are always making generalizations. It can be about other people, situations, places or activities. When they talk about something specific, they tend to adjudge what they think to all the similar things. For example, how the people in one city, place or country are. They usually talk about how it is the whole community, with just knowing a few people who live there.

I think, maybe, is a cultural thing that people in Texas are more friendly that in other places, but everyone has the right to be well treated.

Despite this, the trip was amazing. Knowing all the places where lots of movies have been filmed was incredible. We have walked so many that, at the last, our feet were hurt. To say the truth, it was really worth it. 

Sports

I have always wondered why there are differences between the most famous sports in some countries. Why are some sports so well-known in some countries, and in others people don’t even know about them? These questions can be answered just by saying that sports are like customs, they change from one country to another, and they are part of the culture of each country.

This thought deepened when we went to Spurs game last Saturday, in San Antonio. It was wonderful, I really loved it. The stadium was so big! It was crowded with people who were so excited! But I noticed a big difference with the basketball games from Argentina. When I was in High School, I used to go to a lot of basketball games of one club in my city, Rio Cuarto, because the father of one of my friends was the coach. Of course there is no comparison of the size of each stadium, the quality of the team and so many other things that I could enumerate. But what I am trying to say is that the importance that people give to the same sport, in these two countries, is totally different. The popularity that basketball has in Argentina is not even close to the one that it has in the USA.

The same thing happens with football, or American soccer. In Argentina this sport doesn’t even exist, but here is as famous as basketball, or more. To tell you a fact that demonstrate the importance of this sport here, in Austin, a city of about 1.500.000 citizens, there is a tremendous football stadium of the University of Texas with a capacity of 110.119 people. It is really huge. And the party that a game implies is awesome, or so I’ve heard. (Sadly there is no game while we are here, so we can’t participate of that great party)

On the contrary, there are some sports that are more known in Argentina than here. For example, field hockey. The other day I went to an Adidas shop, and I asked for a stick-bag for field hockey. The girl of the shop looked at me as if I was crazy and she told me that they didn’t have any. I already knew the answer, before the girl told me. That’s because there are no hockey courts in Austin, and the sport is not known as it is in Argentina.

As for soccer, in Argentina it is far more important and popular than here. Maybe it can be compared in importance with American soccer, due to the fact that there are stadiums all over the country, and in each city there are a lot. People can play it professionally and live on that.

Referring to the structure of the stadium, the dynamics of the games and the entire environment, what called my attention the most was the show. For example, there were five at least, fast food places in each part on one floor. And one floor has two or three parts. In addition to that, of course there were many clothes stores with all the merchandising of the Spurs. I had never seen that in Argentina.

All in all, sports have to do with culture and customs and I find it absolutely amazing that everyone in their own countries can support the team and sport that they love. 

The Second Week

What does make this experience amazing? It may be Austin, the lovely group, all the things that we are doing, the amount of activities that are available to do, the classes, and so much more.

Here I’m going to tell you a little about all these things…

In the last two weeks, the first two weeks, we have been doing so many things. To say a few: The Martin Luther King’s parade, a visit to the Capitol, a Longhorns women’s basketball game, a meeting with our ESL classmates, an ice hockey game, a trip to Houston where we visited the NASA and the Houston Museum of Natural Science, we went to a lots of shopping malls, did a walking by the river, kayaking, a university and a city tour, a volunteering activity, seminars and I can continue counting but it is impossible to say everything.

These activities are out of our English classes and the UT ones, not counting all the homework and activities that we have to do. So, after all, we have less time to do other activities. Despite that, it seems that we have managed well to do as much as we can.

It is impossible to get bored in this place. There are lots of activities, clubs to join, things to do; then you are busy all day long. At first I wasn’t tired, but after two weeks of non-stopping days I am feeling the exhaustion.

Regarding the group of people, I think that, with the majority, it feels as if we’ve known each other for  life. We feel like brothers and sisters, and the dynamic is  incredible.. I can say, for sure, that if I had come here without them, to do the same thing, it wouldn’t be the same experience.

I’m aware that I am saying this in the first part of the trip, and at first sight all things look better. Maybe at the end, all these things can change and it won’t be like it seems now. But I really hope that it will, that it’ll continue to be amazing.

Turning to classes… What captured my attention from the ESL classes (English ones), was the diversity of students that there are. They are all from different countries with totally different cultures, types of dressing, speaking, moving and interacting. However, after five classes together we understand each other and get along very well.

In the UT classes there are also people from different countries, but not as many persons as in the other class. The class is short and there aren’t many differences from the classes in the university of Argentina. What I do notice as different, and it is really helpful, is the wide use of the internet system of the university. The teachers put all the materials, activities and results in there so everyone can access to it, anytime they want. I really like the class (General Management and Strategy), it is very interesting and the point of view of the professor is insightful too.

To conclude, I hope this experience will continue to be like this, and much more interesting. I know that, in order to continue having this amazing experience, I have to do my part and it all depends on me. The things will happen as long as I work on them.