Just a few things I've noticed..

After a couple of weeks of school, there are a couple of things I have noticed that are pretty interesting.
First of all, in the classes that I’m taking, everyone calls each other compañer@. This might clue you in to the kind of classes I’m taking, but I think it’s pretty cool. Today a girl pulled out her mate and started sharing with the whole room, which I thought was pretty nice.
Also, the dependency theory is kind of taken for granted. I’m glad I did a paper on it for a sociology class once, because otherwise I might not know what practically every reading/professor is talking about when they say center and periphery, and its implications. I find it pretty interesting that pretty students in the US don’t usually know what it is, when here it’s such a basis for describing things.
More surprising is the realization that very few US students know what the Washington Consensus is. This I learned when a professor made reference to this very fact, as she offered extra material on the subject to the foreign students. I guess it makes sense though.. The Washington Consensus has had such a direct and important impact on Latin American realities for the past couple of decades, that it seems obvious every university student would know about it. I will hold back on my ideas about why it’s not really taught (I was taught it, but apparently lots of people have never heard of it) in the US.
One more thing.. there is a HUGE pull toward leftist parties on campus here. This makes for a very militant student body, at least at the University of Buenos Aires. But not everyone is associated with a party apparatus. And in general, I feel like the level of activism is much higher, with really high commitment. This is evident in the much more widespread dissemination of information and direct action by the students, which I find freer from bureaucratic demands than back at SU.

End of rant.

written by

poweroflove on March 27, 2009 from Buenos Aires, Argentina

from the travel blog: ARGENTINA

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very cool blog

written by Ira Pavolva on March 28, 2009

first, I want to go to school here with you...it sounds incredible

second, I miss you updating your blog, I know you think people don't read it...but we do!

written by sara bryant on April 10, 2009

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