Yes, you have read right, it seems the never-ending story finally terminated. After not having heard anything from the university’s exchange coordinator for international relations during nearly two months, I was slightly running out of time as my tourist visa only allowed me to stay 90 days. So I went again to the international relations office to personally see the exchange coordinators and explained them I would become illegal in the next couple of days. Magically they were just about to finish the missing documents needed and then told me I should go to Mar del Plata the next day, city where the “oficina de migraciones” would finalize my visa application. I wasn’t quite prepared to that, but being spontaneous is kind of essential when living in Argentina, so the next morning I took the “colectivo” to Mar del Plata, which costs 50 Argentine pesos (I eventually received my student’s certificate and now get 20% reduction on nearly every price concerning travels through Argentina) and takes two and a half hours for the trip (this time can be used, for instance, to catch up on sleep, since the omnibuses are extremely comfortable – by the way, Latin America’s bus system is really a plus compared to Europe, much more flexible and offering a very dense network).

In Mar del Plata we (I went together with a Brazilian guy) took a “remis” to the migration’s office and stayed there for about 5 hours, of course all the time mostly waiting for nothing to happen. But at the end everything seemed to be ok and after having paid the 600 pesos I received my student’s visa, allowing me to stay 90 days more here in this amazing country Continue reading →

Last week was probably one of the most awesome ones in my student’s life: the annual event “las olimpiadas interfacultades”, where all the different faculties of the UNICEN meet in Tandil to determine who is THE BEST – by competing against each other in many different sports: among others football, volleyball, basketball, rugby, chess and a cross country. My faculty “Facultad de Ciencias Exactas” had won the 4 past events in a row, so there was no other possible goal than going for the fifth victory and show the world that the “teclas” (Spanish word for your keys on a keyboard or mobile, but rather used like “nerd”) are in fact really good athletes

During 4 days (when we obviously again didn’t have classes) both the women’s (las turulecas) and the men’s teams (los gallitos) fought to the death, supported by an incredibly loud crowd making a way better atmosphere than the “Eintracht Frankfurt Ultras” And finally, after some dramatic matches where we almost always had the better end on our side, we can call ourselves again the Champions of the Games, sending the “Facultad de Económica” (los leones eternos subcampeones) again to the second place! Continue reading →