Where's Dan?: Some updates

The last few weeks in Buenos Aires have been busy (like really all weeks of this trip), and successful.  Today I turned in my last two assignments of the semester (my individual comparative analysis project--if you're really curious about neoliberal urban development, give a shout, otherwise I won't bore you here), so now I'm on something of a blissful, and I imagine quick glide to the finish in a week and a half.

The pace of the program has gotten familiar, and really, we've gotten good at handling it.  It think in that I missed how significant our experiences were, or just didn't have time to share them with you, my faithful blog readers.

Last week was spent on a small-group case study of the Puerto Madero redevelopment project, which you could envisions strikingly well by just imagining your typical port redevelopment project.  The once-active port, literally two blocks from the city center, had sat underused for fifty years after progress had built a much better port a few miles upstream.  Then, the government spun off the Corporación Antigua Puerto Madero, which has built up the area into some scenic promenades, restaurants in converted warehouses, high-rise apartment towers, and corporate headquarters, and helped strengthen downtown in the process.  It was a hard project to build a strong opinion about.  On the one hand, it has been extremely successful at turning what was abandoned space into something valuable for the city, and its intention, despite its observed exclusivity, is to join and serve the social fabric of the city.  On the other hand, most porteños (Buenos Aires residents) seem to despise the area as new and ugly, see it as a hang out only for tourists, and it seemed to us, on first impression, an area devoid of the cultural livelihood found in other neighborhoods of the city.  Developments are tricky things: it's hard to make them serve thir cities, and even harder to get residents to accept a new neighborhood in an old city.

I spent most of this weekend working on my final project (the rainy weather helped encourage me), but I also had my first night in Buenos Aires where I was out until morning.  It's an odd sight coming out of a club and finding it light outside, and odder still to see everyone still sitting at cafe tables outside bars, still traipsing between clubs in very club attire, etc., when it's light out, and to see people headed to work and people headed home for the night riding the same buses.

A friend asked me if I'm still loving Buenos Aires as much as I was.  I'd pretty much say yes, with the caveat that I've learned how difficult is to really fit in here.  In my first days, I was thrilled to be in a city where I could walk around by myself and feel like I was blending in with all the other people walking on the sidewalk.  Spending more time here, it's become obvious that I give my self away as both an American and someone not very capable in castillano porteño (Buenos Aires Spanish) as soon as I open my mouth, which has made really getting to know people difficult.  I think it has something to do with the way porteños interact with foreigners, and probably each other.  Friends of mine who have been here studying for much longer still say they have few, if any, close porteño friends.

Those are my updates for now.  I'll try to get some new pictures up, too, but I can't promise they'll make it before I get home.