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A journey to the proudest
tip of the world…
A psychologist calls his colleague at 2am in the morning.
"It's an emergency!" he says. "At two in the
morning? It better be good," says his colleague. "I
have a unique client," goes the first. "It's an
inferiority complex!" "An inferiority complex? But
they are so common!" shouts the colleague. And the psychologist
responds, "Yes, but…an Argentine?"
Argentinian way of explaining
In fact I wanted to spend one month in hot-hip-swinging
Brazil this summer - "disguised" as externship,
somewhere near the beach - you certainly know what I mean…..but
- without the right contacts and addresses finding an organisation
or veterinary faculty can be very difficult - and enormously
stressful - especially when the application deadline for the
scholarship is near…Finally I decided in highest distress
to write one last mail to IVSA La Plata, Argentina. Unbelievably,
Amanda, La Plata's Exchange Officer answered me the following
day. At this point I want to thank you very much, Amanda for
all you did for me!!!
O.K., Argentina is not Brazil, they're now
in a big economic crisis, the month August signifies wintertime,
my Spanish wasn't very famous (even after the wonderful IVSA-Congress
in Croatia where all the CSP´s - Crazy Spanish People - tried
to teach me night after night…..but that's another story…),
moreover I heard a vague rumour that Argentines sell kidneys....and
Diego Maradona had started his new career as singer - should
I risk my life to go to the tip of the world?
YES!!! Believe me, it was very, very cold, there's no word
existing for Maradona´s singing skills, Eva Peron is dead,
but at least I retained both of my kidneys:!
My externship contained one month of practical training at
the institute of "Zootecnía 2 - cows and horses"
at the veterinary faculty of the UNLP (Universidad Nacional
de La Plata). This faculty is said to be one of the most progressive
ones in South America; it also owns the only treadmill for
horses in whole South America - another reason of their proudness…
Argentinian way of explaining 2
Veterinary education begins right after high
school, and is a five year training course, although the average
of students need 7 or more years for their "struggle"
through 29 final exams until graduation (-because they need
so much time for drinking Mate, the special sort of tea ?).
All in all the number of students is about 1550 with 60% women
- all drinking Mate, containing around 100 postgraduates,
Mate-drinking, too. The main parts of the study are 2+2 month
of intensive courses in small and large animals - clinics.
Should I add now that the word "intensive" has a
special meaning in Argentina?
I was overwhelmed of the real sympathy and
hospitality of all Argentines, especially the professors took
great care for me - the strange girl from far away Austria,
who came to Argentina during winter and crisis and asked many
even more strange questions in the most horrible Spanish (or
Castellano, as Argentines call it) they had ever heard.
I had the possibility to visit the RURAL,
the biggest annual agronomic exhibition from Argentina in
Buenos Aires, large bull breeding and milk-cow farms - "Estancias"
and of course: the hugest cattle farms I have ever seen in
my life producing the best beef I've ever eaten!!!!
As the faculty itself can't accommodate animals
they own 3 big farms which are from one up to eight hours
far away. There the students find the possibility to work
with farm animal. It's seen as really normal that the assisting
professor prepares the very tasty "Asado" (over
open fire grilled beef) while the students go after their
practise - or drink Mate….
Furthermore I got guided tours through all
institutes of the faculty, kissed millions of professors,
students, cows -Argentines give only one kiss on the cheek,
but compensatory they kiss everybody and every time!- visited
lectures, got Tango lessons and poetry classes, worked in
the faculty-associated laboratory, learned to prepare Mate
with all its mystic rites…
Upon of the fact that I'm an advanced specialist
in Argentine agronomy and breeding-related topics now I learned
to enjoy a new lifestyle with lots of time for drinking Mate,
Siestas, Dulce de Leche, queuing up for hours in front of
banks, nearly no mobile phones, being laughed at for my "small"
problem with pronouns, visiting friends unnotified for -yeah,
you know it - drinking Mate together - in fact this ceremony
holds very community-supportive elements - as long as you
like the bitter taste of "Yerba", don't stir it
or even say "Thank you" and are not too afraid of
a Herpes virus infection!!
After spending two more weeks in Argentina
travelling around in this wonderful country with sea, Andes,
waterfalls, deserts, glaciers, bustling towns, tasty red wine,
millions of hours sitting in long distance buses, wonderful
people (now is the right time for sentimentality…) and after
several Fare-well parties I'm more than happy that I took
the risk of going in a country where I didn't know anybody
- and thanks to IVSA now I know that I have a lot of very
good friends down there, see the advantages and problems of
another culture and - last, but not least - own a new pair
of leather-boots : and lot's of Tango-CD´s…
Open air pathology
My thanks also go to Andrés Baldo and his
great team of the Zootecnía 2 and to all my friends, especially
the sisters Licursi who made me feel "like at home"
- che boludo, sos re boludo! Les extrano muchissimo!!!!
Annette Nigsch, IVSA Austria
9845039@bendomsrv.vu-wien.ac.at
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