So far I have had some exciting adventures! Getting here was not really a ton of fun- my first flight was delayed almost 3 hours from Newark and my second flight was also delayed over and hour, not to mention we had a ton of turbulence when we were leaving Miami. This was the first time I've ever flown through Miami, and surprisingly pretty much everything in that airport is in Spanish rather than English! My flight from Miami to BsAs wasn't too terrible (although it was very long). I ended up sitting next to this really nice Argentine man who lives in Minnesota and was visiting his family in Argentina. His name was Alejandro. Apparently I look like a typical American because the entire time he was speaking in English to me. The flight attendants were also speaking English to me. Little did everyone else know that I understood everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) they were saying. Side story here- I sat next to two Spanish, older women on my flight from Newark. It was my first time on American Airlines, and I didn't know if the food was free or not. I asked one of the women in Spanish if it was free and she responded by not answering my question, but by asking me if I spoke Spanish at all. I replied, yes a little, and she then told me that the food was free in English. The next 5 minutes I spent my time listening to the two of them talk about how they had no idea I spoke Spanish. It was entertaining to say the least (given the fact that I was not in a great mood after waiting several HOURS in the airport).
Anyway, I have obviously arrived safely and have become, for the most part, accustomed to life in Buenos Aires. Life here is completely different from that in the jers, but it's a nice change! I live in a 3 bedroom apartment in Belgrano, which is one of the residential barrios of the city. I live with my host madre, Ivonne, and another student, Christina (both of whom are very genial!!). Everything here has been great so far (disregarding the whole lack of internet thing), but it's still a little weird for me to have to walk or take the subway everywhere instead of driving! I'm about a 20 minute walk from the University of Belgrano, where I am taking classes.
It's only been a short time, but I have done plenty of new and exciting things. One of the exciting (at least for me) things I have done is to try new food. Anyone who knows me, knows that I can be somewhat of a picky eater, and I have to say, I think I have tried something new every night at dinner! Ivonne cooks really great food, although it is DRASTICALLY different from what I eat at home! However, I have had many other students complain to me about their food situation (or lack there of), and so I am extremely grateful that I am living with someone who makes great food every night!
I am going to try and give as much info as possible about the happenings in Argentina over the past few weeks because I am living the life!!!
The first weekend I was here consisted of a bus tour of the city and a day trip to El Tigre. El Tigre is a town about a half hour train ride from the city, which is located on a delta (aka they don't have cars, their way of travel is by boat!). Here are a few pictures... (all the way at the bottom)
The first picture is La Puente de la Mujer (aka the women's bridge).
The second picture of the view from my classroom at UB!
The fourth picture is a view from downtown Recoleta (it is very hoppin especially on the weekends).
I've taken tango lessons on two occasions! The firts time we went with the rest of the ISA group. We also stayed for salsa lessons right after! The second time I took tango lessons was at La Escuela de Tango de Argentina. As my madre told me, this is the top-notch tango school in the city, with the best teachers who are actually professional tango dancers! Christina and I were watching from the window in the door (while waiting for an art exhibit to begin--- I will get to that in a bit), when the women teacher opened the door and invited us in. It took me all of about 2 minutes to figure out that no one spoke English, which is cool because I'm trying my hardest not to speak it at all. I ended up dancing with this 60-year-old Argentina man who was so impressed with my dancing that he spent the entire time complimenting me in Spanish how good I was. It was really funny! Later that night, after our tango adventures, I went to a Francis Bacon art exhibit. Me, at an art exhibit? I know, weird. But it was pretty cool, and I also got to meet a lot of Ivonne's friends.
Now, on to the world cup! I'm actually sitting in an internet cafe right now watching Spain celebrate! Woooo! (even though I would have much rather preferred Argentina to win!) There is really no way to describe how CRAZYYYYY the people are here about their team! After we beat Mexico in the second round, there were probably close to 300 people gathered outside on the street corner right outside of the place we watched the game at. Jumping, screaming, singing, the whole nine yards. People driving are on their horns like no other, and the highlight came when a huge army-size pick up truck came, stopped, and about 20 people piled out of it and ran across the street. Needless to say by this time traffic was stopped and going no where. This is just a glimpse of it.... (see below- third picture) Well, that's pretty much a wrap of my first week here. I will get around to telling you all about the past 2 weeks sometime soon! Chau!
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