Los primeros días

I don't even know where to start!

I landed at the airport yesterday around 10am. Customs was extremely smooth with the only question asked being in what manner would I like to pay my U$S 140 reciprocity fee-- not even an explanation of my stay in Argentina. I had some trouble connecting with the coordinators of the program who were supposed to be standing outside of customs with a bright yellow sign. So I read for an hour until I saw a group of students who appeared to be American, at which point I found the coordinators standing behind the group of people waiting outside of customs with the yellow sign set down on top of a box. Hmmm...

The program gave us vouchers for the radio taxis that they had ordered to shuttle us all to our host families. I got to experience driving in the city, which appears to be a generally horribly idea. The seat belts hardly functioned, with our taxi driver rear ending another car during the voyage into Buenos Aires. There was a stalled car ahead, which didn't move when the light turned green. The driver just got out of his car, examined it (no visible damage), and wished the driver a good day. Not the reaction I was expecting.

Upon arriving at my house, I was greeted by my host mom and their dog. I talked with my host mom, unpacked, and tried to nap, which was surprisingly a failure considering that I only had 3 hours of sleep the night before. I then took a shower. I have my own bathroom (with my very own bidet), but the whole bathroom is the shower. I'll have to perfect the art of not flooding the whole house. My host sisters, Mariela 32 and Patricia 24, returned home in time for dinner slightly after 9. The events of the day work on a slightly different time table than in the US, but I've adjusted fine to the late dinning hour just fine so far.

To my surprise and pleasure, my host mom described that she doesn't cook with much beef (in response to my housing application that said that I don't eat much beef at home), and they eat a lot of vegetables. A dinner of soup, zapallito (of course the Italian influenced Spanish word for zucchini) quiche like tart, and salad of carrots, celery, and tomato proved this to be true.

I slept very well, after joining the family in watching silly Argentina entertainment tv show.

This morning my host mom accompanied me to the IFSA (Institute for Study Abroad) office via colectivo, the city bus. The public transportation here is excellent. I'd guess there are over 100 bus routes within the city, 6 subway lines, as well as buses and trains that leave Buenos Aires for other parts of the country.

Today was the first day of our month long orientation. It went very well considering that the people who work for IFSA are 1) very humorous 2) speak more slowly 3) tone down their porteño accent. I'm not going to lie, it very difficult for my to understand the Spanish here. It is heavily influence my Italian and not anything like what I've heard before, but I know know it will just take a little time.

Orientation went well, topics including:

- how to use the "Guia't'"- the guide public transportation, aka the most important thing other than my passport. The title is a joke, which I don't understand yet and need another explanation.

- a warning not to do drugs, but not to do drugs in las calles (streets), los boliches (clubs), la cocina (kitchen), but el baño (bathroom) is fine because there's lots of air

--------------------ooooh, time for dinner--------------------------

- stories of past students, including a case of brownies "muy lindos" (very rich), dropped dough, and "un perro stoned"

-as well as more serious things

David, from Whitman too, another girl, and I went to a grill for lunch. I got a pasta dish because we all just ordered things to try and to share. For a drink (wine, soda, or carbonated water), the entree, and dessert it was less than $4o, which is about U$S 11-12. Not bad but still more than a typical lunch on my budget will be. We also did some comparison shopping for cell phones.

I took the "subt" (subway) home with two other students who live within blocks of me. The subway might be more convenient because it's faster, and I can buy a card for multiple trips. On the colectivos you have to pay in exact change and coins are hard to come by and highly valued for that reason. Both are only $1.10-$1.25 a trip (U$S 0.30).

We just ate dinner (@~10:30) followed by some very bad but entertaining tv.

I can tell that even a day here had made a difference. For one, writing this in English was took quite a bit effort not to write more random word in Spanish, and I was able to understand and converse much more easily tonight than last night.

Bed time; gotta be awake in 6 1/2 hours for an early day of orientation.

¡Buenas noches!