¿Una semana ya?

So, apparently I have already been here for almost a week now but I have reached a level of comrfort that makes me feel as if I arrived much longer ago. A good thing I suppose.

Yesterday we went with our Spanish class on a city bus tour, which was interesting but also frustrating since I had forgotten my camera (ugh). Fortunately, I can redeem myself when we go on a probably similar and possibly identical tour when the rest of the BC group arrives on Sunday. I can't say that I remember much of what the tour guide said about things, but I do know that I live incredibly close to Plaza de Mayo where much of the frequent protesting goes on. In particular, the Mothers/Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo gather there to remember the desaparecidos of the Dirty War (children that were kidnapped by the Argentine military). The Casa Rosada is also located in the plaza, which is where Eva Perón or Evita addressed the people from the balcony. Speaking of, Evita is a national heroine here and she is buried in the gorgeous Recoleta cemetery. Hopefully I can take and post some pictures of the cemetery because it is difficult to describe in words...

I have SO many observations to note that my type A personality is kicking in a bit; I will try to break things into categories for your reading/my thinking ease.


First, school. The BC program requires that we take the Spanish as a foreign language class that lasts three weeks before international student orientation at the end of the month. I tested in the fourth of five levels or something like that and sometimes feel quite self-conscious next to the guy from Mexico or the girl who lives in Italy with her American and French parents and is thus fluent in four languages now. It is often humbling and mind-opening. That being said, four hours of material that I theoretically already know is kind of torturous, particularly when the room gets up to eighty degrees or so. Hopefully the review will be worth struggling to stay awake for all four hours every day.

On to housing: I am currently in a "family stay," although the family is in reality one woman, Beatriz, whose children and very cute grandchildren visit on occasion. I live with Anne from BC and a Swiss girl named Martina who is attending intensive Spanish classes at la Academia de Buenos Aires. Beatriz is one of the nicest people I have ever met, and she made us feel so at home so immediately that I had a very easy time adjusting. She has a beautiful apartment and also makes wonderful dinners.

Speaking of food... everything I have eaten here has been delicious. I'm not exactly picky so that isn't really saying much, but I really do love the empanadas, steak, and flan. Vegetables are somewhat hard to come by other than salads, but I'll survive. Breakfast is kind of boring since we essentially just east toast every morning, but some dulce de leche usually solves that problem. Class runs from 2-6pm so lunch usually ends up being something small during our break in the middle of class, and then dinner is at 8 or 8:30 when we get home.

Other stuff: when we're not in class or recovering from four hours of trying to remember verb conjugations and things, we usually go out at night to bars or restaurants with just the BC group or with other students from our Spanish class. Last night we went to our first boliche, which is a dance club that opens at about 2am and stays open all night. The night life here is much more interesting than at home, especially for those of us who were unfortunately born less than 21 years ago. The music was a combination of Spanish reggaeton and techno, which was perfect for dancing all night; the other night, though, we were in an Irish pub that had an actual Irish band singing English songs which made us feel kind of like we were still in the U.S.

I'm starting to form a routine little by little, especially after Ben and I went to the sports office at UCA to ask about soccer tryouts and joining the local YMCA. We both plan on trying out for the UCA teams in a few weeks and we successfully found and joined the gym, which was an adventure in itself. En route we saw some pickup soccer along with the beautiful architecture of Puerto Madero, the part of the city where school is. The entry physical that I had yesterday for the YMCA was also an adventure: it consisted of the usual blood pressure, height, and weight measurements as well as a rather unusual EKG with the most archaic equipment I have ever seen. I felt like I should have been writing up health care disparities for a class or something.

Both the BC program and the Spanish class have organized trips, such as the city tours via bus as well as bicycle and a kayak trip next week, which has helped with the adjustment since we always have something to look forward to. On our first city tour we visited the Cathedral of San Martín in the Plaza de Mayo, where I think they have masses open to the public; I might try that out tomorrow since it is only a few blocks from where I live.

And finally, the fun fact of today is... the plumbing. While the toilets use an unnecessarily large amount of water (sorry, enviro people), this means that I don't really have to worry about sketchy plumbing as I did in Mexico and many of the other countries I have visited. It turns out that this is a very nice perk.

One more fun fact- the Argentine people resent the Hollywood depiction of Evita because they believe that Madonna's less-than-perfect reputation shames the memory of their beloved Eva Perón. Pretty interesting.

All for now! Ojalá que todo vaya muy bien.