New Home

I'm not sure where to start this post, seeing as I did much more in Buenos Aires after my last post. 

But I can say that my last couple days there, I did pretty much the same thing as the days before: walking around the city, seeing some famous monuments and meeting many new people. We went to a park called Palermo Woods, which you can walk to from the apartment. It's like their version of Central Park, it was beautiful. There are so many rollerbladers everywhere (Dad you would like it). Even though its winter here, it got so hot somedays! The subway one day was torture. It was so crowded and everyone was sweating. 

A very tragic thing happened on my third or second to last day there. My camera was stolen. Well, my bag actually. But the only valuable thing that was in it was my camera. This might seem like extreme bad news, but to me its first: A lesson learned, and second: Grateful feelings. This is due to the fact that right before we went out to eat (when it happened), I had decided to take out my wallet (which had my credit card, debit card, I.D. and my passport in it) and my plane ticket I had just gotten for the flight to Comodoro before we left for lunch. I don't know what I would've done if I had left all that in there. But I had had this feeling that something bad was going to happen when I did that, talk about intuition. 

So I am so very sorry, but it will be a little bit before I can post more pictures. But let me get back to some good news!

So the morning of my flight I had to wake up at 4 15 a.m., a bit of a change from the last couple mornings. Juli and Fran took me to the airport in a taxi and I got there at 5 00 a.m. I checked my bags on ( paying a heavy fee because of the weight) and went through security to board the plane at 6 00a.m. The flight was only about 2 1/2 hours (most of which was spent sleeping) before I saw the coast of Patagonia. It is beautiful here! It may not be green, sunny, warm or tropical, but it is equally gorgeous. With its small mountains, random looking cliffs sticking up everywhere, something that looks somewhat like sagebrush and waves crashing onto the rocky coast. 

If I thought it was cold in Buenos Aires... Nothing compared to here. The minute I stepped off the plane ( down the stairs because there's no connecting thingy) I was hit with the oh-so-famous wind of Comodoro Rivadavia. And believe me, it was not warm wind. Only wearing a sweatshirt for warmth, I rushed inside and quickly got my giant bags. Lili was there waiting for with a smile. After a quick kiss and very, very few words, we were in the car on the way home. The entire drive was along the coast with mountains on the other side. 

After many one way streets (which confuses the hell outta me) we arrived home into the warmth. The house is nice and groomed all the time thanks to Vilma. Ramiro (Rotary counselor) came over for a quick visit and then I went in my room and fell into a dead sleep (I had only gotten 3 hours of sleep the last night). I woke up to find Lili gone to work and Belu home with a friend from school, Pau (or Paula, they love their nicknames). Pau speaks amazing english and automatically began helping, teaching and translating for me. We went around the house and they showed me different objects, while labeling them with pieces of paper in spanish. 

After Pau left to her english class, another friend came over, Agust (Agustina). She speaks amazing english as well, she just spent 3 months in the States. She also helped me with a few things that day. With the help of people like this, I already feel like I'm accelerating exponentially. Soon Agust had to leave and so did Belu. So I was home alone (except for Vilma of course). I did a little unpacking and then took a short nap. 

That night was Friday night. So Belu had several of her friends over, including Pau and Agust. The others I met were Dani (Daniela) and Vale (Valeria). The taught me some simple card games and I had a great time. I automatically felt comfortable with these girls, and they were impressed with my spanish... which made me feel like I was goin somewhere :). 

The next day I was awoken by Lili when she slowly explained to me that Franzika was going to be here soon. 

OOPS. I didn't mention Franzika did I? She is a Rotary student from Germany who will also be staying in Comodoro. But because her family is having some problems right now, Lili and Belu gladly are welcoming her into the home for 2-4 weeks.

Anyway, me and Belu ran out to pick up some dry cleaning and when we got back Ramiro and Franzika were there. She is incredibly nice and sweet and is sharing a room with me. Because she doesn't speak any spanish and limited english, I have found myself doing much translation, which I can tell already is helping a lot. 

That day (yesterday), Belu again had her friends over and everyone decided we should go wash Lili's car (that Belu uses). Piling 7 of us into one small car we headed into town.

It was somewhat sunny and warmish (not without the wind of course), and I had a great time. And of course I met more friends. That night was much the same as the night before, cards and such. Franzika had to excuse herself at 8p.m. to sleep because she is suffering from jet lag... rough.

Today was a fine day as well. We had a great lunch of asado (meat... lots of meat), bread and such and they had some family friends over. After that we (by we i mean a group of friends) went on a very cold walk and came home and just sat around and talked. Well, them talking me and Franzi smiling and nodding.

It is now 10 30p.m. and Franzi has gone to bed. I have school tomorrow and I'm extremely nervous. Pau is in some of my classes along with Becky (exchange student from California) so I will hopefully not be completely lost but I am still scared.

So far I am loving it and I'll let everyone know how school goes! And when I get a camera I'll be sure to show where I'm living! 

xoxo

PICTURES!

The kitty! His name is Gizmo aka "little boy zia" ;)

The Pink House... and a magazine ad. Typical Argentina.

Puente de la Mujer. Or the Bridge of the Woman.

The view from the terrace of my host siblings apartment building.

Some of Palermo.

Me and my host brother Jul. In the busy streets of San Telmo. In my hand I hold a pack of       Garrapiñadas!

Again in San Telmo: a random piano and instruments line the street playing beautiful tango.

Hello City Life

Today I finally figured out why the Argentine people are so well liked and talked about. But let me start from the beginning...

The night I got here, my host siblings had some friends over to their apartment for a little party (Friday night). We all sat around the dining room table drinking beer (I drank water I might add for the comfort of my parents and relatives) and eating homemade pizza. After many "Che"'s and cigarrettes (... not on my part...), I realized just how tired I was from my long day. I made my excuses and went to bed, at the time of midnight. Nobody there could understand why I was going to bed so early. I'm not even sure how much later they were up for.

The next morning, or THAT morning I should say, I woke up around 12:30 p.m. in the afternoon. Thinking that I had overslept I quickly got up and dressed, only to find that everybody else was still in bed... and would be... for the next hour and a half. I considered going back to bed since I was still extremely tired, but decided against it and worked on my online classes to get ahead.

So Saturday after lunch, not breakfast, my host brothers took me on the subway to see some of the famous monuments and sites around the city. We went to the center of Buenos Aires to the main street which had many people.  We then walked over to Plaza de Mayo, which is the main square. It is like their "Independence Square"... May 25, 1810. Next to the Plaza is the "Pink House", like the "White House"... except pink. :). After walking around here for a bit, we walked on over to the part of Buenos Aires known as Puerto Madero. I saw the Puente de la Mujer, or Bridge of the Woman, which lies across the port. 

After much walking, we got on a bus to take back to the apartment. By this time it was dark and late (for me, about ten or so). That night, after dinner around 12, their friends came over again. This time, they played a game sort of like poker, but with die. It was almost like Yahtzee. Again, out came the beer and cigarrettes, of course. This time, I didn't even last as long before I excused myself for bed. But I made it to 1 30 a.m.! And I was very proud of myself, I'm getting better with the days (it's 1 15 a.m. right now, bed in an hour or so I think). 

In morning, I woke up around the same time. Again (for some strange, aberrant reason) I thought everybody was already awake and waiting on me. After dressing and walking out of the room, I again realized my foolishness. 

For lunch, Juli and I walked down to a small asian-ran grocery store and picked up some noodles which Coty and Fran cooked up for us while Jul took me to the terrace of their building. It gave a great view of the city and I took many pictures. We went back down, and ate.

Now I come to my reasoning of my beginning sentence. So my host siblings Papa came to take me to look around the city some more. Because he is not with their mother anymore, he remarried and now has a 5 year old daughter. When I met them, after the customary kiss on the cheek, she approached me and said, "How are you?", in her broken english. After replying and asking, "And how are you?", she simply said, "Happy". This caused many laughs and I was automatically attracted to her.

In the car on the way to San Telmo (a part of Buenos Aires), within 5 minutes she had grabbed my hand and leaned her head on my shoulder. This, I realized, was true Argentine personality. She had simply accepted who I was without even knowing or speaking to me. Although I'm sure the main reason she took a liking to me was because I am American, it made me feel like I belonged. 

Walking down the overly crowded streets of San Telmo was great. Everything had so much personality. Every person along the streets, whether trying to make a living by playing music on kitchen tupperware or running one of the many antique shops, was smiling and laughing with their neighbors. Fran bought me something called Garrapiñadas. Which is similar to what we have at home of the cinnamon roasted pecans or nuts that you can buy at Arts and Craft Fairs or something like that. Except with these they were peanuts, and quite delightful. Before heading back to the car, I noted the many guitar players and tango dancers who lined the streets.

So after today, needless to say, I am again tired. And I didn't even do that much... oy. But there is one thing I would like to say before I finish this post...

I'm am officially going to be the world's best Taboo champion when I get home. How the heck do you explain what, "I don't care" means without using words bigger than those three? Or how about the difference between: Nice, Great and Cool.... "So if someone asks how I am, can I say cool?" well... in the U.S. its slang and would make sense... but you don't know what slang is, and I can't do this... ayyy... While I'm struggling with learning THEIR language, they ask me questions about english. I've come to find that it is almost as hard as trying to speak spanish. 

I am also sorry that There are no pictures to accompany this post. Because I am not going to be living in Buenos Aires, I am not going to unpack, which makes it very difficult to find things. Such as a camera cord. But I will look again in the next couple days to post pictures from my adventures yesterday and today. 

¡Un beso para mis amigos!

¡Hola Buenos Aires!

Hey everyone!! I made it!

I am currently sitting in my host sibling's (Coty, Fran and Julian) apartment in Palermo, Buenos Aires. My plane arrived sometime around 8:20 a.m. Argentina time. For those of you 

back in New Mexico, that's 5:20 a.m. your time.

I wish there was more I could say about my flight but there's really not. And that's a good thing! That meant that everything went pretty much as planned. Although I will say, the flight from Dallas Ft. Worth to Buenos Aires was extremely long... 10 hours and 20 minutes to be exact. 

From those ten hours I had about and 1 1/2 hour total of sleep. This was made easy and it seems like I should have slept more because in my five seat row, the two seats next to me were completely open. It was most definitely NOT a full flight, and very lovely because of that. 

Needless to say, with only that much sleep it was very confusing stepping off the airplane and seeing my breath. I knew it was winter here, but I didn't fully comprehend it until then!

All paperwork having to do with customs and such was simple. I only went through one "gate" of handing in a paper and not even being asked any questions. After having to go to Houston so they would let me in this country, I was a bit frustrated with them. I had expected a harder entrance, but simple is fine by me also. 

After my very quick baggage claim pickup, I walked out into the waiting area to find my host family. I was expecting this to be the easy part, but it was rather hard. I didn't think there would be so many people. I looked for what I knew they looked like from pictures, but to no avail. About 20 minutes of dragging my two gigantic bags around looking for them, I here my name behind me and it was Coty and Fran. 

We all squeezed into small cab and took off through the city. Because of the lack of language from both ends, it made for extremely small conversation. But that was alright with me, because I felt like my head was about to fall of my neck. It was all I could do to not fall asleep and watch the city go by. At first it was impossible to feel sleepy, due to the fact that the driving around here somewhat reminds me of Kathmandu, Nepal... hmm...

From what I saw of the city, it reminds me a little bit of New York. Except everything is in Spanish. 

Upon arriving at the apartment, it was like a haven. We stuffed ourselves along with my suitcases into the itsy bitsy lift and shot upward. On the floor, there were only two or three doors and the hallway was about the width of two bread boxes. The apartment I'm in is pretty nice. Small, but quaint. 

Looking to my right, I see their kitten. He is so cute. But I'm embarrassed to say I don't remember his name... something like Dismo or something. :) He looks exactly like my kitty at home, and makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. 

I have already talked to my family and taken a two hour nap, which I so involuntarily woke up from. I think that we are going to get something to eat for lunch soon... I will try and add pictures in the next couple days! 

¡Mucho Amor de Argentina!

Change of Plan...

Surprise!! I'm still in the States! 

After many phone calls and complications, I had the unfortunate truth that to receive my visa I have to fly to Houston! woohoo. I found this out sometime last week before my original departure date of August 14. 

So... tonight I will be in Albuquerque spending the night; tomorrow morning I will leave for a "one day trip" to Houston. All they want from me, at the Consulate General of Argentina, is a thirty minute interview for who knows what. 

After receiving my visa and flying back to New Mexico with it, a flight will try to be booked for either Thursday or Friday flying all the way to Buenos Aires.  

On some other news, I officially started to pack yesterday. Before this, I had been having some worrying thoughts about how I would be able to fit everything into two suit cases only. But just from what I did yesterday, things are looking good. Also, school at Taos High started today and I can't think enough how good it feels to not be sitting in those classrooms. 

I think I'm just about the last exchange student still in New Mexico... But hopefully not for long!

I thought I should keep everybody updated, especially those people who see me in town and look extremely confused about it. 

Until Argentina...

Pop trivia! Today is a holiday in Argentina (as to why I'm not in Houston today). It is the Anniversary of the death of General Jose de San Martin.