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!