To be quite honest, I'm not really looking forward to writing this today since I have a few days to catch up on, but here goes...
Tuesday we started off with a tour of the city with our guide Juliana. It was fun, but waaay to fast! Most of it was from inside the van so we will definitely have to go back to pretty much every place we saw. It was sort of an overview of the days to come.
(Ps. It feels like I'm cheating to be thinking/writing in English write now since 90% of the time we're speaking Spanish, even in our house and amongst ourselves.)
That night we had dinner at Sanjuanina, a local hole in the wall that was fantastic. Our waiter was very friendly and the food was great. I shared empanadas con pollo y verduras (vegetables) and sweet tamales with Kylie accompanied with a pitcher of Sangria and followed by a dessert. We've found that ordering is quite an adventure because a lot of the menus are a mixture of regional Spanish, Italian, and English so you're never really quite sure of what your going to get. Nevertheless, it was delicious and we felt right at home so we might end up being regulars there. A new trend we've started is to order dessert at pretty much every place we eat. So while the rest of the world has New Year's resolutions fresh in their mind, we're throwing them out the window! But hey, we walk everywhere right?
On our way home, there were a couple cute boys sitting on the steps to our apartment so Kylie, Alyssa, and I decided to have a drink at the reggae bar across the street. It was interesting because they spoke so fast we couldn't understand their Spanish, but we REALLY didn't want to speak English so the conversation was a mixture of both. When it came to ordering drinks, wait! What kind of alcohol do they even have here? Crap, now we look stupid in front of these guys. We tried an Argentine liquor Fernet (drank with Coke). I guess it was sort of like a spicy (think cinnamon) vodka? I don't know, the other girls have completely different explanations of it, but either way, it wasn't our favorite.
Another fun part of the night was meeting Aleca (a nickname for Alexa) who was 18 and insisted she wasn't drunk but was DEFINITELY drunk. She insisted on speaking English and shed new light on the lyrics of "Come Together" by the Beatles. Actually, pretty much all of her conversation was sexual, something we're coming to find out is normal here. I just smile and laugh because I never know how to respond. I'm by no means sheltered, but what the heck do you say back to stuff like that?!
A very tired trio, we decided to return home around 2:30 am after being called grandmas by everyone at our table. At least we got some takeaway lessons. "Hecha la ley, hecha la trampa." Literally, it translates "For laws that are made, so are trap doors." It means that there are always exceptions. This was in response to having boys back home. Apparently, it's impossible to think their going to remember us when we get back and they're definitely not going to be faithful. Hecha la ley, hecha la trampa.
Wednesday
I headed out early in the morning by myself to learn my neighborhood and get some things done before class. Feeling much more comfortable solo than in a big group, I successfully found a bookstore for school supplies, went to the bank, bought minutes for my cell phone, and even had breakfast! It's gonna be a good day.
Our first day of school. YAAAYYY!! No. The day before, Juliana showed us the bus stop and told us where to get off for school. Sounds simple, right? Wrong. It was POURING down rain and half the road were rivers, but spirits still up, we walked to the bus stop. A couple of them passed us before we figured out you have to hail busses like cabs. THEN, we couldn't see the stops so we got off somewhere we thought was close. We trudged what was actually 10 blocks through the rain as fast as we could and still ended up being late to class.
Spanish was good! Our teacher is really sweet, and afterwards I felt confident that my Spanish was pretty good.
Going home turned out to be another adventure. It turns out you don't take the same bus home as you do on your way somewhere. Does this seem logical? Not at all. And of course, we didn't figure it out until walking a couple miles through the hood. Prostitutes on the corner in broad daylight and shady people everywhere. The group couldn't decide what to do so I got frustrated and had the bright idea to just walk by myself thinking it'd be quicker. I have some street smarts; I could figure it out! No. I ended up taking a taxi after the pit in my stomach told me I was about to be abducted. Don't worry family, no one approached me, and it only took a couple blocks to realize I was being dumb.
For the next adventure of the night: grocery shopping. Walking to what we thought was the closest grocery store, we thought we'd just scan the aisles and find what we wanted. Wrong again. Nothing looked familiar, and we'd never heard of half the food in there. Ok, the store's about to close...we'll just get the staples for now and come back later for the rest. Milk...milk...up and down the aisles...where the heck is the milk? Oh, of course! It's in a bag on the bottom shelf of the yogurt aisle! Milk in a bag? Alright, how about eggs? Well duh, they're not refrigerated. Cheese only comes in blocks of mysterious types. I consider myself somewhat of a cheese afficionado but still decided to play it safe with good ole mozzarella. Waiting in line to check out, I wonder if I even have enough to make dinner which was the plan in the first place.
Finally making it home, we ended up having a wonderful dinner. Another girl of the group, Anna, came over since her internet was broken, and we exchanged girl talk getting to know each other over pasta con espinaca, mozzarella, y tomates. Not too shabby.
After such a crazy day, we DEFINITELY needed a drink. Luckily, we have the blogs from students who have gone before us to learn from and picked out a bar in a different neighborhood that we wanted to explore, Palermo. Our cab driver was a hilarious old man probably in his 80s and told us to go to the club next door instead, Kika. Not really in the mood to get crazy, we started at Congo, the bar we'd chosen from home. We started talking to some guys there who were way too old, but everyone was friendly and we needed to practice our Spanish. After acquiring a group of 11 (a soccer team!) we finished our drinks (fondo blanco aka chug it) headed to Kika VIP style. It was a blast! We danced our butts off on one side which played reggaeton and a mix of American songs and then went to another room which played all techno. It was a rave; sunglasses and strobelights galore. By the time we went to bed, the sun was already up. Finally! We're beginning to fit in.
Thursday
It's a beautiful sunny day of 80 degrees and we think we have the bus thing figured out, so all is well. Until they force us to get off the bus at the same place we did yesterday. It's the last stop for that bus. Crap! Now what are we supposed to do? Luckily, most of the portenos (people from Buenos Aires) are very friendly so after asking around, we figured out that we have to change busses in the middle of the route. Maybe today we'll actually get it right on the first try. Class went well and we met with our advisor, Carolina, for an orientation afterwards. She gave us a lot of good places to go and things to see for our upcoming weekend as well as let us try mate (mah-tay), the popular local drink. It's a lot like tea, but the leaves aren't in a bag and it's stronger in flavor and caffeine. I'll put pictures up soon. Many times, people drink it in a circle and pass it around. Carolina told us that when someone takes too long, there's a joke: Hey, it's not a microphone!! : )
Having gained some confidence in finding our way around, we took the subte (subterraneo=subway) to Palermo, had a merienda (snack), and successfully found our way home for a family night in with card games and wine. It was the best day so far.
Today is another sunny beautiful day and the beginning of our first weekend. Wish me luck!
Hasta luego,
Amelia
"Gratitude is an action."
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