I've arrived!

I have now been in Buenos Aires for approximately 10 hours and plenty has happened already, so I'm gonna get started with this whole blog thing.
I took a cab from the airport to my new home at Casa Peru in the barrio of San Telmo. The cab dropped me and my big bags on the curb in front of a giant wooden door and took off. The doorbell is so high that I had to stand on my tiptoes on the door's molding to reach it. After 3-5 minutes of ringing and knocking, a young man opened the door and looked confusedly at the sweaty, glassy-eyed girl before him. It turns out that they all thought "Danielle" was going to be a boy. Belgian Antonio helped me upstairs with my bags, gave me a cursory tour of the house, showed me my room, and left me to my own devices. Those of you who know my infamous sense of direction will appreciate the day that would follow. I had a list of things to accomplish, but decided I had to limit myself to one street so that I wouldn't get completely lost on day 1. When I discovered that not much could be accomplished on just that strip, I decided to add 2 more streets to my repertoire. Keeping a blue sign and a grocery store as the marker of my street corner, I wandered in circles for hours. Here is where I must tell you how utterly gracious and helpful the Argentinian people have been. A nice young man helped me purchase a cell phone. I was in and out of that store 3 times before I had everything I needed. Then it turned out he sold only the phone device itself, but not the phone minutes (??). I finally found a place that sold the minutes, and the girl there was the first English speaker I met all day. She spent quite some time with me loading up my phone and finding me an international calling card. It wasn't until at least an hour later that I realized I never paid her for any of this. So I stumbled around the block a few more times before locating her store again, ran up to the counter and apologized profusely for the oversight. She just smiled and said, "Oh, no problem." So apparently in Argentina it's no problem to use now and pay later.
I realize this blog is getting pretty long already, but I have to honor two more fabulous characters from the story of my day.
In my search for a towel and face soap, I found myself in a tiny little store that apparently sells used clothing and some beauty products. The woman behind the counter spoke very little English, and it took about 10 minutes and a few diagrams to communicate "towel". (She got face soap pretty fast.) During the process of arriving at "towel," my new friend Cristina learned that I am looking for Spanish classes. As it turns out, her daughter is a Spanish teacher. She called her daughter right then and there and we set up an appointment for me to come to her language school. Cristina then had her daughter translate directions to what is apparently the only store in the area that sells towels. Cristina explained every detail of the directions, including "turn left when you enter the store..." Now I have my towel, and when I finish this blog, I will get clean again!
Kind person number three will be known as "Man With Dog." I stopped Man With Dog to ask him for directions, but the street name I gave caused him to look askew. Apparently it was VERY far away. So he asked me what I was trying to do, and I explained that I needed a converter for my laptop. He said, "Well I think I saw a computer store a little ways from here the other day... follow me." So Man With Dog walked me about 10 minutes out of his way in search of this computer store. He spoke English well and was able to converse with the computer store attendants and express my needs. As it turned out, I had none. I didn't even need a converter for my computer because it's universal. Man With Dog made sure I got going back in the right direction, wished me well and went on his way.
This blog is dedicated to the kindness of Phone Card Lady, Cristina, and Man With Dog!
More soon...