One Week In...

I've offically been in Buenos Aires for one week, and as you might imagine, plenty has happened.

Last Friday night Cousin Jody's fabulous Argentine friend Maria and her husband, Agustin, picked me up in their car (a huge luxury!) and brought me to a birthday party. Que perfecto, as it was also my birthday! And so I spent my 25th with some truly lovely people. Maria (who I had never met) greeted me with a birthday gift of two black bracelets that perfectly matched my outfit! At the party, everyone went out of their way to speak English and include me in the conversation. (Now that I am officially a student of Spanish, I'm going to have to break my Argentine friends of the English-speaking habit, but that 2nd night it was so comforting to actually be able to talk to people!) The party's official birthday girl re-lit the candles after she blew them out and moved the cake in front of me. The whole party sang Happy Birthday again in English! It was a bit embarrassing, but I sincerely appreciated the gesture.

During the days on Friday, Saturday and Sunday I did a lot more wandering around and finally discovered the downtown part of my neighborhood, San Telmo! When you're in the right part, it's quite charming! Sunday I met up with a friend from Atlanta and went to see There Will Be Blood at a swanky movie theater, and then out for beers and empanadas at a self-serve bar. How nice to see a familiar face! Incidentally, I had already seen the movie once and I actually liked it better the second time.

Tuesday morning I began Spanish classes! I go every weekday for four hours a day. My 22-year-old profesora, Florencia, is fabulous! I'm learning a lot from her. AND she found me my first English student, a business man named Leandro whom I will meet for the first time tomorrow. YAY for income!

Speaking of income... the Argentine peso is equivalent to about 3.1 dollars, which is awesome if you have dollars to spend! This is much less awesome if you are earning pesos, however.

After class on Tuesday, I literally spent 4 hours searching for a water bottle. When one has zero responsibilities, one can spend 4 hours on such an endeavor. I think I entered at least 12 sporting goods stores. Apparently, people in Argentina do not feel the need to hydrate when playing sports. The merchandise in these sporting goods stores would also indicate that sports are more of a fashion than a practice. All the clothes are quite adorable, but the actual equipment is slim to none. Anyways, I have resigned myself to buying bottles of water each time I need one. Ah well.

Now a bit about the food... suprisingly, it's not very good. Except the beef. The beef is FABULOUS. I haven't eaten meat in 1.5 years, but I decided that it would be a crime to come to Argentina and never try the beef. I ate a steak sandwich at the birthday party, and MAN it's really better than what y'all got, lemme tell ya. But aside from the beef, I would characterize the food here as bland and repetitive. Ooh, but the sweets are quite good too. Sweets and beef. But the cheese is expensive and MALO. And you all know how seriously I take my cheese. The best I've found are those little Laughing Cow type things in the foil. And there is no such thing as peanut butter! I am considering making my own peanut butter and starting a business here. I'm thinking that if I could get the word out to these poor, deprived peanut butterless people, I could make a mint.

Now a bit about Casa Peru (my house)... Me gusta! I live with 2 Portenos ("port people" or natives of Buenos Aires), a gal from France, a woman from Germany, a dude from Germany, a British kid, a guy from Belgium, and we just said goodbye to our roomie from Switzerland. I am the only one from the US. Incidentally, if you are traveling elsewhere in the Americas, don't call yourself an American when differentiating yourself from the people of that country. They will quickly point out that they are American too! Anyway, I've been hanging out a lot with a few of the people from the house and I really like them. Everyone's pretty transient though, so most will probably leave soon, but new people will come. I have yet to decide how long I will stay here.

Now a bit about the public transportation... The bus system is confusing as $@&*! AYE! Ok, you're probably now thinking that this reaction has to do with the fact that I'm probably one of the top 10 most inept human beings on the planet when it comes to that sort of thing, but I think just system is really absurd! People keep trying to explain it to me, and I'm still baffled. All the HUNDREDS of buses are run by different companies, and the only way to figure out where they go is to unlock the code of a magic book called The Guia T. Every time I ask someone how to get somewhere, they say, "Oh, don't you have a Guia T?" Well, yes of course I do, and not only that but I study my Guia T religiously. I pray to it for enlightenment every morning and every night. I've flipped through its many pages to the point of paper cuts- but the damn thing is like a freaking treasure map to me!! You have to basically guess where the buses are going to go based upon a complicated string of street names. You have to flip the pages back and forth between tiny pieces of maps, and put the pieces together yourself! In addition to the buses, there is a subway which is only SLIGHTLY less baffling. The other day I took the Subte (subway) somewhere by myself! I was so proud, as you might imagine. But then I told my British friend about my route and he looked at me crookedly and asked why in the world I would go so far out of my way?? You know what, I didn't even care. I made it out and back home all by myself!

I conclude this blog with a section I will, from here on out, call What I Think I've Learned About Buenos Aires...

WHAT I THINK I'VE LEARNED ABOUT BUENOS AIRES (INSTALLMENT #1):

- Time doesn't much matter to Portenos. If someone says they'll call you at 7, you have a 40% chance of hearing from them by 9 or 10. And a 60% chance that you will hear from them next week.
- Portenos don't care if they are in your way. People are constantly just stopping and standing in the middle of foot traffic, and they don't move. I guess they just expect you to shove past them, because they don't seem ruffled when everyone does just that.
- (Young) people still listen to Rod Stewart in this country!