a woman with a young baby. I thought it might be kind of a rough trip with a screaming baby next to me, but it turned out that he slept almost the whole time and barely cried. They served us dinner then breakfast, and I tried sleeping but I don’t think I got much rest. Planes are so uncomfortable – especially for tall people. When we were sitting on the runway about to take off, a guy behind me and I started talking; he is studying abroad from Southwestern law school. We talked for a while, and it turned out that he grew up in Argentina until he moved to the US when he was 13, so he was able to give me some tips.
At the end of the plane ride when we were about to land a fight almost broke out. This guy to the right and up a couple rows from me called over the stewardess, as
ked if she spoke Spanish, and then went on and on complaining about how the very nice guy behind him pushed his seat whenever he leaned back in it. He wanted to get a security guard to punish him, and the stewardess didn’t really know what to say and patted the nice guy on the back (out of sympathy) as she walked away. The weird thing was that the guy complaining hadn’t even complained to the guy behind him at all during the entire flight…he just called over the stewardess out of the blue. I felt so bad for the guy sitting behind him, who was literally double the other guy’s size. When we were getting off the plane, the guy was still yelling at him and held up the entire left aisle from getting off (my side)…it was absolutely ridiculous. The lady who was sitting next to me was yelling at them to let her pass through because she had her baby with her, but they wouldn’t listen and wouldn’t move; the complaining-guy was taking up the whole exit of the plane. After we finally got off and got through customs, the guy had managed to get the police to talk to the seat-pusher…but I’m pretty sure the police probably thought the guy was crazy.
I easily got through customs and then found the lady holding the CEA sign and calling my name. Kylie (who was in my group for my study abroad in Costa last summer) was with her, so it was nice to see a familiar face. I met some other CEA students and we all sat around and talked for a while until two other
group members joined us, and then we left on our bus to go to the CEA Global Campus to meet our families. We passed some very poor neighborhoods—pretty much slums—and then entered the main part of Buenos Aires. BA is so pretty—so European and Paris-like.
When we were walking inside the CEA campus, there were a bunch of students standing at the entrance talking and staring at us, like we were animals in a zoo. They were really nice though, and greeted us as we walked by (unlike the students in Costa Rica). I got connected to wifi at the campus, checked facebook for a couple minutes, and text my parents that I arrived here safely.
My “mom” was the first host family there, and we hailed a cab to our neighborhood. It was about a 20 minute or more ride with a lot of traffic, and it cost 40 pesos or about $10, which was cheap for the ride I’d say. We made conversation the whole way there in Spanish, and she kept saying my Spanish is very good, which she also said was a good thing because she doesn’t know English at all. It seems like she’s traveled a lot though; she’s even been to New York. We arrived in my neighborhood, which isn’t known as one of the cutest neighborhoods in BA but I have not seen one barbed wire-wrapped house yet, so I’m happy (referring to Costa Rica). He house is very cute and she said to make myself at home. While talking to her, I was very surprised how much I could actually understand even though their accent is extremely different. It’s sooo pretty though to listen to—it’s very Italian and they enunciate the ends of words. I picked my room since I am the first student in town so far, and then her kids started to show up. She has 4 kids—3 girls and 1 boy. The first girl I met is 16 and still in high school, and I found out you have to be 17 to legally drive in Argentina. The second kid I met is around my age I think, and he’s studying Geology. The third kid I met is around the same age, and she’s studying sociology. We ate a meal…which I’d say was considered lunch…and made conversation. They all said how good my Spanish is, even though I’d disagree because I feel very out of practice. I’m happy to know that it’s good right now and will only get better. The mom heated up some food for all of us…some kind of meat and mashed pumpkin (and I found out they don’t celebrate Halloween). Then she served me some soup, which was a type of oatmeal s
oup with a little tiny bit of vegetables in it. It’s pretty chili here but not too bad. I think I brought the right kind of clothes with me, and I found out that it’s fall right now—winter doesn’t officially start until June 29. I’m loving this weather—fall is my favorite!!
I found out I’ll be taking the bus to school, about 15 minutes. I’m a little nervous about what neighborhood we’re in because it’s not really too popular for shopping and site-seeing, so I’ll have to use public transportation a lot to meet up with people, which is just time consuming, and I’ll probably have to buy a local cell phone with pre-paid minutes. I did find out though that it’s safe to use the bus by myself—her kids take it to school all the time. I wonder what we’ll so the rest of the day. It’s 4:10pm but feels like 10pm to me. PS the water in the toilets apparently doesn’t spin the opposite way when you’re on the other side of the equator—how disappointing!
The rest of the day we just kind of sat around. I tried watching some Spanish TV with one of the daughters, but I got tired and went to sleep for a couple hours before dinner. We had dinner at 8pm; I think my family eats pretty early. I had pasta with red sauce and it was really, really good. Then for dessert I ate something I don’t know they name of. It was sweet and kind of rubbery (almost like soft, dried fruit) and topped with really good cheese (like some kind of hard, cold, white cheese) – they describe it as “agridulce” aka “bittersweet.” I’ve been trying to listen to my family talk to each other, but the accent is SO incredibly different here! I can barely understand them when th
ey talk to each other…only if they speak slowly to me. It’s like a totally different language (other than Spanish)! I kind of feel like I’m in Italy, because of the accen
t haha. Hopefully I’ll catch on fast! Oh, and I found out they have wifi at my house!! Definitely makes me extreeemely happy!!New words:
-“Medias” means socks in Argentina (so does “calcetines,” but medias is more popular)
-“Colectivo” means bus…so glad I don’t have to say “autobus” here because I always struggle with that pronunciation haha.
