This morning I woke up around 8am and got ready to meet with my program. My room mate arrived this morning at 3am, she’s from Colorado. We took a taxi with our mom, and it was about a 35 minute taxi ride to the CEA global campus…which seems pretty far. When we got to campus we had orientation with everyone and learned a little about BA (I payed most attention to the safety/pick pocketing part of it, haha) and then we walked to lunch at an Italian restaurant. I had the grilled chicken, which was sort of stuffed with carrots and hard-boiled eggs…it was interesting, and on the side were little fried potato balls. They also served us something called “Cidara” to drink.
After lunch we got on a bus and toured around Buenos Aires. I can’t even tell you what we saw, it was so overwhelming. We toured around the Recoleta and the Palermo areas, which are super nice. Then we got to get off the bus in La Boca, which is where those really colorful houses in pictures of Argentina are. It was such a cool area!! Whenever we got off it immediately reminded my of a themed-area at six flags, and then another student said the exact same thing!! It felt like we were in an amusement park! But it was so pretty. There was art everywhere and a tango dancer and super colorful buildings. We learned that they were built from scrap metal that the big cargo ships used to use in order to balance themselves out back in the day, and they were also painted with leftover paint from the boats which makes for a very colorful neighborhood. When we got back on the bus we passed the poorest neighborhood of BA, where people are living in unimaginable conditions, and we also saw the nicest neighborhoods in BA where apartments cost a ridiculous amount of money. We passed by the beautiful capital, a lot of embassys, and we passed by a huge park that’s comparable to Central Park.
Our mom didn’t really tell us how to get home…I guess she expected us to take a taxi…but since that took so long and costs about $10, my room mate and I decided to try the Subte (subway). We walked to this statue that’s pretty much a replica of the Washington Monument, and then took the subway all the way to our neighborhood. It seemed pretty easy, and way more interesting than a taxi! A girl on the subte asked us where we were from and told us she loved our accent and speaking english, and also told us to be very careful with watching our purses. Pick pocketing is a big deal here!
Dinner was really good tonight. We ate pizza and talked a lot. Argentinians love to sit and talk for forever after meals. This time I could actually semi-understand them! I think I’m getting used to the accent. I gave my host family their gift, which was a gift-bag that had the Texas flag on it, filled with Texas goodies and tissue paper with the Texas flag printed all over it as well. My mom liked the paper so much that after she took it out, she folded it back up to keep, haha. In the bag was a Texas cook book, and Dallas Cowboys and Texas A&M koozies. She took them out and just kind of stared, then asked me what they were. My room mate and I explained to her and the kids that they are koozies – to keep your soda cold and your hand warm. They reacted with “ooohs” and “awwwws” in complete fascination…they had never seen them before!! Apparently they don’t have koozies in Argentina, and they were sooo excited!! The girls went a got a can of beer, and tried the koozies on them. The beers are a little fatter here so the koozies fit tightly, but they still fit! They even tried them on a bottle of wine – so classy. I’ve never seen someone be so excited over something so small and ordinary as a koozie!! I explained that they’re very popular in the US, especially at colleges and with fraternities. I also gave them Texas playing cards, a Texas magnet, and postcards that said “Howdy from Texas” and “Don’t mess with Texas,” so I was able to explain to them the significance of howdy and the don’t mess with Texas saying. The girls loved the word howdy, and kept repeating it over and over.
