Looking forward

Every day I wake up and am super excited for whatever the day will bring. It seems like just when I think things here cannot get any better, they do!

I've settled in and have a hit list of places that I visit every week. Fruit salads at Madeleine's, Heinekens at Casa Bar, ham and cheese empanadas at Gourmet, pitchers at El Alamo, coffee at Piacere, Sunday afternoons on the grass at Recoleta, laps at Floralis Generica, Caesar salads at Amelia's, white girl dance moves in Plaza Serrano, 2 OJ's at the Ollero station kiosko every morning and on and on!

School is going well. I like my classes, well, I actually loathe tango on Tuesdays. Tuesday is theory day, Thursday is dance day. Tango theory is incredibly boring and it doesn't help that I have a hard time understanding the teacher. And the view from the classroom is amazing so it takes all I have just to face the front.

I really like my cine latinoamericano class. We watch a variety of movies then have discussions. It'd be nice if I could get over my timidness, but it's coming along. Also in this class there is an unbelievable span of Spanish abilities. There are a couple of kids who never bothered to learn the Spanish alphabet or what sound an 'n' with a tilde makes. Then there are 3 Mexicanas who should be taking classes with Argentines but passed on that option. It's frustrating at times for those of us who fall in the middle but at least I know that '-cion' is pronounced see-own and not shun!

Arte argentino is a little snoozy, but I am actually learning a lot and it's easy to apply since this city is covered in statues and neat architecture. It's a lecture class but we have projects every few weeks that send us all over town researching museums and works of art. Not bad!

And, believe it or not, my grammatica class is enjoyable. It's a little daunting at times, but I always leave feeling like my brain has turned to jell-o from thinking so hard! And it's an interesting atmosphere. The class consists of 3 Americans, 3 Germans, 2 Italians and 1 French girl. So, we have to speak Spanish! Even though (of course)the Europeans speak English as well, some of them go deer-in-headlights if you throw in English. It's like you can see their wheels processing 3 languages at once.


Yesterday I bought my ticket for the Argentina v. Spain match. I'm so excited for this game I can hardly stand it! That's River Plate Stadium and my beautiful city in the photo! Not only have I never been to a pro or even semi-pro futbol match, but my first match is between the best teams in the world. Messi, Mascherano and Tevez are on the Argentina line-up and I'm hoping Villa will be playing for Spain. Viva Argentinaaaa! I have 8 days to learn the national anthem and some futbol chants. I've already chosen my outfit and will be doing extra homework all week so I can skip class that day! Libertad, libertad, libertad!

I've also been running since I arrived. I haven't done it consistently until this week, but now I have a running partner and tomorrow we're registering for the Belgrano 4K! I'm super excited for this too! Running here is so much fun. Not only is the scenery completely different, but there are hundreds of parks and paths that cut through the city and there are people running from the crack of dawn until dinner time (10 p.m.!). And in this futbol country, everyone runs. Marathons, ultra marathons, mini marathons, half marathons, 10 k's, 4 k's, 13 k's...everyone runs!


I was awarded a grant from Auburn this week and I made money at my family's annual yardsale. This extra money makes it possible for me to start planning a trip! I'm looking into Iguazu Falls, Mendoza and Cordoba. Iguazu Falls looks amazing but it's a 20+ hour bus ride and I'm not sure who I would go with. Mendoza also sounds really nice but it's a long bus ride and I think I would end up spending more than I should. Cordoba would be cool because it's the educational center of Argentina and the second largest city. I also potentially have a free place to stay there but it's another big city and my lungs need fresh air!

Okay, time for homework. Reading 15 pages of my cine book is going to take hours! I'd read it on the subte but then I wouldn't be able to people watch!

Besitos y abrazitos!

Estoy enamorada

Welcome to my first blog post from a coffee shop. < Insert jokes and namecalling here. > But it's perfect. I have an hour to kill before class, I'm situated in the corner with my medialunas, pasta frola bites, shot of water (no, really, they serve shots of water w/ coffee)and a bowl of coffee. Yes, a bowl of coffee.

This past weekend was the first time I really felt like I was HERE. Totally, all the way here. Cabeza, cuerpo, corazon. Friday morning the group went to the immigration office. And, of course, immigration offices are hell no matter where you are. I ended up at the window of the guy who was feeling particularly- to put it vaguely- snarky. With such a large group (15 or so) it was obvious that the Americans had entered the building. So, this guy decides to speak Spanglish to me. But, I head into every social situation with the mindset that I don't know a damn word of English so his Spanglish threw me for a loop and from there he branded me as an idiot and finished the process like we were playing Pictionary. For you Spanish speakers out there, he told me 'toma un seat.' But I was not expecting 'seat' so I just looked at him confused trying to figure out what I was supposed to be taking. So he stood up, rolled his eyes, sat down in his chair and said 'A seat! Me entiendes now?' Jesus. Pick a language. But whatever, he's still working his miserable job in public administration and I am now an official resident de la Republica de Argentina!

Friday night, I went to a cookout with some new Argentine friends. It was a lot of fun to be in that setting with those people. Just me, just them, just having fun and me beaming in my newfound niche.

Saturday I slept in then met my girlfriends for a coffee date. Friday tends to be our big night out so we're beginning to find ourselves at the same cafe, at the same table every Saturday afternoon catching up. Even though I see Kelsie and Katherine nearly every day, so many new and funny things happen every day that 6 hours apart makes for an hour of entertainment over coffee and medialunas. I look forward to Saturday coffee dates with these girls as much as I look forward to getting dressed up and dancing on the weekends.

Saturday night we went to our friend's apartment near Palermo to have a few beers and see where we the night took us. What was going to be beers, some cereal and a cab ride to our favorite little bar turned into a three course meal and us all falling asleep watching 'Life: Jungles'.

Sunday I met with Kelsie for coffee, worked on our project for a bit, hit up the park for a nice run, enjoyed pizza with my family and met Katherine to finish our project. My family and I eat pizza from del Pilar every Sunday night. I don't want to think about life without del Pilar pizza. So good. So, so, so good. And Francisco (the 5 month old- and only- grandbaby) was there too. I think Luz, her husband, Fran and Diego spent all day with Lili celebrating 'dia del nino' (day of the baby)- one of many Argentine holidays.

I love going for runs here. The air pollution here is horrific despite the city's name. But I get to run in El Parque de las Naciones Unidades (United Nations Park). There's a large track around the perimeter and it's always filled with people kicking soccer balls, making out- very, very passionately, drinking yerba mate and making funny pictures with the Floralis Generica.

This is the park...

http://www.intertechargentina.com.ar/html/images/floralis2.jpg

Esta semana pasada, enamoraba con vida otra vez. Entonces, la sola cosa que quiero decir es que mi vida aca es increible. Despertaba cada dia con los sentimientos que no quiero salir nunca. Esto ciudad es mi sueno, mi corazon y no hay bastante horas en el dia para disfrutarla.