Monday started out with our orientation to our second university, La Universidad de San Andres. All of the BC kids have to take a mandatory class there called "History and Culture of Argentina" throughout the semester, but from what we can tell it's easy, fun, and had a bunch of free field trips. It's also going to count for my cultural diversity core requirement and a history elective, so needless to say I'm pretty happy with it. The orientation was essentially a what-to-do-when-in-Argentina class (never tip the cab drivers, for instance, and in restaurants a 15% tip is only for excellent service- 10% is pretty standard) which we had already figured out by that point anyway.
Afterwards, we stopped at CBC Burritos for lunch, which had been recommended to us by a friend but doesn't really compare with Chipotle. Walked a few blocks in that rain to get to UCA for our Spanish class and took the bus home after to watch an Arsenal soccer game on TV (Ben's favorite soccer team- he's slowly turning us all into fans) and eat dinner. I don't remember if we did anything after dinner or not, but clearly it wasn't that exciting if we did.
On Tuesday, the boys and I met up with Lauren for lunch before class and ended up at this restaurant near our house that looked good but was actually pretty terrible. Nobody liked the food and the waiter clearly did not like us, so we got out of there as fast as we could. Joe had to go to the embassy that morning to file a petition to get his backpack back (yes, that mess is STILL going on- the police have effectively stolen his bag and refuse to give it back) and Steve decided to go with him. The rest of us went to class and got ice cream on our break, then went home for dinner and studying.
The next day we had the written portion of our final exam for our Spanish class, which started at 9am but didn't take nearly as long as expected. A bunch of us went out to lunch with Catherine, one of our new friends from class, at a nearby cafe and got ice cream afterwards. We headed back to school for 1:15 for our next field trip, this time to the River Tigre. The group split in half, and my half went down to the docks, where we were paired off and given two-person kayaks. Lis and I had one with a broken rudder, which was interesting, but for the most part we were able to keep up with the group. We kayaked down the river for about an hour, and enjoyed the peace and quiet. The river was beautiful and cool and didn't have any bugs, despite what we had been told, and it ended up being really fun. We landed at a small beach with a bar and volleyball net, where the other half of the group had been taken by boat, and got to hang out on the beach for a while. I went swimming, of course, with a couple other kids, but most of the group played volleyball on the beach, drank, and laid out in the sun. After a few hours, the other half of the group took our kayaks to make the return trip, while my group took the boat back. We headed back to school and made it home just in time for dinner. Again, not sure what we did after dinner. See above.
On Thursday, Joe had yet another appointment with the embassy and Silvana, but he met up with Ben and Steve and I at Abril, where the waiters recognize us now and save us a table. It was unbelievably hot- 101 degrees, as we found out later, plus humidity and minus any sort of breeze. We went to class expecting to take the speaking part of our final, and we waited in the classroom with all of the other kids while the professors took us out in groups of three for the exam. While we were waiting, Joe felt sick, so I walked with him to the cafe at the end of the building to get him some water. After about 20 minutes, it became pretty clear that something was wrong, because he was disoriented and couldn't really walk on his own, and had a bad headache as well. I called Steve, who rescheduled our final for the next day, and we brought Joe home. At one point we had decided to take him to the hospital, but after a few more minutes, some medicine, air conditioning, water, and gatorade, he finally fell asleep. Silvana came out to the house to check on him (I swear, she is earning her paycheck- she said she's never had so many things go wrong with one of her groups before, but I think she loves us in spite of everything) and recommended that even if he felt better, he should go get bloodwork done the next day just in case. He managed to eat dinner with us and stayed in that night, and thankfully is feeling a lot better now.
That night, the rest of us went to an Irish bar called "Shamrock" to hang out for a bit, and our friend Memo from class found us there and took us to a boliche called "Lost", which apparently has hip-hop night every Thursday. We had a blast- it was definitely my favorite of all the clubs I've been to so far. By the end of the night, though, we looked like we had gone swimming because we were so covered in sweat. Part of it was definitely the 101 degree weather, but apparently the club also just has a reputation for being really hot in general. We had so much fun that Thursday nights at Lost might become a tradition. Got back really late, showered even though we were exhausted because we smelled THAT bad, and finally collapsed into bed.
PS: Feedback on the entries- too long? too short? what do you want to hear about? Comments are always appreciated.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Well, I'm less than a week behind now. I'll catch up eventually.
Whoever told me that living with three boys would be SO much easier than living with girls was wrong. All three of them take longer to get ready in the morning than I do. Thursday, because of their tendency to change their outfits a million times (for Amanda- I will never make fun of you for doing that again- they put you to shame), we were running really late and ended up sitting down to lunch at the time when we should have been at school for one of our excursions. The café we went to, Abril, was really good, and we decided to go back when we have more than approximately thirty seconds to eat our food. We got to school just in time to catch the bus for the excursion.
The trip wasn’t nearly as exciting as we had hoped, mostly because after the hour-long bus ride everyone was hot and tired and bored. We went to a science museum which had some cool exhibits but wasn’t all that exciting, and then after another hour bus ride we went to a gorgeous cathedral. We took the tour and got to go up into the tower where you could see the entire city of La Plata, and after another long bus ride we went back to school. The boys and I walked home for dinner, and then we split up for the night. I stayed in but Joe went and hung out with one of the friends he’s made here, and Ben and Stephen went to a jazz café with a couple of other kids for a few hours.
On Friday we went to class and did a secret-santa type gift exchange in honor of Valentine’s Day. There were some interesting presents, ranging from shoes to jewelry to a pack of cigarettes. Our teacher explained that while Argentines don’t generally celebrate Valentine’s Day, it’s becoming more popular because the people here consider American culture to be really cool and try to emulate it. After class and dinner and such, we went to a party that was being hosted for all of the international students at a local bar/dance club. I spent the entire time on the dance floor as is typical for me, and we considered going to a boliche afterwards but decided against it.
On Saturday I woke up early to do laundry (we are allowed to do it free of charge, btw- after Patricia dropped the $50-per-load bomb on us, we called Silvana and she saved us yet again. We don’t know what she said to Patricia but she got us free laundry, so whatever it was, it was effective. Silvana is basically my hero, if you haven’t figured that out yet). Ben and Steve and I went back to the café Abril again for lunch, and then went to one of the local parks and hung out there enjoying the 85 degree weather and watching lots of shirtless boys play soccer. After we went home, I found an email in my inbox from the boys, telling me and the other girls that we were to meet at our house at ten o’clock. The boys banned me from the kitchen all day and went on a bunch of mysterious errands, and when all the girls showed up at ten o’clock they finally told us what was going on:
In honor of Valentine’s Day, they had set up our dining room with place settings for each of us, with a rose, chocolates, and a valentine for each of the girls. They also got a few bottles of wine and crackers and cheese, and then each of us had to read our valentine and find out who it was from. Joe, Ben, and Steve had each sent two, and then we discovered that our roses were color coded to show whoever our “date” was. Lauren and I were Steve’s dates, Robin and Emily were with Ben, and Ann and Lis were with Joe. Then each of them took us to a different restaurant for dinner (Steve took Lauren and I to El Cabildo, which was delicious). After dinner, the whole group met up again at our house to hang out. From there, almost everyone went home, but Ben, Steve, Emily, and I went to a boliche around 4:30, and didn’t come home until 7am, when we collapsed and went to sleep. Basically the best Valentine’s Day I could ask for, considering that my boyfriend is currently on another continent (sorry hon). I’ve concluded that I have the best roommates ever and I can forgive them for being slow in the mornings.
Sunday was pretty uneventful since we obviously slept most of the day, but we went to McDonald’s for a late lunch (not worth it, by the way. McDonald’s here is terrible, and the girl behind the counter would not let me have a large fry but insisted that I have a medium.) Afterwards we met up with a bunch of the girls and went to one of the artisan fairs in San Telmo to wander around for a while. Steve and Ben and I hung out at one of the plazas near our house with our friend Kela until dinnertime, and after dinner we did homework and other random things until bed.
End week 2.
The trip wasn’t nearly as exciting as we had hoped, mostly because after the hour-long bus ride everyone was hot and tired and bored. We went to a science museum which had some cool exhibits but wasn’t all that exciting, and then after another hour bus ride we went to a gorgeous cathedral. We took the tour and got to go up into the tower where you could see the entire city of La Plata, and after another long bus ride we went back to school. The boys and I walked home for dinner, and then we split up for the night. I stayed in but Joe went and hung out with one of the friends he’s made here, and Ben and Stephen went to a jazz café with a couple of other kids for a few hours.
On Friday we went to class and did a secret-santa type gift exchange in honor of Valentine’s Day. There were some interesting presents, ranging from shoes to jewelry to a pack of cigarettes. Our teacher explained that while Argentines don’t generally celebrate Valentine’s Day, it’s becoming more popular because the people here consider American culture to be really cool and try to emulate it. After class and dinner and such, we went to a party that was being hosted for all of the international students at a local bar/dance club. I spent the entire time on the dance floor as is typical for me, and we considered going to a boliche afterwards but decided against it.
On Saturday I woke up early to do laundry (we are allowed to do it free of charge, btw- after Patricia dropped the $50-per-load bomb on us, we called Silvana and she saved us yet again. We don’t know what she said to Patricia but she got us free laundry, so whatever it was, it was effective. Silvana is basically my hero, if you haven’t figured that out yet). Ben and Steve and I went back to the café Abril again for lunch, and then went to one of the local parks and hung out there enjoying the 85 degree weather and watching lots of shirtless boys play soccer. After we went home, I found an email in my inbox from the boys, telling me and the other girls that we were to meet at our house at ten o’clock. The boys banned me from the kitchen all day and went on a bunch of mysterious errands, and when all the girls showed up at ten o’clock they finally told us what was going on:
In honor of Valentine’s Day, they had set up our dining room with place settings for each of us, with a rose, chocolates, and a valentine for each of the girls. They also got a few bottles of wine and crackers and cheese, and then each of us had to read our valentine and find out who it was from. Joe, Ben, and Steve had each sent two, and then we discovered that our roses were color coded to show whoever our “date” was. Lauren and I were Steve’s dates, Robin and Emily were with Ben, and Ann and Lis were with Joe. Then each of them took us to a different restaurant for dinner (Steve took Lauren and I to El Cabildo, which was delicious). After dinner, the whole group met up again at our house to hang out. From there, almost everyone went home, but Ben, Steve, Emily, and I went to a boliche around 4:30, and didn’t come home until 7am, when we collapsed and went to sleep. Basically the best Valentine’s Day I could ask for, considering that my boyfriend is currently on another continent (sorry hon). I’ve concluded that I have the best roommates ever and I can forgive them for being slow in the mornings.
Sunday was pretty uneventful since we obviously slept most of the day, but we went to McDonald’s for a late lunch (not worth it, by the way. McDonald’s here is terrible, and the girl behind the counter would not let me have a large fry but insisted that I have a medium.) Afterwards we met up with a bunch of the girls and went to one of the artisan fairs in San Telmo to wander around for a while. Steve and Ben and I hung out at one of the plazas near our house with our friend Kela until dinnertime, and after dinner we did homework and other random things until bed.
End week 2.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Okay, now we're getting to the good stuff- robbery on several counts
Tuesday was by far the most...interesting day we've had yet. We got up early and went to school for 930 again, this time to take a biking tour of the city. We went to a bunch of places, many of them repeats, but visited a few new places as well. About halfway through, Ann got sick and fainted in the entrance of a hotel when she tried to go inside to get a drink. After she had been checked out by the EMTs and brought home, the rest of us biked through the ecological preserve close to our school. We actually got to see the water for the first time since we've been here, although it definitely was not the same as the beaches back home. We took some goofy pictures and went back to school, where we ate lunch in about five minutes in order to be on time for class.
After class, the boys and I took a cab home because it was pouring by that point. We hung out at the house for a while, and when Gladis called us in for dinner we walked in and were greeted by Patricia and Luigi, who had stopped by to make sure we hadn't burned their house down yet. The dinner started off with Patricia yelling at Joe to take his hat off at the table (which he had put on to cover up his bedhead since he has just woken up). She then yelled at me for passing the plates all the way down to the end of the table when she was serving food, and told me that when she hands me a plate, it is for me and I am not to give it to anyone else. We endured an awkward dinner, and then she yelled at Joe for not finishing all of his food. When she served dessert, I put my plate in front of me as she had told me to do, and she immediately launched into a lecture about how it is polite to pass the plates to the person sitting furthest away. She then proceeded to tell us that we use too much electricity (keep in mind, we are home only to eat and sleep and cannot possibly be using that much), are not allowed to use the air conditioning even though it's in the 90s fairly often, and have to pay $50 (US dollars, btw- approximately $175 in pesos) PER LOAD OF LAUNDRY even though when we moved in we were told laundry was included. She also reminded us that we are not allowed to use the main entrance of the apartment building but have to use the service entrance and elevator instead, and told us that "our" fridge (she has four- the one designated for us has bread, jelly, milk, and bottled water, and is the only one that we are allowed to eat anything from) was broken, so the milk would have to be stored in her fridge. She made it clear that if anything but milk was missing from the other refrigerators, she would know who was responsible. She also let us know that the other food would be fine in the broken refrigerator and she didn't feel the need to move the rest of it.
Needless to say, after that interaction, the boys and I had a powwow in Joe's room and spent the rest of the night looking for apartments.
On Wednesday, we went out to lunch like we always do and then went to class, which was even more brutal than usual. We decided to go to TGI Friday's afterwards for drinks and dessert to kill time until dinner. After we had been there for a little while ("we" being me, Joe, Stephen, Lis, Robin, Anne, and Kela, our new friend from class), a man ran into the restaurant and up to our table and asked if any of us had a grey and blue backpack. Joe looked down and saw that his was gone, and went outside with the man to find out what happened.
Apparently, a Chilean woman and her Brazilian friend had been walking back and forth in front of the restaurant looking in the windows for a few minutes, and an off-duty cop noticed that they were foreign and acting strangely. He then saw them go into the restaurant without a back and emerge a minute later with one, got suspicious, and confronted them. He held them there until the police got there and then came and got us. After about four hours of standing around watching the cops take statements and document everything, including the contents of Joe's backpack and the Chilean woman's bag, they asked Joe and I to go to the police station to give a formal statement about what had happened.
We called Silvana, who came right away, and Joe, Stephen, Silvana and I went to the police station. They spent about two hours interviewing Joe while Steve and I tried to entertain ourselves in the very cold waiting room. We built coin sculptures, went through each others wallets, tried to read the same book, took pictures of random things, and put deodorant on our tongues...oh wait, that one was just Steve. After a few hours, it was my turn, and at that point I was so tired that Silvana basically had to translate everything for me because I wasn't making sense in any recognizable language. We then tried to get the ride home that we were promised and were told that we would have to catch a cab. Silvana threw a fit (very politely) because we were in one of the sketchiest areas of town at three in the morning, and the police refused to let us use their phones or their phone book to call a cab. After arguing with them for a while, they finally sent a cop outside to find a cab for us, and we FINALLY went home.
[Side note- it's now a week later and Joe still has not gotten his bag back. The police apparently lost it and now he has to file a petition through the American embassy to get it back. Lame.]
After class, the boys and I took a cab home because it was pouring by that point. We hung out at the house for a while, and when Gladis called us in for dinner we walked in and were greeted by Patricia and Luigi, who had stopped by to make sure we hadn't burned their house down yet. The dinner started off with Patricia yelling at Joe to take his hat off at the table (which he had put on to cover up his bedhead since he has just woken up). She then yelled at me for passing the plates all the way down to the end of the table when she was serving food, and told me that when she hands me a plate, it is for me and I am not to give it to anyone else. We endured an awkward dinner, and then she yelled at Joe for not finishing all of his food. When she served dessert, I put my plate in front of me as she had told me to do, and she immediately launched into a lecture about how it is polite to pass the plates to the person sitting furthest away. She then proceeded to tell us that we use too much electricity (keep in mind, we are home only to eat and sleep and cannot possibly be using that much), are not allowed to use the air conditioning even though it's in the 90s fairly often, and have to pay $50 (US dollars, btw- approximately $175 in pesos) PER LOAD OF LAUNDRY even though when we moved in we were told laundry was included. She also reminded us that we are not allowed to use the main entrance of the apartment building but have to use the service entrance and elevator instead, and told us that "our" fridge (she has four- the one designated for us has bread, jelly, milk, and bottled water, and is the only one that we are allowed to eat anything from) was broken, so the milk would have to be stored in her fridge. She made it clear that if anything but milk was missing from the other refrigerators, she would know who was responsible. She also let us know that the other food would be fine in the broken refrigerator and she didn't feel the need to move the rest of it.
Needless to say, after that interaction, the boys and I had a powwow in Joe's room and spent the rest of the night looking for apartments.
On Wednesday, we went out to lunch like we always do and then went to class, which was even more brutal than usual. We decided to go to TGI Friday's afterwards for drinks and dessert to kill time until dinner. After we had been there for a little while ("we" being me, Joe, Stephen, Lis, Robin, Anne, and Kela, our new friend from class), a man ran into the restaurant and up to our table and asked if any of us had a grey and blue backpack. Joe looked down and saw that his was gone, and went outside with the man to find out what happened.
Apparently, a Chilean woman and her Brazilian friend had been walking back and forth in front of the restaurant looking in the windows for a few minutes, and an off-duty cop noticed that they were foreign and acting strangely. He then saw them go into the restaurant without a back and emerge a minute later with one, got suspicious, and confronted them. He held them there until the police got there and then came and got us. After about four hours of standing around watching the cops take statements and document everything, including the contents of Joe's backpack and the Chilean woman's bag, they asked Joe and I to go to the police station to give a formal statement about what had happened.
We called Silvana, who came right away, and Joe, Stephen, Silvana and I went to the police station. They spent about two hours interviewing Joe while Steve and I tried to entertain ourselves in the very cold waiting room. We built coin sculptures, went through each others wallets, tried to read the same book, took pictures of random things, and put deodorant on our tongues...oh wait, that one was just Steve. After a few hours, it was my turn, and at that point I was so tired that Silvana basically had to translate everything for me because I wasn't making sense in any recognizable language. We then tried to get the ride home that we were promised and were told that we would have to catch a cab. Silvana threw a fit (very politely) because we were in one of the sketchiest areas of town at three in the morning, and the police refused to let us use their phones or their phone book to call a cab. After arguing with them for a while, they finally sent a cop outside to find a cab for us, and we FINALLY went home.
[Side note- it's now a week later and Joe still has not gotten his bag back. The police apparently lost it and now he has to file a petition through the American embassy to get it back. Lame.]
Sunday, February 15, 2009
One week, and your first history lesson on Argentina
Sunday was the one-week marker for all of the BC kids at UCA. Silvana emailed us to tell us that the Di Tella kids (other BC kids who are attending a different university close to here) were arriving and that we were to meet them for their welcome lunch at San Telmo Plaza, the same restaurant where ours was held. All ten of us showed up with money in hand to have lunch with them, but when we got there, they were finishing up dessert. It turns out that Silvana had planned a city tour for all of us (hence the meeting time) but the lunch was only for the Di Tella crew. We ended up raiding a nearby Korean convenience store for yogurt and granola bars to eat for lunch and got on the bus.
The tour took us to several places that we had already seen (Plaza de Mayo, la Casa Rosada, etc), but we also got to go visit La Boca, one of the oldest sections of the city. If you've seen pictures of Buenos Aires with bright multicolored buildings, that's the section where they all are. The story behind the colors is that the people used to paint their houses with whatever color paint was left over from painting the ships in the harbor, and would switch colors whenever they ran out. People enjoyed the overall effect so much that now it's tradition to keep the colors as they were. Also in La Boca is the stadium for the Boca Juniors, one of the most popular soccer teams in the country.
[[Some interesting facts about the stadium, courtesy of Patricia and Luigi's youngest daughter (an Argentine tour guide who came and had dinner with the boys and I one night): The name of the stadium is called "La Bombanera", which basically means "chocolate box". The explanation that tour guides generally give to tourists is that the stadium, when seen from above and filled with dark-haired Argentinian soccer fans, looks like a box of chocolates. The real reason for the name is that the inhabitants of the city used to be employed primarily by shipping companies who transported manure to be used as fertilizer. When going to work, they would jokingly say that they were going to shovel bonbons, or chocolates, and were called "bombaneros" by most people. The stadium is actually built in the shape of the shovels they used to use, and the name stuck.
Other facts: Although the team's colors are blue and yellow today, they used to have the same colors as a rival team. They had a soccer match to determine who had the right to keep their colors, and Boca lost. They chose blue and yellow by choosing the colors of the first ship to sail into their harbor after the match, which was from Sweden.
Coca-Cola is one of the biggest sponsors for the Boca Juniors, and the outside of the stadium is covered with their ads. However, since Boca's biggest rival, River Plate, has red and white as their colors, the Boca Juniors forbade Coca-Cola to use their traditional red&white logo. As a result, the Boca stadium is the only place in the world where the Coca-Cola logo was changed to just black and white.]]
We also went to the cemetery in Recoleta, which is enclosed and full of elaborate tombs that date back hundreds of years. It's still in use today by the families that have lived here for generations, but serves as a tourist attraction and a place for Argentines to pay their respects to Eva Peron, who is buried there in her family's tomb.
After seeing a few other sights, Silvana brought all of the BC kids to the mall so the Di Tella kids could buy their cell phones. The UCA kids wandered around and got some ice cream while we waited, and finally the group split up and went separate ways. The Di Tella kids, Lauren, the boys, and myself all went to a pizza place near my apartment and then headed home.
I don't remember much about Monday other than that we went to class as always, and the boys and I wandered around looking for a sports bar where Ben could watch his soccer games later that night. We found a really cool bar called "Locos por futbol" which was exactly what we were looking for, and we wandered through a bookstore and bought a book on Argentinian slang to help us out a little.
Shorter than expected, but the best entry is still to come.
The tour took us to several places that we had already seen (Plaza de Mayo, la Casa Rosada, etc), but we also got to go visit La Boca, one of the oldest sections of the city. If you've seen pictures of Buenos Aires with bright multicolored buildings, that's the section where they all are. The story behind the colors is that the people used to paint their houses with whatever color paint was left over from painting the ships in the harbor, and would switch colors whenever they ran out. People enjoyed the overall effect so much that now it's tradition to keep the colors as they were. Also in La Boca is the stadium for the Boca Juniors, one of the most popular soccer teams in the country.
[[Some interesting facts about the stadium, courtesy of Patricia and Luigi's youngest daughter (an Argentine tour guide who came and had dinner with the boys and I one night): The name of the stadium is called "La Bombanera", which basically means "chocolate box". The explanation that tour guides generally give to tourists is that the stadium, when seen from above and filled with dark-haired Argentinian soccer fans, looks like a box of chocolates. The real reason for the name is that the inhabitants of the city used to be employed primarily by shipping companies who transported manure to be used as fertilizer. When going to work, they would jokingly say that they were going to shovel bonbons, or chocolates, and were called "bombaneros" by most people. The stadium is actually built in the shape of the shovels they used to use, and the name stuck.
Other facts: Although the team's colors are blue and yellow today, they used to have the same colors as a rival team. They had a soccer match to determine who had the right to keep their colors, and Boca lost. They chose blue and yellow by choosing the colors of the first ship to sail into their harbor after the match, which was from Sweden.
Coca-Cola is one of the biggest sponsors for the Boca Juniors, and the outside of the stadium is covered with their ads. However, since Boca's biggest rival, River Plate, has red and white as their colors, the Boca Juniors forbade Coca-Cola to use their traditional red&white logo. As a result, the Boca stadium is the only place in the world where the Coca-Cola logo was changed to just black and white.]]
We also went to the cemetery in Recoleta, which is enclosed and full of elaborate tombs that date back hundreds of years. It's still in use today by the families that have lived here for generations, but serves as a tourist attraction and a place for Argentines to pay their respects to Eva Peron, who is buried there in her family's tomb.
After seeing a few other sights, Silvana brought all of the BC kids to the mall so the Di Tella kids could buy their cell phones. The UCA kids wandered around and got some ice cream while we waited, and finally the group split up and went separate ways. The Di Tella kids, Lauren, the boys, and myself all went to a pizza place near my apartment and then headed home.
I don't remember much about Monday other than that we went to class as always, and the boys and I wandered around looking for a sports bar where Ben could watch his soccer games later that night. We found a really cool bar called "Locos por futbol" which was exactly what we were looking for, and we wandered through a bookstore and bought a book on Argentinian slang to help us out a little.
Shorter than expected, but the best entry is still to come.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Monster entry- obviously I need to update more often
I promised myself before I left that I was not only going to keep a blog to keep everyone informed about my life down here, but I was going to write in my journal religiously every night so I wouldn't forget a single thing. However, seeing as my journal currently has one-half of an entry (and I've been here for two weeks) clearly I'm not very good at keeping my resolutions. In my defense, we have been incredibly busy since the moment we stepped off the plane, but oh well.
I've already started to forget everything we've done so far, but I'll document as much as I can remember and hopefully (someday) fill in that journal of mine. I left off with Wednesday the 4th, which unfortunately is one of the days that I remember nothing about, besides that I ate and went to school and showered and such.
Thursday, we all had to get up early to be at school for 9:30. Joe and Lauren both got really sick and ended up staying home for the day, but the rest of us went to UCA, where there were buses waiting to take us on a tour of the city. We went to a bunch of places (I'll find some pictures and post them for you) including the Plaza de Mayo, the main plaza of the city to see the Casa Rosada, which is like the White House, but pink. When the building was first painted, they mixed the paint with ox blood to make it more resistant to weathering. Although they obviously don't do that anymore, they've kept the original color the same. In the same plaza, there's an obelisk that was constructed as a monument to the 25th of May, the Argentinian independence day. There's a brick walkway surrounding it, and during the period of oppression in Argentinian government when tons of people disappeared (aka were killed secretly by the government), their wives and mothers would march around the plaza every day in protest. Apparently, the city of Buenos Aires puts a giant condom on the monument (or possibly another one similar to it- I'm not sure) for AIDS awareness day. I was skeptical at first but I've heard it from a few different sources. Unfortunately, it's in December, so I won't get the chance to see for myself.
We went to a few other monuments and then went back to school for lunch and class. We wandered back home through Calle Florida, which is one of the biggest tourist areas in the city. Had dinner, hung out for a while, and then I went out to an Irish bar (Kilkenney's, I believe) with Lis, Robin, Emily and Steve. We all accidentally contributed to dumping an entire beer all over Steve, because he made the mistake of dumping his monedas on the table and we all jumped for them. (Back story on the monedas: In Argentinian currency, the moneda is worth one peso. However, the metal that it's made of is worth more than one peso. Since the bus systems require exact change, the bus companies hoard them and sell the monedas to be melted down. As a result, they're almost impossible to find, and stores all over the city have signs saying "No hay monedas"- Literally, "There are no monedas".) We hung out at the bar for a few hours and listened to the live band.
On the walk home, a dog started following us. Unlike most of the strays here, she was really clean and very friendly, so we scratched her ears a bit, named her Pumpkin (my choice) and figured she would wander away at some point. She ended up following us all the way to our apartment, where Bandito freaked out and got really defensive of us, and tried to bite Pumpkin. Reprimanded him and he actually listened, while Pumpkin was huddling behind us. She gave us such a mournful look when we closed the door behind us that we were afraid she would still be there in the morning waiting for us, but fortunately she had other places to go.
On Friday, woke up at 6am and was so sick that going to the hospital was under consideration for the next 9 hours or so. After battling for a bathroom several times, I discovered that the reason they were all occupied was because Ben, Steve, and Mariana all had the same thing. We all stayed home from school and tried unsuccessfully to sleep or do anything besides be sick. That night, everyone but me, Ben, and Mariana went out to a boliche, the Argentinian equivalent of a nightclub, and apparently had a phenomenal time. I stayed in, caught up on my TV shows, and talked to my parents for about ten minutes on skype until they decided that the connection was too bad to bother.
Saturday was much better, thankfully. The boys and I met up with Lauren and her new roommate Lindsay and had lunch at a restaurant on Calle Florida. Afterwards, the boys and I went in search of a boutique that Ben had read about in one of his guidebooks, found it, and did some shopping. We ran into Pumpkin again even though it was a completely different part of the city, and she followed us for most of the day. We've concluded that Pumpkin is actually our awesome program coordinator Silvana in disguise, keeping an eye on us. We stopped at a supermarket and picked up drinks for the group for that night, then went to a cafe across the street for dinner at 10:30. Everyone from our group and two new kids from the other BC program at a different university (Dani and John- both very nice) came over for drinks and we headed out to meet Mariana at a club in Palermo.
When we got to the club and found Mariana, the line to get in was more than three blocks long, and the minimum wait time to get in was about an hour an a half. Since it was by this point 3:30 in the morning, we decided that the wait wasn't worth the amount of time we'd get to spend in the club, and so we headed back to our house to hang out for a while. Disappointing considering that I was really excited to go dancing, but it ended up being a good night anyway. Everyone left around 6am and we went to bed.
Although I still have about a week's worth of updates to do, this length of this entry is getting kind of ridiculous. Some observations, and I'll post the events of week two some other time.
1. All of the drivers here either deserve a medal or deserve to locked up. There are no posted speed limits as far as we can tell, and the lines on the roads are more like suggestions than rules. There is literally a fraction of an inch between cars stopped at stop signs, and the cabs will come within an inch or two of you if you happen to be in a crosswalk when they drive by. That being said, I haven't seen a single accident since I've been here.
2. The entire country is anorexic. Not kidding. The section of the grocery store for "lite" and "calorie-free" products is bigger than the section for regular food, and if a girl (me, for instance) orders a soda that is NOT diet soda, the waiters look at you skeptically and have to clarify. When you tell them that yes, you really do want a non-diet soda, they look you up and down and kinda shrug as if to say "okay, but you'll regret it later". Buenos Aires also has the highest percentage of eating disorders and plastic surgery in the world.
3. You have to pay for water here. I really, really miss free ice water in restaurants, because the bottles get expensive really quickly. Also, putting ice in your drinks is almost unheard of.
4. I also really miss bagels, sandwiches that have something other than flat bread & cheese & meat, cereal that is NOT year-old cornflakes, and normal milk.
5. Argentines think that Americans put ketchup on everything. As in, they bring it to your table when you order a fruit salad.
6. We've been doing remarkably well not standing out as Americans. While everyone can obviously tell that we're foreign, most people guess English or German before they guess American. All of the waiters and waitresses look pleasantly surprised when we say we don't need the menus to be in English, and one waitress actually thanked us for taking the time to learn the language before we came to the country. I guess she's had to deal with too many rude Americans who think the entire world should speak English to accommodate their needs. We've actually run into a few ourselves, and I think we were as disgusted as the Argentines. When the guy in McDonalds yells at the girl behind the counter (in English) that she's stupid for not speaking his language, it kind of makes you cringe and hope nobody notices that you're from the same place.
7. "Dulce de leche" is one of the most popular flavors for EVERYTHING down here, and it basically tastes like the most delicious caramel you've ever had in your life. I'm going to miss it when I go back to the States.
End of monster entry number one. The next one will be even better (more crazy stories than this one), but in the meantime, enjoy!
I've already started to forget everything we've done so far, but I'll document as much as I can remember and hopefully (someday) fill in that journal of mine. I left off with Wednesday the 4th, which unfortunately is one of the days that I remember nothing about, besides that I ate and went to school and showered and such.
Thursday, we all had to get up early to be at school for 9:30. Joe and Lauren both got really sick and ended up staying home for the day, but the rest of us went to UCA, where there were buses waiting to take us on a tour of the city. We went to a bunch of places (I'll find some pictures and post them for you) including the Plaza de Mayo, the main plaza of the city to see the Casa Rosada, which is like the White House, but pink. When the building was first painted, they mixed the paint with ox blood to make it more resistant to weathering. Although they obviously don't do that anymore, they've kept the original color the same. In the same plaza, there's an obelisk that was constructed as a monument to the 25th of May, the Argentinian independence day. There's a brick walkway surrounding it, and during the period of oppression in Argentinian government when tons of people disappeared (aka were killed secretly by the government), their wives and mothers would march around the plaza every day in protest. Apparently, the city of Buenos Aires puts a giant condom on the monument (or possibly another one similar to it- I'm not sure) for AIDS awareness day. I was skeptical at first but I've heard it from a few different sources. Unfortunately, it's in December, so I won't get the chance to see for myself.
We went to a few other monuments and then went back to school for lunch and class. We wandered back home through Calle Florida, which is one of the biggest tourist areas in the city. Had dinner, hung out for a while, and then I went out to an Irish bar (Kilkenney's, I believe) with Lis, Robin, Emily and Steve. We all accidentally contributed to dumping an entire beer all over Steve, because he made the mistake of dumping his monedas on the table and we all jumped for them. (Back story on the monedas: In Argentinian currency, the moneda is worth one peso. However, the metal that it's made of is worth more than one peso. Since the bus systems require exact change, the bus companies hoard them and sell the monedas to be melted down. As a result, they're almost impossible to find, and stores all over the city have signs saying "No hay monedas"- Literally, "There are no monedas".) We hung out at the bar for a few hours and listened to the live band.
On the walk home, a dog started following us. Unlike most of the strays here, she was really clean and very friendly, so we scratched her ears a bit, named her Pumpkin (my choice) and figured she would wander away at some point. She ended up following us all the way to our apartment, where Bandito freaked out and got really defensive of us, and tried to bite Pumpkin. Reprimanded him and he actually listened, while Pumpkin was huddling behind us. She gave us such a mournful look when we closed the door behind us that we were afraid she would still be there in the morning waiting for us, but fortunately she had other places to go.
On Friday, woke up at 6am and was so sick that going to the hospital was under consideration for the next 9 hours or so. After battling for a bathroom several times, I discovered that the reason they were all occupied was because Ben, Steve, and Mariana all had the same thing. We all stayed home from school and tried unsuccessfully to sleep or do anything besides be sick. That night, everyone but me, Ben, and Mariana went out to a boliche, the Argentinian equivalent of a nightclub, and apparently had a phenomenal time. I stayed in, caught up on my TV shows, and talked to my parents for about ten minutes on skype until they decided that the connection was too bad to bother.
Saturday was much better, thankfully. The boys and I met up with Lauren and her new roommate Lindsay and had lunch at a restaurant on Calle Florida. Afterwards, the boys and I went in search of a boutique that Ben had read about in one of his guidebooks, found it, and did some shopping. We ran into Pumpkin again even though it was a completely different part of the city, and she followed us for most of the day. We've concluded that Pumpkin is actually our awesome program coordinator Silvana in disguise, keeping an eye on us. We stopped at a supermarket and picked up drinks for the group for that night, then went to a cafe across the street for dinner at 10:30. Everyone from our group and two new kids from the other BC program at a different university (Dani and John- both very nice) came over for drinks and we headed out to meet Mariana at a club in Palermo.
When we got to the club and found Mariana, the line to get in was more than three blocks long, and the minimum wait time to get in was about an hour an a half. Since it was by this point 3:30 in the morning, we decided that the wait wasn't worth the amount of time we'd get to spend in the club, and so we headed back to our house to hang out for a while. Disappointing considering that I was really excited to go dancing, but it ended up being a good night anyway. Everyone left around 6am and we went to bed.
Although I still have about a week's worth of updates to do, this length of this entry is getting kind of ridiculous. Some observations, and I'll post the events of week two some other time.
1. All of the drivers here either deserve a medal or deserve to locked up. There are no posted speed limits as far as we can tell, and the lines on the roads are more like suggestions than rules. There is literally a fraction of an inch between cars stopped at stop signs, and the cabs will come within an inch or two of you if you happen to be in a crosswalk when they drive by. That being said, I haven't seen a single accident since I've been here.
2. The entire country is anorexic. Not kidding. The section of the grocery store for "lite" and "calorie-free" products is bigger than the section for regular food, and if a girl (me, for instance) orders a soda that is NOT diet soda, the waiters look at you skeptically and have to clarify. When you tell them that yes, you really do want a non-diet soda, they look you up and down and kinda shrug as if to say "okay, but you'll regret it later". Buenos Aires also has the highest percentage of eating disorders and plastic surgery in the world.
3. You have to pay for water here. I really, really miss free ice water in restaurants, because the bottles get expensive really quickly. Also, putting ice in your drinks is almost unheard of.
4. I also really miss bagels, sandwiches that have something other than flat bread & cheese & meat, cereal that is NOT year-old cornflakes, and normal milk.
5. Argentines think that Americans put ketchup on everything. As in, they bring it to your table when you order a fruit salad.
6. We've been doing remarkably well not standing out as Americans. While everyone can obviously tell that we're foreign, most people guess English or German before they guess American. All of the waiters and waitresses look pleasantly surprised when we say we don't need the menus to be in English, and one waitress actually thanked us for taking the time to learn the language before we came to the country. I guess she's had to deal with too many rude Americans who think the entire world should speak English to accommodate their needs. We've actually run into a few ourselves, and I think we were as disgusted as the Argentines. When the guy in McDonalds yells at the girl behind the counter (in English) that she's stupid for not speaking his language, it kind of makes you cringe and hope nobody notices that you're from the same place.
7. "Dulce de leche" is one of the most popular flavors for EVERYTHING down here, and it basically tastes like the most delicious caramel you've ever had in your life. I'm going to miss it when I go back to the States.
End of monster entry number one. The next one will be even better (more crazy stories than this one), but in the meantime, enjoy!
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Even though I've only been here for a few days, it feels like I've lived here for months. I'm settling into my room and unpacking bit by bit- we haven't had much downtime so far so the process is taking a while.
Day 2 started off with our first meeting with our program coordinator, Silvana, who is amazing. She treated the ten of us (me, Joe, Stephen, Ben, Lauren, Lis, Alessandra, Robin, Ann, and Emily- everyone on the program) to lunch at a local restaurant and then took us around the city to teach us how to use the subte (aka the subway) and the colectivo (bus system). She also taught us how to get to and from each others' apartments and to and from school, which we had unintentionally figured out on the first day. We also went to get local cell phones, which was a maddeningly lengthy process. It took over two hours for seven of us to buy our phones (they didn't have ten in stock), when the process would have taken less than 15 minutes in the states. We've determined that inefficiency is one of the main downsides to living in Buenos Aires, but there are very few others.
After our whole group had wandered the city for a while, the boys and I headed home for our first real meal at our apartment- that is, if you don't count the tiny bowl of cornflakes that we each get for breakfast. Gladis, our maid, made us pizza, and I finally met the other two foreign exchange students who live here. Mariana is from Brazil and is taking classes at another university in Buenos Aires. She's really funny and sweet, and all of us had a lot of fun teaching each other our favorite phrases in different languages. Her favorites in English are "Ewww, that's gross!" and "Sweet!". Tom, who is from England, is thirty and is staying in Argentina to learn the language and learn about the culture, but as far as I can tell he's not enrolled in actual classes. Apparently he took a leave of absence from his job to travel and decided to come here among other places.
After dinner, the boys and I went back out into the city in search of an American bar to watch the Superbowl in. We met up with some other kids from the program and finally found a place that agreed to put the Superbowl on after the Boca vs. River futbol game was over. [For those who don't follow sports, like me, Boca vs. River is one of the most famous and intense rivalries in the sports world. Whenever a game is on, the entire city of Buenos Aires sits down to watch, and people will throw you out of a restaurant for even suggesting that you change the channel.] Fortunately, the game ended just as the fourth quarter was starting, so the bar owners were fine with changing the channel after that. Since no one here supports the Steelers or the Cardinals, we decided to root for the Cardinals rather arbitrarily and had the entire bar cheering for them within a few minutes as we frantically tried to explain the rules with lots of Spanglish and crazy gestures. A few Steelers fans came in towards the end and were heartily booed by everyone in the bar. After the game was over we called it a night and took a cab back home.
Monday, day 3, we all had to hike out to UCA (my university) far too early in the morning to take our placement tests for Spanish. We had a written test and an oral exam in a hot, stuffy room that took several hours, and then went out for lunch again. Afterwards, I went with the boys and explored the city for a few hours after class. We got ice cream and sat in one of the parks for a while analyzing the PDA of couples sitting around us, then went home for dinner. Went back to the apartment with the boys and had dinner (milanesa de pollo- basically breaded chicken) and hung out for a bit, then headed out with the entire crew to try to find a tango bar to watch the dancing. We ended up at a small Mexican restaurant after finding out the tango place we wanted to go to had shut down, hung out there for a while and headed home in the middle of an intense thunderstorm, which I loved.
Tuesday was our first day of class. The boys and I went out to breakfast beforehand and accidentally ordered enough food for ten people. The rule about portion sizes being smaller outside of the US is a myth, at least in Argentina. The class was long and mostly boring, but we met a few other kids from different exchange programs, and during class we went over some common menu items and what they translate to so we'll know what we're ordering when we go out. A bunch of us went exploring a different section of the city and found a really cool movie theater, so after we all went home for dinner, we went back out to see "Doubt", which was pretty good. Walked home with the guys and got some ice cream on the way- no mint chocolate chip, which is very upsetting to me, but in general their ice cream is EXCELLENT and way better than anything we have at home.
Today, we headed over to school early to eat breakfast/lunch and buy our books, then sat through a horribly long, hot, four-hour class where we went over grammar that we learned in our first year of Spanish. After class, Joe and I split off from the rest of the group and walked back to the apartment, checking out different stores and scouting out restaurants along the way. We came back here and met Patricia's daughter (who works as a tour guide in Argentina and offered to get us discount tickets to soccer matches, concerts, and basically anything else we want- she's awesome and really fun) and the newest member of the household, Tobias, who is from Switzerland and is here traveling around South America to improve his Spanish.
Tomorrow, we have a city tour starting at 930am followed by our regular class, which will make for a long (but hopefully more interesting) day.
Random extras thus far:
1. Everyone in Buenos Aires has a dog. I really think the dogs outnumber the people here, I love it. They take them everywhere with them, and you can't walk around the city without seeing at least a few dozen.
2. I named the stray dog outside my building Bandito. He doesn't respond to it yet, but I figure he'll catch on eventually.
3. Mariana told us about a petting zoo that she went to today where you can pet any animal you want- lions, tigers, and bears (oh my), monkeys, elephants, etc. She said you actually get to go into the pens with them to play with them and pet them. Added it to the list of things I must do while I'm here.
4. The malls and the movie theaters here are insane. They are beautiful, like if you converted the Newport Mansions into a food court. The insides look more like museums than malls, if you ignore the sales signs and whatnot.
5. If you order a salad here, there is no lettuce in it. None. It's generally carrots, celery, and onions, but most places don't even offer salads. There's also no side vegetables with dinner, or even lettuce and tomato on a cheeseburger. We can't figure out how Argentines stay so skinny when all they eat are carbs and protein.
6. The buildings that my university is now located in used to be grain warehouses before they were converted.
That's all for now, now that I'm finally caught up. More later, when I have something else to tell.
Day 2 started off with our first meeting with our program coordinator, Silvana, who is amazing. She treated the ten of us (me, Joe, Stephen, Ben, Lauren, Lis, Alessandra, Robin, Ann, and Emily- everyone on the program) to lunch at a local restaurant and then took us around the city to teach us how to use the subte (aka the subway) and the colectivo (bus system). She also taught us how to get to and from each others' apartments and to and from school, which we had unintentionally figured out on the first day. We also went to get local cell phones, which was a maddeningly lengthy process. It took over two hours for seven of us to buy our phones (they didn't have ten in stock), when the process would have taken less than 15 minutes in the states. We've determined that inefficiency is one of the main downsides to living in Buenos Aires, but there are very few others.
After our whole group had wandered the city for a while, the boys and I headed home for our first real meal at our apartment- that is, if you don't count the tiny bowl of cornflakes that we each get for breakfast. Gladis, our maid, made us pizza, and I finally met the other two foreign exchange students who live here. Mariana is from Brazil and is taking classes at another university in Buenos Aires. She's really funny and sweet, and all of us had a lot of fun teaching each other our favorite phrases in different languages. Her favorites in English are "Ewww, that's gross!" and "Sweet!". Tom, who is from England, is thirty and is staying in Argentina to learn the language and learn about the culture, but as far as I can tell he's not enrolled in actual classes. Apparently he took a leave of absence from his job to travel and decided to come here among other places.
After dinner, the boys and I went back out into the city in search of an American bar to watch the Superbowl in. We met up with some other kids from the program and finally found a place that agreed to put the Superbowl on after the Boca vs. River futbol game was over. [For those who don't follow sports, like me, Boca vs. River is one of the most famous and intense rivalries in the sports world. Whenever a game is on, the entire city of Buenos Aires sits down to watch, and people will throw you out of a restaurant for even suggesting that you change the channel.] Fortunately, the game ended just as the fourth quarter was starting, so the bar owners were fine with changing the channel after that. Since no one here supports the Steelers or the Cardinals, we decided to root for the Cardinals rather arbitrarily and had the entire bar cheering for them within a few minutes as we frantically tried to explain the rules with lots of Spanglish and crazy gestures. A few Steelers fans came in towards the end and were heartily booed by everyone in the bar. After the game was over we called it a night and took a cab back home.
Monday, day 3, we all had to hike out to UCA (my university) far too early in the morning to take our placement tests for Spanish. We had a written test and an oral exam in a hot, stuffy room that took several hours, and then went out for lunch again. Afterwards, I went with the boys and explored the city for a few hours after class. We got ice cream and sat in one of the parks for a while analyzing the PDA of couples sitting around us, then went home for dinner. Went back to the apartment with the boys and had dinner (milanesa de pollo- basically breaded chicken) and hung out for a bit, then headed out with the entire crew to try to find a tango bar to watch the dancing. We ended up at a small Mexican restaurant after finding out the tango place we wanted to go to had shut down, hung out there for a while and headed home in the middle of an intense thunderstorm, which I loved.
Tuesday was our first day of class. The boys and I went out to breakfast beforehand and accidentally ordered enough food for ten people. The rule about portion sizes being smaller outside of the US is a myth, at least in Argentina. The class was long and mostly boring, but we met a few other kids from different exchange programs, and during class we went over some common menu items and what they translate to so we'll know what we're ordering when we go out. A bunch of us went exploring a different section of the city and found a really cool movie theater, so after we all went home for dinner, we went back out to see "Doubt", which was pretty good. Walked home with the guys and got some ice cream on the way- no mint chocolate chip, which is very upsetting to me, but in general their ice cream is EXCELLENT and way better than anything we have at home.
Today, we headed over to school early to eat breakfast/lunch and buy our books, then sat through a horribly long, hot, four-hour class where we went over grammar that we learned in our first year of Spanish. After class, Joe and I split off from the rest of the group and walked back to the apartment, checking out different stores and scouting out restaurants along the way. We came back here and met Patricia's daughter (who works as a tour guide in Argentina and offered to get us discount tickets to soccer matches, concerts, and basically anything else we want- she's awesome and really fun) and the newest member of the household, Tobias, who is from Switzerland and is here traveling around South America to improve his Spanish.
Tomorrow, we have a city tour starting at 930am followed by our regular class, which will make for a long (but hopefully more interesting) day.
Random extras thus far:
1. Everyone in Buenos Aires has a dog. I really think the dogs outnumber the people here, I love it. They take them everywhere with them, and you can't walk around the city without seeing at least a few dozen.
2. I named the stray dog outside my building Bandito. He doesn't respond to it yet, but I figure he'll catch on eventually.
3. Mariana told us about a petting zoo that she went to today where you can pet any animal you want- lions, tigers, and bears (oh my), monkeys, elephants, etc. She said you actually get to go into the pens with them to play with them and pet them. Added it to the list of things I must do while I'm here.
4. The malls and the movie theaters here are insane. They are beautiful, like if you converted the Newport Mansions into a food court. The insides look more like museums than malls, if you ignore the sales signs and whatnot.
5. If you order a salad here, there is no lettuce in it. None. It's generally carrots, celery, and onions, but most places don't even offer salads. There's also no side vegetables with dinner, or even lettuce and tomato on a cheeseburger. We can't figure out how Argentines stay so skinny when all they eat are carbs and protein.
6. The buildings that my university is now located in used to be grain warehouses before they were converted.
That's all for now, now that I'm finally caught up. More later, when I have something else to tell.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
The beginning
The first 24 hours of my trip were fairly uneventful- get in the car, get out of the car, get on the plane, get off the plane...repeated with varying forms of transportation. At the airport, we met up with Alejandro (assistant to our program director, Silvana) and three other BC kids. Alejandro dropped the first few kids off at their respective homestays, but when we got to mine, no one answered the door or the intercom. Steve (one of my roommates and I) passed the time watching a stray dog steal food, look both ways before crossing the street, and urinate in the middle of the sidewalk. After about twenty minutes of Alejandro trying to get in touch with someone who knew what was going on, Steve and I snuck in the building when another resident came out. Once we got in, one of our other roommates, Joe, found us and brought us up to the room via a very small elevator (approximately a two person capacity). Once we got there, we met my third BC roommate Ben, but my host family and the other two foreign exchange students were nowhere to be found.
After hanging out for a while and unpacking, my host parents (Patricia and Luigi) showed up and went over the rules with us:
1. No drugs inside the building- if we feel the need to do drugs, they reccommended a nice park down the street.
2. No alcohol inside the building. See above.
3. No one can have sex inside the building except for them. Yes, they really made that clarification.
4. We have to use the back door and the sketchy elevator, never the front door, because this is a high-class building and neighborhood and apparently we don't meet the correct high-class requirement.
5. Breakfast is cornflakes or toast, or occasionally yogurt if we're feeling really adventurous.
6. Wherever you put your napkin holder on the first day of dinner is where you are required to sit for the rest of the semester. Change seats, and bad things will happen.
7. Rent is due immediately, in cash, in spite of the fact that none of us had changed money or had any idea of where to go to do it. (Most of the places we checked were closed).
They then told us that they were leaving the next day to go to a golf resort for a month and would not be home except to pick up our rent money. The maid comes in six days a week to cook dinner for us and clean, but actual interaction with my host family appears to be limited to yesterday. However, they are both very nice in spite of being a little odd about some things.
For the rest of the day, Ben, Steve, Joe and I met up with Lauren (another girl from the program) and spent the rest of the day wandering around the city. We got dinner at 830 because it's impossible to find a restaurant that will serve you any earlier than that. We all got varying cuts of steak, which ranged from not very good to excellent, traditional Argentinian appetizers (filet mignon pate (which has an accent but will not let me write it with one)with bread, fried cheese) and red wine, and then caught the waitress trying to pocket 50 pesos for herself by giving us the wrong change. We called her on it, got our money, and came back home to collapse. Altogether a good day, even though it was 48 hours long instead of the usual 24.
After hanging out for a while and unpacking, my host parents (Patricia and Luigi) showed up and went over the rules with us:
1. No drugs inside the building- if we feel the need to do drugs, they reccommended a nice park down the street.
2. No alcohol inside the building. See above.
3. No one can have sex inside the building except for them. Yes, they really made that clarification.
4. We have to use the back door and the sketchy elevator, never the front door, because this is a high-class building and neighborhood and apparently we don't meet the correct high-class requirement.
5. Breakfast is cornflakes or toast, or occasionally yogurt if we're feeling really adventurous.
6. Wherever you put your napkin holder on the first day of dinner is where you are required to sit for the rest of the semester. Change seats, and bad things will happen.
7. Rent is due immediately, in cash, in spite of the fact that none of us had changed money or had any idea of where to go to do it. (Most of the places we checked were closed).
They then told us that they were leaving the next day to go to a golf resort for a month and would not be home except to pick up our rent money. The maid comes in six days a week to cook dinner for us and clean, but actual interaction with my host family appears to be limited to yesterday. However, they are both very nice in spite of being a little odd about some things.
For the rest of the day, Ben, Steve, Joe and I met up with Lauren (another girl from the program) and spent the rest of the day wandering around the city. We got dinner at 830 because it's impossible to find a restaurant that will serve you any earlier than that. We all got varying cuts of steak, which ranged from not very good to excellent, traditional Argentinian appetizers (filet mignon pate (which has an accent but will not let me write it with one)with bread, fried cheese) and red wine, and then caught the waitress trying to pocket 50 pesos for herself by giving us the wrong change. We called her on it, got our money, and came back home to collapse. Altogether a good day, even though it was 48 hours long instead of the usual 24.
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