Tuesday was our first day of classes. I took the subte to class, which was the most claustrophobic experience I’ve had in a long time- during rush hour, you’re crammed in their like sardines. I went to my first class, Latin American Short Story (aka Cuento Latinoamericano Contemporaneo), and discovered that my professor is CRAZY. She told us that every time we were absent or late by more than five minutes (in a country where EVERYONE is ALWAYS at least 15 minutes late) would take five points off our final grade. My friends and hung out for 40 minutes after class, only to trek back for our next one, Argentina en palabras (an Argentina literature course), which is taught by the same professor. Ninety percent of us decided on the spot to drop the second class, because in addition to the crazy professor, it has a crazy syllabus. Not to mention that both classes were boring enough to bang my head against a wall.
I had lunch with Robin and Lis after class, and got to meet Lauren’s pal. Pals are basically UCA students who are assigned to foreign students to help them transition and whatnot- Lauren’s speaks English with a British accent, which we found hilarious. During my four hour break til my next class, I walked to Universidad de San Andres to time how long of a walk it is between the two schools. (Currently the only Spanish class that fits my schedule ends right before my class at USA starts, so I’d have to leave early or arrive late every week.) Decided that it was, in fact, almost a half hour walk, which was not what I was hoping for.
I spent the rest of my break hanging out in the park, and read Diez Negritos for a while. Revoluciones class with Stephen went from 6-9, and we spent most of the class watching movie clips and talking about them. I met up with Catherine after class and took the bus to her house, which is my new temporary home. We tried to go grocery shopping to pick up food for dinner, but they literally closed the doors right as we got there. We ended up grabbing dinner at the pizza/empanada place across the street, which was really good, before heading back to the apartment.
First order of business on Wednesday was to go grocery shopping so I didn’t eat all of Catherine’s food. I got to buy my own cereal (one of my main food groups- the other one is ice cream) and had breakfast. Most of the rest of the morning was spent organizing my school stuff and trying to figure out what I’m gonna do about my Spanish class, although I didn’t get very far. Had my first class at San Andres with the rest of the BC kids, and Robin, Lis, Steve and I decided to wander through one of the museums on our way home. We got out in the street and were soaked within thirty seconds because it was pouring rain. It took about five minutes for the water on the sidewalks and the streets to be up over our ankles. We ended up stopping at a grocery store and decided to just head back to the girls’ house and make dinner there instead of trekking all over the city in our wet clothes. We had pasta and empanadas and salad and just hung out for a bit while our clothes dried out a little. We all tried to figure out our various problems with our classes and schedules, and then I walked back to Catherine’s. We watched part of a very strange movie with her friend Austin and then went to bed.
On Thursday I got to sleep late for a change because both of my morning classes were canceled. I spent most of the morning emailing about course approvals and trying to figure out what courses are going to work the best for my various major/minor requirements (and taking advantage of the free internet- yes!). After a considerable amount of research, I also figured out the cheapest way to get to the airport, since paying $100 for a cab to get there only to turn around and come back was not an appealing idea. After lunch, I walked around to about a million bookstores trying to find my school books, with limited success. Made friends with quite a few bookstore staff members, though- they might be my favorite group of people in Argentina so far. I bought a few of the books I needed but clearly it’s going to be a lengthy process to find them all.
On Friday the 13th (did anyone else notice we had that two months in a row?) I got up and made some breakfast/lunch before heading over to UCA to take my pointless Spanish class. It was even worse than expected- basically, the only class that fit with my schedule is the same class that I just finished, with the same professor, in the same room. The class was an exact repeat of my first day of class in February and was incredibly boring. Afterwards, I had to rush to the bank and then to the realtors’ office to sign the contract for our new apartment. The three of us ran around like maniacs on our respective errands to get their on time, only to discover that neither our realtor nor his partner were there.
After harassing them via cell phone for almost an hour, the partner finally showed up and proceeded to write the contract that was supposed to have been drawn up already. We read through it, corrected about ten different mistakes, signed, and paid the enormous down payment that we had been carrying around (very nervously) in cash for several hours. We were then supposed to view the apartment one last time to get the inventory list, receive our keys, and be introduced to the security guards so they would know to let us into the building. Our realtor’s partner, Hector, tried to tell us that it wasn’t possible to see the apartment as promised, so we basically threw a fit until he decided that it was possible after all. After he refused to pay for his ¼ of the cab fare, we arrived at the apartment and learned that we would have to pay for and make our own copies of the keys, and obtain the inventory list and the internet code from the cleaning lady. Needless to say, we weren’t pleased.
After the appointment, Joe left for the gym and Lauren and I walked to the girls’ apartment to help them set up for their housewarming party. We did some grocery shopping and cleaned up a bit, and then people started showing up with their respective food (the girls had decided on potluck because the group is getting too big to feed on a limited budget). When Joe showed up, he was in a really bad mood and seemed like he was about to have a meltdown, so I volunteered to help him prepare his food to get him to de-stress a little. We basically ended up in the kitchen cooking for the majority of the party, but overall everything went well and people had a good time. I also can say that I cooked a meal for almost twenty people without any kitchen fiascos or fire alarms, which is more than I could say before. Catherine and I headed back to her apartment and crashed, even though at that point I had to wake up in less than four hours to go to the airport.
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