Dia 6, A Lesson in Patience, 22 Junio

Buenos Aires, Día 6: The “First” Day of School

Again, for at least the third time on this trip, I am so so tired and it’s early, especially early for Buenos Aires. I am writing this at 9:49pm. I lost track of time earlier and almost went to bed, and although I could have gone to bed, it wouldn’t have been the best idea because I don’t need to get into that habit. One night I will have to stay out late (I mean, at least ONE time, its part of the B.A. life!) and when that day comes I would like to be somewhat better prepared.

So, today…my first day of school in Buenos Aires. The day was not too exciting, however it was quite a long day. I woke up “early” (8:15am) and did the usual: breakfast/shower/etc. then headed off to the subte (subway if I haven’t already covered this) to meet Adam. Never again will I take the subway to school. I wish there was someway to describe it other than “walking a lot a lot a lot a lot!” However, those are the only words that I think are sufficient enough for the morning. =) Adam lives closer to the subte than I do. However, I thought, “a few more blocks won’t hurt.” Well, the walking to the subte wasn’t that big of a deal. It was waiting on Adam (not knowing that there were THREE subtes to get on at around that corner), then finding Adam, then Adam not seeing me and taking off down the other subte across the street, then me having to chase him (walking briskly, not running mind you, ha ha), then following him down the stairs, through the ticket booth, and down to the trains. Sigh. He walks a lot faster than I had ever noticed before. We finally meet up and get on the subte, it’s packed. I didn’t even have to hold on to a bar because there was no where to fall when the train jerked around. And, not to mention, it was hot. I don’t remember how much I’ve talked about weather here, but it hasn’t gotten lower than 50 degrees during the day time (at night it gets much cooler, but not cold cold like in Oklahoma). However, people around here think its freezing. So not only is everyone dressed in heavy winter coats and scarves and gloves, but they keep the heater on everywhere! And down in the subte (even though there is no heat or air there) it felt like 80 to 90 degrees with people surrounding you. It wasn’t the best feeling in the morning (especially after a shower where you felt all clean and un-sweaty, lol).

Well, we finally got off the subte (after having to make a stop to get on another train) and then walk the 12-20 blocks to get to school. I am sure I’ve mentioned this before, but a block here, is not like a block in Oklahoma. It’s maybe about the equivalent of three or four blocks?... I think. It feels like it anyways. Whatever the case, the walk was long, and although I’m not one to constantly complain about long walks, I prefer being better prepared for them (maybe wearing some running pants/shorts, and a t-shirt, not a nice blouse). But alas, that was how my morning started…not too fun. From now on, I am taking the bus to get to school (three blocks to the stop, one block to the school walking-wise). Much better than what I did today!

Moving right along (onto happier things because I don’t need to be complaining for this entire update). School… was not too scary for it being the first day. It wasn’t really like school anyways because we didn’t have a normal class. Today they wanted to know a little bit about where we stood on the Spanish side of things, how much we knew… that sort of thing. We met our Spanish teacher (whose name I can’t remember at the moment) and she gave us a written test. It wasn’t too complicated; however, there were a few things I didn’t quite understand. I hope I did them right anyways! Then, we talked with her for about 20-30 minutes. We were all together, but then she would ask us individual questions, probably to get a feel how our oral Spanish was. It wasn’t even too scary for me, which is great progress because I normally freeze in a classroom setting where I have to speak Spanish in front of everyone. So yay for that!
And that was all for school today! I know, isn’t that great? Tomorrow starts “real school” I guess. I guess I can tell you my schedule of classes… Mondays and Wednesdays I have Spanish Conversation from 2:00-3:50. Tuesdays I have Latin American Politics and Economics from 2:00-3:50, a twenty minute break, and from 4:10-6:00. Thursdays I have Latin American Culture at the same times as my Tuesday classes. No class on Fridays! Woo! Some say, “not fair”, but almost four hours of the same class in one day might be pretty tough! We’ll see. We shouldn’t have too much homework, just a midterm exam, a final exam, and maybe a presentation in a class, I’m not sure yet. We’ll see. I’m actually looking forward to classes. It’s not like I’m running out of things to do here, but to do many things, one has to spend money, and I feel like maybe I shouldn’t be spending money every single day if I can help it; so having classes, and things to study and work on might keep my mind busy. Plus, it will be an extra place to hear even more Spanish, so that’s even better!

Moving along with my day, after class I went back to my apartment, had some lunch (pasta, yum) and finished my update from yesterday. Then I took off for Expanish to give them my phone and see if they could fix it…well, they couldn’t. Sigh. So they are taking it to the store tomorrow and either getting it working or getting me a new phone. It’s really not that big of a deal, but it’d be a lot easier to get a hold of people to hang out with. I’m glad I see at least five of the people in my program almost every day, so I can catch up with them then.

After I dropped off my phone, I called Bridget (my friend Eric just happened to be at Expanish as well, so he let me use his) and met up with her in her neighborhood of Belgrano. Now, everywhere in B.A. is a great place for shopping, but for some great, hours long shopping, there are only two places that I’ve heard of to go to, and that’s Belgrano and Palermo. Bridget lives right on Cabildo St. which is the longest strip of shops and restaurants I have ever seen. While there, I finally got a couple of undershirts (the saleslady even took off four dollars…I don’t even know why!) and a new purse! (Well, actually two new purses, but MOM, don’t worry! It was buy one get one free! He he he) then, we stopped and grabbed a light dinner: Super Panchos! Um, hotdogs, lol. However, at this place they have over 50 different types of…toppings to put on your hotdog. Bridget got something creamy and cheese-like with mayonnaise (mayo is BIG here in B.A… everyone eats it and it’s on the table instead of ketchup in the restaurants…yuck)! However, I played it safe and got ketchup. Who’s surprised? Anyone? Anyone? I didn’t think so! But, something that is a bit different than normal is that they often put mini-papas (little French fries) on top of their hotdogs… and I did it too! And it was pretty good! I took pictures, so you’ll get to see it sometime.

After our mini dinner, we went our separate ways. I came back home and cleaned up my room a bit (no worries, mom, it wasn’t too messy or anything!) and had my real dinner, watched some television (American shows with Spanish subtitles, American shows are big over here) and now am updating for you wonderful people! Yay!

More things I’ve noticed and haven’t mentioned yet:
- The Smell of B.A…. let me tell you, there is no one smell to this city, basically like any city. But in no other city (New York and London included) have I ever noticed so many smells in one place. Walking down the street, in a ten minute time frame, there are countless smells that hit one’s nariz (nose). Meat, oil, incense (yuck), cheese, McDonalds (for real, one on every corner it seems like!), dog mess (oh yes, people let their dogs go to the bathroom on the middle of the sidewalk and DON’T clean it up! And it’s normal! Is there no shame!?!?!?) and many other smells that can be just as horrible or very good. It all depends on where you walk, quite literally.
- Dog walkers/parks: There are so many people who just make a job of dog walking, I am sure this is common in many places, but I’m from Shawnee, America…it’s not seen very often there. But there are guys walking around with ten-fifteen dogs! And, what is quite unlike many American dogs, these dogs are so so well behaved! A lot of dogs (when with their owners) aren’t even on a leash, but they don’t run away, they don’t chase after pigeons, they stay with their owners. It’s so sweet. And there are parks that have hundreds and hundreds of dogs being watched over. Like a doggy day care, quite interesting.
- Patience is definitely in this large city! While Bridget and I were standing in line at the store where I got my purses (and this is quite a large store, like a bit smaller than a J.C. Penney or something like that, and with two stories) we were waiting in line forever. It seemed like it took each purchase at least 5-10 minutes. Which, yes, doesn’t sound like that long, but you go to Dillards or Walmart and stand in line behind ONE person for ten minutes and notice how you start to wonder what’s taking so long… So, as Bridget starts getting agitated, I look around and notice that none of the other people in line look frustrated. In the states, this would just be unacceptable and people would be looking at their watches/phones and sighing and tapping their feet. Not here, people were nice and smiling and looking as if this was the most normal thing. It was so interesting to me because when you come from a place where time is money, it seems so slow! But I decided to be okay with it. I mean, we had no where to be, nothing to rush off to, why get bothered by it? It was definitely another lesson in the differences of cultures. I liked it!

Okay, that’s enough for today. See, with all this time on my hands I tend to write more and more…hopefully no one is too bored. More to come tomorrow!

Love you all and miss you!