Yay, another day of the first day of classes…I’m glad that there are no more first days of classes here; I don’t think I could take it! But before I tell you about class, let me inform you of my interesting bus ride to the school. It was started off like any other bus ride…it was semi-busy and there was no place to sit. An old man got on the bus after me and a younger man (twenties, maybe?) got up and offered his seat to him. It was the nicest thing I’d seen in a long time. But then, the old man shook his hand and offered the seat to me! I was like, “Aw…” and so the younger man asked if I would like to sit, but I was standing next to a lady older than me, so I offered it to her. I am pretty sure it was the most polite moment happening on this side of the hemisphere at that particular moment. I felt good…and not because I offered a seat, but because so many of us did, it was one of those rare moments that make you feel like all is right with the world! I liked that.
However, life continues and you realize that there are a few crazies out there. Towards the middle of the bus ride, a guy got on the bus and started speaking loudly in Spanish. This is not entirely uncommon, but most of the time when people speak up like that, they are wanting you to buy something from them or just give them money. Well, this guy didn’t have anything to sell and I don’t think he was asking for money (I couldn’t really understand him)… but he went and sat down and all was quiet until a couple minutes later… “BOOM, Paraguay! BOOM, Paraguay!” he started yelling. He did it a few times and I won’t lie, I jumped a little in my seat. The guy across from me looked at me, and we must have both had this, “Um…what?” look on our faces, because we couldn’t help but chuckle. Luckily, that was all the excitement on the bus for me. I got off before anything else strange happened with that guy.
Now, moving on to school… it was another 4 hour class day. I was not necessarily looking forward to it, but it was a new class, so of course there was some excitement involved. Our professor seems nice, he’s quite a character and he writes a lot on the board which makes me happy! He speaks very slowly for us as well, so I was able to keep up with a lot of what he was saying. I took about 4 pages of notes, all in Spanish, yay for my being studious! We learned about the declaration of independence for Argentina from Spain, and about San Martin the great liberator (he liberated Peru, Chile, and Ecuador as well…pretty cool guy that one). Class was way long. I guess it doesn’t matter how much you enjoy a subject a four hour class (with a fifteen minute break) is just tiring! My brain hurt afterward and speaking in Spanish or listening to it was basically the last thing I wanted to do!
The bus ride home after school took WAY too long, almost two hours which is crazy because in the early afternoon it only takes about 45 minutes, if that long. Bridget and I went over some homework together though, so that was good. When I got home I heated up my dinner, which looked pretty good. It was pasta with some type of meat on the top. I like meat… I like pasta, but whatever this was, I did not like it. I ate most of it though, I mean, it wasn’t terrible, it just wasn’t what my taste buds liked. It almost had a barbecue-esque flavor and when I asked what it was, Elsa just said, “carne” which means meat… so apparently it wasn’t anything special…tonight we watched another episode of “That 70s show” and also an episode of “Ugly Betty”. It is fun watching it with her because she really enjoys the shows and she talks to me during the commercials about the story lines and what she wants to happen.
Well…after dinner I called my lovely parents and talked to them (separately because mom was at VBS when I called the first time)…nothing else too exciting happened this evening…
Wow, it’s already been nine days! Some times, it feels like I have been here for the longest time and yet at other times it feels like I just got here. Today it hit me that I am in South America… I mean, I’ve always known that I was here, since I got here, and yet today I was like…wow, South America. Another continent, another lifestyle, it’s different than London or New York, but B.A. really isn’t that different, which is maybe why it hadn’t really hit me. B.A. is a lot like any large city is like. There are a lot of people; a lot of buildings; a LOT of traffic… the main difference is of course, the language. I guess I like it. =) I’m getting a bit more used to it day by day, it’s still unfamiliar and can get a bit unnerving every now and then, but it makes me happy that when I get off my bus stop, I know where to walk to without having to look at my guide book! And the other day (I forgot to put this in my update, so sorry!) someone walked past me on the street and asked me for directions! Sadly, I didn’t know where on earth she was talking about, but the point is that I looked as if I knew where I was and the surrounding areas! What joy!
Other tidbits of the land:
- I have only seen ONE toilet that has a normal handle flusher like we have at home. And I have not seen any that are automatic. They either have push buttons on the side of the toilet (where our handles would be) or they have push buttons in the wall above the toilet… and sadly enough, the water does not go the opposite way just because I’m in the southern hemisphere.
- Smoking is apparently one of the most normal things to do here. You can’t walk down the street without passing 10 or more people who are smoking (this of course depends on how busy a street and how long you walk down it, but the concept is the same). And apparently, it’s not something looked down upon either. People don’t stare or “tsk” at those with cigarettes… I guess it’s just a normal part of their culture? I dunno…
- Argentines are very much open about…well, apparently everything. A group of girls happened to be in our classroom before our class started and within a three minute time frame asked us: our names, where we’re from, how old we are, what we’re doing in B.A., do we go to university at home?, what we’re studying, if we like it here, when we’re going back home, and how long we’ve been here… Well, they’re not shy! They appear to be closed off, but that’s because they don’t just start talking to you. If you make the first move, you basically see them open up and then it’s like you can’t get them to stop talking to you. It’s a wonderful thing!
More later! Chao mis amigos!
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