My First Weekend in BA . . .

I´m sorry that it´s taken so much time to update. I have just been having far too much fun and my ¨wireless connection¨ at the apartment has been sketchy. Right now it´s Monday morning and I´m at an internet cafe around the corner from my apartment.

I have had a wonderful weekend!!! I can´t believe it´s only been a weekend! Went out with Ben on Friday to an area very near my house with a strip of really neat bars. Stayed out very very late (which is the norm for this city). When I returned home, I couldn´t figure out how to unlock my apartment door. I had to call Ben and have him come back and do it for me. Incidentally, in this huge sprawling city, he only lives three blocks away from me.

Anyways, two hours later . . . . I had to wake up and get to school for orientation. I took a cab because I wasn´t sure how to get there. But, it turns out that I´m just a very short and lovely walk away. We spent an hour or so on obvious type odds and ends. Then they took us for a really nice lunch and a city tour. I had already seen alot of the city in the previous days, but it´s amazing how huge it is. There are 47 neighborhoods. And, they are all so very different. I think that I will need a weekend to explore each of the more significant neighborhoods. The architecture and monuments are so rich here. Buenos Aires has a rich history despite it´s recent financial crisises. Just 100 years ago, it was considered the second city of the world (next to New York). There are huge, georgous mansions everywhere. However, most have been converted to hotels-embassies-ect. And yet, there are also georgous, modern buildings and amenities perfectly blended into the rich past. It´s all just lovely. I´m so happy to be here!

The tour finished up at around 6 30, and I used my map to find my way home. I was really proud of myself when I made it without a wrong turn. I have never quite understood the value of maps before, but I´m starting to really appreciate mine. My neighborhood is georgous. It really reminds me of my last neighborhood in Chicago - cobblestoned streets, lots of trees, simple, symetrical modern buildings mixed with old masions, lots of shops and restaurants.

Anyways, the people in my program decided to meet up a few hours later. I was going to take a nap but that just wasn´t working out. Ben called and we were trying to chat, but our reception was bad, so I told him if he wanted to, he could stop by for a few minutes and we could chat and walk instead of using up my minutes to not be able to hear each other. When he stopped by he brought me flowers. It was such a lovely gesture and they look georgous on my desk. We took a bit of a walk around the neighborhood.

Then, I met up with my friends at the designated spot about two blocks from my house. I wasn´t ready to go out yet since I´d been wandering with Ben, but I told them I´d run home and change and then meet up with them. I was almost home, after several wrong turns when I ran into a girl from my program (Annie) who was very lost and had been wandering trying to meet us for an hour. So, she came upstairs with me while I got ready and then we left and wandered for another hour looking for the place we were supposed to meet (the same street I was on the night before) that was only a few blocks away. Neither of us know Spanish, but we eventually just hopped in a cab and I told him the name of the street and said ¨Mucho Barros¨ and he got it. Out of fifteen of us in the program, and fourteen in town, thirteen of us ended up out together, all in one place without the use of cell phones. It was amazing. There were also a couple other random people that people knew. Everyone seems really cool. I think we´re going to all be really tight. We sat around drinking at one bar for a couple of hours and then we headed to a big club. It was a 30 peso cover charge, so we decided not to go. It looked really really neat, but since most people had just arrived and were very tired, they wanted to save that for another night and go more low key. So, at that point, I talked to my friend, Emanuel, who is studying in Chile but came in for the weekend, and he invited us to his friend´s house to just hang out and drink. So, five of us went over there. We got some cheap liquor and just hung out with Maney and his two friends. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. We rolled out of there around 6 ish.

Sunday, we got to sleep in late. We didn´t have to meet until 2 p.m. for a tour of Recolata. Well, once we met, it turned out that basically one of the CEA people was just showing us how to get there on the bus. So, we all took the bus down there. Then we went to the cemetary, which obviously I was at a few days before. It was rather warm and no one seemed really into it. I was tired and not into wandering all day in the area I´d already been in. So, I decided to just head home for a bit and meet up in the evening with everyone for the superbowl. So, I took the bus on my own. I actually found it myself, got off at a stop that I recognized as being near my house, and found my way home. I was rather impressed with myself. I met back up for the Superbowl at a sport´s bar that evening. It was alot of fun. I eventually made it in for the night about 3 30, which wasn´t bad considering I didn´t need to be at school until 10 15.

However, this morning, I must have slept through my alarm because I woke up at 10 20. I threw on clothes and put my hair in a pony tail and ran to school. It was testing this morning. I just basically walked into the classroom and said that I wasn´t taking the test because I was in level one. She made me put my name on the paper and then I got to leave. I have to be back there in around an hour for orientation. Then tomorrow we start classes. I think that I´m going to go out for a bit tonight, but I´ll try to be home by midnight or one. Class doesn´t start til 9 30, so I can actually sleep until around 8 30, which isn´t bad.

So, anyways, that´s generally what I´ve been up to. I´ve been having a fabulous time, and already thinking about getting an apartment and staying down here for the summer. I can´t wait until I know the language. I feel like a dumb ass with my limited vocabulary.

I´ll try to update more frequently from here on . . . I´ll try to post some pics soon too.