Mucho Changes in Bs As . . .

Ok. I wrote this days ago, but I haven't been able to get to a wireless connection until now.

WELL!!! This is one update that won’t start out with “really nothing new has happened.” My life in Buenos Aires has dramatically changed since the last time I wrote. I wish I had had time to update you as it went along, but things have been nuts here!

The Beach
Anyways, I spent the weekend at the beach with CEA. We went to a place called Mara Del Plata about five hours from Bs As. It was really nice to see the whole group again. I really thought that the weather was going to suck, so I wasn’t expecting much. But, it turned out that the weather was sunny and warm. It was cold for the cold water, pero perfecto for laying out. The first night they took us for a dinner at a really good pizza place. Then we got some drinks and went back to our very nice hotel. We ended up sitting in someone’s room and drinking and listening to someone’s ipod. By the time people were ready to go out at around 3, Abby (my roommate on the trip and best CEA friend) and I had already retired to bed for a decent night’s sleep.

The next day we went on a little tour. It was a lot of fun. They took us around the area. The highlight for me was seeing the sea lion colony. It wasn’t really that impressive. Just a couple dozen sea lions hanging around near the water next to a fishery. It was super smelly and the sea lions were more dirty looking than cute. But, it was neat to see. There was also a stop for a view and at a warf with the traditional orange fishing boats in the harbor. Besides that we just saw interesting buildings, museums, and streets from a bus window.

After the tour, it was beach time. Abby and I picked up the mixings for mimosas, changed into our suits, and met the group on the beach. It was really nice to just sit in the sun and read. When the sun was starting to set, Kyle pulled out his guitar and started playing. By this time, there were only a few of us left. It was so wonderful being on the beach with friends, listening to guitar music and the crashing waves. Music always makes life more vivid for me.

That night CEA took us out for a fancy dinner. We ordered steaks, seafood, wine, and nice desserts. I had a very nice steak and plenty of red wine of course. After the dinner, we headed out to a bar. It was kind of dead as its off season. Someone mentioned going to a casino, so I hopped in that cab. I played a couple slots and ended up winning 300 pesos early on. Abby was with me, but she didn’t want to use money, so I turned in about 200 pesos and we played slots and had drinks with the rest. Then we wandered by the tables. I really wanted to play blackjack, but I felt a little intimidated playing in Argentina when I hadn’t played in a while. I scoped out the tables for a while and noticed that practically no one was playing with the odds. So, I finally figured out where to get chips and sat at a table. I was playing really well. I was betting low, but I still ended up 120 pesos ahead on it. I was just starting to get comfortable and considering making higher bets when they casino closed. So, that was that night . . .

The next day, Abby and I went and walked the city. We walked along the road along the beach. We ended up at a fair where we did some shopping. Then we walked into the commercial district. After a couple hours, we had lunch at this restaurant in an old fort on the ocean with a romantic history. It was lovely. Then, we walked back along the beach and met up with the group for our five hour bus ride back to Bs As.

End of Trip. It was nice. And, since I barely spent any money and won some, I came back with more money than I left with. That was a nice surprise!


My Fabulous Spanish Lesson . . .

Monday I had my first private Spanish lesson. The teacher’s name is Elizabeth. She lives in the city center. So, that forces me to get out of my hood. I found her house right away off the bus, which was a relief since I forgot to bring a map. My lesson was so great!!! She was so nice and she spoke to me in English once in a great while when I needed it. I also felt comfortable speaking Spanish with her. So, I feel like I learned so much and actually practiced speaking. It made me excited about Spanish again.


The Drama Begins . . .

I don’t think that I mentioned this in my blog before, but the impending separation of Ben and I has been weighing on our relationship a lot lately. It’s been causing a lot of arguments. No matter what, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. So, we had a talk and broke up on Monday night. My heart was really really broken. I called my girlfriends Abby and Lisa and they came and met me at a bar and literally, not kidding, cried their hearts out with me. I don’t think that I’ve ever cried like that in front of anyone before and no one has definitely joined me balling before. They wouldn’t even let me pay any of the bill. It was so sweet. It made me feel good to have such great friend. It still hurt though, a lot.

The Drama Gets Out of Control . . .

I didn’t fall asleep that night. I was too upset. I knew that in the morning, I wouldn’t get any rest because mi madre would drive me nuts and the maid was coming. So, I packed all the things I would need and decided to spend the day away.

When I tried to leave the house mi madre cornered me and started nagging the hell out of me. She’s been doing this for a couple of weeks now. It seems like every time I see her she has a complaint about something that I’m doing. But, she says it in a sweet underhanded way and keeps going and going and going. But, she just went crazy yesterday morning. She just bitched and bitched and bitched at me about everything she could think of. Just ridiculous. She was pissed because I hadn’t given her enough notice about going the beach because she might have wanted to leave town (which she had told me the morning before). She was really pissed because I hadn’t come home until late and thus hadn’t eaten one of the whole ten dinners she’s made me since I’ve been here until late. She was pissed because my room wasn’t clean enough even though I had just spent 20 minutes cleaning since I have been lectured several times about cleaning my room before the maid comes (seriously!). She just went on and on and on. I had enough. You can imagine that I wasn’t in the mood to deal with it. I wasn’t rude by any means, but I didn’t put up with it either.

So, when I left I decided that I needed to call and speak with the woman in charge of my program. I told her that I didn’t need to move but that she needed to talk to this woman and put in perspective her role as landlady not mother and unselfish host. So, a couple of hours later, I get a phone call from my director, Gabby. She told me that she wanted me to move out of there today. She said that she thought Orieta was crazy. So, she asked where I wanted to go. I decided on the residencia since it was the easiest option.

I called Ben and let him know what happened and asked if he could help me move that night. I told him that I understood if he didn’t want to. But, he actually left work then and there to come help me. I was really nervous about going up to get my stuff. I was starting to feel bad that maybe I’d acted too hastily and this poor woman’s heart was broken that I was leaving her. But, when I got up there, she was so nasty. She had all my bags packed and sitting in the living room. I was shocked. I was pissed that she touched my stuff. But, I was staying calm and just making sure that she’d gotten everything. Ben really stood up for me and told her that she had no right to move my things. She started complaining about how nasty American and Brittish people were and how completely disgusting and dirty my room was. I swear mom, it wasn’t. I am barely there, I don’t have that much stuff, the maid had “cleaned” the week before, and I had spent 20 minutes cleaning that morning. She was frickin nuts. I stayed really calm until she started saying something like, “someone got much more kindness than she deserved, much more. . .” That’s when I looked at her and said, “that’s enough. You were getting paid for me being here . . .” Then Ben stopped me. But, she also stopped. Didn’t have anything to say back to that. I was so glad to get out of there.

So, Ben and I and a car full of suitcases went over to the residentia. It’s a big house for international students. It’s not nice, nice, but it’s nicer than where I was living and set up much better for my purposes. I life in a very large room with four beds and two other roommates. Both my roommates are Argentine girls. It’s kind of scary, but they are both super super nice and it will be amazing for me to be forced to practice my Spanish now that I’m feeling more confident with my lessons. I have to sleep on the top bunk, but I actually think that’s kind of an adventure since I haven’t done in since I fell off in summer camp. I live right next door to the other CEA girls who stay here. And, our two rooms share a really cute little balcony with large French doors. There are a couple desks, a tv, shelves, a refrigerator, a phone, and individual locked closets.

The house has a couple of common spaces to hang out and eat, and there are some computers, and wireless connection in the common areas. The students are a mix of Argentine and international. So, there is a lot of Spanish spoken. We are fed breakfast, lunch, and dinner Monday through Friday and our on our own for meals on the weekend. For dinner last night they had pasta with a nice meat sauce, bread, and a salad bar. For breakfast there were eggs, crapes, cereal, oatmeal, fruit, and fresh squeezed orange juice. The best part is that I don’t have to arrange my meals with someone. If I’m hungry and around, I know when the meals are. If I don’t show up or change my mind about going out, it’s no big deal. It’s such a nice change.

So, even though I’m sad about breaking up with my boyfriend and being treated so unkindly by my senora, I am actually feeling really happy with my new home and my renewed excitement of learning Spanish due to my private lessons. I am happy because I realized that Ben and I were going to have to break up sometime or another, but I am really happy to have such a great friend who helped me out so much last night. I’m not saying it doesn’t still hurt. But, I think the surrounding change helped so much with that.

I had another private Spanish lesson today. It was so good. I feel like I’m learning so much. Even though you would have thought that the past 24 hours were a nightmare, I’m actually feeling surprisingly more happy than I’ve felt in a while. If things keep going well, I may spend more time in Bs As this summer and keep going with my lessons. I feel like I’m finally progressing after standing still for so long. I have another lesson Friday. Tonight I’m going out for Thai with friends. Then, tomorrow I’m going to some sort of show with CEA. Friday, I’ve been invited to a dinner/club thingy. Just booked a trip with Abby and Lisa to Mendoza for Easter. So, things aren’t too bad here.

The drama has been good. I’m positive me again. I remember why I wanted to be here!!!

I’ll keep you updated.