La primera semana

Superbowl Sunday at an "American" bar

The ceiling at Club Museo

Dancing the night away

Puerto Madero all lit up at night

Me.

Surviving la primera semana (& class): Check.
I would have to call my first week (semana) ----- interetirinexcitissful. For interesting, tiring, exciting and successful.
Of course.
I'm learning a little every day - even if it's just a vocab word here or there. Spanish 24/7 is definitely frustrating and difficult sometimes. It's hard not to revert back to English with the other people in my program. Most of the time, that's what happens anyway. And even though it may not help our Spanish, it's nice to have a break, especially after a long day.
Classes are going well. I'm relearning the things that I forgot that I forgot, which is good (most of the time). Stepping stones for improving. There's nobody from my program in my class; I'm with students from other programs, or who are studying individually, which I don't mind because it allows me to meet different people.
On Wednesday night, I went to my first boliche, aka nightclub, with some people from my program. The boliche was called Museos.
We had a blast!
Museos has 3 levels and it was absolutely packed with people! It had disco balls and strobe lights and disco/80s/reggaton/techno/spanish music! We stayed for a couple hours danced the night away. We finally left around 2:45 in the morning - we had to leave early because we had class, of course. :) I definitely had a siesta the next day.
We're going out tonight to Puerto Madero, which is an upper-class barrio in BA. We're going out to dinner and then hopefully another boliche. Or two.
Today after class, I went to a Japanese garden in Palermo (another barrio) and just walked around. It was so peaceful and pretty.
I'm starting to get to know my way around the city. Kind of. I've only been lost 3 times and left my keys in the apartment once. I think I'm doing pretty well!
After being here for only 1 week, there are definitely some things that I miss and that I'm craving:
*a big, fat hamburger. scratch that. a big, fat cheeseburger. with everything
*a salad (kind of cancels out the hamburger, but whatever)
*iced tea. can't find it anywhere
*knowing where i'm going. and where i'm at
*my own bed - hard beds and lumpy pillows just aren't my thing
*coffee to go
*warm showers. sometimes the water's warm, sometimes it's cold. it's like a guessing game - keeps things interesting
*family/friends. of course
*dryness. praise colorado for not being humid!
*the mountains. (see knowing where i'm going)
*doing my own laundry

Ok. So just because I can, here are some things that I love so far:
*no matter where you are, there are at least 3 cafes on every block. maybe more! hello coffee heaven!
*warm weather. in february :)
*the night life
*the people i'm getting to know
*not having a cell phone that works. weird, i know. but it's kind of nice. (same thing with tv)
*the ice cream. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
*discovering new places
*walking everywhere
*fresh fruit
*sangria

Some things I might change/don't particularly care for:
*theres dog poop EVERYWHERE on the sidewalks
*cockroaches are real. i'm a believer. i've seen them
*the drivers are crazy
*pigeons
*the humidity. forget trying to straighten my hair. ever.

I'm intersted/excited to see what the next few weeks bring. So far, all I've got to show for this week are blistered feet - bad, and peeling shoulders from a sunburn. But I wouldn't trade it! :)
Right now I'm sitting in my room with the window open. There's a slight breeze and it's just after 8pm. The sun sets here around 9:30. It's fantastic. I've got a glass of Sauvignon Blanc and some Fontina cheese.
I'd have to say I'm pretty content.

Getting to know my new home

In La Boca

Me in front of Casa Rosa

Street in Argentina

Aren't they cute? Girls in my program :)

Tango in La Boca on the sidewalks

Wow. It's only been 3 days but I feel like it's been a week! At least!
We've just done so much in a short amount of time that it seems like it's been longer.
Our day at the beach was amazing. Between volleyball, food and just getting some rays in the hopes of changing my ridiculously blinding whiteness into maybe an off-white color, it was a fun day. We got to this tiny resort area by boat. We went down El Tigre, one of the largest rivers, and then off into a separate delta to get to where we were going. It was really peaceful.
There was a restaurant there where a couple of us ate lunch. Their specialty at this restaurant is basically a mountain of different kinds of meats that you can share with your entire table (and still not be able to finish b/c there's so much). We didn't really know what was on there but it was good for the most part. Here comes the fun part: we all tried a bite of cow intestine! It was....disgusting. But I ate it!
And as for attempting the off-white color...let's just say I got some color on my face, shoulders and legs. I could potentially be related to a tomato.
On Sunday, we took a tour of the city of Buenos Aires - a good chunk of it at least. We went around to different barrios (or towns) and got out at each one and walked around for a bit. They all had different, fun characteristics. At the first stop in Ricoletta (I think) a couple of us went to this grave site and wandered around for a bit. The graves here are giant tombs with entire families who pay to have their spot reserved in advance. Apparently there are 6000 families buried there - they don't take any new reservations, but families that already have land there can expand if they have the money. There are so many intricate details in these tombs and shrines, from giant statues to carvings, to detail of the tomb itself. They are just incredible! We only had a half hour but I think we're going back there at some point. Don't worry, I'll take alot of pictures.
At one point, we drove on the widest street in the world! I think it's called Calle Flores, or something like that. We were told that it's impossible to cross it in one stoplight - I believe it. It's ginormous!
At some of the stops they had these giant outdoor flea market places where people sell anything and everything. The street performers are insane - I saw musicians, magicians, tango dancers, people who have just got to be downright crazy, singers, people on stilts, people dressed as clowns, etc, etc, etc. One of the places I really enjoyed was La Boca. It was so colorful because apparently the people there can't afford paint, so they just use whatever they have/whatever they can find. The colors are just fun. There were several tango dancers in the street for money - and some of them were just incredible!
We were all so tired by the end of the tour. Tired and sunburned. Not a good combination.
Nevertheless, we couldn't miss the Superbowl! So we showered and relaxed for a while and then I went with a few people to an American Bar called Shoeless Joes where we had some cervezas (beers) and watched the Superbowl. Props to both teams - what a good game. Anyway, the bar was crammed full of people - the majority from America. It was kinda cool to see so many people from America in one place in South America. We all had a really good time.
Ordering nachos helped too :)
Today, we took our placement tests for our Spanish classes. The written test was RIDICULOUS! I pretty much guessed on the whole thing, along with every other student there. I tested into the high-intermediate class, but I think I might try and see if I can get into advanced, depending on the syllabus and the content that we'll cover. I'll find out about that tomorrow.
Everyone will have class from 9:30am - 2:30pm. We have class with students from other study abroad programs, too. So we'll get to mix it up with different people, which will be good. Our first day of classes is tomorrow.
Caroline and I got a nice surprise today - apparently something happened with our laundry and anything white, light pink, blue, purple or yellow got dyed a nasty gray color. How does that happen?? And it's not just a light gray... my swimsuit is even dyed and those things are resilient to everything! I have no idea what could have possibly happened, but I think I'm going to wash my own clothes from now on, or at least my whites/light colors.
*Ugh*
The weather here has been ridiculously hot. But I kind of like it. Right now it's almost 2am and it's lightening and thundering and just sprinkling a little. It's beautiful.
Wow. I didn't expect to write that much but there's just so much that's happened! I can't believe it's only been 3 days.
I've taken a ton of picutres already and would post them on here, but I conveniently left my camera cable at home and there's no place for me to put my memory card in my laptop (not that I can find anyway). Maybe I'll have the parentals send me a care package with it!
Ok. I should probably go to bed considering I have class in the morning.
Buenas Noches*