Day 1: I made it!!

       ¡Buenos días mi familia y mis amigos! I am currently sitting in my new room, typing away on my iPhone as I await the arrival of my host sister, who will help me with my converter for my laptop. My first day in Argentina was a long one, but an excellent one at that. My flight was a little bumpy to say the least. Due to a mechanical malfunction in the plane, we did not take off until nearly two hours after the departure time. We also could not land immediately as a result of dense fog covering the runway. Nevertheless, after over 11 hours of drifting in and out of sleep I made it safely to Argentina and for that I am thankful.
     When we arrived at Ezeiza International Airport we were greeted by Marcela and Luciano, our local program coordinators. We split up into two groups and my group boarded a private bus with Marcela and our teaching assistant Enrique. As we entered the outskirts of the city, Marcela pointed out La Villa Miseria, the slums of Buenos Aires. They looked like dilapidated buildings. In certain areas you could see men doing construction at the tops of the buildings. Marcela explained that it is illegal to live in the villas, but people move in as squatters and illegally reconstruct the buildings. Next to the villas were government housing projects which looked very similar to those in the Bronx (**Note: my parents are originally from New York. New York is the only city comparable in size to Buenos Aires where I have spent a lot of time. Thus, I will be making many comparisons to New York throughout this blog).  
      As we continued we entered el sur (the southern part of the city), which is the poorer part of Buenos Aires. The city proper of Buenos Aires is located in el sur. As traffic became more dense, I began to realize how different drivers are here from those in NYC. The drivers honk their horns often and create their own lanes, but they do not drive quite as aggressively as in New York. However, the drivers in Buenos Aires have absolutely no respect for pedestrians. Yield is not an expression that exists here. Cars do not stop to allow passengers to cross, even when the cross sign indicates that it is safe to walk. This worries me as I will be walking everywhere. At one intersection in el sur, a girl stood in front of the cars at a red light juggling pins. She then walked from car to car collecting tips. I found this to be very peculiar. 
     We then reached el norte, the richer part of Buenos Aires where all the students will be staying. My apartment is located in the barrio (neighborhood) of Palermo. My roommate Kassidy and I were the first to be dropped off. We were greeted by a middle aged woman by the name of Claudia, who will be our host mother. We used a key to enter the main door of an apartment complex, then the three of us and our four gigantic pieces of luggage somehow managed to squeeze into a closet sized elevator. The elevators are interesting here as they have two wrought iron doors that must be closed in order for the elevator to function. We came up one flight of stairs to Claudia's apartment. Claudia's apartment is very nice. It's a modest apartment with a large living room and kitchen, three bedrooms, and a patio that is located in the middle of the apartment complex. The patio is different from American patios in that it is located in the center of the apartment and is surrounded by other apartments, rather than facing the road like most American apartments. If you look up you can see the sky and other people's patios, but you can't really see outdoors. The shower has a window that also opens up to the patio, which made taking a shower an awkward experience. 
     Speaking Spanish came a lot easier than expected. Claudia was very helpful in explaining things and making sure that Kassidy and I understood. She also continues to complement our Spanish skills, so as to boost our confidence (or at least that's what I think). Her Porteño (Porteño=the people of Buenos Aires) accent is not too hard to understand, but sometimes I do get confused. Because of the large population of Italian descendants here in Buenos Aires, Porteño Spanish is very similar to Italian. Many Spanish words are pronounced similarly if not exactly the same as the Italian pronunciation. We also met our host mother's daughter Sophie and Sophie's half brother, Franscisco (who does not live here). Sophie is my age and is also very friendly and helpful with my Spanish. When we first arrived, Claudia made us lunch. We ate casseroles, which were cut into thick slices like pizza. One had ham, cheese and peppers and the other had carrots and zucchini. It was surprisingly good!

    After lunch, Claudia took us to what she called the "shopping" (prounced "ch-oh-ping" haha"). In reality it was the Alto Palermo mall. The mall was an upscale mall with a combination of European and American stores. The large European influence on Buenos Aires' culture was evident at this mall and was reflected in the facial features of many of the people shopping there. We window shopped and went into a couple of stores. Claudia was so excited to point out her favorite things. One thing that I found strange about the mall was that they had make up counters with brands that we would normally find at drugstores in America. Instead of Mac counters they had Maybelline and Covergirl make up counters. Another hilarious thing happened while we were shopping in a luxury shoe store. All of the cashiers were dressed nicely and women were spending 800 pesos (about $160) on nice shoes. Meanwhile, the store was playing unedited Wiz Khalifa songs. Kassidy and I were cracking up and had to explain to our confused host mother that the music was unedited.

A mate mug similar to the
 one we drank from

     After shopping at the mall, we headed over to La Universidad de Palermo, where we will be taking classes, to meet Marcla and exchange our dollars for pesos. The college is less than three blocks from my host family's house so I would say we lucked out. We quickly realized we were more fortunate than some of the others in our group as some of our friends told us that their host parents had not fed them or quickly left the house after the host students arrived. I was really thankful for Claudia for being so helpful and fun. On the way back from La universidad, Claudia stopped at a bakery and bought a dozen media lunas, crescent shaped pastries drizzled with a buttery-sugary-honey coating. When we came home, the media lunas were served with tea and milk as a snack that Argentines eat around 5 pm. Claudia also brought out water crackers and spread dulce de leche, a spread made of caramelized sweetened milk onto the crackers. I tried to control myself and only eat one media luna, but Claudia kept serving me cracker after cracker covered in dulce de leche. So much for that! After we drank our tea, Claudia asked us if we had ever had mate, a traditional Argentine drink originally made by the Gauchos. It consisted of a gourd shaped mug that was filled with yerba mate leaves. Hot water was then poured into the mug until a mountain of leaves remained at the top. The water is then sipped from a pipe-like straw that is rounded at the bottom like a spoon. One mate mug is shared by all in a similar manner to how one hookah pipe may be shared by multiple people. We sipped and sipped until the water was completely gone. The mug was then refilled with water. Mate is a stimulant similar to caffeine. At first, from the way that Claudia described it we thought mate was a drug, but Claudia reassured us that it was just a drink. To me the mate tasted like spinach mixed with herbs. Claudia described the mate as being amargo, or bitter. It was an odd taste, but also very addicting. Claudia left for work around 6 and returned at 9. She made entraña (a type of beef) which was served with tomatoes seasoned with olive oil, oregano and basil. 

I did not take any pictures today, but they will be coming in full force soon. For now I am exhausted. It has been a very long day and I am so excited to sleep. 

Besos y abrazos,

Jackie