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I still feel like I am talking to myself.........hahaha...am I?

Funny story:

Ok. So there are about 70 kids in my IFSA program. Every morning so far, all 70 of us have sat for about 2 hours in this huge lecture hall with Mario, the hilarious (and flambuoyant) director of IFSA. Every morning, he goes over various things, such as rules, and things to expect with our host families and Argentine customs in general. Today, there were 6 or 7 kids who were extremely participatory during the lecture. And spoke impeccably good Spanish (but that is normal for this program--there are a lot of kids in the program who are fluent speakers). These kids exchanged names, email addresses, and phone numbers with some of the other kids (still normal). They were cute and well-dressed (also normal). They sat through the whole 2 hour lecture, and at the end, a few of them approached Mario to ask him more questions. That's when the rest of them grabbed the projector (value: $2,000 USD) and walked out of the room! Turns out they were just a bunch of Argentinians disguised as part of our study abroad program! Which also explains the 2 missing purses from yesterdays' lecture!! I know I know, terrible people. But you gotta hand it to them, they are creative!

"The Paris of the Americas"

We were given a walking tour of Recoleta today (where I live), and it was sooooo freezing!! Numb-body-freezing.
The Plaza de Hoteles, built by the Spaniards -->











My group, freezing our asses off listening to architecture talk









Welllll my apologies bc I didn't really have anything of substance to write today. I guess I could tell you about the cold and how I'm still not thawed completely from this morning's walking tour...but that's boring. Or how I watched "los Simpsons" in Spanish tonight. But then that's as far as that story goes...Riveting! Hmmm. Writing in a blog is like talking to yourself but sociably acceptable. As if being crazy on the internet is less crazy. Wellllll that's all I got tonight. Estoy muy cansada. Buenas noches mis amores! CHE!

Long and very rainy day of Orientación...

Tanya (from Wyoming) lives in Recoleta too, so we walked back together from the program office, where our orientation was held all day (about a 30 min walk to our neighborhood). On the way back, we had two very different lookatthe2gringas reactions: one man yelled "SHAN-kee [yankee] devils!" out the window of a car at us, and another one invited us to a "bomba" (bomb? uhhh, terrorism?) party. Which was too sketchy for even me to try to go to..haha




Avenida Santa Fe (where there is a leather boot/purse/belt store every 5 feet and the powers of temptation are overbearing. I need to buy horseblinders to walk down this street).



I had the best lunch today w 3 other kids from IFSA. Amazing steak, and cheesy fries, and Argentine WINE! All for less than $10 USD! I love this place! (How do they stay so skinny? I haven't seen one fat person yet! Maybe there is only one and he doesnt leave his house because he knows hes the only one. Poor little dude. Or, big dude rather.)



Jane and Amanda, both from phil-ee.

mas fotos...very slow to load...

my host, Sara del Monte, at the cafe where we had lunch









the view from the balcony on the other side...You can see the famous Recoleta Cemetary just a block away










Sara's cat, Cleo. She is muy bonita.








The living room








The kitchen... and office in the back

the view from my balcony

my new room

Por fin llegado!

Well, it was a long journey but I finally arrived in Buenos Aires at 6:30 this morning. I was mad that I bought one of those "travelers' pillows" (the U-shaped ones) that people put around their necks while walking around the airport because they think they make them look cool. I wanted to look cool too, dammit! Anyways, I bought one, wasted 13 dollas on it, nly to discover it doesn't fit my neck and the entire flight I used the free pillow that every passenger gets anyways. Score one for me! 8 hours, and 45 minutes later, things were about to lo0k very much up.
Landing in Buenos Aires was gorgeous. Despite my aisle seat, I could see the entire city through the window above the 3 children seated across from me, and it was amazing. The sun was rising, and through the clouds, the glittering lights of LA CIUDAD was like a brightly lit-up welcome sign to me.
Having breezed through security, aduanas, and picked up my 2 giant bags, I was the very first of the 40 or so other IFSA students from my flight to get through to the outside. A gray-haired but young looking man approached me immediately, arms outstretched, yelling my name. "Naomi Martin! ALOO! Bienvenidos!!" I was so relieved for a hug, and to have finally arrived that I embraced this stranger and cheek-kissed him. "Hahaha, como me conoces?" (how do u know who i am?) I asked him, and he told me that he was a psychic. I love psychics. Sometimes I think I am one. (Turned out he was one of the directors of the program, and had just studied everybody's passport pictures, but oh well.)
Anyways, he gathered me, and about 5 other students who were almosttt as speedy-gonzalez as me and brought us over to a line of taxis vying for our patronage. He put me in the first one, gave him a pre-paid voucher and my address, and told me not to pay anything at the end.
I made small-talk with the driver the whole time, and at the end he asked me if I was Brazilian. Best compliment EVER! Brazilian accents are so cool, and apparently I sort of have one. Very excitando.
My host mom, Sara del Monte, is the best. She is so welcoming, friendly, upbeat, and interesting. The apartment, on the fifth floor overlooking Recoleta (and the well-known Recoleta cemetary where Evita Peron is famously buried), is so cute. It is small, being in the heart of the centro, but very cute. Sara's daughter, who I'd guess is in her forties, lives here as well, but works all day so I only met her briefly. Sara served me the breakfast of champions, and then we went for a walk around the city.

Trying to figure out how to add pics...