A Power Outage and a Winter Cap

Dia dos

Orientation wasn't the most exciting part of my day, but it definitely provided some valuable information from what classes are available at my IES center for my Spanish speaking level to how to avoid being a victim of a pickpocket. It was useful advice and provided me some reassurance that locals practice precautionary measures as well as tourists. Tourists are easier targets, but everyone should be and has to be careful.

The walking tour of Sal Telmo showed me how diverse Buenos Aires can be. One block, the architecture is Italian and on the next is a Russian church that looks like it transported from St. Petersburg. There are many parks, cars coated with dust (a fellow student informed me that it is actually volcanic ash from Chile), and dogs. Dogs everywhere wearing no leashes. Today, I saw a professional walking 10 dogs at once. I was incredibly impressed.

On the tour, we were told that Buenos Aires has two founding dates. The first attempt failed because there wasn't the anticipated amounts of silver found in the area. Strangely, the huge mountain made from silver was never actually found. Maybe in my exploring Argentina, I'll find it and name it Popovich Peak. Yep, that'll do.

Ps, my power is out right now, leaving me to fend in the dark in a somewhat unfamiliar apartment. It's also way cold in this room. With the room illuminated with only my Mac's glow and my candle slowly shrinking from its 8 inch stance, I can only imagine the thoughts of my host mama y papa as they walked by and saw my under my covers with 2 sweatshirt and a winter cap. It's honestly not even that cold - the low 30's/high 20's is normally not something I'd fret about. It's that 48 hours ago, I was roasting in Dulles airport. It was crazy hot and instead of transitioning from warm to cold, I literally stepped into it.

The good news is, my allergy to Argentina is subsiding. I sneezed probably 50% less than yesterday. Yesterday was horrible, but today was much better and my nose didn't run nearly as much. As intrigued as you all are with the condition of my sinuses, I think I"ll move on.

I consider myself to blend in well with whatever situation I am present. I can be a leader if needed, I can be silly if needed, and I can be the quiet one in the corner if needed. When entering a new group of people - especially those with strong personalities as most who study abroad do, I tend to default to the quiet one because there isn't a need for another loud mouth. I don't feel that I need to assert myself at first. This allows me to get to know the other quiet people more easily. We flock. And rock.

Dinner tonight was an interesting event. Again, in this new group - my family, I definitely default to the quiet one mostly because there is a pretty decently sized language barrier, but also because I don't and sometimes can't put forth the effort to break it down. My housemate speaks pretty fluently so when conversation is flowing over our meal, I feel awkward cutting in and saying "Ah, yo tambien. Er- como se dice (fill in the blank)." Though, at the same time, this is my homestay, too, and I'm trying to pick up as much as the language as I can. Es todo bueno, though because I get to stuff my face more easilt with the yummy foods we've been served like the pasta with some sort of creamy tomato sauce I devoured yesterday and the fried meat slab I had tonight. Don't judge me for not knowing exactly what kind of meat it was, I was just going with the flow. If I had to guess, it'd be pork chops.

Also, I'm very excited about the dulce de leche flavored yogurt I just purchased at my neighborhood supermarket. I'll keep you updated on the fabulousness.

Mañana, I buy a cell phone and bus pass. Then, I'll be all grown up and ready to take on the city.