The first couple of days...

I cannot think of one word to sum up the last few days, they have not been what I was expecting, but I think I am going to love it here. My traveling and adventure companion (Laura) and I, after saying our goodbyes to our dear parents, met an unexpected turn of events before we even left South Bend. Our plane had been delayed and they rerouted us since we were going to miss our connection flight. We ended up flying out of South Bend Tuesday evening, through Atlanta's airport late Tuesday night, through Santiago, Chile on Wednesday and arriving in Buenos Aires, exhausted, smelly and only thinking of showers around 2 pm Wednesday afternoon. Carlos Yanes, Victoria's host dad, picked us up and as quick as a wink I suddenly found myself alone with two strangers who didn't speak my language. 

One of the first sentences I attempted to say to them was "No se que hacer" or "I don't know what to do." My host mom, Maria, proceeded to sit me down and feed me, she already knew me well! Maria and my host dad, Jose, aka Nacho, are so incredibly kind and a great example of servitude. They speak with their actions even when, more times than I would hope for, I really have no idea what they are saying. But, they have been doing this for ten years and are used to it. Maria feeds me twice as much as I need, but also takes me on many speedy walks (como un perro). Without her influence in working out I would quickly turn into una chica gorda (one fat chick - not a literal translation of course). There are many parks nearby along with outdoor gym equipment, like a playground for adults! I think I will start regular running tomorrow...

Buenos Aires is beautiful, its very spread out, not so much like the stacks on stack of skyscrapers in Chicago. There are many neighborhoods, I live in Cochlan. The people of Buenos Aires, Los Portenos (someday i will figure out how to put the tilde on the n), are very fond of a few things in my limited observations: their dogs, their short boots/doc marten style shoes, their parks and their mate. This is only after two days mostly spent walking in said parks and not much else, so i am not sure yet how accurate that observation is.

One of the struggles in language learning is a pretty big lack of vocab. To be honest, I sometimes just nod or laugh along even though I have no idea what they were talking about. Hopefully this will get better once I actually start school and have been here a few weeks, or months. 

Right now I am attempting to make my first mate, a very popular drink here in Argentina (so popular, my host parents gave me a water heater in my room along with a temporary mate cup and bombilla, or straw, until I buy my own). Hopefully it turns out! Ciao, luego!