Deciding to live in Argentina is kind of like deciding to skydive everyday, only slightly more death defying

MESSAGE: I started this blog post, got distracted and never finished it. So I posted it as is.

Dear reader, I apologize for the large gap between now and my last report. Blog writing takes time, and time is not something I have. When I do, I sleep(defying death tires you out).

So, back to the skydiving similie. For an American, I find that the daily life differences down south tend to be slightly life threatening. Somehow both stop signs and stoplights were dropped from the Argentine culture. Which I honestly don´t see as a negative, because traffic flows much smoother, at a slightly slower pace than American traffic. The only problem for me is that there is some inherent knowledge of who has the right of way (I think they are born with it) which makes my morning bike ride to school slightly treacherous. And yes, I do actually ride my bike to school, and the lack of traffic regulations combined with my perceived threat of hypothermia, every successful arrival at school is a mini celebration. I think what I have to develop is the confidence of plunging into an intersection with an "I know you won´t hit me" attitude like the Argentine bicyclists. As of right now my attitude is more like "I´m hesitating with my eyes closed because I really don´t want to die." Its not working for me. And honestly I rarely feel safer in a car because nobody uses seatbelts.

Now to the danger of the food here. I´m going to die from eating so much dulce de leche. There are these cookies called alfajores that are going to be the end of me.

The Game of Life is Now the Game of Charades

If there is one thing I can say about exchanging is that it is full of surprising life changes. For instance, I now eat, sleep, and breathe charades. Which is definitely a fun game every once in a while, right? But you know those moments when you have no idea what your team mate is doing? not a good feeling. Or worse, when you feel triumphant because you are positive that you know the answer, you scream it out with pride, and then you´re wrong. Yeah, thats kinda my game of charades these days. The good news is that each day gets a little better. Everyday I can understand a little bit more(it helps that everyone in my town has finally figured out you have to talk to me at slower than a snails pace), and I can speak a little bit more accurately. All of these newly acquired abilities seem to disappear around midnight (which you would assume is okay because you are sleeping at this time. In Argentina, that is just not that case. You need speaking skills until 6 am) so for now I need to practice my late night charading.

School was also an interesting life change. I was so ridiculously nervous for my first day that I slept a grand total of maybe two hours the night before. Then, I got there a little bit early (huge faux pas) and one of my class mates started talking to me and I couldn´t understand a word. Nothing. The rest of the day proceeded in a similar fashion with me being interrogated for five hours (literally) about the vast majority of American culture all the while I understood one out of every ten questions which was frustrating for both parties, I assume. When my classmates needed to take breaks from the interrogation, all of there energy went into planning a welcome party for the next night. (If you are reading this and wondering why no one is actually participating in school, it might make you feel better to know I was wondering the same thing all day.) By the end of my first day, even though I hadn´t really understood anything, or spoken much, I had plans for two parties, a couple mate dates and another volleyball practice. That´s the good thing about Argentina, everyone wants to have fun all the time.

The next day of school, we really got down to business. I had physics, two hours of math, history and biology. The good news was that I could pretty much understand everything the teachers said, its just the teenagers conversations that feel like I´m trying to decode a bomb. After school Thursday, I chatted with my dad(the american one, i don´t usually schedule time to speak with my Argentine father), then took a power nap, drank Mate, walked el centro, went to volleyball practice, went to an asado de bienvendidas(extremely delicious Argentine barbeque/welcome party) and then went out dancing. I only lasted until three-thirty, which is laughably early here, and then I started all over again yesterday(I even learned some tango!). Today I have plans to go to some of my classmates soccer game and maybe drink mate later.

The new tally consists of:
The dismal failure of my first day of school.
The fact that I now know my way around town.
The successful asado/two nights out.
The inability to dance tango.
The increased skill level at the charades of life.

Therefore....
Argentina 6.5, Emily 7.5

Culture Shock!

Well, I see its time to update the tally...

I think that at this point, I´m slowly making a comeback. I think I deserve two solid points for the actual voyage to Argentina. One point for kicking the baggage regulations´ butt. Both of my bags were far under 50 pounds (49.5 and 45.5) which meant that I didn´t have to waste money and also I got to keep my clothes. Take that airline, and now I have another point.

Now, the for the flight itself, I earned one points, and Argentina earned .5. I cried a little bit at my gate in Denver and then passed out cold on the plane for the entire flight between Denver and Dallas. Kudos to me for being a savily sleepy traveler. At this point, Argentina earned its half point. I got off the plane last, had to figure out an airport train system, I had to go to the bathroom, call my dad, find my gate and through the sleepy haze of a nap in less than 25 minutes. Great. Well, the train went fairly well until I recieved a text that made me start crying and wonder why the hell I had decided to move to Argentina, I found my gate which luckily was right near a bathroom...without toilet paper, lovely. Then I meander on over to my gate and guess what language every person and their mother is speaking?? If you guessed spanish, you are wrong. I can speak spanish, and understand spanish. What I can´t understand is Castellano. I panicked again, thinking what in the heck am I doing this for? Then my dad called and what had been a couple not so obvious tears became full blown bawling. I was sooo embarrassed, but apparently tears are the key to the English language and before I knew all of the lovely Argentineans were now very kindly asking me if everything was okay. And everything was. So Argentina earns a half point for the crying but I earn a full point for everything else(once again, it could be personal bias).

So now I am disembarking from the plane with my new found skiing friend from Denver University where we get to customs. Customs easily could have been the bane of my existence, with all of my visa and permiso de ingreso problems, and let me tell you customs tried to defeat me, but I prevailed. The official took my passport, made some strange faces and then disappeared with it for almost thirty minutes (I have no idea where). At this point, I was worried because my plane landed thirty minutes late, customs took thirty minutes and I couldn´t imagine how anxious my new family must be. However after a couple more skillful leaps through hoops, I was out of the airport and in the safety of my family´s car. Que bueno!

Now the last couple days have been a blur. Susana, Manicho and I returned Santi to school in Buenos Aires (I think he was with us as an Enlgish emissary, much appreciated) and then we took off the la quinta of Susana´s godfather. It was beautiful and we had lunch and then drove to Trenque Lauquen (I slept like a baby during the majority of the trip). And then that night I slept again from 12 to 10, threw up and had a headache, then slept more until 2. Then I went to ice cream with Gonzalo (host bro) and friends and then to Maxi´s house. Everywhere I go we drink mate. In the car, with friends, for breakfast, at night...always. At least I like it, right. Plus, its still pretty chilly here so its nice to have something warm in my belly.

Today Susana took me to school where I met my classmates and got my schedule(packed full of math, physics, chemistry and biology). It was crazy. We showed up during a break and all of the students were outside and so everyone, and I mean everyone was staring at me. Way bizarre. I think I am going to start school on Wednesday, and then I´m sure another tally update will be necessary. Ciao!

Tally- Argentina 4.5, Emily 4.5 (I got a bonus point for surviving the last three days)