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