BUENOS AIRES

In short, is amazing.

I keep putting off writing because I have so much to write about, and yes, I realize this is really faulty logic. After sleeping for 11 hours, however, I am finally feeling up to the task of writing about the past two weeks.

I don't know where to start!! There is an incredible amount to see and do in the city, and I haven't even begun to scratch the surface but I love it already. The summer here is beautiful - the streets are lined with trees and there are vibrantly green parks filled with people walking dogs and napping and chatting (and making out...PDA is huge here, although somehow it doesn't seem nearly as gross or annoying here as it does in the US) all over the place. It seems like there is never an hour of the day where buses aren't running and people aren't walking around and vendors aren't selling papers or food or flowers.

My program, CIEE, is great. There are several that exist in Buenos Aires (Harrison is doing a different one from Layla, Laura and me) and from what I've heard CIEE is definitely one of the best. Although the orientation was tedious and (at least we thought) unnecessary at some points, the coordinators are all so friendly, open and helpful and I learned a lot through the process.

The most annoying part by far has been picking classes. We have the opportunity to take classes at three different places: FLACSO (our home-base university, very small but offers some really cool classes just for kids in the program...also where we take our required language courses), UCA (Catholic, private university in the city..also offers some classes just for foreigners) and UBA (huge public university, supposedly quite intimidating..). I've been trying to balance taking classes that will count for my major at Georgetown and taking classes that won't count but that I'm really interested in. What makes it even more difficult is that there's no ratemyprofessor.com here (I usually spend a good 5 hours on this site before picking my classes at home), so most of us have no idea what the professors or classes will be like except for looking at the limited information given on the registration pages. We're allowed to sign up for a lot of classes and try them all out, but I have a pretty set schedule in mind and I'm crossing my fingers that it will work out well. Most classes start on Monday. It didn't really hit me how late it is to be starting until I realized that Georgetown's spring break started...yesterday. So weird! But then again there is a reason why we have to stay here until July.

The other people on my program are a blast. I have to admit that when we first got to our hotel two weeks ago I was completely overwhelmed by Americans/English. I know this probably sounds silly considering I had just been traveling with a bunch of Americans, but I guess I was just used to being the minority. Anyway, after the first few days of traveling in hoards things got better. It's been really fun to hang out with people from other colleges (there are people here from Tufts, Brown, U of Colorado, Vanderbilt, and a bunch of other schools). I'm not going to lie, it's also been really nice having Layla and Laura on the program. I think we were all a little bit hesitant at first going with people we were already good friends with, but I think we've already found a balance of hanging out with each other and new friends - we're all pretty independent.

Exactly two weeks ago today we moved in with our host families, which, from what I've heard has been a really good experience for pretty much everyone. I love mine - they are incredibly nice and helpful, not to mention very patient with my broken Spanish (or Castellano, as they call it here). I have a mom, Martina, who is an incredible cook, a dad, Daniel, who is always smiling and asking how I'm doing, a sister, Delfina (19) who is adorable and a brother, Tobias (15) who plays the piano and is super into computers (he very nicely set up my wireless for me). I live in a neighborhood called Belgrano, which is kind of far away from where most of my friends live, but relatively speaking is very close to most of the places I frequent, considering how enormous this city is. It's a more residencial barrio (neighborhood) with lots of trees and beautiful apartments and houses, but still has a main street with tons of stores, restaurants and cafes. I still have a lot of exploring to do around here, but I really like what I've seen so far.

Getting around in the city was at first very intimidating but is getting easier every day. So far my main means of transportation has been the subte (subway), which is very simple and pretty efficient. The only problem is that it only serves a relatively small portion of the city. I fortunately live right near two subte stations (each about a 10 minute walk away) and a bunch of my friends and FLACSO are on the same line as me. The only problem is that the subte closes at 11 at night, which means that if I want to go out after that (which is usually the case when I go out since we don't eat dinner until 9:30 or 10) I have to find some other way. Which brings me to the collectivos. Collectivos are buses (numbered 1-749), each number with a different route in the city. They're kind of confusing to figure out, but really cheap, run 24 hours a day and basically everyone in BA uses them. It's kind of embarassing the first few times and you definitely look like a major foreigner, alternately looking at your Guia T (section by section map with grids of the entire city... aka the bible of study abroad students) and the cross streets you're passing so you know where exactly to get off, but they're not quite as intimidating as I thought I would be. Besides the subte and the collectivos, cabs are always an option. Compared to when I was here a year and a half though, they're kind of expensive (not as expensive as the US, but they still can dig a hole in your wallet) so I try not to take them except when coming back late at night, when you should DEFINITELY take them, and right to your doorstep.

Which brings me to... safety!! Basically, Buenos Aires is a big city, and any big city has its fair share of petty theft. For the most part I feel really safe here. It's just a matter of using common sense, i.e. hold your bag in front of you on the crowded subte/buses, don't walk anywhere by yourself at night, don't walk anywhere really really late at night, etc. Two people that I know of (one a good friend) from my program have gotten robbed already. Both were walking along at night and threatened with a knife, but lost only their phones and money (they let the girl keep her purse and keys). Obviously it's not a pleasant experience, but I've definitely heard of much worse happening right in Georgetown. Which is not to say that I'm not being careful! I definitely am, and only bring out what I absolutely need to when I leave my apartment. Anyway, onto happier things like....

FUTBOL!!!!!!!!! If you know one thing about Latin America, it's most likely that soccer is life here. Argentina has its own league, and apparently as a new resident of the country (it's official! after 5 hours of waiting in a miserable office I have a visa) and a soccer player I am expected to pick a team and become an avid fan. My host family likes a team called San Lorenzo, but my friends and I went to a Boca Juniors game last Sunday and it was AWESOME. They played a team called Hurcan and after a rather boring and scoreless first half, play picked up about halfway through the second half and Boca scored three goals. The crowd was absolutely nuts, and literally no one noticed when the other team scored a goal after Boca's first two. It was also there was also absolutely pouring, drenching, bone-soaking rain (and a few minutes of hail) which made it even more fun (...except afterward when we had to wait for half an hour just to get out of the stadium and then another hour to find a cab). Anyway, someone told me that being a Boca fan is like being a Yankees fan, but the game was incredible, and sometimes it's fun to love the team everybody hates, right? So we'll see, I have yet to buy a jersey, and that makes it official, so I can still change my mind.

What else... weather? About 80 degrees and sunny almost everyday. Yeah, you're jealous. We've had a few rainy days, which are fine because I enjoy the rain, except that I keep forgetting to NOT wear my tractionless flip flops on those days and to date have spilled smack on my butt on the slippery sidewalkds (in front of random people) three times. But if that's the worst thing that's happened to me here, I'm more than fine.

Ok last thing, but it's important - time. Moving from high school to college definitely involved a time shift, but nothing this drastic. It's like everything is pushed 4-5 hours later and lasts 2-3 hours longer. People don't eat lunch til 2 or 3, and dinner isn't until 9 or 10 (11 or midnight on weekends). Bars and clubs don't open until 12 or 1 and don't close until 5 or 6 (yes am). It's crazy! For someone who values a really good night's sleep, it's taken some getting used to but I'm getting there. People are also just more relaxed about time here and it's really common to start meetings late or spend 3 or 4 hours sitting at a meal. It's a very nice change of pace coming from a country where everyone wears a watch and "time is money."

Alright well, I'm sure if you've made it this far you're probably fairly bored so I'll stop here for now and I promise to make shorter updates more frequently from now on!! I'm also going to add a page with pictures on it, so check them out if you feel so inclined. Unless you're a really random person, I probably miss you very much and hope you're doing well in the States or wherever your travels have taken you in the world!

Con mucho amor (with much love), un beso!

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY HILARY!!!

P.S.S. I apologize for any egregious spelling errors in this blog, a certain brother of mine brought them to my attention (thanks Z!). In my defense...I am a horrible speller.