First Few Days

First off, this post spans a few days in which I didn’t have WiFi. I’ll mark the change in dates.

~8/29/15~

 My feet have officially left American soil, and they won’t be back on it for a year.

And man, I’m ready for it.

For the longest time, this all didn’t feel real. It was all just a game of “maybe” and “hopefully.” Even once it became official that I would be leaving today- which was actually only yesterday- I didn’t feel like I thought I should have. I knew it was going to happen, but I didn’t know when. I made a mental list of possible moments: Leaving my parents before security, leaving Denver, landing in Atlanta, leaving Atlanta. I thought it may not even hit me until I landed in Buenos Aires.

But.

When I got to Atlanta, tired because my last- minute booking got me a middle seat and I didn’t want to risk using the shoulder of one of the people beside me as a pillow, I checked my gate and started going there… but got sidetracked. By food. My terminal didn’t have ‘Merican food, at least not suitable for a last- meal type of thing. So I stopped off in terminal A, where I bought some Chick- fil- A and Qdoba, because I couldn’t decide and I couldn’t think of a reason that I should have to decide. And I brought it back to my terminal. And found my gate. And then the reality of it finally hit me. Suddenly, I was surrounded by women wearing platform shoes.

Kidding. Well, there were plenty of platforms, but first and foremost I realized that I was the minority. No other passengers at that point were American. Spanish conversations buzzed around me. And here I sat holding two different types of fast food (I don’t regret that, by the way), declaring myself as American. Nice start to cultural acclimation, right?

But I wasn’t anxious- just excited.

~8/30/ 2015~

There was another Rotary student on my flight, so he and I sat together until boarding. And talked about how weird it was that after that plane landed, we would be expected to speak Spanish almost exclusively for a year. It was a pretty weird epiphany.

Living out that epiphany is even weirder. Like realizing which words are reaction words, not thought words. I’ve caught myself multiple times today saying “what?” and “wait!” and “sure.” Not to mention mentally kicking myself when I spoke to my host mom in the “tu” conjugation. She’s practically a saint dealing with my language skills, so she didn’t say anything.

I’ve had a lot of ups and downs today in the Spanish speaking department. One moment, I have what seems to me, anyways, to be a great conversation, and I reply promptly and correctly, and they understand my probably- very- thick accent (remember, kids, the V is a B, and the LL is an SH), and the next moment I’m staring at them blank faced, and when I do come up with a reply it’s slow and halting and painful.

But honestly, even in the bad moments I see the good. I can feel my brain working, and I can tell how quickly learning will happen. When I’m struggling a lot, it even feels like victory when the other person can guess what I’m trying to say. And adapting in little ways, like saying “chau” instead of “adios,” and figuring out that saying “tonces” is a language laziness akin to “because” and “cause”? Makes me feel like I’m so on top of the exchange student thing.

Some cultural things have become abundantly clear, too. Camila, my host sister (who lives in BA), asked if I was cold. Wearing jeans and a ¾ sleeve shirt. In what I would guess to be mid- 60’s weather. I was sweating. Oh, side track, it’s not nearly as humid as I was expecting. So my hair may be spared. Back to topic, the driving here is... different than the U.S. It freaked me out at first, that most of the intersections here in Alberti don’t have stop signs, and yet no one slows down. But now I get that for them it's just normal. They're all safe, and they know what they're doing. Oh, fun fact, they have their gas pumped for them here! I definitely didn’t think that was a thing. Earlier today, while I was slightly car sick and more than slightly tired, we stopped for lunch. I couldn’t stomach it, sadly. Figured I’d be fine by dinner. But I forgot something pretty major. Dinner isn’t at a normal spacing. Tonight, I’m having dinner with Jazmin’s friends. At 9:30. Safe to say, I am now famished, and I’ve been awake for 34 hours, give or take. I’ve resolved not to skimp on snack time or nap time from here on out.

Guys, I gotta tell you, I am so in love with this house. It’s so classically beautiful- from the all- wood (tessellated, might I add) floor, to the back garden with climbing vines weaving their way over the bricks, to the partially exposed piping in my bedroom. This place is a photographer’s dream. When I break mine out, I’ll share some pictures with you all. Oh, and they have a cleaning lady once a week. And lemma tell ya, I’m not complaining.

~8/ 31/ 2015~

My first full day in Argentina! I went to bed at 3AM, which is absurd, and woke up at 1 PM, which is also absurd, especially for me. I’ve been here for two breakfast– times and not eaten any. For lunch today, though, Marian made milanesa, which is a very popular dish here. Turns out it’s pretty much just chicken fried steak. Not that that’s a bad thing, but as far as exotic food I haven’t gotten much, which is also not a bad thing. Just a surprise.

Since I was still eating dinner when Fran and Javier got home (they were at a motocross competition), I met Fran today. Still haven’t met my host dad, though. But Fran is cool. He and Marian told me that he’s bad at English (it’s bad enough that they reiterated it like three times), so I of course offered to help a brotha out.

I had some spare time this afternoon, so I dug out the camera. When Marian saw me taking pictures of the house, she offered to take me to the park. It’s gorgeous. I was just about to say how many trees there were when she told me that there weren’t many trees at all, because the flood wiped some of them out a few weeks ago. But still, way more trees than dry ol’ Colorado. There’s a walking path there that’s 1km long, I’ll probably end up running there. As tragic as that is. But maybe I can get one of the dogs to run with me… it’s possible, since two of them followed me around the park today, even without my having food. Now we’re friends and I’ve named one of them Al, and the other one is Burt.

Hasta Luego!