First Days

Patricia picked Noah and I up at the airport after 3 days of us trying to get to Argentina. We had gotten to Bradley to find that our plane had been canceled for mechanical reasons so that night we stayed in a hotel and planned to fly out the next day. The next day however I was very sick and having trouble breathing so that plane was also rescheduled. We finally flew out even though I was still sick to Atlanta, to Santiago and finally to Cordoba. Cristina is my host mom but since it's the dead of summer here she was on a short vacation, so her friend Patricia who is an English translator picked us up and helped us get adjusted. The first day was rough because we were super tired from the ridiculous plane ride and blown away by the realization that we really were going to be here in Argentina, away from friends and family, at the mercy of the foreign Argentine way of life for six months. For the first two or three days I felt very anxious, nervous, and worried about not being able to adjust or feel settled. My first day of school freaked me out a lot because all the other students in my program are majors and minors in Spanish and so they actually can speak only in Spanish like we're supposed to.

I love my house and my host family. Cristina lives with her two kids in a beautiful house very close to the center of the city. The neighborhood is really nice. You turn onto a street an suddenly everyone has their own lawns and nice stucco houses. My room is on the second floor where there's another guest room, a bathroom, computer, and door to the roof deck. Noah and my room are very very comforting in these first few days. The sounds that come into my room over the balcony make my experiences so far feel more exciting and less scary for some reason. I like the way all my clothes look packed into the closest. Even music sounds better than normal in my room with the heat pouring in through the open doors that open to the balcony. The heat is extreme here and makes me tired but there's so much to do every day and so much to take in that I keep pushing and pushing myself until I pass out. I still haven't gotten used to the whole siesta deal but Cristina insists that I come home immediately after school and take a nap.

I've been getting out of school at 2:30 and walking the 15 blocks to Noah's hostel which is in a great spot. Then we walk around or play bananagrams or rummy before we walk back to Cristina's house. Noah then walks back to his hostel when I go to sleep. It's about a 15 minute walk. It's great having Noah here. Being together makes things feel more like an adventure. I'd be totally freaked out without someone to experience this with. Sometimes I'm very frustrated with the Spanish and the transitioning but five minutes later I'm so happy to be here and live out this chapter of my life in Argentina.