Nuevos Amigos

I forgot to say that Noah and I met these people playing music on the street at the ferria del paseo del artes (which is this arts and crafts festival that happeneds every weekend on the canal). We went to a birthday party with some of the musicians, Flor and Kaim who live about 10 blocks away from me in Cofico. There were a lot of people playing folklorico and Spanish guitar which was so hard to follow the rythem on! They gave me a viola and it got easier as the night went on but the music is so different to try to jam with!! There was one guy there who spoke english and he quietly helped me out with the rythem. Everyone thought it was really funny and were like, try it again, try it again. Then they all spend a while trying to follow some fiddle songs that I played on the viola. And songs in English were really a hit. This guy was obsessed with the Rolling Stones and spent a long time trying to get me to play "Annnnnnnghhh Aaaaahhnnngghh" before I realized he was trying to say "Angiee Aaaaanngie." They requested Imagine, Let It Be, Bob Dylan songs, and this song by Jason Mraz that's on the radio a lot. They also had a marijuana tree! It was about twelve feet tall and maybe 9 feet wide and we didn't even notice for the longest time. When we did notice, the guy standing next to us, was like yeah I have four more like it at my house! Marijuana is pretty much legal here I think but I don't think it's thaat legal. Of course I think with most people here its a much more taboo topic than in Amherst, at least that's what Jeremy said.

So today I started my first classes at PECLA (basically my first classes with people outside of my program). In my Spanish class there's one guy from my program, Brian from Roosevelt Island, a guy from Turkey who's 22 and has been here for 6 months and a guy from Japan whose also 22 and is staying here with some other Japonese students. That's it! I really like it. Today we talked about the differences in our countries between woman's rights, marriage ages, religion etc and why we came to Argentina, what's different about Argentina than what we expected etc. Then in an hour I start Hebrew! I'm still not completely sure why I'm taking Hebrew but everyone keeps asking me what I'm studying in the U.S. and I always say that I want to study conflict resolution so I've been thinking more about studying abroad in Israel/Palestine which lead me to Hebrew. I could use a place to meet people outside PECLA. Alright Ping Pong calls.