What is that sandwich? and why is it the way that it is?

I must be adopting a true Argentine mentality because I now consider any time before 11:30 am to be sinful by virtue of it's very existence. Waking up at 8:00 was brutal! and cold! I made myself a quick breakfast and packed a quick lunch (because we were going to be too busy to return to our houses to eat with our families) and then grumpily stumbled out of my house to get to school. I contemplated waiting for the bus, but I was not in a patient mood and I just wanted to keep moving. Pro: Exercise! Con: Walking. Uphill. A lot farther than I originally thought. I ended up being 12 minutes late, but (this is South America) they hadn't started yet. Which was a good thing because even when I actually got there I had to call a friend to direct me from the entrance. Once I found the right auditorium, I walked past the line of French students waiting to get into the same auditorium (bet they loved that) to sit with my Amurrikan group. The woman thought it would be a good idea for everyone to go around the entire auditorium and have everybody introduce themselves. Homegirl must have lost her mind because there were at least 70+ people in here, but lo, she who holds the microphone holds the power so all of us went around and said our names, where we were from, and what we were studying. We started with the French (have you ever heard Spanish with a French accent? suddenly not being able to roll your 'r's doesn't seem so bad), moved through the Americans ( hhhhhollllaa, mi yAmo Ashley), breezed through the Colombians, Mexicans, Dominicans, and Spaniards (who showed us how it was really done), and rounded it out with the Germans (who could easily be confused with the French). After a gruelling 2 and 1/2 hours of PowerPoints and descriptions (of which no one from the Mendoza Crew paid attention), we broke for lunch.

What should have been an opportunity to just veg out turned into conversations about identity, credits, and school spirit. In other words, a conversation I was thrilled to bits to have. Whatever. After lunch was our exciting 3 hour Spanish class. The Mendoza Crew could hardly contain our excitement as we scampered to the appropriate building. It actually didn't turn out to be that brutal, and it was mildly fascinating and (I'll admit it) a bit nice to actually work on the language. During the class, we took a few breaks which were nice, except for the going to and from. Let me explain. The way the building is situated, there is another classroom that sits between us and freedom. That other classroom also happens to be filled with Argentine students, so every time we took a break, we got these really wonderful stares of "WTF". Best part of the day.

After Spanish, I went with some friends to try to find notebooks. Everything was closed since we got out on the tail end of siesta, but we eventually found a book store that sold us some. Afterwards, we stopped by a Carrefour to try to find hair dryers/straighteners and then to Congresso for and Argentine History class. The class ended up being about 7 American students and 9 Argentine students. A couple of us were unhappy with this because with the number of Mendoza Crew students taking this class, speaking in English would be too easy. James and I ultimately left. We figured that there were other history-type classes offered and that (since this month is our 'shopping period') we would have time to return if we needed to. On the way out I actually heard one Argentine girl tell one of her friends who was waiting for the class, "Good luck with the estudiantes intercambios [exchange students]." Well, we don't like you either! The only good thing that happened during all of this is that the professor wanted to count how many exchange students she had. When she got to me, she said, "You're a regular (meaning Argentine) student right?" and when I told her 'no' she seemed a bit suprised and asked me where I was from. Success! I blend in! or at least seem like I could be Colombian! I'll take it!

At home, I did my homework and just relaxed/tried to stay warm in the freezing house. After a dinner of chicken and a zucchini-like vegetable, my host-mother's sister and her husband came over. They, too, have an IFSA-Butler student (which I guess makes us host-cousins) who came with them, and we just sat in my room and talked about our different Spanish classes while the adults chatted. It's nice seeing other students with their host-families, and it's really cool when the host-families are related (there are a couple of cases like this). The best part about the day was that it passed without a bathroom incident. No sinks tried to take me down and no bidets tried to kick my ass. Ah, small victories. Let's see if we can keep up this trend! Tomorrow, our orientation consists of a city tour. Wonder what new things they have to show us?