It’s been a while since I got awkward looks on public transportation

Today was just a day of difficulties. First, I woke up at 12:04pm. I have never woken up that late in any time zone and I ended up having to scramble around like a maniac in order to get ready for class, so here’s hoping I don’t do that again. Like I said, there was tons of scrambling as I had only an hour to get dressed, pack a lunch, and walk to classes. In my rush, I didn’t have enough time to talk to Sylvia (my host mom’s friend whom I haven’t seen since week one). I really missed her and would have liked to talk to her, but I was too busy shoving an apple (my breakfast) down my throat and my foot in a shoe to really say too much to her. I made it to the building in time to eat my lunch (really breakfast) with everyone else before we headed into class. It was actually a fun class today as we sang (yes, out-loud sang) songs by Shakira, Alejandro Sanz , and Bacilos. Things were going we until a girl (I won’t name names, but she likes to bring a Kindle to class) complicated the directions of a particular work assignment causing everyone to get confused and having us go into the lesson long after the break for clarification (no, but really girl… you’re like 0 and 3).

After class, I waited with some friends in the café because we had a little less than two hours until our next class (Argentine Literature) at Cuyo and none of us wanted to walk home, just to walk back. When time finally came for class, we walked up, found our seats, and prepared ourselves to not understand a damn thing that was going on. We prepared wisely. The entire class flew right on over our heads as the teachers spoke a kilometer a minute over topics in Argentine History that affected their Literature (topics that we were obviously unfamiliar with). We sat the full two hours trying to pick bits and pieces out that we could understand and, after about an hour and a half of this, I ultimately decided to spend the rest of the time translating word for word the Spanish songs that we had sung in class earlier with my Spanish-English dictionary. My rationale was I was probably going to absorb the same amount of the lecture as if I was paying attention, and at least this way I’d be expanding my vocabulary.

Once class let out, I walked with a group of friends to the micro stop, chose the correct one, and encountered my biggest difficulty. I could not stand upright on the damn micro for the life of me. I kept lurching and swaying as though I was on the dock of an unsteady ship. No one else on the micro seemed to be having any difficulty which made me feel even more like an uncoordinated schmuck. Then, after about 10 min. I noticed that the bus had both reached, and was about to pull away from, the stop I needed to get off at. I pushed my way through agitated looking Argentine students and pushed the button at the back of the bus, hoping that the driver would stop the bus and let me off. He did stop, and as the bus slowed, everyone standing up turned their head to see who the dipstick was that failed to get off on time. Thank you, Argentina, I’ll be here till December!

After this day of rushing and complications, I just wanted to relax and do some work quietly. In my house, I found Sylvia again and we talked and I made a little after school snack. Then, I worked on my computer, talked to my host mom when she got home and just relaxed. My host mom and Sylvia spent most of the evening cooking for my host brother’s birthday tomorrow. They took a break, ate dinner with me, and then I took my leave and remained in my room for the rest of the night while the rest of the family did their own thing. Tomorrow Universidad Nacional de Cuyo is closed so I don’t have classes, but I do still have classes in the IFSA office until about five. Also, I’m assuming my host family will be doing something for Dan’s birthday (I think? I don’t know if he’s just going to go out with friends or not). See you all tomorrow!

Vamos a Shopping!... wait, where'd everybody go?

Today started out quietly enough, but it most definitely did not stay that way! After waking up, I made myself a quick breakfast and then just relaxed on my computer. Everything was tranquil and peaceful for about an hour while my family went to vote and I stayed home. However, once my host mom got home, it was like a bomb exploded in the house. The entire family was having lunch all together at our house, and so once family member started to arrive, things got crazy! Two of my host aunts, two host siblings, four host cousins, a host niece and nephew, host in-laws and half of Mendoza (or so it seemed in our small house) arrived with food and drink for our big dinner. The little kids went crazy running around the house, and everyone was talking loudly and at one another all at the same time. It was madness, but I kind of loved it! All of the talking and sharing that was going on was great, and luckily the IFSA student who lives with my host mom’s sister was there to so that I had someone with whom I could easily talk and share with too.

Lunch was a heartily filling meal of pasta, chicken, and French fries. There were always at least two conversations going on at one time, which was crazy overwhelming because I never knew exactly what one person was talking about, but I was able to chime in every now and then and just enjoy the overall listening as I ate my food. After lunch, the group of us went to “Shopping” which is what they call their mall here. It was a really pretty place which reminded me of Park Meadows and Southglenn Mall put together…except better because they had what looked like a mini-amusement park on the inside for children to ride rides and play games. It was so cute! We stayed in there for a little while whilst the youngsters entertained themselves, then we walked around the entire mall, window shopping, and looking at various bags and shoes. The family has a funny, albeit slightly annoying habit, of just ‘up-and-leaving’ without much warning. The other IFSA kid and I had to laugh about it was one minute the family was looking at a store and then, in the time it took for us to turn our backs for a split second, they were gone, usually leaving one of their own behind as well. I know it sounds dangerous on paper (or computer screen) but it’s actually really funny when you’re there.

After our time in “Shopping” we went to my host cousins apartment, which is literally right across the street from the mall, where we had strawberry smoothies, mate (I was once more educated on proper mate technique and etiquette), and pastries (sooo many pastries). We spent the rest of the day there with the family just talking and having a grand ol’ time. It was actually more overwhelming than lunch because there were four or five conversations at one time and it was impossible to keep up with any one! When the time finally came to leave, we said our goodbyes and then headed home. I had eaten so much today that I decided not to go out with friends for dinner (I wasn’t all that hungry). Instead, I stayed in and prepared myself for the coming week. There appears to be some confusion as to whether I have classes tomorrow, and if I end up not having them that would make a four-day-weekend for Brendan. Can we say, “yes, please!”

The bike gang with training wheels

Oh Saturdays, what makes you so great? Is it the complete lack of responsibility? Or the care-free attitude that is present in the air? Either way, you are amazing, please never change. Today, I woke up and found my host mom’s brother here. He must have arrived last night, because I heard a lot of moving and talking in the middle of the night that had woken me up. He was visiting my host mom from Chile and so while I ate my breakfast, they went for a walk around Parque San Martin. While they were gone, the phone here rang off the hook! I felt like my host mom’s secretary, telling people that Lucy was not here, but she should be back in about an hour and that they could call back at that time. I was really hoping that it would only take an hour and that she wasn’t giving her brother the grand tour of the park, because I would have to change my script to, “Yeah, I don’t know where she is either, wish I could help you” and I’m not quite conversational enough to conduct that kind of business. When they did come back (thankfully within an hour) I gave the messages and then waited around for lunch, which consisted of grilled chicken, potatoes, and salad.

Afterwards, I elected to not take a siesta (what!?!?!) and went into town to buy minutes for my phone and lotion (because it’s dryer than Denver here and my skin is really beginning to feel it). Most of my friends were taking a cooking class that I didn’t want to take, or were participating in a mock-UN type of thing that was being put on by one of the classes that I wasn’t in, so there wasn’t anybody to go with, which was fine by me as it allowed me to get my errands done without diversion. On the way to the store, I was nearly mowed down by a bike gang! No seriously, an entire mob of children on bikes had taken to the streets with chaperones dispersed throughout the mass! (Reason #5 I don’t like kids: they travel in packs like wolves on the hunt) Apparently, it’s some kind of ‘Kids Week’ over here and bike riding through the city was one of the activities. The rest of my journey into town passed without incident and when I got back, I just relaxed in the living room. I Skyped with my parents and tried to Skype with my friend Maria (hollah) but it wasn’t working on her Smartphone (oh the problems of the world) and we had to reschedule for later that day. I think my host mom thinks that I’m some kind of pathetic recluse because whenever I’m working on my computer in my room, she asks my why I’m not in the living room. She then gives me a solution to whatever my reason may be and tells me to go sit in the living room. I’m going to look at it optimistically and say that she just doesn’t want me holed up in my room all day, and wants to see me make the most of my time here, even if it’s in the living room.

The rest of the day passed the way I believe every Saturday should. I relaxed on my computer watching YouTube videos and read a book in Spanish. After Skyping with some more friends, I went with my host mom to her sister’s house for a family dinner. My host mom is 1 of 12 siblings (yes, that’s right, 12, as in 2/3 of my staff last year!) so there were plenty of people there, including a huge Rottweiler who was there to greet us at the door. And when I say huge, I mean huge! Her neck alone was bigger than my head! There was also another kid from the IFSA program who was staying with one of my host mom’s sisters. Being with the whole family was kind of an overwhelming experience. Everyone was very welcoming and friendly and I felt both lost and like I understood what was going on all at the same time. When I wasn’t talking to one of my many host aunt/uncles/cousins, I was playing with my little host cousin Mia, who speaks both English and Spanish fluently (she lives in Miami with her mom, my host aunt Caroline). We drew pictures and jumped around and played some kind of imaginary game (which I didn’t really understand completely because she only spoke to me in Spanish, but asking for money was involved). She was actually pretty adorable for a child, and made me realize I can’t paint them all with the same annoying-rude-whiney brush that I usually do. The food was AMAZING!!! We had ‘asada’ which is like bar-b-cue only better, with chorizo and blood sausage. The food was so rich and I was so full by the end of dinner. I couldn’t believe I had eaten so much meat, thank god there was a salad and bread to go with it or I feel like I would be having a meat overdose. Mia, her mom Caroline, my host mom and I all left for our house as Mia and Caroline are going to be staying with us for a while.

Tomorrow is Election Day (for the primaries) here in Argentina and everything will be closed because voting is obligatory. Also, there is apparently going to be another family get-together at my house (of which I was apparently the last to know) so it looks like I’ll be seeing the family again tomorrow. A group of friends wanted to go hiking again, but, seeing as it’s 2am already and I’m still awake, I’m not down for waking up at 6am to go climb a freaking rock… I enjoyed it… but not that much

Jazz Ballet and the reasons I don't like kids

Last night ended up being later than I anticipated it would be which is why I didn't post anything. Y'all didn't miss out on too much, but I'll get you up to speed. Yesterday started with a quick breakfast and then I was off to Spanish. There, we discussed Michelle Obama, compared her to Hillary Clinton, and discussed conspiracy theories (like the ones surrounding JFK). Kindle-Girl started talking about an episode of Bones that apparently pertained to JFK, which would have been fine (I guess) had she not broken down the entire premise of the story and described the key characters before getting to her point. Most of the class past around 'WTF' looks (which she apparently missed) and I had to avoid making direct eye-contact with many of my fellow classmates for fear of lol-ing. Kindle-Girl: 0, Awkward moments in class: 2.

After Spanish, I headed to Literature with my friends Mariah and Emma. This class wasn't any better than the last one. I only wrote down names, dates, and literature works just so that I could research them later on my own time. It's so overwhelming being in a class and not having any idea if what the teacher is talking about at the time is really important and should be known, or is just some history that she is throwing in as a filler. Thankfully there are 5 of us in that class so we aren't floundering alone. After class, I walked home and hung out there for a while before needing to get out of my house. I called Elizabeth and, she, Kathy, and I went out for hot-dogs before going to a Jazz Ballet performance in the city. We walked into the city before realizing that we would probably have to take a micro (it was pretty far away). While waiting for the micro, they were talking about how Elizabeth got lost on the micro the last time she was on it and how the whole system confuses Kathy. So, why exactly am I about to get on one of these with people again? We got on the micro, and it began taking us back the way we had already came. Good call team! We were going in the right direction so we just chilled out and waited to arrive at a stop close to where we needed to be. After a few minutes, a few more of the Mendoza Crew got onto our bus. They had class from 9:30pm to 10:45pm. Talk about brutal! There is no way I'd be able to do that, but they said that they really enjoyed the class so I guess to each their own.

We got off the bus and walked to the theatre (through a weird part of town that had both a populous park and a sketchy neighborhood). We bought our tickets and waited for the event to start (and we are operating on Argentine time here folks so we were a good 15min behind). The performance over-all wasn't bad. It was about this particular dance troupe's 10yr. journey. Their highs, their lows, and everything in between. They had some really good dancers... and some not so good dancers. A lot of the music that they were dancing to were songs in English and by well known artists like Liza Minnelli Frank Sinatra, Evanescence, and M.I.A. At times it was actually really funny because the words in English did not match what the dancers were doing. I think they were just dancing based on the music, which sort of came into conflict when they were doing a really bouncy hip-hop dance to a song about a woman who couldn’t be everything for her man... awkward. After the performance was over, we caught a micro home and I made it back at about 12:15am making blogging not too high on my list of priorities.

I don't have classes on Friday, so I slept in and then had breakfast, followed by lunch a half-an-hour later. Some of the Mendoza Crew had made plans via Facebook to meet up in El Parque San Martin to play some Ultimate Frisbee so, after my brief siesta (yeah, I know I just woke up, back off) I headed out a bit early so that I could find the rendezvous point. As I said, I was a bit early, so when I got to where I needed to be 15min. in advance I decided that it would be nice to just relax under a tree. I’m pretty sure that during my meditation session with nature, I put my hand in some bird poop. Brendan: 0 Wildlife of Mendoza: 3.

I saw a few of my friends who were going to play Frisbee waiting on the other side of the street so I met up with them while everyone else arrived. Once we had a pretty significant number, we began to search for a place to play. We found a nice field by the building that we have Spanish in and we began warming up by throwing the three Frisbees that we had around. There was a school soccer team playing the next field over and they began doing warm up laps, at one point almost running through our group of 12. They were probably doing it just to be stupid jocks, but a few of us got a little unnerved having a swarm of Argentine soccer players running at us. The highlight of the experience was that Elizabeth threw the Frisbee and it hit one of the soccer players running by. Both South and North American alike got a kick out of that and Elizabeth decided that she should switch positions so that she didn’t hit “the foreigners” again… We then had to point out to her that we, the gringos, were in fact the foreigners, not the native Argentines... (#Whitegirlfail). After warming up and assaulting the natives, we began to play for real. I don’t know who the hell I think I am, but I was running and playing and sweating like I was David-freaking-Beckham! I don’t do the whole “athletic” thing, so 10min. into the game I had to pump my breaks and remind myself that you can’t go from a lazy, barely mobile sloth to a running fiend and still expect to be able to breathe. It doesn’t work that way. However, I did still play with all that I had and it was actually some of the most fun that I’ve had here. I got to know some people in the program better than just the surface-level stuff, and the main point was that I just had a great time! We played for about 2 hours and then decided to call it a day.

 I was starving, so all I wanted to do was go home and eat some of the pasta that we had for lunch. When I got home, I found my host niece and nephew were there. My four(-ish) host niece stood in the door way and wouldn’t move to let me in even after my host mom told her like three times to move (Reason #1 I don’t like kids: that’s not cute girl, move the hell out of my way, I’m hungry). After I finally made it through my 3 foot barricade, my host mom told me that we were all going to go to the market to buy food and such for the house, but my host nephew didn’t want to go, so I stayed home with him. After everyone left, I told him that if he needed anything, just to ask me. He looked at me for a good 10 seconds then turned around and told me that he didn’t need anything. (Reason #2 I don’t like kids: don’t get uppity kid; I was just trying to be nice). After Skype-ing with my family, my host family came home and I’m not sure if there was a mini family episode or not. All I do know is that at one point, my host niece came into my room and kept trying to grasp/close my computer (Reason #3 I don’t like kids: no, really girl, that’s not cute!). She even tried to pry/hit my fingers off my own computer. During this host-uncle-host-niece bonding experience, my host nephew came in with a juice box and just watched the whole thing happen (Reason #4 I don’t like kids: yeah, that’s right kid, keep sucking down apple juice while I struggle with your handsy sister). Finally, everybody left my room and headed to the kitchen while I stayed put and let whatever was going on amongst the adults work itself out. Eventually everybody left and I went to the living room to watch the television. I found this show on Nickelodeon in Spanish about these kids who live in a boarding house and are trying to solve a mystery. It’s terrible, the acting sucks, and I have no idea what’s going on… I love it! A bit later, my host mom told me that she was going to have dinner at one of her daughters’ houses. There was food in the house, so I made myself something to eat and watched some more American television in Spanish.

Tomorrow is Saturday which means another free day for me! No plans as of yet so we’ll see what Mendoza has to offer!

Surely they wouldn't hit a woman of God...

I'm beginning to worry that, as I fall into a routine, I will encounter less and less of the unfamiliar. This is sad for two reasons; 1. is that I never want to stop being surprised by this country. I love constantly being exposed to new things and experiencing different ways of life. 2. is because I know you all only enjoy it when I have some misadventure (be it in a bathroom or otherwise) and share it with you. Seeing as I am such a people pleaser, I try and deliver, but, as I've said, things are beginning to fall into a routine here so I will have to find the comedy elsewhere.

I woke up today knowing that I had nowhere to be until 1:00pm, which is not exactly a motivator. Eventually, I got up and walked to the kitchen. Looking through the window, I could see a woman that I've never seen before working in the back. I've come to realize that random people in the house is a normal occurrence here and to not ask questions, just accept it. I also realize that this is a dangerous mindset to be in and am going to make a conscious effort to not let this transfer back home to the States. After eating breakfast, I prepared my lunch and left for Spanish class. We had a new addition to the class (one of the students re-took the placement test and ended up in our class). It was cool having a new addition to the class, until she whipped out her Kindle on which she downloaded a Spanish-English dictionary. Now every time the professor didn't know how to explain a word to us in Spanish she'd whip that sucker out and punch keys like it was her reason for being. Look girl, no offense, but we were doing just fine before you road in on your Kindle of Knowledge, ok? Maybe she's just excited? Either way, that's got to stop.

It was so hard to concentrate in Spanish today. He kept asking, "Understand?" to which I would respond "Yes, (no) of course (not at all)." After class, I had a good 2 hours to kill before tango. My friends, Mariah and Emily, and I decided that we didn't want to go home so we went to a cafe and had some noms while we waited for time to pass. We discussed politics, perceptions of Americans, and travelling in what was one of the most stimulating conversations I've had. I'm having intellectual conversations over coffee and pastries [¡el gasp!] I feel so grown-up! Once enough time had passed, we walked to our meeting spot at Universidad de Congresso where we met up with a few more of the Mendoza crew who were taking tango as well. I was originally going to wait for my friend Elizabeth, but she accidentally took the wrong micro and was unable to make the class. Not to worry, because this guy here (pointing to myself) is going to teach her everything that we learned (run Elizabeth, run!). Tango is surprisingly difficult to learn! I thought it was going to be easy to be 'the guy' in the pair because all they do is decide where they go... but that's exactly the hard part! I didn't realize that I had to actually decide, communicate, and then execute the moves all at once! I may, or may not, have run my partners into other couples... multiple times. Oh well, I'm learning, I'll get it.

While walking home, Mariah almost walked headlong into a group of cars but, thanks to yours truly, she lives to see another day. Memo to Mendoza Crew- No seriously... look! It's bordering on dangerous now! Once safely home, I relaxed on my computer and ate dinner. I've been arriving home around 9-9:30pm so it doesn't really leave a lot of time to do much. Tomorrow I have Spanish and Literature again so we'll see how those go!

You know it's a dull day when nearly getting hit by a car is the most exciting thing that happens

Today started in true Mendocinian fashion with me waking up at 9:30am, looking at the clock, saying "Screw that" and going back to sleep for another hour. Then, nature called and told me to get my lazy butt out of bed so I obeyed. I relaxed on my computer for a bit trying to finalize course credits and the like and saw that I got an email from the IFSA office saying that I had a package waiting for me. I already knew that it was my retainers (yes, ladies and gentlemen, I forgot the only important piece of orthodontic care that I own. That would be the sound of no one being surprised). After receiving those, I made lunch, talked to my host mom about my plans for the day, and then went to my first Regional Development class. This class is put on by the program and we look at development within nations and as the question, "What really is development?" using multiple countries as examples. It's actually really interesting and the best part is it's close to my house. No 15 minute walks for this one! After class, I did some homework for my literature class which seemed impossible because I was looking for a poem that I had never heard of on Latin American databases that I could barely understand. I was also trying to email some professors about other class credits so this combination was not only lethal, but explosive. Finally, when I felt like I had done all that I could, I elected to go to a cafe with some friends. I told them I'd meet them back in the office because I just wanted to drop off a few things in my back pack so that I wasn't carrying them all over town. On my way back, I guess I looked right, but not left, as I was crossing the street because one minute I'm just sauntering through life, taking my sweet time while crossing the street, and the next I notice a car to my left careening towards me! Something to the effect of  "Oh sh*t" came out of my mouth as I jumped onto the curb. Note to self - don't do that again.

After my near-death episode, I walked with Elizabeth, Megan, and Leah to Clementine, a cute little corner cafe where they seemed to have run out of everything worth having (like medialunas! how the hell do you run out of medialunas!!!). We just sat and talked about our schools before noticing that the table next to us was also full of North Americans. They were speaking English which was actually weird to hear from someone that didn't have an accent or wasn't in our program. We debated the best way to say hi and introduce ourselves, ultimately deciding on not doing anything at all because none of us felt like getting up and walking over. We truly are becoming Argentines. Anyway, the four of us had our final orientation (thank God, those things are so annoying!) and walked to meet up with the larger group that was heading in that direction. On the way there, Elizabeth and I approached a crosswalk and didn't see the light change from red to green, nor did we notice the line of cars heading our way. Only when heard the rush of cars behind us right as we reached the other side of the street did we realize that we had nearly been run down (where did I but that note to myself... I seem to have misplaced it). I really should knock that off. It's not healthy.

Once we had reunited with the group, we headed of the school. This school is different from the other two that we had been to because this one focuses solely on the arts. I will be taking History of Theatre and Tango there so my attendance at this orientation was encouraged. We walked. And walked. And walked. Took a small train. And walked. Rented a burro. And walked some more. This campus was in a completely different part of town! It could not be any more inconvenient if it tried! Once we finally got to the school (after wandering through neighborhoods) we as a lecture on the art of tango, as well as a  mini tango lesson. It was cool and a kinda fun to learn the basic back, forth, left, right moves from two of the foremost tango instructors in the country. After our mini lesson, we trekked back from whence we came discussing how much it sucked to trek back from whence we came.

After finally arriving at home, I chatted with my host mom, comparing notes on our exhausting days. We ate dinner together and then both retreated to either the television or computer for some relaxing.

Goal for tomorrow: Look both ways. Basic, but necessary!

Oh yeah, I'm here to study too... About that...

Waking up today was ridiculously hard. Not because it was early and not because I wanted to sleep more, but because I was actually dreading going to my first class with Argentine students. For the past two weeks, I had been living it up without any real obligations or work. Today marked the end of all that as I now had to step back into that fickle and cold world that calls itself 'reality'. I hate it there.

I originally had a class at 9:30am (I got out of bed for it and everything), but I didn't go as it was a) too early for a Monday and b) an intro into Politics-type class which my advisor told me wouldn't count for credit anyway. Oh well, bed for two more hours! After getting out of bed (for real this time), I made my breakfast, got ready for the day, had a quick lesson on making empenadas courtesy of my host mom, then headed off to the IFSA office to meet up with Bryan so that we could walk to Spanish together. We filled each other in on our respective weekends. I told him about my domination of the Andes and he told me about how he, Elizabeth, and Kathy had gone off to a barbecue in the mountains with their new Argentine friend. Look at us enjoying all that this country has to offer. Tim Mcgraw would be proud (#livelikeyouweredyingreference). Anyway, in Spanish today, two of the classes were merged together because one of the teachers was sick. We were in a different room and it was so big and had such a loud vent that it was near impossible to hear him so when it came to the rapid-fire exercise everyone was so confused because we couldn't hear the verb that we needed to be conjugating at light-speed. After that bit of fun, all of the classes came together and taught the students how to make mate. You'd think that it's as easy as sticking herbs in a cup, but you would be wrong, you silly gringo you! There are steps and a proper technique so think twice before you try to take on the art that is mate making (this message brought to you by The More You Know).

While the class tried their hand at making mate, a group of us had to leave class early because we had real-people classes at Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. We walked up there a bit early so that we could make sure that we went to the right building and could find everything ok. I found my room and could immediately tell who the international students were. They were the only ones who were there on time. There was myself, another kid from my program, a Mexican, and the six French students who sat in the corner together. The class was interesting, but I don't think I'm going to take it. Mostly because it overlaps into a literature class that I really want to take and also I don't like the way that the classroom is set up. There are only chairs and the whiteboard is really inconveniently placed making taking notes a bit difficult. Thankfully the IFSA program gives us a month to try classes out to make sure that they work with our schedules and we can understand/work well in them. At the break (where everyone just goes and lights a cig... in the hallway) I decided to leave and go to my Argentine liturature class early to situate myself.

I found another friend in the program and waited with her and after a few more minutes, we met up with three more students from the program. Just as the class was beginning to start I noticed that we were sitting in the same row and that we essentially made a wall of Americans across the room (what was it that our advisers said about not drawing attention to ourselves again?). I decided that I wanted to kind of separate in the interest of better acclimating to the atmosphere (and because I felt like sitting with the only three blonde girls in the classroom might make only too obvious that I'm not from here). So we separated into a group of three towards the front (the three blondes... way to attempt to blend team!) and me and Shelby in the back. Once the class started Shelby and I looked at each other and could tell that we were both beginning to panic. The teachers (there were three) spoke so quickly, and would say things that would elicit responses from most of the class, but none of us Americans understood. The only words we did understand were 'Group Projects' and 'Oral Final'. This just got real. Holy Crap! I felt like I was at a loss for most of the class and only picked up about every fourth word. What's more is we already have a homework assignment for tomorrow! I am so nervous about the rest of the year/ the rest of my classes if I can't understand the teachers. I know everyone always says, "Your Spanish gets so much better" but I'd really like for that to happen, like, now. One the Double. Overnight. Yesterday. Have I mentioned that I'm beginning to panic!? For now I'm just going to try to take it day by day and hope for the best.

After class, the five of us went up to the professors to introduce ourselves (we were told it was a good idea to make our presence as exchange students known to our professors to see if they had anything for us specifically) and to clarify a few points that, it turned out, none of us really understood. It was actually quite funny because they were only expecting maybe one US student but five came and (tactfully) rushed them after class. They helped us figure out where to get our reading and even gave us a welcome to the country and class. Once outside, we all merged together and attempted to clarify a million different things at once with one another; "What did she mean by..." "What did that one professor say about..." "Is this what we need to do for..." It was stressful, but we got as much as we could from one another and then split up to leave for home or other classes. Shelby and I caught a bus together (we live, like, right around the corner from one another) and discussed the cold slap across the face that was our Argentine literature class.

At home, my host mom was there with one of her oldest daughters (my host sister) and her two kids (my host niece and nephew). My host mother told me that her daughter needed to go to the doctor and that she was going to go to look after the kids at their house. She invited me, telling me that I was more than welcome to come, but I was exhausted and my head was still reeling from Lit. so I politely declined. I stayed at home, ate dinner, and tried to relax. Tomorrow, I have a development class and Argentine Literature again, so it's looking like it's going to be another day of complete confusion. Wish me suerte!!!