Dude, bro, this party is sick!

HEY.  YOU.  I'M NOW IN BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA.  And it is soooooooo crazy.  SO much is different.  It's just...so much, simply put.  It's kind of overwhelming.  Something that has really helped is being able to talk to the other students in my program.  They're from ALL over the country, but we have related a lot and had a really good time together.  There's 80 other people in the program, so I obviously don't know half of them yet.  There are supposedly 2 other people from Oregon, but I've yet to meet them.  I suppose they must exist.  It's been very fun talking about Oregon, and seeing what people know of Oregon (which is nothing.  Well...one guy from Wyoming told me he had read about meth labs and the meth problem in Oregon.  Niiiice)  It's annoying hearing people say "OregOn."  And it seems like many Argentines don't know of the state, either.  Which is understandable...just tell them it's north of California and you're golden.  So I guess I'll recap everything  that has happened since my last blog.

Yesterday morning my family and I got up niiiice and early and got on the road.  I was stressing.  Anxious, I guess.  Everything at the airport went as smoothly as possible.  Teary goodbyes, however.  The flight was comfortable enough, about 4 hours to get to Dallas/Fort Worth International.  When I got to DFW, I found that I really still hadn't grasped what I was doing.  To that point, I hadn't had to think of my destination as Buenos Aires.  It was just "Oh, I'm going to Texas!  Oh, I'm going to Portland!  Oh, I'm going to Eugene!"  Also, the time between my flights was much less than I expected.  When I got there, I saw this huge group of people, heard Spanish flying around left and right, and the ticket lady was running through things in full spanish.  It was an intercultural experience already.  I got shakey and scared, lol.  But it was all okay.  I prayed and felt that peace.  I got on without a problem, and the 777 was an incredibly epic airplane.  First off, it's HUMONGOUS.  There are two columns of seats on either side, with 5 columns in the middle.  So the seats are 9 across, with two aisles.  At first, I found my seat and it was next to these really sketch looking American/British dudes and an Argentine family.  The father of the family asked me if I spoke Spanish, and then proceeded to blow me away with his accent and make me ask what he wanted repeatedly.  He had 3 seats for his family, but one of them was in row 30, while we were in row 20.  I wanted to let him keep his family together.  At that time, the other two dudes that were really sketch were trying to get me to stay.  I really dunno why.  They spoke like 10 words of Spanish, and were talking about taking some more hits and how much the emigrations officer was "sweating them."  I really was totally cool with moving when I saw someone of MY age and ethnicity in the row I would switch to.  So I moved back and the girl I sat next to happened to be in the same program.  That was really nice.  I felt so much less alone, starting then.  I had my own touch screen which had games and movies and tv shows...pretty crazy.  I watched The Social Network (decent, interesting), Unstoppable (GO DENZEL!), and almost half of Due Date (which got waaaayy bad, so I shut it off.  Super inappropriate.  I don't recommend that movie.)  Still...11 hour flight.  It took FOREVER.  I slept about 15 minutes, despite being insanely tired.  Ughhhhh.  The two meals came at what seemed like super weird times, it was dark at really weird times...the whole experience was just drawn out.  I didn't get to see out the window pretty much the whole flight.  As soon as I got off the plane in the airport (which I found isn't exactly IN Buenos Aires) I felt the humidity and warmth hit me.  Fleece - off.  The line for immigration stuff took about 30 minutes total, I think, including baggage claim and customs.  Everybody spoke really good English, and since my Spanish was worse than that...I went with English.  In fact, I got really unnaturally afraid of using Spanish.  Everybody has such a thick accent and burns through things so quickly...even though I'm usually fairly confident with my spanish elsewhere.

So I totally avoided Spanish/didn't talk much.  We met up with about 15 other students that had come in on the same flight but were all spread out and talked it up.  It was really nice to be part of a group.  After a lot of waiting in the airport, speaking lots of english, we walked a ways and got on a nice bus.  Airconditioning, comfortable seats...I almost fell asleep in the first 5 minutes, even though I was glued to the window.  I took a bunch of junky pictures, but I was fascinated.  There is SO MUCH TO SEE.  I was torn between watching the other cars, the people, the scenery, the buildings, and the weather (it rained!).  We got to our hotel, found our way to our room, and it's really nice.  It has several rooms and we have a total of 4 beds.  Only 3 of us are here that we know of so far.  At that point I had been in the same clothes for around 28 hours or more.  So the shower was WONDERFUL.  I took my time.  Fresh clothes were wonderful too.  We had a bunch of free time until 8, so I messaged home that I had survived, glanced at facebook, and headed out to explore some.  Some people wanted to get something to eat and maybe look into getting phones.  I wanted food, and the shower invigorated me enough that I could go without sleep.  We hit up a couple banks, I finally got me some Pesos, and we just walked around a lot.  It was really enjoyable.  The weather was just a LITTLE hot, but all in all it has felt AMAZING, coming out of super rainy and cold Oregon.  We ate lunch at a little cafe.  There was some culture shock there...so here are a bunch of spanish students, of at LEAST 3rd year equivalency...and we couldn't read half the menu.  Not even half.  It was rather shocking.  I ordered what I understood, and got me a Coca-Cola.

Best decision ever.  The coke here is different, bottled here (in glass) and made only wish sugar, not high fructose corn syrup.  It tastes SO good.  I don't know how to explain it.  My chicken sandwich was great, I tasted someone's wine (which was actually good!  Weird to think I can just...drink here), and ate a bunch of tortilla (con cebollos!).  We sat in that cafe for nearly 2 hours I think, just talking about everything.  It's such a diverse bunch of students that everybody brings something really interesting to talk about.  I loved it.  In fact, I got leaned into the table and remembered on 3 or 4 occasions that I was actually in Buenos Aires, Argentina, not back home in America.  Talk about a crazy feeling.  "Oh, yeah, I'm in Latin America."  We were just going at it in English, so it was easy to forget.  The waitress was very kind and her accent was beautiful...and thick.  She asked if she could take our plates, and we ALL just stared at her.  It was funny, but it has made me feel better about my hesitancy with Spanish.  After we left there we split up and just walked the city.  I saw a lot of beautiful buildings, none of which I can begin to describe.  The Palacio de Justicia was AWESOME, as was the obelisk (which is the background for this blog).  At the center of the city, by the obelisk, we heard what we THOUGHT was a protest.  Turns out Uruguayan fans were in town, busloads of them, and they were shouting at the traffic and waving their flags.  I figured they were futbol fans, but I didn't know anything more until I asked some random Argentino kid on the street about it.  I learned then that Argentines (or at least that one) are really friendly if you just talk to them in Spanish.  English puts them off.  He told me all about how wild it gets when these local teams go at it, and that it's just as crazy and more common when it's some of the really local teams, all from Argentina.  We talked for a while and it was very enjoyable.  His accent was super thick and I don't know what he said about half of the time...but he understood everything I said perfectly and I feel like I really started to open up right then.  I got a taste of how intensely involved in futbol these people are.  He told me which team he was a fan of, then showed me THREE tattoos representing that team.  We walked to a protest after that, accidentally.  Not sure what it was about.  It was super loud.  Then we walked back to the hotel, basically.

That's when I went to take a nap.  I planned it for just over an hour, set an alarm and everything.  My roommate did likewise.  We had to go to dinner at 8.  It was so warm, the air was like a blanket, so I just laid on top of my bed and slept easy, shirtless.  ALMOST too warm.  My roommate woke me at 8:20 in a daze.  Both our alarms failed and we were freaking out.  I think it's because we're both so tired.  The nap WAS really nice though.  In true latin american fashion, we made it to the lobby in time to join the last group headed to the restaurante with 30 seconds to spare.  Insane.  Dinner was good, the ice cream was REALLY good

I had some good, interesting conversations over dinner, and now I'm back in the hotel again.  I was one of the first people in his rooms, the rest walked the city a while longer.  I'm going to bed very soon though, forget anymore walking.  Which reminds me; My foot has been feeling pretty good.  I took ibuprofen today, after the airport, because it was nagging at me.  Considering all the walking I've been doing, my foot is in GREAT shape so far.  Time will tell about the trend though.  So, with this HUGE post, I'm gonna sign off and get ready for bed.  Sorry it's so long!  There's so much to tell!  Pictures will have to come later, the internet at the hotel here is really spotty and I don't think it would like the idea of uploading.

Hasta pronto!