"Let laughter rule the situation - fear is useless."

This is one of the most important lessons that I learned from my uncle, Greg. This quote has been on my mirror at home for years. Only today did I realize how applicable this quote is to my experience here. Study abroad so far, is absolutely amazing, but incredibly frustrating and stressful. I'm completely assimilating to a new culture and a different language, accompanied only by people I met in the past few weeks. But, hey, no one ever told me it was easy. In a situation where fear and frustration can so much overtake you, I'm choosing to embrace humor and positivity.

Being surrounded by Spanish can be so frustrating. It can definitely take its toll on you. The group decided that we wanted to speak in Spanish even amongst each other, because we all know that its the best way to learn. Its frustrating because at the same time we're supposed to be getting to know each other and becoming close friends, but in Spanish I feel like I have to dumb down all of my thoughts to be able to communicate them. I'm only able to express simple desires, emotions and needs. I miss the way English permits me to speak eloquently, have intelligent conversation and be funny! Instead, we have to learn to just shrug our shoulders and laugh it off when the language barrier gets in the way. Like when I called the "man at the desk" the "man at the backpack" (same vocab list ha), or when Anna tried to order black coffee but asked for white coffee.

Also, instead of becoming frustrated or confused by cultural "quirks", it is easier to just laugh at them. Amy, Kylie and I spent probably 20 minutes cracking up researching the purpose of our bidet (look up bidet on wikipedia for a good time). And a cultural difference that doesn't frustrate me: the laundromat, instead of just being a place to do your laundry does your laundry for you (separates, washes, dries, and folds!)

In addition to letting my laughter lead the way, I'm also learning to celebrate the little things, like a successful taxi interaction, or navigating my way from the office to the university (a good 20 min walk) by myself, or a local telling me that I have very good Spanish (whether I believe them or not ha).

And sorry that the only picture I have on here is of a bathroom appliance. My camera currently will not upload anything!

Primeros Días

For the record, I already typed this once and accidentally deleted it so.... here goes again.

Okay so it is horrible that it's day six and I'm just now starting my blog. I've been putting it off for the sake of giving my experiences justice, but the longer I wait the more events I have to cram in one post. I'm going to do my best to capture my first days here.

My adventure officially began as I bid farewell to snow, my family, and a familiar culture and flew to Houston, and the boarded the plane to Buenos Aires.

At KCI - Last picture in the US :(

Finally boarded, I tried to resurrect the Spanish I hadn't used in the 4 weeks since the end of fall semester by translating my own thoughts and trying to pay attention to only the Spanish version of the announcements. 10 hours of off and on sleeping, watching the monitors as they showed the plane slowly inching towards South America, and readjusting my position later, we were landed in Buenos Aires. 

Day 1

Though I had never flown by myself before, much less internationally, much less landing in a country where English is not the primary language, I navigated through customs easily and said goodbye to the American dollar, exchanging it for pesos.

On the bus from the airport

We left the airport and arrived at me Kylie and Amy's apartment, which is perfect. We have a beautiful view of the cemetario de Recoleta (Recoleta cemetery), which is one of the city's most popular tourist attractions where Eve Perón is buried. The cemetery is enclosed by brick walls so you can't see the inside from the street, but from our balcony the view is amazing.

The view of the cemetery from our balcony
 

We spent the rest of the afternoon unpacking and then our group met Kip and Carolina for dinner at a local italian-style restaurant. Dinner was a little discouraging because I understood little of what Carolina said to the waitress and basically I had no idea what I ordered, luckily it was delicious and the wine was great :) 

Day 2

Tuesday began with a 3 hour tour of the city. Being such a huge city, and touring mostly by van we basically just got a preview of all the places we'd like to go back and visit. But it was nice to see a lot of the landmarks that I've been finding via google images in real life.

Trees at Rosedal, the rose garden

la bandera (flag) 

A monument on the plaza de mayo. May 25th is the day Argentines first started planning their liberation from Spain

La Casa Rosada (like our White house, but the "pink house")

Puente de las mujeres (Women's bridge) It's said that the long point is supposed to represent the heel of a shoe

After the tour we went to buy cell phones with Carolina. Then returned to our apartments until we had dinner at a small restaurant Sanjuanina's. Very good food and very friendly waiters. The porteños (Buenos Aires residents, "people of the port") were literally turning around in their chairs to get a better look at six americans walking into such a small restaurant. There isn't a lot of diversity here, so I think they're not used to seeing different races. I'm already getting used to it, hopefully I start to look less like a tourist soon.

After dinner, Amy, Kylie and I returned to our apartment to find two porteños sitting on our porch. We introduced ourselves as "americanas" and the boys said no you're "estadounidenses" (United Statesians?), we are all americanos. Which is totally true, America encompasses two entire continents and 42 countries, not just the United States, and all the sudden it seemed ignorant to claim "America" for ourselves. Anyway after talking awhile the boys offered to take us to a bar across the street. We had a drink and talked with them in a mix of Spanish and English. Since one of the boys clearly wanted to practice his English, and we're here to improve our Spanish, we found ourselves replying to his English in Spanish. It was fun though and definitely good practice. Everyone called us abuelas (grandmas) when we were ready to leave at 2:30 am! They basically do everything 3 hours later here, so there's really no time change to adjust to at all. 

Day 3

On Wednesday, we had our first Spanish class and also our first experience with rain and the bus system. Probably my most frustrating day so far. We didn't know when to get off the bus really and the rainy windows obstructing our view of the street signs made it seem impossible. We got off way to early and had to walk fifteen blocks in the rain. Luckily I liked my spanish class and professor a lot. After class we didn't know which bus to get on and ended up walking around a not so great part of the city for an hour. 

After returning home, we made our first trip to the grocery store. Although there were some familiar brands, everything was still different. Milk comes in bags. Eggs are not refrigerated. And everything is still in Spanish. It was more funny than frustrating though which was nice. Amy made Kylie, Anna and I a family dinner while we talked and got to know one other. 

We decided to act like true porteños and wait until 1 or 2 to go out. We went to a bar and then a dance club and didn't even notice that it was getting late til it was 4:30 (we were literally the first ones to leave) and we decided to take a cab home. Sorry New York, I've found that Buenos Aires is actually the city that never sleeps.

Day 4

On Thursday, we were too tired to do anything before class at 2:30 and we actually took the correct bus and made it on time to class! After class we had our second orientation with Carolina and got to try mate. Mate (mah-tay) is a tea-like, herbal drink that is traditional in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Brazil. It is drank mostly in the home and in offices passed around a group of people.

Mate- it looks weird but its good, I promise.

That night we successfully maneuvered the subte (subway) and buses to an early dinner and back to the apartments. We drank vino (wine) in my apartment and got to know each other. Around 1am, we wanted desert and found an awesome restaurant that sold dessert pancakes, pancakes with chocolate mousse, ice cream, and bananas. Amazing.

Day 5

Yesterday was more relaxed and less exciting. We had spanish (trouble with the buses again). I swear the bus system changes every day. After returning to Recoleta (our neighborhood), we ordered empanadas for dinner and planned out our weekend and called it a night. 

Day 6

Today was probably my favorite so far. We started the day at el Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (an art museum in Recoleta). I was excited to see an original Jackson Pollack and three by Picasso and impressionist paintings by Degas. There was also a huge exhibit on a group of Argentine abstract painters: Noe, De la Vega, Moccio, and Deira, which were very interesting. 

After the museum we went to la Plaza Francia, which I loved and will definitely frequent while I am here. On the weekends, many artesanos (craftsman) come and sell their handmade goods while live music plays and food is sold. I didn't try to barter for anything because I don't know how and everything is SO cheap anyway. You should expect souveneirs from Plaza de Francia.

In general, I am loving the city so far. Its so pretty and green and as frustrating as it is to be surrounded by a foreign language, I really enjoy being surrounded by Spanish and feel like I am getting better already.

Sorry that this was super long, but everything felt relevant and I even left out A LOT! I'll try and update more frequently. Miss you all!