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Rugby Chant Well I've been in Buenos Aires for a week now and I am very happy with how everything has gone. My flights were uneventful and I was able to get some sleep, so that was good. When I arrived a rep(Maria) from the program was there. Maria greeted me with a kiss on the cheek(that's how they do it down here) and was great with helping me on my first day. She had a car waiting for us, which most are tiny, so my snowboard bag rode shotgun while Maria and I sat in the back seat...pretty much on my lap. She dropped me off at my new apartment were I am renting a room from a local guy named Hernan. He has been very hospitable and speaks english pretty well. Enough to share a meal and a couple bottles of wine with. Plus he is a big fan of the San Antonio Spurs(i.e. Ginobli), so we had a good topic to start things off. The apartment is awesome, see the photos. I have my own room with a TV and bathroom. And it is Palermo, which is a good part of town.
So on my second day I
spent literally 6 hours walking around. The city is very European and feels like a cross between Madrid and Paris. The city is very dense with many pocket neighborhoods, and feels very safe...as long as you stay out of the wrong neighborhoods like any city. The public transit is very good which makes it easy to get around. The photos below can give you an idea of what the place looks like. This will be my first time living in the middle of a dense city, which I am thoroughly enjoying so far.
On last Monday I attended my first day of spanish lessons. When I arrived I was greeted by 2 of the program directors(Laura & Carina) who also gave me a kiss on the cheek. Different, but I'm getting used to it. It helps that the women down here are living up to the Argentine stereotype... The school is very small with only 4 classrooms and a lobby. On my first day I was quickly reminded that I didn't really learn anything in high school spanish. I would like to blame it on Ms. Ross, but I just didn't care back then. I am really enjoying the
3 - 4 hours a day of lessons and look forward to being able to carry a conversation soon. What is great is the people that run the school go well beyond just the lessons. They truly enjoy meeting new people and helping foreigners assimilate. In the first week I have been invited to dinners, parties, soccer matches, walking tours of the city, and a weekend excursion to a city called Rosario. Plus all the people that are in the school, which is about 10, are all really cool and friendly. They come from all over the world. There are a couple photos of them below. I have already become close with a few of them, which has made it feel like I'm not traveling alone.
My weekend trip to Rosario was really fun. The point of the trip was to go to a Rugby match between Argentina and Ireland. I know very little of rugby, but I had never been to a match before. The game was really exciting and pretty cool to be amongst the locals cheering on their Los Pumas (their national rugby mascot). Plus a couple of the guys in my group are big rugby
fans, which was fun to be amongst and they could explain what the hell was going on. Other then Rugby, we went out in Rosario to one of their big discos. After teaching everyone in our hostel how to play "Asshole", which they all loved, we went out to this disco at 2 in the morning. Which was early!!! Things didn't really get swinging until about 2:30-3:00am. The club was pretty massive with a couple thousand people in the place. It was cool for a little while, but the dancing was more of bumping into people. I couldn't take it for very long so I chilled outside for a while. The place was on the "Parana" river, yeah that's the name of it. It is massive and very similar to the amazon. While I was outside I got to chat with some locals and practice my broken non-understandable spanglish. But it was fun and they had plenty of questions about the states... like; "did you vote for Bush? do you support the war? please tell me bush won't be re-elected!" After they heard my answers, especially that bush's term is over, we quickly moved on to other topics... All of
obelisco
big monument on one of their main blvds. the Argentines that I have met have been extremely friendly, accommodating and truly interested in learning what I was about. Makes it easy to meet people and feel comfortable in this foreign country.
Well, that's it for now. I'll let the photos tell the rest of the stories. Miss you all!
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B-Rad
non-member comment
Nice Pics!
Hey Ian, great blog, with good pictures, and your writing is currently excellent! I am sure you will run out of time for that as you become more "comfortable" there, and those Argentinian chicks keep kissing you......although it appear that they may have competition from the cute Canuck! Please inform Joana that the Anaheim Ducks are currently spanking the Ottawa Senators for the Stanley Cup! I know how much you love hockey....... Try to send some thong pictures...... ( -: