llego a palermo

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So, classes have officially started for me. I had my first class, in contemporary international relations, at Di Tella today. It looks like an awesome class, it's really small, the professor is really nice and funny, except the readings and films are all in english? It looks like it will be a really great class, with no exams or papers only a group project. We have to get in groups of five and debate one of the topics in front of the class room, and they all look to be really thought provoking but the english thing makes me nervous. I'm here to better my castellano and it seems counter-intuitive to take a class where the the bulk of the bibliography is in english, so that's frustrating. also di tella is mad far from my house. it takes over an hour on colectivo to get there. i got hopelessly lost trying to find my way back, without any moneda. this douche at maxikiosco wouldn't give me a peso even though i was offering him a 2 peso, so he couldn't do math and he's not much of a businessman. then i stumbled upon the subte and was so hopeless at that point that i decided to take the D all the way to catedral and then transfer to the B and take it back up, except that service beyond palermo was discontinued..so i bought some gross gum at a kiosco, got my moneda, miraculously discovered my colectivo and am now sitting in tunin waiting for lunch.

My host family is in el tigre today on vacation. vacation here, for families, as they were explaining to me is only one day long. the family leaves early in the morning after breakfast and returns home for dinner. they were shocked when i told them we go to newport for weeks at a time, or that vacations in general can last up to a week. once again my house is like infested with sickness - thea the cleaning lady has bronchitis and angeles has to get a tooth removed tomorrow because there's an infection in her mouth.

So today was the first day since I've been here that I've felt really frustrated. For some reason I felt that my spanish wasn't very good today, that I was incapable of communicating with anyone even though I didn't try. Maybe, since it's week 3, this is the point where my brain starts breaking down both english and spanish and I get worse in both languages only then to get really really good. that's my way of hoping for a light at the end of this frustrating tunnel. i hate being lost, i hate having to whip out the guia t every five seconds, and i really wish that this di tella class was all in spanish cause it looks awesome. i think that i will probably stick with it, and then go to my uba seminars next week. if the uba classes are all in castellano then i might just take 2, plus filo is a lot closer to my house. also, di tella is known as a prestigious university but mostly because it's private, and all the students come from really wealthy familial backgrounds. they all seem kind of know it all-y, a lot of people were commentating and partcipating today whereas all we did we go over the syllabus for a few minutes...maybe that's just a difference between american and argentine students. vamos a ver..ciao!

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