Week One

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This is getting a bit tricky now. It is really week three for me here but I am writing about the first week after so much have actually occured. I cant wait until I get to the point in the blog where I actually get to talk about what happened that day. Oh Goody!

So after the solid 10 hours of sleep I had the night before, I set forth to discover what the hard streets of the Palermo district in BsAs had to offer. I had a different idea of what the city was actually like of course. The "rough" neighboorhood that I live in has high end clothing stores, ritzy cafes, and custom services that will walk your dog for you. The women I live with has owned the penthouse I am now living in for 30 years. A very nice area to say the least. Most of Bueno Aires is a little like this though. The people live well. No one eats that much fast food because there really arent that many around. I have only seen about two McDonalds and one BurgerKing. If we get hungry in the afternoon we are generally forced to sit in a cafe and order up some empanadas, which are freakin deliciouse btw. So anyways, I go out to walk around and discover that the penthouse I am in has a 4th floor view of the zoo next door. It just looked like a park to me but no, a zoo with zebras and elephants. I decided this would be one of my ventures for the weekend. My walk really didnt accomplish much but gave me a bit more confidence because I look just like everyone else, just a little paler. I got back to the apartment and said hola to the doorman. A young guy, probably the same age as me, always smiling and watching TV. What a job. Push a button, say hello, whatch some futbol. The guy that works the night shift is always sleeping when I come in at 3am. He is probably pretty pissed at me by now. I gather my things for school and head back out to catch the bus. This time there is no problem, I hang out into the street and the bus stops. I was pretty surprised I got him on the first try. The bus is never really that packed and I can always get a seat. The problem is that I cant see the street signs so I would just rather stand near the door. Nothing new to note on the trip there. The city looks like a wider version of New York, also cleaner.

I make it to the school, which is only two blocks from the bus stop, and discover that I have some time to kill. I decide to study my notes like a good little student but that always last for about ten minutes before I get bored. Everyone is friendly in the school so I start talking to the other students. I talk to this girl named Sarah. She turns out to be from Iowa. Damnit. Ok, so I talk to another girl. Her name is Tawny, from North Dakota. Wtf. Cant get away. Its ok, they are the outgoing sorority type and invite me to play beerpong at a bar at 11. I agree. Ofcourse. It was going to be a tournament and I love showing off useless skills like throwing a pingpong ball into a dixie cup. I meet a few more people including Anne from Norway and Gavin from England. Anne has a masters in business and Gavin is on his first leg of a trip around the world. Both a very intelligent and great to hang out with. When class started we began with exercises that tell each other about our daily lives and what to expect in Argentina. England isnt much different from America or Switzerland when it comes to meals but the Argentinians are little different. There are four meals here. Desayuno, a small ass breakfast consisting of a piece of bread and some coffee or mate(tea), Almuerzo, sandwich for lunch, Merienda, afternoon snack, and Cena, a huge dinner at around 9 or 10pm. I can handle the Cena part but I need a little more for Desayuno and Almuerzo. I am starving by the time I get to class if I dont get something. Ines usually leaves me a piece of bread with some coffee out for me to eat. Not so bad but it definetly isnt bacon and eggs. The class describes what the do other than travel to other countries and be tourists. Claudia is a baker(panadero) and just finished a job on a cruise ship. Anna is in the final stages of law school and will be a bloodsucking lawyer (abogado)soon. James is a engineer(inginero) and was working in London on the sites for the 2012 Olympics. I am a complete bum leeching off the United States government. No, really, I told them I was in the Navy and was currently studying Economics. Soy estudiante. I tell cab drivers that when they cant understand my broken spanish.

Class is over and we all get together to try and figure out what to do. The school throws a current events lecture in the conference room on tuesdays so we decide to join. This lecture was about Las Abuelas de la Plaza de Mayos. Argentina has a dark past with there government trying to exterminate left wing activists and this group of women were trying to locate their grandchildren whos parents had been kidnapped and executed. They played a video for us which was quite hard to follow and ended the discussion with everyone saying what they thought in Spanish. The new people, like me, didnt say much ofcourse but others went on and on. It is a pretty touchy subject to the people that live here. Look it up, The Dirty War, or Plaza de Mayo.

I am going to go ahead and skip forward to now, the present, two and a half weeks in so that I can actually give you aperspect ive of the situations that I live. It is quite hard to explain the percise details of events that have occured two weeks ago when so much has actually happened. Tune in to next weeks show! xoxoxo- Eric "ED" Donie (for those who have seen my tatoo).

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