catch up real quick

So I have been slacking on this blog business. First of all, its boring, I am not nearly deep or profound enough to have a blog but it's easier than telling the millions of people who are interested in my life what I've been up to.. I have been really busy exploring, being overwhelmed or being so tired from being so overwhelmed..SHORRY FOLKZ! But here is a quick recap to get you up to speed then I will start blogging regularly, swurr. The first few nights, after an entirely too long orientation or two, my roommate Katherine and I tried to meetup with some of the other international students. Did I mention that Buenos Aires is HUGE? We tried to meet up with them 2 nights in a row at various plazas or landmarks around the city..the first night we were supposed to meet them at plaza del mayo around 10 or so (here you eat dinner around 10 and go out around 12 or 1 or even later...resulting in all my tiredness) we ended up not being able to find the right subte or bus and walked all the way to el centro, which is like the downtown business part (i think?) We were on a very busy, well lit street which was very crowded when all of the sudden about 3 yards in front of me two men pushed down an older man, who started screaming "policia", as did the other people around me in between shrieks, and kicking him. They grabbed his wallet but in the process one of the man's GUN fell out.. I repeat, like 3 yards in front of me. needless to say I ran the opposite way until the bad guys took off. So that was our first night attempting to go out in Buenos Aires. We ended up getting to the plaza too late and missing the group (we didn't have phones yet). So that was a minor bummer. On the way home I actually saw another person get robbed. All in one night! But thankfully I haven't seen anything like that since then. The following night we tried again to meet up with the other international kids but once again got lost and were too late...so we went home, bought two 10 peso bottles of Malbec (thats about $2.50 USD) and it was probably the best wine I have ever had, not that I am a connoisseur (yet) or anything.. It is made in Mendoza, Argentina, where I plan to visit to pursue my goal of becoming that connoisseur. The following night we were finally able to meet up with people! We went to a bar called the Shamrock which turned out to have a disco/club in the basement. We danced in an international circle for a while, or I tried to dance..It was easy to find (the only reason we were able to find them obviously) and conveniently about 4 blocks from our residence.. We will visit again. The next day, Sunday, we went to La Feria Santelmo (http://www.feriadesantelmo.com/) check it out! It was really cool, it is every Sunday in el barrio de Santelmo, it lines a very long brick street full of vendors of crafts and other cool little knicknacks authentic to Argentina. I met a cool old dude from Peru who was selling hand carved flutes and trinkets, he was the cutest, most refreshing face I have seen so far in Argentina. This fair was the first taste of true Argentine culture I have experienced so far. I was beginning to question why I chose Buenos Aires because it is such a huge city, and I am much more keen to outdoor things than city life, but this fair gave me hope! I was beginning to get worried after only seeing so much pavement and city life. I cannot wait to get out and explore more of the indigenous native things. The following day my friend, Max from Germany, gave my roommate and I each a ticket to La Rural, the biggest livestock exhibition in da world yayayuhhh. I felt like I was at the KY state fair, except with little gaucho men (kinda like cowboys) in burray like hats prancing around. Once again it was awesome to see some natural things instead of just the city (do I sound like a hippie? uhoh. really though I never realized how much I appreciated the lushness of KY until coming here). That night (last night) we had plans to go to this "dubstep, indie, electro, house, rap, something something" show at this club which we got free tickets to somehow, with other international students. My roommate Katherine and I were on our way to meet up with our friend Emma from Vermont at her host family's house but on the way Katherine's heel broke.. so we told Emma to go on to the first bar to meet up with the rest of the foreigners before the boliche (club). Katherine and I hopped on a bus to head back to la residencia to get her a different pair of shoes but we ended up accidently getting off way to early in a not so safe neighborhood. Did I mention that both of our phones had just run out of credit/minutes? Lost again. When we got off a group of 4-5 homeless children ages 7-12 bombarded us and started cussing and getting too close for comfort. It was so sad to see/ scary. We walked and walked in the direction of home (we thought) and passed by a bar. When we looked through the window we randomly saw two of the girls we were supposed to meet earlier on! It was the most ironic, lucky thing ever. We had never even discussed going to meet at this bar or this neighborhood, so it was crazy to randomly run into them in the huge city. We ended up just staying there because they informed us we were right next to the club we were supposed to end up to. Katherine took the shoe incident like a champ. We met up with a few other exchange students at that bar and when i went to go for my wallet I realized it wasn't in my purse. I felt so stupid, I was sure one of the homeless children had stolen it, they are renown for their sneakiness in the theft department. I am usually so cautious and paranoid here I didn't know how it happened but I was so angry at myself. My friend Ansley lent me $200 pesos for the night ($50 USD) and was my guardian angel. We made our way to the club where the line looked as if it were a 3 hour wait..It looked like one of those fancy shmancy clubs you would see in LA with people dying to get in. Our German friend just snuck right in the front of the line and we followed, only waiting about 4 minutes..Meanwhile I am shaking in my boots because I hate confrontation and Argentine girls were cussing at us in Spanish.. I thought I was going to get beat up. But we made it in! It was packed. I evidently am not a fan of club etiquette and do not think I will return, unless with a bigger group of people, because the Argentine men are disgusting and grabbed my hair as I walked by shouting Gringa..I still do not understand how they can tell so fast that I am American! I thought I blended in! But yea they are way tpo aggressive and I am not a fan. Where is my bodyguard when I need one(Colyer)? We made the most of the creepy crowd and ended up staying until very late (or early) and had a good time! Initially they were playing dubstep electronic stuff then they moved to 90's-recent American rap that was popular in high school- it was quite entertaining. This morning I looked under my bed and guess what was there? MY WALLET! I am an idiot- but a happy one.

PHEW I think I finally caught up!

The remise dropped me off on the street corner, with all of my suitcases, at school and there was one other student there. His name is Thomas and he is from Germany. He had already been here for a month so he helped me get a taxi and go to my dorm. Thank goodness because I was so lost and literally would not have been able to make it. The city was complete chaos to me (and still is). I dropped my stuff off in my room and Thomas took me around town to some cool places and to get some food. I was pretty jetlagged (even though we are only an hour ahead here) and tired because I barely slept on the plane so I was home pretty early, and met my two roommates who had just arrived as well. One is Katherine, she is from California and the other Katia, from Nicaragua. We had to be up at the crack of dawn for orientation at 8:45. It was an entire day of me struggling to understand what was being said to me in a room full of other foreigners. There are people from everywhere in the world in my program, the majority being France. The US embassy representatives also came and spoke to us with the goal of scaring the crap out of us, they were successful, discussing what to do and not to do etc. etc. That night we went out for pizza with two other girls from the US who have been here for about a month, it was called Amelias pizza and was deliccccous. Pizza is like crack here, along with empanadas, its everywhere.

When I finally landed in Buenos Aires, the plane stopped and we unloaded into buses that drove us to the actual airport terminals, the planes don't connect to the terminals like most do in the US. We then had to wait in customs. forever. I was waiting in the line for about an hour and a half when I finally got to the agent, then he tells me I had to go to the back of the line and go pay some other unmarked booth the tax for coming from the US. Evidently I was the only American of all of the 4 flights that had just landed. After paying, I had to re-wait in the line to go through customs. After about 3 hours in total I was finally through and then went to claim my baggage. Then I had to go through another security line where they put all of my bags through a scanner thingy and I unconsciously took off my shoes and jacket before being screamed at that that wasn't necessary. not in america no mo. Finally I made it through and was released into the craziness that was the airport lobby terminal. I felt like I was in a jungle or something. People were everywhere running and screaming in this foreign language which, mind you, I cannot understand. The accents are so different and people talk so much more fast than the Spanish I have learned. I made my way to the ATM to try to get some money out so I could use the payphones and pay for a cab. But, things were not going my way that day so naturally, the ATM didn't work for me. Then I remembered I had a free trial phone card so I tried to use it and called the number of the university that htey had given me, turns out that the number had changed. At this point I am so exhausted, overwhelmed adn scared that I am on the verge of tears. I had to get to my school by 6 o'clock or I would be homeless for the night, and I was supposed to get in at noon that day but due to the delays and custom lines it was fast approaching 5 o'clock. I finally get through to a different USAL (my school is Universidad del Salvador) and they directed me to the international office. Someone got on the phone speaking entirely too fast especially with all of the noise going on around me in the busy airport. After them trying to relay the address to me like 8 times, I finally got it and scribbled it down (it was a new address too, it was really convenient being informed this when I was already in the airport in this foreign scary country). After getting the address I went to exchange money to pay for a taxi, I know you aren't supposed to exchange money in airports because you don't get as good of a rate but I just wanted to have some money on me. I asked the lady at the exchange counter- in butchered Spanish- the best way to get where I was going and she asked if I felt confident enough to take the bus..I pictured myself on the crowded "colectivo" (bus), with all of my overpacked suitcases and pillow and wanted to cry. So no, I didn't feel confident enough for the bus. Then she said that a taxi would rip me off so she recommended the remises which are like private cars or more safe taxis. I got one and paid a whopping $60 but I didn't care if I had to pay a zillion dollars I just wanted out of the airport as I was obviously the most vulnerable, pathetic, foreign person there. We drove by and through much of the city and I watched in awe. The most fascinating area was what I now think is called el barrio Boca which is like the ghetto. Houses on top of eachother - or shacks rather- made of garbage and random materials leaned against each other with people coming in an out of random holes etc..to be short, I'm not sure if I've ever seen such built up poor neighborhoods- not built up as in well developed but built up as in neverending shacks supporting oneanother on top of each other (literally, they looked dangerously tall).

Tengo freaking miedo. Im sitting at the gate in Santiago, Chile waiting for my third and final flight to Buenos Aires. Thankfully, my nightmares that ive been having for the past week didn’t come true (knock on wood- im not there yet). Besides the last minute frenzy at home misplacing my credit card and having to pump the tire that saba popped last week, all has gone pretty smoothly so far. I was able to get away with packing my unnecessarily large two suitcases- each were 51-52ish pounds but the nice delta ladies let me pass. But I was really stressed when my flight got delayed two hours. It was torture sitting in that airport and the flight to Atlanta knowing I would be cutting my next connecting flight close. Thankfully, I made a friend from Bardstown KY on the first plane who was flying to Santiago as well, to study abroad. So I wasn’t alone in my sprint from the one gate to the next, thank god, otherwise im sure I would have had a near panic attack. We even had time to stop and get food, thank gawd, otherwise who knows if my body would betray me again and I would have fainted. I was sure the whole time that the 10 hour flight would serve dinner but my bardstown friend was not near confident so we stopped anyway. I had two dinners, the food was better than I expected. I sat smack dab in the middle of the middle aisle, the plane was 7 seats wide and huge. They played horrible movies, the only one I recognized was one with Jenifer aniston but I slept through the whole thing thankfully. Then they played this show called American Pickers or something and they were in KY the whole time. Ironic. I felt special/sad/nostalgic. I sat next to a really nice Mexican woman who liked to talk a lot. About everything. Including her sexlife, especially after they started pouring the wine (by the way, Dad, they asked me how old I was when I asked for wine, I thought it didn’t matter on international flights? Or maybe it was just the mean asian gay man not wanting to serve me, nonetheless I took your advice, had a few glasses of wine as a 21 year old and fell asleep). I felt like an adult, it was weird. But she was a good seat companion. To my otherside was a relatively overweight man who left the light on the whole time and I was scared to even attempt to pass by him so I restrained myself from drinking my usual quantity of water, and only got up twice when my neighbors got up (I feel like poop now because of it). It didn’t even seem like 10 hours, I did get up atone point just to walk around because I was getting antsy and my back was killlllllllllllllllling me. Obviously, everything is in Spanish now, even on the last plane everyone was speaking Spanish, its gonna be cool/weird to get used to. I feel like I lost all of my Spanish since last semester and am sure I seem like the dumb, ignorant, American; but whatevs go USA. I’m a bit rusty in the Spanish department thanks to my lazyness and denial all summer but I need to quit being stubborn and at least try to start having some confidence in my speaking. I’ve already been mistaken for a Latina 3 times by different airport attendants when I asked them questions, they are surprised, coo. Now I’m sitting at the gate (I hope it’s the right one? The screen says so but no one is here and we were supposed to board 10 minutes ago according to my ticket…) I cant wait to get on this final plane and finally relax. Then all I have to do is find my way to school, somehow… sounds easier than I think it actually will be though, I’ll figure it out eventually, ill be less stressed since I don’t have a deadline or plane waitinf ro me. I wish I could just go to sleep after thisbut im sure I have lots of orientation stuff to do. Fun.
Ugh my flight got delayed 2.5 hours and the gates move twice, hope this one actually comes.