Even though thousands of flights were cancelled from Chicago, ours left on time! And Lauren Curtis showed up to the airport to send me off which totally made my day! Arriving to O'Hare, I was told that Houston's airport was shutting down at 3:00pm due to an ice storm (Can you believe it! In TEXAS?!). I was warned that our flight from Chicago was the last one they were letting land there and we might be stranded for a couple days and all expenses were on us. We, (me and Emily, the other girl from CMU going... my travel buddy!) flew anyways and thank goodness we did! Out of all the flights leaving from Houston, ours was 1 of 12 that were not cancelled! Hundreds were cancelled. Thank you Jesus!
Random story: On the flight to Houston, we sat by a woman who was telling us how much she loves to run - a full marathon every couple weeks! It turns out last year she was in the Olympic trials! She's young so I won't be surprised if she's famous someday. Should have gotten her autograph! Her name was Camille Herron. I googled her. She’s crazy good.
The flight to Buenos Aires was 10 or 11 hours long. Confusing working with 3 different time zones. We arrived safely. Thank Goodness Emily and I were together! We were nervous to put our Spanish speaking skills to the test to even go through immigration and customs, as well as exchange our money and and get a remise (taxi) across the city.
It turns out that Emily and I live in the same apartment building, in apartments side-by-side. Her host mom is the mother of my lady. Both ladies are super nice. Well, I’m assuming they’re nice. Their tones of voice seem happy and nice, but I don’t understand about 90% of the words that are coming out J We eat meals the four of us together. Our first meal was empanadas which were absolutely fantasticas. I love my room. It's small and simple and organized.
Did I mention it’s 90 DEGREES FERENHEIT HERE?! Me gusta mucho J
Honestly, the first couple days here were super rough. People were nice, but at first I felt so overwhelmed with the language and very frustrated because I couldn’t understand anything and on the first day, I’m sure that my host mom told me a lot of important things and tips and rules, but I just smiled and nodded and said a lot of “si” “gracias” “no se” y “no entiendo”. I felt very much in over my head, although already after just a couple days I think my speaking and listening skills have improved tremendously.
Emily understands more than twice as much as I do so I am very grateful to have her so close. We are practically living together. I meander back and forth from her apt to mine. Her host mom (the mother of mine) even pulled out a bed underneath hers and said that we could have sleepovers! She’s a really fun lady. Emily helps me a lot with the language. (For example, I thought we were talking about cows and apparently we were talking about religion.)
Yesterday, I was extremely proud of Emily and I. We ventured across the city, figured out how to buy passes for the subte (subway) and went to el Centro (La Plaza de Mayo). We found our way across the city and to the Congreso Nacional (Congress building) and La Casa Rosada (their White House).
The city is HUGE. 14 million people here in the city of Buenos Aires. The driving seems crazier than it is in NY. There are no lanes on the streets, cars just swerving everywhere. Crossing streets is about impossible. There usually aren’t lights and pedestrians don’t have the right-away. (Yet I have trouble walking through Mt. Pleasant) J
The city reminds me of a mixture of California and Spain.
To celebrate China’s New Year’s (the year of the rabbit?), which is today, I walked to China town which is close-by. Tons of people! The venders knew Chinese, Tiwanese, and Spanish as a secondary language. That was fun communicating haha.
I live maybe only a 10 minute walk from the University.
Tomorrow I will go take a test to see what level I will be placed. Classes start Tuesday.
This post is longer than I thought it would be. Hopefully they will become shorter! There is just so much that has happened already I can’t even describe half of it. More than anything, it has been an emotional rollercoaster. I am adjusting and trying to take it one day at a time, one word at a time.
Enjoy the snow, y’all!
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