Buenos Aires

Eventually after I had arrived in Argentina I waited in the bus station with the other exchange students from Japan, Austria, Thailand (many from Thailand (almost 45)), New Zealand, Switzerland, Germany, and Iceland (and I am probably forgetting something) for our bus time (or in my case, my family picked me up).  I figured that people would be speaking Spanish at that point but no, everyone who talked to me spoke English, it seemed to be the common language to communicate between everyone.

When my family came my Spanish failed me a bit, (oh well).but it , was awesome to finally meet them in person! 

So, we toured the city (Masaya from Japan was also with us) and I had an awesome time!  It felt like the movies.  On Friday night I had my first Asado (barbecue) in a mall.  I was expecting something like... mall food.  It was certainly not mall food, it was delicious meat (beef), better than most anything I have had before and along with it we had some potatoes and salad.

 La Casa Rosada (US equivalent of the White House except for here it is the pink house).

 The capitol building!

 The Boca stadium.  Sorry any anti-Boca people, it was still worth seeing!  The futbol team rivalries are everywhere here!

 This was taken in the section of the city where all the buildings are super colorful (Axel, Gabriela, me, and Masaya).  We just had to make sure that we watched our things because it was an easy area to get pickpocketed or have your bag's straps cut.  In general though the atmosphere was certainly friendly.

 In the colorful part of the city (right by the Boca stadium there was a little cement area to play soccer with the paint on the wall.  It looked pretty sweet.  Rather like street soccer video games... but for real.

I hope this works!  (It is the same one on Facebook)  We were in a park and there were tons of people roller blading and this group that was dancing.  It looked like so much fun!

Anyways, I am having a great time.  Life is an adventure!  Hablaremos pronto!  Besos!

You shall not pass!

Stepping of the plane in Buenos Aires I cannot say that my stomach felt that great, but I was extremely happy to stretch and walk and not be in a plane.  We proceeded to the section that said foreigners jaja!  So fun to be a foreigner.   There we had to get our passports and visas checked.  And that is where we ran into trouble...  four of the students from the United States (including myself) had only a sticker for our visa instead of a paper with our picture that we were supposed to have (go figure).  So, they took another look at us and said back to the states with you!!!!  (just kidding).  They took us in the back room!  Internally I think we were all freaking out a little bit denying any thoughts that they would send us back!  But still... yikes!  We were pulled in a dingy room and waited for about 10 minutes until things got straightened out (the whole time they babbled in rapid Spanish that none of us could follow, probably talking about us darn kids.  They were generally very polite and figured it out quickly so we could eventually leave the airport!  Yay!

The adventure begins!

Hola!!  I am finally in Argentina after much anticipation, but unfortunately I could not teleport and skip the 9 hour flight.  However, I am simply grateful that my flight was not a cumulative  total of 24 hours (like the students' from Japan), so in truth I have nothing to complain about. 
 It was pleasant to actually meet all of the other students who were also going to Argentina and not feel like a lone world traveler.  Here was our orientation group: (about 20 of us from a bunch of different states)

Orientation Group Picture (Miami)

 

On the Plane ride to Argentina it initial seemed as if I would just be sitting with one other exchange student to my right and an empty seat to my left, but towards the end of boarding an Argentine girl who had been studying in Orlando came and sat next to me.  She began frantically looking for something and then explained (in English, because many of the Argentines spoke English) that she could not find her passport.  Panic attack!  That would have been about my worst nightmare.  (Fortunately I think she worked it out with the Airline). 

Other than that, my flight was uneventful besides not sleeping much, eating an airplane dinner at about 11, and eating breakfast at about 4 in the morning.