The First Day

I was going to wait until I had a lot more to write about, but I figured I can always write two entries! My flight touched down at 6:10 AM this morning, and all my luggage made it! After clearing customs we were wisked away each in our individual cabs (there must have been 50+ of us, I can only imagine how much that cost Butler) to our host families. The cabbie that took me was very nice. He was an older man, pretty big, had this huge mustache, and glasses. It took us about forty minutes to get from the airport to my apartment. I am living with a single widow whose name is Ines Hercovich. She lives just on the edge of the posh neighborhood called Palermo. Her apartment has three bedrooms. One is hers, one is mine, and one she uses as an office. There's a bed in there too, and she said that her grandson stays every Wednesday night. He's ten.

Anyway, Ines is great. She told me all about the universities, and about the neighborhood where I'll be spending this semester. Apparently I'm a lot closer to the stadium of River Plate (which I thought was in Mendoza), than the Boca stadium. Nonetheless I will be at at least one Boca game! I had a HUGE lunch which consisted of pork chops, a salad, quiche, and this really rich chocolate and dulce de leche cake topped with strawberries. Her daughter Natalia came. She's 27, and she knows some women from where she works who go to the club that I'm doing my thesis on to train! Maybe they could get me in there. That'd be awesome.

Orientation doesn't start til tomorrow at 11:30. There'll be LOTS of Spanish tests, both written and oral to assess our abilities. This is in addition to intensive Spanish classes. I guess it's like my mother said, it's called "Study" Abroad, not "Party all the time" abroad or "travel" abroad. I'm feeling a lot more comfortable speaking only Spanish than I thought I would. Ines speaks some English. Overall, I think it's going to be an interesting yet challenging semester. And when I return I'll be speaking just like an Argentine. We're going to explore the neighborhood soon. I'm told a lot of River players run through the park, and though I'd prefer it be Boca players it'd be neat to meet a professional soccer player face to face, regardless of what team they're from.