How to even begin?

After about ten hours on the plane from JFK to Ezeiza, during which I panicked that I had lost my passport, we finally touched down in Argentina Saturday (30 January) morning. The temperature was in the low 80’s F and humid, quite a change from 13 F and windy! I got a taxi at the airport – my first opportunity to use Spanish in Argentina! – and started into Buenos Aires. It’s no exaggeration that the taxistas here are bonkers; mine spent most of the drive into the city tailgating in the left lane at about 130-140 kph. Several times I felt sure that an accident was imminent, but we survived and made it to 5831 Avenida Libertador in the barrio of Belgrano, my home for the next three months. My host mom, Silvia, rarely leaves the apartment because she walks with a cane, but she knows almost everyone in the building and most of the shop owners around the block because they deliver her groceries and other sundries (just about every business in Bs.As. will deliver to your home, including McDonald’s in some places). Every morning she makes up a huge breakfast spread for my roommate, Maddy, and me – fruit, coffee, bread, and of course dulce de leche (more on that later).

            First thing after I arrived on Saturday there was an orientation for ISA. This orientation was very brief, and was mostly general cautionary advice such as not wandering the city late at night in huge groups of Americans whilst speaking English. A good policy no matter where in the world you go, in my opinion J I sent off a few emails to let people know I was alive and then headed back home to rest up for the big orientation and city tour the next morning.

            The big orientation was very similar to the first, but went into more depth about the hazards of the city – counterfeit bills, the occasional sneaky cab driver, the potential for “cultural misunderstandings” between Argentine men and American women – as well as how to make living with a host family as smooth as possible. A lot of this was familiar to me from living abroad twice before, but it never hurts to review in a new country. After the long orientation, we were treated to algo muy argentino (something very Argentine) – empanadas (see picture above). If you’re a yooper, think of them as little pasties with a lot more variety for the fillings. The style of crimping on the dough helps you tell the different fillings apart. We had four different kinds to choose from – chicken, beef, ham & cheese, and caprese with mushroom – but I’ve seen lots of combinations so far, like spicy beef, ham & bleu cheese, cheese & onion, spinach, and something that was a mix of chicken and sweet corn. Empanadas are a great lunch or snack food because you can find them practically everywhere and at AR$3 (Argentina uses the $ symbol for pesos: AR$) for one, they’re a steal. I have a feeling I’ll be eating a lot of these little guys while I’m here.

            After devouring our empanadas, we took a brief city tour of some Buenos Aires highlights, which I’ll write more about in later entries. After the city tour I spent some time walking around Belgrano and had my first sandwich de miga – kind of like a big tea sandwich – and an alfajor – a big sandwich cookie made of two delicate, buttery gallettes around a filling of dulce de leche. I could still barely take it all in – I was in Argentina (sitting in a café called “La Argentina”, no less) eating migas and alfajores while drinking café con leche and reading about drinking problems amongst Argentina’s youth. And all the while sweating like I was in a sauna! Even with all the traveling I’ve done, it never ceases to amaze me how quickly I can now travel to somewhere so very different from my home.

            Monday morning arrived and it was time to take the placement exam for my month-long Spanish class. The test was scheduled for 10am and all of the ISA people had advised us to show up early so that we could start on time. As ten o’clock rolled around, students were still meandering in and out of the classrooms while instructors flitted from one room to the next, shuffling papers and looking not the least bit flustered. About 10:30am we were handed a form to fill out that included our address in Argentina and other sorts of identification information – but still no test. Sometime around 10:45am we were finally handed our exam which was essentially a two-sided cloze exercise and told we had as much time as we needed to finish it. Some people “finished” (gave up) in about 2 minutes while for most it took about half an hour to fill in the blanks. I ended up being placed in the Advanced class (kudos to NMU’s Spanish program for that one!) and had the rest of the day free until classes started on Tuesday.

            I really enjoy my class and think it will end up being a good use of my time. A lot of this first week was review and learning the voceo – the informal form of address in Argentina, which I’ll write more about later – so nothing too stressful. Even so, by the end of the week I was starting to feel the first pangs of homesickness. I think it’s less that I want to be back home and more that I want to bring everyone from home here, to share the experience with me. Not a day goes by that I don’t see or hear something that makes me think of a friend or family member and how I wish I could be seeing or hearing it with them. I guess that means I’ll just have to come back again! In the meantime, I hope people get a kick out of this blog and the pictures.

            I’m also having a fun time comparing this experience to my time in Germany, everything from the placement exam to daily life. In Trier, I was more or less plunked down and had to do a lot of fending for myself. ISA’s program is a lot more structured and the homestay is an adjustment, since I’m very used to cooking, cleaning and looking after myself. And then of course there are differences in the culture, climate, language, food. That said, there are lots of similarities, too. I can tell already that I’ll have lots of material to write about during the next three months!

            A side note about receiving mail here. ISA advises us to have mail sent to their office, since our names generally aren’t on the letter-boxes at our homestays, and the letters or packages could get “lost”. If anyone feels like sending mail to me, address it like so:

Attn: Katelynn Jensen

c/o ISA Office

Av. Cabildo 875 #1

C1426AAI  Buenos Aires

Argentina

(But don’t feel obligated, as it could take a very long time to get here. Email is definitely quicker.)