I've grown accustomed to her...space?

            It sneaks up on you in bits and pieces, becoming accustomed to a place. The first time I rode a colectivo (city bus) here, I was so nervous about getting off at the right place and not being robbed on the way that I spent most of the journey standing near the door clinging to the handrail (in my defense, it was night time and I was on my way to meet friends at a place I’d never been before; but I know, kind of sad). Gradually, with the confidence-building of a few bus sojourns in the daytime, I was able to pry myself away from the handrail and sit/stand comfortably in the rest of the bus, with a fair amount of confidence in where I was going. Then came the day that I realized riding the bus was no longer a big deal. This realization was itself a big deal, naturally. I’m not at all ashamed to say that every time I get on a bus – especially if it’s a bus I’ve never ridden before – I get a little boost of confidence. “Look at me, world! I know where I’m going, yes I do! I’m on the bus, and I know where I’m going. Haha!” I’m not saying that announcement goes through my head every time I’m on a bus*, but you get the picture.

            There’s the language part of that too. Working with the kids at Cor has really helped my listening skills and my confidence with the language. I still do a lot of planning out in my head, but my fluency is improving noticeably. I get a lot of compliments on my speaking ability. I’m not sure if that’s just people being nice, or if they’re surprised that I can speak and understand anything at all, but it’s definitely encouraging. I don’t think my Spanish skills will be comparable to where my German skills were when I left Trier (I had Austrians mistaking me for German, boo-yah!), but they’re definitely head and shoulders above where they were when I arrived. Which is great news, considering I’ll be taking the MTTC Spanish certification exam in July. Eep!

            And then there was the realization that some of the things that had so irritated me after my first few weeks in Buenos Aires were no longer as much of an irritation, or had actually turned into a fun challenge. Take change, for example. Not Obama campaign change, jingly coin change. In the US, you never have a problem getting change. Even on a Sunday, most restaurants or businesses don’t even bat an eye when asked for change for a dollar, a five, a twenty even. And that’s when you haven’t even bought anything! Generally speaking, you are not made to feel uncomfortable if you’re the guy who pays for something costing $2.01 with a $20-bill. If anything, it’s viewed as more of a hassle for you, because now you’re the one who has to carry that pile of change around in your pocket. Poor you! You can probably tell by my tone that this is not the case in Argentina. Because of a mafia-controlled black market for the coins (really for the metal used to make them) and the fact that Argentina has to buy the metals to print coins from Chile (and long-standing animosity between the two means high prices), there are much fewer coins in circulation than there is demand for them. So the coins become more valuable than their actual face value and are thus hoarded by vendors and buyers alike. Everyone tells me it used to be much worse than it is now, but when I try to buy something for AR$3 using a AR$5 note and the man at the till refuses to sell it to me because he does not want to part with any of his coins, I call that situation pretty dang bad (this actually happened during my first month here). This drove me nuts. It seemed almost anywhere I went I was looked at as a pariah if I didn’t provide exact change, or if I forced someone to cough up a bit of coinage. It became especially annoying when I wanted to take the bus, because the buses only accept coins and fares are always between AR$1.10 and AR$1.30. I often found myself engaged in a frantic scavenger hunt through the kiosks, trying to find something to purchase that would force the shopkeeper to give me enough change so that I could get the bus back home. It sounds absurd, and it is; and for the first few months I raged and fumed and shook my fist at the crazy government who wouldn’t print more money, the crazy buses who insisted on coins instead of some sort of transit card, the shopkeepers with till full of greedily guarded peso coins. And then one day when I was downtown and had to start the scavenger hunt again, it suddenly became a game. It became something I had to put up with: my misplaced moral outrage would not make the bus driver take my folding money in payment, nor would it turn said folding money into coins. I had to find a way around it, and I managed to do so with a bit of a smile. And oh, how sweet that grapefruit soda tasted after I had paid for it with a fiver and gotten the long-searched-for peso coin in return. I’m sure I must have looked rather smug when I finally boarded the bus, because I certainly felt very smug.

            That’s not to say I don’t still get annoyed by some of the things which originally tripped my trigger – I don’t think I’m good enough at compartmentalizing to turn avoiding dog poo into a game – but they don’t seem to weigh on my mind as much.

            My impending return I think also contributes to that feeling of ambivalence. I have so much to look forward to: going back to work at Voices; babysitting for a friend’s little girls and for the girls I nannied two summers ago; dog-sitting for a friend; many, MANY weddings; upcoming student-teaching. Also, the manfriend, Will, was just offered a clerkship in Gaylord, MI, and will soon officially be gainfully employed! Huzzah! So much to be excited about.

            I’m hoping to squeeze one more entry in before the weekend (might even start tonight?) because Tuesday night I will be on a bus to Puerto Iguazú, gateway to the famous Iguazú Falls. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, Google them now, because they’re a sight to behold. This will be my first journey in a micro, the swank long-distance buses that are so ubiquitous in Argentina, so I’m looking forward to that as well. Hasta pronto!

* I’m lying, it totally does! ;)