¡Bienvenidos a Buenos Aires!

I'm here! Hooray! And I really love it! On the flight over here I met a really wonderful woman who teaches English at a private school here. She was very friendly and comforting. And I decided that 10 hours was a really good amount of time for a flight because by the time I got here, I was ready and excited. The airport was... interesting. I expected it to be like American airports (probably because those are the only ones I know!) but it wasn't at all. We had to walk off the plane to the inside and there was no air conditioning. It's so humid here, I was kind of dying. Also it just looked very unfinished and not very professional. But I made it through customs and got my bags (no easy feat!) and found the person holding a sign with my name. I thought he was an ISA person but he was just a taxi driver and like a ridiculous American I shook his hand on accident. But to my credit, I've never even taken a taxi before, much less in a foreign country. It's SO intimidating being in a Spanish-speaking country. My Spanish is terrible! So we left the airport and headed to my apartment, and let me tell you, the driving here terrifies me!! It's insane. On a lot of the streets there are no lanes so people just squeeze in wherever they can. And Argentines are not afraid to use their horns. Stressful! The ride over was completely silent, which was awkward, but I was too intimidated to try talking. When we got to the apartment, Miriam wasn't home so we had to wait for her. More silence. The whole time I was just watching everyone, sizing up every woman I saw and trying to figure out if she could be Miriam. One woman pulled up in a taxi and was carrying a giant chandelier thing. She looked so friendly and I really wanted her to be Miriam. But she went in the building. Some time later that same woman came back out and it turns out, she IS Miriam! And so friendly!!! I instantly felt comfortable with her. We went inside and she showed me the apartment. It's tiny, but I guess that's to be expected in the middle of a city with 14 million people. But it's so bright and cheery! And because there's no air, the windows are always open, which I love. All the apartments are close together so you can hear everything! Especially because the windows are all open. But I kind of like the extra noise. But everything is so tiny, it's definitely not Texas! And there's no washers or dryers. And only one outlet in my room, which to me seems very strange. There's no internet at my house so I have to go to cafés to use it, but that's ok. I talked with Miriam for a bit and she's just wonderful! And then she took me to a meeting at the ISA office. We had to take 2 colectivos (buses) but it didn't take too long. Then she pretty much just handed me off to this woman named Paula and left. Paula pretty much overloaded me with information and gave me all sorts of maps and guides. She's so nice also. That's the woman I had my phone interview with. I think we're going to be friends. Then I left and wanted to walk around the city a bit. Partly because I wanted to explore and partly because I couldn't remember how on earth to take the colectivos and get home. They're like this secret system that I'm supposed to use but not really a part of. Instead I walked around a lot and finally made my way to the Subte (the metro system here). Now subtes I can handle. It's weird though, because you sit there for a while and then someone comes along and passes out things for sale to everyone and later walks by and picks it up if you don't want it. One little boy was trying to sell valentines. It was sad. Miriam wasn't home when I got back that night, but she had left me dinner. I think it's going to take a while for me to get used to the food here. Then I felt really lame because I was so tired and didn't feel like wandering around the city at night. I just kind of hung out for a while and went to sleep. But I really love this city so far. I love walking everywhere, and my open window. I love that it's so big (although that means I'm going to have to learn how to use the colectivos at some point). I think this is going to be a great semester.