Hey everyone!

I got to Buenos Aires yesterday around 11, and got to my residencia around 3 after waiting around the airport for others and exchanging money and all that. My room is tiny with the worst view in the history of the world, but in two weeks a big, beautful room with a balcony looking out on the street will open up, and I will move there. I’ll put pictures up then.

So, after getting to my room around 3 yesterday, I was told that I would need to meet at the ISA (my international abroad program’s) office by 4 o’clock. And I had to get myself there!! It’s about a 2 mile walk, which I don’t at all mind doing, except that I had no time, no idea where I was going, and no idea about which actions were safe or not. The girl who dropped me to my room gave me quick directions and told me to ask the ladies who work downstairs (who don’t speak English) to help me before I left. I don’t think she knew I was directionally challenged…So, I asked the woman downstairs (Lucia, yo pienso) who spent a good amount of time with me attempting to help. I understood very little but she was very nice and understanding and explained in little kid words that I would have to cross calle uno, calle dos, y calle tres to get to the subway. Needless to say, I walked around multiple blocks in the wrong direction, acted like I knew where I was going, and got called some version of chica hermosa by a couple different onlookers, but I made it to the subway. I actually managed to not get lost on the subway and make it to my destination only 20 minutes late! Not bad, I’d say.

The next day I had to be back to the office in the morning for orientation and a city tour. I ordered my first coffee (cafe por favor- reply in Spanish- me looking confused- cafe por favor- con leche- uh ok?- con words I don’t understand- no gracias- 19 pesos- esta bien) and made it there only 2 minutes late! Here I was lectured about all the many ways to be robbed in Buenos Aires, which is likely to be pickpocketing since it is rampant and they seek out foreigners. Apparently, they will slash your backpockets without you knowing, give you fake money virtually anywhere including the banks, grab your purse and run, threaten you inside an ATM….taxis are even worse than taking the bus, the police are totally corrupt, people team up to create a distraction and rob you…..and don’t ever ask the locals for help with anything because they will just assume you are creating a diversion and trying to rob them…. great. And I didn’t even cover the full list of other ways that life can be dangerous here. I hope that they were just trying to scare us.

Observations-

1) There are dogs on the street here. Not sure if they have owners or not, but they look happy and well fed. They just walk around.

2) You have to buzz into any building you need to enter, not stores or cafes or anything like that, but from what I can tell, any building that goes up. To go to the doctor you have to make an appt, and then buzz in to gain entrance.

3) Their keys are really strangely shaped, making it even harder for me to use them ( I can barely use a key properly in the US).

I have more but I’m really tired right now and also didn’t have anything to write my observations down on today. I’ll let you know when I remember.

So we went on the city tour which was partially by bus and partially on foot, and though I was struggling to keep my eyes open and scared to death that someone was gonna rob me during the walking part, I got a few pictures.

From Beginning: Fancy graveyard where famous people (and Evita Peron) are buried. Typical city street. Boca neighborhood with it’s colored tin houses. Casa Rosada where the president works (“works” according to my ISA director) with these two guys that were taking a funny picture.)

Ok, I’m going to wrap this up so that I can finally sleep. But I ended my night going to dinner at a cafe, and ordered something that turned out to be a giant slab of steak between two pieces of pita-type bread, with nothing else. Woops. It was really hard to eat out, as we didn’t know what was polite to do or not, how to get seated ( seat yourselves and wait an hour). The cafes are on a super slow snail pace, and I’d guess we were there about 2 hours (maybe more). People seem to just hang out with no particular intention of ordering much, and the waiter doesn’t bother anyone unless they somehow make it obvious that they need something… not sure just yet what this cue is. Anyways, it was really confusing, I think we may have done a bunch of things wrong, and I ordered a drink called “Iguana Skin”.

… Goodnight.