Feelings and Life Arrangements

My new buddy Michaela just posted an entry on her blog about her emotions and mundane life details in the past week, which was simultaneously hilarious and informative. I've decided to use that as inspiration for a short blog post about how life works in Buenos Aires, to set the scene.

I am with the IFSA-Butler Argentine Universities Program, located (obviously) in Buenos Aires. The program's office and our IFSA-taught classes are located in an office building in el Centro, or downtown, while all of us students are staying with host families across the safest parts of the city. I live with a host mother and her daughter, who is 21, on the sixth floor (seventh by American counting) of an apartment building in la Recoleta. Apparently my apartment is larger that the others', based on the fact that at one point we had three boarders in addition to myself, though I swear there must be hidden bedrooms for everyone to fit. To clarify, when I first arrived, two Venezuelan women were also staying here while working in the city. They were in their twenties, but I saw them rarely. Martina, from south of Buenos Aires, recently moved in. She is studying marketing at the University of Palermo (?) and has been fairly friendly so far.

My program allows me to take classes at four universities in the city, but I will likely only take classes from Universidad del Salvador, as they have an environmental science track. The information surrounding academics has been sporadic and not very detailed, which has resulted in confusion and frustration. The whole Latin America runs on a different time thing is 100% true here, with professors arriving ten minutes late to orientation classes and wait staff not disturbing your meal despite you having sat there for three hours. Patience is necessary, but I'm finding myself adapting more easily than I expected. It also helps that I am more prepared for the start of classes than my program companions; I've already visited the university departments to get permission to attend classes and acquired class schedules. Next week, I'll try ~9 classes and decide what to take. My class schedule should be official and pared down by the end of March.

The first week was definitely a whirlwind, but after the first day of panic, loneliness, and exhaustion, I've felt pretty excited. Day by day my Spanish improves, and I'm overcoming my shyness and interacting with my host family more. Gradually people tell me that my mistranslations and attempts at courtesy actually come off as rude, so I'm able to improve intra-host family relations. And I'm now 80% comfortable using public transportation. What progress!