First Month

Today makes one month from home, and wow it doesn't feel like that at all!
It honestly feels like I have been a part of my host family my whole life.  I am so blessed to have 2 such amazing families now. We all get along so well and I love to be around them all.  My sisters, Luciana and Daniella are amazing, and so much fun! We have fun just sitting on the couch watching TV together.  My brother, Franco is really cool too. It's weird to have a brother for the first time in my life but I like it.

This past month I have done a ton of things.  I started school, which is really different than I expected.  There are about 200 students here; compared to the 2000 I'm use to at Skyview.  And being one of maybe 3 blue eyed blondes makes me stick out like a sore thumb. My first day of school I was so surprised to see that hardly any girls did their hair or wore makeup, compared to the every girl at Skyview that wears makeup. So many differences, at my school and I guess most of the schools in Argentina the teachers are the ones that switch classes, the students are in the same room all day.  But we have 3 fifteen minute breaks throughout the day. School starts at 7am and is over at 1pm. My classmates are so nice and so sweet to me. They are very patient with me while I'm "trying" to talk. My Spanish I feel is getting better though, which is the most relieving feeling. My vocabulary is constantly growing. I still have so many mistakes with grammar and all, it's more likely that I'm wrong than correct and I have had my fair share of word mix-ups but I'm getting there. But the language is not the hardest part surprisingly. The sleep schedule took me about two weeks to get used to. They go to bed at 11 or 12 at night then wake up at 6 in the morning for school. Waking up has defiantly been hard but then there is siesta where you’re supposed to sleep for an hour or two at 3 or so after lunch, but for the first couple weeks I would sleep for almost 4!

The food here is absolutely amazing! I'm learning how to make some of it to so I can have it when I'm back in the US. The pizza here has hardboiled eggs on it, as gross as that sounds it's so good. My Dad here makes a mean lasagna he's teaching me how to make. The ma-te is so good; I would take it over anything at Starbucks in a second. Oh, and the dolce de leche! I don't know how I ever lived with out it. I will find myself just eating it with a spoon sometimes hah.
In the month that I have been here I think I have seen the total of 3 cats and over 3000 dogs! There are so many dogs just running around everywhere. My biggest fear while walking down the street here is not getting hit by a car (which is kind of likely, because they don't have any cross walks and it seems that the stop signs and red lights are optional), or something bad happening to me, it is getting rabies. I am terrified of the stray dogs here. None of them have touched me yet thankfully and I plan to keep it that way.

Another challenge I am facing is time, I am kind of a planner and always on a schedule. Well, not here. It is perfectly accepted to show up to a party an hour late or 10 minutes late to class at school and that’s not just for the students but also for the teachers. So I just keep reminding myself to go with the flow, and being on time is really not that important. If I learn anything while I am here it's going to be patience!

Here I take the bus just about anywhere and I can spend up to 20 minutes waiting for it which can really put a damper on things. The bus really is not as bad as I used to think of it back at home, not saying I like it by any means but it's bearable, just like anything it just takes time to get used to. I don't know if this is all public buses but here the drivers are so impatient. I swear I have almost face planted into the ground or in some innocent persons lap half a dozen times because the driver doesn't even wait until you are seated or let alone have paid before driving off. So while turning sharp corners and accelerating he is taking money and giving tickets. It's crazy. But the first time on the bus I went with Luciana (my oldest host sister) and some friends to a friend’s house and my ticket was what they call 'capicua' when the number on the ticket is the same both ways, and I guess that is really lucky. So I was pretty excited about that.