Steak and Rosa

Hola! I have arrived. It´s unbelievable. I can´t even think straight right now.

My plane arrived around 12:30 PM(by the way, these keyboards are funny...i just tried to type in that colon, and it gave me ñ) today. The flight was very smooth and uneventful. It left about 45 minutes late - 11 PM EST last night - and thanks to my going away party on Friday night and last minute running around yesterday afternoon, I was exhausted and feel easily to sleep. I didn´t even have a glass of wine! The plane ride was 10 hours and 50 minutes, but it didn´t feel long at all. Very painless.

So I had this morning´s cup of coffee around 11 AM, looking out the plane window at sprawling Argentina below. I can´t explain how exciting it was. It´s so weird when you´ve imagined something over and over and over again, and then it actually happens. And it´s always nothing you thought it would be - it´s somehow better.

Anyway, my arrival was extremely easy, thanks to my school arranging a cab for me. I just had to go through customs (which was a breeze), grab my bag, and go up to the cab stand and give them my little waiver thingy. Then a strapping young Argentinian man came and carried my bag out to my taxi. I´m a queen:) Then the guy asked me for a tip, which was less charming, and I gave him a $5 US, which occured to me once I gave it to him that it was kind of an enormous tip, but oh well. Silly American that I am.

Then we were off! Lots of itty bitty cars here. I love it. It was about a 20 minute drive from the airport into Buenos Aires. I am certain I won´t be able to explain what things look like here, but I will try. It´s very flat, at least the area right around BA is. And green! But green in the way that you´d think trees in the desert would be - they look very out of place in the landscape or something.

All along the highway, people were picnicking! I cannot imagine anyone in America ever just pulling themselves off the road onto a grassy spot and setting up their grill next to the cars whizzing by. It was great. Tons of cars had just pulled over under the shade of a tree, and people had set up chairs and were just lounging and eating and drinking.

And Buenos Aires is huge and sprawling. But not huge like New York is huge. It doesn´t have a presence when you drive up on it - not like you come over the hill and, tada! There it is! The buildings are not nearly as tall, and they´re not metallic and shiny like in New York. They´re white and sandy and natural colors, and they honestly look pretty shabby from the highway. But then you exit the highway, and you´re down in the city streets, and it´s quite charming. Lots of trees make the streets very shady, and the neighborhoods are very quiet and quaint. I´m sure I haven´t even seen any of Buenos Aires yet, so more on that later.

We pulled up to Rosa´s apartment, and the cab driver went up and buzzed her (I have been very spoiled today - have not had to have any embarrassing ¨no habla espanol¨ experiences), and then she came down and embraced me! Ah, Rosa! She is 70 years old, has dyed auburn hair, is very short and squatty and is altogether exactly what I was hoping for in my Argentinian mama. She speaks a little English (much more than I speak Spanish), but she was very firm with me this afternoon, telling me I MUST learn. She then proceded to whip out the Buenos Aires map and explain all the neighborhoods for me, in Spanish. I did a lot of smiling and nodding (I´ve got ¨si¨down), but she´s excellent with gesturing and intonation, so even though I´m basically hearing babble, I can sort of get the gist of it.

She has another girl living with her right now, Nicoleta, who looks to be about 35 and who is from Cleveland, Ohio! She is only here for one more week. She´s a tango dancer and just came down here for a month to dance! How fun! Anyway, great to have an English speaker in the house, just in case! Then after she leaves, we´ll have another someone in the room.

The apartment is small, but precious, and Rosa has a fluffy white cat that eyes the living room very territorially from it´s perch on the bookshelf. I haven´t quite won the little kitty over yet, but I´m a gonna... I have a twin bed, a desk, a chair, and a closet. It´s perfect.

Then Henrique, who just this morning vacated my room, showed up, and he, Rosa and I went out to lunch. Henrique is a 21 year old student from Brazil, so he speaks Portuguese and Spanish and a little English, too. It was an interesting lunch, needless to say. Lots of Rosa and Henrique talking and me sitting there like a silly little Ellen. Oy, I feel stupid. But I am very confident that after one week of classes, I am at least going to be able to function. I just need the basics and then I´ll be okay. We had steak for lunch. Rosa ordered an appetizer of chorizo sausage - just one little sausage that we split into three portions, and then came steak. Just steak on the plate! It was tasty, but I´m not sure I can eat chorizo and steak for lunch every day. Or maybe I can!

Anyway, home from lunch now and just stopped off here to check in. I´m hopelessly addicted to the internet, so I am sure I will be in here daily. Also just picked up a phone card, so I can go back to Rosa´s and call mumsy and pops to let them know I am here! So now it is back to Rosa´s to nap and decompress and then tonight, Rosa is going to take me over to my school, so I will not get lost tomorrow morning! This is going to be great. I´m thrilled. Adios for now!