Dia Quatro

Today was the day that the loneliness and homesickness started to become apparent. I woke up at 7:30 am to take a shower before anyone else needed it. No one else took one though. I got ready so I could meet Sebastien at 8:40 because he offered to show me to the bus. At 8:40 I ran into the kitchen to scarf a yogurt before I had to go. When I had done that, I looked around and realized that Sebastien was not ready to go, much less in view. So I returned to my room to clean up a bit. Sebastien finally came out not too long after and I followed him into the kitchen. He calmly made tea and toast for us to eat. At 9:15 he finally asked if I was ready to go and I said Sí. He gave me a key and made me a simple map of the bus route to follow so I would know where to get off. He also gave me 80 centavos as I didn’t have any. Then we walked to the bus stop on the corner and when the bus came he said good luck and sent me on my way. AAAAHHHH!!!... We don’t have busses in Soldotna. It was fine though. I held onto my bag and watched how others were getting on and off the bus. When my stop came I was ready. The hardest part was seeing what street we were on because Buenos Aires only has one set of street signs per intersection, if I’m lucky. And you don’t know what corner they are on. So that was fun. But I found it, and I walked the other 4 blocks to FLACSO and arrived on time at 9:45 am.

The morning was devoted to a Spanish written exam which I am sure I bombed. I have the worst Spanish of anyone in the program. But that’s okay. Last year when I was planning to study abroad I decided that I didn’t care how I did in my classes. I have no delusions about the quality of my Spanish. My goals in coming here are to LEARN Spanish, not learn other things IN Spanish. And to DANCE as much as possible. So I was none too concerned with the poor quality of my test. I know, I’m an honors student, what was I thinking. I was thinking that I don’t need any more stress than I have and my Spanish will come eventually. But even so, it’s a little depressing being the worst. After that they turned us loose for lunch. I followed some other girls to a café for a sandwich and “agua sin gas”. There we all searched our transportation booklet to determined the how best to get to the part of town where we were supposed to start our small group walking tours at 2 pm. I got there fine, using the subway for the first time. But I was a little early so I waited around until 2 when I still couldn’t find anyone so started to worry. I shouldn’t have. Everything starts late in Buenos Aires… so of course people started showing up about 10 minutes late. I guess American students learn how to be late quickly. The walking tour was boring and the speaker was talking far too quickly for me to follow her enough to understand what was going on. So I basically just stood and listened and looked around. It was okay I guess. When that was over, me and three other girls went to find a café to sit in and have “coffee” meaning that I don’t really drink coffee. But I like water. It was fun. It was actually good for my brain to speak English, again, not the best for my Spanish, but good for my loneliness. The girls were nice. Then we all went to our home stays and I rode the subway back to my house. It went well.

When I got home, Sebastien was sitting in the kitchen in the near darkness playing his guitar and drinking Maté (a staple tea in Argentina). He shared his tea with me and we talked. Soon Malena came in with their mother visiting from her far off home. She spoke very good English and insisted on speaking it to me. She had so much energy. She was very fun and very nice. They didn’t stay for long. And soon after they left a friend (whose name I have not yet determined) arrived. She spoke so fast that I couldn’t understand anything she said. Sebastien offered me to hook up my computer to the wireless internet and I tried… but the IP address was wrong or something so I couldn’t get into it. Sebastien and his friend went to his room and I went to mine to try to steal some free wireless. It worked for a while and I had a few words with Royce before it quietly stopped working, even though it said it was still connected. Oh well. It was frustrating, but we should be able to get the wireless working tomorrow so I am looking forward to connecting with my American friends and family. I miss everyone. I hope all is well. Goodnight.