Thursday September 10

We made it here safely!

The flight was very long, and I didn’t have as much leg room as I expected, but the food was good and I had my own personal TV. We had a layover in Lima, Peru, and one of the guys lost his passport, so he and our resident professor stayed overnight in the airport. What an idiot! They made it here safe though. We landed right after sunrise, which was very cool to see from the plane. We all got our luggage without problems and piled onto two huge buses. We went straight to the casa where we had a little orientation, but I was focused on not falling asleep. We met Rafa, our program director here in Argentina, and everyone suspects him of being in the mafia (or “Rafia”) based on some of the stories we’ve heard. After orientation we had Asada cooked up for us at the Casa, which will be a Thursday tradition. We explored the Casa a little bit and everyone got phones. I am trying to beat the system and use my blackberry, so we’ll see if that works.

At around 2:30 I met Grace. I walked out to meet her and the first thing she said was, “Tony, my baby!” It’s going to be a great year. She speaks English very well, so there shouldn’t be any communication problems. However, she did tell me that come Monday, no more English, because I need to learn my Spanish. We took a taxi back to her house, and I found my room. We live in an apartment building built by her grandfather. It’s a nice place, but very small. My room is roughly 6ft by 10ft. That’s just a guess, but there’s barely enough room for me to walk between my dresser and my bed. There is another girl staying with us, Julia from Nebraska. I haven’t met her yet, but she’s been here since may so hopefully she’ll be able to show me some fun places to go. All three of us share one small bathroom. What I’m most confused about is the open room with it’s own bathroom that nobody is using……..? Oh well, my bed is comfy and we have everything we need. The internet is tricky. I’m trying to steal other people’s internet because Grace doesn’t have any, and it’s very tough. If I try for about half an hour I might be able to check my email once. All of the windows and glass doors and covered by those metal garage doors you see people pull over their stores at night. So my room is dark for sleeping!

As soon as I got to my apartment I fell asleep. I woke up around 7:30 and unpacked. There were a couple people over and Grace told me it was “Cousin night.” We sat down and had a little pizza, and talked a bit. I was hoping for a smoother transition, Grace and I having dinner as I slowly break in my Spanish. However, more and more people showed up and the crowd grew. We sat in the living room where there is one couch, and all of the rest of us were in chairs or little stools, crammed around one little coffee table. A couple people came and went, but at one point we had ten people stuffed into this room. We had some more pizza, and they talked so fast I had no idea what was going on. I must’ve had that deer in the headlights look, because several times someone said to me “If you’re tired you’re welcome to go to bed.” 1 AM rolled around, I still had no idea what was going on, everything seemed so chaotic, and I was tired. They were still here for a good hour or two after I turn in for the night. But before I went to bed, I took stock of the damage. We had gone through four pizzas, there were four empty wine bottles, and four empty PACKS of cigarettes (which they all just smoking still in their seat, in the middle of this tiny apartment). Needless to say, my first day here was NUTS! And the best news of all…. Cousin night is every Thursday!