The Marvels of American Plumbing

So I found myself a place to live, it's what us American's would call a penthouse, the room at the top of the building. It's a lovely place, a few blocks from my school in the fancy BA neighborhood of Recoletta. I have my own room, a shared bath, use of the kitchen and laundry and there is a doorman. I rent from an older gentleman named Jose (he's a friend of a friend of a family friend). Currently there are 2 other borders here, both are girls from Argentina. No one in the house speaks much English, so I better learn my Spanish (or in Argentine Castalleno) very quickly.  We also have one room open so maybe an English speaking girl will come and I can speak some English, since right now all I can really talk is Castalleno.

You are now probably wondering about the title? Well, I want you to know that I'm not complaining, I know it could be worse (aka Kaitlin in the Dominican) but, I had to share some of my observances so far. First, no the toilet water does not rotate the other direction, it just gets sucked downward. Second, I miss American toilets and plumbing already, I mainly miss how quite it is. The plumbing here is horrendously noisy, it's a pump system and it is LOUD and takes about a minute to refill. Third, I will not even get close to that bidet thing. Fourth, the elevators are small and strange. You have to close the outer door and the inner door to move, and they are really noisy as well! And if you forget to close a door the elevator gets stuck on whatever level it is on.....at least we have a back door to stairs and another elevator if this happens. Fifth, the keys are the strangest things, they look straight out of colonial times or something. large metal things with huge prongs and grooves. Sixth, you already know about not having screens, I was able to get some mosquito coils and was able to be mosquito free last night with the window open. Seventh, there is no clothes dryer, so I will need to learn how to hang dry my clothes, no more downy soft clothes for me. Eight, I don't have an eight yet except I hope that soon I can sleep through a night without being awakened by the elevator or toilet flushing or sink being used. I have posted some photos in the link on what my accommodations look like, if you were wondering.

To continue on, I spent Easter Sunday or Paquia at the horse track with a family friend Peter and his friend Mari. I think it's a sin to do that but, I didn't bet because I don't know how to bet on horses in English much less Spanish. I also was surprised at home and invited to a potluck type meal at my apartment. Jose has some friends who also rent out their homes and they had a few of their borders over with some of their friends from the states and some Argentine friends. We had a party of about 20. It was nice to be able to speak some English and meet some people my age who are working here. The dinner started at 9:30 like most Argentine dinners and lasted until 2am, mind you I had to get up at 8 to be at school the next day by 9. I had a great time but, am unsure how I will manage with eating so late and getting up early. This late dinner is so strange!
I had my first day of school at VOS vosbuenosaries. There are 3 people in my class this week, and I think its an advanced beginner course. I am finding that much of my high school Spanish is coming back to me, now I just need to learn how to listen (I know, I know most of you will say that's impossible for me to listen, but their pronunciation is so different from the Spanish I learned in school that I really need to listen and pay attention, which is difficult for me). I also had a walk through of my internship, or at least what I will be working on my first week. I am excited but feeling a bit overwhelmed right now with all the Spanish. So I am hopefully going to take a siesta and then attend an Argentine movie at school.

Oh please ignore the giant dust spot in my photos facebook.com/album, when I was in CA it was in the corner and I was going to take the camera to a shop to get it cleaned when the speck disappeared. To my Irish luck it decided to reappear in the middle of the screen in BA and now I have to take it to get repaired. Ugh!

I made it!

So I have officially made it to BA. Had a small delay in Lima with the connecting flight, but LAN is such a great airline, instead of making the Argentine's wait to head to BA, they made the Los Angeleno's wait longer. I might regret this on my flight home in 3 months (because by then I will just want to get home and not be delayed). Our flight had mechanical problems so instead of making us wait too long they put us on the LA flight's plane (which was bigger, so I got my own row to nap in) and made the LA flight delayed even longer. HAHAHA, guess I was heading in the right direction.

Upon arrival I was met at the airport by a family friend who is a local and speaks English (thank God, for now, because my Spanish stinks). He is a very nice gentleman in his late 60's and his girlfriend. They were very nice and took me to lunch and a car tour of part of the city. After the second day I decided that my hosts were very nice and generous, but there is only so much you can take of hanging with your "grandparent's", and I'm in a new country so I need to explore. Well I couldn't say no to another lunch, this time at the "rugby club", but I really wanted to be in a place of my own......I struck gold on this place. My host has a friend who is in Recoletta (the posh neighborhood of BA) which is also where my school is located, and that friend has a sweet penthouse like apartment with 4 rooms (3 get rented to people like me), a few blocks from my school.

 So after my host's car broke down across town, and a taxi later I arrived at my new accommodations, and I'm getting a great deal on rent too. Although there is a bit of a language barrier here, my host only knows Spanish and the 2 other borders are Argentine females my age, but don't know English either :( Needless to say I still don't know when I need to pay rent or anything about them. But I'm here to learn so I will learn.

I did manage to get some food at the supermarket without too much trouble and amazingly find my way home (the supermarket is only a block away). Now the only problem is the vampires (my new term for mosquitoes). The windows/doors here don't come with screens (also most of the air conditioning comes from boxes hanging in windows even in skyscrapers) and it's warm, right now its 78F and 10pm! I might need someone to send me citronella candles if I can't find any tomorrow. So I left the window/door open as long as possible but, now I am waging a war against the tiny vampires and I'm hot!

Well I am trying to get on Argentine time (although I don't know how people get up to be at work by 9am and eat dinner after 8pm, they must never sleep, or there is a Siesta time I don't know about yet, sleeping in 2 shifts sounds weird but hey, when in Argentina (er Rome)). Okay well time to get some cena "dinner" and kill some vampire bugs.