Friday, March 2, 2012

Subte Strikes and Scavenger Hunts

Hola chicos!

Another day gone by in Buenos Aires! I guess it's been two days since I've updated the blog. I must admit to you all that this blog is sort of a way to process my time here in Argentina! For any of you that know me well enough, I don't particularly enjoy journaling/writing too much, so it's surprising how much I enjoy blogging! 

Anyway, God brought me through a pretty chaotic day yesterday! For some political reasons, the subtes (subways) were on strike! Not that big of a deal, right? WRONG! I'd be bold enough to say that most of the people in the city use the subways as their regular form of transportation! So, the buses and taxis became the only way to travel around the city yesterday, causing MASS traffic jams. I was pretty nervous to use the buses because they are so complex! Plus, yesterday was a very important day since we needed to start the process of changing our visas from "tourists" to "residents". The staff made it very clear that we needed to be at Registro de Antecedentes Penales (criminal history registry-a place we had never been to before) at 10am, and that we needed to be punctual! Of course, the subtes being on strike messed everything up. So it ended up taking me an hour and a half to get to where I needed to be (on a subway, it probably would have taken me 20 minutes?) I ended up walking at least 20 blocks to get to the Registry. The craziness continued the rest of the day, as we had more traveling to orientation activities and registration for classes, which was very stressful!! All in all, yesterday was a super rough day, my worst yet in BsAs. But, thanks be to God, I made it through alive!

Last night, we were able to go to a tango club to learn a bit about how to tango. It ended up being a lot different than what I expected! Our program (CIEE) was coordinating the whole thing and we thought it would be a private class for just us students. But it ended up being a tango bar with about 80 other people there. The professional dancers put on a quick show, which proved to us just how complex tango is, and then a professional taught about 50 of us the first few steps of the most basic form of tango. I wish I had been more energized for it, but after the day of experimenting with the buses, and walking ALL over the city, I was SO tired! Bot felt the same way, so we ended up leaving the bar around 12 and waiting 45 minutes for a bus back to our neighborhoods, and then I passed out in my bed!
I know, it's a bit fuzzy.

Luckily, today the subways were back up and running! Unfortunately, Bot and I were told to still plan on leaving our houses a little earlier in case the subways decided to strike again. So, we got to FLACSO (our school) an hour earlier than we needed. But, I spent the time in the computer lab, answering some e-mails! Today, our orientation activity was to participate in a scavenger hunt all over the city with groups. After such a crazy day yesterday, and waking up early today, I was exhausted! But I made the most out of the scavenger hunt and enjoyed the time with the people in my group! (it was SO hot today and I wore jeans, which didn't help). The last stop of the scavenger hunt was a famous pizza place where we met our student coordinator, Leandro. We had lunch with our entire red group (about 1/4 of the CIEE students) and then headed back to school for another quick session. 

Since coming home, I've taken a nap, watched a little TV, and had dinner with Rossana. Bot and I are planning on meeting up a little later to hang out and do whatever. Tomorrow, I think we're taking a day trip with Bot's host parents to...well, we don't know where! But, it'll be nice to get outta the city for a few hours!

Some more miscellaneous items that don't quite fit into any part of my blog:
          -Yesterday my big brother #2 (Jeff) sent me an e-mail that encouraged me so much! I had been feeling a little down and Jeff's words were so encouraging, wise, helpful, and uplifting! 
          -Wednesday night I was able to iChat with my parents and update them on my life here in BsAs. It was good to hear their voices and see their faces, as always! Looking forward for you guys to come in April (which now seems a lot closer!)
          -As I walk down the street to my subway stop everyday (and all around the city), I am sprayed with a myriad of liquids. Gross, right? I'm fairly certain that most of this is just the water dropping from the air conditioners in all the apartments!
          -Classes start on Monday! Crazy! Prayers that the classes I'm taking will go towards fulfilling my credits at Gordon. This is a MAJOR concern of mine! 

Suerte (Luck),
-C

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