I’ve only been here two days and I’m already in love.
With the city, I mean. (Don’t have a heart attack mom and dad.) After the forever long plane ride, one of the Argentine program directors picked us up and immediately took us to our family. Wow, I was about as nervous as is possible. But I shouldn’t have been because my host abuela y abuelo, Teresa and Raul, are probably the nicest people on the planet. AND their granddaughter that lives with them, Alesandra, studied in Chicago when she was younger so now she speaks fluent english (I still can’t believe how lucky I am).
We live in San Telmo, the oldest neighborhood in Buenos Aires. It’s apparently a bit touristy but I couldn’t tell too much. It’s pretty bohemian and artsy with lots of bars (which are more like restaurants here) and neat shops and a market with antique stores and fruit stands and even a booth that sells old vinyls. Our apartment building is over 100 years old with one of those cool old timey elevators that has an accordion door that you have to pull shut. SOO cool. I have a balcony attached to my room that looks out on a cobblestone street. I can’t even believe this is real… haha.
Living with my family is absolutely great but very strange at the same time. I spent all day yesterday with them only, completely removed from anything I knew before. The people, the scenery, the food, the language of course - everything was so different. The normal Paige was completely isolated from her normal context. I realized I could totally reinvent myself to my host family, make up all sorts of stories about myself, be someone completely different than I was at home… and they would never know. In the end, I decided to stay the same old Paige, though. It’s hard enough communicating in Spanish, I don’t need to keep a new life straight at the same time.
Today we had orientation for our classes at Universidad Catolica de Argentina. I felt like I was in kindergarden again as Teresa and Alesandra walked me to school and kissed me goodbye. I’m super lucky because I only have to walk about six blocks to get to my classes. Some other students have to take a subway, bus, or taxi and travel for half an hour or more.
The university is very new and beautiful and is right on the Rio de la Plata. Alessandra was telling me that all the state universities in Argentina are very good and that they’re free for citizens of MercaSur but that since UCA is private, you have to pay for it. This was evident in the fashion of the students we saw at the university. I felt so un-hip next to everyone’s beautiful clothes… obvious result? I’m itching to go shopping!
We start classes tomorrow and then it’s the weekend! It’s Argentina’s 200th anniversary on Monday- Teresa gave me a history lesson earlier about Simón Bolivar and South American independence. I’ve seen so many commercials for all the celebrations in Buenos Aires and I’m hoping we’ll go to some of them. I have a feeling they’ll be hard to avoid.
For now, though, I’ve got to finish my reading for tomorrow and unpack my clothes in my beautiful new closet. More to come (and hopefully some pictures too)!
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Paige -- sounds as though you are having a great time in a great city!! I'm so excited for you. Did I ever tell you that I worked for a doctor at Baylor Medical School (while Charles was in Dental School)? He was a good looking Argentinian man. His name was Emilio Quesada, he was a Urologist and he left Houston to return to Buenos Aires. Of course, that was almost 41 years ago right before Stuart was born!!! Don't think you'll be running into him and I doubt that he'd remember who I am. It was an interesting experience. His wife went back to Argentina before he did and his answering service would call me to give me messages from him. While his wife was gone, they'd say things like "I think he's playing house while his wife is gone." And, he never, never got to surgery on time. After a while when I called to schedule a 7:30 a.m. surgery for him, they'd say, "He can't have that time, he never gets here on time."
ReplyDeleteJust thought I'd pass on that bit of my past experiences to you.
Can't wait to hear more about what's happening with you. Hope school and Spanish aren't too difficult for you!! Love you lots - Aunt Loretta