Arrival to Buenos Aires

Well everyone, I made it to Argentina in one piece. I was able to navigate through the airports ok which I am proud of. I first flew to Canada alone and then flew from Canada to Buenos Aires with my sorority sister and fellow Buenos Aires traveler, Sarah. She likes to travel and has a lot of experience and I on the other hand am more of the “lets go to the beach” type of girl so I think she will be good for me. We originally had seats that were split up but there was an empty seat in a 3 person row that I was in and the man next to me said that if I would trade with his wife and son then they could all sit together and so could Sarah and I. So that is what we did. It was great except that I got like no sleep. And it was weird b/c they gave us dinner at like 1:30 in the morning…why even bother? I don’t know.

Once in Argentina we went through customs part one and found our luggage (after learning we were looking at the wrong area) and luckily got waived through customs part two which was nice. Then we split up in taxis to go to our host families homes. My taxis driver was insane. He drove very fast and did not stick to a lane. He sometimes drove in the middle as well as riding the butt of whichever car was in front of us. It was nerve wrecking. I believe that he also honked at a girl which I think is a bit inappropriate with me in the car. I was surprised to see a lot of girls/women in shorts b/c I was told that people in BA don’t wear shorts. Now, because I didn’t bring any, I’ll probably go buy some, but hey that isn’t tall bad.

My host family consists of a mom who is in her sixties. Another girl (or should I say woman…age 26) from Hungary is here too with a different program and she speaks both English and Spanish. They both seem nice. My host mom talks a lot and most of it I do not understand, I just do the smile and nod, which is just great. But I’m working on it. ☺ I think that at this point I am a bit shocked and homesick which is something I did not expect in myself. I’m hoping that once I get into the swing of things I start to feel better. So please pray for me if you get the chance.

Tomorrow, we start orientation. It should be interesting. My host mom is going to take the bus with me so I know how to do it which will be very helpful. Its wayyy overwhelming. I don’t know how I will learn all the different public transportation routes/rules. That’s all for now, but I’ll keep you updated.