Despues de una semana...

Helllo!

So, nowI´ve officially survived my first week in Buenos Aires. Go me. It´s definitely feeling more comfortable here. Although LB and I defintely had some trouble feeling kind of aimless and without purpose this week. It´s really hard to adjust to a new place without a routine. I was reading this book that my neighbor Maureen gave me about a woman that basically abandons her life in the states to travel abroad by herself, and one of the things she talks about is how important having a routine was to her in her life in the states, and how when she had all this time on her hands, time that was meant for her to have, she would fall back into the idea of ¨keeping herself busy¨. LB and were discussing that a lot this week, because at the prospect of having an entire week with no plans, we were panicked and overwhelmed. We had to keep verbally affirming that we were here for a reason, and we would have a routine in a week or so. In my effort to try to avoid this mentality I spent all of yesterday without a plan, I walked around the neighborhood and then sat in a cafe reading and eating churros with cafe de leche for 3 hours. It was really nice, then LB and I when grocery shopping and made stirfry veggies and rice together. The two of us eat pretty regularly with my host parents, ususally it´s the only time of the day that I see them. It´s nice though, to speak spanish with them and just sit. We eat at 9pm every night and usually don´t leave the table until 11. It´s definitely a different schedule to get used to. Watching the news with them is also very interesting because it´s sometimes hard for LB and I to follow, so Evi usually explains it to us. The pictures on the news this week, however, told their own story. Everyone was talking about the earthquake in Peru. I had a momentary freak out because I knew Deepti and her family were there, but I emailed her and she wrote back that they just missed it. ANother constant part of the nightly news are the upcoming elections. There are two women who are the frontrunners, one of which, Cristina, is the wife of the current president Kirschner, the other woman, I can´t remember is the one that Evi likes. She seems to be more liberal and ëtico¨as Evi was explaining to us the other nigfht. Knowing about the tumultuous election that happened between Kirschner and Menem last time, it will be really interesting to be here for the election here in October. I need to learn more abou tthe politics of the country however, hopefully LB can help me with that. ALso seeing news of the US from the point of view down here is interesting. I heard Bush declared Iran a ¨terrorist threat¨and felt sick at the table sitting there with Roberto and Evi.

On another note, the biggest cultural adjustment for me has been getting used to living in a city. LB and I talked a lot about this, because she is from the city so feels safer here than an Amherst, whereas it is the opposite for me. Getting used to the bus system, and how vast the city is has been tough for me, but I´ve been tackling one neighborhood at a time. Even just getting used to all th enoise and all the people on the street has been a challenge. It feels like even though there are more people, the city feels more lonely because everyone walks the street with their own mission and just seems to ignore everything that´s going on around the,m. This is hard for me, I feel like I get overstimulatedf pretty easily so it´s hard to shut it all out.

Ok taht´s all I have tiome for for now. Today LB and I are going to the ¨bodies¨exhibit with Anival and Jess. I saw this exhibit in Boston, I actually organized a field trip for youthbuild students to see it. And jess was excitedly telling me about it the other day, so it´ll be nice to see it in a different country and also a different language. SOmething familiar out of the original context. Jess is a med student at UBA, so it´s obvious why she was so excioted to see it.

Ok, so now I´m off! I miss and love you all still! The comment are nice too! Congrats Sara on everything, I can´t wait to see you when I get back- all big and glowy. haha.

¡ciao!