Argentina!!!

Hola amigos y familia. This week has been so awesomeeeee! Where to begin… how about the boring stuff. I signed up for all my classes yesterday and I’m figuring out my schedule as i’m writing this. Looks like 2 classes on Monday/Wednesday, “History of Latin America” which goes from 2:30 - 4, and “International Business in the Southern Core” which goes from 5:30 - 7. Then Tuesday/Thursday I have 3 classes, “Social Economy in Latin America” from 2:30 - 4, “Visions of Culture and Knowledge” from 4 - 5:30, and… uh oh, my advisor scheduled my Spanish class at the same time. I’ll have to fix that. I placed into the Intermediate Spanish class which is good. I need much more practice though. Classes here generally go from 1-7, which is perfect for me because we all know how much i love to sleep in. My bed is so comfortable. There are 4 blankets and the sheets are tucked in extra tight so it’s like a cocoon! And my mattress and pillow are firm just the way I like them. I have been sleeping really well here despite the backwards schedule. 

My friends and I have been going out a lot to get a feel for the city. The nightlife here is great, it’s super easy to get around and there is so much to do! It’s exhausting being out until 5 a.m. but that’s how they do it here. Also, it’s not too bad because we have been sleeping in until about 11 which apparently is normal. We have all been really cautious and alert though, so don’t worry. And all of us got cellphones to communicate with each other so that’s neat.

Helen (my roommate, who is great) and I have a solid group of friends already. We all pretty much do everything together. There’s another girl from DU named Carlie who is super nice and lives really close to us, there’s two girls from UCLA named Allyson and Paige that are really fun. Two guys go to CU named Ben and Peter who are really nice and good to go out with because they always make sure everyone gets home safely and they would never let us girls walk alone, and there’s a guy named Graham who goes to DU who’s really funny annnd that’s the “crew” right there. There’s a lot of other students in our program who are super cool, but I don’t know any of them very well yet. All of us are planning to go on our first excursion a week from today to El Tigre. I don’t even know what it is but I’ll find out soon. 

Our friend Jenna who goes to DU is also here with another program, it’s been fun hanging out with her because she lives in a different area and has a different group of friends. I wish we could meet more local people but it seems kind of impossible. Women here are not friendly and they glare at us wherever we go… which is intimidating and uninviting; they all take life so seriously. The dude who runs our program, Guillermo, said that it’s not culturally acceptable for men and women to be ‘just friends’ and if we are to look at a guy and smile, that means we’re interested in them. So since I’m definitely not interested in Argentinean men, and women aren’t interested in meeting me, looks like I’m gonna have to surround myself with Americans! I have been practicing my Spanish at restaurants and stores and at dinner with my host family, but talking to random local people is not advised. 

I have a lot more to tell but not enough time.. I’ll update hopefully sometime tomorrow or something. SOrry if this is long and boring but i’m just trying to answer everyone’s questions all at once! Love you alllll!

Shel