¡Hola, y bienvenidos a mi nuevo "blog" para recordar mis adventuras in Buenos Aires, Argenitna! Hello, and welcome to my new blog for sharing my adventures in Buenos Aires! It's the end of my second day here and, needless to say, I'm exhausted. My flight arrived yesterday around 10:30 AM and after meeting up with ISA, the other students and I were taken to the University of Belgrano where our host families were instructed to pick us up. After a brief car ride with my new host father José, we arrive at the house. The description provided by ISA said the house was two stories, but in reality it's three. The bottom floor has the laundry room, a small bathroom, and a in-home doctor's office for my host mother, Alicia. The second floor, which for all intents and purpose is the first floor, has the living room, a library, the kitchen, a dining room, and another bathroom. The third floor has the bedrooms, all of which are occupied with foreign exchange students from various programs. My ISA roommate Georgia is across the hall, and another girl lives further back. Across the backyard of the house is the guest house, which has two bedrooms, a kitchen, and three guys living in it. On top of the guest house is a gorgeous terrace, but it's too cold now to make any good use of it. The family also has an ADORABLE kitty named Mumi! Mumi is a friendly Siamese kitty who likes to sleep with all the different students each night She is too cute!
After arriving at the house, I had to turn right back around again and go to the ISA office for the first part of orientation. When I got back home, I had a chance to unpack and relax for the rest of the evening. This morning, though, I had to go to another building owned building owned by ISA for a more thorough orientation. After a lunch of empanadas, we all hopped on a bus for a four-hour city tour. The European influence on the city is incredibly apparent, from architecture to street fashion to the goods sold in outdoor markets. So far I've noticed some striking differences from the United States:
1) when driving, no one stays in their lane. Or any lane for that matter. There may as well not be white lines on the road at all
2) stoplights don't seem to matter
3) nor do crosswalks. Do NOT expect cars to stop for you. If you don't see them and are about to step in front of them, they still will only honk their horns. Terrifying.
4) everyone lets their dog poop on the sidewalk and NO ONE picks up after them.
5) homeless can build little lean-to shelters with mattresses and stuff and the city doesn't seem to mind
And now I'm too tired to think of a good way to end this post.
