Ok, fine. So I haven't exactly been keeping this blog updated, which means that unless I've been regularly skyping you (i.e., if you're not my parents) you probably have no idea how my adventures have been going so far.
So to start off, I'm going to list off some of the things that are the same here (not very many), and the things that are very very different (a whole lot), and the things that I'm starting to get used to (sort of).
Same:
Not that much. I'm assuming there would be a lot more similarities if I'd ever really spent time in a big city state-side, but I haven't, so all the big city stuff is new to me as well. But other than that...
The food. I was expecting to have awesome new tastes, and be trying new things. However, the only new things I've really tasted is a fried piece of thin steak (very similar to weinerschnitsel) and Mate. The fried meat thing is really popular here, and they put it on sandwiches, eat it like a steak, the works. Mate, is this tea type drink that almost everyone here drinks. They drink it how Americans drink coffee. Every day, all day. It's basically a bunch of plant bits (made from some kind of evergreen or grass or something) stuffed into a bowl type cup almost to the top, then very hot water is poured over it to soak the plant bits, and you suck the moisture out with a filter/straw. I tried it and I'm not a big fan. It tastes like when you leave a bag of green tea in the water for half an hour because you forgot about it, and no matter how much sugar you put in it you can't get rid of that over steeped bitter taste. Other than those two things, it's a pretty heavily Italian diet here. Basically you've got your Italian, and your empanadas, which are good, but I've had them, and I can get them at home. Although they do have this really good thing called a submarino. You can find it at just about any little corner cafe, and it's not exactly a new taste, since I've been making myself essentially the same things at home for years, but it's still good. Basically, they bring you a cup of really really hot milk, and a hunk of chocolate, and you stir the chocolate into the milk where it melts and becomes really rich hot chocolate. Mmmmm...
Second, the prices. Some things are cheaper, and some things are more expensive, and from where I'm staying, it pretty much levels out to being the same. Only thing is, I seem to be going through money like it's water. I'm not even really buying stuff! I've really only been buying food. My family gives me food (more about that in the different sections), but I seem to get insanely hungry during the day, so I buy food.
Ok, now for the different:
Ohmygosh, what can I say, it seems like everything is different, yet the same at the same time. But I'll just start.
The money. I mean, obviously they have different money here, they use the Argentine peso, but how people treat money is different. For starters, the largest bill that exists is the 100 peso bill, but that's only about 23 American dollars, so I want to treat it like it's a 20 dollar bill, but no one likes to give change for a 100. They treat accepting 100's like people back home would treat getting a 100 dollar bill. Another thing about money, everyone expects you to have exact change. Say, if I go to Mcdonald's and my order costs 26.50, and I only have a 5, 10, and 50 in my wallet, I have to give the 50 to the person. Then they give me this funny look, ask if I have 50 cents, which I don't, and totally confuse me in the process. Then finally, after I show them that all I have in coins in a measly little 1 peso coin that wouldn't do any good, they reluctantly give me my 23.50 in change. And, lastly about money, you need to watch out for fake money here, specifically from taxi drivers. I fell into the classic tourist trap, just how ISA warned us, and ended up getting jipped out of my money by a taxi driver giving me fake money. The thing is, if you actually take the time to look at the bills, it's very obvious to tell whether it's fake or real, you just have to look.
The schedule.
The normal daily schedule of someone my age:
9 or 10: get up and go to work/school. Done by 6 or 7. Nap time for a couple house before dinner at 9 or 10. Get ready, go out at 12 or 1 to a bar, to the club at 3, home at 6 or 7, repeat. I have no idea how they do it. I'm very lucky and family that eats dinner "really early" at 8, so I'm not having to really stay up late to eat my dinner. I, however, could never keep up the schedule of a typical Argentinian, so I've NOT been going out every night. In fact, I've really only gone out twice, both times I didn't get home until 4:30 (you might say this is really late, but here that's just when the party really gets started).
hydrating/health:
Obviously I've already done my bit about the time schedule and when they eat, but now I going to talk about when they drink, because, from what I can tell, they don't! I honestly don't know how people here stay hydrated or healthy unless they're secretly chugging water behind closed doors. I almost never see anyone drinking any sort of liquid unless you're at a bar. So yeah, no idea how they stay healthy when they never hydrate, only eat carbs and protein (there's a serious lack of veggies here), and don't sleep EVER.
The Language.
I mean, it's obviously going to be different than home because it's Spanish, except it's not really Spanish, it's Castellano. This really screws me up a lot of the time, mainly because the normal double l "y" sound that I'm used to and how I learned Spanish is pronounced as a hard "sh" sound here. So instead of "me llamo Meredith" sounding like "me yamo Meredith" it sounds like "me shjamo Meredith." It's weird and screw me up, and people in shops and restaurants don't really want to slow down for you so you can understand. It's a miracle when you find someone who knows a little bit of English, because suddenly, they want to practice on you.
Ok, that's all the ranting about differences for now, so we move on to things I'm (sorta) getting used to.
1) My crappy mattress. Just sitting here on it I can feel 3 springs pressing into my foot and legs. But I've finally managed to sleep without getting a ginormous backache. I think sort of surrounding myself by these ginormous decorative pillows is helping, and also probably my exhaustion and learning where on the tiny bed it's safe to lay without a spring digging into my ribs.
2) The money. Like I said, sorta. I'm learning to realize that, even though it seems like I'm handing over 10 dollars for a red bull, it's only 10 pesos, which translates to about $2.25, or how riding the subway costs 2.50, which seems extremely expensive, but it's only about $0.60. Also, I've learned to start checking my bills to make sure they're not fake.
3) The doors. I'm so used to the doors always opening out back home, that I've found myself automatically wanting to pull a door on the way in, and push on the way out (because it's fire code, that if there's a fire and everyone crowds against the door trying to get out, you won't get stuck trying to pull it in against a crowd of people) here, no such code exists, so the doors are about half and half. I've almost stopped trying to pull doors that say 'empuje' and push doors that say 'tire.'
Now that it's been two weeks and I'm about half way through my trip, I'm starting to count the days until I come home. It's fun and exciting being here, but I'm getting tired of the constant noise of the city, awkward dinners trying to talk to my host family, and everything being in Spanish everywhere. I want to be able to walk down the street and go into a cafe to get a coffee without being afraid of making a complete fool of myself because I can't really speak Spanish. This has been my wonderful adventure so far. I am, however, looking forward to my last week here. I've got planned a trip to see the Iguazu falls, which are supposed to be amazing, and a ticket has been bought to go see the opera at the Teatro Colon, one of the most famous opera houses in the world.
On the bright side, right across from my university it a house where Albert Einstein lived for a month when he came to Buenos Aires!
