me zsamo zsael

Wow what can I say about my first impression of this marvelous city. It is safe to say that Argentines are pretty much some of the friendliest people on the planet, and believe me when I say that they know how to enjoy being alive. I am in a program for American students studying abroad; there are about 100 to 120 kids in the program from all over the US. I am living in a homestay--ie in someone´s home-- and that someone is a 30-year-old woman named Silvina. I cannot even describe how awesome she is, nor what a perfect match we are. She happens to be Jewish, from a city in the Patagonia region of Argentina, and she has a Sociology degree from the University of Buenos Aires. Her apartment is in a neighborhood called Villa (pronounced here ¨Vee-zsa¨) Crespa, known by some as Villa Creplach because it is primarily Jewish. Ha! The building in which she lives is absolutely amazing. Because it has been a Jewish neighborhood for many years, it used to be a sort of garment district, as that was an industry run primarily by Jews. Her building is actually a converted textile factory, so the apartment is great--High ceilings, lots of space, particularly in the middle of one of the largest cities in South America. The building is very old, so all the paint on the walls of the apartment are peeling, which I think looks cool--makes me feel very Bohemian. She said that she used to paint every year because it never seems to adhere to the walls, but then she decided to take a vacation with the money she would need to paint--peeling paint is a small price to pay for a vacation. It is so amazing because she has exactly the same taste as me--all her furniture is orange and yellow and red and she has prints of klimt and modigliani everywhere--for those of you that don´t know, my room at home is painted orange and I have had pages from a Klimt calendar on my wall at school for the past three years. My room is at least the size of my room at home, if not larger, with an entire wall of closets (painted mustard yellow). The one drawback to the place is that it is very cold--none of the buildings here have central heating, only these small box-looking heaters that attach to the wall and have actual gas flames in side--very fire-safe, I know. Anyway, I hate being cold, so I have taken to just sitting in front of the heater a lot and putting on more layers until I look like the Michelin Man. Fortunately my bed is very warm and the shower is great, so I end up kind moving around a lot between these three sources of heat. Another thing here that is a definite sign of the times is the elevators. Nearly all the elevators here are the kind with two doors--one on the outside and one on the inside that you have to open and close every time you enter or leave them. I love it.
The food is fantastic here. The first night we arrived the program took us out to this restaurant with the most elaborate buffet I have ever seen. Even though I don´t like to eat pork, I wasn´t about to let it stop me from tasting everything I could. I don´t even know half the things I ate, though I must say the cow intestine was a pleasant surprise. Some unpleasant surprises were the blood sausage (clotted cow´s blood in sausage form), which really just tasted like cinnamon but looked as gross as it sounds, and the cow kidney, cut so that the outer layers of the muscle were left on....I honestly think it was the most disgusting thing I have ever eaten, but hey, at least I tried it. I think I could eat empanadas every day for the rest of my life, and the citrus here is fantastic. Last night Silvina heated up schnitzel!! and when I exclaimed ¨schnitzel!¨ she had no idea what I was talking about but said that they eat it all the time here...I think I will still call it schnitzel because hey, that´s what it was. I have yet to choose my classes and therefore have no real rhythm or regular schedule but the orientation has been very helpful in my adjustment. I am already taking the subway (¨subte¨) on my own between my house, the program center, and the rest of the city.
Anyway, I think that has been the past few days in a nutshell. I hope you are all well and enjoying the summer heat up there!
xoxo