06/22/10

I noticed this morning the hair straightener I purchased here yesterday is 110-240 volts, HELL YA, it works in Argentina and the United States, all I need is an adapter for the outlet. YAY. Also, my padre Luciano let me borrow an Argentina phone. If for some reason you want to contact me: 11 3773 0598. I also have my regular phone though, which is better for international calling/texting. Anyway. Today was CRAZY. Got up and went to the university to take my placement test at 10:30am. After the placement test, we all sat around and talked for a while, then got our results. I placed into intermediate II (there's beginner, int I, int II, and advanced) which I'm quite pleased with... basically the equivalent of 300 level college Spanish. Unfortunately, I got put into the 11am-4pm class (which puts a slight hamper in my day and trying to travel), so tomorrow they said I could try to change classes (hopefully to the 9:30-2:30 class). After that, a few of us went to the travel agency to get prices for a few trips. We were wanting to go to Iguazu, Calafate/Ushuaia, and possibly Mendoza. I decided Mendoza isn't worth it, since the bus ride is so long and I really, really hate red wine (many wineries in Mendoza). I REALLYYYYYY wanted to go to Calafate (where the glaciers are), Torres del Paine (a glacier park in Chile), and Ushuaia (the end of the world, the southernmost city in the world, aka basically Antartica... and... where the penguins are). Too bad a ticket alone is about 850 USD (2500 pesos) and from June 15 through August, it's so cold and harsh that they don't even really do glacier tours in Calafate or the train ride excursion to Ushuaia. I'm actually quite disappointed. At least that means I have to come back to Argentina in the summer sometime :) ... We're definitely going to Iguazu for a weekend though (only about 200 USD for hostel, bus, breakfast, dinner, transportation, etc). Maybe we'll come up with another fairly cheap weekend trip... I NEEEEED to see the penguins, maybe Puerto Madryn or Punto Tombo... not so far south like Ushuaia, where I'm fairly certain it's cold enough for some emperor penguins. Around 2:30 we left for the game. I've learned pedestrians really don't ever have the right away here. Ever. It's going to be a miracle if I don't get hit by a car at some point because the drivers really don't give a crap if you are in the street when they want to drive (and there aren't really cross walk signs, or stop signs, at least that are obeyed). Trying to take the subway to the game was jam packed crazy. Because today, Argentina played Greece in the world cup. We went to watch it in the Plaza de San Martin in downtown Buenos Aires. They set up this gigantic screen outside and the entire city shuts down (stores close, the streets are empty)... and EVERYONE, and I mean everyone, piles onto this hill to watch the game. and it's NUTS. Completely, utterly, INSANE. (see facebook pictures). And of course, we won 2-0. The first goal Argentina scored, there were confetti cannons, one of which went off right behind me and covered me head to toe in confetti (yeah... facebook pictures). After the game, 5 of us went to a very late (6:30pm) lunch at a cafe. They gave us menus in English... we were shocked. But then we realized there were also Spanish menus and that the waiters had somehow guessed we were all American even though we didn't say anything when we walked in. lame. I had a submarino (hot milk, and you put a chocolate bar in it) and a steak, ham, and cheese "sandwich" ... which isn't actually a sandwich that can be eaten with your hands. The guy behind the bar was staring at us the whole time, laughed when we noticed the Spanish menus, etc, etc... he wouldn't stop staring. THEN, they tried to scam us. They charged us 176 pesos for an approx. 150 peso bill. Yet, us being smart Americans, figured out that the bill wasn't right, and confronted the waiter, who went back to the bar and talked to the guy who had been staring at us the whole meal, then came back with our 150 peso bill and said NOTHING. YAH. we win. No scamming Americans. So after the odd lunch experience, we took the subway home. This super adorable dog followed me home almost all the way from the subway to my house. Maybe he'll be there in the morning waiting for me to get up. I decided I should try to clean my clothes of the confetti from the game. Well, there was confetti in my hair, in my hood, down my pants, in my underwear, under my t-shirt, in between my boobs, in my socks... you name it, confetti had found its way there. It took quite a while to clean up and it's still all over the floor in my room. For dinner,  we had some pretty incredible spaghetti, then sat around talking for a couple hours. No wonder my Spanish is getting so much better. I'm going to bed early tonight (granted, this means 12:30am). First day of class tomorrow!

p.s if you don't have facebook (ahem), you need to make one to look at my pictures. or use someone else's facebook to look at the pictures. seriously. some of them are quite incredible.