June 4th, 2007

Hey all,
I appologize for not being able to update my blog, as I said I would, but the computer system here is less than ideal. The way it looks I will only be able to update things 2-3 times per week.
Any who, let´s start from the top. Getting here was a bit tricky. I had 3 different planes I took and the one from Miami to Buenos Aires was delayed 4 hours. Nobody was allowed to leave their seats, so all in all, I was on a plane for 20 hours the first day. When I finally arrived I was under the impression that my group would go through some training and orientation before meeting our host families. I was wrong. I was literally shoved in a cab the minute after I got my bags and taken to my host family. The driver pointed me in the right direction and I had to find the place for myself. It was scary and quite intimidating, but I eventually arrived at the right place.
My host mother, Maria, who I thought would be a 70 year widdow is actually a 40 year old woman who lives with her boyfriend Oscar. Maria knows English but refuses to speak it, Oscar knows about 5 or 6 words. Need less to say, only Spanish is spoken. The onl problem is that they speak at a rate of about 100000 words per minute. I didn´t even know it was possible to speak as fast as they do. It has also been difficult because of the type of Spanish they speak. They use many slangs, their accents contain the sounds ¨jaa¨and ¨shh¨ when words contain ll or se, and they use vosotros in place of tu (both are used to speak to a friend, but vosotros isn´t taught in the states). Many words I still am unable to comprehend, but the accent has become easier to understand over time.
The group of students on the trip are nothing shy of incredible. Every region of the country is represented by our group and 5 Ivy league schools are represented. Basically I am with a bunch of smart over achievers. Just about everyone of them speaks Spanish better than I do, but that just means I have more room for improvement.
After the first night with my host family I went, with my group, to a ranch an hour north of the city. There, we had our group orientation. It was also a good time to get to know the other students. The ranch was very pretty with many different types of animals, but the coolest part about it was the food they served. We were fed about every hour and the food was incredible. If any of you have heard stories about the beef here, I´m guessing they are all correct. It is tender, tasty and flat out good. I have made it well known to my host family that I like the beef and so far I have eaten some type of beef everyday.
After the ranch visit we went back to the city. Buenos Aires is huge, 13 million people in the city, so there is much to learn. We were given minimal information regarding the public transportation here, which by the way is fabulous, so there has been many instances where every student has needed to ask a stranger for help. Now, everyone has a better understanding of what to do, but it is still an overwhelming process at times.
Today is the first day of school. I just had my first class (Spanish, go figure) which should be very helpful. I have class Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 830 -2 and it takes about 45 minutes to get to school. It doesn´t seem fair that we have to wake up so early, but whatever, I´m in Argentina! I wish I could write more, but I must now go to lunch before my next class starts. I will update more later when I am able. I hope everyone is well and although I am far from homesick, I do miss everyone dearly. Sorry if the writing is choppy and words aren´t spelled correctly. No English spell check here and
Bye for now,
Chris
P.S. The women here are decent looking, nothing great. The men are the ones who really stand out.