A Little Bit Slower Now...

Orientation is done for the day, so I have a little free time to write. Actually a lot of free time, since in Argentina the typical dinner doesn´t start until 9pm. This is something I have to seriously adjust to, considering at home my family starts dinner around 5:30.

Argentina is glorious. I´ve only been here since Sunday, so obviously I haven´t seen a lot. But what I have seen has made me so happy I decided to come here. Every one is super friendly, and more importantly, patient with my Spanglish (light on the Span, heavy on the -glish).

Most of my time has been spent at IES orientation. Every day I show up at 9am, and we go over an aspect of the program such has internships or health and safety. Then we study Spanish. IES is really trying to get us oriented with basic terms and phrases so that we can go into stores, restaurants and hospitals without starting a scene. But since I´ve already studied some Spanish, it´s kind of a bore. There are only so many times you can review the parts of the body (partes del cuerpo).

Lunch is always an adventure. We usually have an hour break to eat, and every day we try a different place. So far we ate in a nice restaurant*, a deli and a supermarket.

*A short retelling of my fun adventure in a nice restaurant, and how I learned an important lesson about Argentina.

So two of my new friends and I were trying to find a place for lunch, and couldn´t find a place that had an inexpensive menu. As we were peering at the menu for one restaurant, a guy came up to us and suggested we eat there because the food was good and they spoke English. We took his advice, and as we walked in he told a waiter we spoke English. They promptly brought us a menu written in our native tongue...and with no prices. Turns out, the nice guy that suggested the restaurant is paid to stand outside and suggest the place to tourists. We were sucked into his game.

But by the time we noticed, it was too late to leave without starting a scene, and we were running out of time to eat. So I ordered a personal pizza, which was delicious, and what I thought was a GLASS of sangria. Turns out that in Argentina, when you order a mixed drink at a restaurant they typically serve it in a pitcher under the assumption you would share. But I didn´t want to share. I wanted a glass, and was stuck with a giant pitcher of wine and brandy. I shared with my friends, but I had to pay for the whole thing and drink the brunt of it. There really wasn´t a lot of time to put up a fight, we needed to get back to class.

Hell, at least the sangria was good.