The start of something beautiful!

Overview (for my lazy readers! ;]) :
-First day of classes
-Breakfast at Pertutti's
-Class/Confusion/Testing
-Dinner...aka the weirdest pizza I have ever consumed.

Today was the first official day of our program!!!

Brad and I accidentally overslept until 8:30AM, which was a problem because our roommate told us to be at ECELA [our school] by 8 AM for placement testing. We arrived around 9, which was actually alright, because we weren't supposed to be at ECELA until 11 AM because our program is different than that of the other students at ECELA. We decided to get some breakfast, and one of the girls working at the front desk said we should go to Pertutti's Cafe.

Pertutti's was an experience, to say the least. This was where we decided to "people watch" and learn proper Argentinian Breakfast etiquette... First of all, seat yourself. That was a weird concept, haha. Like, really, you walk into a restaurant, and the workers don't recognize that you've walked in. You just go in, sit down and they'll get to you eventually. Too funny.
So we're there, and we decide to eat 3 medialunas [pastries, kind of like croissants, but heavier... and with a sweet glaze on top, sometimes], and a drink each. I feel like this was a LOT more than most of the Portenos [people from Buenos Aires]. I will try to cut back tomorrow, haha. The drink I ordered was Chocolate Espana, which was basically a really rich hot chocolate... kind of like Mexican hot chocolate, but much stronger. It was sooooo good. I can't even begin. Yum. I couldn't even finish all of it, which is saying something because all of the portions here are much, MUCH smaller here than in the US. For example: we were served breakfast with a "glass" of orange juice... and that glass happened to be a tiny bit bigger than an average shot glass. :O. I guess it was alright, because you could taste that the orange juice was freshly squeezed and wonderful.

After breakfast we went back to ECELA for an intro to the program and placement tests. The intro was cool. We just introduced ourselves and talked about where we're from, the usual. We were also given information about the program, including a breakdown of our daily routine for the remainder of the trip, speakers and activities. The speakers seem really intense! We'll be having a speaker that will tell us all about the Argentinian health care system, and what to expect from hospitals tomorrow. She is a part of the health ministry or something very high up [haha, that makes me think of Harry Potter... nerd alert!]. In order for us to understand what she'll be talking about we have to read a packet of information. Joy. I'll be completing that after I blog, haha.

So... the placement test.... As many of you all know, I am ridiculous. Really. My actions seem to know no boundaries, even metaphorical cultural ones. Gosh. So I completely bombed the written portion of the placement test, mainly because I just didn't feel like guessing the answers anymore... but after the written test we had the spoken one. The teacher asked me what my routine was, and I TOTALLY blanked. After living in college for almost 3 complete years, you would think I knew what the heck my routine was, right?! Ugh. Well, he simplified the question for me, assuming I didn't know the answer... He asked what I do in the morning. So, again, I drew a blank. I was attempting to think about my morning routine, and I accidentally said "uhhh... not much!" out loud, meaning I don't do much in the morning....
He [of course] misinterpreted this as me saying I don't know much Spanish. Awesome.
I was placed in the 2nd lowest Spanish Class.
At first I was pretty upset with myself about my placement, but considering I only took up to Spanish 2, five years ago... I think I'm alright. hahaha. Plus, there were two guys in my class that have been in Argentina for 2 weeks already, and they have only made it up to that class, which makes me feel incredible better [yet a bit horrible for comparing myself to them... oh well. haha].

Class was not as daunting as I thought it would be. Basically two other girls and myself had a 30 minute conversation [en espanol!] with our professor about where we're from, our flight, what we're studying, why Argentina... etc. It was really chill! Eventually 3 other students came in and we started actually learning stuff. It was really nice. I'm glad that there's only 6 people in my class [including me], because it gives us a lot more talking time... which is sorely needed, haha.

I had class from 1-5, which was really nice, instead of the 2-6PM shift. thank goodness! I was sooo hungry by the end of class. Brad and I got out around the same time, so at first we followed one of my classmates to a telephone store. Made fools of ourselves in the store [we couldn't say much... just that we wanted cheap phones, hahahaha], then decided against purchasing anything and went on our merry way to find food!

ALL OF THE FOOD PLACES WERE CLOSED. I don't know if it was time for a siesta or what, but at 6:30ish, there was NOTHING open. Ugh. It was so frustrating. We ended up going to a cafe and ordering empanadas, which are nothing like the Mexican ones. The ones in South America are hot and usually filled with meat, but I got a cheese and onion one... which was just as appetizing as it sounds, which wasn't a lot. It would have been absolutely scrumptious if the cheese weren't goat cheese, haha. I think it'll take me a bit to get used to it, but I can start to enjoy goat cheese if I need to.

After this excursion, we had to go back to our apartment to find out where our actual dinner would be, and take a suuuper short nap. One of Brad's friends has a friend who is in Bs.As. [Buenos Aires] to volunteer and to take tango lessons. So yea, we met up with her and her friend at a bank, then walked down to a restaurant.
The food choice was pretty cool! I ordered a "pizza", which was actually just a flat piece of breadcrust with Brie cheese, a few olives and arugula all over. It was sooo weird. I'm all for trying new things, but I'm not sure if that should be called pizza since there wasn't any sauce... hahaha. It was pretty darn delicious, whatever it was!

Talking with the girls was actually a LOT of fun! We talked about all the cool things to see and do in Bs.As. and what our college experiences have been like so far. Super fun. It also made me feel a bit old, in a way. I kind of feel like that is something you do with people after you're out of college... but I don't know. Either way, I enjoyed dinner. We swapped travelling stories, and all the different ways that we've heard about getting pickpocketed, including the mustard technique! haha. We were also told of a street in Bs.As. that is FILLED with leather goods... I will be stopping there sometime, haha. Oh, I know that may offend a few of you, but I fully intend on getting some leather goods. You can't please 'em all... plus the boots are SO cute! ;)

I ended the day by skyping with my mom, dad, brother and younger cousin Jaelyn. It was pretty hilarious! I am glad I was able to skype with them because it seems like time will be extremely limited from here on out. :/
We made faces at each other, talked about the differences between Buenos Aires and Texas, etc.
Oh, one difference between BsAs and Texas is that the pollution laws here are definitely not as awesome as the US, which really says something... haahaha. I see big black clouds of smoke from a lottt of cars and the air is definitely not as nice as the name implies, haha. It's still gorgeous/awesome/FUN though!!! I can't wait to explore the city more!

But for now, I need sleeeeep.
Buenas noches amigos!!!!
-Regina