My first five days in Argentina have flown by and I am settling in quite well. When I arrived my schedule was essentially a blank slate due to the red-eye flight and two hour time change. I quickly adapted to the five or six o’clock merienda and late nine o’clock dinner, consisting of many empanadas and alfajores. People go dancing around one in the morning until the latest six. Argentines kiss one another on the cheek in greeting and when saying goodbye and cars have the right away which makes crossing the street difficult.
I am still adjusting to the military time and metric system, primarily celsius and kilometers, and pesos. The best exchange rate at the moment is 1 US dollar to about 365 pesos. The weather has been in the high eighties to nineties. It is absolutely beautiful here, Argentina flags, palm trees, buses, pigeons, and all.
We have stumbled across some of the monumental sights, although we are trying not to get ahead of ourselves as the university organizes these trips for us throughout the first month. As far as school, we are enrolled in an intensive month-long Spanish course until the regular semester begins in March. We have been busy with orientation, meetings, and rotating two hour grammar, conversation, literature, and art and culture classes. In addition, we are learning Argentine words and with all the practice I already feel more comfortable speaking the language.
