First Post!

Well, it may have taken 25 hours longer than planned, but after 8 hours in O’Hare, an extra night at home, and 12 hours in Washington D.C., I have finally arrived in Buenos Aires. So far, I’ve had one night in a hotel with the other kids from my program and two in the apartment with my host mom and little brother. Although we did some interesting things the first days of orientation, including an architecture tour of Recoleta, a ritzy neighborhood with lots of old French buildings, I enjoy being with my host family much more. With them, I speak only Spanish, and, although I’m quite rusty, I know I’m already improving.

My host mom, Elvira, is extremely welcoming and helpful. She’s a child psychologist who sees patients in her office/bedroom. The family has hosted about ten students before, so she knows what information and advice to give me. Even better, she knows how to talk slowly for me. It was just the two of us at dinner when I arrived, and we had a surprisingly intimate conversation about Argentinian history and politics, American politics, homesickness, and traveling in Argentina.

She’s been married and divorced twice and has one kid from each marriage. Her daughter Catalina is 21 and lives in her own apartment in Buenos Aires. Obviously, my goal is to come home with an Argentinian BFFL, but I haven’t met her yet, so we shall see what happens.

Elvira’s son, Joaquín, is 13 years old and lives in the apartment with us (although he spends a lot of time at his dad’s house). He has two best friends, Matthias and Ezekiel (incidentally, both Hebes), who according to Elvira will be like two extra little brothers. I met all three of them at the same time, and in about five seconds they were offering to show me all these different places in the city, even take me shopping. It was very sweet, and I’ll probably take them up on it. Joaquín and his friends talk constantly, which both reminds me of home and helps a lot with my Spanish.

I love my new neighborhood. It’s very close to la Casa Rosada (where the president lives) and el Congreso (the congress building). Almost all of the protests in Buenos Aires (and there are a lot of them) happen in la Plaza de Mayo, right in front of la Casa Rosada. Last night, I saw a rally commemorating the anniversary of Evita Peron’s death. As a nerdy CSS major, this is pretty much my dream come true.

Yesterday, Joaquín, Elvira, Matthias and Ezekiel took me to la Ferria de San Telmo, a weekly craft fair. There was a tango show on the street that Elvira said is one of the best in the city. The dancers were amazing, and they stopped in between each number to explain the history of the type of tango they did.

In general, I really love Buenos Aires so far. It has so much energy, and every street is filled with people – a lot like New York in that way. I’ve really only seen bits of a few neighborhoods, so I have lots of exploring to do. Speaking and listening to Spanish all day is incredibly tiring. I think the two words I’ve said most since arriving are “no entiendo.” At the same time, I’ve improved already after three days, and I know it’ll be easier soon.

And here are some photos...

Joaquín, with the shirt I brought him. I swear he was excited about it. At least more excited than this picture would indicate.
Joaquín y Elvira
Matthias, Joaquín, Ezekiel
The tango show, photos courtesy of Joaquín

And finally, some contact information.

Apartment address:
Chelsea Sprayregen
Perú 420
Piso 4 “H”
1067 Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires
República Argentina 4342-3386

FLACSO address (the institute where my study abroad program is based):
Chelsea Sprayregen
CIEE Program
FLACSO
Tucumán 1966 Piso 2
Buenos Aires, 1050
Argentina

I know the last line is different in each, and I’m not sure which one will work better. Feel free to send anything you want to the apartment, but the mailboxes in FLACSO are small, and will pretty much only fit letters. I’m aware that this really only applies to my mom, but I just thought I’d let everyone know.

Argentinian phone number: 11 3182 0743

The 11 is the Buenos Aires city code. I'm not sure how to do the country code.

More frequent posts coming soon.

Hasta luego,
Chelsea