arrival

lanabanana — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 01:02:00 GMT

So I have now been in Argentina for nearly two weeks...it is amazing!

Hot weather, a country where there is no conception of time. I was meant to be
born here!

i spent the first three days in BA. I then took a 10hr bus ride during the
evening to Cordoba where am attending the language school. BA was fantastic,
the weather beautiful! when I arrived in Cordoba it was actually cold and
raining! But every one here was relieved to see the rain as they’ve had such
dry weather for months.

The flight/arrival:

When the guy sitting next to me sat down on the plane and started talking to
his friends in the seats in front of us I was trying to see how much Spanish
i could understand. After a few minutes of wandering why on earth I couldn’t
understand anything and thinking i had forgotten everything i realised that
he was from Brazil and was speaking Portuguese. couldn’t sleep much on the 11
or so hour flight..infact i haven’t slept much since i left. Argentina is
definitely a land that never sleeps! ive given up on trying to meet
Argentineans for dinner at dinner time!..9.30 is about the earliest managed so far!

arriving at the airport wasn’t scary at all, and the airport wasn’t as busy as
i thought it might be. i loved been totally confused when i was trying to
use my Spanish which just seemed to go out the window every time i attempted
to speak, everyone would reply in extremely fast Spanish and i had know
idea what they were saying.

actually, the first 4 days here i thought i was going crazy because there
were so many words i couldn’t understand that I was so sure I had learnt how
to say..i knew they had different pronunciations here where they pronounce
their ys like jj´s but i did not realise how many words have y´s in
them! but not only that, all the words that have two ll´s are also
pronounced this way! so a lot of words are completely different - its almost
like having to learn a whole new language.

TRAFFIC:

1. They drive such old cars here! on the motor way from BA airport to the
city centre there was a guy sitting in the back of a truck that had no back
on it what so ever with furniture all around him which didn’t appear to be
strapped in very well!

2. They drive a meter behind the cars in front of them. lost count of how
many times i thought we were going to bump into the car in front of us when the
shuttle was taking us to the city centre from the airport.

3. They have one way streets with about 4 lanes, but some times this changes
into 5.. 5 and a half ..or six!

4. The pedestrian crossings have a little red man or orange man. this is
quite appropriate since there is never really a good time to cross the road!

HYGEINE:

1. its not to often you find soap in the bath rooms, so a bottle of
hand sanitiser does come in handy.

2. Toilets are NOT for toilet paper! You have to put it in the basket next
to the toilet as the sewerage system cant handle it. mm, nice smelling
bathrooms..

3. There are many stories about what goes on in the kitchen restaurants,
which you just have to not think about, eg. not having hot water to wash
dishes, waiters using their hands to dish pasta and sauce onto a customers
plate!

4. People don’t seem to wash their hands..i hope they aren’t waitresses who
have served me food before!

FOOD

1. The Argentineans love meat. at one of the restaurants they served a meal
consisting of solely a huge 3cm thick slab of meat, they don’t bother with
the greens on the side.
2. Food is CHEAP and comes in huge portions! we ate out every lunch and
diner in BA and always had 3 course meals, haha unlike at home where i buy
the entree size meal for dinner and just have water to drink. the most
expensive so far has probably been $10. Glen and i went to a restaurant
where they served salad, bread and a mini barbeque on the table with a
ridiculous amount of meat for just the two of us...chicken, steak, sausages,
intestines and other organs! the price? $10!! probably the most expensive
meal ive had here...
3. I bought a large pizza the other day for $2,50!!
4. If you order a beer in a bar you will get a giant size cup that has the
equivalent to about 5 beers. they sell 1 litre bottles of Stella Artois in
the supermarkets for about a $1..
5. Argentineans are obsessed with "mate", this is a traditional tea that
they all drink here in a wooden or metal cup and straw. its quite strong! i
love it! i bought some chocolate tea at the markets yesterday yum.
6. They eat LATE here, 10pm..or after midnight! tonight i had my earliest
meal at 8pm, while everyone was having afternoon drinks! ordered salad too,
i need to go to the supermarket and buy a bunch of fruit and veges..so far
its been fried food, meat, deserts! oh yea, the ice creams are sooo good
here, think movenpick style but for $1.50!! i LOVE this place!!
7. It is sooo nice not to see a starbucks in sight. instead, cute little
cafes.
8. The concept of coffees to go hasn’t been introduced to the country yet..

FUTBOL:

1. Futbol is in their blood - i probably don’t need to mention this!
2. We saw the la boca futbol stadium while in BA, the stadium has really
high fences with barbed wire at the top to prevent the crazy Argentinean
fans from climbing onto the field.
(there’s a crowd of people sitting and drinking outside the internet cafe im
at right now and they are sitting attentively and cheering as there’s a big
game on right now..boca juniors and belgrano.)

SERVICE/EFFICIENCY:

1. = hilarious!
2. Numerous examples of where students have turned up at their designated
accommodation and the host family being completely unaware that they were
going to have a host. "oh, i didn’t know you were coming, but your welcome to
stay!"
3. the week i arrived i still hadn’t received an email from the language
school giving instructions of how to get to the school, what time on the
Monday i start etc. when i checked my email on the Monday i had already
started i had received an email at 2pm giving directions and saying that i
needed to arrive at 8am!

PUNCTUALITY: haha!

so the first day at language school (the guys from the volunteer programe
met me at the bus station when i arrived ain Cordoba and showed me where the
language school was!) i arrived on time at 8am..the first person to arrive!!
even before the teachers!
on the Wednesday we went on a trip to the sierras (mountains) where we had
to meet at 8am to depart from the school at 8.30. i was running late (or so
i thought) and arrived at 8.30 to find everyone still sitting around muy
tranquilo. i had time to go up the road and come back to find the teachers
in the exact same place. they told us lunch would be at 2pm, each time we
asked when we were gonna reach the place for lunch they kept saying
"cinco(5) minutos!". we had lunch at 5.30!!
they have a big statue outside the shopping mall (only one block from my
apartamiento..i love how close im living to everything!) which is the
traditional meeting spot for people. i came half an hour late thinking oh no
there all gonna be waiting for me, only to find half the group there and
then a while later the argentenians show up and then a while after that we
left..did i mention i LOVE this place!! it could go one of two ways..im
going to come back with worse habits..or, i might get sick of all the
disorganization and somehow become organized, but because i seem very
organized here the latter is probably not likely!

NIGHTLIFE:

the Argentineans love to party! The guys from the language school have been
taking us out each night. they stay out til 3am even on a Monday! crazy.
Friday night we went to a Brazilian bar where they had great music and wow
the south Americans can dance. i mean they can really dance! the Saturday
night we went to the bar where augustin DJs. i really loved this place and
the music was so good. i love it when there is continuously good music. they
played everything here - Argentinean music to vanilla ice! we went to an
after hours bar where i stayed until 8am. this is the average time to come
home from a night out. the others stayed until lunch time! nuts! the last
three days i have had almost no voice, this could be something to do with
it.

oh yea my classes, what i actually came here for..
THE SCHOOL:

im in a class with three others, who are all Brazilian! so they can all talk
Spanish really well and understand everything, where as i only know the
grammar. oh my goodness, my Spanish seriously seems to get worse by the day!
the school has a backyard and pool for soaking up the sun..but being in the
city there are a few high apartment buildings around, a couple of which are
being reconstructed. so the workers "working" on the roof tops of these
buildings all stand and whistle, wave, and yell out when your out by the
pool. it is the same when your walking down the street, they are not very
subtle here

POVERTY:

A child just came up to me now asking if i wanted to buy a toy. they do this in restaurants too..aww, i just want to take him home! i think they send the money home to their parents who just spend it on alcohol or cigarettes though. there are people who pick up the rubbish in the streets with a horse and cart.

alana about argentina

arrival