From Bmore to BA

I just checked ESPN.com…and I´m definitely not liking what I´m seeing. Aside from Michigan getting beat by ND, Maryland lost too. It´s reasons like this I´m glad I left.

Anyway, onto other topics. There´s been so much going on these past few days I don´t even know where to begin. I´m a bit discombobulated (fantastic word, no?) so try to bear with me for a hot minute. Today my program took all of us ¨students¨(about 15-20 people) on a bus tour of the city. The group is a pretty interesting one – about half are recent grads from the U.S., and the other half are middle-aged people, many of whom hail from the U.K. As it always, it is quite the small world. The kid sitting next to me on the bus just graduated from Western Michigan (in Kalamazoo – he loves the Bell´s brewery tour) and studied abroad in Barcelona. Guess where he lived in Barca!? 5 Fresser – my building! Also, one of the girls on the trip went to Scarsdale High and knows people who went to Michigan…I didn´t ask if she was a member of the tribe but my instincts say yes.

I´m doing so much walking here its amazing. The nearest metro stop (I think) is at this mall that is at least 10-12 blocks away, so I´ve been doing that one alot. I tried taking the bus yesterday, which is completely complicated because there´s such a large bus system in the city…but I wound up in some shady part of town and didn´t have a clue how to get home. Not to mention, I had like 2 or 3 pesos on me, definitely not enough for a cab ride. I stopped in a supermarket and three of the women working there all stopped working to help put me on the right bus and get my ass back home! Which brings me to another point – so far, it seems like the people in this city are incredibly nice. Everyone´s been so helpful, and been willing to put up with my painful spanish and/or stupid mistakes, like accidentally puring salt into my tea because I thought it was sugar. When I´m bullshiting at night with the locals, mi espanol es muy bueno, but when I´m trying to actually do something, it always seems to be not so good.

Haha – nobody ever knows where Baltimore is. At the hostel I´m staying in I´m the sole representative of the good ´ol US and A…and there are people from Sweden, Denmark, Spain, France, Brazil, and other places, and nobody knows where Baltimore is. I guess it´s understandable…being in between New York and D.C., but damn. I´m taking on full responsibilty for getting the good word about my fine city.

The city seems so European to me. I can´t get over the fact that I´m in South America – it just seems so similar to Barcelona it´s incredible (except there´s alot more dogshit on the sidewalks here – people are obsessed with their dogs). I feel like living in Barcelona has really eased the whole transition. I met with a woman from a local rental agency yesterday and she showed me a place – it´s a studio downtown, for 1,100 pesos a month. I´m debating about whether or not I should take it. The room is pink and has pictures of the Virgin Mary…a sure bet to attract the ladies. It´s really close to my school, but it`s in the main downtown area which means its really busy during the day but not at all on the weekends…where I´m staying now seems to be where the action´s at, but its mad far from the school. I´m thinking I´ll just stay at the pink apartment for a month while I´m taking my course and then work on getting something else around the hostel area.

One more thing – sorry I don´t have any pictures, I haven´t taken my camera out with me yet cause I´m trying not to carry too much when I go out. I´ll try to take some next week when I have my backpack with me.

That´s it for now…I´m gonna go take a nap to rest up for the night out. Some of the staff at the hostel are throwing a party, and this local kid I met a few days ago invited me to go out with him and his friends…so it should be a good night. Trying to make the most out of the weekend before class starts on Monday, and I begin the 9 to 5 myself. Damn the man!

Ciao,

Adam

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 10th, 2005 at 6:46 pm and is filed under Buenos Aires. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.