Chaska in South America

Today is a holiday here…it’s called El Dia de la Raza, which means Day of the Race or something. Basically, it’s Columbus Day. I didn’t know it was a holiday till Friday. If I had known, I would have planned to go somewhere…oh well. Everything is shut down here, and there’s really nothing to do but hang out at the internest place! Well, I started working last week. I have about 18 hours of classes now. I may take a couple other classes, but basically I’m happy with working about 20 hours. Since we’re getting paid so low, it isn’t really worth killing ourselves with travelling far from where we live to teach classes. As of now, I only have to take the subway for one of my classes. All of the others are within walking distance, which is awesome. As a lot of you know, that’s a really nice change from my teaching assignments in Madrid! I really like all of my classes so far, and I think I’m going to enjoy getting to know all of the students. My classes are super small, anywhere from 1 to 3 students and I teach them in their offices. Some of my students have their offices in really cool locations, like one directly on the port and another on the 23rd floor of a highrise looking over the city. Most of my students so far are pretty young, from their mid-twenties to mid-thirties, and they’re all really nice people. It’s funny, I had the idea that life here in Argentina would be even more easygoing than it was in Spain, but that’s not the case at all. People work super hard here…a lot of my students work 10 hour days and only get 1 0r 2 weeks off a year. Really different than the fairly easygoing schedules my Spanish students had, super long luches and at least a month off a year. The economic depression they experienced here in Argentina a couple years ago is still really evident and people all have to work really hard just to survive. Matt and I complain constantly about how little we’re getting paid, but the truth is we’re actually making pretty good money compared to most Argentines. Anyway, I like my classes so far and have a couple others starting this week.
Aside from work, which is really actually nothing at all as some of you are probably thinking…20 hours a week! Matt and I have been doing a whole lot of nothing. We’ve become soooo lazy. We sleep like 10 hours a night and then complain if we have to get up before 10am for a class…it’s pathetic! It’s kind of cool though to basically be on a REALLY extended vacation and get to spend a year in our mid twenties just hanging out, enjoying life. Not many people get to do that, or I guess I should say are crazy enough to leave their jobs and security for $5 an hour! Buenos Aires is really beautiful right now. Spring is in full swing and the weather has been just awesome lately. The BA Marathon happened yesterday and you could see the finish line from our window. It’s crazy being right in the center of town and in the middle of all the action all the time. It’s super loud in our apartment all the time, and we have to watch TV at full volume just to hear it sometimes, but it is kind of cool to be right in the center of town and so close to every thing. We did have one little mishap in our apartment last week that was kind of funny. I broke the sink in the bathroom. Those of you that visited Matt’s blog probably saw the picture. I was leaning up against it, while I was washing my feet in the bathtub which is right next to the sink (I was actually washing off the blood from my poor cut up feet from walking around so much in my uncomfortable work shoes), and all of the sudden the whole sink just fell off the wall completely. Luckily water didn’t start spraying everywhere. It was really emarassing having to call the landlady and explain to her what happened, but a plumber came and fixed it and it’s fine now. Matt and I are still unsure if we’re going to have to pay for it, but I guess we’ll find out when we get our deposit back. I learned my lesson and will never lean on or sit on a sink again as long as I live…Matt makes sure to tease me about the incident on a regular basis, so I won’t forget.
We have managed to meet a few people here, but we by no means are to the point where we’re turning down invites to go out because we have so many. We met an argentine at a party last week, and she’s been really sweet. She’s become Matt’s intercambio (language exchange) and she’s invited us out several times. We went out with her Saturday and had kind of a crazy night. We ran into a friend of hers who was kind of crazy but really nice and then we randomly started talking to some Australian guys who were really cool. The crazy Argentine guy took us to some really big club, and we ended up staying out till 5am…a record for Matt and I here so far! We definitely felt it the next day (I swear I’m starting to feel so old!), but it was a lot of fun. The Australian guys will be back in Buenos Aires next weekend and want to hang out, so that will be cool.
Well, I guess that’s it for now. I have a lot of pictures on my camera that I want to post, I just have to have Matt teach me how…I know it’s super easy but I’m really dumb when it comes to computer technology. So, I promise to post those soon, and hopefully will have more to tell next time. I hope everyone is doing well!

Tags: Travel

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