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!

Sorry to all of you that I promised to keep updated via this blog and have so far not written a single thing! I just haven’t sat down at an internet cafe long enough to write a full entry. Hopefully I’ll be able to write at least once a week from now on to let everyone know how things are for me here. Wow, I’ve been here in Buenos Aires for over two weeks now! Things are going well for the most part, and I really like it here. It’s amazing how different my life is now from just a few weeks ago…I love this feeling of change and new experiences. As most of you know already I think, Matt and I plan to be here in Argentina till the beginning of December and then plan to travel the whole summer throughout Peru, Chile, and Brazil. We’ll be visiting Venezuela, Costa Rica, and Guatemala before coming home too but are still not completely certain when that will be.
Matt arrived in California September 9, and that basically began our whole adventure. We left California on Sept. 14 at 1am and had quite a trip getting here….a total travel time of over 24 hours. We flew on a super cheap South American airline, TACA, so I guess we basically just got what we paid for. It really wasn’t that bad, but we had an 8 hour layover in Costa Rica and about an hour layover in Lima, Peru…we got to Buenos Aires at like 3am. Our first couple days we both felt a little bit strange, it was like finally getting something you’ve been aticipating for a really long time and then once you get it, it really isn’t that great. I’m not sure why we felt like that, but we both did. Maybe because our first impressions of Buenos Aires were that it was basically like a run down Madrid…very similar to Madrid in a lot of ways, but a lot smoggier and not as clean in the streets and stuff. It wasn’t like being in this entirely brand new place where everything is a brand new feeling. Now that I’ve been here for a couple weeks, I’ve definitely changed my attitude from my first impressions of this city. It really is a great city with a lot of really great things to offer, and I’m really enjoying exploring it and learning more about it. The food is awesome and sooooo cheap. You can have a full meal with absolutely everything included for about $5. The people are all super friendly as well. Definitely different than Spaniards, who tend to be a little more closed upon first meetings.
Matt and I moved into an apartment really quickly. We didn’t plan on finding a place to live till at least a week after arriving, but the hostel we were staying in wasn’t the nicest or most comfortable place to be and we just ended up finding a place that worked out for us. It’s really tiny, and I know we are probably paying way more than we should be, but the location is really central and it’s fine for the few months that we’ll be here.
We wanted to start working as soon as possible, so that we don’t end up spending all the money we have saved up before we even start our real travelling. EBC, the company Matt and I got our TEFL certificate through and worked for in Madrid, helped us out by giving the names and email addresses of over 150 English schools here. Both of us emailed our resumes out to every single school on the list and had phone calls for interviews by the next day. Since then, we have both been hired by a couple different language schools, teaching business men and women at their offices (really similar to what we did in Madrid.) However, the pay is REALLY low and we don’t have very many hours at all. I’ve come to realize that I’m not going to be able to support myself on the money I’ll be making teaching here. I originally had planned to come back to Buenos Aires after travelling all summer to continue teaching till about June or July…I’m really not sure that I can do that now. I’ll be close to broke by the time we finish travelling. I’ve had to consider the possibility that I may have to come home a few months sooner than planned…maybe even by April or May. I really had anticipated being gone a full year, but I’d much rather spend my saved money on travelling than just living in one place, so that means I’ll spend my money a lot more quickly. Who knows, something may happen that will allow me to stay longer. I’ll just have to wait and see. I start teaching classes this week, so I’ll let you all know how they go in my next entry. I’m looking forward to meeting the students. Matt and I are both really dying to make some new friends. We’re having a fun time together, but we’d love to have some other people to hang out with! It’s hard being a guy and a when we’re out because everyone assumes we’re a couple and want to be left alone, which isn’t the case at all! We did get invited to a party on Friday by another American teacher from one of the schools we got hired at. We had a really fun time and got to meet some cool people, who we’ll hopefully hang out with again.
I promise to write much more frequently from now on, and I’m sure this blog will get a lot more interesting after December once the real travelling begins!