Hola hola

Alright, I'm finally putting together my first post on day 6 here in Argentina. Its Sunday which means I start school tomorrow. Let me get the boring stuff out of the way: I'm taking 4 classes, one history class through the exchange program with other exchange students and the other 3 with all Argentines. ahhhh. I live on Bv San Juan, which to my current understanding is a"main street" in the city. The mall, Patio Olmos, is right across the street and this is where everryyyonnne gets together. I took a cab home last night for example around 1-1:3o Am because I was feeling kinda sick yesterday and when I got out the streets were filled with people. Right now I live alone in an 2bedroom apartment with a big living/dining room and janky ass kitchen. Todo bien though. I also thought I didn't have hot water for the first couple days, but I have since learned how to light this machine thing in the kitchen that makes it work.





Some initial observations of Argentinians etc:


1. Everyone smokes cigarettes here. Everyone, everywhere, every 20 minutes. Coming from California, a state that banded smoking indoors long ago, it was weird seeing people put their cigarettes out on the floor right next to me in a boliche.

2. There are some definite "cool" things right now for teens/young adults, besides cigarettes. Graphic tees with sayings on them in english. Today I saw a pink one that said I love my cat in rhinestones. I thought of Lara. Mullet type haircuts for most guys. For a certain group, emo hair, piercings and high top chucks are totally the fashion. Also, being thin for sure. Women here are gorgeous, no doubt. They are also so skinny. Teeny little waste etc. I feel like the fat American who eats too much fast food. Oh they love McDonald's here. I can see one right now because Im in the mall food court. Hey, free wireless.


3. PDA is the norm, maybe even encouraged.


4. Electronic house music is really cool...because as someone told me "its european..." ahhh right.


5. They don't have a sleep gene. I'm convinced that there are some people who need a lot of sleep, and some can get by with 5 hours and function. of course, youth, motivation, etc affect the necessity of those precious restful hours. But I for one have always needed at least 9 hours to function. Well, Argentinians apparently don't. An example. The other night I went over to Maggies, had a little Fernet, their national liquor, and Coke. Its pretty nasty. Anyways, we went out to go dancing at like 1, 130 maybe. Went to a couple different places. Of course all played thumping house music. At about 430 Kelly, an exchange student who lives in my same building, and I were en route home and I hear "teresa". It was 2 Argentine friends of course, Charli and Chino. They parked their car, came up with a guitar and a bottle of wine and played music all night. At around 730 in the morning, the question was not....alright should we get to sleep. but where should we go next....should we go get some cafe (coffee)? We did as such, went to this pretty park watched as the 8 Am hour rolled around, with some winding down, others preparing for work. Ok, this is turning into a story. Basically. These people are nocturnal.

Last night I went to a reggae concert with Lucio, Charli, Chino, Maggie etc and it was soo legit: Kameleba is the name of the band. I took some videos and cool pictures that I´ll post at some point. They played until way early in the morning from what I hear. I left around 530 to get some sleep.

Anyways, I hear I missed a beautiful San Francisco day, but today was just as beautiful Dia de Los Mujeres aca en Cordoba. I dont remember ever celebrating a womens day in the states...