Country Girl Gone City

So I was thinking today; in west Michigan, I live on a dirt road. I have to drive 15 minutes if I want to get groceries or go shopping. Life for me here is so different that anything that I've been accustomed to! Right now there is loud traffic on the road down below with a siren zooming pass. When I walk out my front door, I jump right onto a sidewalk that's on one of the main roads in BsAs. It's lined with shops, cafes, banks, gyms, little supermarkets, kioskos, and even a McDonalds :), basically anything I could ever need. Life is so different here, so I thought I would make a little list of all the things I do/see/notice on a daily basis:

Water: Portenos (that's what the people from BsAs. call themselves) don't drink much water. I find myself coming home to my room and filling up a huge water bottle from the sink and chugging it as fast as I can. I get so thirsty! Water costs just as much as a coke in a restaurant, and you can order it with or without gas. I know that sounds funny but it just means that you can order carbonated water. Sometimes if you order a coffee or tea in a cafe they bring you a tiny shot-sized glass of water with gas haha. It makes me laugh

Transportation: I know this isn't really that big of a deal to some people reading this, but I have never had to take public transportation before except like 3 times in my life. This past Friday, I successfully completed trips on all four main means of transporation in BsAs: the colectivos - the crazy buses whose system I haven't completely figured out yet (there's probably about 200 different bus lines with different routes coming and going), the subte - short for subterraneos which means underground. There's one that runs right under my street, radiotaxis - a taxi with a meter inside so they don't jip you. They start at only 3.8 pesos and then add a little bit per mile, walking - of course there is a lot a lot a lot of walking around to get from place to place in a city.

Night life: I think I've explained this to a couple people already, but the night life here in the city is insane. Generally people don't eat dinner until 10 or even 10:30. My family eats a little bit earlier than most because we have a little girl and an old couple, so we eat supper at 9pm haha. Also, my host grandma asks if we're going out every night because it's pretty much just expected. I got home at 3 in the morning on Saturday night and that's considered early for most Porenos!

Money: Everything is so much cheaper here it's great! It's about 3.8 pesos per US dollar. If anyone needs to start their life over because of money, Argentina would be the place to do it!

Food: It's very good, I ate steak twice in one day. And my host grandma is a very good cook. Also, every morning waiting for me on the table is a bowl of cereal, a loaf of bread, jelly, coffee, tea, sugar, milk, and a basket of fruit (mom please take note of this). Ah life is good :)

Language: Castellano is what the call their language, they don't like to call it Spanish for some reason. And to everyone back home who I've told I am kind of fluent in Spanish, I take it back. They talk so fast! I can't understand very well yet haha. I'm hoping I'll improve soon!

Arquitecture: The buildings here are absolutely beautiful. A lot of it was built in the 1800's and has French and other European influence. Sorry these pictures aren't very good, I wish I had a better camera.

Well By now your eyes probably hurt from reading all this! But if you want to send me a love from the US via mail, send it to:
Kerri Terpstra CIEE-FLACSO Program Ayacucho 555 Buenos Aires, 1026 Argentina
(no packages please, supposedly it's really costly and takes forever to go through customs)

Un beso enorme para todos!